A properly cynical political editor would be examining the motives behind all announcements by the Conservatives over the days leading to May 4th. Rishi Sunak was spotted leaving a lunch with Isaac Levido at Central Office yesterday, and there's every sign of a grid of vote-grabbing gambits in play - both as a dry run for October/November 2024, and a real concern that the local party machinery might be irreparably damaged by humiliation in May.
It started with "Stop the Boats", the headline of a policy nowhere near delivery - and has shamelessly moved forward to yesterday's 'Planning Permission for Holiday Rentals', not a policy, not even an imminent consultation. It's clearly possible for Steve Barclay to move to a deal with junior hospital doctors - but it might be politically convenient to keep them dangling until a late display of magnanimity, say, in the week before polling.
The only piece of 'legislation' in the Commons calendar before polling day is the 'Illegal Migration Bill - Remaining Stages', a week on Tuesday. That's not going Stop Any Boat, and all the rest is fluff and bluster.
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