Andy Burnham was declared leader of the Labour Party on 17 July, unopposed, with the backing of 379 of 403 Labour MPs. He was confirmed as Prime Minister on 20 July, following the resignation of Keir Starmer on 22 June.

Larry's position at Downing Street has not changed.

This publication named Burnham as the frontrunner on 2 July, before Labour's leadership nominations had opened on 9 July. There was, at that point, no declared contest to be a frontrunner in. The sequence is noted here only because it is accurate, not because it requires further comment.

Burnham's first act as Prime Minister was a 20 percent cut to business rates for pubs, clubs, and live music venues, worth an estimated 100 million pounds. The Guardian quoted landlords calling it "a small snippet." Hospitality operators elsewhere were more generous, telling the BBC they would welcome "more of the same" -- which is itself an answer to whether this was enough.

It was not, by comparison, the largest such offer on the table this year. Reform UK's platform, published in March, promised a 10 percent cut to beer duty itself and the gradual abolition of business rates for pubs entirely. Duty is the tax that falls on every pint before it is poured. Rates are the tax on the building the pint is poured in. Burnham cut the second one.

Neither policy addresses the increase that came first. Beer duty rose earlier this year, ahead of the World Cup; brewers responded by diluting alcohol content to move product into lower duty bands, and industry figures reported closures running at close to two pubs a day in the first quarter, citing "the sheer weight of taxes and regulatory costs." A rates cut on the premises does not touch the duty on what is served in them. Both government and opposition appear, so far, to agree on which tax is easier to be seen cutting.

The Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office has served six Prime Ministers before this one. He was not consulted on the rates cut, the duty increase, or the choice between them. He was not consulted on much of anything, per the job description, which has not changed either.

He has not been asked.

E. Halberd Filed from Sussex.