The extraordinary thing about today is that Sunak has not yet acted on Zahawi. He’s still there doing heaven knows what damage to his party. One of the things about being a leader is that you have to have it in yourself to sack those of your team when the need arises. The first objective for the Prime Minister is to maintain the reputation of his government and allowing this story to dominate the news yet again isn’t very smart….
I’ve got a hospital appointment today so there will be no more updates from me until I return. This is my main focus at the moment. Mike Smithson
Good question. In a week when we’ve learnt that a Met officer known as “Bastard Dave” by his colleagues was left uninvestigated on 9 separate occasions when allegations were made, why did those colleagues and his bosses do nothing and say nothing? How is it possible that people turn a blind eye to what is being said and done in front of them, the nature of the people they associate with, listen to and, all too often, enable? By their…
This morning Ipsos issued their January leader ratings and as can be seen in the chart above the numbers are not very good for Boris Johnson. There is one figure in British politics who attracts more negatives than Johnson, Corbyn, who is simply no longer relevant and I’m not even sure without checking whether he is still a member of the parliamentary Labour Party. Johnson attracts very significant negatives and this, I would suggest, rules out him returning to the…
Ladbrokes have a market up on whether The Duke of Sussex will attend his father’s coronation. This market is a poor reflection on King Charles III that he has created such a hostile environment that his youngest son may not attend his coronation. To fair and balanced observers like myself what really annoys me about this situation is the King’s hypocrisy. Back in the 1990s King Charles III did what The Duke of Sussex is accused of doing now. The…
There is a famous internet meme where the phrase ‘I can’t even’ means the person uttering the phrase is so shocked and speechless by an event or events they don’t know what to say. I’m experiencing that exact same sensation with the stories about about Nadhim Zahawi and Boris Johnson. This is the sort of behaviours you’d expect to see in a banana republic, even Robert Mugabe would have blushed at the antics from this government. For those of us…
One of the regulars in R&K polling is this question about whether people are pessimistic or optimistic about where the country is heading. I have to admit that this is one of those poll findings that I tend to skip over because it doesn’t directly impact on electoral outcomes which is my main focus. But I do think that where we are at the moment with 53% saying they’re pessimistic and just 21% saying optimistic is not a good one…