𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Two weeks ago Andy Burnham said: “We face a choice. We either invest in the success of our young people or pay for failure through the benefits system. We cannot afford to do both.” Now he’s talking about spending potentially tens if not hundreds of millions of your taxpayer pounds on foreign “reparations” for the 500-year-old transatlantic slave trade.

It sounds like a sick joke. Because in many ways it is. Not least because the prime minister knows, whether he’s talking about welfare or indeed this latest plan to send more money abroad: “we cannot afford to do both.” The way he plans to dress up this deeply unpopular policy is to call it a “structured dialogue” for “development funding.

” He’ll say we’re not paying a lump sum, and therefore this is somehow different. But it’s not. It’s the same scam dressed up in a different way. It’s reparations by stealth, and it comes at a steep price for people already struggling with current prices, inflation, and tax rates. It’s another kick in the teeth for the ordinary Briton.

I shouldn’t have to remind the prime minister that we already provide plenty of “development funding” to these nations. But apparently I do.

Three hundred and fifty million quid to Caribbean infrastructure. Over a billion to Nigerian healthcare. And countless billions through the government-owned British International Investment group.

That is a mere scratch on the surface of this stuff. It’s out of control, and Andy Burnham should not be trying to send more money, especially when these countries are attempting to abuse and extort us so openly. It shows weakness, and it diminishes us further on the international stage.

Are we going to cave every time someone fronts us up with a demand? Can we really afford to keep doing this to ourselves?

Remember, for years we have been told that government doing this is not an “either/or” situation. But much like anything else, that has been a depraved lie.

You can see it all across this country, and all across your community, I’m sure. Potholes unfilled, libraries closed down, roadworks unfinished, infrastructure creaking and barely even being worked on.

We import hundreds of thousands of people every year, then send money overseas for the pleasure. Successive governments have absolutely lost their minds. It’s why wherever I go in the country people say to me, “Save us, Nigel!”

I want to. We have to. We don’t have much more time and we certainly don’t have much more money left. The sheer national vandalism of the last 35 years. Tory, Labour, Tory, and now Labour again – it has to be put to an end, once and for all.

We all remember a world before this managed decline mentality. And we all want to just get back to living in a normal country that isn’t lurching from crisis to crisis.

That will require strong leadership and in a lot of ways, many new people at the helm. This week, you’ll hear from Reform UK on some of those details.

I hope you’ll pay attention, and I hope you’ll be impressed. Because Andy was actually right on one thing when he spoke about investing in people now, or prioritising something else: “We cannot afford to both.”

I just wish he meant it, or did anything about it. He won’t. Reform UK will.