Is everyone, suddenly, really bored by politics?
To put it another way: have the World Cup, Wimbledon, the heat, and the fact that we have no functioning government, plus no one being terribly excited by the arrival of Andy Burnham, meant that everyone has stopped watching videos and reading blogs?
The evidence from this blog and YouTube channel supports this idea. We expected traffic to fall when I was ill, and that my recovery and a recovery in traffic levels would take a few days. But what is surprising is that, whilst recovery has happened, it is on nothing like the scale we expected so far. Traffic is running well below normal levels, and I'm noticing that in the comments here. They, too, are way down.
Is that because we're not writing the right thing?
Is it because my slightly more reflective style at present is unappealing?
Or is it because people are just bored of politics?
Farage, as I suggest in this morning's video, is out of road. If he is, Reform will also be over, heading in the direction of UKIP and the Brexit Party. That's good news, but it also means the party might quite literally be over, and there's not much more to say about that.
At the same time, the slow death of the Starmer government, whilst delivering terrible legislation and policy, is failing to grab attention.
And Andy Burnham's dithering is already indicating an incapacity to govern that is profoundly worrying.
Even I watched Wimbledon rather than the news last night, and felt better for it.
And for those who still believe that the World Cup is decided on, rather than off, the pitch, there are still matches to play, although my enthusiasm for watching football in the middle of the night is limited.
But the net outcome is that it would appear that disenchantment with politics is running at a very high level.
Do you agree? I will be curious to find out. Is it just that, or is it something that we are doing? I would be interested to know.
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Over the weekend I watched or listened to coverage of England playing football, cricket (men and women), and rugby (plus Ireland and Scotland), and also the Grand Prix, and tennis at Wimbledon.
UK politics seems to have entered some sort of hiatus while we await the new boss and his reshaped policies and cabinet.
The conflict in Ukraine rumbles on, with neither side able to land a killing blow, but the pressure seems to be more on Russia than Ukraine at present. How long can Putin keep the show on the road?
And the conflict in the Middle East is not at hot as it was but I’m sure there is a lot going on in Palestine and Lebanon that we don’t hear. And the disruption of supply chains has not quite landed yet. I expect it is going to come up with sudden unexpected shortages this autumn.
And it is hot, too hot. And also almost the school holidays.
I think you are agreeing with me – this is a hiatus
Agreed.
(you don’t want to be doing too much moderating while getting better-hence my one word post)
Traffic will pick up in the UK when Keir is gone and Andy is sitting in the big chair at No. 10.
In the USA, politics is front and center due to the November 2026 elections.
As you have asked, and I don’t want to be rude.
But personally I feel the blog has wandered. There is way too much to absorb and take in. I feel as though this blog benefits you more than me as a reader, in the sense that it sometimes comes across as more of a personal emotional and intellectual outlet for you. In could be a private diary that is never published in a public forum.
It’s also lovely reading your ideas and thoughts, but then what?
We live in an information overload society, my brain feels full most of the time.
It feels at time that the wheels are turning but the car isn’t on the ground.
Just my personal view/feelings.
Noted and discussed here. Thank you for your candour.
Glad that you’re feeling better Richard.
i think possible the failure to return is likely to do with school holidays, and the busyness of things leading up to the break. All of Scottish schools are now off, and although I dip into your pieces it’s not nearly as much as during term time.
that coupled with late night football means people probably don’t have the time they usually do.
Thanks
[…] might have already noted this morning that traffic is down on this site at present, but I also think I might have identified […]
I don’t know that people are necessarily less interested in politics but just that the way it operates today is a complete turnoff. I rarely listen to politicians now – they either repeat endless rubbish and lack the ability to actually think about much other than making quick soundbites. I for one am not watching the football or Wimbledon but trying despite the heat to get work done outside and otherwise reading up on some history.
What should I be doing then?
Thats a tricky one. I suppose that some of the material you are producing you have had similar posts in the past and perhaps some say “I have read that before” and don’t look at it. I think with all of these things its a case of plodding on perhaps with new insights and perhaps having shorter posts so that people feel they can read it without having to read lots of info. Some of us are happy to read longer posts but for many people these days their attention span is pretty short.
So, too long?
How do we get ideas across then?
Just carry on carrying on, Richard. I’m still listening even if I might not be commenting. What are the views statistics?
Low – well down on a year ago
“What should I be doing then?”
Exactly what you want to do!!!!
One bad quarter (or month) is just a blip on the screen and will not affect the rate of return of a long term investment.
