The Government Is Spending More, But The Country Feels Broken
Britain is borrowing £132 billion, sending more money to France, watching jobs weaken, and cutting future paramedic training in Wales. Taxpayers are paying more, but the basics still are not working.
This week’s roundup has a simple theme: drift.
Everywhere you look, the country feels like it is being managed by a government that is already running out of road. Ministers are talking, announcing, briefing and blaming, but the core problems are not getting fixed. The public finances are still a mess. The labour market is softening. Small boats remain unresolved. And in Wales, we are now being told paramedic university places are being paused because there are not enough jobs available.
That last one really sums up modern Britain. You can wait hours for an ambulance, the system can be under constant pressure, and yet the answer is apparently not to train more paramedics. Meanwhile, across the wider public sector, money keeps being swallowed by bureaucracy, management layers, strategies, diversity roles and endless process. The frontline struggles, the taxpayer pays more, and nobody in power seems capable of asking the obvious question, what are we actually prioritising?
🧟 A Zombie Government, Consumed By Its Own Shambles
The week began with the Government still caught in the Peter Mandelson mess. Starmer promised integrity, professionalism and a clean break from the chaos of the Conservatives. Instead, he now finds himself under pressure over whether full vetting procedures were followed in the appointment of Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington, with reports that security advice had been ignored or overruled.
This matters because it goes right to the heart of Starmer’s pitch. He built his brand on being serious, forensic and above the old political games. But this week the Government looked anything but serious. It looked defensive, confused and trapped in process, while the country’s real problems piled up around it.
That is why the phrase “zombie government” feels so fitting. Not because nothing is happening, but because the Government seems to be moving without purpose. It is staggering from row to row, statement to statement, apology to apology, without any clear sense of national direction.
And the public can see it.
People are not stupid. They can see a government that promised competence but is now stuck explaining who knew what, who signed off what, who ignored what, and why nobody seems responsible when things go wrong. At some point, the question becomes very simple, if they cannot run their own appointments properly, why should anyone believe they can run the country?
💷 Borrowing Is Still Huge, And Spending Keeps Going Up
Then came the latest borrowing figures. The Government will no doubt try to present them as some sort of improvement, because borrowing in the financial year ending March 2026 was estimated at £132.0 billion, down on the previous year and slightly below the OBR forecast.
But let’s not kid ourselves.
Borrowing £132 billion in a single year is still enormous. The ONS says it was the sixth highest financial year borrowing figure since records began in 1947.
That is the problem with modern politics. If the Government borrows a little less than expected, ministers want a round of applause. But the bigger picture is that the state is still spending far more than it raises, while taxpayers are being squeezed harder and harder to pay for it.
This is not fiscal discipline. It is managed decline with a press release.
The public sector keeps expanding. Spending keeps rising. Taxes keep going up. Debt remains extremely high. And yet, for all that extra money, people do not feel services improving. They feel poorer, more taxed, and less able to get the basics done.
That is the real failure. The state is taking more, borrowing more, spending more, and still not delivering enough.
And this is where Rachel Reeves has a serious problem. The Government has very little room for error. If inflation stays higher, if debt interest costs rise again, if growth disappoints, or if tax receipts come in weaker than hoped, the whole fiscal position gets squeezed very quickly.
So when ministers say the plan is working, I keep coming back to the same question, working for who?
Because it does not look like it is working for taxpayers. It does not look like it is working for businesses. And it certainly does not look like it is working for the people waiting on public services that still fail despite record levels of spending.
📉 The Labour Market Is Flashing Warning Signs
This week I also wrote about the labour market and cost of living pressure, because the latest data is not comfortable reading for the Government.
In my article, I pointed out that payrolled employment was 30.3 million in March 2026, down 65,000 on the year and down 11,000 on the month. Vacancies also fell again to 711,000, this is the lowest level of vacancies since February to April 2021.
That is not a labour market roaring with confidence.
It is a labour market where firms are clearly becoming more cautious. Retail is under pressure. Self employment has weakened. Vacancies have been falling for a long time. And this is happening while businesses are also dealing with higher employment costs, higher wage bills, higher energy costs and a consumer who is still squeezed.
