Daily catch-up: Top 10 leaders who faced each other in the Commons but not at elections
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Your support makes all the difference.Another fine cartoon by Jake Goretzki.
µ For no good reason yesterday, except that George Eaton wrote an article for the New Statesman headed "Jeremy Corbyn and David Cameron won’t face each other in 2020 – but who will fall first?", David Mills asked for a list of leaders who faced each other across despatch box but not at an election.
Simon Tilbrook came up with a list of 10, working backwards:
Blair/Cameron
Blair/IDS
Major/Smith
Wilson/Thatcher
Macmillan/Wilson
Eden/Gaitskell
Chamberlain/Attlee
Baldwin/Lansbury
MacDonald/Lansbury
Asquith/Bonar Law
Kevin Meagher asked if Cameron has a post-war record in facing off against four Labour leaders? Mr Memory pointed out that Harold Wilson faced four Conservative leaders and Tony Blair faced five.
µ Tom Peck, the Independent's sketch-writer, excelled himself yesterday, about Jeremy Corbyn's speech to the British Chamber of Commerce, on a conveyor belt and in a lift.
µ Daniel Sleat asks Jeremy Corbyn: what is Britain's place in Europe and the world?
µ An economist's argument for leaving the EU. Ashoka Mody, former deputy director of the IMF's European and Research Departments says:
The economic principles are clear. Trade with a particular country or group of countries brings no special dividends. Indeed, a leading trade theorist, Columbia’s Jagdish Bhagwati, has repeatedly warned that preferential trade arrangements hurt rather than help.
He backs Boris: "British citizens may well vote to remain in the European Union, but atrophy of European institutions will continue and Johnson is likely to win history’s verdict."
µ A YouGov survey published yesterday contradicts what everyone knows about politics: that older people tend to be more conservative politically, and that conservatives tend to take a less idealistic view of human nature.
µ And finally, thanks to Chris Heaton-Harris for this:
"Athletics is ruining adult literacy. Discus."
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