And here we go: he’s criticising the expansion of Heathrow.
Personally, I think he has a smidge of a point, but I think that all the London airports should be expanded. Of course, I’m 450 miles away. 
Interesting morning on the doorstep trying to get out the postal vote.
Strong Labour area; not a single mention of Brexit - I was almost left with the sense it’s either in the past or too abstract. People want to talk about housing, NHS, schools a little bit.
Comfortably over 100 volunteers out door knocking this morning in the constituency - some Blaitites ‘unavailable’ but goodness, the Corbynistas are keen as mustard.
It’s the same here: the decision has been made; the electorate respects that decision.
Might that be to do with the weather?
What’s a “Blaitite”?
A late convert to Blairism?
We do hear some rumblings about non-traditional voters participating this time round. Perhaps some are only now learning of Blair’s manifesto. 
A Blair supporter who wears briefs, not boxers.
Sorry, slip of the keyboard; as others have alluded, the centrist pro-EU people for whom Corbyn is too socialist.
So the Sunday Times has the gap at 9% (44 vs. 35). The Tories are running the most inept campaign I can recall for 20-30 years, and it doesn’t support the narratives of ‘strong and stable’ or even the ‘tough Brexit negotiator’ stuff. It’s wishy-washy and a bit off key.
Two polices in particular aren’t helping; the aforementioned ‘Dementia tax’ which their own press is killing them on, and also the ending of free school meals which makes no sense whatever political persuasion you are - watch the edited (2 min) Jamie Oliver interview for the growing storm.
Even the winter fuel allowance is messy - stopping it altogether and then giving it back to Scotland, because it’s colder (nothing to do with the straight SNP?Tory contests). That’s a little absurd.
So, goodness, a lot to play for…
The winter fuel allowance is one of the benefits devolved to the Scottish Parliament anyway, so it was a bit daft of Ruth Davidson to say anything beyond that.
The WFA and Dementia Tax are getting serious kickback up here among Tory supporters.
Note that while WFA is devolved here in Scotland, plenty of people have relatives down south who would be means tested.
Im still unsure if this is all churn or a legitimate move in the polls. I kinda expected a big Tory win as being most likely, with a landslide or close Tory win as outside possibilities. Im still going with a comnfortably big Tory win as being likely. It’s difficult to see Labour getting close to the Tories without its usual core Scottish constituencies.
My concern at Theresa May is looking justified. A reasonably competent minister, whose main selling point in her Tory leadership bid was deciding to opt out of the Brexit campaign, is not necessarily PM material.
Ah, thanks. Didn’t know if it was some term I’d never heard of before.
It is looking that way, isn’t it?
She was the best option when Cameron resigned, and I’m not sure anyone on either front bench would be better. Hardly a ringing endorsement, obviously, but there does seem to be a lack of actual leaders at the moment.
George Osborne (in his new capacity as editor of the Evening Standard) is tweeting that there’s going to be a u-turn on the dementia tax.
If that’s true, it’s not a good look for a party campaigning on their strength and stability.
It seems that “u-turns” on an item in the manifesto are fairly common in UK politics. Which makes me wonder whether they don’t deliberately throw something extra-risky on the pile towards the end of their internal negotiations.
If the public swallows it then ka-ching, they’ve achieved some big long-shot ideological win. If the public chokes on it they quickly backtrack and talk about being responsive to the concerns of the people.
Either way they can spin it as a win. Of course their opposition will spin it as them being tin-earned dictators all the way. But it’s easier enough for the manifesto writers to keep control of the narrative than it is for the opposition. Provided they’re forewarned and have their retreat plans all mapped out.
IOW this reminds me of the “helicopter ploy” in business consulting. Make a smart plan then put something obvious and extravagant and silly on top just before presenting it to the customer. That way the customer can make a change (“cut the helicopter”) and achieve his necessary psychological buy-in. But without disturbing the actual well-balanced plan you’ve developed. Ideally the “helicopter” is real high margin for you and doesn’t really affect the real results one way or the other if included or excluded.
Proposals in the Chancellor’s Budget statement get u-turned semi-regularly, but not manifesto items during an actual General Election campaign.
Yep, the ‘dementia tax’ u-turn is a big deal - not absolutely huge but properly big. Jeremy Corbyn is turning out to be having a very good General Election.
If we assume most of yer yoof are pro-Corbyn, he’s also having a very good day - check out the real time voter registration and the number of under 25s, then 25-34: Dashboard - Register To Vote Performance
Anyone see the reception he got at The Libertines gig on Saturday …
As an aside, the more I digest Theresa May’s very mainstream manifesto, the more I think you could almost get away with saying Bernie Sanders vs. HRC …
The Telegraph are reporting that the SNP tried to smear the nurse who apparently got the better of Wee Kelpie in the debate last night. (I’ve recorded the debate but yet to watch it myself.)