Five Most Popular Posts in April

Happy May Day to all who visit this blog! As we're at the beginning of the new month, here's what did the business during April.

1. Never Apologise, Never Explain
2. Labour's Racist Attack Ad
3. BBC Framing and Distortion: A Case Study
4. Why Keir Starmer is Polling Poorly
5. Will the Tories Lose 1,000 Councillors?

There's a ready audience for ragging on Keir Starmer, and heaven know he deserves all the criticisms. And so it came to pass that matters pertaining to him did well last month. Straight in at number one and two was the fall out from Labour's Rishi-Sunak-the-Paedophile's-Friend attack advert. At the top is Starmer's doubling down on it, followed by a reflection on how it seamlessly bleeds into the racialised context of northern paedophile gangs - something the far right to the Prime Minister himself has tried capitalising on. As observed, aside from the racist smearing this is particularly stupid ground for Starmer to stand on considering the skeletons loudly rattling the words 'Jimmy' and 'Savile'. A demonstration that clever-clever politics is invariably dumb-dumb politics.

In third we took time off from Labour to examine how Chris Mason framed his report on the investigation into how Sunak had misled the select committee about declarations of his wife's interests and how she benefits financially from the Tories' child care policies. What do you mean rich people shoud keep track of their investments? In at four, we revisited the question about Starmer's personal polling, which tends to be a bit all over the place and often places him behind the Prime Minister. And slotting in last was a look at Tory expectation management over the local council elections. By taking up their anticipated losses, anything short of that can be spun as some sort of victory. Which is what the Tories could really do with right now.

Dipping into the second chance saloon, I've fished two out. Sticking with the government, I considered the class politics of their efforts to sign up to the Pacific Rim trade deal. Many a commentator, particularly those with pro-EU leanings, appear genuinely puzzled by why this, which adds a fraction of a percentage to GDP figures, wins out over closer ties to the immensely wealthy trade bloc across the Channel. And that shouldn't be much of a surprise, seeing as an appreciation of the class dynamics of the Conservatives is beyond the ken of most who make careers out of Tory watching. The second is last night's post on Starmer's renewed focus on public sector "reform". Short version; it's a politics of depoliticisation. Unsure what's going to crop up this coming month, apart from pieces on so-called National Conservatism, the obligatory Eurovision preview post, and something on the coronation (which, strangely, I'm going to watch). As ever, If you haven't already don't forget to follow the free weekly newsletter, and if you like what I do (and you're not skint), you can help support the blog. Following me on Twitter and Facebook are cost-free ways of showing your backing for this corner of the internet.

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