
Duncan Simpson: Three tasks for Johnson. Cull quangos. End taxpayer-funded lobbying. And reform appointments.
Cleaning up the state won’t be a quick and easy task. But if Boris Johnson doesn’t grasp the nettle, it will certainly come back to sting.
Cleaning up the state won’t be a quick and easy task. But if Boris Johnson doesn’t grasp the nettle, it will certainly come back to sting.
We say again that there is a danger of Conservative expectations getting ahead of the electoral facts.
If the campaign management were outsourced, as recently, who would take it on? And if it weren’t, could CCHQ really cope?
He says he’s best placed to deliver Brexit, slash corporation tax and beat Corbyn. And adds “I am not going to criticise Boris for going to a posher public school than me.”
Many will hope that Gove and Hunt duke it out in a constructive way for the right to take on the man who is the clear winner from the week’s events.
Conservative MPs should not sit idly by as their party’s ratings sink to the mid-30s and below. There’s reason to think the change isn’t temporary.
She voted for Davis in 2005, and her hero is Airey Neave: “The escape from Colditz is I think probably the coolest thing any British politician has ever done.”
The PM lost her majority by running a single issue campaign which left Corbyn the chance to pose as the champion of ordinary people.
Between 1997 and 2005, public sector spending rose from £336 billion to £517 billion a year. But its output has increased little, so its productivity has fallen dramatically.
And those that never were, such as 1978, 1991 and 2007. Prime Ministers tend to make the opposite error to that of their predecessors.
Such a generational shift in peacetime is remarkable, and strengthens the case for a member of a recent intake to succeed the Prime Minister.
The shock over the overall result has distracted us from how remarkable some of each party’s gains really were.
The halcyon days of Charles Kennedy’s leadership offer a clear temptation to revert to the party’s old opportunist ways. Will their new, more governmental habits stick?
This is the consequence of declining turnout and less support for the two main parties.
Turnout varies wildly between constituencies. What could that mean in a close election?