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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 3, 2024

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Labour have a public commitment to building more houses, a policy which will allow them to do it (namely removing protection from low-value land in greenbelts) that isn't motherhood and apple pie (the Conservatives are promising to protect greenbelts), a coalition that supports it (as @RegularlyExpressed points out) and a golden opportunity to do something that everyone knows is necessary but is unpopular with swing voters (a likely majority in the stratosphere).

If, like most people who are paying attention, you think that the housing shortage is the most pressing problem facing the UK, then things will get better, albeit slowly.

The other thing that is going to get better regardless of the election result is that the headline net migration number is going to drop (unless Ukraine collapses). Net migration in 2022 and 2023 is inflated by the Hong Kong and Ukraine resettlement schemes and by the post-COVID rebound in the stock of foreign students in the UK (which implies a temporarily high net inflow). An incoming Labour government will, of course, claim credit.

I have modest hopes that a Starmer government will be more competent on crime. Starmer was both competent and (given his other political views) surprisingly based as Director of Public Prosecutions (among other things, he was responsible for the decision to throw the book at the 2011 rioters, and issued guidance to reduce the number of people being prosecuted for offensive tweets). The pozzing of the Crown Prosecution Service happened under his successor Alison Saunders.

I assume you meant to reply directly to @hydroacetylene with this comment?

I was responding to both of you - I wanted to explicitly agree with you that Labour's coalition makes them likely to get housing right.