Trump returned to Twitter last night ahead of his major interview with Elon Musk on the platform. After 42 minutes of delay caused by what Musk called a co-ordinated attack on Twitter, Trump launched into all his favourite topics pretty much unabetted by the billionaire. The main points:
- Trump will return to Butler, where he was almost killed, in October.
- Biden didn’t want to go, it was a coup. He certainly didn’t look happy about it…
- Kamala is avoiding interviews because she can’t have a normal conversation.
- Harris is a “radical left lunatic”. Just look at her tax policies…
- Biden has jacked up inflation to intolerable levels.
- ‘Border tsar’ Harris failed to tackle the border crisis.
- The US is going to build an iron dome.
- Kamala will fail to deal with Jinping, Putin, or Jong-Un who are at the “top of their game.“
- Trump told Putin not to invade Ukraine.
Harris’ team attacked the event’s tech problems and Musk: “Trump’s entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself — self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.” Let’s see how she performs when she sits down for an interview…
Some habits just don’t die. The LibDems are continuing to deploy their inspired bar chart science a month after the election. Their distributed leaflet claims “lifelong Conservative and Labour voters backed” candidate (now MP) Lee Dillon. Or was their win thanks to another effect?
This time it’s not what’s on the bar chart, it’s what isn’t. Did absentmindedness make the LibDems forget to include a party which performed better than both Labour and the Greens? Reform came third with 11% of the vote – denying Laura Farris the seat. Ignore them until they go away?
Labour is charging through government so far. Downing Street is hilariously already embroiled in a bitter turf war between Sue Gray and the ‘McIavelli‘ Morgan McSweeney. You usually save this stuff for later in the cycle…
It’s not just internal battles coming thick and fast. Labour is deploying U-turns on pledges at a high rate. Guido has compiled a helpful rolling list:
- Cancelling hospital and railway line construction investment. Labour pledged in its manifesto to fulfil the 2019 New Hospital Programme…
- Reversing claims that Labour wouldn’t come into power and find a black hole in the public finances.
- Not raising tax on working people.
- U-turning on plans to repeal Starmer’s special DPP tax perk.
- Going back on suggestions that Labour would look at ID cards for citizens.
- Scrapping their pledge to immediately repeal Section 21 evictions.
- Scrapping £1.3 billion in tech and AI project funding.
- Lowering housebuilding targets in London by 20%.
- Leaving the door open to scrapping the two-child benefit cap by launching a delaying ‘taskforce’.
- Pulling the cash pledged to fill one million potholes. That filled a few days of Labour campaigning in the election…
- Reversing the position: Margaret Thatcher was good.
More major U-turns are set to appear further down the line. Guido will provide live updates as they come…
Could an SW1 staple on Wilfred Street be the latest victim of the decolonisation woke agenda? Popular pub The Colonies has been spruced up recently… but reopened under the new (less flavoursome) name The Pineapple. Despite its homage to colonial Africa and imperial theme, the watering hole was a particular favourite of right on Home Office civil servants, not to mention CCHQ staff…
It’s not all bad news though for culture warriors and history warriors – the name change is just a throwback to the pub’s previous incarnation – the original tavern on the site was named The Pineapple as far back as 1809. As the Campaign for Real Ale notes:
“Named the Pineapple until 1974 and refurbished ten years later to reflect an African colonial theme, this comfortable, split level pub has an extensive back courtyard garden leading to Castle Street. Some interesting prints are displayed on the panelled walls.”
Guido’s looking forward to the new menu, and catching up with some civil servants from 4 p.m. onwards…
Over 18,000 migrants have crossed on small boats this year. Crossings are rising as they hit record levels…
According to Home Office figures 703 migrants crossed into UK waters on 11 boats yesterday. That’s the highest number of arrivals so far under the Labour government…
Starmer’s spokesman just says “work is ongoing” on the “priority” of “smashing the gangs” and declined to give any timings on when the pledge would be fulfilled. Keeping in line with pre-election ambiguity…
Labour is naturally also claiming today that scrapping the Rwanda deterrent has had no effect on the number of crossings. Tick, tock…
Torsten Bell, ex-director of the left-wing Resolution Foundation turned-Labour MP, tried his best to spin Reeves’ invented justification for tax rises by arguing that Labour is only now “learning of completely irresponsible management of public spending/services“, which is somehow different from being able to read Office for Budget Responsibility public finance forecasts. Guido wonders how exactly Bell thinks the OBR calculates its forecasts then…
Bell himself was more than a few times able to chat to the OBR about all this while Resolution Foundation director. A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the think tank has had a whopping thirteen meetings over two and a half years just with the OBR. Torsten was present at the latest tête-à-tête this year…
The OBR has kept details of the meetings, which took place on average every two months, secret. Its own advisory panel is filled with tax-raising fanatics. Labour is in the awkward position of claiming the OBR doesn’t have full information while simultaneously giving it oversight of major budget decisions. Spinning itself into absurdity…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”
