Chancellor Rachel Reeves tried a dash of US ‘boosterism’ last week (Image: JEFF OVERS/BBC/AFP via Getty Images)
What, do you suppose, is the traditional gift associated with a fifth anniversary? The answer could not be more fitting to mark the five years that have passed since the United Kingdom took the momentous step of leaving the . Because the gift is … wood – and nothing sums up better what has been successive governments’ responses to what could have been an epoch making event that might have successfully shaped the nation for generations!
The reaction has been as wooden as a fence post and as flat as a plank and this shameful inertia has been put in the halogen glare of floodlights by what the newly re-elected politician is trying to achieve on the other side of the Atlantic.
Aside from the inappropriate timing and tone of his comments about the Washington plane tragedy, is a leader determined to get things done.
History will judge the cabal of politicians who connived, schemed and plotted to thwart the progress of legislation, but it’s hard to imagine it will garner treatment in any way more favourable than that directed to the ‘Rotten Parliament’ of the 1830s.
Guided by a Speaker who has sunk without trace and is now reduced to appearing on celebrity TV shows and barking “Order, order” to order, order on Italian TV, and egged on with ceaseless appearances from politicians such as the insufferably pompous Dominic Grieve and the eminently forgettable Sam Gyimah, these were dark days for British democracy.
This woeful start explains why much of has been botched to date. It would be like a horse beginning the Grand National when the rest of the field was going round the Canal Turn – and wearing blinkers into the bargain.
But the importance of making a success of the decision to leave the suffocating, draining clutches of the all-encompassing has never been as stark as it is now, and be in no doubt it is still perfectly possible to make it work.
Freed from the EU Britain’s economy, while still depressingly snail-like, is still faring better than most other European countries and indeed that of Germany, once supposedly the economic powerhouse of the EU, which has now contracted for two years in a row. Additionally, and as the government never misses an opportunity to remind us, we are deemed the second most attractive country for businesses to invest in and it’s little surprise the top spot is not to be found in Europe.
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Rather, it is the US where the economy is thriving, the stock market booming and consumer confidence growing almost daily.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves tried a dash of US ‘boosterism’ last week as she outlined more on the government’s Plan for Growth, but as her bedside manner over the last six months has been as if she were sharing the most grave of diagnoses, it’s understandable it was met with mostly puzzled silence by the collected business leaders.
How ironic that on the same day the Chancellor was talking up growth Sir wrote an article in which he invoked the legacy of Margaret Thatcher. While the nation is crying out for a leader of such focus and dynamism to seize and then make work, this PM is not that person. To mangle that famous political quote: “Sir Keir, I met Margaret Thatcher. And you’re no Margaret Thatcher.”
Indeed at times, he’s not even Margaret Rutherford.
■ If current trends persist, in around seven years we will have added an extra ten million people to the nation’s population and mostly through immigration.
That means the UK’s population will be around 72.5 million. Meanwhile France, which has more than TWICE the land mass, is set to be around 69 million.
When will those in power wake up to the distressing news that our hospitals, schools, roads and even water supply simply cannot cope with these sort of numbers?
■ Flights leaving Heathrow’s third runway in ten years? Pigs and flying comes to mind.
Let’s raise a cheer for Carole (Image: ANDREW MILLIGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
■ Ladies, let’s be honest , it’s time to remember that great movie line “I’ll have some of what she’s having” when you study this picture.
Businesswoman Carole Middleton, mother to the Princess of Wales, mother-in-law to the next king and grandmother to the monarch after that, celebrated her birthday last Friday. So far, so what. But, when you learn it was the big “seven -oh” it takes on a different perspective.
This is a woman who has helped nurse her daughter through her battle with cancer, has, I’m prepared to bet, been a rock of support for her son in law and kept her counsel throughout.
While we rightly support the “frontline” of our Royal family, let’s raise a cheer for some of the supporting acts and wish this woman the best for a landmark year.
The Renault 5 E-Tech is the Car of the Year for 2025 (Image: SWNS)
■ Style seems to come so annoyingly effortlessly to the French, doesn’t it? The Car of the Year for 2025 has just been awarded to the Renault 5 E-Tech. Like every other car, it comes with a range of optional extras – but one being a baguette holder for the side of the spare front seat.
Vive le difference!
■ The Home Office team that released a report stating fears over two-tier policing is merely “extreme Right wing narrative” seems a rum bunch. In 2023 they suggested TV shows such as Yes Minister and The Thick of It are “red flags” for hatred. They also labour under the sinister name of the “Research, Information and Communications Unit.” The world of state surveillance portrayed by George Orwell gets ever closer.
■ The militant doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, is calling for legislation allowing doctors to strike. Someone needs to tell them it’s so damned difficult to get to see one, it’s unlikely anyone would notice the difference.