Ashes 2025 live score: Pope falls as England reply to huge deficit

England are in the mire in the second Ashes Test after Australia built a huge first-innings lead on day three at The Gabba.

Australia made England toil as they were finally bowled out for 511 to take a first-innings lead of 177, with Mitchell Starc producing an excellent 77 to continue his superb series. Scott Boland provided fine support for his fellow tail-ender as the hosts played patiently against an attack that looked short of answers despite removing Alex Carey and Michael Neser early on. England have begun their attempt to launch a fightback in bright fashion, though Ben Duckett was cleaned up by a ball from Boland that kept low.

It followed a gripping second day in Brisbane, with England fighting back after fifties from Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith. The Australia skipper put on a big partnership with Cameron Green, only for Brydon Carse’s bowling and a stunning catch from Will Jacks to swing momentum once more.

Follow all the latest updates, scores and analysis on day three at The Gabba below:

Farage’s attack on Emma Barnett tells a worrying story

“BERNARD MANNING!” Nigel Farage shouted at a hapless ITV reporter yesterday. ”BERNARD MANNING, BERNARD MANNING!” He raged at the BBC’s Emma Barnett, calling her a “lower-grade presenter” and accusing her of asking “despicable, disgusting questions”. He summoned up the ghost of a long-forgotten fictional TV character, Alf Garnett, and demanded an apology from the BBC for some of its comedy shows from the mid- to late-1970s.

It was not easy to follow his line of argument, but let’s try.

Farage stands accused by multiple of his school contemporaries of behaving in a racist and bullying way nearly 50 years ago. His deputy, Richard Tice, says his accusers are liars. But Farage seems to be trying a different defence.

“If I did it, and I’m not admitting I did,” he seems to be saying, “it was banter. You’re judging me by the standards of 2025, but look at the BBC and ITV: they broadcast lots of material that was considered funny back then, but which isn’t now. So you’re all hypocrites for asking, and is it any wonder half a million people won’t pay their licence fee?”

I’m trying to work out how the “Je suis Bernard Manning” defence actually works. For those too young to remember, he was a corpulent Northern club comedian who revelled in shocking audiences by saying the unsayable.

One obituarist wrote of him: “It has been said that Manning was banned from television because of his material, but this is not strictly true. He went on to appear on various BBC and ITV shows, but it became evident that he was engaged in a process of self-marginalisation by refusing to compromise, so in effect, he banned himself from television.”

In other words, both the BBC and ITV – even back then – considered much of his material to be unbroadcastable. Rather than compromise, Manning stuck to the club scene and to his comfort zone of racist gags. In 1995, an enterprising ITV World reporter clandestinely recorded him entertaining an all-male audience of off-duty Greater Manchester police officers with a series of vile jokes, which were warmly received.

“Manning’s repartee is notorious,” wrote an Independent editorial, “but that night he outdid himself. Jokes about beating up “n**gers” and “c**ns” were followed by references to the Asian population of Bradford that might have graced the pages of a British National Party freesheet.”

The editorial continued: “His humour is cold and antagonistic – aimed exclusively at easy targets. There is an absence of empathy, warmth or understanding. No black person or Asian could feel comfortable in the presence of such palpable hostility.”

There is a comparison to be made between Manning and Farage, but it’s not necessarily the one he has in mind. The Reform leader is accused by Jewish contemporaries at Dulwich College of sidling up to them and saying things like “Hitler was right” and “gas ’em”, while making hissing sounds.

More than one school contemporary remembered Farage’s variant of a George Formby song, “Bless ’em all,” which reportedly ran as follows: ’Gas ’em all, gas ’em all, into the chambers they crawl. We’ll gas all the Paks, and we’ll gas all the Yids, and we’ll gas all the c**ns and all their f***ing kids.’”

Manning, according to an obituary, pronounced himself an “admirer” of Hitler. “Not everything about him, of course,” he’s reported to have told the Sunday People. “I deplore his gas chambers and Gestapo as much as anyone, but I admire him for the things he got right, which I reckon was about 50 per cent.”

So, let’s accept Farage has a point: there are, indeed, similarities between the kind of things he and Bernard Manning found funny nearly 50 years ago. But even in those far-off, politically incorrect days, there is no way that either the BBC or ITV would have dreamed up running the kind of “jokes” that Farage is alleged to have hissed at his Jewish school contemporaries. And which, at times, he has denied.

