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WSJ Editorial Board on Andy Burnham "wish him well,"  yet  this editorial says "he has wrong instincts." Calls Burnham as being "cipher on immigration," "want government to take lead on housing construction" and "wants greater state control of utilities," are unfounded criticism as shown below- "Cipher on immigration" - Burnham has supported Shabana Mahmood, as Home Secretary, on new action for strict immigration rules, tight control over migration, similar to Denmark.  He "wants greater control over utilities."  WSJ says nothing about how utilities were privatized under the Conservatives for basic services that are necessities for a basic quality of life- water, energy and transportation. It is widely accepted across Britain that the private entities have dismally failed the British people in ways not thought possible. Handing basic services to for profit companies was a fundamental error in Britain as it deteriorated the quality of life of the British people. As Burnham pointed out yesterday in speech to Labour and the British people if one cannot get something as basic as a bus service right how on earth can one fix the larger problems facing Britain? He "wants government to take the lead on housing construction."  When there are shortage of housing affecting the standard of living and quality of life as in the US and Britain the government can make a difference, and its stepping in and doing things correctly can improve the quality of life of the British people. He has "the wrong instincts on economy" with suffocating net zero policies. It is reported in The Guardian that Burnham will support drilling for oil to help bring down cost of energy. The focus now is not net zero goals but making life better, improving the quality of life, achieving some balance which now is leaning towards cost of living affecting the people. In fact on July 19 DJT said people will be dancing in the streets of Aberdeen as Burnham is supporting drilling for oil in the North Sea. Much of the criticism of the Sky News and WSJ continues to follow a pattern of failed coverage of the past with no faith in Britain's future and potential. Every new effort is met with "it can't be done." He has the wrong instincts for business. In modern economies business is part of and the main driver of the economy. In Burnham's work in Manchester business was part of his plan for the economy, and successfully implemented. For far too long in Britain there has not been an honest reckoning on how policies that were reckless with the quality of basic services that affect the quality of life of the British people, would let Britain down, would fail to deliver for the people of Britain. The country that led the Industrial Revolution deserves something better and should get it in this one bold effort by Burnham. ...

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Ukraine's capabilities in drones technologies stabilizes the war fronts with Russia. It economic help from the European Union, and commitments of the governments of Germany, France and Britain, less dependence on the US, now creates a situation in which both sides Russia and Ukraine can make an agreement through which this war can be brought to a close. 

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Andy Burnham is the first UK prime minister to have a degrees in English literature- a degree from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Other prime ministers had degrees in history, Economics, Politics, and classical studies. Blake Morrison says here that a degree in English adds broadmindedness and empathy. Burnham thinks a knowledge of Chaucer ( one of Burnham's favorites), Shakespeare, Orwell and Harrison, has done him well on people's footsteps, as he campaigned in Manchester and Makerfield. This week The conservative press in the Telegraph and The Times, Cambridge University also commented favorably on this. After all a Nation that favors tradition, right down to the monarchy and sessions parliament, in the courts, and in its unwritten Constitution based on precedent, is unlikely to find a knowledge of Chaucer and Shakespeare to be at odds with a knowledge of the people and how to run the country for their benefit in a modern democracy. Economics has become too theoretical and quantitative to the point that it missed completely that China under CCP using an adaptation of a market economy and state planning, could catch up with the United States and Europe within 3 decades, going from bicycles and rural economy to  one of the largest modern transportation networks across the country, and dominating world manufacturing, supply chains and trade. Burnham says this author, professor emeritus from the University of London, could show his father that a degree in English from Cambridge was well worth his time by citing from Tony Harrison's poem called V about the power or words. ...

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Andy Burnham's success in cutting homelessness by two thirds in the first years running Manchester- now replicating it across Britain.

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Washington Post view of Andy Burnham- "he's a hard guy to dislike."

