Latest news with #Rochdale
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Grinning and scratching his crotch, Calvin steals the Chancellor's thunder
Politicians are a right nuisance. You're in your place of work, quietly doing the crossword, when a minister shows up – and by some strange convention, you're required to stand around them for an hour while they lie to the TV cameras and dodge questions from the press. Why?! Well, someone has finally taken a stand. Let's call him Calvin (he looks like a Calvin). The latest stop in Rachel Reeves's Magical Misery Tour was a bus factory in Rochdale, where – as per usual – local workers were expected to semi-circle the Chancellor as she announced £15 billion for transport links we know we'll never see (put it this way, the service from Calais to Dover is cheaper and more reliable than Brighton to Victoria). Naturally robotic, she recited 'to serve Halton, St Helens and Woodchurch' as if announcing the service would leave in five minutes from platform three. 'Spades in the ground', she said, losing herself in the rhythm of the words, would 'link up Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale, Wakefield, Pudsey and Leeds. If you see something that doesn't look right, speak to staff or talk to British Transport Police. See it, say it, sorted.' The pre-recorded Chancellor grinned her way through the Midlands, via a rail replacement bus, to Didcot Parkway, and around her the workers listened grimly but politely, with their arms folded as if bouncing outside a nightclub on a slow Tuesday in the pouring rain. Except for Calvin, standing to her immediate right in an grey jumper and 'not bovvered' beard. He looked unhappy to be there from the off, and dropped subtle visual cues. 'Secureonomics,' said the Chancellor: he rubbed his eye. 'Not prepared to tolerate a situation in which steel is undermined': he bit his lip. 'Growth made in Britain': he sighed deeply. When she arrived at her rhetorical terminus with 'This Government promised change and we are keeping that promise,' the bus workers applauded politely – but Calvin did not. Perhaps because he knew what they didn't. The journey wasn't over. 'I'll take questions': the workers looked horrified. There's more?! One could see the precise moment that the soul left the body of a boy in a blue jumper and disappeared into Heaven, screaming for release. Like an unscheduled stop at St Leonards, these poor creatures were forced to endure 20 extra minutes of mind-blowing tedium – without the bonus of seeing Calvin's commentary. The boy is clearly an economist. As Reeves said her policies were fully funded, he nodded and rolled his eyes. When she justified her decision to raise taxes, he grinned and scratched his crotch. Social media fell in love. The Tories, who have nothing better to do, dashed off a video of his highlights (they'd better pray he doesn't turn out to be a nutcase or, worse, a Lib Dem). His performance captured both the madness of expecting the public to act as a backdrop for politicians they probably don't support, plus the widespread feeling of being trapped with Labour – as though the Great British train had broken down, the aircon won't work, the windows are stuck and Rachel from Complaints is on her phone shouting about her 'manifestow'. This, Mr Miliband, is why so many of us prefer to drive.
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Can securonomics and green book overhaul help Rachel Reeves steer UK towards growth?
Rachel Reeves was clearly keen to get back in the political driver's seat on Wednesday, as she promised £15.6bn in transport investment at a Rochdale bus factory. It was a downpayment on the £113bn in additional investment (over and above Tory plans) that she will lay out in next week's spending review. And it came in a speech that was heavily focused on stimulating economies outside London and the south-east to tackle the longstanding issue in the UK of 'growth created in too few places, and too few people feeling the benefits'. Reeves promised to publish an overhaul of the Treasury's 'green book' next week – the rules that govern how public investment plans are judged. This is expected to help tip the balance of the argument in future against endlessly shovelling more resources into the capital and the south. She also revived her own notion of 'securonomics' (government policy aimed at protecting households from economic shocks) by shoring up national resilience – including most recently, she said, intervening to take control of British Steel. This felt like a shift of emphasis from Reeves's 'further and faster' growth speech back in January. She did highlight the importance of investment then, but also leaned much more heavily on deregulation – including rolling back environmental protections – and focused on the distinctly southern Oxford-Cambridge arc. Since then, Labour has suffered a bruising set of local election results, leaking support to Reform in many former industrial constituencies it sorely wants to hold on to at the next general election. Reeves wants to show Labour MPs she has a theory of growth that embraces these areas and is willing to take on Treasury orthodoxy to do so, hence that radical rewrite of the green book. She is also keen not to be remembered solely for the typical chancellor's role of holding the purse strings. 'I didn't come into politics because I care passionately about fiscal rules,' Reeves told her audience of bored-looking bus workers (a contrast with Tory predecessor Philip Hammond, who when asked to give one word to describe himself said 'fiscal'). Yet the most headline-grabbing aspect of the speech – the confirmation that the winter fuel allowance cut will be partially reversed – underlined what scant hope Reeves has of not spending the next few months ahead of the autumn budget answering tricky questions about tax and spend. Given the cut was justified as an urgent money-raising measure to help fill what Reeves identified as a £22bn black hole, she will have to explain how the gap will now be filled (reversing the cut in full would cost £1.5bn a year). The Treasury continues to insist that will not happen until the autumn; cue several months of wearying speculation. Meanwhile, Downing Street is fighting a rearguard action from MPs over £5bn of disability benefit cuts and facing pressure over child poverty, which Reeves rightly described as a 'moral mission'. