A round-up - curtesy of the Guardian.
Economy
One of Rachel Reeves’s first actions as chancellor was to stand in front of the Commons and accuse the previous government of leaving a £22bn hole in this year’s public accounts. Every year, government spending diverges slightly from what was budgeted, but this was an unusually large amount, driven both by the higher-than-expected costs of housing asylum seekers and public sector pay deals.
Reeves’s solution to this was to put an immediate halt to various projects, including the road tunnel under Stonehenge and the A27 Arundel bypass. Boris Johnson’s promise to build 40 new hospitals has also been placed under review, with the prime minister, Keir Starmer, accusing his predecessor of making the promise without allocating the money.
Energy
When Michael Gove was asked at Tory conference to name the most effective Labour cabinet ministers so far, one of those he listed was Ed Miliband. The energy secretary has returned to a post he last held 14 years ago with a flurry of activity.
On 8 July, the first Monday after winning the election, Miliband announced he was removing the previous government’s de facto ban on onshore wind power. A day later, Reeves, unveiled the national wealth fund, a £7.3bn scheme designed to invest in green infrastructure such as clean steel and carbon capture.
Later that month, Miliband brought forward a bill to set up Great British Energy, a nationally owned energy production company that the government has put at the heart of its net zero strategy. The bill gives the company power to produce and distribute clean energy and spend money on energy efficiency schemes.
Keir Starmer announced in his Labour conference speech that GBE would be based in Aberdeen.
Transport
The first bill to pass the Commons under the Labour government was the rail nationalisation bill. The bill automatically brings rail networks back under public control once their existing franchise contract is over, or earlier if they breach their contracts.
The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, has also passed a bill to set up a new company called Great British Railways to manage both the track and the trains service. Some have questioned, however, why the rolling stock is not also being brought under national control.
Last month, Haigh reversed another piece of privatisation in the transport sector, allowing local authorities across England to run their own bus services once more. The transport secretary has also said she wants to make it simpler and easier for local leaders to conduct the franchising process.
Education
Labour has promised that it will introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England, but it is starting slowly. Reeves announced at the Labour conference that 750 English schools would be invited to be part of a pilot programme.
Housing
Labour has promised to liberalise the planning regime and began soon after taking over government, not only overturning the restrictions on onshore wind power but also reimposing population-based housing targets on local authorities.
The Conservatives had given local planners a series of loopholes to avoid meeting those targets, in a move that housebuilders said had hampered new development, pushing housing approvals to a 10-year low.
Other reforms are planned, including making it easier for public bodies to issue compulsory purchasing orders and making it easier to build on green belt land.
Meanwhile, Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, has introduced a package of renters’ reforms, which passed their second reading in parliament this week, despite the objections of the Conservatives. That package picks up on some of the ambitions originally championed by Gove when he was housing secretary, including bringing an immediate end to no-fault evictions and forcing landlords to make timely repairs to properties.
Campaigners, however, are unhappy that the Labour government has so far not enacted another package of protections for leaseholders, whom they worry are slipping down the government’s agenda. The government has promised to bring in a bill to restrict leasehold and boost the rights of tenants, but has so far not even enacted the measures passed through parliament under the last government.
Employment
Starmer promised that his government would bring forward a package of workers’ rights in his first 100 days, a deadline which was just about met when Angela Rayner, his deputy, published the employment rights bill on Thursday.
Her reforms include giving workers protection from unfair dismissal and paternity leave rights from the first day of their employment, rather than having to wait two years. The bill also bans employers from forcing workers to sign zero-hours contracts and stops them firing staff only to hire them back on lower pay, unless the company is threatened with bankruptcy.
While the bill was published in the first 100 days it will take another two years for it to come into force. Officials and ministers will spend that time consulting businesses and trade unions about the exact measures involved and how to police them.
Some of the pre-election promises have not made it into the bill. There will be no statutory right for workers to switch off outside their working hours, and the government will now consult on having a single status of worker. Unions have long campaigned for a single worker status to replace the distinction between those who are employed and self-employed, in part to tackle exploitation in the gig economy.
Immigration
As promised, Labour has ended the previous government’s Rwanda scheme, which had not sent a single asylum seeker to Rwanda but was already costing the government money. Scrapping it saved more than £2bn over two years.