Agreed….
I can only speak for myself, but I find politics all rather depressing at the moment. I’m getting on a bit (72) and, having lived through a time where most things seemed to be getting better, now the world is regressing. The rise of the far right, neoliberalism, political corruption in plain sight. For my sanity if nothing else I now divert my attention to more pleasing and calming pastimes like birdwatching and music. Although I do regularly read your blog.
Thanks
Might relevant factors include, at least, some of the following?
1) Intentions by the main stream media to divert public attention from serious matters, not least the increasingly obvious failings of Neoliberalism
2) The increased proportion of space/time in the M. S. M used on entertainment, including sport, to achieve this diversion
3) The muddle/inconsistency/ shambles of current politics
4) The coherence, puripose and relative comfort of entertainment reporting and promotion
5) The power of (manipulative?) M. S. M. fashions in what is repoerted and how
All that and the BBC’s desire to report only rapes and murders?
Do they report Lotto winners at the end of each live evening broadcast as they do in the USA??? LOL!
The moment you start thinking in terms of balance sheets rather than “pots of money”, banking becomes much easier to understand.
Your deposit is indeed a liability of the bank. But the bank also acquires an asset when you make the deposit. If the deposit came from another bank, it normally acquires reserves at the Bank of England. If it came from within the same bank, its liabilities have simply been rearranged. Either way, the deposit forms part of the bank’s funding.
So, yes, that is what I mean by a stable source of funding.
The wheelbarrow of banknotes is not a bad analogy, provided you remember that modern banking is mostly electronic. Those notes are themselves liabilities of the Bank of England, and the reserves held by commercial banks are electronic liabilities of the Bank of England. Commercial bank deposits are liabilities of commercial banks. The whole system is built on interconnected balance sheets.
And I completely agree with your final comment. I have long argued that everyone should learn some basic double-entry bookkeeping. It is probably the single best way to understand how money actually works.
Economics is full of arguments about incentives, markets and expectations. Accounting simply asks, “What are the entries?” Once you ask that question, a great many economic myths disappear remarkably quickly.
No.
THey used to have a weekly show, but not now.
Yes, the last few months, if not years, have been pretty hectic. A slowing down in this heat is a rational response.
We seem to be in a hot-weather hiatus at the moment, but the brutality of governance in the UK seems to have become manifest, whether it is house-building on green land by Westminster diktat or the chaotic Reich-style of the racist Reform. My local Greens can’t gain traction, local Labour (very efficient at town level) have sunk into silence, indeed the only noise comes from Reform, and consists largely of insults. Family in Wales say exactly the same only there it is Plaid and Reform. Nationally the ineptitude and bile of Labour seem impervious currently to the increasingly vapid and vacillating Burnham; even Reform seem to be in stasis as I suspect planning for defenestrating Farage will be occupying ‘minds’ like Anderson and Jenrick.
Thanks
It is difficult to summon enthusiasm when it is clear that Burnt-ham (& his policies) will be Starmer-with-a-smiley-face. Nothing will change. Private-equity-parasites will continue their evisceration of the UK and the pauperisation of most of the UK population. The alternatives to LINO/Tory-Deform seem to have gone quiet/lack narratives that seize attention. Obviously, change is needed – but most people are too busy with their lives, too exhausted … to want to be involved in what passes for political process in the UK. Just saying & apologies for the negativism. (or is that realism?).
In Scotland the school holidays are in full swing so folk have other things to do.
True
It would be interesting to know if other economic/political blogs have also had a downturn in traffic. I expect there would be this downturn there also, as people are distracted by sport, holidays, heat. I truly doubt if there is anything personal here.
It looks to me as if they are
I think the uncertainty we have had for most of the year is wearing, and summer is to be enjoyed, so I think it likely people are tuning out a bit.
I read almost daily and rarely catch up the day after, even when my reading of the paper is cursory. For some, maybe the paper or another source comes first. I have tried to comment less because I know comments create work and you are recuperating (failed some days, sorry – it was so good to have you back!)
I generally watch your videos as a change from reading; today I baled a minute or so in, realising I had read your grievance politics post yesterday.
I enjoy your visions and explorations of how things could be, whether the deeps of the Quantum essays, where I grasp a percentage, or the stepping-stones of the Care and Hope series. For me, reflective pieces would suit my summer mood, but you can’t please everyone.
Please keep doing what moves you, while looking after yourself. Thank you for your publications, they play a large part in keeping my keel even, despite the current doldrums.
