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Author: David Herdson

Schools reopening has to be at the heart of the Covid plan. Everything else is ad hoc tinkering

Schools reopening has to be at the heart of the Covid plan. Everything else is ad hoc tinkering

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As ever, there’s a lack of strategic thinking to the government’s response Lockdown began in the UK on 24 March because the governments mandated it but not really because they chose to. There were many reasons propelling politicians to that decisions, from the mounting numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths to the examples being set abroad. What’s easily forgotten though is the extent to which the lockdown was in no small part a legal regulation of something that was already…

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It’s time to ban Americans

It’s time to ban Americans

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Voluntary, unenforced quarantine isn’t enough for high-Covid19 countries President Trump likes to congratulate himself on having closed the border to China in early February as an effective preventative measure against Covid-19. That he should do so isn’t too surprising: congratulating himself is his default setting and his administration has routinely adopted an anti-China stance, as part of Trump’s efforts to rebalance the trade deficit between the two countries. Even so, while the measure was hardly sufficient, it was at least…

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Can Johnson raise the Tories’ game above Easy mode? Can Labour force him to?

Can Johnson raise the Tories’ game above Easy mode? Can Labour force him to?

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Governments with no effective opposition become arrogant and complacent Why did the Lib Dems choose the Tories over Labour after the inconclusive 2010 general election? Although only a decade ago, it could as well have been a lifetime given how much has changed since – and in the last five years in particular. But that change makes the question all the more pertinent. The numbers were a big part of it, of course. The Tories could promise a stable government…

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The end of the honeymoon

The end of the honeymoon

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At some point LAB will take the lead Labour has not led in any GB poll since 28 July 2019, four days after Boris Johnson succeeded Theresa May as Prime Minister. They did so with a share of just 30%: one more than the Tories and one less than the combined Lib Dem and Brexit Party shares. It seems a lot more than eleven months ago. Clearly, a huge amount has changed since then but the Tory position at the…

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It’s time to take a Biden landslide seriously

It’s time to take a Biden landslide seriously

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Trump may recover but he could be overwhelmed Donald Trump has always treated his presidency as a game show; one where success is measured in ratings and dollars. Controversy is to be welcomed: it keeps attention on him and his fans love it. As politics, it’s been relatively successful – enough so to win him the presidency, even if his approval figures have never been much to write home about and the mid-terms were a serious set-back. Events, however, have…

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Trump: Pardon Me

Trump: Pardon Me

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4/1 is value that he’ll pardon himself this term Decorum has never featured highly among Donald Trump’s characteristics. If you view life rather like a computer game where the High Scores are measured in dollars and ratings, and any casulaties along the way can be dismissed as casually as a pixellated image, norms of behaviour are of little consequence. And decorum is certainly not what to expect should Trump lose in November. And he should lose. RCP give Joe Biden…

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Submission or No Deal: where do the Brexit talks end up this year?

Submission or No Deal: where do the Brexit talks end up this year?

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It’s hard to see how there can be a bespoke agreement by December If it was going to happen, it would have done so months ago. Confirmation yesterday that Britain would not exercise its right to request an extension to the Brexit transition period was one of the more predictable events of 2020. Despite the ravages wreaked on the UK economy by the Covid-19 pandemic and the shutdown it necessitated, the danger of a No-FTA exit creating yet more barriers…

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Lockdown is over. What next?

Lockdown is over. What next?

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Complex and odd rules plus the Cummings effect mean the public will decide for themselves what to do about Covid-19 Winston Churchill did not go out of his way to sell sunny optimism. During the 1930s, much to the irritation of his own party, he led the campaign to rearm the country in the face of a Nazi threat he considered – and said – was much greater and more imminent than the government would allow. On becoming prime minister,…

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