New UK Government

So far Sir Kier Starmer's  UK Labour government is not doing too bad a job. Its policy over Russia's invasion of Ukraine appears unchanged from that of its predecessors. Indeed only a day or so ago  Boris Johnson a former prime minster, was photographed visiting Volodymyr Zelenskyy the President of Ukraine.

Of course, nearly every bump on the road at this early stage of the new government, may reasonably  be blamed on the Tories who were in power for over fourteen years albeit  initially in coalition  with the Lib/Dems.

Nonetheless, some bumps in the political road are beginning to appear.  Thus attempting to  add  VAT to  private school fees appears to me at least to be a mistake. If Labour is successful, the 20% VAT would make the UK alone among western European nations in charging VAT on private school fees. My own view is the The European Court of Human Rights would eventually strike down such a  20% charge if legal fights over the VAT charge proceed that far. 

Ironically the Tories were talking of withdrawing the UK from the ECHR given their Rwanda policy.

Many state school classes are already overcrowded and such a new imposition on private schools will add to the numbers seeking admission to state funded schools. One of the maytrees' grand children attends a private school and one a state school. Classes in the latter are already crowded.

On the other hand, Labour   has to make some difficult financial decisions as the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine to mention but two, have caused  considerable belt tightening for the UK and many other countries. Thus the new government has already cut the pensioners' extra winter fuel allowance of c.£250 per family. The maytrees' household benefited from this but  accept that such will be necessary belt tightening. 

There is talk of the new  government withdrawing pensioners' concessionary travel. This I doubt given government spending on subsidizing public transport, away from London. In any event London Transport seems unlikely to be directly affected as Londoners' fares and so on are not set at governmental level.

The UK elections and change over in government, seem almost civilised when compared with the huge sums of money being spent and rude election campaigns being conducted on the other side of the Atlantic. 

Indeed another difference is that in the UK, the governmental change over,  took barely twenty four hours from the conclusion of counting the votes cast, whereas that of our American friends will take weeks to effect.

Still no election process is perfectly fair; for example in France there is now being imposed or at least attempted, a new unelected Prime Minister  weeks after their election.

Reverting to the UK, the Reform party did not win anything like the number of seats proportionate to the numbers who voted for Reform. So my view is that the UK system at present needs some modifying perhaps with another vote about proportional representation, but still  currently  remains the least worst system.