After the general election, the pretence that the next big battle for independence is just around the corner will finally have run out of road.
The Conservative MP for Bournemouth East adds that he would stay in the Conservatives if Nigel Farage became a member.
His critics think he is “a busted flush”: how eager he will be to demonstrate that he is, on the contrary, serious.
Some constituencies could be challenging. But we have seen the back of a ‘progressive’ coalition in County Hall, comprising Liberal Democrats, Labour, and the odd Green Councillor.
A friend of Michael Gove and a former Liberal Democrats, he is bidding for the Daily Telegraph and is an investor in GB News, which he hopes to see at the centre of such an election, if it happens.
While large majorities of voters remain instinctively on side with tackling climate change, once you ask them to reflect on the personal financial costs, they simply become much less supportive and more open to alternative political appeals.
The number of possibilities teaches us three lessons about politics today. Firstly, never to underestimate the role played by mere chance. Secondly, that this is not an age of great leaders who make their own luck. And, thirdly, that we need to choose more carefully in future.
Immigration is currently the third most important issue for all voters and the second most important for the people who voted Tory in 2019 – the people Rishi Sunak must win back if he is to have any chance of retaining power.
He has already won back large numbers of voters since he entered Number 10, and both the polls and the focus groups confirm that many more are prepared to wait longer before making up their minds.
Do not confuse the quietude on the part of Matthew Parker Street for anything more than the usual calm between election periods.
Even amidst dire polling for the Tories nationally, nobody seems to think a 1997-style wipeout is on the table in Scotland.
Almost sixteen years after he left office, the long shadow of Tony Blair still looms over British politics. It’s time to step out of it.
Ministers must make a priority of controlling our borders and stimulating growth with a tax-cutting, pro-enterprise agenda.
More than half think Sir Keir Starmer will secure an overall majority, just one parliament after the Tories’ historic 2019 victory.
Our focus groups found the Party’s recent tweet, which featured a BBC newsreader raising her middle finger to the camera, played very badly with the people it needs to win back.