The evidence that changing PM can help win you a majority at the next election is, shall we say, mixed.
Yes: Eden to Macmillan, Thatcher to Major, May to Johnson.
No: Macmillan to Home, Wilson to Callaghan, Blair to Brown, Cameron to May, Johnson to Truss, Truss to Sunak.
Yes: Eden to Macmillan, Thatcher to Major, May to Johnson.
No: Macmillan to Home, Wilson to Callaghan, Blair to Brown, Cameron to May, Johnson to Truss, Truss to Sunak.
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After 50-yrs I've finally had it with the Today prog. It's not the presenters; it's the papers review which is now unlistenable because (inevitably given market share) it's dominated by headlines from increasingly hyperbolic, obsessive titles, leaving me cursing in the shower.
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Keir Starmer is in big trouble at home
@The2Matts from @TheNewWorldmag
open.spotify.com/episode/2FpvwZ…
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Yeah, right.*
*See, Monday, 10 December 2018
*See, Monday, 10 December 2018
Angela Rayner says welfare cuts vote will go ahead as Labour rebellion grows
Deputy PM says vote will happen next week, despite more than 120 Labour MPs signing amendment to pause cuts
theguardian.com/politics/2025/…
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Says a lot. A "ranking of every MP’s media visibility across the UK’s leading publications over the last 3 months." (Source: mp.govspendbase.uk)
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Why @UKLabour voters are deserting - and how hard it might be to get them back.
London isn't a Labour city any more — the three key questions that new polling raises standard.co.uk/comment/london…
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This from a fascinating (and chilling) @NewStatesman piece by his former bodyguard (newstatesman.com/world/middle-e…) is very much in keeping with @campbellclaret's remarks on Netanyahu's communication skills.
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨
Israel’s War Against Iran | Pre-emptive or Provocative?
In this week's episode, @campbellclaret and @RoryStewartUK discuss:
- An all-out war in the Middle East?
- How is the Israel–Iran conflict splitting the MAGA base?
And much more...
Link to full episode in replies 👇
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At a conference in the Labour Party in government in @LordAshcroft’s building. Hope he approves!
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Jesus wept. Surely it's only a matter of time before the Telegraph joins the below-the-line nutjobs who routinely refer to the Commission President as "Ursula fonda Lying".
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There's so much in @MatthewdAncona's brilliant epitaph for the Conservative Party (theneweuropean.co.uk/matthew-dancon…) that it's difficult to pick one thing out, so I'll just go with his pointing out Maggie's role in its downfall.
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Amazing the stuff you forget! This, which relates to Oct 2020, is from a draft for "The British General Election of 2024", tells you something about the 'Boriswave' (or as Starmer puts it, the 'one-nation experiment in open borders conducted on a country that voted for control').
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Re. Keir Starmer's immigration policy/speech, thought this might be useful. We surveyed 1003 members of the Labour Party just after #GE2024 and that was one of the issues we asked about. This is what we found. Not all ultra-liberal. But some potential quitters, maybe?
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Today I will mostly be celebrating the long and noble tradition of me publishing books on both of Britain's (formerly?) major parties just before things turn to sh*t for them.
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This aged well.
BREAKING: Peter Sullivan who has spent 38 years in jail for murder has conviction quashed
🔗Read more trib.al/imFiURM
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You know that stuff I stole from you, yeah? Well I'm gonna give you some of it back. Hope you're grateful.
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Wise words from @StanGreenberg
@ProfTimBale See my piece on Starmer’s opportunity greenbergresearch.com/his-thinking/k…
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Penultimately (apparently that is a word) on this #blurbodyssey (which most definitely is not), here's @Channel4News' finest, @GaryGibbonC4.
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If you'd like to see more (but it'll be factual rather than counterfactual, I admit), it's here in the updated paperback, just published. amazon.co.uk/Conservative-P… 2/ENDS
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The Tory Party's dead apparently. But what might have been, eh? Just for fun, here's the first counterfactual two pages of "The Conservative Party after Brexit" 🧵1/n
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From @DavidGauke: The direction the Conservatives will be tempted towards to seek salvation is not the way they need to go conservativehome.com/2025/05/05/dav…
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OK: here's a little game for you. The Tories and Reform decide to merge. What should the new party be called - and what should its logo look like? Hit reply and tell us!
