COLUMN - Political View with Alastair McQuillan (Rutland & Melton Green Party)
At the end of last month, the much hyped budget was delivered; you could well have already forgotten about it as John Healey decided that Rachel Reeves was right all along and we should stay the course.
It makes you wonder why Andy Burnham went to all that trouble to oust Keir Starmer, only to offer the British people more of the same.
No breathing space for graduates paying back student debts with terms and rates that would make a loan shark blush.
This hits graduates in the lowest-paying jobs hardest.
No breathing space for our pubs and hospitality industry, now paying 82p in tax for every pound they make, holding back vital investment and job creation in a sector that gives so many young people their first taste of work.
No breathing space for the planet, with no commitment to renewable power or home insulation to lower domestic bills; instead, we got further concessions to multi-national fossil fuel giants who earn more in a second than most of us would ever earn in 10 lifetimes.
The list goes on. The super-rich continue to enjoy tax rates that are often lower than those paid by working people. Multi-national corporations still have significant opportunities to shift profits.
Hundreds of costly reliefs and loopholes remain intact. Meanwhile, an affordability crisis rages on, and our public services continue to operate under immense pressure.
This week, leaders meet for the UN climate summit. The context? A summer of heat deaths. With scientists saying 2026 will be the hottest year ever.
Our government’s contribution? To bend over backwards to the car industry, and scrap plans for rapid electrification.
Two consecutive Labour Prime Ministers have now come into office promising change.
Change from almost two decades of Conservative and Lib Dem austerity economics that has failed every community up and down our country, young and old, rural and urban, through worse public services, higher taxes and lower growth.
Change from bending over backwards to fossil fuel giants and the car industry, failing on our commitments to the next generation.
Keir Starmer failed to deliver the change that is so desperately needed and, from what we have seen so far, Andy Burnham seems able to talk the talk but not walk the walk.