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,…
But Scotland is seen as handling the pandemic better than England
Can the PM get back to where he was? The above is one of the videos now on YouTube with the words of the Proclaimers 500 Miles song adapted for Mr Cummings and his drive to Durham during the lockdown. This events of the past week have dominated the headlines and become a big talking point. The question is what will be the long term political impact? All the polling as we have seen has been very negative with even…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vsSHyjEMrg Tonight on YouTube starting at 7pm there’s a rerun of what to me is best play about politics in years – James Graham’s “This House” chronicling the period 1974 until Mrs. Thatcher’s victory in 1979. It is set in the whips offices of both Labour and Tories from the February 1974 election being called through to 1979. We watch first the period when Labour tried operate without a majority and then as it tries to govern with a majority…
At this rate crossover might happen quite soon On the face of it the polling trends look worrying for the Conservatives and good for LAB which is seeing a lot of progress in getting the gap smaller. However I don’t think we should read too much into this because, of course, the big difference between start of the lockdown and now is that LAB now has a new leader and not the electorally unpopular Corbyn who led the party to…
This could be by August 1st – two weeks before the convention This is how the Hill is reporting statement’s from the campaign: Former Vice President Joe Biden says he hopes to decide on a running mate by Aug. 1, about two weeks before the Democratic nominating convention in Milwaukee. Speaking at a digital fundraiser hosted by former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Biden said his campaign’s vice presidential committee has already interviewed the contenders on his shortlist. “We’re in the process of…
Tory voters split 49-49 Inevitably when a development is so party political you would expect polling responses to follow a partisan divide. The above table from tonight’s YouGov suggests that is still the case with Cummings and the lockdown but not quite at the scale you would expect. Just half of all Tories in today’s polling are saying it is important which is one reason why this isn’t going to go away. Meanwhile Johnson was grilled for two hours by…
So now we know: as in Pirates of the Caribbean, the rules of the C aren’t so much rules, they’re more what you’d call guidelines. Robert Jenrick has confirmed that the public could always exercise “a degree of personal judgement”. This will come as a considerable surprise to the 27million people who listened to Boris Johnson on 23 March: “give the British people a very simple instruction. You must stay at home, because the critical thing we must do to stop the disease spreading…