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| The Snap: Tom Watson slaps back at 'cheese-headed fopdoodle' Boris Johnson | The Snap: Tom Watson slaps back at 'cheese-headed fopdoodle' Boris Johnson |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| What’s happening? | What’s happening? |
| Tony Blair’s bank holiday foray into the campaign fray was greeted precisely as you – and he (“I know the moment I stick my head out the door, I’ll get a bucket of wotsit poured all over me”) – predicted. Today in Lazarus news, allow me to reintroduce Nick Clegg. The former Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister is still an MP, of course, and hopes to remain so after 8 June. This afternoon he’ll use his first speech of the campaign to prod the Tories on Brexit: | Tony Blair’s bank holiday foray into the campaign fray was greeted precisely as you – and he (“I know the moment I stick my head out the door, I’ll get a bucket of wotsit poured all over me”) – predicted. Today in Lazarus news, allow me to reintroduce Nick Clegg. The former Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister is still an MP, of course, and hopes to remain so after 8 June. This afternoon he’ll use his first speech of the campaign to prod the Tories on Brexit: |
| We can’t have a strong economy and a hard Brexit. Theresa May alone is responsible for pursuing this course. It is already hurting the very people who need most help in society. | We can’t have a strong economy and a hard Brexit. Theresa May alone is responsible for pursuing this course. It is already hurting the very people who need most help in society. |
| So the question in this election is this: who will hold Theresa May accountable for the economic harm she will inflict on Britain? | So the question in this election is this: who will hold Theresa May accountable for the economic harm she will inflict on Britain? |
| Another question in this election is whether May will continue to regurgitate her “strong and stable leadership” line after damaging leaks about her Brexit dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker (of course she will, it’s a rhetorical question, don’t write in). | Another question in this election is whether May will continue to regurgitate her “strong and stable leadership” line after damaging leaks about her Brexit dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker (of course she will, it’s a rhetorical question, don’t write in). |
| “Brussels gossip” is the Conservative line; “remarkable and deeply worrying” is, via Keir Starmer, Labour’s; “a mass of very spiky hurdles to overcome” the Guardian’s. | “Brussels gossip” is the Conservative line; “remarkable and deeply worrying” is, via Keir Starmer, Labour’s; “a mass of very spiky hurdles to overcome” the Guardian’s. |
| May will be giving her second favourite soundbite a roll around the west country today, as she heads to what was once a Lib Dem heartland to warn that a vote for Tim Farron’s team is a vote for – you guessed! – a “coalition of chaos”: | May will be giving her second favourite soundbite a roll around the west country today, as she heads to what was once a Lib Dem heartland to warn that a vote for Tim Farron’s team is a vote for – you guessed! – a “coalition of chaos”: |
| The opposition parties are lining up to prop up Jeremy Corbyn and disrupt our Brexit negotiations – a recipe for years of drift and division at this crucial time. | The opposition parties are lining up to prop up Jeremy Corbyn and disrupt our Brexit negotiations – a recipe for years of drift and division at this crucial time. |
| Meanwhile, back at the toddlers’ debating society, Tom Watson has – a full five days after the foreign secretary’s “mutton-headed mugwump” jibe at Corbyn – raided the rejected verses from the Jabberwocky for a riposte. Today, media have been briefed (this is not a drill), Labour’s deputy leader will tell the Usdaw union’s annual meeting in Blackpool: | Meanwhile, back at the toddlers’ debating society, Tom Watson has – a full five days after the foreign secretary’s “mutton-headed mugwump” jibe at Corbyn – raided the rejected verses from the Jabberwocky for a riposte. Today, media have been briefed (this is not a drill), Labour’s deputy leader will tell the Usdaw union’s annual meeting in Blackpool: |
| Boris Johnson is a caggie-handed, cheese-headed fopdoodle with a talent for slummocking about. | Boris Johnson is a caggie-handed, cheese-headed fopdoodle with a talent for slummocking about. |
