Quote from: Colin YNWA on Today at 04:41:14 PMWow Sunak is really pinning all his hopes on Southgate pulling off a surprise and the nation being on a high he can geg in on ... at least that's the only hope I can see for him (fingers crossed)
It's damage limitation — that's it. Inflation's going to be down, Reform have dropped back in the polls (on top of a pretty poor showing in the local elections), the wheels haven't come off Rwanda yet (and they will), and peak 'small boats' is probably going to hit in August/September when the weather's at its nicest and the Channel is calm.
Add to that, the fact that once we're into October/November bad weather will depress the Old Vote™, which is always bad for the Tories, and this is probably as good as it's going to get for the Conservatives if they want to avoid complete annihilation at the ballot box.
Also... there are probably some immigration figures coming soon that will show a sharp drop. This will be due to the Tories pulling arguably their most cynical move yet — they recently proudly trumpeted the fact that overseas care workers were coming into the country at their lowest rate for years, they've already massively reduced the number of foreign doctors and nurses and are targetting overseas students as well, threatening to bankrupt many of our universities.
Essentially, they've coldly and calculatedly fucked our care, health and further education sectors to manufacture a significant drop in immigration numbers. They know that the only way an incoming Labour government can shore up the damage is to get more overseas doctors/nurses/care workers/students back into the country... at which point they can jump and say "See? We told you they'd be soft on immigration!"
They really are the most reprehensible shower of fuckers.