In its place, Starmer and his home secretary, Yvette Cooper, have introduced a border security command to focus on people-smuggling gangs. However, the prime minister is still trying to sign returns agreements with European countries, agreements that might mean Britain having to accept migrants in return.
Since the election, nearly 12,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats, slightly fewer than in the same period last year.
Justice
A week after the election, the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced an early release scheme that would see some offenders who had committed less serious crimes leave prison after serving 40% of their sentence. Mahmood blamed the prisons crisis she inherited from the previous government, which had left jails in England and Wales almost entirely full.
The early release scheme was controversial, but its purpose was underlined later in the summer as riots engulfed parts of the country. Speaking to journalists from the Downing Street garden after the riots had subsided, the prime minister described the decisions he had had to make while they were unfolding.
“I shouldn’t be sitting in the Cobra room with a list of prison places across the country on a day-by-day basis, trying to work out how we deal with disorder,” he said. “But that’s the position I was put in.”
Health
If Starmer is to show progress in one public service by the time he goes into the next election, it will have to be the NHS. His health secretary, Wes Streeting, commissioned Ara Darzi, a former Labour minister, to outline the scale of the challenge. Lord Darzi’s report, which was published last month, found that long delays for hospital, GP and mental health services were leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Darzi suggested a range of changes, including focusing more on prevention and making companies pay “health levies” for things such as alcohol and tobacco.
Iam64 I assume the words big picture mean getting the country’s economy and services in an improved position if you are a Labour supporter. If you are not, it means this is more fantasy spin and when will the IMF be called to the rescue?
What ‘big picture’? Do you mean the belief systems that under pin the Labour Party
FGT2 some pundits are suggesting that Keir Starmer has his eyes on the big picture and sees all gossip as unimportant. Very far removed from the Blair years with Peter Mandelson? I am more worried about the big picture too.
Or why Labour got in?
“Anyone but Tory” said the voters it seems. Some have buyers remorse already.
But people often often just vote for the other parties as a protest vote of some kind because they don’t have workable policies anyway.
In more recent decades, the two party system has been cballenged with parties like the SNP, the Lib Dems, UKIP/ Reform and the Greens all mounting a challenge to the old system. Surely when 40% of voters are choosing the minor parties, the voting system needs to be changed.
Cumbrianmale56
MayBee70
But Reform have few policies apart from anti immigration ones and those they do have can be ripped apart. How can they be regarded as an alternative government prospect. Plus there is their latest scheme to charge people £300 for a tour round parliament, something that doesn’t appear to have made any headlines. The media are more interested in Farages opinion on the New England manager.
I didn't say I was going to vote for them, just that the minor parties like Reform and the Lib Dems are steadily increasing their support as people are sick of the two main parties. Who really wants, apart from their hardcore voters and party members, the same old Tory vs Labour thing all the time?
I didn’t find a problem with having a two/three party system till the referendum and the rise of UKIP pushed the Conservative Party towards the far right.
I'm in favour of some kind of PR in theory, (am a party member) but the upheavals in any kind of transition are very daunting. However, the really low voter turnout is a cause for deep concern.
MayBee70
But Reform have few policies apart from anti immigration ones and those they do have can be ripped apart. How can they be regarded as an alternative government prospect. Plus there is their latest scheme to charge people £300 for a tour round parliament, something that doesn’t appear to have made any headlines. The media are more interested in Farages opinion on the New England manager.
I didn't say I was going to vote for them, just that the minor parties like Reform and the Lib Dems are steadily increasing their support as people are sick of the two main parties. Who really wants, apart from their hardcore voters and party members, the same old Tory vs Labour thing all the time?
We aren’t bolshy teenagers, and know the difference between commenting with an opinion on the facts, and where it begins to spill over into really needing its own thread. It often happens. We are all mature enough to know the difference.
I too agree with what has been said above about WWM2's threads being valuable for events/announcements, even though I am not a facts, facts, facts person myself.
An exclusive thread for this is absolutely fine by me, provided that on other threads, opinions aren't ridiculed just because they don't provide links and facts in every post. Not just opinions, but individual feelings too. Politics is inherently intertwined with human emotions, and posters should be allowed to express these without being criticised.
If we are to have a purely factual thread from WWM2, then there must also be respect for opinion threads, however the discussion happens to evolve.
And yes, Wyllow has a point. After 17 pages, do people really expect the discussion to keep totally on track? I don't.