Secondly, there is the issue of intent. Farage thought it was hypocritical of a BBC reporter to challenge him on his Dulwich schooldays because the BBC itself ran a comedy called Till Death Us Do Part, featuring a hideously bigoted character (played by Warren Mitchell) called Alf Garnett.

The writer Johnny Speight created in Garnett what the writer Dave Hill called “a loud-mouthed bigot and an impotent tyrant, including within his own four walls, although, as Canning Town-born Speight would regretfully acknowledge, some, perhaps many, viewers embraced Alf as hilariously forgivable or even a heroic reactionary”.

In other words, the intent was satirical. Speight was lampooning the people who revered Enoch Powell and laughed at Bernard Manning’s jokes. It’s a mystery why, then, even in the muddled head of Nigel Farage, the BBC should be required to apologise for a piece of 50-year-old satire, or what on earth any of this has anything to do with a BBC reporter doing their job in questioning a man who sees himself as the next prime minister.

It’s all a bit Trumpian. Farage’s savage attack on Emma Barnett and the BBC is a tawdry echo of the tactics his friend in the White House deploys against any reporter – particularly, but not only, female reporters – who dare to ask robust questions. The way reporters are supposed to do.

The White House has taken to advising the world to watch GB News rather than the “100 per cent fake” and apparently dying BBC. Which suits Farage nicely. He’s trousered more than £400k in the past 12 months for his GB News show and his personal company, Thorn in the Side, owns nearly half a million shares in the company. GB News’s Martin Daubney recently quizzed Farage on the allegations of antisemitism as follows: “Isn’t it fair to point out you’ve been a very vocal supporter of Israel and the Jewish community since October 27th 2023?”

That’s more like it! We should have more journalists like Daubney, who are not afraid of tickling their interviewees’ tummies with a feather duster. Mr Daubney’s career has included spells at The Sun’s page3.com, and with the men’s lifestyle magazines FHM, Loaded and Nuts. He was elected as an MEP for the Brexit Party in 2019 and, in 2021, was “mightily chuffed” to be appointed deputy leader of Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party. In Farage’s through-the-looking-glass world, Daubney is a proper journalist, while Emma Barnett is a poisonous troll and the reason why, if he ever gets into Downing Street, he will do his best to emasculate the BBC.

Je suis Bernard Manning. Bit by bit, Farage is showing us who he really is. As Maya Angelou would say, we should believe him.

Labour has abandoned women’s rights, former ECHR chief claims

Labour has “completely abandoned” women’s rights and left women and transgender people in a “grey zone”, the former head of the equalities watchdog has claimed.

Baroness Falkner, former chief of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), criticised the party for not publishing statutory guidance after a Supreme Court ruling in April judged that, for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, the words “woman” and “sex” refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

She toldThe Times she believes Labour was traditionally the “party of feminism”, but that the current generation of Labour MPs has “lost it”.

She said: “What really depresses me about the current state of the Labour Party is that they seem to have completely abandoned women’s rights.

“The traditional party of rights, in my 40 years in this country, was the Labour Party. The party of feminism. I was mentored by a former, very senior, Labour woman, Shirley Williams.

“I was aware of women like Harriet Harman, Margaret Jay and Hilary Armstrong, Labour women who were committed to feminism … and I think they’ve lost it. This generation of Labour MPs have lost it.”

Her comments come as organisations await new transgender guidance produced by the EHRC, which is being assessed by the government.

Ministers have had the guidance for three months, but have said they will not “rush” to publish the code of practice, insisting it will take the time needed to “get it right”.

The guidance will be used by businesses and other organisations to inform their provision of single and separate-sex services such as toilets and changing rooms.

The EHRC wrote to women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson in October urging her to hurry up with bringing in the new guidance, saying some organisations were currently using unlawful practices.

The code has not been updated since 2011 and the latest draft has been produced in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

“The danger in not publishing it is that people are left in the grey zone,” Baroness Falkner said. “Women are still having to go to court to assert their rights. My greatest concern is that it’s very distressing for trans people. Some organisations are implementing it in one way, others are not.”

A government spokesperson said it is “unapologetic”about taking the necessary time to produce “legally sound guidance”, adding that the alternative would be “utterly catastrophic and fail women across our country.”

Baroness Falkner’s comments come after the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) said this week that transgender women will be banned from becoming members from April next year, and Girlguiding announced it has banned trans girls from joining.