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PM Sakae Takaichi visit to India for deepening ties July 3 2026- she is a music fan and shown trying to play Indian music on PM Modi's site. PM Modi calls Sanae a younger sister in his welcoming speech, and Sanae's speech shown on the PM's Office of Japan above in adjacent article shows how the two countries have the same goals. It is also the land of Dogen and Japanese Buddhism which originated in India in the Bihar region, the land of Buddha Gaya, India, India being the cradle land of Buddhism. During the Indian Renaissance by 1900 Swami Vivekananda visited Yokohama and other places in Japan, and showed India's deep attachment to Buddhism, and the Buddha as part of the religious life of Bharat for over two thousand years of Asian history. There is a deep reverence for places like Nara and its Buddhist history, its temples, and that Sanae Takaichi comes from Nara was of special significance to India, as PM Modi said. The deeper significance of this is that there is a moral law of the universe and this is expressed in the Buddhist and the Vedic scriptures of India, China and Japan. By bringing Japan into this fold India as the cradle of the Vedic culture and the culture of Buddhism that went from Bodh Gaya, India, to China and then to Japan and Korea, is doing its own duty and responsibility to the world of nations of the European cultures that includes the Americas and Africa. By doing this it closes the chapter of European colonial interactions with Asia that led to Japan's militarization through 1945, and China/Korea's militarization, to set a new course for Asia based on the thousand years of Asian history following the advent of the Buddha to the Vedic cultures when relative peace prevailed in Asia.  ...

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Keir Starmer resigns June 22 2026, as Andy Burnham takes oath in parliament as MP and future UK Prime Minister.

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Burnham unites UK party Labour on the Hillsborough families and commends Starmer for handling it. What a difference Burnham's style of governing makes even before he takes office as prime minister. Labour looks different after the Makerfield byelection. Britain is waiting.

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The British people are at a juncture after austerity and Brexit, after different prime ministers, where hope is the thing they most want, and with it a plan for execution on all the public services in water, electricity, transport, education, quality of neighborhoods, infrastructure, rebuilding industry for good jobs, that provide a better life across all parts of Britain.

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"I feel rather a lot of hope that if Andy Burnham does become prime minister, he will bring the human understanding with him that he will have acquired when studying English at Cambridge 35 years ago," says University of Cambridge chancellor Smith. "He may well be our first prime minister to have studied English at university, and that would be a very good thing." A good understanding of Chaucer and Shakespeare is a way to understand human nature, life's uncertainties, the English language from its origins and its development over a thousand years, understanding the history that went with the language, and the religious undertones of society from the days of the Tynsdale Bible, what moved people and how it turned out over many centuries. This is very useful for a British prime minister. The education just supplements all the positive aspects of the person, and helps him grow into a fuller person. This is why you have English majors leading to further education in other fields and in important contributions from science to space, physics to the law and business. It has just become hugely undervalued in the last 4 decades leading to some of the gaps we find in better grasp of economics, politics, physics, science, law, business, that have led to the Nation's relative decline since the 1980's. Hank Paulson, Treasury Secretary, Angelo Giamatti, Baseball Commissioner, Steven Spielberg, movie producer, Clarence Thomas at the US Supreme Court, Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox, Mario Cuomo, governor of New York, and Harold Varmus Nobel prize winner in 1989 in medicine for his finding how genes origin in normal healthy cells that transform healthy cells into cancer cells, all had degrees in English. And many brought this passsion for language into other fields by adding degrees in law, medicine, science, other fields. How one can combine English with science is seen in the extraordinary example of the first American woman in space Sally Ride who had a degree in English alongside a degree in physics in 1973 and went on to get a PhD. in physics in 1978 from Stanford University. ...

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BBC view of Starmer - a top lawyer whose "rules approach" did not connect with British public- coming after 14 years of austerity Starmer's style of governing, the actions of his chancellor at the finance ministry, and the messaging, all seemed totally out of place. Starmer spent most of his carreer as a human rights lawyer for the Crown. He was head of the crown Prosecution Service for 2008 to 2013, which did not prepare him well for the post austerity disaffection of the British public- he ended up with the worst ratings of any prime minister.

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Nine other departments have been already moved to a new campus in Darlington. It is part of relocating civil servants to modern offices from the constricted space in the old buildings of No. 9 and No. 10 Downing Street. The Treasury could be split with a new growth ministry in the North of a England, as favored byBank of England economist Andy Haldane. And parts of the Prime Minister's office could be transfered to thre North of England. Burnham has the Makerfield Test which simply asks are the new constitutents served by the actions taken. With Steve Rotherham Mayor of Liverpool, Andy Burnham has published a book that calls for action to equalize living standards all over England.