This is the trap Labour has created for itself. It wants to tax more, regulate more and spend more, while still claiming it can deliver growth. But growth does not come from making it more expensive to employ people. It does not come from loading more costs onto business. And it does not come from pretending the private sector can keep absorbing every new burden government throws at it.
The cost of living is heating up again, but the labour market underneath is softening. That is a nasty combination. If prices are rising while jobs are weakening, families get hit from both sides.
Ministers will blame global events. They always do. But the domestic picture matters too. If you increase the cost of employing people, do not be shocked when employment weakens. If you increase the cost of doing business, do not be shocked when firms stop hiring. If you squeeze the productive economy, do not be shocked when growth disappoints.
This is not complicated. It is basic cause and effect.
🚤 Another Deal With France. More Money. Same Old Problem.
Then we had the latest small boats deal with France. Once again, Britain is paying more money to France to try to stop illegal Channel crossings.
Reports this week said the UK has agreed a new three year deal worth up to around £660 million, including extra police, surveillance, enforcement and a new French unit to tackle crossings. This follows years of previous payments and promises.
Sorry, but how many times are taxpayers expected to fall for this?
We keep handing over money. We keep being told this deal will be different. We keep being told the smugglers will be smashed. And then the boats keep coming.
The basic problem remains. If people know that reaching British waters gives them a strong chance of staying in the UK, then the incentive remains. You can spend more on drones, cameras, patrols and police, but unless the incentive changes, the flow will continue.
And this is what frustrates people. It is not just the boats. It is the sense that the British taxpayer is being treated like a bottomless cash machine. We pay for hotels. We pay for processing. We pay for legal challenges. We pay for enforcement. And now we pay France even more money to do what many people think France should already be doing.
Of course we need cooperation with France. Nobody sensible says otherwise. But cooperation cannot just mean Britain writes another cheque every year while ministers pretend they have solved the issue.
The public wants control. They want deterrence. They want enforcement. They want a system that is fair to people who follow the rules and firm with those who do not.
What they keep getting is another announcement.
🚑 Meanwhile In Wales, You Can Wait For An Ambulance, But They Are Pausing Paramedic Courses
Meanwhile in Wales, as people struggle to get an ambulance, we are now told there will be no paramedic university courses run in Wales for the upcoming academic year, with Health Education and Improvement Wales saying the decision was made to “reduce competition for vacancies”. ITV Wales reported that paramedic courses at Swansea and Wrexham are being paused because of a lack of job opportunities.
Just let that sink in.
This is Wales, where the NHS has been under pressure for years. Ambulance waits have been a major public concern. People know stories of patients waiting far too long for help. Families know what it feels like to be told there are no crews available. And now the system is saying, in effect, there are not enough jobs for new paramedics.
That should be a national embarrassment.
Because if the frontline is under pressure, why are we not making sure more people can get onto the frontline? If ambulances are struggling, why are we pausing the pipeline of paramedics? If the Welsh NHS is so stretched, why does the system still seem better at generating bureaucracy than capacity?
And yes, I do think this is where politicians need to get serious about priorities.
Before anyone tells us there is no money, look across the system. Look at the layers of management. Look at the strategies, boards, frameworks, equality plans, diversity posts, administrative growth and endless paperwork. Then ask whether every pound is being spent in the right place.
Because if I had to choose between another diversity role and more paramedics, I know what I would choose.
That is not controversial to most normal people. It is common sense. People want ambulances to arrive. They want hospitals to function. They want frontline staff supported. They do not want a public sector that is brilliant at writing strategies but poor at delivering services.
Wales should be a warning to the rest of the UK. This is what happens when political systems become obsessed with process, ideology and bureaucracy, while the basics fall apart.
Final Thought
So that is this week’s roundup.
A government drowning in its own Mandelson shambles. Borrowing still at huge levels. Taxes high. Spending high. Public services still failing. A labour market losing momentum. Another expensive deal with France that looks suspiciously like more of the same. Wales pausing paramedic training while people struggle to get ambulances. And jury trial changes moving through Parliament despite not being clearly put to voters.
This is what drift looks like. Not one single crisis. Not one single headline. But a country where the basics are not working, and the people in charge seem more interested in managing the narrative than fixing the problem.
The data, and the news this week, point in the same direction, Britain is paying more and getting less.
And that cannot carry on forever.
✍️ Jamie Jenkins
Stats Jamie | Stats, Facts & Opinions
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