The IMF loved the Budget, but then it had probably written it. The rest of us are rather more sceptical of, for example, the Government's snooping into bank accounts and deducting money at will. If there are benefit claimants who are on the fiddle, then they are not doing it through the bank. This is about establishing the precedent. Once they could do this, then they could do to anyone. Tonight, then, the Conservatives are ahead in the polls. And hours before the Leadership passed either to Kemi Badenoch or to Robert Jenrick, neither of whom would ever be allowed to become Prime Minister, James Cleverly is already "not going to rule anything in or anything out".
Meanwhile, last night Reform UK took a council seat from Labour in Pat McFadden's constituency. The ward of Bilston North is 13.5 per cent Sikh. Make of that what you will. Perhaps they barely turned out because it was Diwali, which was kept in Sikhism? Or perhaps Sikhs will become to Reform as Hindus already were to the Conservatives, whose only gain this year was Leicester East, while at Harrow East, Bob Blackman received the highest vote share for any Conservative candidate in the country, he was the only Conservative elected with an absolute majority, and he was one of only three Conservative MPs to be re-elected with increased majorities?
Are Reform clever enough to cultivate this?
ReplyDeleteAs I said, it may not be there at all. Sikhs may have stayed away from the polls in some numbers because they had somewhere better to be.
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