The number of possibilities teaches us three lessons about politics today. Firstly, never to underestimate the role played by mere chance. Secondly, that this is not an age of great leaders who make their own luck. And, thirdly, that we need to choose more carefully in future.
Maybe the future isn’t Leavers v Remainers, or even Conservative v Labour. Perhaps its truth v post-truth – Rowling v Dorries. I’m with Rowling. You?
In the 2019 election, all four major party manifestos presented Net Zero as a fait accompli: none made clear the upheaval it demands, the opportunity costs involved or the dramatic impact on our quality of life.
Since the landmark loneliness strategy in 2018, the priority and funding associated with the strategy have waned. The next election is an opportunity to do something about that.
If a mainstream candidate is needed, when next the Conservative leadership is contested, in order to stop some more ideological figure such as Kemi Badenoch, it is just possible that Cleverly might fit the bill.
The intellectual heft of figures like him will be vital in ensuring that it moves forward, rather than languishing in the same ideological dead-ends that sunk it in the first place.
His greatest success was to make the Conservatives more conservative, but he does not have the gifts needed to sustain a rival party.
The more totemic this legislation appears, the higher will be public expectations of it. Even if it passes, will Rishi Sunak be able to persuade voters it was worth the wait?
In the same interview he said “I tend to be rather bad at politics”, which is true if one takes the holding of great offices of state as the yardstick of success.
This book will delight many of those who see the Brexit PM as a disgrace.
Her performance at the Coronation won the Leader of the House an adoring public, and indicated that despite her many critics she is still a potential successor to Sunak.
Sunak deserves more time to deliver on his pledges. In any case, the decision today is about choosing councillors with a practical, value for money, approach.
The odd thing about this author and his Guardian friends is that they cannot understand movement. Though they think of themselves as progressive, they are in many ways deeply reactionary.
The electoral punishment of getting policy wrong now could be long-lasting.
His life and works appears to have little influence at the top of the current Conservative Party, and among the wider membership and the British public. But it seems that in those countries where Scruton went behind the Iron Curtain, his work and life is not just remembered, he is still actively saving minds.