Reeves' 'Black Hole' Myth Exposed, Lammy’s Legal Gamble & Mike Graham Returns
Tearing apart the Budget, challenging Lammy's jury raid, and naming our Plank of the Week with Mike Graham.
So it’s been another week where Rachel Reeves and the OBR dominate the headlines—a continuation of the theme we have seen in recent weeks. Once again, the official narrative has collided head-on with the cold, hard numbers.
From the “black hole” myth used to justify tax raids to the resurrection of failed Blair-era policies, the data tells a very different story from the one we are being sold. Oh, and I also joined Mike Graham on his new show to name my Plank of the Week (more on that at the end).
Here is what has been happening this week on Stat of the Nation.
📺 The Mike Graham Show Returns
It is great to see the Independent Republic of Mike Graham back. Mike is busy getting his new studio set up to return to regular live morning shows, and you will see me popping up regularly to dissect exactly what is happening across the nation.
In this appearance, we tore apart Labour’s Budget, and the more we dig, the less it adds up. We are seeing a government that promised stability but has delivered statistical chaos. Jobs down, growth weak, borrowing up and the public is left footing the bill for mistakes that shouldn’t have happened.
We also touched on the growing sense that we are seeing the return of a “Blair 2.0” agenda. From the sudden noise around digital ID cards to the attacks on the jury system, it feels like the ghosts of 1997 are back in charge. It raises the real question we debated on air: who is really running the show—Starmer, or the Blair Institute?
⚖️ Lammy Resurrects Blair’s Failed Plan
David Lammy is dusting off an old idea from 1999: limiting jury trials to clear the court backlog. It was a failure when Tony Blair proposed it, and the data suggest it is an even worse idea now. Lammy argues this will speed up justice, but the stats show that jury trials make up a tiny fraction of the overall caseload—cutting them is fixing the wrong part of the broken machine.
I dive into the numbers to show why replacing 12 jurors with a single judge is a dangerous move for British justice. We look at why relying on the “opinion of one” removes a vital check on state power and why this policy misses the mark.
But beyond the data, there is a fundamental democratic question: what mandate does the government have to do this? There was absolutely no mention of scrapping jury trials before the election. It is a major constitutional change being ushered in without a single vote cast in its favour, blindsiding the public with a policy they never signed up for.
💷 The Great British Betrayal
We rounded off the week by exposing the truth behind the government’s economic narrative. We were told taxes had to rise to fill a black hole —but new data from the OBR reveals that this crisis was largely a myth manufactured to justify a raid on British workers.
In this piece, I break down how the numbers were manipulated. The data shows that the revenue raised isn’t going into “fixing the foundations” as promised; it’s funding a massive welfare spending spree. It is a classic case of a fake crisis being used to push a very real, and costly political agenda.
The deeper worry here is the long-term impact on the economy. By prioritising welfare expansion over genuine productivity growth, the government is locking us into a cycle of high taxes and low growth. The “betrayal” isn’t just the broken promises; it’s the refusal to address the structural issues that are actually holding the country back, while asking the private sector to pick up the tab.
🚨 And finally...
I couldn’t let the week go by without mentioning Plank of the Week. It is a show that will always be Mike Graham’s, and in true tradition, we had to name our Plank of the Week. Despite plenty of worthy contenders in government right now, there could really only be one winner: David Lammy.
✍️ Jamie Jenkins
Stats Jamie | Stats, Facts & Opinions
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Thanks for an excellent post. Regarding Lammy's and Ed Davy's plan to rejoin the EU Customs Union or some version of it Catherine McBride on her substack suggests that her analysis shows that this would not benefit the UK. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on that.