Unlike Boris, the ONS have released official birth figures, which show the number of parents naming their baby boys after the new PM has hit a record level of 47 babies. 34% up on last year. 

The previous Boris births peak was 43 in 2014, in the run up to the then Mayor of London returning to the Commons. The figures also show a 25% fall in the number of Jeremys – much in line with Labour’s polling position under Corbyn’s leadership; and the number of Theresas staying broadly stagnant. Sadly Guido has not spotted a single case of Jean-Claude fever…

Trump has waded into today’s constitutional debate via his Twitter feed…

Would be very hard for Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, to seek a no-confidence vote against New Prime Minister Boris Johnson, especially in light of the fact that Boris is exactly what the U.K. has been looking for, & will prove to be “a great one!” Love U.K.

Two years ago, Jeremy Corbyn came under fire for refusing to publish Labour’s quarterly list of meetings with senior media executives despite having committed to doing so. In response to this criticism, a Corbyn spokesperson promised the list of meetings would be published “in due course“. More than two years later, Labour still have not published a single detail of shadow cabinet meetings with media executives…

Following the Leveson Inquiry in 2012, both Ed Miliband and the Government vowed to come clean with quarterly lists of meetings with senior editors, media executives and owners. Labour kept this up until May 2016, however no such reports have been released since; meanwhile, the Government has routinely made this information public. Is Corbyn too frit to admit his cozy relationship with the Canary and Skwawkbox?

Despite repeatedly attempting to call the Prime Minister ‘Britain’s Trump’, Corbyn emerged from his ‘Press Conference’ (campaign rally) today looking more like the US President than anyone. After applauding his own speech, the conference descended into what could generously be described as an anti-media pile on, with Corbyn’s baying followers preventing any criticism of their eternal leader by shouting down the press for daring to challenge one of the most senior politicians in the country. He’s following the Trump playbook to a tee…

In response to one woman’s anti-journalist rant, Corbyn half-heartedly said he supports the press, yet will nevertheless introduce dystopian-sounding “media reforms”. Change is coming…

Inspired by today’s speech? Why not play another game of Who said it? Corbyn or Trump…

Jeremy Corbyn has finally made a move of sorts on Brexit, in the form of a letter to various MPs which is less about stopping no deal and more about making himself Prime Minister. Corbyn says he will “seek the confidence of the House for a strictly time-limited temporary government with the aim of calling a general election, and securing the necessary extension of Article 50 to do so.” In the same way the dictatorship of the proletariat is only meant to be temporary…?

Funnily enough opposition MPs haven’t been buying it, most importantly including Jo Swinson, who now leads 14 MPs after serial defector Sarah Wollaston finally joined the Lib Dems last night. Swinson says Corbyn is “not the person who is going to be able to build an even temporary majority in the House of Commons for this task”. This is a serious electoral headache for the Lib Dems, back Corbyn and they’ll be seriously tainted by his toxic brand, fail to back him and they’ll be accused of allowing no deal to happen. Choices, choices…

The reaction from other non-Labour opposition MPs was even less positive:

1/4 I am disappointed Jeremy Corbyn did not include me in his letter especially as there are five MP members of our party.
Our exclusion and the preference for a General Election rather than an immediate People’s Vote leads me to conclude this is nothing more than a stunt.

— Anna Soubry MP (@Anna_Soubry) August 14, 2019

Ultimately Corbyn’s letter changes nothing, we are still fundamentally stuck in the position where Corbyn will not back anyone else for ‘temporary’ Prime Minister while there isn’t even close to a Parliamentary majority of MPs who would back him. Pundits and commentators have got a whole two weeks left of August silly season to fight out amongst themselves who the best alternative would be, the bottom line is that it’s simply not going to happen…

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