#60 Rough Ideas
Plus: Making sense of Mancunian miracles, power struggles, building bridges, and more
Welcome to the 60th instalment of the Liberal Digest. Too often politics is about, well, politics. Factional intrigue crowds out serious debates about legislation to actually improve the lives of ordinary people. Yet as Labour’s leadership contest gathers pace, policy has suddenly returned to centre stage. Judging by some of the ideas on offer, that may not be entirely reassuring. In a single week, Wes Streeting has floated equalising capital gains tax with income tax rates and reopening Labour’s European question, saying Britain should one day rejoin the European Union. As he feels the scrutiny notch up, Andy Burnham committed to stick to current fiscal rules, and the current Brexit settlement. Meanwhile, back in the bunker, Rachel Reeves was doing her bit to try to keep her neighbour in power — unveiling a package of summer spending giveaways, and even briefing about the potential of introducing supermarket price controls. Ideas are back, but sound judgement is still missing.
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Stop the Press!
Best op eds, interviews, news and analysis of the week in the old-school media
Janan Ganesh argues that contrary to popular opinion, Sir Keir Starmer’s Government does have a bold and clear vision — it just happens to be a bad one:
“This is not a hard government to read. Notice that when Starmer dilutes or postpones something, such as planning reform or the defence spending strategy, it tends to be an issue that would not arouse a leftwinger. To loosen planning laws, after all, is to endorse and encourage market forces. The most surprising move he has made against his ideological preferences is to cut foreign aid and appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. In the domestic realm, the equivalent example is what, exactly? An attempted cut to welfare fuel payments, maybe, but he gave up on it. Prepare to live through this again. In all likelihood, Andy Burnham, if he succeeds Starmer, will maintain and slightly intensify the leftward course of this government. Even if gilt investors prevent him spending much more, he can gum up British life with rent controls and other regulations. He will even say that he is governing from the left. Like Reeves, with her barbs at profiteers, he will name the government’s class enemies in so many words. Despite this candour, we will pretend there is a profound mystery about the “meaning” of Burnham, like Shakespeare scholars trying to divine the motives of Iago.”
Jeremy Driver reminds Southwark Council that families cannot live in a shopping centre:
“[M]oving chains are a reminder that affordability is not only improved by building homes officially labelled “affordable”. New market-rate homes also ease pressure elsewhere. They free up other homes, reduce competition, and help bring prices down. Other cities have understood this better. Manchester has built far more homes in its city centre, including market-rate flats of the kind critics often dismiss as “luxury housing”. In the early 1990s, fewer than 500 people lived in Manchester city centre. Today, the figure is over 100,000. In a 2021 interview, Sir Richard Leese, the former leader of Manchester City Council, defended this policy bluntly: if the city had focused only on delivering affordable housing, it “would have delivered no housing at all, zero”.”
Michael Simmons lays the blame for the spike in youth unemployment squarely with the Government:
“The ONS’s data is clear: vacancies are at their lowest in five years with ‘lower-paying sectors such as hospitality and retail’ experiencing ‘some of the largest falls in vacancies and payroll numbers’. If this was a purely mental health crisis those vacancies would not have disappeared – they would just be empty. And no one can seriously argue that AI is taking jobs in Wetherspoons or TK Maxx. It is inescapable to conclude that the increasing costs of employing people more generally have led to entry-level jobs being removed from the market entirely. That is why this is Reeves’s and Starmer’s gravest mistake. The evidence is scary: many of the growing ranks of workless young will never work because worklessness is such a difficult habit to break. Even if this government are not to blame for setting this trend in motion, they bear responsibility for not doing enough to halt it. Instead, the Prime Minister and Chancellor have been midwife and obstetrician to the birth of a new dependant generation hooked on state support. That is a demographic and economic change that will scar Britain for years to come.”
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission produced new guidance saying that toilets and changing rooms must be used on basis of biological sex:
“The guidance, produced by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and now approved by ministers, makes it clear that transgender people should instead be offered a third or a gender-neutral space. The code states that leaving a trans person without access to any services or facilities would be unlikely to be proportionate and could be discriminatory. The guidance, external was published on Thursday following the landmark Supreme Court ruling last year that the definition of a woman under the Equality Act should be based on biological sex. The code of practice sets out how associations, businesses and services open to the public should organise their facilities. It covers a wide range of settings from shopping centres and gyms to hospitals and restaurants. With the guidance now before Parliament, MPs and peers have 40 days to raise any concerns. If there are no objections, the guidance becomes statutory.”
Restrictions on imports of fuel derived from Russian crude oil were loosened:
“Under the carve-out, which takes effect on Wednesday, Britain has allowed imports of jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries such as India and Turkey that may be derived from Russian oil, opening up additional supplies as prices rise. Airlines in April warned about potential summer shortages of jet fuel supplies, but recently struck a more bullish tone on availability, although carriers worldwide have hiked fares and some have cut flights. Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told Starmer in parliament he had chosen to “buy dirty Russian oil” and that “that money will be used to fund the killing of Ukrainian soldiers”, while senior Labour lawmaker Emily Thornberry said Ukraine had been “very let down”. Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko told Times Radio that the British decision was “deeply disappointing” and raised a “question mark” over the country’s support.”
