I'm John Batser with my colleague Joseph Sternberg. He's in London. He writes the political economics column for the Wall Street Journal editorial pages, a member of the editorial board.

And Joe has started me understanding to watch Sir Kerr's Starmer.

He has an overwhelming majority, 400-plus seats and commons, meaning he's assured as you can

be on this planet of having at least five years, maybe more, in the Premiership.

And yet his early days looked bumpy.

We talked about the riots that were in response to

immigration and poverty and despair.

And we've also noted that Sir Kirst-Stormer is supervising

what appears to be painful decisions,

although we don't have all of them yet, about budgeting and taxes.

Now we have a strange development that Joe needs, I need Joe's help to explain this. Sir Kistormer has want to vote in Commons

to impose a reduction in the government help to elderly people for winter heat. I think I've said that correctly.

And 50 members of his own party voted against him and 53 members MPs, maybe both parties, stayed away from the vote.

What does all this mean, Joe? Sir Kirst Armour is taking blankets away from old people?

Well, as we've discussed over the past couple of years, the UK, as much as any other European

country has been in the grip of an energy price crisis.

And one of the groups of people who are particularly vulnerable to the price rises have

been lower income elderly because certainly as you're older it is much more important

you have the correct temperature in your home through the winter. But if you were on a fixed income as retirees are, you would

find a squeeze from the dramatically increased cost of heating a home over the winter.

So the Conservative Party government that was in power

until July had come out with this blanket subsidy program,

...