On the day the Premiership returns the big political story is the Johnson meal voucher U-turn following a campaign by a leading footballer

On the day the Premiership returns the big political story is the Johnson meal voucher U-turn following a campaign by a leading footballer

Comments 0 Comment

And Cameron’s GE2010 pension “triple lock” could be suspended The big political news for the tabloids is the huge concession that Boris Johnson has made over the provision of meal vouchers to a million plus poor children. This followed an intervention by the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford. The move coincides with the resumption of professional football today albeit with the remaining Premiership matches being played behind closed doors. The climb down from the government followed an emotional letter to…

Read More Read More

Joe Biden says Trump will have to be “escorted from the White House” if he’s not re-elected

Joe Biden says Trump will have to be “escorted from the White House” if he’s not re-elected

Comments 0 Comment

One of the increasing worries about November’s US Presidential election is that Trump might not willingly leave the White House if he fails to get re-elected. The Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, Joe Biden, is already starting to talk publicly about this concern which has been raised by many others – see the interview with Trevor Noah linked to above. The timing is interesting. The election takes place on November 2nd but the winner will have to wait until the inauguration…

Read More Read More

Rewards for Failure

Rewards for Failure

Comments 0 Comment

John Bercow, Tom Watson and Karie Murphy should be feeling quite aggrieved, having apparently been blackballed from receiving peerages because of ongoing investigations into allegations about past behaviour. What is this novel concept of holding people accountable for their actions? It hasn’t been like this for ages – ever since lying, lustful Profumo went into the library with the metaphorical whisky and revolver. Soo unfair! Consider: Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner in charge when the Met made a fool…

Read More Read More

It is beginning to look that a no-deal Brexit could be off the agenda

It is beginning to look that a no-deal Brexit could be off the agenda

Comments 0 Comment

While the media has been almost totally focused on the pandemic the time is running down on the transition period for the UK’s exit from the EU at the end of the year. This might change following the latest reports emanating from Brussels and Downing Street that suggests a deal is looking a bit more likely. A big issue is fishing where until now Brussels has EU demanded that Britain must respect the right of fleets from EU countries to…

Read More Read More

Scoping the damage of the Cummings road trip and Johnson’s decision to ignore it

Scoping the damage of the Cummings road trip and Johnson’s decision to ignore it

Comments 0 Comment

Johnson leader ratings We all know that on Friday May 22nd the Guardian and the Mirror first broke the story of the trip to Durham by Cummings and his family just before the Easter Weekend. Over the following few days it was just about the biggest thing dominating the UK media and everybody it seemed had an opinion. The question is how has this hurt the Tories and Johnson. The above tables show the voting intention and leader ratings from…

Read More Read More

It appears Sir Keir Starmer has made a great first impression

It appears Sir Keir Starmer has made a great first impression

Comments 0 Comment

One of the things I like about the Ipsos MORI ratings is that they go back so far so you can make decent comparisons, their leader ratings have been an outstandingly accurate barometer on who will win the next general election, they have been a better barometer than voting intention polls. I thought it would be interesting to see how Sir Keir Starmer’s ratings two months into the job looked, and he’s the best performing Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal…

Read More Read More