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All my bandwidth this week has been given over to the spring budget, the moment of the year when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tells us his plans for the economy – how he’s going to cut our taxes, or increase and set out where he’s going to spend some of our money.

But this week was a tale of two budgets: the one obsessed over in Westminster and then the budget of Birmingham Council, which has huge repercussions for the city’s one million plus population.

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I didn’t think much about the Birmingham story over the past few days as I joined the rest of the Westminster village in obsessing about whether the chancellor was going to cut national insurance or income tax, administer further public spending cuts to boost tax giveaways (and give a future Labour government a headache) or nick the opposition’s plan to abolish tax breaks for so-called wealthy “non-doms” who live in the UK with a permanent home overseas (FYI: Hunt didn’t shave more off future spending plans but they did nick Labour’s plan to scrap non-dom plan to raise £2.7bn for tax cuts).

But the dire situation of many councils across England is perhaps what is closer to the hearts of our Electoral Dysfunction listeners.

Sure the national budget matters hugely in setting the economic direction of our country and deciding on what public services with prioritise.

But local council budgets service much of our daily bread and butter: Our bin collections, childcare services, adult social care, leisure centres, parks and libraries, our carparks and road maintenance.

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Between 2010 and 2020, local government fund suffered a 40% real terms cut in grants from central government.

In December nearly one in five council bosses said they thought it “fairly or very likely” they will go bust in the next 15 months as funding fails to keep pace with inflationary costs, and rising demand for a raft of services – be in child protection or adult social care.

And it was Hayley’s email that landed in our Electoral Dysfunction inbox that pulled my attention out of Westminster.

Hayley, who has been an officer in local government for the last 20 years, emailed in to talk about how “the last few years have been difficult”.

“In a district council setting, that I have always been incredibly proud to work in, I’m now left feeling like I might need to move on – mentally exhausted, emotionally drained,” she said.

“It’s impossible to feel like you are delivering anything meaningful because of reducing finance and increasing demand.

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Good people are leaving and the public perception is at an all low – and I have a huge amount of sympathy for that.”

She added: “I’d love to know Jess and Ruth’s view on the present state of local government, what they think the future holds – and what they think the current government’s intentions for local government are.”

It’s so pertinent this week, because this was the moment, away from Westminster, that Birmingham City Council – the city in which Electoral Dysfunction’s Jess Phillips is an MP, signed off £300m in cuts ahead of a 21% rise in council tax over two years, after declaring itself effectively bankrupt.

Financial measures described as “devastating” to people living in the city, Europe’s largest local authority could not afford to meet its financial obligations – after facing equal pay claims of up to £760m, and an £80m overspend on an under-fire IT system.

Jess, who knows the Birmingham situation all too well, talks about how councils – and this is not politically party specific – have been “massively defunded” but also says “as somebody who lives in Birmingham”, the [Labour-run] council has not been well managed.

Ruth says local government is the “bit of politics that affects people’s lives 100 per cent” and thinks the largest council in all of Europe going bust “should have been a bigger story”.

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She also points out that Scotland’s local government is funded by Holyrood, where the row between central and local government over funding is very much live.

We are, says Jess, “sitting on a time bomb” with vulnerable children and adults struggling to access services now, that will only service to build up a bigger bill later.

Communities secretary Michael Gove last month announced a 6.5% increase in funding for local councils in England, but the £64bn settlement is unlikely to quell fears of a wave of de facto town hall bankruptcies, with the Local Government Association saying it was not enough to meet “severe pressures”.

The budget in Westminster did little to defuse this ticking time bomb on Wednesday.

The Institute for Government concluded in its budget wash up that the Conservative administration would “bequeath a dismal public services legacy to whoever wins the general election”, adding “it is also likely that more local authorities could issue section 114 [bankruptcy] notices, necessitating further painful cuts to services.”

Problems likely to be passed to Labour should they win the next general election.

But it’s going to get much harder for Westminster to ignore the continued problems of local government budgets if more council dominos continue to fall, especially in an election year.

