AS SIR Keir Starmer slithers back into the saddle of his lacklustre leadership, there has been a deluge of messages from No 10. The sort of messages that presumably are supposed to instil a warm glow in the populace and inspire them to heave to and look forward to a sunnier future. What the circling sharks of Starmer’s own party think of his messaging remains to be seen.
The fact that these messages are weakly redolent of the Labour Party’s adopted anthem for the 1997 election ‘Things can only get better’ helps them not one jot. Add the fact that Starmer’s government seems either to do things which weren’t in its manifesto, or not do things which were, does not inspire confidence. The PM is not averse to the odd U-turn but since those are by nature unexpected and turn out to be partial in intent, that isn’t much help either.
Amongst others, he tweeted:
‘This year, you will start to feel our promise of change. £150 off the average energy bill from April. Your public services will be improved. Your community will see more funding – restoring local pride. We are getting Britain back on track.’
As is widely accepted, the quoted £150 saving has no basis in reality. In fact, due to Ofgem raising the energy price cap from January 2026, it’s likely most British households will spend more on energy and not less.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is of course at the forefront of the government pledge of around £22billion to support the early deployment of carbon capture. Meanwhile the best natural source of carbon capture, trees, are being hacked down to build houses for the ever-burgeoning population and to install swathes of wind turbines and solar panels – the latter being mostly made in China which is the world’s largest carbon emitter. Within those houses gas boilers will be verboten in favour of heat pumps which typically cost £11K – as opposed to £4K for a good old gas boiler, and given that they’re powered by electricity are likely to cost more to run. House builders are being urged to include swift bricks. Too bad, then, that hundreds of thousands of swifts and other birds on the ornithological ‘red list’ are the major victims of wind turbines.
Hapless Starmer and Reeves and the legions of civil servants who work with them might listen to the views of 48 leading economists who have just indicated in the annual Times Economic Survey that unemployment will climb to an 11-year high this year and that the economy is ‘moribund’. With businesses being hit by a raft of tax increases and employment rights, the future is not looking terribly bright.
Here in Crowborough the ninth consecutive march took place last Sunday to protest against the Home Office plan to place up to 600 illegal migrants in an army training camp previously used by cadets. At least 1,000 residents marched through our small East Sussex town in spite of freezing conditions. A few police were as usual in attendance but of course there were no problems in spite of people waving that dodgy symbol of patriotism, the Union Jack. At some point a number of police were seen entering a hostelry in some haste but it turned out that was to avail themselves of the facilities . . .
Those who marched in the cold would be especially interested to learn of the acknowledgment from the PM that he knows ‘people are frustrated’. He’s right there.
With the cost of everything we use and consume increasing, the minds of Crowborough residents might reasonably range over the extent of largesse which will be extended to the anticipated residents of the camp on our doorstep. As the new year begins, the average Crowborough resident will be paying income tax, national insurance, council tax, fuel duty, utility bills, VAT on goods and services, as well as a TV licence, car tax and house insurance, not to speak of inheritance tax or stamp duty if that should arise.
The men who will be placed in Crowborough camp will not be required to pay for any of those things in spite of having used illegal means to enter a country to which they have never contributed. They will be housed and fully catered for, be transported, have access to health care and dentistry and legal advice and have TV plus other activities. While in the camp they will not be required to work or contribute to society in any way. If, as a proportion do, they choose to abscond and work illegally they will continue to contribute nothing.
A total of 41,472 illegal migrants (at least those we know about) arrived in the UK in 2025, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year. All will receive a similar package to that outlined above. Starmer has stated that ‘asylum hotels will be closed well before the end of the parliament’ (i.e. certainly not before the end of his doomed leadership). So where exactly will all those illegal entrants, not to mention legal migrants, go? As already admitted by the Home Office, army training camps such as Crowborough do not in fact provide a better financial solution, much less a better societal one.
Given Starmer’s propensity not to know things, papers not having passed across his desk, it’s rather unlikely that he has knowledge – that he would own up to – of the Crowborough situation or even where we are located. Also, we have a Conservative MP, who is also Madam Deputy Speaker.
Starmer talks of ‘restoring local pride’. Well thanks, Sir Keir, but we’re a bit ahead of the curve on that one. If things do get better, it will not be in any sense thanks to you and your government. On the contrary, it will be due to people’s efforts and their voices, like ours in Crowborough. Come to think of it, a wave of much maligned ‘populism’ might go down a treat . . .
