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Patrick's Property Politics

Soft left sh*t show

Wednesday 20th May 2026

By Patrick Bullick

Can Burnham really be worse?

Those who support S’Kier Starmer say of ousting him, ‘careful what you wish for’ because the ‘soft’ left in power will be worse for the economy. Hate that term ‘soft’ left. Trying to make really quite radical lefties sound cuddly.

I was slightly in the cautious camp until today.

Burnham as PM with Miliband in the Treasury is not an appealing prospect for anyone other than those soft in the head and the economically illiterate.

If you go down to Westminster today, you’re sure of a big surprise…

This Govt. has announced three things in the last 24 hours which make me think the current crew have to go.

Dropping sanctions on Russian oil to produce jet fuel so we can fly on our summer holidays. Cowardly, selfish and short sighted. U-Turn to follow?

‘Wretched Rachel’ asking supermarkets to price cap products. How ridiculous to think that by capping the cost of 20 ‘key’ items, the overall pain of a weekly shop will be reduced. Retailers would be obliged to put up prices on other essentials to compensate. It is a naked attempt to manipulate the inflation figures.

Extra mansion tax on non-residents is the property-related announcement from The Treasury. Seemingly, they still think foreign buyers are driving up London property prices!

That horse bolted in 2015 when ‘Gordon’ Osborne removed the CGT exemption for non-resident buyers, levelling the playing field with the rest of the world by taking away that artificial reason for buying in the UK.

In the same 24 hours, the FT has carried a long article emoting about the decline of the appeal of London since the Brexit referendum in 2016. Largely missing the key point that subsequent Govt’s have done their utmost to discourage wealthy foreign people from making the UK their home or business base. Notably, the particular journalist started their career in the Treasury and obviously still carries the pro EU, anti-wealth views endemic in that key Govt. department.

So, as I write, I want Starmer and ‘Wretched Rach’ gone.

I don’t really want Burnham and the soft left crew, but can they be worse?

By next time I might have done my own U-Turn.

Until then…

PB

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