If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Yet Rachel Reeves has banned the A-word – austerity – despite benefit cuts and squeezed public spending plans, even before tantrum-toddler Trump’s trade tariffs send her back to the Treasury abacus. The diktat emerged during a meeting of the Fire Brigades Union parliamentary group chaired by the Scouser Kim Johnson. Newly elected union general secretary Steve Wright was denouncing “a return to austerity in any form” when a voice piped up at the back: “You can’t call it austerity,” cried a Labour MP. “Rachel’s banned us from using it.” Mutters of confirmation from Westminster comrades leave 2025 very 1984. Welfare cuts are increased help; less is more and austerity is record spending.
Kemi Badenoch’s campaign to be toppled as Tory leader gained momentum with her defence of Israel’s detention and deportation of Labour’s Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed. Kemikaze’s betrayal of the rights of all MPs irrespective of party triggered anguish on her benches deeper than that caused by shadow cabinet member Richard Fuller publicly distancing himself from her position. “She’s lost her compass,” despaired a former minister, “and a couple more of her few allies. The only happy Tories are Robert [Jenrick] and James [Cleverly].” Surely it’s only a matter of time.
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