“Half a century and a day after the surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel suffered what was without a doubt its biggest military setback and intelligence failure in 50 years. Unlike the Yom Kippur War when it was attacked by two large Arab armies, Israel this time is not in existential danger. There is no questioning its military superiority over Hamas and the other Palestinian militias which have attacked it from Gaza. But as far as the chaos on the ground, with teams of Hamas fighters blowing up sections of the border fence, others infiltrating using motor-gliders and powerboats on the shore, streaming into Israel under the cover of a massive barrages of rockets launched from within Gaza, it is as stunning a setback as then.” – Sunday Times
“Rishi Sunak blocked a private sector-led plan to build HS2’s Euston station when he was chancellor, just three years before adopting a near-identical version last week. The prime minister last Wednesday stripped the HS2 organisation from running the Euston project, citing mismanagement and spiralling costs. He said Euston needed a private finance partnership to get a grip and keep down costs. However, the former chairman of HS2, Allan Cook, said Sunak was offered a near-identical private partnership plan in 2020, but rejected it.” – Sunday Times
“Two stories doing the rounds at the Conservative Party conference last week — one true, the other a joke — sum up where the Tories find themselves. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, told cabinet colleagues he recently asked the artificial intelligence app ChatGPT: “Is Jeremy Hunt doing a good job as chancellor?” To his distress and amusement came the reply: “Jeremy Hunt is not the chancellor, Rishi Sunak is.” And a wit at the Treasury, where civil servants are still unclear what the government will put in the autumn statement on November 22, quipped: “We are waiting for the prime minister to tell us.” – Sunday Times
“As a Labour party transformed by its leader in the last three years prepares for its conference in Liverpool, the man bidding to be the next PM remains adamant that big challenges still lie ahead. When we interviewed Sir Keir Starmer three years ago on the eve of his first party conference as Labour leader, he declared: “We have a mountain to climb.” It was a mountain so big that many thought he could not possibly scale it. Thanks to the magnitude of the party’s 2019 election defeat, few Labour people then believed that such an electoral Everest would look conquerable three years later.” – Observer
“While Rishi Sunak’s bedtime reading includes bonkbuster novels by Jilly Cooper, the most likely next incumbent of No 11 Downing Street has more mundane taste. Rachel Reeves, who is auditioning to become the country’s first female chancellor, is reading Follow the Money by Paul Johnson, in which the influential economist explains where money comes from, where it goes and how it needs to change in the future. Unlike Sunak, who deployed shock and awe tactics last week at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Reeves is determined to make seriousness an electoral asset.” – Sunday Times
“Today, just as in 1996, Labour’s lead is hovering at around 20 points. Back then, the polls did indeed narrow in the run-up to polling day – largely because voters moved from Labour to the Lib Dems in constituencies where they were the stronger anti-Tory prospect, making John Major’s defeat even worse. One reason that I am labouring the parallel with 1997 is that Sir Keir is consciously modelling himself on Sir Tony. This is more surprising than it might seem. Starmer stood well to the Left, not just of Blair, but of every Labour leader between Michael Foot and Jeremy Corbyn. What an irony if Starmer were to end up, not as the second Blair, but as the second Callaghan.” – Sunday Telegraph