The answer, of course, to the question in the headline is no, but it does increase pressure on Sunak if he now seen worse than Liz Truss with key voters, this is a long term trend, as Bloomberg observe Just 59% of voters who backed the Conservatives under Boris Johnson at the 2019 election are sticking with the party under Sunak, the report found. That’s down from 74% in August 2022, and from 63% in the aftermath of Truss’s disastrous “mini-budget” in…
LostPassword asks did Liz Truss end the Thatcherite consensus? One of the aspects of the Thatcherite consensus less often credited to the 1980s Prime Minister who looms large over British politics, was the practice of increasing the rate of Employee* National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and cutting the rate of Income Tax. In 1979, when Thatcher took office, the rate of NICs was 6.5% and the basic rate of Income Tax was 33%. When a tearful Margaret was ousted from Downing…
As somebody who lives on a city that is built on seven hills, regularly traverses the Pennines, and drives rear wheeled drive vehicles I am not one to love the snow but I can understand why many others do. As we approach the festive season, the forces of reason and enlightenment win but barely in the below polling. TSE
We are now just six and a half weeks away from the first actual voting WH2024 that will decide who wins the American presidential election next November. The primares start on the 15th of January when the Republicans in Iowa could be ready to push their support behind Nikki Haley who as the table RCP above shows has taken significant favorability lead over both Trump and Biden. What we do know is that these opening States can have a huge…
Image: Opinium’s methodology change from February 2022 As we head into the final stretch before the General election, the polls loom larger in the minds of pundits and political punters. The basic polling question is a hypothetical one “If there was a General Election tomorrow, how would you vote?” When we all know that the real election is months away, and people will change their minds. As the wider public increases interest polls are likely to move, the fabled “swingback”…
If Sunak cannot lead Starmer on the economy then what exactly is Sunak good for? In Sunak’s defence this is the result of the excrement of the Truss/Kwarteng fiscal event hitting the fan on his watch. You really cannot mess around with people’s houses but as Alastair Meeks has noted Sunak’s attempt to polish a turd ain’t working. TSE
Picture: Thatched roofed houses in Guyana, credit Wikimedia Commons Guyana is a tiny South American country, perched on the Atlantic coast, with Venezuela to the northwest, Brazil to the south and west, and Suriname to the east. It has a population of just 800,000, and a GDP per capita of around $10,000 US. Why is this insignificant little crumb on the world map worthy of interest? Because current events around Guyana may have larger geopolitical consequences, and could potentially…
Perhaps the inquiry will surprise on the upside like the Chilcot inquiry? I do expect the next general election to see Covid-19 and revelations from the inquiry so far to feature heavily. TSE