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French appellate court says 15 month sentence adequate and  letting Marie Le Pen run for president in 2026. The judges said that- "disregarding this would undermine the principle of freedom of candidacy, an essential condition for the democratic exercise of universal suffrage.” This happens as French elections show France divided between the urban areas such as Paris and major city centers from the rural areas and small towns across the country who favor Le Pen's party. The socialist parties have split with Melenchon leading his own party. Macron has failed to win support and is highly unpopular as president. This has led to failure to have a prime minister in office with a clear program. It also has created much uncertainty in French politics, similar to what is happening in Britain and also in Spain with Starmer out, and Pedro facing problems in Spain.

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Reeves and Lammy depart as Burnham chooses new cabinet Healey is new chancellor and Shabana continues as Home Secretary. Healey was Defense secretary under Starmer. It is important that he was in 1999 Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 2002 he was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and in 2005 Financial Secretary to the Treasury. In 2009 he was Minister of State for Housing and Planning. Shadow Secretary of Health in 2010 and 2016, Shadow Secretary for Defense under Starmer after supporting Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party. He was first elected to parliament in 1997 and had majorities of 50-70% in elections serving for 29 years in parliament. He is the right choice for Chancellor, or Finance Minister of the UK to work with Burnham on Labour's goals. Reeves was problematic from the beginning because she stuck to what people said could or could not be done, not able to think outside the box to get Labour to be itself and do what people wanted from Labour. In this way she set herself and the Labour party for failure by losing the very public that Labour had promised to help, with this public becoming indifferent to Labour, because in many ways it was Reeves's Labour not Starmer's. As Starmer, not much of an original thinker and little experience outside of law, followed Reeves economic theories borrowed from The City, Britain's version of Wall Street. Andy Burnham is right to choose someone who can think on his feet, no knowledge of economic theory required because orthodox economic theory has failed America, failed Britain, and created the mess of single supply chain concentrated in China in the first place with its theories of comparitive advantage. What is needed is someone who grasps and hold near his heart the aspirations of the British people, and hears their concerns everyday, not think tanks telling one what to do, and acting on these concerns in creative ways, thinking and improvising solutions along the way, not afraid to experiment. This is how FDR handled the economic difficulties of the 1930's, another period like today's when Wall Street theories had failed badly. This is also how China handled the economic collapse after Mao's death following the Cultural Revolution in 1984-1997. This is how Modi handled the economic difficulties in building a modern nation by experimentation in the western state of Gujarat in 2001-2014 without preconceived ideas and theories, keeping what worked and expanding on it.  Lammy was not the right choice for Deputy Prime Minister, and failed to provide leadership and focus the country's attention on the issues of migrants, asylum hotels, housing, rebuilding relations with the European Union, economic growth, neglect of the north of England and other deprived regions. No such position of Deputy prime minister can be filled in many situations. As Foreign Secretary there needed to be some one who could speak with a stronger voice for Britain with the European Union, the US, China, India, and be seen across the spectrum of views in Britain as an effective voice. ...

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An increasingly volatile and impatient electorate says The Guardian. Yet it is also true that Labour's win was much more fragile than the number of MP's elected to parliament, as there was no increase in support between the last two general elections. Labour's win was because of the conservative vote being divided by Reform UK splitting the conservative vote. After years of austerity Labour needed to get the message right that it was going to act in earnest and fight for working people which Starmer not only failed to do this but sent a mixed message that he was more concerned about budgetary restrictions. Starmer had a chancellor who clearly sent the wrong message to the public and Britain after 14 years of austerity. The Mandelson appointment showed a degree of callousness to the opinion of working people of both Starmer's chief of staff McSweeney and Starmer, as Mandelson was from a previous era of Labour which had clearly failed the British people. People in Britain were right to ask who is this guy who can't come out clearly and say what he is for after 14 years of brutal austerity under different conservative prime ministers, and a divisive vote for leaving the European Union, the least of Britain's priorities. Labour pretended to talk tough about migration during the election but once elected failed to grasp the concerns and unease of working people about asylum hotels and migrations, hanging on to now inappropriately applied  European Commission of Human Rights concerns when whole communities were first deindustrialized by British policy on manufacturing that hurt the social and economic fabric, and then asked to have migrants from remote countries whom they knew nothing about in their neighborhoods. ...

