It won’t be Brexit that defines Boris but the decisions he made at the start of the coronavirus crisis

It won’t be Brexit that defines Boris but the decisions he made at the start of the coronavirus crisis

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With the UK death toll rising by the day it is perhaps worth reflecting on the two decisions the government made at the start of the crisis. Firstly there was the reluctance to follow other nations to impose lockdowns straight away after the first death and then there was the agreement to allow this year’s Cheltenham Festival to take place as planned. The argument on the former was the desire to to delay the peak of the outbreak until the…

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The Thursday PB Nighthawks Cafe after an evening away from coronavirus pandemic developments

The Thursday PB Nighthawks Cafe after an evening away from coronavirus pandemic developments

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I’ve just spent the last three hours totally away from issues relating to the virus thanks to the remarkable plan by the National Theatre to screen free on ‘YouTube a production from its National Theatre Live programme. One Man Two Guvnors with James Corden has just ended and it has been thoroughly entertaining. I’ve not laughed as much in months. It is a feature of this whole affair that initiatives like this have emerged. If the shutdown is going on…

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Voting closes in the LAB leadership contest with Starmer rated as a 99% chance on Betfair

Voting closes in the LAB leadership contest with Starmer rated as a 99% chance on Betfair

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Just like in September 2011 when Ian Duncan Smith’s victory in the CON leadership race was overshadowed by the 9/11 attacks Starmer’s expected victory in the 2020 LAB leadership race isn’t going to get as much attention as would have been the case without the coronvirus pandemic. On Betfair punters have for nearly a month rated him as a 98%+ certainty. My guess is that Starmer won’t be phased by this and his first big moves will be in the…

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Today sees the worst set of front pages for the government since the crisis began

Today sees the worst set of front pages for the government since the crisis began

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Ministers will get hammered while there’s a shortfall in testing After a period when the government has been generally getting positive media coverage for its fight against the coronavirus all has changed this morning as can be seen. The biggest issue is the amount of testing going on even for NHS staff and others on the front-line. This is far short of expectations of what we had been led to expect. When the Mail and the Mirror are both attacking…

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Welcome to the Wednesday PB Nighthawks

Welcome to the Wednesday PB Nighthawks

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This is the place for the best late night political conversation. Everything continues to be dominated by the coronavirus pandemic with lockdowns in force in many countries throughout the world. Today’s latest UK death toll figures were the highest yet and we can expect that to continue. With so much of the economy closed down we are starting to see a debate on whether we should just accept the level of deaths and get back to normal. For the longer…

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Taking liberties

Taking liberties

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One of the most enjoyable aspects of investigations is listening to miscreants’ excuses for their bad behaviour. The same ones came up regularly, so much so that interviews would have been much quicker if we’d had a poster on the wall of the excuses so they could just have pointed and said: “6” with a bit of “9”. The two most common, usually presented with the passive-aggressive mulishness of schoolboys, were: “Where does it say I can’t do that?” and “Show…

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Guest slot from Stocky: Why it should be made clear that lockdown will not extend past 12 weeks

Guest slot from Stocky: Why it should be made clear that lockdown will not extend past 12 weeks

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An extreme utilitarianism stalks the land My daughter has started learning about philosophy. She is particularly enamoured with a thought experiment known as The Trolley Problem. The Trolley Problem invites us to either let things be with dire consequences or take action by pulling a lever and producing less dire consequences. Most people see this as a no-brainer: take action, pull the lever.    This choice supposedly outs most people as utilitarians; the right thing to do is to maximise utility,…

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