20/07/2026
So today sees another Prime Minister make his way into Number 10. From what we have heard so far, it looks like we have another with no real plan for what he intends to do or at least no inclination to share it with us all before he took the reins of power. Like Sir Kier before him, he has avoided making any statement which might sn**ch defeat from the jaws of victory and, like Nigel Farage, he has tried to portray himself as all things to all men.
But what difference will another Labour PM make to the Nation's problems? The problem is not which leader Labour has but which policies he is likely to follow. If we know anything about Andy Burnham, it is that he is more likely to drive further left. But that will not solve anything. The real problem remains Socialism, a philosophical and economic direction which has failed everywhere it has been tried and having more of it will only make things worse, not better. The Left will of course cry that it has failed because it hasn't been done properly - indeed that is what our new PM has already implied. "More infrastructure investment" will sort it, "more tax, more welfare", "more nationalization", "more immigration". "Rejoin the EU". More "Manchesterism" (whatever that means).
Well none of those things will make our Nation prosperous again. We need sustained economic growth. For sure, public infrastructure investment may help - economists tell us there is a multiplier effect which creates jobs and prosperity as the investment spills out into the broader economy. When the temporary boost tails off, we do it again. But in an economy increasingly dominated by services, AI, and data-centres, supporting investment in roads and public infrastructure seems anachronistic, a yearning for a 1970s economy dominated by manufacturing and heavy industry that no longer exists. Where we really need investment is in Business, for it is only through businesses that wealth generation can be created and sustained.
But Socialists don't like Business. Actually, what they don't like about it is risk. Socialism tries to remove risk from people's lives. The idea that someone might lose their job because their employer goes bust is anathema to them. No matter that they went bust because the government extracted too much in (risk free) taxes that did not depend on a profit being made, or loaded on regulatory costs to remove risks unlikely ever to materialize, or that their employees wanted too much in salaries and didn't work hard enough (but couldn't be dismissed).
By trying to remove risk, Socialism removes any incentive for people to strive - to work harder and earn more to better their own lives, those of their loved ones and thence the community as a whole. If I don't work I can get welfare and if I do work hard I get taxed harder, so why bother? Socialism levels down, not up.
So good luck to our new PM - we all need him to be successful. But if his solution is to be more Socialism, he most certainly won't be.
