Independent Premium

Danny Dyer has claimed that the coronavirus pandemic has proved that “people who went to Eton” are unable to run the country. The EastEnders actor, who previously branded the Eton-educated David Cameron a “twat” for calling the EU referendum, told BBC Breakfast that a “little group” who attended the independent boarding school has shown it is time for “working-class people” who have “lived a real life” to run the UK. His comments were welcomed by the Social Mobility Commission, which advises the government, and the Sutton Trust, a charity which campaigns for social mobility.When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July last year, Downing Street vowed: “Boris will build a cabinet showcasing all the talents within the party that truly reflect modern Britain.” Yet his cabinet was the most privately educated for a generation. The proportion who went to a private school (64 per cent) was more than twice that of Theresa May’s 2016 cabinet (30 per cent) and higher than Mr Cameron’s 2015 cabinet (50 per cent) and the 2010 coalition cabinet (62 per cent). More

A diplomatic dance between London and Brussels is continuing, as they hold “talks about talks” on whether to restart their stalled negotiations on a trade agreement.David Frost, Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator, held his second phone call in two days with Michel Barnier, his EU counterpart, on Tuesday. But hopes among EU officials that they could head to London for real talks were dashed when Downing Street said nothing had yet changed.
Earlier the European Commission tried to meet a key UK demand by accepting that both sides would have to make compromises – a statement of the obvious, but one No 10 wanted to hear.  But UK officials argued this did not go far enough, as it did not amount to a “clear assurance” by the EU of the “fundamental change in approach” Mr Johnson demanded when he declared the talks “over” last Friday. More

It is tempting for those on the progressive wing of politics to imagine that Jacinda Ardern’s remarkable victory in New Zealand marks a political turning point – not only for her country but the democratic world. In a sort of domino effect, the tablets of nationalist populism could gradually fall; a Joe Biden victory in the US next, with Donald Trump, the biggest domino gone… then a Conservative Party coup to remove Boris Johnson and – who knows – Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi, Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan following suit. Maybe even Vladimir Putin? Well, it is a little fanciful. More practically there are some immediate lessons for the British Labour Party from the success of its Kiwi counterpart.  First is style. Ardern’s is bright, optimistic, aspirational and illuminated by that trademark smile. Too often left leaders fall into a miserabilist trap, banging on about failure and filing their propaganda with images of kids in poverty or patients on ventilators. That’s not to deny the reality of deprivation and the destitution that many families are falling into, nor the strains on the NHS. It is merely to point out that to catch the attention of the voters you’re better off not depressing them.  More

It takes a small but unpleasant leap of imagination to envisage life in Britain in January 2021 – a mere 10 weeks or so away. The country may well be faced with the twin challenges of Covid-19 and Brexit hitting lives and businesses almost simultaneously. The second wave of cases and accompanying lockdowns could easily peak at around the same time that the Brexit transition period is due to end, on 31 December. Don’t forget that that date is enshrined in law, and still backed by a considerable body of opinion in the Conservative party. Not that the coronavirus knows or cares either way; it will just carry on going about its lethal business.  Even if the Covid-19 crisis isn’t as severe as it was in the first wave in the spring, and even if some sort of Brexit free trade deal is cobbled together, there would be a severe hit to the economy, about the size of what we might have used to think of as an unusually sharp recession, with some long-term loss of investment and national income.If, however, there is a no-deal Brexit, with added chaos, and the NHS and testing systems cannot cope with the coming surge in cases and hospitalisations, the effect on the economy – jobs and investment – could be more dramatic still in the short term, and longer lasting.   More

With the invaluable assistance of the government’s own scientific advisers, Keir Starmer has set his first political trap for Boris Johnson, and the prime minister lumbered straight into it. Despite some spirited attempts at Prime Minister’s Questions to scramble out of the trap set for him by the Labour leader, Johnson remains truly, madly, deeply in an embarrassing hole.  The trap is a thing of rare beauty. The prime minister has ignored the scientific advice he said he would always be entirely governed by, and refused to organise a short “circuit-breaker” national lockdown, among other measures. Starmer said he would back such a move, based on the unimpeachable expert advice. Handily it happens to be backed by the public too, and particularly among older voters, a weak spot for Labour in the recent past. Starmer knows he cannot lose politically.If, as seems likely, Johnson does have to go for such a short sharp lockdown in the coming weeks, Starmer will be vindicated, and the prime minister shown to be both wrong and irresolute, executing another U-turn quite against the wishes of his restive backbenchers.   More