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Andy Burnham has played down suggestions that he wants the UK to quickly rejoin the EU, after his rival for the Labour leadership, Wes Streeting, plunged the party into a debate about reversing Brexit by calling it a “catastrophic mistake”. The Greater Manchester mayor said there was a case for rejoining the EU in the long-term, but that he is “not advocating that” in the forthcoming Makerfield by-election. The terror group thought to be behind a series of attacks on the Jewish community in London has been officially outed as a proxy of the Iranian state. The US Department of Justice says that Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which claimed responsibility for the Golders Green stabbing as well as the arson attacks on Jewish ambulances and several synagogues in London, is run by a senior Iranian operative. Aaron Rai has become the first Englishman to win the US PGA Championship since 1919, sinking a whopping 68ft putt on the penultimate hole (below). Ranked 44th in the world, the Wolverhampton-born 31-year-old fended off heavyweights including Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm to secure the Wanamaker Trophy. |
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Starmer and Larry outside No 10. Dan Kitwood/Getty |
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Our political “bloodlust” makes governing impossible |
The Italian newspaper Il Sore 24 Ore noted last week that Larry the No 10 cat would soon be “serving” his seventh prime minister, says Fraser Nelson in The Times. When the Italians are mocking you for democratic instability, you know you have a problem. Over the past decade the UK has had the highest leadership turnover in the Western world, above even Argentina. The irony is that our PMs are being toppled for issues – the economy, housing, welfare – that stem from the revolving door at No 10. “Changing leaders has become the disease of which it purports to be the cure.” |
Whoever replaces Keir Starmer will inherit a country “drowning in debt and dysfunction”. Our national debt has risen to 96% of GDP, up from 37% in 2007. We spend £110bn a year servicing that debt, and the so-called “moron premium” – how much more interest we are charged compared to the next-worst country – is above Liz Truss levels. Every new PM follows the same “dispiriting arc”: bold targets are announced, orders are given, nothing happens. A big part of the problem is that Britain’s cabinet ministers serve an average of just over two years, among the shortest tenures of any developed country. We have had nine education secretaries in the past decade and 25 junior housing ministers since 1997. When ministers don’t expect to last more than 12 months, they think: why take the political hit to tackle long-term problems? That leaves No 10 “full of cans kicked further down the road”. The good news is that this cycle can be broken: in recent years both the Italians and the Australians have curbed their political “bloodlust”. Until something similar happens here, the UK will remain “a global laughing stock”. |
🤝🕊️ Counterintuitively, the coalition years were relatively stable. Cabinet reshuffles were tricky because David Cameron was terrified of the arrangement falling apart and the Lib Dems jealously guarded their balance of power. The resulting stability was what allowed Michael Gove (education) and Iain Duncan Smith (welfare) to stay in place long enough to “make a difference”. |
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Stifler’s mum (Jennifer Coolidge) with Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) in American Pie (1999) |
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Prepare yourselves, says Zoe Williams in The Guardian, for “hot divorcee summer”. An unvarnished, “devil-may-care” spirit seems to have captured the cultural moment. But it’s also “high glam” – think wide-brimmed hats, full-length skirts, obsessive skincare and matching two-pieces just to pop to the shops. There’s a hefty focus on hot sex, too. Rather than immediately finding a new boyfriend, channel the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons: “Do it, or not, with as many men as you like, as often as you like, in as many different ways as you like.” |
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Don’t worry, be happy |
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NASA/WireImage/Getty |
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Reading the news can be a gloomy business – we should know, we do it all day for a living. But it doesn’t have to be that way. |
Here at The Knowledge we believe deeply that the world is a terrific place and we should all count ourselves lucky to live here. Remember: the universe is almost entirely dead – cold rock, plasma, void. All the stuff you’re made of was forged in the cores of stars that exploded billions of years ago and spent most of the universe’s 13-or-so-billion-year history drifting silently through the icy darkness, going nowhere and doing nothing. But here you are, on a reasonably bright day, reading this. And an Englishman’s just won the US PGA championship. |
Before you know it you’ll disperse back into the cosmic squish and none of this will have mattered at all. But while you’re here, you might as well enjoy it, which you will all the more if you subscribe to The Knowledge. |
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