The NFWI’s decision was taken “with the utmost regret and sadness”, the organisation said, adding that it retains the “firm belief that transgender women are women”.

Girlguiding said it had been a “difficult decision” which had been made after “detailed considerations, expert legal advice and input from senior members, young members”, its council and board of trustees.

The US president has adopted racist conspiracy theories in his extraordinary attack on Europe

It’s official. The US government believes that Europe faces “civilization erasure” and is already indulging in the “censorship of free speech and the suppression of opposition”.

This is not the latest social media post from a crank in the White House. This is the assessment of its finest minds who have just produced the 2025 National Security Strategy. This is the written version of how all in the White House must see the world and the means by which they intend to get the rest of us to view the planet.

“Over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain Nato members will become majority non-European,” it says.

This is rubbish. There is no mainstream population analysis that shows that any European nation will ever become a majority “non-European”.

The Trump administration is getting its demographic guidance on Europe from the so-called Great Replacement Theory – a term coined by French conspiracy theorist Renaud Camus, in which he argues that a “global elite” is colluding against the white population of Europe to replace them with non-European peoples.

It has a powerful following among far-right groups, QAnon fanatics and Maga supporters. And now it is the official long-term view of America itself. A view that underpins the US relationship with the West and the Anglosphere from now on.

So concerned is the US that it is going to lean in and force a change of direction on Europe by supporting groups which align closely with American policies and undermining those which do not.

“We will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world, especially among our allies,” the document says.

The Trump administration is fighting Europe’s Digital Services Act, which requires internet companies, mostly US-based like Meta, Apple and Google, to moderate content, remove illegal or harmful content, and regulate disinformation.

The White House has made allegations of “censorship” against European countries for their efforts to regulate companies that generate huge profits but are anxious that new regulations would be costly to police for them.

Vice-president JD Vance is likely to have held the pen in creating the new doctrine from the White House. Its contents closely reflect his startling attacks on Nato and European democracy at his first trip in office to the continent in February. He also threw his weight behind far-right groups and parties then.

“America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism,” the new document says.

The other influence on the document is likely to have been Vladimir Putin.

His regime has become a beacon to many on the far right and Christian evangelicals who support Trump. His unashamed claims to represent traditional white Christian values are catnip to conspiracy fans of the Great Replacement Theory.

Trump has backed Russia at every stage since returning to office. He has set his face against Europe’s support for Kyiv and for arguments that show Ukraine can eject Russian forces if it gets the support it needs.

Trump has cut all aid except for intelligence support to Ukraine while demanding enormous 50 per cent shares in future profits for the US and American companies in any future Ukrainian peace deal.

Key to Putin’s long-term strategy is to undermine Western diplomatic alliances and cohesion. Brexit was a major step in that direction – so was the re-election of Trump.

He, like Trump, seeks to amplify disinformation and doubt in Western civil society by claiming that governments, like Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration in Ukraine, are illegitimate and undemocratic. Zelensky was elected by a landslide in 2019.

The new US foreign policy blueprint for the future claims that when it comes to Ukraine, “A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes.”

Democracy has been eviscerated in America with attacks on every branch of the federal administration, the media, academia and the military. Loyalty to the Oval Office now trumps any oath to uphold the constitution as a condition of employment among officials across the US.

While that persists and Trump writes outright lies into copper-plated national policy, it is no longer possible to see America as an ally, or even a frenemy.

England and Scotland’s World Cup 2026 fixtures revealed

England will play a familiar foe in Croatia at the 2026 World Cup, as the 48-nation tournament began to take shape in Friday’s draw in Washington DC.

Croatia knocked out England from the 2018 World Cup at the semi-final stage. Now they will meet in the first game of Group L at the 2026 tournament, in a group which also contains Panama and Ghana.

Croatia are among the toughest opponents England could have expected and will be their opening match in Toronto or Dallas on 17 June. England faced Panama at the 2018 finals, beating them 6-1 in the group phase, while they have never faced Ghana before in a competitive match.

Thomas Tuchel’s side, who are among the favourites to win the competition next year, were placed in Pot 1 ahead of the draw alongside the three hosts – USA, Mexico and Canada – as well as the other top eight ranked nations.

If England win their group, they would face a third-place team in Atlanta in the round of 32 on 1 July. Topping the group would also mean they do not meet any of fellow top-four seeds Argentina, Spain or France until the semi-finals at the earliest – assuming those sides also win their groups.

