Put your money on Bertie Ahern if he joins race for president
The whole business of his own gambling successes will, of course, be one of the issues that the former taoiseach, Fianna Fail leader and star Mahon tribunal witness is going to have to address if he becomes his party's candidate. Yet a recent poll put him ahead of Micheal Martin as the public's preference for a Fianna Fail nominee, and RTE's Drivetime reported last week that he has strong backing within the party itself.
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Telegraph
6 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Attacking Zohran Mamdani is only making him more powerful
Moderate opponents of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, are beginning to panic. His initial primary win was, of course, a shock to the Democratic Party establishment and the Cuomo political dynasty, after they had confidently predicted his support would melt away on polling day. But it also sent conservatives into crisis management mode. Mamdani's critics have been firing on all cylinders ever since to warn against his radical ideas. No matter how many times the nickname 'Mamdani the Commie' is uttered, however, his star hasn't dimmed. He leads Andrew Cuomo by 19 percentage points, according to a recent Siena Institute poll. In fact, Mamdani's support is equal to that of the next three most popular candidates combined – Cuomo, independent mayor Eric Adams, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. To be sure, a large part of Mamdani's popularity stems from the fact that he is untainted by any suggestion of scandal. For example, nearly half of New Yorkers opposed the Trump Justice Department's decision to drop charges against Adams, according to a poll from February. For them, 'champagne socialist who had armed guards at his lavish Ugandan wedding ' doesn't pack the same punch as 'alleged fraudster'. But such an overwhelming lead for Mamdani can't just be a rebuke to Adams for allegedly mixing pleasure with business on Turkish Airlines, or Cuomo for allegedly sexually harassing his staff or for overseeing a crisis in New York's nursing homes during the Covid pandemic. As the old guard of the Democratic Party struggles to prove its relevance, the new guard is also offering something deceptively positive for young people: financial relief. Mamdani's prescriptions will centralise more power in government and send us further down the road to serfdom, but young people don't see the big deal. They appear to be more concerned about what they could gain from a socialist system. New York City is a place where ambitious graduates come to find greatness, to put their advanced degrees to work, to climb the corporate ladder. But given the astronomical cost of living — average rent is $4,000 – those benchmarks of accomplishment are getting harder to reach. I say this as a young professional who often stacks my successes against those of my parents and dreads that I may never achieve what they did, and that includes home ownership. As Reihan Salam wrote in the Wall Street Journal, Mamdani 'knows the sting of having grown up in bourgeois comfort only to find himself scrambling to pay the rent in a less fashionable neighbourhood. That experience is a major reason why he's emerged as the darling of the millennial Left, a movement defined by its sense of downward mobility.' Mamdani's critics have pointed to his radical musings on X and podcasts, from supporting calls to defund the police to seizing the means of production. But they're forgetting that his campaign platform is based on affordability, a concept especially important to young voters and one that Cuomo and Adams have never meaningfully mentioned. Though misguided, Mamdani's demands for rent control, free buses, and government-run grocery stores appeal to those failed-to-launch young New Yorkers who believe the city economy is rigged against them. The fearmongering against Mamdani hasn't hurt him. If anything, it may be helping him. It's similar to what happened in the UK when Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party. His far-Left manifesto was also packed full of promises for free stuff subsidised by other taxpayers, including proposals for abolishing university tuition fees and expanding free childcare. He called for the nationalisation of some industries, an idea which Mamdani has flirted with in his demands for government-run grocery stores. A freak out ensued even on the Left, with former Labour prime minister Tony Blair writing in a Guardian article in 2015, 'If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won't be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation.' That's not how things turned out – at least in the 2017 general election, when Corbyn's party earned an almost 10 percentage point increase in its vote share, the largest rise between two elections since 1945. Perhaps the reason for Corbyn's political resilience amid the backlash was that the furious criticism of his policies ultimately increased the salience of the issues he was talking about. Similarly, in New York City, Cuomo thought he had caught Mamdani in hypocrisy when his team discovered that the latter is living in a rent-stabilised apartment despite having the income to pay market price. But it likely just affirmed to young voters, to quote Jimmy McMillan, that 'the rent is too damn high'. Critics are correct to point out that Mamdani's ideas are dangerous and anti-American. But the young professionals struggling to get ahead in New York City today were educated in a school system that glossed over the horrors of communism and failed to explain why capitalism works. Only the oldest millennials were alive when the Soviet Union collapsed, and they were still just kids. So they are starting to fall for the same siren song that many countries did in the 20th century, this time nicely packaged as 'affordability'. The generations that came of age in the late 1990s and 2000s inherited an insanely expensive world. Gen Z experiences a higher cost of living than previous generations when they were the same age, according to Nasdaq. Living costs keep climbing, but wages are stagnating, although a Trump economic boom pledges to reverse that. Attacks on Mamdani's socialist platform will no doubt intensify in the lead-up to November, but whether any of it erodes his lead remains to be seen. If it doesn't, it's likely because young people are too preoccupied with their own inadequacy to pay any mind to ghost stories about Mao Zedong and Hugo Chavez. Caroline Downey is a staff writer at National Review, editor-in-chief of The Conservateur, and a senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum