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Brazil ends crypto tax exemption, imposes 17.5% flat rate on gains

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Brazil ends crypto tax exemption, imposes 17.5% flat rate on gains

Brazil ends crypto tax exemption, imposes 17.5% flat rate on gains

Brazil scraps crypto tax exemption for small traders, enforces flat 17.5% rate across all gains, including self-custody and offshore holdings.

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A scrambled G7 agenda as world leaders scramble to de-escalate the Israel-Iran conflict

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A scrambled G7 agenda as world leaders scramble to de-escalate the Israel-Iran conflict

The return on Donald Trump to the G7 was always going to be unpredictable. That it is happening against the backdrop of an escalating conflict in the Middle East makes it even more so.

Expectations had already been low, with the Canadian hosts cautioning against the normal joint communique at the end of the summit, mindful that this group of leaders would struggle to find consensus.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney carefully laid down an agenda that was uncontroversial in a bid to avoid any blow-ups between President Trump and allies, who of late have been divided like never before – be it over tariffs and trade, Russia and Ukraine, or, more recently Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

But discussions around critical minerals and global supply chains will undoubtedly drop down the agenda as leaders convene at a precarious moment. Keir Starmer, on his way over to Canada for a bi-lateral meeting in Ottawa with PM Carney before travelling onto the G7 summit in Kananaskis, underscored the gravity of the situation as he again spoke of de-escalation, while also confirmed that the UK was deploying more British fighter jets to the region amid threats from Tehran that it will attack UK bases if London helps defend Israel against airstrikes.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is greeted by President Donald Trump as he arrives at the West Wing of the White House, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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Canadian PM Mark Carney is greeted by President Donald Trump at the White House in May. Pic: AP

Really this is a G7 agenda scrambled as world leaders scramble to de-escalate the worst fighting between Tel Aviv and Tehran in decades. President Trump has for months been urging Israel not to strike Iran as he worked towards a diplomatic deal to halt uranium enrichment. Further talks had been due on Sunday – but are now not expected to go ahead.

All eyes will be on Trump in the coming days, to see if the US – Israel’s closest ally – will call on Israel to rein in its assault. The US has so far not participated in any joint attacks with Tel Aviv, but is moving warships and other military assets to the Middle East.

Sir Keir, who has managed to strike the first trade deal with Trump, will want to leverage his “good relationship” with the US leader at the G7 to press for de-escalation in the Middle East, while he also hopes to use the summit to further discuss the further the interests of Ukraine with Trump and raise again the prospects of Russian sanctions.

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“We’ve got President Zelenskyy coming so that provides a good opportunity for us to discuss again as a group,” the PM told me on the flight over to Canada. “My long-standing view is, we need to get Russia to the table for an unconditional ceasefire. That’s not been really straightforward. But we do need to be clear about what we need to get to the table and that if that doesn’t happen, sanctions will undoubtedly be part of the discussion at the G7.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (right) is greeted by Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney as he arrives at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (R) is greeted by Mark Carney as he arrives in Ottawa ahead of the G7

But that the leaders are not planning for a joint communique – a document outlining what the leaders have agreed – tells you a lot. When they last gathered with Trump in Canada for the G7 back in 2018, the US president rather spectacularly fell out with Justin Trudeau when the former Canadian president threatened to retaliate against US tariffs and refused to sign the G7 agreement.

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Since then, Trump has spoken of his desire to turn Canada into the 51st state of the US, a suggestion that helped catapult the Liberal Party beyond their Conservative rivals and back into power in the recent Canadian elections, as Mark Carney stood on a ticket of confronting Trump’s aggression.

With so much disagreement between the US and allies, it is hard to see where progress might be made over the next couple of days. But what these leaders will agree on is the need to take down the temperature in the Middle East and for all the unpredictability around these relationships, what is certain is a sense of urgency around Iran and Israel that could find these increasingly disparate allies on common ground.

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Bitcoin must upgrade or fall victim to quantum computing in 5 years

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Bitcoin must upgrade or fall victim to quantum computing in 5 years

Bitcoin must upgrade or fall victim to quantum computing in 5 years

Unless Bitcoin upgrades its core cryptography in the next five years, the trust it has built over 16 years could be wiped out by a single quantum attack. Urgent upgrades are needed to protect the world’s leading cryptocurrency.

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