A lesson that Starmer should learn from Boris Johnson. However glorious your majority might look on the morning after the election, events can soon overcome it.
Yesterday marked fifty years since Edward Heath asked voters “Who governs Britain?” and received the polite but firm reply of “Not you, mate”.
For all the Shadow Chancellor’s efforts to pose as the voice of fiscal discipline, pressure for higher spending from her colleagues and party continue to add up.
When British politics falls into the hands of trendy university graduates, the working class looks to untrendy leaders – Thatcher, Johnson – for salvation.
By the time the Government’s legislation is enacted, inflation may well be coming down, and a suitable wage settlement might be a viable prospect. However right this policy is, it might prolong a dispute that could fade of its own accord.
The unions were small-c conservatives. They paraded under heraldic banners, had no truck with such new-fangled ideas as women’s rights, and wanted to keep every coal mine in the country open.
The Transport Secretary, an early backer of Johnson for the leadership, has become one of the Government’s most trusted media performers
In a nutshell, the issue is that tightening monetary and fiscal policy at the same time could force the economy to a stuttering halt.
We should never forget the millions of people who are “just about managing” – they will find it harder to budget over the next few months.
Keynesian Macmillan got through four Chancellors in six years. We hope that Boosterist Johnson, who’s already lost one, doesn’t see this as a precedent.
All three PMs did about as well as anyone could in the circumstances, and all three, so far as one can see, are doomed.
The first piece in a ConHome mini-series this week on industrial strategy after the pandemic.
If only 6,000 people, with 45 contacts each, are infected every day, we will need a capacity of 276,000 tests just to keep up.
Much of Westminster seems hell bent on pursuing net zero – never mind what this means for the average household.