Government of All the Talents

Like Gordon Brown, Starmer has appointed Ministers with expertise in various areas, such as the Prisons Minister, James Timpson, who is not even an MP.

A brilliant appointment would be Feargal Sharkey as Minister for the Environment. The man's a legend when it comes to water company pollution.

How about Dale Vince as Energy Secretary?

Can't say I agree with Starmer on the 2 child benefits cap, but some think he's getting the unpopular stuff out of the way as early as possible and leaving the vote winning stuff to nearer the next GE. However, scrapping the 2 child benefit cap is a no-brainer, lifting 400k kids out of extreme poverty. If I were a Labour MP I'd have rebelled against the whip too.

Where would the money come from, I hear some say. A 1-2% wealth tax on those with over £10 million would raise up to £24 billion a year. Closing corporate tax loopholes used by oil giants would raise £4.4 billion a year and making capital gains tax rates the same as income tax rates would raise £16 billion a year - far more than the cost of scrapping the 2 child cap, with more than enough left over to adequately fund public services a lot better.

Don't know about you, but I think junior doctors demanding a 32% pay rise is silly. It's partially the fault of their negotiators for having let the inflation gap get so large.

As for funding an 11% public sector pay rise, what most don't realise is that despite a cost of £22bn, £10.5bn would be clawed back immediately through additional tax/NI and an additional £5.9bn in VAT. Then the additional spending power of lower paid workers, who tend to spend their money on things that keep the economy going, would raise another £3bn through what's called the multiplier effect. So, a £22bn outlay would actually only cost roughly £3bn.