The exact dates for each fixture, their venue and the kick-off times will be confirmed at 5pm GMT on Saturday.

June 17: England v Croatia | BMO Field, Toronto or AT&T Stadium, Arlington

June 23: England v Ghana | BMO Field, Toronto or Gillette Stadium, Foxborough

June 27: England v Panama | MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford or Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia

Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, UEFA Playoff D

Group B: Canada, UEFA Playoff A, Qatar, Switzerland

Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland

Group D: United States, Paraguay, Australia, UEFA Playoff C

Group E: Germany, Curacao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador

Group F: Netherlands, Japan, UEFA Playoff B, Tunisia

Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand

Group H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay

Group I: France, Senegal, FIFA Playoff 2, Norway

Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan

Group K: Portugal, FIFA Playoff 1, Uzbekistan, Colombia

Group L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama

Perfect portraits: from groups to selfies and candid pics, expert tips

Portrait photography has come a long way from the days where everyone needed to be smiling directly into the camera, as a flash bulb popped.

And in fact, following on from an era where social media sites offered very curated, sometimes heavily filtered snapshots of our lives, more natural, candid images that really show off our personalities and experiences are now very much on trend. Think authentic photos of genuine moments where no-one is really paying attention to the camera. Instead they’re focused on enjoying what’s happening and the people they are with. For example, friends around a table enjoying a drink and a chat. Families engaged in a favourite activity. Photos that look like a glimpse into someone’s normal every day.

The best way to capture these in-the-moment shots? On a mobile: our ever-present, hand-held, do-everything device that has steadily taken over photography in the 26 years since the first camera phone appeared. Samsung’s newest device, the Galaxy S25 FE offers a wealth of photography-first features, from multiple cameras, lenses and wide angle settings, to in-built AI technology that will help you take the best possible pictures, then easily edit them afterwards. And as a photographer who runs masterclasses in mobile photography I couldn’t wait to try it out.

The phone itself is slim and lightweight, which makes it so much easier to hold steady, for clear, crisp, blur-free images, and take discreet, candid snaps.

Of course, we all have friends, family members and even pets who love performing for the camera. But for those who are a bit more reluctant to step into the frame, the Galaxy S25 FE offers a whole host of easy-to-use, fun AI features that will have even the most camera-shy feeling completely confident and ready for their close-up.

Samsung’s Drawing Assist function is a prime example and was an absolute hit with my kids, transforming our Sunday afternoon walk from a litany of moaning and dragging feet into a fun-filled adventure involving a lucky escape from the shark that apparently now lives in the park pond, and flying through the air with some giant balloons.

And all it took was a few simple, if strategically positioned snaps and some quick sketches using the Sketch to Image* function when editing the photo. This works best when you have some space in the frame around your subjects so you can easily draw what you want to add. In the shark image, for example, we needed enough water to the left of my kids for the shark to emerge from.

In the photo where the children are flying with the balloons, I needed them to be high up against the sky, and I also wanted the trees visible to add some context to the story we were trying to tell. They’re on top of the boulders, but I had to crouch down on the ground to cut out the houses in the background. By using the Generative Edit** function I was then able to replace the boulders with trees and then used Sketch to Image to draw in some balloons to make it look like they were floating away.

You don’t need to be an amazing artist for Sketch to Image to work well either, just enough line and shape for the app to recognise what you want to add into your image. The only limit here is your imagination and creativity. Involving the kids in some fun photography also meant that I got to capture some real, candid moments of them in the beautiful Autumn sunshine, with none of the usual complaints.

While playing around with reality can be fun, the Galaxy S25FE’s other AI features can also be used to make more subtle adjustments to enhance your images.

Just a few minutes of work with the Generative Edit function on a day out with a friend, helped me erase two unwanted photobombers from a photo (in which she perfectly co-ordinated with the graffitied heart wall in Borough Market). While removing some distracting weedkiller from the table where my cat was basking in the sunshine ensured the perfect pic where I can really appreciate him in all his fluffy glory.

Aside from fun and helpful editing functions, the phone’s AI technology is also running in the background to give your photos a boost, whatever and whenever you are capturing them.

This is great when you’re shooting challenging lighting conditions, for example at night. Dark, grainy and blurred photos are a thing of the past, with Samsung’s Nightography feature. Tapping the yellow moon icon that appears in dim lighting will enable this clever function which captures multiple images and then uses AI to blend them together to create one sharper, brighter image.

