Yesterday a government only weeks old learned it can move at speed - but only once the thing it should have seen coming is already alight.
Crossbencher · 15 August 2026
Yesterday a government only weeks old learned it can move at speed - but only once the thing it should have seen coming is already alight.
The clearest sign of it came as a noise. In the afternoon millions of phones in England and Wales screamed at once, the government's emergency alert warning of a very high risk of wildfires as the driest of summers turned the country to kindling. By evening the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, was calling Britain a tinderbox, the sale of disposable barbecues had been banned outright as a public danger, and a new minister had been created to take charge of fire. Each move was sensible on its own. Together they described a state that reaches for the loudest levers it owns the moment it's frightened, and not before.
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