After recent events some Lobby journalists’ X feeds are curiously empty in the period during and immediately after Starmer’s brief moment in the sun with Trump on 27 February. Bit of housekeeping may be underway…
Hacks at the time could not contain themselves – you could not move on social media for “his triumphant DC summit“s or “his Washington triumph“s. Hacks once again based their analysis on short-term rhetoric and shallow optics. A symptom of Lobby-itis…
Here are some highlights:
Two Labour figures from different wings of the party tell me: Keir Starmer’s response to @realDonaldTrump on Ukraine is shaping up to be PM’s “Falklands moment” – when an unpopular Margaret Thatcher turned round her fortunes by a resolute response to an international crisis…..
— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) February 26, 2025
All that ‘sherparing’ doesn’t look to have done much good as the entire situation collapses and Starmer and Macron scramble a “Coalition of the Willing” with scant details as to how it would work or what it entails. A classic case of counting chickens that will leave hacks wishing they hadn’t gushed with so much verve on Thursday…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”