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Now that the tedium of the UK election is over, the fallout of the French election is moving to slowly to be interesting, and the terror of the US election makes it far nicer to pretend it isn't happening, we have an exciting opportunity to play a round of "How's that still a thing?"

The previous Tory government introduced a lot of laws and policies that the Labour opposition claimed were borderline evil and a stain on the country's reputation... and yet mysteriously when a new regime takes power a lot of these have a magical ability to stay with us. Guantanamo Bay is a famous US example, but let's see what somehow manages to stay a thing in the UK even though Labour apparently hated it at the time.

My bets include:

Voter ID requirements
Anti-union laws (aside from the last batch which Labour will make a big show of removing)
The laws introducing tougher rules for protests

During the campaign Keir Starmer suggested plans to extend the franchise to 16 and 17 years olds, and, perhaps more interestingly, to introduce automatic voter registration. We'll see if he does either of those things. I'd like to see the voter ID laws repealed but you're right, that may be quietly forgotten about.

It's been a long old while since the last time Labour won, but what also tends to happen is that they impose a load of major reforms on the NHS that would have had the Tories torn to shreds if they had even dared to suggest them.

Judging from his language so far Wes Streeting is pretty keen to keep this tradition alive. I don't think they will dare privatising a hospital again, but it will be interesting to see what he has planned

Hatred and bile at the heart of British politics is truly shocking these days.

https://x.com/AdamJSchwarz/status/1813528926423261326?t=aB9uD36DntiPhvdq7aWbVQ&s=19

For those of you not familiar with British politics the little guy on the left is the last Conservative Prime Minister and the chap on the right is the new Conserv... erm... Labour Prime Minister