This can take a few seconds, so you’ll need to keep very still when using this feature – if you can, brace your arms on a table and hold the phone with two hands to keep the camera as steady as possible. It also helps if your subject is still, so this is more for capturing adults and older kids than snapping a restless pet or fast-moving child.

For these trickier subjects, from youngsters to four-legged friends, the excellent autofocus on the device makes for pin-sharp portraits rendered in high definition. And if you couple that with the outstanding Samsung colour profile you get beautifully saturated, nicely contrasted images which really pop. All the colours are beautifully rendered and all skin tones (and fur tones) are true to life. No filters are needed here.

And this is not just true of portraits you take of other people. The 12 MP camera lens on the front of the phone makes for gorgeously rendered, high resolution selfies with a variety of crop options, so you can find the perfect angle or image composition.

Taking a selfie at a 1:1 square crop, as well as the standard 3:4 crop option means you can easily include a friend or family member in your photo. And there’s a lovely little feature where you can get the lens to zoom out a little by tapping the ‘two person’ icon to provide a little extra space.

The 9:16 crop option means you can opt for a more flattering, longer and thinner photo while the full frame cop allows you a more zoomed-in selfie.

And if you want to take your selfies to another level, the option to add a little skin toning and smoothing effect and iron out any wrinkles (or in my case remove evidence of a sleepless night) is one of the additional features that makes the selfie camera stand out!

The excellent battery life means you don’t need to worry about it lasting, even after a few hours of photo fun. And when your battery does run down, lightning fast charging will see you back at 60 per cent in just 30 minutes, so you don’t have to wait long until you are good to go again.

Overall, whether it is taking vibrant portraits of yourself or capturing creative, candid images of the people (and pets) in your lives, making memories you’ll want to share is easy and fun with the Galaxy S25 FE.

Kirsty Hamilton is a portrait photographer – find out more at her website and on Instagram.

To find out more about the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE visit Samsung

*Samsung account login and network connection may be required for certain AI features.

**Samsung account login is required. Requires network connection.

MTG says Trump was ‘furious’ at her demand to release Epstein files

Marjorie Taylor Greene has described how Donald Trump became “furious” with her after she pressed for the release of all official documents about Jeffrey Epstein.

In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes that will air on Sunday, the far-right congresswoman told CBS anchor Lesley Stahl about her discussions with Trump after she became one of just four Republicans to sign a petition to publish the full Epstein files.

“We did talk about the Epstein files, and he was extremely angry at me that I had signed the discharge petition to release the files,” Greene told Stahl in a clip released by CBS Friday night.

“I fully believe that those women deserve everything they’re asking. They’re asking for everything to come out. They deserve it. And he was furious with me.”

“What did he say?” Stahl then asked Greene.

Greene responded: “Um. He said that it was going to hurt people.”

It is the latest salvo in Greene’s ongoing war of words with Trump and her Republican colleagues, many of whom were shocked by her announcement on Nov. 21 that she would step down from Congress and trigger a special election.

The feud began with her refusal to accept Trump’s excuses for not releasing more Epstein documents, and escalated from there. Trump’s response was explosive, branding her “Marjorie Traitor Greene” and calling her a “ranting lunatic” who has gone “far left”.

But Greene hit back, saying he had put her life in danger with “unwarranted and vicious attacks” that served to whip up his most hardcore supporters into a “frenzy”.

The clip shared by CBS on Friday was a marked contrast to Greene’s last interview with Stahl in April 2023, when she repeatedly and falsely insisted that the Democrats are the “party of pedophiles”.

“They are not pedophiles,” Stahl shot back. “Why would you say that?”

“Democrats support — even Joe Biden, the President himself — supports children being sexualized and having transgender surgeries. Sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children,” said Greene.

“Wow,” said Stahl.

In a statement posted to Elon Musk’s social network X last month, announcing her resignation, Greene insisted she had been loyal to Trump and his “America First” agenda, but that loyalty was “a two way street”.

She accused “MAGA Inc” of treating her like a “battered wife” and prioritizing “Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, [the] Military Industrial War Complex”, “foreign leaders”, and “the elite donor class” over “good, regular, common Americans.”

“There is no ‘plan to save the world’ or insane 4D chess game being played,” she said. “The Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart.”

What the Budget has really done to the housing market

My local estate agent is despairing. They’ve got their decorations up, but the mood is flat. The properties in the window aren’t shifting.

