It's always been highly variable in quality. The big difference now is how cheap and therefore ubiquitous it is.

Serious words from Sir Roger Gale on the Today programme. 1922 committee serious.

“there has to be an answer from the Government and it has to be by lunchtime today.”

“If the PM says there was no party at the Despatch Box then I’ll believe him because lying at the Despatch Box is a resignation matter.”*

Think I'll be tuning into PMQ's for a change then.

Enquiry time I expect as a way to avoid answering. Maybe even saying we have to wait for the police investigation to finish.

although you never know with boris. He might well throw someone under the bus for misleading him and might even do a big 'mea culpa' as he realises so what if he was wrong about a party he didn't attend when there's a tape of those involved joking about covering it up. Unless there's a smoking gun showing he knew at the time.

oops

LoL at the outrage over a Xmas piss up from over a year ago.

Lol at thinking this

Indeed, that take is candidate for hottest take of 2021.

Votes aren't showing here, but Brown is at 55%, 30% above second place

Gove looks out of the running due to persistent rumours about a super injunction.

Tbh I was surprised at the level of backlash that this has received too, not that they shouldn't be condemned for having parties that they themselves had made illegal but did anyone really think they were better than this? This is like the 50th worst thing Johnson has been involved with in his career, if it ends up sinking him it will be a very Al Capone and taxes like situation.

The main game in town before he became PM was Brexit, and people formed their opinions of him largely on whether they believed he was the person to get a "good" version of it in place, often mistaking his entitled buoyancy for reality-based optimism. No one remembers what a joke he was as London Mayor or as a cabinet minister.

People are also used to being lied to frequently by cabinet minsters, so tended towards forgiveness at first as long as the end justified the means.

But as time goes on it's becoming clearer to more people that Brexit is very bad for the UK, and the cumulative effect of that, the excessive covid deaths and now illegal partying in the face of people unable to visit close family in hospital etc has reached the fabled tipping point.

It's hard to be sure but I dont think it's coincidence that the atatcks on boris & co have finally exploded with the dawning realisation that covid is back big time.

So many people are being hurt hard by covid and are totally fed up with it and the dithering, incompetent casualness of the government has been exposed. Add anger (which is often a bit misplaced imo when there are much more important covid related things to be angry about) and it's hitting hard. Even a change of leadership may not be enough if it isn't firmly in the rear view mirror at the next election.

On the Labour side. I though Wes Streeting was very good (on an awful Today program interview by the BBC). The line on covid of 'trust the experts and do the right thing DESPITE the tories' is spot on imo.

I find it very hard to guage the impact of views on brexit as literally no-one I know of talks about anything politically related apart from covid covid covid.

Starmer hoping that Johnson limps on until the next GE is one of the sadder aspects of this whole debacle.

Sadder is if Labour win and have abandoned the idea of doing anything once they win.

Shakespearian level of tragedy will be if labour dont win because they have nothing to offer now that people are listening and too many just drift back to the tories.

Another half rotation and the ants on the inner rim who were moving forward are now moving backwards. But the wheel continues to turn slowly, carrying its unwitting passengers onwards in some unknown direction to a destination that doesn’t exist.

Its completely unrelated to get Brexit done, so there is no mental gymnastics that the PM can appeal to be forgiven.

About ****ing time too

Sacoolas to face UK criminal trial for death of Harry Dunn.

This

Surprised it happened tbh

I don't expect her to serve meaningful jail time.