Theresa may

Theresa May has said ‘enough is enough’ in a robust statement following last night’s terror attack, which left seven people dead and 48 injured. Acknowledging that this is the third terror attack Britain has experienced in three months, the Prime Minister said that while the three attacks were not connected in their planning, they are bound together by one thing: Islamist extremism. May said that the attacks highlighted ‘a new trend’ in the threat we face, and one that needs to be responded to accordingly: ‘We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face, as terrorism breeds terrorism and perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis

When the Conservatives were rebranded “Theresa May’s team” and the party’s name purged from its literature, there were two explanations. One, that the UK system of Cabinet government doesn’t suit the Prime Minister, so wants an election where she’d campaign by diktat in order to govern by diktat. She’d go fetch a three-figure majority, then her Cabinet meetings would be a bit like the Spitting Image sketch about vegetables (above). The other explanation was more plausible, and benign: that her personal approval ratings were the highest recorded for any Prime Minister so it made sense for the Tories to campaign on the leader. A poll for ComRes this evening shows that her approval

Theresa May turned in what, I think, was her best TV performance of the election tonight. May engaged with the questions more than she has in previous TV events, and was more confident and fluent than she had been on Monday night. After a prolonged Tory wobble, her performance will have steadied jangling Tory nerves. May pitched hard for the Brexit vote. She said that she had called the election ‘for Brexit’ and that if you voted Leave, you needed to make sure you got it. When she was accused of calling the election for political gain, she hit back saying that she had had the balls to call an

On the eve of the US presidential election, experts at Princeton university decided that Donald Trump had a 1 per cent chance of being elected. Before the last general election, Populus, the opinion poll firm, gave David Cameron a 0.5 per cent chance of winning a majority. Much is made of the need to look at ‘the data’ when considering political arguments, but so often it is a wildly inaccurate guess with a decimal point at the end to give an aura of scientific specificity. So when we read that Jeremy Corbyn has just a 17 per cent chance of becoming prime minister, this does not mean that the election is in

On the eve of the US presidential election, experts at Princeton university decided that Donald Trump had a 1 per cent chance of being elected. Before the last general election, Populus, the opinion poll firm, gave David Cameron a 0.5 per cent chance of winning a majority. Much is made of the need to look at ‘the data’ when considering political arguments, but so often it is a wildly inaccurate guess with a decimal point at the end to give an aura of scientific specificity. So when we read that Jeremy Corbyn has just a 17 per cent chance of becoming prime minister, this does not mean that the election

With Theresa May currently experiencing a rough patch in her election campaign, the Prime Minister is discovering fast who her friends really are. Unfortunately for May, her old Cabinet colleague George Osborne doesn’t appear to be on that list. Now that the former Chancellor is the editor of the London Evening Standard, the paper’s editorials have become a constant source of criticism for the government. Today’s was no exception. On the state of the Conservative campaign, the paper says the ‘campaign has meandered from an abortive attempt to launch a personality cult around Mrs May’. The editorial also described the 2017 Tory manifesto as the ‘most disastrous’ in recent history: ‘The