They’re based in south-west London, prime territory for Rachel Reeves to get her teeth stuck into “mansions” and grab some extra revenue. They do deal in houses caught in the chancellor’s council tax surcharge net, like all the other nearby agents – but those slightly above the £2m threshold can hardly be classed as mansions, such are London prices.

They also market plenty below that limit and those houses and apartments are not moving either. Trade is dead. It’s been like this for months as well, in the chaotic run-up to the Budget, when people waited to see what was coming, unwilling to commit amid speculation regarding moves on stamp duty, extra charges on high-end residences and second homeowners, and now, afterwards. Nothing has changed.

It’s not confined to the capital – the same picture applies right across the country. The latest national Halifax data for November shows prices virtually frozen. They grew by 0.7 per cent, versus 1.9 per cent for the 12 months to October.

That’s against a backdrop of lower mortgage costs. Those interest rate cuts, however, also came against a depressed permanent employment market (exacerbated by Reeves’ shock hike in employers’ national insurance), uncertainty around the effects of AI and fears about the impact of the Budget. Those latter concerns have not gone away – Reeves offered little in the way of encouraging economic growth.

Jonathan Hopper, chief executive of Garrington Property Finders, said the Halifax survey reveals, ‘just how nervy the market became in the weeks running up to the Budget’. He said: ‘In November, large swathes of the market were suspended between confidence and caution. Every deal was hard-fought and sentiment was fragile, especially in areas with higher average prices – where pre-Budget jitters had a sharp chilling effect’.

Back at my neighbourhood agent, they’re not expecting much uplift in the first few months of next year either. That’s when the £2m-plus bracket will learn what exactly they must pay and there is no sign of the economic gloom lifting. If anything, it may worsen, depending on how retailers and the hospitality sector performed over the crucial peak spending season. “Merry Christmas,” said my agent, pointing to the tree in the window and shrugging, his voice laden with sarcasm.

The property industry’s mood then is dismal. It’s not helped either by the sleight of hand delivered by Reeves, in that the mansion levy is being portrayed as helping plug the national public funding gap, when the council tax is earmarked for local communities.

This matters because, as well as the secondary market of existing homeowners buying and selling, first-time buyers and new housing are similarly blighted. That’s important because housebuilding, construction a proven key economic drivers, creating jobs, drawing investment. Vital, too, for another reason, which is that the UK faces a chronic shortage of affordable housing. Put simply, more and more people have nowhere to live.

That’s why the government made it a central manifesto pledge, but where housebuilding is concerned, they have woefully failed to deliver. Labour said they would build 1.5 million new homes over their period in office – 300,000 a year. They are nowhere near that number. They declared they would ‘build baby build’, yet the number of new builds in London alone is the lowest for decades.

Shamefully, the cost of supplying temporary accommodation is putting even greater strain on already hard-pressed councils. More folks are technically homeless than we have known in generations. Currently, more than 169,000 children are living in temporary housing; others are in homes that are desperately in need of improvement and some still bear cladding of the sort that caused a fire hazard at Grenfell.

Housebuilding, or the lack of it, represents a national emergency – economically and socially. The entire system is sclerotic, with blockages occurring everywhere, in the availability of sites, planning, supplies, and finance. There is no impetus to get things done. It’s so bad that an expert in government and planning, Nick Kilby, who runs the Cratus communications agency, is advocating the calling of Cobra, the Cabinet Office committee that usually sits when there is a major incident, to knock heads together.

Kilby has written an open letter to Steve Reed, the housing secretary, to use Cobra to quickly convene’ the major housebuilders, developers and housing associations, alongside representatives from all the relevant bodies from local government, transport, planners, regulators for utilities, environment and Treasury. “Systematically go through each obstacle, deal with every issue and agree how the barriers will be removed”.

Then, suggests Kilby, “keep the pressure up with weekly meetings to ensure everyone delivers. Make your own demands to the housing sector to get on-site and get building. You will not be able to solve all the issues instantly, and you will not have all the answers, but you will be able to get people to make things happen. The system needs to be unblocked, solutions found, money and resources allocated and where the system says ’no’, we must transform it to say ’yes’”.

It may seem extreme, but these are extreme times requiring extreme measures. There is no downside, only upside, and right now, given the state of the economy and mounting deprivation, that is surely worth pursuing. Politically expedient too, which must appeal enormously to this government. We must get Britain moving (and building) again.