Friday 16th December 2022

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Willow904]

Thanks for the QT review Sky. Always good hear about Rees Mogg being unpopular. He should be kicked out on his ass next GE, no problem, but for the usual fears of the split left vote. In other parts of Somerset voting Libdem is a no brainer. I'm confident they can retake both Wells and Frome, it's looking really good for them, but here in Mogg country it's a little trickier. There's a sizeable Labour vote, always has been, that the Libs have never really dented. Disillusioned Tories might go Libdem, but will it be enough to make a tactical vote for the Libdems worthwhile for Labour voters? The Libdems will say yes, they always do, but they've mostly been wrong in the past and the tactical vote for Labour from Libdems has usually been the best chance to get the Tory out. I'm hoping because it's Mogg they'll be some local polling which will help the anti-Mogg vote work out which way to go.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Wasn't the LibDem vote in JRM's seat inflated last time by a poll suggesting they were in second place?

I expect Labour to again be the clear challengers next time, though the proposed boundary changes make it safer for the Tories on paper at least.

[refitman]

Nothing quite like Labour MP doing a speech at a right wing 'think tank'

[AnatolyKasparov]

Getting a bit big for his boots isn't he, and I wonder if the leader agrees.

[frog222]

@Sky -- more thanks for the Review !

@AK -- surely he wouldn't be talking to PE if it wasn't planned ? But yes, I do wonder how sks sees him !


In place of the regular Friday night show**, 23 minutes with an uninterrupted Mick Lynch



**Don't know if there is a link, but they had a Big Christmas Party last Thursday ...

Local news -- one primary of 170 had 40 in yesterday . Care home in Granville-- a third of residents and staff down with Covid . Incidence Rate rising steadily , today 687.

[gilsey]

Adam Wagner has read Hancock's book so you don't have to.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/poli ... ies-review

To nobody's surprise:

If the book has an overarching theme it is that Hancock is the hero—and if this is unclear to the reader, Hancock repeatedly quotes people texting him to tell him he is one

What is obvious from Hancock’s book, if it wasn’t already, is that the small group of decision-makers responsible for Covid policy was hugely dysfunctional. Of the five—Johnson, Hancock, Sunak, Gove and Cummings—one was thrown out by his own party, one was pushed out of government, one resigned from office in disgrace, and one received a fixed penalty notice because the police believed he had committed a criminal offence during lockdown—he is now prime minister. These were bitter rivals in overlapping permutations, particularly Hancock and Cummings. There are many words spent on the childish power games, including the rivals disinviting the others from meetings and briefing against each other. There is a lot of hostile leaking (never, on his own account, by Hancock) which leads in early 2021 to a restriction on the number of people attending the powerful and already tiny “Covid-O” policy meetings.

Perhaps we got off lightly, given that we had probably the worst possible group of politicians in charge?

[gilsey]

Thanks to sky for the QT review, way above and beyond the call of duty.
What on earth possessed them to have Hitchens and Rees-Mogg on the same programme.