Thanks
Just wondering … maybe you are looking at things the wrong way round. Perhaps discontent with Starmer produced a lot of interest in political sites, blogs etc and with Starmer on the way out you’re seeing a ‘return to the mean’ ?
But Burnham should be generating interest
It’s not happening
I agree it should be being talked about.
But he is being so careful not to say anything ‘cos everything he says is, quite rightly, being pulled to pieces.
In my opinion Starmer should be standing so Burnham has to talk clearly and openly about what he is/has been plotting to do, and how it differs from what was said in the Manifesto on which Labour were elected.
And any MPs who disagree with them both should put forward a third alternative.
I think it’s also a surprisingly busy time of year. We have a school inspection today, SATS results which I’d love to see abolished are delayed which is adding stress at the end of the school year. There are school sports days and fairs and those not tied to school holidays have already gone away.
And let’s be honest the coronation of Andy Burnham after 2 disastrous years of Starmer and all the scandal can’t really excite anyone. At least Farage is finally getting long overdue scrutiny on his dodgy finances.
As someone long involved in climate science and the Green movement we are now seeing the reality of climate change in a country totally unprepared for it. We had Biblical flooding in February and now intolerable heat,with no real plan as to how we cope. I’m grateful to be living in an old cob house which copes pretty well, unlike most modern homes. If I was living in an urban flat at the moment I’d be feeling pretty miserable. Green voices are speaking out, but the calls for air con are louder and we don’t have the basics of emergency planning to cope.
Maybe many are feeling totally overwhelmed by the complexity of our problems and the lack of realistic solutions?
An incessant torrent of bad news, corruption and bull crap that has drained the living sole out of life, all hope and the evidence that climate change is here to stay hi heatwave. People are phycologically freezing as a protection mechanism. I can absorb any more corruption or they got away with that how!, it’s horrifying to poke you head out the sand, people are to tired of fed up and left emotional and physicaly drained to the point of becoming a husk. I myself is hiding which is proberbly bad as they will sneak a whole pile new turds in while we not looking.
I suspect emotional exhastion. And it is summer with holidays approaching.
The extremism, corruption and utter dishonesty of the far right does seem to be causing their collapse.
But my fear is, that although it is good to see Reform and Trump failing, the core problem, neoliberalism and its destructive control over our lives, institutions (and politics) remains, and could/will continue to control life in UK, USA & EU, which means more austerity, more climate destruction, more inequality, and the continuing backwards march on global justice, overseas aid, and war crimes.
Burnham’s undemocratic accession is occurring during this time of (understandable) public disengagement. That worries me. The Greens are beginning to get the “antisemitism” treatment big-time (see this week’s Jewish Chronicle). Even the YourParty rump is being torn apart by its own internal “Labour Together” debacle.
My fear is that if the public face of extremist far-right fascist politics (Fa***e/Trump) is seen to fall, then the public will be encouraged to relax, while neoliberal control of our institutions and foreign influence/control of our politics will increase (within a resurgent Burnham-led Labour Party), and authoritarian repressive legislation will permanently suppress our capacity for dissent. On the ground, at home and abroad, things just get worse, not better.
As our own government changes, and USA prepares for mid-term changes in Congress, there is a window of opportunity to encourage new thinking, then express it, and get a hearing. Summer breaks are essential, we need distractions like tennis and football, but nothing has really changed and the normalisation of corruption, crime, kleptocracy, authoritarianism and genocide is accelerating.
My comments here are in NO way related to Richard’s recent ill-health, nor are they a criticism of FTF’s pause for a strategic rethink.
Thanks. Appreciated. I get all our points
It isn’t just you, Richard. UK citizens seem to be suffering from mass procrastination and dithering, looking at my work over the last few weeks. Whether that is “waiting for the stock market to crash”, “the bond market to crash”, the “housing market to crash”, or whatever, many people I meet seem to be quite unable to make decisions at present. Maybe it is the heat, political doldrums, or any of a multitude of distractions, I’m not sure, but a simple tale might illustrate what I mean.
Back in January a new enquirer came to see me about her pension pots, a mixture of DB and DC arrangements. It was easy for her to decide what to do with the DB (“final salary”) pot as what she could see was what she would get. I advised her to take the tax-free lump sum from the DC pot and to buy a further pension in the form of an annuity at the time. She said she would wait until June, “when I will get more”. Well, she has forsaken £7,200 income by dithering, annuity rates have declined a touch since January, and her fund size has fallen back too, as she did not want to park the fund in cash. Everything else being equal, she will be about £890 a year worse off compared to January, but she still wants to “wait until matters improve”. Well, that’s up to her, but when I reminded her that no-one knows the future, she got a bit annoyed. Hey, ho.
