The first of a look at the main options The most lively political betting market at the moment is on who Joe Biden will choose to be his nominee for the vice presidential slot. The party convention is not due to take place until August vote but it is expected that he will make an announcement sometime before then. What makes this more important than usual is Biden’s age, 77, and occasionally the frail way that he appears. It is…
VE Day was just the end of the beginning We’ll meet again – although probably only the once in that sense. The World War II generation are now very elderly and while some will survive to the eightieth anniversary in 2025, they’ll be few: the youngest in their late-nineties, most past a hundred. Thereafter, the direct link will be broken. In terms of the global political leadership, that link was long since severed. The last British PM to have experienced…
Although there has been no big breakthrough for LAB since double election loser Corbyn was replaced by Starmer a positive is that the party is now out of the 20s and the CON share is edging down. Inevitably during a crisis like this one it is hard for the opposition leader to get a look in because just about the only story being covered by the national media has been the pandemic. A worry for the Tories is the growing…
Keir Starmer always had a mountain climb and the covid-19 crisis has made his task even tougher. But, argues Joff Wild, writing Labour off at this stage would be a mistake The government is presiding over a mounting coronavirus death toll, many ministers seem completely out of their depth, Keir Starmer is beginning to provide considered and serious opposition, so why aren’t the headline numbers in the polls even hinting at a change of mood? The two most recent show…
Yes, all eyes are on the Presidency. But let us not forget that there are other national US elections taking place on November 3: the Senate and the House of Representatives. I’m not going to dwell on the House, where I think the Republicans will regain some ground, but not enough to take the Chamber back. Instead, let’s talk about the Senate. The current composition is 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 Independents. The two Independents (Bernie Sanders and Angus…
It is perhaps worth reminding ourselves that today would have been General Election day if Theresa May had not gone early in 2017. When she took over as leader and Prime Minister after the referendum she made it very clear that she had no intentions of rushing into an early general election. Under the fixed-term Parliament Act the general election was due to take place on May 7th 2020 which given what is happening now with the coronavirus pandemic would…
The tabloids are very clear this morning that the shutdown is going to be eased next week. Johnson’s comments on yesterday receive great coverage and all sound positive for ministers provided of course, that he hasn’t over promised and that the change does not produce an increase in the death toll. I just wonder whether the tabloids have raised an expectation for an easing of the lockdown which is in excess of what is possible at the moment. One thing…
A look at the huge financial commitment One of the criticisms of the 2008 bank bailouts was that banks had privatised the profits but nationalised the losses. It wasn’t entirely accurate: shareholders and plenty of bank staff lost money and jobs. Had banks failed, plenty of other businesses would have failed too. But it was broadly true. Those whose key job it was to manage risk failed abysmally, took insane risks, pocketed unjustifiably high rewards which did not accurately reflect…