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The chancellor sought to shut down one avenue of speculation in her speech, insisting she has no intention of loosening her fiscal rules, in particular the stricture that day-to-day spending must be matched with taxation. Critics have attacked this rule as too tight, given the cash-starved state of public services and myriad other challenges faced by the UK, but Reeves insisted it was 'the sound economic choice,' as well as being fair to future generations. Reeves also insisted the rules were not 'self-imposed' but just reflected the economic reality that the UK cannot go on borrowing endlessly without a Liz Truss-style market crisis. And in a speech that seemed deliberately more personal than the tarmac-and-deregulation mood of January, she acknowledged that she has had to say no to some things she would have sorely liked to do. Yet the inevitable headlines next week about tight departmental spending settlements outside health and defence, alongside the winter fuel debacle, are only likely to amplify the nagging concerns of some Labour backbenchers about what they see as the price of Reeves's prudence.
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Ex-footballer pledges to work out for 37 HOURS in a row in emotional fundraiser for former team-mate Joe Thompson who died aged 36 in April
A former footballer will exercise for 37 hours without sleep to raise money for a late ex-team-mate's family. Simon Ramsden will complete more than one-and-a-half days of back-to-back workout classes in Sunderland from June 27 to June 29 in memory of Joe Thompson. Thompson, a former Manchester United academy starlet, died aged 36 in April after his third battle with cancer. The duo played at Rochdale together for six years and Ramsden calls Thompson a 'special man'. Ramsden has shared a Just Giving page with the target of raising £3,000. Thompson leaves behind his wife Chantelle and two daughters, Thailula and Athena Rae, after losing his battle with lymphona, a type of blood cancer. 'Joe was a special man, anyone who knows Joe will vouch that he was like no other and he's been a special friend to me and something I will always treasure,' Ramsden wrote on Instagram. 'He led the way in every aspect of his life for the rest of us to follow and will forever be in our hearts and his legacy goes on. 'I want to raise as much money as possible from this event to provide a holiday for Joe's kids and for anything the family need at a time like this.' Tributes poured in for Thompson from his old clubs and team-mates after he died. Glenn Murray said: 'He was an unmatched energy all those years ago and it's something that he carried throughout his life. 'He was a shining light, even through illness and dark times in his life. He carried himself so well.' Thompson had previously been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2013 and recovered before the cancer returned four years later. He went on to recover a second time before calling time on his career in 2019. Thompson's playing career included spells at Rochdale, Tranmere, Southport, Bury and Carlisle United, before he retired in 2019. He became a regular pundit on MUTV following his retirement and held an ambassadorial role, along with working as a motivational speaker and life coach.
Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Times
Winter fuel payments back but not for millionaires, says minister
Winter fuel payments will be restored this winter, but wealthier pensioners will not get them, ministers have said. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, promised that 'more people will get winter fuel payments', and said details would be set out soon. She said there would still be a 'means test' but pledged to introduce it in time for this winter, despite concern that ageing government computer systems would struggle to adapt thresholds in time. Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, ruled out restoring universal payments to all pensioners. 'Most people — 95 per cent of people — agree that it's not a good idea that we have a system paying a few hundred pounds to millionaires. And so we're not going to be continuing with that,' he told the work and pensions committee. 'Is there any prospect of a universal winter fuel payment? The answer is no.' In one of her first acts in office, Reeves stripped winter fuel payments from all but the poorest pensioners to save £1.5 billion. But the move proved so politically toxic that Sir Keir Starmer announced a U-turn last month, without giving details of how many of the ten million pensioners who lost payments would have them restored. Reeves said that the economy was now 'in a better shape' than when she scrapped payments last year, adding in a speech in Rochdale: 'We have also listened to the concerns that people had about the level of the means test, and so we will be making changes to that.' • Spending review cuts could leave Keir Starmer's pledges in tatters Ministers had previously suggested changes to ageing computer systems may not be in place in time for this winter. But Reeves promised that new rules 'will be in place so that pensioners are paid this coming winter, and we will announce the detail of that and the level of that as soon as we possibly can'. She added: 'People should be in no doubt that the means test will increase and more people will get winter fuel payment this winter.' Bell suggested that millions of higher-income pensioners would not have their payments restored. 