| Corbyn himself will be in Southampton, advancing a fresh Labour policy to get 10,000 additional police officers on to the streets of England and Wales, arresting the fall in “bobbies on the beat” since 2010. The Labour leader, it’s worth noting, did not bite back at what he called Johnson’s “personal name-calling” (“I’ve never been involved in that and never will be”). Yesterday he managed to respond to the Blair bait without referencing a single foodstuff: | Corbyn himself will be in Southampton, advancing a fresh Labour policy to get 10,000 additional police officers on to the streets of England and Wales, arresting the fall in “bobbies on the beat” since 2010. The Labour leader, it’s worth noting, did not bite back at what he called Johnson’s “personal name-calling” (“I’ve never been involved in that and never will be”). Yesterday he managed to respond to the Blair bait without referencing a single foodstuff: |
| That government brought about the national minimum wage. And I just remember going home at 5am from an all-night sitting in parliament to pass the national minimum wage legislation … And I just thought, this is what politics is about. This is worthwhile. | That government brought about the national minimum wage. And I just remember going home at 5am from an all-night sitting in parliament to pass the national minimum wage legislation … And I just thought, this is what politics is about. This is worthwhile. |
| At a glance: | At a glance: |
| Alistair Darling says Corbyn is “the leader right up until the general election”. | Alistair Darling says Corbyn is “the leader right up until the general election”. |
| Labour bans Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk from standing in election. | Labour bans Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk from standing in election. |
| Conservatives launch late push to raise up to £19.5m for campaign. | Conservatives launch late push to raise up to £19.5m for campaign. |
| UK warned it needs new Middle East policy that does not rely on Trump. | UK warned it needs new Middle East policy that does not rely on Trump. |
| Britain’s energy supply is in jeopardy after Brexit, warn MPs. | Britain’s energy supply is in jeopardy after Brexit, warn MPs. |
| Poll position | Poll position |
| No fresh polls that I could spot so far today, so your guess is as good as mine (and quite possibly as good as the polls themselves). | No fresh polls that I could spot so far today, so your guess is as good as mine (and quite possibly as good as the polls themselves). |
| Diary | Diary |
| At 7am, George Osborne clocks in for his first day as editor of the London Evening Standard. | At 7am, George Osborne clocks in for his first day as editor of the London Evening Standard. |
| At 10.30am, Caroline Lucas and MEP Molly Scott Cato unveil the Green party’s Brexit policy in Hackney. | At 10.30am, Caroline Lucas and MEP Molly Scott Cato unveil the Green party’s Brexit policy in Hackney. |
| Nicola Sturgeon campaigns in Leith with the SNP’s Edinburgh candidates at 2pm. | Nicola Sturgeon campaigns in Leith with the SNP’s Edinburgh candidates at 2pm. |
| At 3pm, Nick Clegg makes his Lib Dem campaign debut with a speech on Brexit. | At 3pm, Nick Clegg makes his Lib Dem campaign debut with a speech on Brexit. |
| Leader-wise, Jeremy Corbyn is in Southampton to talk policing; Theresa May targets the south-west of England with a rally in Bristol; Tim Farron speaks at Westminster synagogue; and Ukip’s Paul Nuttall is in the West Midlands. | Leader-wise, Jeremy Corbyn is in Southampton to talk policing; Theresa May targets the south-west of England with a rally in Bristol; Tim Farron speaks at Westminster synagogue; and Ukip’s Paul Nuttall is in the West Midlands. |
| Talking point | Talking point |
| Liberated from his Tatton seat, former chancellor turned “how hard can it be?” newspaper editor George Osborne today switches his attention to the Evening Standard. Here, Amelia Gentleman deftly picks through the stories Londoners might be less likely to see in its pages: rough sleeping, cuts to local authority budgets, the bedroom tax among them. But of course all eyes will be on how the paper positions itself ahead of polling day. As Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith, puts it: | Liberated from his Tatton seat, former chancellor turned “how hard can it be?” newspaper editor George Osborne today switches his attention to the Evening Standard. Here, Amelia Gentleman deftly picks through the stories Londoners might be less likely to see in its pages: rough sleeping, cuts to local authority budgets, the bedroom tax among them. But of course all eyes will be on how the paper positions itself ahead of polling day. As Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith, puts it: |
| The main issues that we are campaigning on are directly the consequences of policies created by George Osborne. | The main issues that we are campaigning on are directly the consequences of policies created by George Osborne. |
