Get cross in the box Half-time and still all to play for in election
JOHNSON BAD FOR HEALTH...
HALF-TIME in the electoral game. With just under three weeks to go – yes, 18 more nail-biting days – it’s still all to play for.
Favourites The Blues are ahead, in spite of having a captain nobody would trust with their cat, let alone the country. The Reds are trailing with a team leader too many fans have doubts about.
On the sidelines, The Yellows keep waving frantically, crying foul, but nobody’s taking any notice. The Brexit Party is on a fast track to relegation.
Oh and we shouldn’t forget The Greens for promising to keep the turf alive and healthy for future games.
So far, even with a much-vaunted television “clash” between Boris and Jez which changed few voters’ minds, the most important election in our lifetime has actually failed to ignite national passions.
Spite
It is a game of two halves – Brexit for The Blues and the National Health Service for The Reds. Each side shows vulnerability when the other is on the attack.
No wonder that, at the halfway stage, it remains the most unpredictable match in decades.
One thing is certain ertain though – whoever wins, it will be in spite of their leader. der.
From the bench, ench, Jo Swinson has declared lared she won’t play with either ither the Tories or Labour if there is a hung Parliament. ment. It made sense when hen
WHEN will Boris come clean about his plans to sell off bits of the NHS to American firms?
Documents relating to private meetings between US companies and Department of Trade officials have been censored so heavily they look like blackout curtains. Boris she shunned Jeremy alone, she is a closet Tory after all. But dismissing a post-election deal with either party is a shout she may come to regret.
Boris is stuck with the one mantra: Just get Brexit Bre done. He hints at goodies to com come but can’t, or won’t, go into detail.
Except on the biggest historical divide bet between the Tory capitalists and soc socialist Labour: Public spendin spending versus tax cuts. On that he has performed a humiliating U-tur U-turn, axing breaks for busi
ness n saying he’ll deliver keeps claiming that it’s all “completely untrue” and “under no circumstances” would the health service be on the negotiating table.
His latest denial came this week during the ITV debate with Jeremy Corbyn.
Why then does he describe a £6billion to the NHS instead. And that’s against a background of simmering scandals over business “friend” Jennifer Arcuri, the suppressed report on Russian interference in elections, the friendship with Donald Trump, questions over selling the NHS to American companies, shamed candidates flaking out all over the place and the delay in actually dying in a ditch over Brexit.
The surrendering handbrake turn on tax was a deserved goal to Jeremy’s side, which has been playing the better game so far. They are clear on popular issues such as fixing the NHS and campaign by the Institute for Free Trade calling for US companies to be allowed to compete with the NHS, as a “noble cause”?
So “crucial” a cause he hosted an event for potential buyers wanting a slice of the pie as part of his Brexit deal. taking the trains and water back into public ownership, even giving football fans a bigger say in the running of their clubs.
Not to mention being more honest. Jez has been out-campaigning Boris in the country, visiting more seats and meeting more voters getting a warmer, sometimes rapturous, welcome.
But, “sadly,” as one Labour loyalist monitor reluctantly reports, “JC is more of a negative than last time”.
It is possible yet that the best team could win the campaign but lose the match.