Shots fired

Plus: rail nationalisation heads off track, and who pays for a second staircase?

Jul 28, 2026

Back to secondary moderns? Andy Burnham announced a new push to encourage schoolchildren into vocational tracks from 14 and establish equal status between academic and technical subjects. All well and good, but as some pointed out, this has been tried before…

Meanwhile Chris Philp accused the French military of trying to intimidate him after one of its ships carried out a ‘training exercise’ nearby as he monitored illegal crossings in the Channel.

Another kind of warning shot was fired by Labour’s backbenchers, who are promising to end the Burnham honeymoon and rebel if he cuts welfare for young people. The only surprise is it took this long.

Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.

Marc Sidwell
Editor, CapX

Today’s Takes

Fresh thinking from CapX

The second staircase rule is pricing out a generation

Tom Willerton-Gartside

‘Italy and Austria have some of Europe’s lowest fire death rates, yet they don’t mandate a dual staircase until the building is above 80 metres.’

From September, Britain will require new residential buildings of 18 metres or more to have a second staircase. In France, it’s 50 metres; in Italy, it’s 80. This is yet another rule making it harder for the young to live and work in our cities – and Angela Rayner could fix it tomorrow. Read More

Don’t copy Germany

Nils Knoben

‘Andy Burnham has taken an interest in the German model just when Germany itself is increasingly questioning it.’

Andy Burnham is right that Britain is too centralised. But his proposed solution is inspired by Germany’s decades-long commitment to ‘equivalent living conditions’. That is a recipe for managed decline and bureaucratic bloat – not economic renaissance. Read More

Stat of the day

Best of the Web

There's a limit to tax rises

Paul Ormerod, City AM

‘Decades of no gains in public services’ overall efficiency is hardly an inducement to taxpayers to hand over yet more money.’

A slew of potential tax increases are being floated in the media to pay for the new Government’s plans. Andy Burnham can raise tax rates, but the public’s willingness to pay is another matter. If he wants us to cough up more tax, he needs to make improving public sector productivity a priority first. Read More

Nationalising the railways is already off track

Tony Lodge, The Telegraph 🔒

‘The new plan to nationalise train services contains no passenger growth target or cost control safeguards.’

These are early days for Labour’s much-vaunted Great British Railways, but the signs are not good. John Major’s rail privatisation wasn’t perfect, but extracting civil servants from running loss-making, subsidy-drunk services brought real benefits – not least growing passenger numbers. If nationalisation is to deliver, the state-run operator needs to learn from what works, and accept the discipline of competition. Read More