People!!! Life is easy without them.
A good paragraph from Tim Watkins: –
“For the majority of British people, living standards have gone backward since 2008. And politicians, economists and statisticians pointing to rising stock prices and artificial GDP growth serves only to anger people still further. So that, even as successive Chancellors seek to maintain the value of the pound by the age-old combination of tax increases and austerity cuts, investors have lost confidence while the mass of voters switch to the parties of the extreme left and right in search of some alternative.”
His whole piece is very much worth reading, here The end of managed decline
Agreed
Some thoughts: At the moment, whilst there are a number of sporting events distracting many people, many of us have a feeling that we are in a lull before the inevitable storm.
Many of us, even if we haven’t admitted it to ourselves, know that the effects of the Gulf war have yet to be truly felt in the UK and may other places. Trump very recently admitted there is a fertiliser issue in US. Mid August seems to be the time when their oil reserves will apparently fall to the level when they cannot fight a war. The true situation for UK just doesn’t get talked about openly; Europe does admit to increasing difficulty. It’s as if we are having a period of calm before the western world starts to suffer from the USA’s adventurisms.
Funding the Future brings home realism and many just want to be distracted.
I like that.
Yes Richard ‘ disillusion with politics is very high’ – and apparently increasing over recent years – ‘they are all in it for themselves’.<p>
Even this morning – or was it yesterday – discussions of Farage’s dodgy donations – and the recent report on foreign influence on UK politics made it just a Farage problem and circled around the obvious question – ‘why are such donations not illegal in the first place’. No BBC presenter will ask that question – presumably because the deep state which is running us is in hoc to its own donors.<p>
The nearest they came was a vox pop lady in Runcorn who said she didnt care about Farage’s five million – ‘they are all at it’.<p>
No wonder we listen to radio 3 (recently Wagner’s Siegfried) or watch football<p>
Journalism does play a part in this.
One other point – YouTube algorithms are under government orders to actively prioritise MSM content over alternative sources.
https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/07/05/starmer-attack-media/
Apparently, your content doesn’t promote enough”GROWTH”. (Blessed be Growth! Hail Growth! May we grow for ever and ever, Amen!)
Attendance at Growth Worship Services (MSM broadcasts) is now compulsory. Dissenters attempting to view or promote FTF Videos will be algorithmically burnt at the stake (or debanked).
(I confess to very slight exaggeration)
I need to write about this
With the US the Trump administration has flooded the zone, so there’s some level of overload (by design), and, I think, some actual recognition of the scale of the grift arising from Trump’s financial returns. In the UK I think we’re mostly waiting for the expected anointment of Burnham so we can then see who he appoints for his cabinet.
In the meantime, with the heatwave, World Cup, Wimbledon, British Grand Prix and more, there’s been distractions aplenty. A pause, but not perhaps a long one.
What might be useful is looking at where the excess deaths from the heatwave is impacted by climate change, and where the economic policies of the UK and US are contributing or mitigating that, to bring some of the other events into the discussion more.
It is not just politics. Rather than being at the top of the decision tree politics itself is subservient to the layer of the obscenely wealthy that sits above it.
I am not sure that we could say that this layer is more powerful than ever before but certainly advances made following the two world wars have been overturned, the Robber Barrons never went away.
To an idiot like myself there seems to be almost nothing to do to oppose these layers of power. Protest is illegal in so many instances with the penalties being nothing short of obscene. There is almost no debate on economic policy. The BBC, for instance, has been totally captured, in some cases their refrain ‘there is no money’ seems more like an instruction to government rather than a discussion about it.
The coordinated gaslighting has coshed most of us into depressed silence. Economic policy across the parties is similar to choosing a broadband supplier. It doesn’t matter who you choose, the little tweaks and perks, but the broadband line/connection is (generally) the same whichever ISP you choose.
Add into that the politics of envy or anger where people are happy to disadvantage themselves as long as the other person gets it worse.
I fear that little will change without seismic shift in the attitude of both the public and the reporting media. It is hard to see how any movement could start with potential sentences for non-violent protest being as long as five years imprisonment.
For myself I rarely talk with anyone about politics and economic policy, I simply can’t be bothered any more with trying to counter ‘there is no money’ kind of argument. This, sadly, makes me part of the problem.