Times
6 minutes ago
- Times
Councils spend £1 in every £5 on interest payments
Britain's councils are now spending an average of nearly £1 in every £5 raised in council tax on debt interest payments after borrowing huge sums over the past decade. Local authorities collectively owe at least £148.5 billion, the equivalent of £5,200 for every household in the country, according to the latest official figures. This debt pile has increased 60 per cent since 2015 as councils have struggled with cuts to central government grants and faced increased demands on their services. Many have also borrowed huge sums to invest in commercial property. The real amount councils owe is actually higher because the official figures do not include pension deficits and outstanding liabilities to suppliers, individuals and other public bodies. Freedom of information requests by The Times to every local authority in Britain found that councils spend an average of 18 per cent of the cash they raise in council tax to service the cost of loans. With pension contributions for staff accounting for a further 23 per cent of council tax revenues on average, the typical council is now seeing about £2 in every £5 they raise from residents effectively disappear before a penny is spent on essential services. This makes councils increasingly reliant on other sources of income such as business rates, government grants and fees and charges. The size of debts in some areas has raised concerns about the sustainability of local authority finances. Six councils, including Thurrock and Birmingham, have already declared themselves effectively bankrupt over the past five years, with the Local Government Association warning in October that as many as a quarter of councils are likely to have to apply for a government bailout to stave off bankruptcy in the next two years. The association admits that the growing annual interest bill is adding to councils' financial woes but insists that the lack of proper funding is the principal problem. It estimates that if councils' spending had grown in line with 'inflation, wage growth and demographic and demand drivers' between 2011 and 2023, it would be 42 per cent higher than it is today. Nonetheless, concerns have been raised about the profligacy of some councils. Labour-run Lambeth council, in south London, for example, is paying 51 executives more than £100,000 a year, including a 'director of climate and inclusive growth' on £160,000, despite being more than £1 billion in debt. • Number of council officials on £100k pay deals hits record high In total, the number of council employees earning more than £100,000 jumped by more than a quarter last year to reach a record high of 3,906, including nearly 1,100 who earn more than £150,000 and 250 who earn more than the prime minister. Joanna Marchong, of the TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group, accused some councils of 'years of financial mismanagement'. She said: 'Local authorities have accumulated a substantial debt burden by making risky investments or ploughing money into other imprudent or failed projects, like Birmingham's disastrous IT system or Nottingham's Robin Hood Energy, and now we are seeing the consequences in ever-higher council tax bills for residents. 'Ministers must urgently get a grip on council borrowing and ensure local authorities are operating efficiently, not gambling with taxpayers' money and expecting residents to pick up the tab when things go wrong.' In total, 254 of Britain's 317 councils replied to the requests for information. These showed that the average annual interest bill was £12.8 million, meaning Britain's 317 councils are likely to be paying in excess of £4 billion a year just to service their debts. By comparison, local authorities spend £1.1 billion a year on libraries, culture, heritage and tourism and £2.2 billion on emergency housing. Most of the borrowing is long term and used to fund 'capital projects', such as town centre regeneration and investments in transport, housing and roads, although many local authorities have also borrowed to finance big bets on commercial property, some of which have turned sour. Short-term borrowing is also increasing as councils struggle to find the cash flow to meet the growing demand for spending on special education needs, with more children being diagnosed with conditions such as ADHD and autism. • Wes Streeting pledges to improve special needs school transport Analysis of the debt shows nearly three quarters of the money is owed to central government and a further £10.8 billion is owed to other councils. The data also reveals huge variations in the level of debt and interest paid. Birmingham city council has the biggest debt pile in the country at £3.35 billion – and that is before other liabilities, such as its £434 million pension deficit, are taken into account. • Birmingham council refuses to back down in fight to end bin strikes This huge burden means the authority, which has wasted