Andy Burnham's intervention on migrant crisis proves PM has missed point completely

The Government is currently pushing ahead with its plans to foist 1,250 male asylum seekers on the small rural village of Piddington and its 400 residents. Home Office Minister Anna Turley said she would look into community issues – then completely overlooked residents’ understandable concerns about the numbers and threat to their safety, as well as the Government’s abuse of emergency powers.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has defended the wider initiative, stating that wealthy and middle-class postcodes must share the national responsibility of housing refugees rather than leaving it solely to the poorest communities, even though it will be more expensive for taxpayers.

His intervention missed the point completely. The public want these asylum seekers who arrive illegally to be detained and deported immediately, not comfortably housed across the UK.

Perfection – and a PR agency's dream!

I just love Amy Hunt – not just because she's become the first athlete in European Championships history to win four gold medals across a single competition – but because she looks so damn great all the time.

She is effortlessly perfect as she blasts to the finishing line. Perfect hair and make up, dazzling smile and perfectly manicured nails to boot. She is a public relations and marketing agency’s dream.

Tony's dream dies

Tony Blair's university boom is well and truly over.

Tuition fees are too high, graduation debt too burdensome and any graduate premium there used to be by having a degree no longer exists. In fact the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that one in four graduates would be financially worse off after going to university.

Degree apprenticeships are the way forward. Better still might be simply just getting a job after school and working your way up from the bottom.

Bring it on!

I can't be the only one who has been enjoying the hot weather.

Last week I went away for a few days with my dad to a health spa near Crewe – we could have been in the Mediterranean, sitting on the terrace sipping wine until 10pm.

I hear the Met Office is saying we could be gripped by a sixth heatwave next month. Bring it on. Phil's big holiday for me is a week in North Yorkshire, so I'm praying for some more sun!

Disaster from day one

Renationalisation of the railways will prove to be disastrous.

On day one, South Western Railway services turned up with fewer carriages than when it was in private ownership which sounds like we're already back to the bad old days of British Rail and standing up for the entire journey.

Avanti West Coast gets renationalised next Spring, but the Government has already told the operator to lose around 30 services each week. In fact I tried to get the 3.33pm train from Euston to Wilmslow last Tuesday, but that service was no more – it must have been one of the first casualties.

It seems very strange for the Government to be reducing carriages and services, particularly at a time when they simultaneously love to tell us there are capacity issues on the railways.

In fact lack of capacity was one of the reasons given to pursue the £180bn white elephant HS2, and is still an argument used by Burnham to resurrect a version of HS2 across Cheshire to Manchester airport.

It seems they are speaking with forked tongues.