As the Labour leadership debate continues to take up all of their time and effort, it is yet to be seen whether the Conservative government can make the most of this‎ political opportunity.
Labour’s distraction could, for instance, provide an opportunity to get bad news out with few repercussions.  Whether the Network Rail cost overruns is only the first of such stories remains to be seen. The Government could try to clear the decks before and after the Budget so that it can get the most from the rest of its time in office with distraction. Labour’s priorities could already be sealing its fate in 2020.
So what can we learn from the political news this week?
- Work gets done over dinner. The big kick off for the UK’s European renegotiations took place over dinner. According to reports such discussions are often a little more informal due to the consumption of wine…
- Ed discovers how to use Twitter. Ed Miliband used Twitter a lot during his leadership of the Labour Party and was widely praised for his use of other social media as well. But now he is in charge of his own account, rather than having people tweet for him, Ed has found humour and engagement. A pity all political tweets are not like that.
- Taylor Swift is more powerful than many governments. It only took a single blog post by Ms Swift to get Apple to change its mind on paying artists during the free trial of its new Apple Music service. Not only that but the decision came within hours. Very few companies can move that quickly and get on the media to do interviews about it as well. Maybe Taylor can have a go at climate change next.
- Timing is all. The decision to pause some of Network Rail’s improvement plans has caused a row about when Ministers knew about the issues. The largest investment since Victorian times, said the Conservative Party manifesto, but that appears to now not be the case. It is now up to Sit Peter Hendy as the new Chair of Network Rail to get things sorted.
- Every good boy deserves fudge. This musical term also applies, according to reports, to the airports issue. Threats of legal action and people power are already flying about. We have only days to wait for a potential non-decision.