The Prime Minister made three dramatic announcements this week. Firstly, he announced that the results of a review on social care will be announced a year earlier than previously announced. Secondly, he announced that ministers are looking at pay and conditions in the sector and the conclusions will be announced on a date to be announced. And thirdly, he announced that there are plans for talks with the other parties which will lead in due course to further announcements. At last, a man of action!

I must admit, however, that as I sat and watched Andy Burnham making his speech from a care home in London, and marvelled at his ability to talk without reading from an autocue [strong message here], I was distracted by what he was wearing. It’s sometimes said that people will comment on a female politician’s clothes in a way they never would with a male politician, but all that now appears to be changing. In the last few days, it’s all been about men in T-shirts, with some interesting implications for how society is changing, and what we think on the important question of free speech.

The first T-shirt in question featured a picture of a guillotine and the phrase “we’re only making plans for Nigel” and was worn at an event in Bristol by a Green party supporter (he seems like a nice man). The leader of the party, Zack Polanski, reposted a photo of the man, Reform UK reported Polanski to the police, and the police said they would not be taking action as they did not believe sharing the picture was an offence. Polanski refused to apologise (he seems like a nice man) and Reform said he’d been “allowed to get away with inciting murder whilst ordinary people up and down the country get a knock at the door for making a joke online”.

This is not an........

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