Andy Burnham has barely got his feet under the desk at Number 10 and already the priorities are coming thick and fast.
Ukraine? Absolutely. 🇺🇦
Closer ties with Europe? Certainly. 🇪🇺
Cheaper university fees for European students? Let’s discuss it. 🎓
Migrants and the immigration system? Front and centre. 🌍
But England?
Ah.
Apparently we’ll get back to that after lunch.
Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July, and his first overseas visit as Prime Minister was to Kyiv, where he declared Britain’s continued backing for Ukraine. Now we’re hearing that his government is considering reducing tuition costs for EU students as part of a new deal with Brussels.
Meanwhile, English students are still staring at some of the highest university tuition fees in the UK.
🎪 Welcome to the Great British Priority Queue
You have to admire the efficiency.
There appears to be a special political express lane:
Ukraine — this way, please.
European Union — come straight through.
EU students — somebody see if we can knock a few quid off the bill.
Immigration and asylum — clear the diary.
Then, somewhere at the back of the building, an English taxpayer timidly raises a hand.
“Excuse me, Prime Minister, what about us?”
Security immediately asks who let him in. 🚪😂
England doesn’t have its own devolved national government in the way Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do. So for millions of English voters, Westminster is their national government.
Which makes the question all the more obvious:
Who is actually speaking specifically for England?
English students pay hefty tuition fees. English families struggle with housing costs. English towns wrestle with stretched public services. English workers watch taxes disappear from their payslips every month.
Yet somehow political creativity seems endless whenever the subject involves somewhere else.
Need another international commitment? Ideas everywhere.
Need a concession for Brussels? Let’s negotiate.
Need a policy concerning migrants? Emergency meeting.
Need to make life substantially cheaper for an ordinary 19-year-old from Birmingham, Leeds, Kent or Essex?
Suddenly Westminster develops the imaginative capacity of a damp sock. 🧦
And before somebody starts shouting that caring about English people means you must somehow hate Ukrainians, Europeans or migrants — it doesn’t.
A government can deal with international affairs.
A government can support allies.
A government can negotiate with Europe.
A government must manage immigration.
But surely the people paying for that government are entitled to ask:
When do WE become the priority?
Because there’s something politically extraordinary about contemplating cheaper university fees for students from EU countries while your own English students continue receiving bills approaching £10,000 a year.
Imagine explaining that around the kitchen table.
“Good news, son. The Prime Minister may have found a way of making university cheaper.”
“Brilliant!”
“Not for you.” 😐
🔥 Challenges 🔥
Here’s the question Westminster ought to hear loudly:
Does England have a government that actually puts English people first — or has England simply become the cash machine financing everybody else’s priorities?
Supporting Ukraine doesn’t prevent helping England.
Negotiating with Europe doesn’t prevent helping England.
Running an immigration system doesn’t prevent helping England.
So why does it so often feel as though English taxpayers are first in the queue when money is required and last in the queue when benefits are handed out?
👇 Tell us what YOU think in the blog comments.
Are English voters being ignored? Is this perfectly reasonable international politics? Or has Westminster become so frightened of talking specifically about England that everyone else gets mentioned first?
💬 Comment. Like. Share. And make some noise.
The best comments, arguments and beautifully brutal one-liners will be featured in the next issue of the magazine. 🎯📰
Leave a Reply