| First reader to spot a “strong and stable leadership” headline wins a retreat in David Cameron’s luxury garden shed. | First reader to spot a “strong and stable leadership” headline wins a retreat in David Cameron’s luxury garden shed. |
| Read these | Read these |
| In the Times, Rachel Sylvester wonders, does it matter if May isn’t “likeable”? | In the Times, Rachel Sylvester wonders, does it matter if May isn’t “likeable”? |
| Unlike most other politicians Mrs May does not want to be liked. She does not bother with small talk or embark on charm offensives with the media or MPs. She could not care less if European leaders find her rude and unhelpful… | Unlike most other politicians Mrs May does not want to be liked. She does not bother with small talk or embark on charm offensives with the media or MPs. She could not care less if European leaders find her rude and unhelpful… |
| She relies on her husband Philip – and a small circle of trusted advisers – but does not crave wider external approval. Unlike [Boris] Johnson, she does not have an irresistible urge to entertain. Unlike Donald Trump she does not have a compulsive craving for attention. She is not approaching a likely electoral landslide nervously, like someone carrying a Ming vase across a slippery floor – as Roy Jenkins said of Tony Blair in 1997. | She relies on her husband Philip – and a small circle of trusted advisers – but does not crave wider external approval. Unlike [Boris] Johnson, she does not have an irresistible urge to entertain. Unlike Donald Trump she does not have a compulsive craving for attention. She is not approaching a likely electoral landslide nervously, like someone carrying a Ming vase across a slippery floor – as Roy Jenkins said of Tony Blair in 1997. |
| Dull campaign? Janan Ganesh, in the Financial Times, says we are all to blame: | Dull campaign? Janan Ganesh, in the Financial Times, says we are all to blame: |
| It is short-sighted to blame the proximate culprits. They just respond to incentives. Corbynites would be remiss not to command a party that so few citizens of the moderate left could be bothered to join. The prime minister would be foolish not to sloganise her way through this campaign when the political cost is near zero. People whom few would mistake for Alexander the Great would be lazy not to run for office when there is so little competition. | It is short-sighted to blame the proximate culprits. They just respond to incentives. Corbynites would be remiss not to command a party that so few citizens of the moderate left could be bothered to join. The prime minister would be foolish not to sloganise her way through this campaign when the political cost is near zero. People whom few would mistake for Alexander the Great would be lazy not to run for office when there is so little competition. |
| The problem is not them. The problem is us. Our apathy has inescapable consequences. The smaller politics becomes, the riper it is for capture by ideologues and second-raters (and ideological second-raters). In my role as a commentator, I encounter just two attitudes to politics: indifference and obsession. A civic culture needs more hobbyists, engaged enough to scrutinise the news and join a party, but removed enough to bring a perspective born of civilian life. | The problem is not them. The problem is us. Our apathy has inescapable consequences. The smaller politics becomes, the riper it is for capture by ideologues and second-raters (and ideological second-raters). In my role as a commentator, I encounter just two attitudes to politics: indifference and obsession. A civic culture needs more hobbyists, engaged enough to scrutinise the news and join a party, but removed enough to bring a perspective born of civilian life. |
| Revelation of the day | Revelation of the day |
| It turns out there’s a reason why the PM’s “talking to honestly-they-really-are-real-voters” events have so far been keenly stage-managed: | It turns out there’s a reason why the PM’s “talking to honestly-they-really-are-real-voters” events have so far been keenly stage-managed: |
| Knocking on doors to appeal to 'real people' on the campaign trail hasn't always gone to plan for #TheresaMay pic.twitter.com/pJQFowpSMj | Knocking on doors to appeal to 'real people' on the campaign trail hasn't always gone to plan for #TheresaMay pic.twitter.com/pJQFowpSMj |
| The day in a tweet | The day in a tweet |
| It was 20 years ago today: | It was 20 years ago today: |
| New Labour end 18 years of Conservative rule, they have 330 seats and a majority in the House of Commons #election97 | New Labour end 18 years of Conservative rule, they have 330 seats and a majority in the House of Commons #election97 |
| And another thing | |
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