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Think today's bad for the Tories? Remember when they got under 10% at a national election at the Europeans in 2019, with the Brexit Party (whatever happened to them?) coming top? One of many lowlights post Brexit - with apologies to Amber Rudd for reminding her of them all!
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Continuing this seemingly never-ending, utterly excruciating self-puffery, today's the turn of one of the Beeb's finest: @ChrisMasonBBC. Must admit, some of those events do seem 'incredible' when you look back at them. But they happened. They really did.
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Up next is @IsabelHardman of the @spectator and author of some fab books herself, including her recent one on the NHS and (possibly appropriately) "Why we get the wrong politicians".
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Next up is @steverichards14, which, because it's a Tuesday, gives me the chance to say that the latest episode of his Rock n' Roll Politics pod (podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/roc…) is out and you should listen to it (and only then buy my book😉).
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The nice people at @politybooks have just told me about a discount code and sent me some lovely graphics with some kind words attached, so forgive me if I drop them here now and then. Here (with apologies to both) is the @RestIsPolitics' @RoryStewartUK
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This (h/t @markpack) on Tory MPs ignoring @bluesky
is fascinating. Living in X's right-wing echo chamber will only reinforce the Conservative Party's obsession with chasing Reform, driving it even further towards becoming an ersatz populist radical right party.
is fascinating. Living in X's right-wing echo chamber will only reinforce the Conservative Party's obsession with chasing Reform, driving it even further towards becoming an ersatz populist radical right party.
More where that came from here: amazon.co.uk/Conservative-P… 2/ends
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‘Kemi popped in for a chat about trans stuff – I try, but I cannot find a mutually usable wavelength. She is another one who lives in a permanent state of outrage. It must be so tiring.’
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'Andrea Jenkyns arrived with her dog and her six-year-old son and then attempted to say that because she has ADHD, she “couldn’t be held accountable for what came out of her mouth.”’
Trust this won't be the case if and when she wins the Greater Lincolnshire Mayoralty for Reform?
Trust this won't be the case if and when she wins the Greater Lincolnshire Mayoralty for Reform?
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The cover of the updated paperback (not really).
And here's the inevitable, shameless plug - the updated paperback's out tomorrow (25 April). You could get it here (or somewhere else): amazon.co.uk/Conservative-P… Anyway, here's the blurb on the back cover. 3/ENDS
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And here's the inevitable, shameless plug - the updated paperback's out tomorrow (25 April). You could get it here (or somewhere else): amazon.co.uk/Conservative-P… Anyway, here's the blurb on the back cover. 3/ENDS
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...I guess I'd take issue with the "carefully managed" bit of "the tradition of carefully managed regicide" 😆 2/n
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Fascinating (and bound to drive right-wingers to distraction, I suspect). Source: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/uk-journalists…
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Still one of my favourite bits - Britain's bathetic 'Independence Day', 31 January 2020 (after the failure of the campaign to get Big Ben chiming in celebration):
The updated paperback has finally passed from the ethereal to the corporeal realm. Huge thanks to @politybooks - and to @RoryStewartUK, @steverichards14, and @GaryGibbonC4 for their kind words on the front and back!
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The updated paperback has finally passed from the ethereal to the corporeal realm. Huge thanks to @politybooks - and to @RoryStewartUK, @steverichards14, and @GaryGibbonC4 for their kind words on the front and back!
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Just in case interest in the Tory Party hasn't completely died, the (updated) paperback's due out in a couple of weeks or so. No need to buy it from @AmazonUK if you don't want to - it's just that I rarely see Politics books by academics on the high street (eg @Waterstones).
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tfw you take a quick look at the 25th Amendment and realise it's not gonna help.
'Medicine'? Trump has effectively injected bleach into the world economy. eu.usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
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'Some parties are more scared of it than others, and we're not scared. We're going to keep fighting for the people who deserve justice.'
Kemi Badenoch tells @CDP1882 the Tories are still pushing for a national inquiry and presenting amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill.
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"Russia was not on Trump's tariff list, despite running a $2.5bn goods trade surplus last year, according to the US Trade Representative's office."
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