more than £200 million on the botched implementation of a new IT system, is paying £178.3 million a year in interest. This amounts to 37 per cent of its annual council tax revenue and is the equivalent of £156 for every household in the city. However, 37 local authorities, many of them district councils, have no long-term borrowing at all. Horsham district council in West Sussex, for example, owes no money and paid no interest last year. About a quarter of councils have borrowed to invest in commercial property in an attempt to generate revenue to pay for services but in some cases, the value of these investments have crashed. The tiny Thurrock district council in Essex is paying more than £60 million a year in interest on its debts of £1.24 billion after going on an unprecedented and ill-fated commercial property spending spree. With only 90,500 homes in the borough, that annual interest bill is costing the average household nearly £700 a year and means the equivalent of three quarters of what the council is raising in council tax is spent servicing its debts. So far the council is estimated to have lost at least £275 million on its investments including £188 million on a series of green bonds linked to solar farms. The authority is now being run by government-appointed officials after declaring effective bankruptcy in December 2022 and its former chief financial officer is being investigated for misconduct. However, not all councils' investments have proved so disastrous. Runnymede council, for example, which borrowed hundreds of millions of pounds to invest in commercial property portfolio, spends more than £15 million a year on interest payments, nearly three times what it receives in council tax, but its investments generated £25 million last year. The data reveals that the average interest rate paid by councils is 3.7 per cent. Pete Marland, of the Local Government Association, said: 'Council finances remain in a fragile position, the impact of which has been cumulative for some time. 'The level of borrowing is down to a multitude of factors, the reasons for which vary by the circumstances of each authority. 'A sustainable, long-term financial model for local government must lead to all councils having adequate resources to meet growing cost and demand pressures.'
Daily Mail
36 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Sadiq Khan continues his feud with Donald Trump by claiming US President could be 'radicalising dangerous people'
Sir has continued his bitter feud with Donald Trump by claiming the US President is 'not a force for good' and could be 'inadvertently radicalising people'. During his visit to Scotland last month, Mr Trump branded the London mayor a 'nasty person' who has 'done a terrible job' in his latest blast at the Labour politician. Speaking at an event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Sir Sadiq dismissed the US President's jibes as 'water off a duck's back'. The London mayor added he sometimes felt like he was 'nine years old again' and 'in the school playground'. He told the Political Party show with comedian Matt Forde: 'Somebody who has views like he does about black people, about women, about gays, about Muslims, about Mexicans, thinks I'm nasty. 'Really. He is the leader of the free world, arguably the most powerful man in the world, and really.' Sir Sadiq said records showed, since the middle of January this year - when Mr Trump began his second term in the White House - and last month, 'there have never been more Americans applying to British citizenship and living in London'. 'So I think Americans have got good taste by and large,' he continued. He also said he hoped Mr Trump would come to London during his state visit to the Britain next month, with Sir Sadiq stressing the 'diversity' of the capital was a 'strength, not a weakness'. 'I think it makes us stronger not weaker, richer not poorer,' the London mayor added. 'And when President Trump says some of the things he does, it brings from the periphery to the mainstream, views that are potentially dangerous. 'He inadvertently - I'm not going to suggest he does it deliberately - he inadvertently could be radicalising people with views that could lead to them doing things that are dangerous.' Sir Sadiq voiced fears that minorities 'could be treated less favourably because of the views of the President of the USA' as he accused Mr Trump of 'using London and our diversity as a political football, as a proxy for a culture war'. He added: 'On a personal level, it is water off a duck's back, but we can't run away from the fact that there are some really serious challenges we face as a western society and President Trump, in my view, I speak generally, isn't a force for good.' But the London mayor insisted that he would be 'more than happy to meet President Trump'. He said he would seek to show him that it is 'possible to be proud to be a westerner and a proud to be Muslim, that it is possible to be British, and proud to be British, and be of Pakistani origin and be a law abiding citizen and we aren't three-headed monsters'. He said: 'I suspect President Trump may have formed a view of Muslims because of the actions of a small minority of really bad people who are terrorists and use Islam in a perverted way. 'What I would want President Trump to know is that is a very small fraction of Muslims across the globe. 'So if there was an opportunity to meet President Trump, I would be more than happy to do so.' There has been a long-running feud between Sir Sadiq and Mr Trump, who previously called the London mayor a 'stone cold loser' in 2019. This came after Sir Sadiq allowed a giant inflatable 'Trump baby' blimp to coincide with the US President's state visit that year. In 2016, Mr Trump challenged Sir Sadiq to an IQ test after Mr Khan said his views on Islam were 'ignorant'.