On another note the OBR apparently would welcome your comment on their lates ‘Financial Risks and Sustainability’ report published today<p>
fiscalrisks@obr.uk. <p>
Is what people have given up actually politics at all is my question?
Not exactly heart warming or inspirational is it? More like some grim reality show if you ask me. No debate or real dialogue, the same old story line (TINA), plastic personalities. And then all this sport going on and holidays fast approaching.
Am I getting bored with politics? I’m certainly getting stressed with it and have spent too much time lately reading your blog and watching Paul Warburg and others, but not enough time weeding (weeds grow annoyingly well in the rain and sunshine of a Tasmanian winter) and enjoying the good things that go with being an indolent retiree so I’m pushing away my laptop, getting out more during the daytime and reading Georgette Heyer instead. Nothing personal, but there are more laughs and less to fret about come bedtime.
You may not be alone
Hello Richard.
I am glad you are feeling better.
I agree with what is generally being said in your comments. I feel that Andy Burnt-ham is just a continuation of all the negative, destructive politics that have brought the western world to the point of collapse.
The USA under Trump is disaster on steroids. Is there nothing that vile man cannot destroy? Even the support the USMNT had outside USA, he destroyed.
Outside of politics, however, there is joy and hope and basically just decent human beings, being nice to each other. It sounds ridiculously childish and simplistic but at this moment I just need humans being nice to each other and to ignore the politics, even for a short while.
The World Cup has provided this in spades. American people discovering that foreigners are just people like them, and not what’s on Fox News. Visiting fans discovering most of America is not MAGA. Some actual, decent football. Wimbledon just being tennis and somehow in a bubble away from everything else. The schools are off here in Scotland, so there’s time to fill with joy, watching weans or grandweans, that normally would be at school.
Just some joy before the inevitable fallout of the USA/Israel attack on Iran, and the already happening climate disaster.
I read an article about millions of farmers in Pakistan having solar panels, and how this has helped take pressure off their national grid. Just a simple, good thing. Here, the Government is only interested in cutting the national debt and nothing ever really changing. Farage being a dick as always. It’s just depressing.
I need…we all need… just some joy, even for a moment.
I agree with your post!
People are exhausted of the negativity, scaremongering. It makes people feel powerless and withdraw more. Hope, optimism and something to get behind is what people need.
Hence why sport is so popular. England are doing well, overcoming and moving forward.
This year, the speed of politics has increased and is too fast to keep up with. Trying to make sense of it has become much more difficult and taxing exercise. People want a rest. Perhaps now is the best time to do so. US congress is on holiday. Trump can’t do much other than call the FIFA president and talk about red cards. And the UK is waiting for the next prime minister.
Campaign wise Gary Stephenson has his documentary out on Channel 4, Wednesday night, 9pm (then on YouTube by Sunday). A response to that should do well? Try to do something with him before he takes some time off, especially since you are a constant on the scene!
Why?
His economics is all wrong.
He admits he does not get tax.
Of course the media love him. He is not challenging anyone.
Lol fair enough! He and supporters have not ‘given up’ yet and might need signposted to better ideas?
I have just bought the latest issue of The Big Issue and Gary Stevenson is the guest editor of a special edition focussing on Wealth Tax. I haven’t read it all yet, but surely it is one way to bring the ‘issue’ to the forefront?
Except a wealth tax won’t work
It is a massive distraction from the cause of real tax and economic justice
Bill, many of us have commented on Gary Stevenson’s YouTube videos, and encouraged him and his many supporters to read Richard’s Taxing Wealth Report 2024, as this report provides all the information they need to start attacking wealth inequality.
Gary seems to be uninterested in anything that disturbs his comfort zone, only ever quoting people who agree with him, and interviewing people who have books to sell. It’s his loss and ours that we can’t mobilise his supporters to understand how the economy works, and do something practical, rather than talk about two years to design a new wealth tax, which will be unworkable.
Much to agree with
I agree with Kit … glad you are recovering and remember to take some time out too ….. maybe it’s the calm before the storm.
I’m certainly not bored by politics. Angered, but not bored.
However, for all the reasons that people have put forward in the comments above – no change leadership, school holidays, extreme heat, sport, foreign events and our terrible, terrible journalists and broadcasters, etc – I feel that the whole country is suffering a kind of manufactured and enforced ennui. No one can be bothered to engage with politics or news or even going out and enjoying life. The joy has been sucked out of us – deliberately I suspect.
