It really is crunch time. The international game of Texas Hold’em is reaching its climax. The lesser players have folded. Only two high-rollers remain at the table. Beads of sweat are appearing on their brows. Each is feeling for a lucky charm discreetly held in a side-pocket, and each is scouring the other’s eyes for signs of fear or uncertainty. The turn of a card will determine the outcome.
This is the position as Boris prepares for tonight’s summit feast with Ursula von der Leyen. At PMQs, he was confronted by Sir Keir Starmer who appeared via video-link from his Camden home.
Labour’s spin-team missed a golden opportunity here. They might have shown their leader as a charming, fatherly figure relaxing at his fireside between a bust of Attlee and a portrait of Emily Wilding Davison, with biographies of Barbara Castle, Nelson Mandela and David Blunkett on his shelves to affirm his commitment to diversity across the categories of gender, race, and disability.
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