The Prime Minister’s rhetoric about being a man who makes the tough choices has not yet been borne out in his policymaking.
The current minimal-confrontation approach too often seems to leave officers tacitly enforcing the codes of the ugliest and most violent sections of society.
Hard-nosed politicians and commanders, and their legal departments, might be able to mount coherent defences of the IDF. But that won’t necessarily help them in the propaganda battle.
Not only would it be another shot in the arm to the burgeoning black market, but the real long-term pressures on the NHS arise from obesity and an ageing population.
Also: Green MSP provokes outrage with pro-Hamas statement, putting even more pressure on Humza Yousaf ahead of the SNP conference this week.
The Corporation’s guidelines to not require neutrality in the face of attacks on civilian targets. We know that because it regularly uses the word ‘terrorist’ in every context save this one.
If an organisation whose response to recent events is a protest outside the Israeli embassy isn’t proscribed by Labour, the only question is: why not?
Such was the state of the polls going into this race that even a narrow win would have seemed like a setback for Sir Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader. No fear of that now, and no comfort for Humza Yousaf.
Also: the Scottish Conservatives were one of the few genuinely chipper groups at conference; they seem widely to expect to pick up several seats from the SNP next year.
By itself, the policy will likely save lives and take anti-social behaviour off the streets. But that is no basis for effectively legalising demand for drugs whilst leaving supply in criminal hands.
Well-founded concerns about the suitability of post-war international agreements to modern global conditions are not strengthened by being lumped together with attacks on multiculturalism.
Armed officers and soldiers obviously cannot have carte blanche to shoot as they please; but there must be some allowance for the impossibility of always getting every split-second judgement right.
Scoring generously, we can say the Prime Minister has saved the nation from two policies of his own government. The other three seem only to have been internal proposals.
In the meantime, it’s been another deluge of bad news for the Scottish Government on the domestic front. But when will that start telling decisively with Scottish voters?
Where the consumer is king, those who can best package the darker corners of ourselves can do very well indeed.