A Tale of Two Lawyers

A Tale of Two Lawyers

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L’Affaire Cummings is over, its lasting significance, if any, yet to be determined. But there is one aspect of it, largely ignored by the media, worth exploring. It relates not to the PM or his advisor but to the Government’s two main legal advisors: the Attorney-General, Suella Braverman, and the Lord Chancellor/Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland. First, a brief explanation. The Lord Chancellor is responsible for the justice system: the courts, prisons and probation services, some of the…

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Another pollster has Johnson dropping sharply in its leader ratings while Starmer takes a net lead

Another pollster has Johnson dropping sharply in its leader ratings while Starmer takes a net lead

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Can Boris get back to where he was? Ipsos-MORI, Britain’s oldest polling firm, has just produced its latest leader ratings and the trend is very similar to what we’ve seen from other pollsters. Johnson has taken a hit while Starmer has continued to rise. Clearly the PM’s lack of action over the Cummings lockdown road trip affair continues to grate with voters. With Starmer there are fewer don’t knows which are splitting in favour or the new LAB leader. This…

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In praise of Boris – the cycling enthusiast

In praise of Boris – the cycling enthusiast

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Getting people on bikes could be his and the pandemic’s great legacy What might be looked back on as one of the biggest decisions when the lockdown was being introduced in March was to include bike shops amongst the retailers that were specifically allowed to remain open. Quite what role Boris had in that move I don’t know but it is hard to see that exception being made if someone else had been elected Tory leader last year. The impact…

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New YouGov polling finds Moggsy’s MP voting plan has gone down like a lead balloon with voters, even Tory ones

New YouGov polling finds Moggsy’s MP voting plan has gone down like a lead balloon with voters, even Tory ones

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Even GE2019 CON voters overwhelmingly opposed There are so many things going on at the moment that the Rees-Mogg move to end distant voting by MPs didn’t get much attention apart from the pictures of the queuing arrangements. Quite why the government backed the measure is even more questionable now we’ve got some YouGov polling on what voters think. As can be seen above just 17% of Tory voters gave it their backing. It is issues like this when politicians…

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A big challenge for Johnson and his minsters is that their rating on how they’re handling COVID 19 has now gone negative

A big challenge for Johnson and his minsters is that their rating on how they’re handling COVID 19 has now gone negative

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Several pollsters are asking regular questions on how the public think the government is handling the pandemic. YouGov and Opinium have published the most data on this and I have chosen the former for my chart. The main trend is broadly the same which ever pollster you use and whatever the question format – a falling off of confidence in the government’s approach. It should be noted that with YouGov it went into negative territory before we got news of…

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Why Johnson can take little comfort from the Tory voting intention poll leads

Why Johnson can take little comfort from the Tory voting intention poll leads

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He’s being smashed by Starmer in the leader ratings The latest weekly poll from Opinium the the Observer had the Conservatives with a 4% lead while at the same time the same poll gave Starmer net 30% lead over Johnson in its approval question. On the face of it these two statements about this poll simply don’t make sense. The head of a party in the lead on voting would not, surely, have approval numbers that were so far off….

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Starmer tells Boris to “get a grip” as they prepare for the first PMQs since the Cummings lockdown revelations

Starmer tells Boris to “get a grip” as they prepare for the first PMQs since the Cummings lockdown revelations

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At noon in the Commons LAB leader Keir Starmer will face Johnson in the first PMQs since the story about the Cummings lockdown trip to Durham broke. This could be quite tricky for Johnson who has struggled when faced with the former DPP now Leader of the Opposition. In the Guardian this morning he’s quoted as saying: “We’ve called for an exit strategy. What we appear to have got is an exit without a strategy. We want to see society reopen,…

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