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The status of Northern Ireland in Johnson’s 2019 Brexit deal always had the potential to be problematical for ministers and as we have seen in the last couple of days things are coming to a head. There are those who take the view that the details of the Good Friday Agreement which brought the troubles to an end made any exit by the UK from the EU difficult to achieve. For how could the GFA’s commitment to what was effectively…

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And dreadful figures for Salmond We don’t often see Scotland specific YouGov favourability ratings but these have just been published by YouGov. It is striking how much better Sturgeon is doing than her party. The numbers are broadly in line with what you would expect with Johnson and the Tories doing very badly. The only consolation for the PM is that the former Scottish First Minister, Salmond is doing even worse. Labour and Starmer are faring better but still no…

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It just reminds the world that they were first The latest research on the effectiveness of the AZC/Oxford vaccine reinforces the kudos for Hancock in getting early supplies and being a media savvy politician it was he who was the minister doing the round of morning media appearance. For until this data came out this jab had been had been perceived as something second second-rate compared with the others that were available. You could see on Twitter and other social…

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There’s a great piece in the Guardian on the influence that the 2011 Matt Damon movie, Contagion, has had on the government’s approach to COVID – a story that was first covered by SkyNews. Under the heading “How Matt Hancock’s obsession with Matt Damon film drove UK’s vaccine strategy” Archie Bland writes that a surprising factor in the UK approach has been the HealthSec’s interest in the Matt Damon movie featuring a virus-ridden pig. He writes: .. In particular, Hancock wanted…

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The above clip of Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, speaking to the Senate on the last day of the Trump presidency is a possible good pointer to a new market that Smarkets have up on what he specifically is going to do in the vote next week. Currently the chances of McConnell voting for impeachment are rated by the markets as a 21% chance which I think might be a good bet. There’s no doubt about his view of Trump’s…

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The desire (expressed by some – the WHO, for instance) for Britain to give away vaccines to other countries before we have vaccinated our own population is politically insane and, frankly, immoral. There: I’ve said it. Call me selfish, if you will. But let me explain why I say this. Let’s take the young: they may not have the same risks of dying as older people but they do face the risks of catching Covid which, as my 22 year…

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But it will take a few weeks before this shows in the daily infections/deaths totals However you look at it the scale of the UK vaccination programme over such a short period has been quite amazing. As well as getting supplies of the vaccines there has been all the effort to set up vaccination centres and staff them and getting priority groups through the doors all in a few weeks. In most places in England those in the fourth level,…

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