I think the value of WWM starting a thread with a summary of a number of events/announcements is incredibly valuable, because of the perspectives given to discuss as a whole.
Probably its inevitable that by page 17 posters have picked up on a particular issue of interest or difference of opinion.
So yes please, when there is enough new initiatives or policy announcements or major ones. Thank you as ever WWM2, much appreciated.
But Reform have few policies apart from anti immigration ones and those they do have can be ripped apart. How can they be regarded as an alternative government prospect. Plus there is their latest scheme to charge people £300 for a tour round parliament, something that doesn’t appear to have made any headlines. The media are more interested in Farages opinion on the New England manager.
Labour can do what they want: they have a huge majority, the opposition is divided, and there isn't anothert election until 2029. However, while they might be writing off the Tories as no threat, opinion polls suggest support for Reform and the Lib Dems is growing all the time and these could hurt Labout if they fail to deliver. Personally I wouldn't waste my vote on the two old main parties.
silverlining48
I do agree that making their first announcement removing the winter fuel allowance was not a good idea, and despite having voted for him I wrote to my new Labour MP to tell him so.
It’s a pity the budget has been a wait but with the last minute election in July followed by the long summer recess there has been limited time.
However as my MP said, they have to avoid more own goals.
Your MP sounds very sensible.
Bad news makes better headlines of course.
I was trying to get it back on track ……or at least away from the stay at home mothers.
Thanks for all the information WWM, It is an interesting read.
Whitewavemark2
This thread has completely lost its meaning, so I will no longer post on this.
I may start a new one in the hope posters who have a lot to say on a topic, have the grace to start a new thread that doesn’t entirely disrupt the existing one.
I’m afraid it seems to have morphed into the Keir Starmer ate my hamster thread which is unfair given the amount of research you put into it 
. There is a new word in politics which I only discovered the other day ( unfortunately it was used by Johnson) and that is ‘disrupter’. Alas it is being used a lot on the political threads.
I do agree that making their first announcement removing the winter fuel allowance was not a good idea, and despite having voted for him I wrote to my new Labour MP to tell him so.
It’s a pity the budget has been a wait but with the last minute election in July followed by the long summer recess there has been limited time.
However as my MP said, they have to avoid more own goals.
silverlining48
I can’t believe anyone would want Tories back either.
However Sorting out the mess left by the previous government is a normal part of each change of government and always made to look as bad as possible, even without the help of Covid.
IMO they should have stopped sending mixed messages and waited till the budget.
e.g. the main problem on GN was the immediate decision to impact pensioners negatively, in a manner decried by KS when it was suggested by the previous government.
Followed by the no money for . . . black hole together with details of pay rises and sending money out of the country.
And we will not/will raise taxation or NI
And of course the freebies.
I caught the end of a r4 news item this morning that according to the Telegraph a majority of people now want the Tories back because they don’t think Labour are doing a good job.
How can anyone of any political leaning ignore the last 14 years of everything that has gone wrong, we all know the details so no need to list, that after only a few months with the summer break taking most of that time, Labour can solve all the mess that they inherited.
This is a discussion site. You cant control how people respond to information given. I am sorry but you just cant. If I started a thread on an amazing British Gas initiative for example and in response someone said well they kept thousands of my granny's money, that would be a valid response. If you produce information saying the labour party is going raise the minimum wage to £20 per hour, (I made this up before anyone has a heart attack!) then people can say er well that might cause a problem for small business. It's just not possible (or desirable I think) to try and control peoples reactions.
Or your first sentence and ‘Please start a new thread with your opinions’ which sounds less confrontational? I personally think an information thread does have merit, it would be good to hear if others agree.
Putting information out and asking people not to respond to it is a new idea. Perhaps it will take people a while to catch on.
Maybe a better thread title would be For information only. Please do not clutter with your opinions.
Galaxy
I am really sorry but the only guidance I take on how to post is from MN/GN. People arent going to post in exactly the way 'you' want them to.
Do you not see the value in purely information threads to provide topics of interest for discussion on other threads Galaxy? If you don’t that’s fine, that’s your opinion. If you do, is there an alternative way you can think of for providing that information for reference for those who want it, given those who don’t can ignore it?
I am really sorry but the only guidance I take on how to post is from MN/GN. People arent going to post in exactly the way 'you' want them to.
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