Meanwhile, I very much enjoyed and appreciated your foray into re-defining economics and money and look forward to you developing these ideas (politics of care and economics of hope).
In the meantime, I’m enjoying the antics of the garden birds while red kites circle like vultures overhead. Oh, and you might be interested to know that while other urban dwellers have foxes, my student son and friends in Sheffield have a badger’s sett in their back garden on Crookesmoor Road. LOL.
Rest, recuperate and regenerate.
Thanks
Not with Farage out there
There’s a video coming soon
Might I suggest that we are in recession.? In my thirty years of trading in the building game, as a small jobs builder, I’ve never had a year as hard as this!
Yes there has been peaks and troughs. But nothing like this.!
I do understand. I’m really quite clever in my understanding of how we spent money in lockdown . But the world has changed it’s pace. To me it is recession and one I’ve not experienced. Ever!
That is really interesting….
I can add to the recession thoughts: I’m involved with a small local charity which is a Scrapstore. We sell donations of 2nd hand stuff which regular charity shops don’t usually want: fabric, wool, threads, needles, art & craft materials in general. We usually have a good flow of customers and sales. However, this year has been very quiet, more quiet than I’ve ever known. ….. we too are wondering .
Donations are steady, but our sales are down, so why are folk suddenly not interested any more …..?
Are we in recession? People have lost hope.
For me, the mental exhaustion comes from knowing we certainly need to put a bell on that ferocious, predatory cat, but nobody knows how. And while we try to come up with a workable plan to bell that cat, more cats appear.
David Nyrne says;
Richard, FTF is preaching to the converted. I would suggest that your followers are well educated and have a thirst for a greater understanding of politics and economics. I fit that description, but most of my friends, my wife included , could not care a monkey’s. My graduate daughters prefer to have a good time, enjoying themselves at spas, restaurants and holidaying.
I am not aware of Gary Stevenson’s YouTube statistics, but would estimate his following at 1M. He is charismatic, vulgar and unconvincing. His book offers little of substance, and it is very similar to other City Boy lightweight tomes, but they are an easy read. If you do read them, don’t expect to learn anything.
Tik Tok maybe the vehicle for developing FTF-can you sing and dance?
Noted.
We have tried tik tok. We’re just not it.
Interesting. Speaking only for myself, I’m just exhausted and world weary with it all. No idea why at this particular juncture. Just am. Nothing to do with this blog or YouTube. Just sick and tired of thick, self righteous, opinionated unthinking, inflexible people
You are not alone
There is just a lack of hot topics in mainland British politics right now. While Burnham doesn’t yet match Starmer’s hard-earned reputation for personal untrustworthiness , he will basically be more of same; big deal. The nastiest quarter of the population remain passionate about the antics of the neofascist parties, but Farage is becoming a busted flush, and there is nobody else charismatic enough to pose the same danger right now. The novelty has worn off Zack Polanski, but he has established himself as a big name now, and can get on with some quiet party building for a couple of years. There is a dripfeed of tales of local incompetence by Reform councils, but that has become part of the landscape. But that is mainland Britain. Where I am in Jersey, although a surprisingly high fraction of the populace are politically disengaged, those who aren’t are eagerly watching the new government take shape after a recent election. For those of us who follow news from abroad, the USA are living in interesting times and there is a lot of polarised and passionate politics going on there for us to worry about. By the autumn, Britain’s political people will have found fresh causes to campaign for or against and fresh people to love or hate , and the cycle will go on; I can’t imagine a mass retirement of campaigners and pundits just because of a few slow news weeks.
Thank you
As various reports have highlighted, the governance of U.K. is insular, elite and dysfunctional:
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/polling/65257/fixing-our-civil-service
David Byrne suggests:
Think outside the box. Don’t let today’s media headlines dictate our thoughts. Be sceptical, questioning and, most importantly, focused.
The media love Gary S. He is good television. He is a multi-millionaire in fancy dress; speaks the language of the poor , but is no threat to those in power. Think parody. Forget him.
Forget Nigel F. He is digging his own ‘political’ grave. All he wants is more money. He reminds me of Homer Simpson. Let’ s call him Homer and have a good laugh. It may catch on with others to the point where ridicule kills him off.
Don’t worry about Andy Burnham yet. He is just another £99k MP. Let’s wait and see and then comment.
Iran: Why worry. Yes, we will feel the economic hit, but it is not our fight.
Wimbledon, the World Cup, family enjoyment and sunshine (with care) should be our immediate focus.