The Prime Minister showed the resilience indistinguishable from shamelessness which all PMs require.
The Conservative Party must not get locked into thinking that improving the efficiency of the public sector will make the sums add up either. We need to move away from ‘The Crisis Management State’ to ‘The Preventative State’.
The upside of a new cross-party appointments process would be distance from the government of the day. The downside is the danger of boiling it down to a lowest common denominator.
The two leaders preached to the converted by trading exaggerated insults.
Still less are civil servants paid to do so rather than getting on with the job – which taxpayers fund.
He was the most formidable Chancellor of the Twentieth Century and a titan of the modern Conservative Party – voting for Sunak and endorsing his approach in last summer’s Tory leadership election.,
The electoral punishment of getting policy wrong now could be long-lasting.
It could be used towards that first deposit, or for a small range of other approved purposes, such as education and training, setting up a business, or putting money into a pension.
It is absurd to keep demanding citizens prove their identity whilst making a pious stand against giving them an easy way to do so.
The Education Department treats universities like poorly performing secondary schools, and now intervenes in them so much that the ONHS may well propose bringing them into the public sector.
In the geo-political battle of ideas, between an open, liberal vision of government and society, and a more authoritarian template, the continent, overwhelmingly, is in the right column.
Should conservative parties pursue liberal-minded centrist support or compete against far-Right populists for working-class voters?
Two children watching the exchanges from the gallery did not get bored, so in that respect the pantomime had been a success.
If the party wants to win over the young, it is going to have to meet them halfway. Expect a reverse on Brexit or gender self-ID in the next two decades (buy Nokes, sell Badenoch).
The challenge for Sunak should not be underestimated. Outperforming Brown’s electoral tightening of 2010 may not even produce an outright majority. But politics is all about definition in the moment.