And it takes the Tories’ working majority to below 50

The Tories playing to “friendly” outlets also contributes to their obsession with becoming more like Reform UK (polling 12%) - rather than working out why Labour is polling 45%

🔴Fact Checkers Slam Government Inaction on Political Deepfakes Ahead of General Election, Saying Laws 'Not Fit for Purpose'

Full Fact has called on the Government to clarify how mis- and disinformation will be challenged in this pivotal election year

bylinetimes.com/2024/04/18/fac…

don't really know what more it could possibly take for people to start seeing the Spectator as entirely beyond the pale, it somehow just keeps getting a pass, despite Taki, despite stuff like this

politics makes more sense if you assume all Tory MPs are being blackmailed

ONs data shows that private rent inflation - which is running at 9.3 per cent - is now higher than the overall rate of inflation - 3.2 per cent. Cost of living crisis is getting worse for private renters NOT better - chart is from Joseph Rowntree Foundation

The FT today notes that the International Monetary Fund is warning that Britain’s debt levels are becoming unsustainable. The IMF says recent tax cuts could increase Britain’s public debt (who’d have thought it?)

Politico on the Rwanda Bill: A senior minister tells Sky that “delaying tactics” are being used by No. 10, not the Lords. The minister said “they know the version of the policy doesn’t work and they want more time and to put off the day of reckoning”

this guy has been an mp the whole time ???

The Tories knew about these allegations for three months and did nothing.

Meanwhile, they've been hammering Angela Rayner over her old council house.

huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tories-s…

Given CCHQ had reportedly been aware of these allegations for three months or more, should we assume he’s losing the whip for being caught by the media?

A side-issue, but worth noting another example of a Tory MP being allowed to “voluntarily relinquish the whip”, rather than being suspended…

Wheel this one out again then

Former Supreme Court judge Lord Hope tells Radio 4 the Rwanda Bill determines that Rwanda is a safe country *forever* - with no mechanism to change that if conditions change on the ground. The govt keeps blocking amendments that would fix that flaw

Actually it was pesky lawyers going to an elitist Belgian court which upheld the European Human Right to free association
Nobody at the conference supports any of these things but, guess what, you have them when you need them