Rishi Sunak’s proximity to Johnson shot him to stardom but it could be his undoing January 20, 2022 Theresa May had a light smile on her lips as she expressed gratitude for the aviation industry and pressed the Prime Minister on his plans to drop testing rules for international travel. The one time Prime Minister was not the only Tory MP grateful for the joy of flight: Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, and [...]
The art of the Boris apology: I’m sorry for everything but also for nothing January 13, 2022 If you have ever played monopoly, you’ll know there is a certain flex in the rules – unless they’re being used against you. Sure, it’s fine if your incarcerated opponent doesn’t collect rent when you land on their property because they’re under the mistaken belief you can’t earn money in jail. But when the tables [...]
Commons snapshot: Boris’ worst enemies were in plain sight December 15, 2021 As Boris Johnson faced down a mass rebellion on his backbenches last night, there was also a sting from within his own Cabinet. Health Secretary Sajid Javid drew a line in the sand, saying he would “never” support vaccine passports which do not also have an option for a negative lateral flow test. For those [...]
The stages of a Downing Street scandal: first comes anger, then disillusionment December 9, 2021 There is a weary exhaustion to the fall-out of the cheese and wine, secret santa filled Christmas party at Downing Street last year, while many of us were in Tier 3 lockdown. It arrived in a week when we should have been talking about the ghost children missing from our schools, the people who were [...]
The old crowd of New Labour won’t save Keir Starmer’s skin December 2, 2021 Four days after Tony Blair published his hymn sheet for Labour to win another election, Keir Starmer had a reshuffle. Packing the front benches with familiar names and talent from the old New Labour crowd, Keir tried to assemble a cabinet to eventually win a ballot. Today’s by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup will be [...]
Today, asylum seekers are in the Channel but it is a global crisis we need to weather November 26, 2021 In the space of six years, around 1,100 people died at sea on small boats, only slightly more seaworthy than those crossing the Channel. Then, they were making the perilous journey that stretches thousands of kilometres from Indonesia to Australia. In 2013, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, implemented a policy of turning back the boats and [...]
Generation Netflix: The weekly release could fall victim to our binge habit November 23, 2021 Much ado about, uh, something, stumbled one of Logan Roy’s goons as he tried to stall for time at the fictional shareholder meeting that would decide the fate of Waystay Royco. The machiavellian drama has been drip fed out to audiences like a doctor administering morphine really, really slowly. In contrast, the likes of Squid [...]
Channel migrant crisis and Priti Patel’s Australian obsession November 22, 2021 Last week, Priti Patel blamed freedom of movement within the European Union for the number of migrants crossing illegally into the UK from France. She was also careful to keep the French in her bad books, saying they were simply too under resourced to deal with the problem. The number of migrants making the perilous [...]
PMQs: Keir Starmer finally gets his leader’s feet under the table with Northern rail letdown and sleaze spat November 17, 2021 Keir Starmer has finally figured out he is, in fact, leader of the Labour party as he takes on Boris Johnson over rail let downs and sleaze allegations
Theresa May fluffs her feathers on the backbenches November 17, 2021 Theresa May, who has been considerably more interesting as a backbench MP than as the actual Prime Minister, was packed full of flak for Boris Johnson yesterday. The ex-PM defied the three-line whip dished out by Johnson over a motion to give disgraced former MP Owen Paterson a a break and rewrite rules on Westminster [...]
