Wouldn't necessarily be a game-changer everywhere, but these policies could make a real difference in many parts of the country:

* 150% council tax premium on second homes
* Planning permission to turn residential homes into 2nd/holiday homes
* House prices fall by 12%
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Prisons: Why the facts don’t care about our feelings.
Kemi Badenoch’s latest barrage of bilge.
School discipline & the dangers of conflating strict with nasty. www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

Britain has run out of prison spaces because it is locking up tens of thousands of people who need help with drug problems, mental health issues and low educational attainment. Meanwhile, Michelle Mone, Fujitsu bosses and those responsible for Grenfell Tower walk free.

If Thames Water is doing so badly that it needs to borrow three billion quid at credit card interest rates just to keep going, what's the justification for the chief exec's £15k pay rise?

Thrilled that Sunday with Lewis Goodall on LBC now reached 400,000 listeners, a record rajar, up 40,000 on the quarter. Thanks to so many of you who give us your company, and to all the guests who give up their time. It’s the biggest Sunday political show on radio, and second only to the BBC on TV.

Trump comes for the scientists www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/01... Trump has cancelled almost all US government medical research. He's also cancelled communication on current medical crises. Mistrust of science is a fascist trait. It looks like the people of the USA are going to suffer for it.

Opportunistic, uninformed, haphazard, confused, shameless, contradictory, ideological, petty, misleading, vindictive and insane: Another week in the life of Kemi Badenoch iandunt.substack.com/p/one-week-i...

labourhub.org.uk/2025/01/17/h...

How long for Reeves? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/01... With Wes Streeting now sending out coded criticisms of Rachel Reeves, how long has she really got before Starmer smells the coffee?

Farage saying the quiet part out loud. He only cares about sexual exploitation when the offenders are Pakistani and the victims are white.

The clearest analysis, yet, of where Labour comes short and what’s at stake. It won’t be enough to improve things if people can’t link the improvement to actions of the government. The old comms rule that ‚percept is reality‘ is even more true in the digital age.

This, from Lewis Goodall, is bang on the mark.

Five quick reforms the NHS urgently needs www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/12... If the NHS needs reform start with the easy things that will radically improve morale.