Just to cheer everyone up, a quick reminder from me that cuts to local government are continuing, as they have for the past decade, during this pandemic. It's just the usual day to day local government, stuff like social care and bin collections, so few care. But it's happening.

At the start of the pandemic the UK government told local government that it would cover their costs. That pledge has not been honoured. So local government, especially in cities, is doing what it is has to do even, with the largest council tax rises it is allowed. Cutting jobs.

Here are the 617 jobs Leeds are planning on cutting. There is nothing they can do about it if central government doesn't step in. There is no money. They're raising council tax by the maximum allowed. Cuts during an economic contraction. Economic madness. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-54530235

The best way to see the scale of the cuts to local government is in headcount. Continuing to go down. While of course central government headcount continues to increase, the highest since 1999, possibly the highest it's ever been.

(if anyone has a very long-term history of central government headcount for the UK I'd love to see that).

Oooh, excellent. We have central government employment for the UK since 1949. And yes, today, the UK's central government is the largest it's ever been. Also the largest in Europe. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/compendium/economicreview/april2019/longtermtrendsinukemployment1861to2018

It's a great victory for the right-wing think-tanks and lobbying groups who (while either lying about their motives or unaware of what they were achieving) have continued to achieve the massive expansion of central government, which they are then paid more to lobby.

I realise now that the first graph doesn't show what I've stated. It still may very well be true, but it just shows that central government is the largest proportion of all government it's ever been. It may have been larger in count in the past. I'll look at that in an hour.

I got the data back to 1949. Central Government in the UK has never employed more people than it does today. Local Government employment is at its lowest since 1963. The public corporations, central and local, are almost all gone. There was a war. Westminster won. Completely.

I am not making an anti-London point. I am so sick of any criticism of centralisation in the UK being turned to that point. Greater London, the city and its people, is one of the biggest losers from this. I use the word Westminster, if that angers you, suggest an alternative.