The Government was accused of walking back a promise to banish forced labor from the supply chains of its state-run clean energy company:
“The shift comes as ministers try rapidly to scale-up the country’s solar capacity — including through investment from GB Energy — in a bid to wean the country off fossil fuels and cut energy bills by 2030. MPs, including Labour backbenchers, have warned that this leaves the U.K. reliant on importing panels from China, which dominates global solar manufacturing. Western governments have accused China of forced labor abuses against the Uyghur population in the country’s northern Xinjiang province — allegations the Chinese government denies — while human rights experts have identified exposure to materials from the Uyghur region in global solar supply chains.”
Nils Pratley: The Treasury’s supermarket food price cap wheeze was bananas
The Guardian: IMF urges UK to ‘stay the course’ on borrowing amid Starmer uncertainty
Sky News: Late Queen pressed for former prince to be trade envoy, new papers show
The Telegraph: UK property taxes highest in the world after Labour raid
Financial Times: UK confirms Gulf trade deal in boost for service industries
BBC News: UK net migration drops to 171,000 - lowest since Covid pandemic
Stacks of Freedom
Highlights from our fellow Substackers
James Breckwoldt runs through how Manchester really turned its fortunes around:
Aditya Goyal writes about how technological innovation is allowing us to keep tabs on environmental challenges:
Neil O’Brien sets out why Britain needs to get borrowing under control:
Martha Dacombe argues that it’s essential that welfare reforms come soon:
Marlowe explains why bond markets can’t simply be ignored:
Derek Thompson interviews Jesús Fernández-Villaverde to understand the dangers of the global fertility crisis:
Nan Ransohoff urges us to think hard about how to channel a coming philanthropic bonanza into effective causes:
Nick Maini calls on London to build a street on a bridge over the Thames:
Stefan Schubert looks at why we often fail to think through consequences of political actions:
James O’Malley defends Big Supermarket following this week’s chatter about food price caps:
As does Ryan Bourne:
Wonk World
Ideas and analysis from the think tanks, academia and other clever sorts
Centre for British Progress are recruiting a Head of Operations:
Hear Hear
Podcasts for weekend listening
Nick Robinson spoke to Wes Streeting about his plan to hike up capital gains taxes:
Posting to Policy
Best of social media this week
Via Mike Bird
Further Afield
Interesting stuff from around the world
Tyler Cowen argues that wokeness has peaked, but worries that what will follow will be worse:
“It is important to distinguish between the positive side of wokeism and the unreasonable side. The positive side supported gay rights and discouraged racism in the public sphere. The unreasonable side brought us cancel culture, stifled discussion, insisted on very particular views of race and gender identity, boosted DEI and other race-discriminatory policies, and generally made America a more intolerant place. It was most of all about who had the right to steer the agenda of public discourse, and who had the right to push out dissenters. The unreasonable side, since it was about power and control, had negative vibes built into its core. Fortunately, American society pushed back against many of the most objectionable manifestations of those negative vibes, but did we get rid of the negative vibes themselves? I do not think so. The American people still seem pretty low in trust, unhappy with America’s position in the world, glum about the economy and cost of living, and increasingly skeptical of both AI and billionaires. That is all happening at a time when the American economic situation, while mixed, is by no means as terrible as it was in, say, 2009. Happiness and mental health seem to be lagging behind the country’s actual achievements.”
Amnesty International released its latest edition of its report on the use of capital punishment:
“In 2025, Amnesty International recorded the highest number of executions carried out globally since 1981. At least 2,707 people were executed in 2025, an increase by more than two thirds on the total recorded in 2024. The resort to the death penalty surged as the authorities of several countries placed this cruel punishment at the centre of flawed public security and “tough on crime” narratives to assert control, project state power and score political points. This trend was strongest in countries where the authorities have tightened their grip on power by restricting civic space, silencing dissent and displaying disregard for protections established under international human rights law and standards. The sharp rise was driven primarily by Iran, which recorded its highest number of executions in decades (at least 2,159) and more than doubled the 2024 total. The Iranian authorities continued to weaponize the death penalty, often after grossly unfair trials, to instil fear among the population and punish those who challenged, or are perceived to have challenged, the Islamic Republic of Iran establishment.”
The Economist: How China quietly helps Russia in Ukraine
BBC News: Taiwan will not provoke conflict nor give up sovereignty, says president Lai Ching-te
Financial Times: Marco Rubio sees ‘good signs’ US could reach deal with Iran
Reuters: US targets Cuban political, military leaders with new sanctions
CNN: China’s Xi gives Putin a red-carpet welcome – and makes a veiled jab at the US
POLITICO: Trump delays major strikes on Iran at request of Middle East leaders
Graph of the Week