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President Biden says he opposed reducing minimum sentences for crimes in Washington D.C. such as carjackings, as proposed by a new law in D.C. Biden says Republican efforts to block that legislation would bring that to his desk and he would not veto the Republican proposal blocking reducing sentences. Crime is up 40% in Washington D.C say police. In the New York election for Congress, and in the recent Chicago mayoral election crime was an issue for Republicans leading to losses for Democrats and for Lori Lightfoot in Chicago. Biden wants to focus on the major issues for workers and families in the country, on infrastructure, jobs, inflation, and the US economy, and not let his plan for America's renewal lose focus because Republicans are able to make crime an issue.

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Andy Burham and the road to No.10 -Explained in The Guardian.

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PM'S Questions UK Parliament, November 12 2025- on Labour and Reform UK performance on migration, governance and the economy. Keir Starmer answers questions from MP's in the British parliament. It comes as Conservatives shift to UK Reform and the Conservatives are at a new low in popularity, and the Labour Party revamps its migration policy so that it is closer to socialist prime minister Mette Frederiksen's policy in Denmark who has a successful policy to stop migrants and deport illegal migrants. Without this action by Labour to follow the US and Denmark it faces serious challenge from Reform UK in the north and east of England. 

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Complicity of elites is a key question in the Epstein scandal. Even when some of this was known the seriousness of it was ignored by elites. About the Mandelson scandal that is rocking Britain in the beginning of February 2026 with questions for Keir Starmer, it can be said that elites just had too much awe and respect for the major centers in the world of finance or sought ot be part of that world when these centers of finance had themselves lost their sense of purpose in the Nation, as Labour's Mandelson did. In the larger sense of the influence of the financial industry on elites in the events leading to the 2009 financial crisis where the name Bear Stearns comes up repeatedly, of the pharmaceutical industry on elites in 2026, it could be said that the influence on policymaking elites is a pernicious one. As Teddy Roosevelt points out in Chapter 5 of his Autobiography titled Applied Idealism, some elites had too much respect and awe for big financial interests. TR wrote of these elites in his time- "Some of the men foremost in the struggle for Civil Service Reform have taken a position of honorable leadership in the battle for those other and more vital reforms. But many of them promptly abandoned the field of effort for decency when the battle took the form, not of a fight agains the petty grafting of small bosses and small politicians- a vitally necessary battle, be it remembered- but of a fight against the great entrenched powers of privilege, a fight to secure justice through the law for ordinary men and women, instead of leaving them to suffer cruel injustice either because the law failed to protect them  or because it was twisted from its legitimate purpose into a means for oppressing them." ...

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Balen Shah, 35 years, wins general elections in Nepal in March 2026 after student protests in 2025 ousted the government of PM Oli from the older generation of politicians.

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The WSJ provides a fact check of Trump statements on crime, debt, and taxes. Trump says he is looking at a new plan for taxes not the $10 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years reducing tax collection by 22%, but something about a third of the size. No details are available on the plan. WSJ disputes Trump's statement that the U.S. is "one of the highest taxed nations in the world." WSJ points out that the U.S. in 2014 for federal, state and local government taxes collected 26% of gross domestic product in taxes, compared to average of 34% for about 30 countries, according to OECD. Debt to GDP ratio is about 75% that is high, but because of low interest rates the budget deficit is less than 3% of GDP, which is close to the long run average. For this reason economists say the government should invest in infrastructure and R&D that supports long run economic growth. On crime the record is mixed with increase in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, but decreases in Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Police shootings were 67 in 2016 compared to 62 in July 2015, and the high being 280 officers in 1974 when Nixon was President. Crime was an issue in the 1968 Republican National Convention during the Vietnam era protests, police shootings and terror incidents attracted attention in July 2016, yet the situation today is very different from the war protests of the Vietnam era. On terrorism fact checks by the NYT and in Lyrarc shows Clinton at State Department and Panetta at Defense Department taking hawkish stands only to hit a barrier from President Obama for taking action needed in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Panetta's new book calls for robust action where needed. A Clinton administration would take action with allies in the Middle East. Even Hollande and Obama who pulled the U.S. and France out of following up in the French-British Sarkozy-Cameron led intervention in Libya, have changed policy, with Obama calling it his biggest mistake. France under Hollande with the U.S. is now actively engaged in the Middle East, having changed policy. It is highly unlikely that a Trump led policy which alienates most allies in the Middle East- Iran, Iraq and Saudis- is likely to work better than a determined Clinton-Panetta led effort which has support of the local countries on the ground actually currently on both sides because of complexities of Middle Eastern politics.  On trade a new administration will still have to work with China, India, the European Union, and other countries, as global trade supply chains are not likely to evolve overnight. Lessons will have been learned by Clinton about the need to bring back jobs and ensure the strength of U.S. manufacturing. Economic and jobs growth will require prudence in strengthening U.S. manufacturing coupled with global cooperation, which a Trump administration that alienates trading partners without the possibility of making any serious immediate gains in jobs, is highly unlikely to do better.      ...

