Sunak and the Tories are utterly appalling, of course, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he walked right into it with his ridiculous choice of questions.
Let's look at a devastating 13 years of Tory misrule...
The UK has fewer hospital beds per capita than almost all advanced economies.
In 2010, we had 2.93 hospital beds per 1,000 people. By 2020, that figure was just 2.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people. data.oecd.org/healtheqt/hosp…
Consider a couple (2 children) where one person works on 67% of the average wage and the other looks after the young kids.
If their partner took a minimum wage job, nearly 80% of their income would vanish in taxes, benefit reductions and childcare costs! data.oecd.org/benwage/financ…
Investment in maintaining the UK's road infrastructure fell off a cliff under the Tories.
Compare the current disastrous situation with the amounts that had historically been invested in maintaining our roads since 1997. data.oecd.org/transport/infr…
Hmm. Looks like cancelling Twitter Blue doesn't cancel it until the current billing period ends. Sigh.
(I subscribed because the algorithm completely buried my tweets for months. And yes, things then went back to normal. But it doesn't feel right when so many are opposing Musk.) twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Anyway, if you're following me, I hope you'll bear with me despite the offending tick. It's going as soon as Twitter lets me get rid of it. Thanks.
Here's a little more background...
You can literally see the day a virtual switch was flipped so that I suddenly stopped showing on most people's timelines.
In other words, since 2016 we have gained 7 years' worth of new voters, whom we can expect to be at least as Remain-oriented as the most Remain group in the 2016 referendum (i.e. 73%+ Remain).
As we move forward, this trend will eventually guarantee a strong push to rejoin.
It's also worth noting that (contrary to popular belief) young people voted in relatively large numbers in 2016.
"About 64% of registered voters aged 18-24 went to polls, study reveals, but 90% of over-65s voted".
Earlier today, I suggested that a relatively "easy" sell would be a push to rejoin the Single Market without joining the Customs Union.
Here's what Norway has to say officially about its key relationship with the EU (via the EEA agreement). norway.no/en/missions/eu…
The only thing we would need to persuade the EU to change from Norway's agreement is the Schengen membership part.
But since the UK is cut off from the rest of the EU (excl. Ireland) by a sea border, that shouldn't be an impossible sell.
All the rest is existing template stuff.
By joining the Single Market, we would restore mutual freedom of movement (i.e. for UK citizens too).
Polls show that when the question is phrased in terms of restoring FoM for UK citizens, attitudes improve v dramatically from when it's only about what EU citizens can do.
Rejoining the Single Market but not the Customs Union should be the easiest "Brexit improvement" to sell to a majority.
It would restore *mutual* Freedom of Movement yet let the UK keep indy trade deals (except those with lower than EU standards, which are undesirable anyway).
Queues at the ports would vanish. Paperwork burden on companies would ease (only customs declarations left). We could stop panicking about the Tories eroding environmental standards, working conditions etc. Companies wouldn't need to fork out for 2 sets of certifications.
Would it be as good as EU membership? Of course not.
But it should be an order of magnitude less contentious, especially without the Customs Union. (Some people love to see Britain strutting around the world doing deals.)
And that makes it realistic and achievable short term.