Robert Courts has been elected Chair of the Defence Select Committee, succeeding Tobias Ellwood after the latter jumped before he was pushed. Courts won in the first round with 249 votes, defeating Mark Francois and Sarah Atherton. Some advice: avoid praising the effectiveness of the Taliban…
“Too many notes, Mozart. Very good effort but too many notes.”
Keir Starmer was saying that the British public wanted to tell the Conservatives to “eff off” and the PM was saying, “A £100,000 mortgage locked in six months before the end with savings £350 a month with a new deal AND repossessions prohibited 12 MONTHS after the first missed payment. TWICE as generous as Labour’s!”
What administrative arpeggios he can improvise – the audience really needs a degree in public policy to appreciate our prime minister as he deserves. Keir’s adenoidal adagio rather cut through, the Alastair Campbell school of rhetoric: Eff off Prime Minister.
He had tied it to the Tory candidate at Tamworth who had gone on the record as advising beneficiaries to “f*** off,” and categorised it as “official government policy.” He called for a general election “so that the British public can return the compliment.”
With his weakness for the underdog, your correspondent is firmly on the side of the prime minister. When Keir brought up the case of Anna Lisa who had been no-fault evicted, I struggled not to heckle, “Laffer effects! It’s Laffer!”
“What other message could she possibly take?” he asked.
The correct message – and no details are necessary – is that making evictions easier will increase the supply of rental properties and thus bring rents down, making life both easier and cheaper for renters. Agreed it’s a variation on Laffer rather than the opening theme, but with time and tuition, Anna Lisa would see the logic and the beauty of it. With an intensive program of door-to-door economic one-on-ones, our country would be ready for a Tory government in – what – 150,000 years?
Number 10 are putting out slick (ish) graphics to celebrate one year of Rishi – minus the errors and deletions. CRD sent out a note with a new Sunak name gaffe (“SUANK”). Not the first time they’ve had this sort of trouble…
It’s now clear that Sunak’s party conference and policy blitz failed to spin itself into the much promised boost – and endlessly promised big attacks on Starmer do not appear to have materialised. As Guido has covered, as the one year mark passes, Rishi’s personal polling is down on all fronts. Where will the Tories be one year from now?
ITV News has finally apologised for interviewing a reporter from Iranian state-backed channel Press TV on Monday. Latifa Abouchakra, who appeared on ITV News to discuss Islamophobia, was identified only as a “British Palestinian woman living in London” during the show. Somehow they forgot to mention how she’d described Hamas’ massacre as a “moment of triumph”…
She shared the video above to social media on 7th October, immediately after Hamas murdered hundreds of innocent people:
“Nothing will ever be able to take back this moment, this moment of triumph, this moment of resistance, this moment of surprise, this moment of humiliation on behalf of the Zionist entity”.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote to ITV News after the programme aired, blasting the channel’s “staggering failure of due diligence” over its airing. What were they thinking…
Hat-tip: Sabrina Miller
Read ITV News’ editor Andrew Dagnell letter below:
One of his better gags at the despatch box…
Members are voting for Tobias Ellwood’s successor as Defence Select Committee chairman today – it’s between Robert Courts, Sarah Atherton, and Mark Francois. Francois is reminding MPs of his distinguished record and iron-clad principles this morning with the time-tested method of stuffing leaflets in inboxes. Guido knows of few in Parliament more “unafraid to scrutinise”…
Stay tuned for the results at 2:30 p.m.
