By ANDREW PIERCE FOR THE DAILY MAILPUBLISHED: 01:08, 26 August 2024 | UPDATED: 01:30, 26 August 2024
As she prepares for her first Labour conference as Chancellor next month, Rachel Reeves is studying the speeches of her political hero, Gordon Brown.
But they will make for uncomfortable reading.
In his last conference speech as prime minister – in Brighton, 2009 – Brown boasted of his achievements in government, from the minimum wage and devolution to peace in Northern Ireland and shorter NHS waiting lists.
But the first policy success he listed was the winter fuel allowance, which he introduced in November 1997.
'We are simply not prepared to allow another winter to go by when pensioners are fearful of turning up their heating,' Brown thundered. The allowance, worth up to £300 for 10 million pensioners, survived seven Conservative chancellors but is now set to be scrapped by Reeves.
So much for the woman who kept a photograph of Brown in her Oxford Universitybedroom.
It's not just in the Commons where the Tories have been relegated. Only one club in the top four divisions of English football plays its home games in a blue seat. Bromley FC are currently seventh in League Two. The Tories scraped home in Bromley and Biggin Hill by just 300 votes.
Why unions are in the driving seat
Just weeks after securing a 15 per cent pay rise, LNER train drivers represented by ASLEF are set to strike again next month, causing commuters untold misery until mid-November.
Now, even Labour MPs are thought to be gunning for Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, who agreed to the pay rise. A former Unite shop steward whose grandfather and uncle were trade union officials, Haigh is seemingly still in the pocket of her union paymasters.
The Welsh Labour government's absurd 'decolonisation training' in the principality's libraries will include the famous Gladstone's Library at Hawarden, Flintshire. Even though Gladstone, who was Liberal Prime Minister four times, was famously opposed to the slave trade, denouncing its existence in the US as 'detestable'.
As Lord Lexden, the Tory Party historian, says: 'The training experts should train themselves by doing some basic historical research.'
After more than 30 years as a team captain on Have I Got News For You, Paul Merton says his least favourite host was the saintly Ann Widdecombe: 'The absolute lowest point of my professional career was when she turned to me and said: 'Come on, be funny, that's what you're being paid for.' To hear that career advice from the hilarious Ann Widdecombe was something that I shall always treasure.'
With the Government considering forcing tech firms to take down fake news from their platforms, Reform MP Lee Anderson asks: 'Does that include Labour's manifesto?'
A heroic performance
Actor Toby Jones's career has included roles in Captain America, Harry Potter and Dr Who. But nothing prepared him for life after playing Alan Bates, hero of the ITV docu-drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
'The impact has been unprecedented,' he tells Suffolk magazine.
'I got to play a hero and people come up to me all the time and congratulate me, but I am just an actor who happens to be part of this surprisingly popular show.'
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