Pierce vs Maguire

Even Labour diehard Kevin Maguire had to admit that Chancellor John Healey's long awaited Budget was a let down, Kemi Badenoch summed it up 'Was That It?'. A list of almost a hundred new measures but all not much more than pennies for the average family each week instead of the hundreds of pounds needed with fuel bills and cost of living pressures. It was Burnham's chance to lay down his marker but according to Andrew -he blew it. Also in this episode, the tawdry tale of Thomas Markle dogs the royal family with more distressing headlines and arise knight in shining armour Harry Kane, when will he be knighted?

King Charles faces calls to not just apologise but to stump up possibly trillions to former British colonies like Guyana who accuse the Royal Family and British governments of profiting from decades of slavery. Charles begins a controversial tour of Guyana and Caribbean commonwealth nations next week but will refuse to apologise for the UK's role in the slave trade and the individual wealth generated for the Royals two hundred years ago. Not surprisingly, Republican Kevin Maguire thinks it's our duty to make amends with financial support whilst Andrew Pierce takes the less than diplomatic view that the Caribbean protestors should take a running jump!

Says it all really, with some very crazy decisions in the past few days is the stress getting to the United States President?Andrew and Kevin go in search of Donald Trump's functions and discuss whether he really has jumped the shark with decisions that have betrayed his allies, threatened prime time firing squads and mocked the Yorkshire tiger death. How he finds time to run a nation and be so bizarre at the same time is a marvel!

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch used her conference speech to put clear blue water between her party and Reform with a vow never to do a deal with Nigel Farage. And just to be clear for any troublemakers out to cause mischief, Mrs Badenoch says she is Black, English and British and proud of all three. Kevin says it's sad that she felt she had to even include this in her speech but it was a powerful personal moment.Andrew is confident this will give the Tories a boost in the polls especially policies to remove inheritance tax on family homes, Kevin not surprisingly calls it yet another headline thrown out by a bar room bore!

Andy Burnham did well with his conference speech, even his enemies have to admit he held the room but can he persuade the country with the bold 'new' ideas, in particular targeting OAP's ,once again?The Burnham Bounce appears to be holding with Labour now putting clear water between them and Reform and the Tories. If the Prime Minister can settle the arguments on how to pay for his ambitious care plans will an early General Election be on the cards to implement his ideas even sooner?