'We are committed to the principle that there should be some means testing — that those on the highest income should not be receiving winter fuel payments,' he said. 'My priority is those on lower incomes who have missed out … All of us would have heard from people on lower incomes who did not receive a winter fuel payment this year.' At present, payments are restricted to those claiming pension credit, which is given to pensioners with income below £11,500 for a single person or £18,000 for a couple. Bell said ministers were 'looking at all of the policy options for how eligibility can be extended', including taxing payments. • He dismissed calls to raise the pension credit threshold, however, saying it would be 'very expensive' and would not lead to many people getting winter fuel payments restored. 'If the objective was for more people to receive the winter fuel payment, you cannot achieve it via that mechanism, because you would only get a very small increase in the pension credit threshold for any given level of spending,' he said. He also suggested that a tapered threshold, where payments are gradually withdrawn, was not a preferred option for payments of £200-£300 a year, saying they were 'more bureaucratic' to apply. 'Tapers involve more information being held by the state, they involve more complexity,' he said. 'We obviously do need to think about the requirements to administer that, the costs of doing so relative to the benefits.' Other options include widening eligibility to pensioners claiming housing benefit or disability benefit. The Resolution Foundation, where Bell was previously chief executive, has estimated this would cost £300 million a year and restore payments to 1.3 million pensioners. However, Bell downplayed the importance of winter fuel payments in protecting pensioners, dismissing claims that withdrawing them had led to more dying of cold. 'We saw negative excess deaths, so fewer deaths than normal [last winter],' he said. He said tackling long waits for NHS treatment and poorly insulated homes were far better ways of helping pensioners who suffered because they were unable to afford heating. 'The biggest letdown of older generations in Britain is the state of our health service,' he said. 'We're not going to solve all of that within the social security system. We've got to deal with that in the health and care system more broadly.' As Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, battles the Treasury to mitigate cuts to his £6.6 billion warm home plans, Bell said a 2013 cut to insulation was 'among the bigger mistakes' of the past 20 years and meant 'a lot of people are living in homes that are not high-enough quality'.
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Chancelbore of the Exchequer: Weary factory workers steal the show in the background at Rachel Reeves' trains and spending speech
Rachel Reeves made a serious speech about a serious subject in Rochdale today, vowing to to pour money into local public transport and revealing she will U-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments. But staff at Mellor Bus didn't appear to be gripped by her lengthy address. Lined up behind the Chancellor of the Exchequer at their site in in Rochdale, Greater Manchester they appeared pretty disinterested in proceedings. Ms Reeves spoke and took questions for almost an hour, during which it was the staff's display of ennui that caught the eye of people watching. Some remained totally passive as she blamed the Tories for looming spending curbs and talked up £15.6billion of capital investment for mayoral authorities in the North and Midlands. But others appeared restless as the event dragged on, catching the eye of those watching on social media. One quipped: 'Poor guys now looking bored, fidgeting, swallowing yawns. Not a great visual.' And another added: 'I wonder how much productivity is lost by these seemingly daily and horribly lengthy sermons by Starmer/Reeves, etc?! 'Company employees standing around, clearly bored to tears and not working! Mad!!' A common feature of recent political speeches by ministers - also including the PM - is a row of workers from whichever manufacturing site they have chosen as a backdrop. Keir Starmer was similarly backed by a huge crescent of workers in Glasgow on Monday as he unveiled the strategic spending review. The package unveiled by Ms Reeves includes funding to extend the metros in Tyne and Wear, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, along with a renewed tram network in South Yorkshire and a new mass transit systems in West Yorkshire. The borrowing-funding splurge on major investment is being overshadowed by intense haggling over day-to-day budgets. Ms Reeves is due to announce spending plans for the next three years in a week's time, but several Cabinet ministers have yet to reach settlements with the Treasury. Tensions with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper surfaced today with warnings that cuts for police will mean some crimes effectively being ignored. Ed Miliband is also embroiled in horse-trading over Net Zero funding, while Angela Rayner is said to be holding out over cash for housing and local government. Economists have been warning that Ms Reeves faces having to hike taxes again and break her fiscal fules, with demands for defence spending heaping more pressure on the government's books. In her speech, the Chancellor said: 'Over the next week you will hear a lot of debate about my so-called self-imposed fiscal rules. 'Contrary to some conventional wisdom, I didn't want to come into politics because I care passionately about fiscal rules. 'I came into politics because I want to make a difference to the lives of working people, because I believe as strongly now as I did when I was inspired to join the Labour Party almost 30 years ago that every person should have the same opportunities to thrive and to succeed.'
