In Our Stride?

Mel Stride thought that Personal Independence Payment was thousands of pounds per month. He is now the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Rachel Reeves must wish that she were punching down even harder. From tomorrow, she probably will be.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary is Priti Patel, whom Theresa May had to sack as International Development Secretary because Patel had attempted to divert overseas aid money to a Golan Heights field hospital that Israel had given to the so-called Islamic State.

In Gaza, Hamas eliminated al-Qaeda's Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin, and Hamas executes the IS-affiliated Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade. Hezbollah has been fighting against both IS and al-Qaeda for as long as each has existed. But Israel and IS have never attacked each other, and when Shamima Begum went to join IS in Syria, then she went to join the side that the Conservative-led Government of the day was supporting even while bombing it in Iraq.

As of today, Patel's hitherto freelance foreign policy is that of the Official Opposition, Shadowing David Lammy, whose assertion that there had to be a million deaths for there to be a genocide has not been retracted a week later, so that we must assume it to be the position of His Majesty's Government.

Net immigration reached its highest ever level when Patel was Home Secretary. And if, having turned down Health, Housing (yes, really), Work and Pensions, and who knows what else, the Robert Jenrick who failed in his own terms as Immigration Minister has indeed been made Shadow Justice Secretary, then we look forward to the would-be Lord Chancellor's being struck off as a solicitor for having prejudiced an ongoing criminal case, and quite possibly to his being found in contempt of court, the same crime for which Stephen Yaxley-Lennon was pleasuring His Majesty. Withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights was Jenrick's signature policy for Leader, and he lost. If he has accepted the position of Shadow Justice Secretary, then on what terms?