What does the UK’s next PM have to say about Trump’s latest racist Tweets?

What does the UK’s next PM have to say about Trump’s latest racist Tweets?

No doubt he’ll be pressed at his first PMQs One of the current big political issues in Washington at the moment is a series of Trump Tweets yesterday attacking elected female Democratic members of Congress for their criticism of him particularly over the regime he’s imposed on immigrants in border camps. The Tweets above are part of his response and are probably the most overtly racist public comments that he’s made. The fact that his focus is on elected prominent…

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This unique feel good moment has the potential to change our politics. The questions are will it and how

This unique feel good moment has the potential to change our politics. The questions are will it and how

Probably the most significant decision by a media organisation in decades was that by Sky to allow yesterday’s Lords final of the cricket World Cup to be broadcast on free to air television. This meant that many more people were sitting gripped to their TVs as Stokes faced that “Super over” that clinched it. This made it a truly national England and Wales event. In Scotland things will be looked at very differently but that’s another story and and likely…

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What is there to say after a sporting day like this one?

What is there to say after a sporting day like this one?

Cartoon by @briancartoon for @Independent https://t.co/ZeBZCzCttV pic.twitter.com/N1C7CN79MJ — John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) July 14, 2019 I’d focused on the tennis and have just watched the final hour of the cricket on C4+1. Totally amazing. Mike Smithson Follow @MSmithsonPB Tweet

The next Home Secretary betting

The next Home Secretary betting

Within a fortnight we should have a new Home Secretary. When Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister it is widely expected that his Chancellor will be Sajid Javid which creates a vacancy at the Home Office. So who will succeed Javid? I’m also working on assumption that Jeremy Hunt will remain Foreign Secretary under Boris Johnson, he views any other cabinet job, other than Chancellor of the Exchequer as a demotion so he’d retire to the backbenches. Boris Johnson will not…

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Sounding the alarm. Britain’s democracy is under direct threat

Sounding the alarm. Britain’s democracy is under direct threat

In two weeks’ time, Britain will have a Prime Minister whose commitment to democracy is contingent. Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to rule out proroguing Parliament in order to secure a no deal Brexit by 31 October 2019. Let us call proroguing Parliament by its proper name: suspending democracy. The United Kingdom operates with an executive that is supervised by the legislature. If the executive suspends the legislature (which is what proroguing is), it is suspending the democratic control of…

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The idea that Johnson is an electoral asset is not supported by his record

The idea that Johnson is an electoral asset is not supported by his record

Winning the Mayoralty when the Tories were 20%+ ahead was no big deal Much of the case for Johnson is based on the fact that he won the London Mayoralty for the Tories in 2008. The capital is seen as strong Labour territory therefore, the argument goes, he’s the man to lead the party when there’s the threat of Labour advancing. The only problem with that 2008 Mayoral result is that for the Tories generally it was the party’s best…

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Boris vacillated on Darroch because he’s weak, not because of Trump

Boris vacillated on Darroch because he’s weak, not because of Trump

His verbal grandiosity is a mask for a lack of self-confidence Boris Johnson has always had a facility for a briefly memorable turn of phrase. Whether referring to table tennis as, archaically, ‘whiff-whaff’ or describing Brexit talks extending into further rounds beyond October 31 as the ‘hamster wheel of doom’, Johnson’s words have the capacity to amuse and distract. For a politician, that’s a useful skill up to a point. The problem is that the phrases, like Johnson himself, tend…

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Two new polls this afternoon with very different shares for LAB and the Greens

Two new polls this afternoon with very different shares for LAB and the Greens

If LAB had been doing better at recent elections then you might say that Survation has got this right. But Corbyn’s party had a miserable set of locals in May followed up by dreadful Euro elections three weeks later when they slipped down to just 13.6% and could not even maintain position as top party in London. They did, of course, hold Peterborough in June but with a share down 17% on GE2017. At the Euro election YouGov got the…

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