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Canada's pitch to the US before tough negotiations with Jamieson Greer to preserve Canada's automobile industry, its aluminium industry, dairy industry with benefits gained in the past. US had also put forward its pitch for 82% North American content and 50% of it from the US for all automobiles sold in the US. Carney takes a positive approach presenting Canada as a strong partner that would Make America Great Again by offering its vast mineral resources, and its resources of oil and LNG. It says LNG will double from 2030 to 2040 from 50 million to 100 million tonnes of LNG annually. 56 critical minerals agreements with $18 billion in investment, doubling the electricity grid for lowest cost power and second lowest emission in OECD countries. Canada is an anomaly in trade says Sir Ivor Jennings in his book on the British Commonwealth. Its trade east to west is an anomaly when if it was truly apart of the North American economic region it would trade north to south. This is the result of Montgomery's failure to take Quebec during the War of Independence as Washington planned the war with Britain. For instance Ontario would trade with Vermont and New Hampshire and New York near its borders. Instead the dairy industry in Canada operates in competition with the US and sends product east to west. Washington and Oregon are not trading normally with neighbors British Columbia instead shipping product back to eastern Canada. For years the US allowed Canada and Mexico benefits in trade that hurt is own auto industry. Jamieson Greer is expected to change this so that US manufacturing can compete with China and European Union on a level playing field. ...

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Sri Lanka's state owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has $700 million in debt that it cannot repay resulting in fuel shortages as it cannot finance imports of oil. Depending on Indian financial help for fuel that after $4 billion in aid is not sustainable, says Wickremasinghe, who is finance minister and prime minister.

Deep rooted errors in management of the economy now need to be corrected and this will require increase in income taxes, cutting public expenditure and breaking down loss making state monopolies, are needed. Wickremasinghe says "if the government misses this opportunity this would be a crime."

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Jack Horton of BBC Verify screens the former president Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention. “Our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down".  Fact: FBI data shows crime down 6% and a drop in the murder rate by 13% in 2023. For the First Quarter of 2024 crime down by 15% and recorded murder rate down 26%. "We've had the worst inflation we've ever had under this person [Biden]. I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy . We will drill, baby, drill."  Fact: Inflation went up to 9.1% from 1.4% at the end of the Trump term in the first 2 years of of the Biden Administration by June 2022. Biden and Federal Reserves Powell brought this down to 3%. Explained: This inflation jump to 9% would have happened from supply chain in China for Trump administration as well. Trump's last year was 2019 the Covid pandemic started in January the lockdown by midyear meant sharp drop in demand and little room for inflation. The concentration of supply chain in China was the cause of the surge in inflation as China shut down and restarted late into 2022 causing shortages in factory parts and supplies. Biden focused on vaccination in 2020-2021. This inflation would have happened under Trump- this concentration of supply chain started with Reagan economic philosophy to ship production (and jobs) overseas, Clinton Bush Obama and Trump did little about it. Biden invested heavily in Make in America manufacturing and jobs at home. Biden and Powell did a good job of bringing this inflation down by 2023 to 3% before the European Union and UK. Younger voters don't know this they get their news from the internet and show little interest, see only that the low inflation under Trump and the higher inflation during the pandemic recovery under Biden and blame Biden. will Trump do better on inflation in 2024-2028. The WSJ does not think so its analysis shows inflation higher under Trump than Biden because of a planned 60% tax on imports from China. Trump follows Reagan/Friedman theory of the old Republican party of higher tax cuts for the wealthy, so no money is left for investing in American manufacturing and jobs as Biden free of this theory is able to do, leading to slowing growth with inflation under Trump.        ...