Was thinking this earlier today. I'd managed to trace it back to the Lyons' Review in 2008, but it turns out the wheels move even more slowly than I thought.

Quite. I think something the UK should be really nervous about is that a government winning a general election with a majority (which in UK constitution basically gives you monarchical powers) has been unable to govern with competence not only in 2024, but also 2019 and 2015. This is a problem.

Exactly the reaction that you* would have expected.

*Everyone except the Government

bsky.app/profile/toma...

Well, we've not seen barbed wire barricades on the A580 for a while, so things can't be that bad 😂

I think there's some grounds for optimism on the (CA) mayors on this, see Burnham-Rotherham in particular. I think the danger here is this relies really very heavily on personal relationships rather than institutions. Changes of person and party in this could easily blow this away.

And that would never do!

Exactly this. Just because there isn't a simple solution that allows you to maintain all of your political priors and not annoy anyone, doesn't mean that there isn't a more complex answer that will work but you haven't got the political nous to actually deliver it. Complex doesn't mean unknown.

Link to Sky News story: news.sky.com/story/income...