\t\tAustere environment<\/p>\n
Who introduced the word \u2018austerity\u2019 into the political lexicon? While chiefly associated with attacks on the Conservatives, and subsequently Reform UK, by Labour and other left-wing parties, it was David Cameron who brought the word back into common parlance. In a speech to the Conservative party forum on 26 April 2009 he declared: \u2018The age of irresponsibility is giving way to the age of austerity.\u2019 He went on to say: \u2018We\u2019ve made it clear that a Conservative government would spend less than Labour. We\u2019re not frightened of their idiotic ritual chants about \u201ccuts\u201d.\u2019 An analysis by the LSE found that in the election year of 2010, right-leaning thinktanks mentioned \u2018austerity\u2019 nearly as frequently as left-leaning ones.<\/p>\n
Off the rails<\/p>\n
How crime-ridden are our trains? Crimes recorded by British Transport Police were up 55%<\/strong> in the decade from 2013\/14 to 2023\/24, to 80,000<\/strong> incidents. Violent crimes (13,000<\/strong> recorded), sex crimes (2,000<\/strong>) and robberies (2,000<\/strong>) all more than doubled. The stations with the highest crime rates (crimes per million users) were:<\/p>\n Johnston (Pembrokeshire)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1,437<\/strong><\/p>\n Redbridge\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1,182<\/strong><\/p>\n Charing (Kent)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1,161<\/strong><\/p>\n Tiverton Parkway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 832<\/strong><\/p>\n Dinas Rhondda\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 582<\/strong><\/p>\n Throne away<\/p>\n How does the popularity of the British monarchy compare with others in Europe?<\/p>\n \u2014 UK: YouGov poll last week found 62%<\/strong> in favour of keeping the monarchy, 25%<\/strong> in favour of a republic.<\/p>\n \u2014 Denmark (2024): 75%<\/strong> in favour of monarchy, 14%<\/strong> for abolition.<\/p>\n \u2014 Norway (2024): 68%<\/strong> in favour of monarchy.<\/p>\n \u2014 Netherlands (2025): 59%<\/strong> in favour.<\/p>\n \u2014 Spain (2024): 59%<\/strong> in favour.<\/p>\n \u2014 Sweden (2023): 54%<\/strong> in favour.<\/p>\n Performance review<\/p>\n South Cambridgeshire District Council is to make its four-day working week permanent, and others may follow. How is productivity coming along in the public services?<\/p>\n \u2014 The ONS says productivity fell by 0.7%<\/strong> in the year to the second quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n \u2014 Across 2024, productivity was 3% <\/strong>lower than 2019. In healthcare it was 7.8%<\/strong> lower.<\/p>\n \u2014 Productivity in 2024 was just 1.6%<\/strong> higher than it was in 1997.<\/p>\n \u2014 The nadir in recent decades was in 2010 when it was 3.2%<\/strong> lower than in 1997 \u2013 just after sharp rises in public sector pay during the Blair and Brown governments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austere environment Who introduced the word \u2018austerity\u2019 into the political lexicon? While chiefly associated with attacks on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[11850,188,5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-552735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-austerity","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-royal","11":"tag-royal-families","12":"tag-royal-family","13":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115502387225871491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}