26 November 2025
First of all, a disclaimer:
Nothing I say in the following piece is to be interpreted, or imply, that I in any way support acts of violence, race hatred, discrimination or exhortation to use anything other than a peaceful expression of one’s views.
The government (and I use that word loosely) drifts from crisis to crisis.
The country is rudderless and drifting into complete chaos and the mismanagement of the economy and social cohesion is becoming more obvious by the day. There appears to be no clear objective or leadership. Sir Keir Starmer is showing his complete lack of political nous and barely a week goes by without a U-turn in policy after adverse public reaction or internal dissent within the Labour party. To make matters worse, there are scandals, major and minor, coming to the fore. These vary from a minister appointing a new czar to oversee governance of the football industry, who it transpires had donated funds to both her and the Labour party without them being declared, to the latest BBC scandal.
As has been reported, the BBC had an internal report highlighting various examples of bias, from severely editing a video of President Trump to give a totally false idea of what he was saying, to playing a documentary on Gaza that featured the son of a Hamas official giving a biased and one-sided view of the situation in the Gaza strip, without the interest being declared.
On a personal note, they played a clip of the former first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, talking about the history of wrong-doing by Israel in ‘Palestine’ since the end of World War II. He commented on the Jewish terrorist attack (as described by the British at the time) on the King George Hotel in Jerusalem, which resulted in 96 dead. This included British personnel and Arab and Jewish workers. If the BBC fact-checking team (BBC Verify) had bothered to scrutinise this, they would have found that no such hotel has ever existed in Jerusalem. It was, of course, the King David Hotel. This is personal because my father was serving in Palestine at the time.
If one searches the internet one can discover numerous examples of BBC errors and poor presentation, especially in stories covering Gaza, women’s rights and gender-related stories. It is obviously biased but is in complete denial and thinks that everything is tickety boo. It is, of course, in the throes of advanced group think and reflects the views of management and presenters, a large proportion of whom are of Oxbridge-educated, middle-class backgrounds who wouldn’t know a whippet, pigeon or ferret if they were bitten by one. They of course think that a flat cap is wonderfully quaint but would never let its wearer near the hallowed halls of the BBC.
Today is budget day in the UK and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (not to be confused with a previous Reichskanzler who had a better haircut), presented the budget to the Houses of Parliament. Unfortunately for her, the Office of Budget Responsibility accidentally (honest) released the full details of the budget approximately 40 minutes before Reeves’ presentation. This may seem trivial, but can have a major impact on financial markets: giving 40 minutes of opportunities for inside trading and arbitrage. The Chancellor was also rebuked before her presentation by the deputy speaker for leaks and releases of information during the weeks coming up to budget day. Traditionally, and with good reason, the contents of the budget speech are supposed to be secret until its delivery. The Houses of Parliament are supposed to be treated with respect and be the first to hear the details of the budget. This is typical of the contempt in which the Labour Party holds the institutions and traditions of the state in the UK.
As to the budget itself, I will try and give a review of it in the near future, but it was a real dog’s breakfast of policies – confused and confusing. Main point is that the tax take will go up (depending on the Laffer curve). They will also introduce a tax on electric vehicles, to cost three pence per mile. How they are going to manage this is unclear.
They have also adjusted the scheme by which disabled persons can get subsidised purchases of new vehicles in exchange for part of their benefits. The government is now banning the scheme from purchasing Mercedes, BMWs, Lexuses and Audis. In 2024, 815,000 vehicles (20 per cent of all new car sales) were bought under this motability scheme.
I feel able to comment on the budget in the next few days, as I have an ‘A’ level in economics.
So harking back to the start of this piece and its thoughts on the state of the government, the message here is that there is no message.
