Tory capers just batty

No hero can save this party, despite it trying to portray PM as Batman

Imagine, one day, 20% of all the people you work with deciding to quit. Slightly unsettling, no? But another two Tory resignations this week and that’s the figure we’re at now. A fifth of them deciding enough is enough.

Any general election sees its share of natural wastage.

Some people just retire, for example. Others see it as a chance to get out of Parliament and make some proper money.

But 20% is something, isn’t it? I spoke to one of those who has decided to stay and he told me the mood around the back benches is something else at the moment.

He said: “I know people say, ‘I’ve never seen it like this’ but I really, really have never seen it like this.

“There are people jumping ship and you can kind of understand their motivations.

“But there are some who have no business going and that makes it more difficult to stick around. And it’s only going to get worse.”

His Easter is being ruined by the looming local elections in the first week of May. For a long time, experts have been predicting a Tory wipeout but for the first time it looks to definitely be on the cards.

There’s a saying that the local elections are not really about local stuff. That’s true to a degree but there’s also a reflection of the national picture.

And the national picture is not good. Legendary polling expert

John Curtice says there is a 99% chance of a Labour victory at the next election – a horrible figure in a two-horse race.

The game is up. Number 10 seem determined to carry on until the autumn but even they know that’s getting more difficult.

It’s becoming clear from the Tories’ increasingly desperate attack ads. They were forced to change one this week about London, after it used footage of Penn Station in New York.

Easy mistake to make.

But then they brought a new one out, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. An attack on Birmingham, shot in grainy black and white, with a bizarre American voiceover, reading some really weird stuff over footage of the city. Stuff like: “In life under Labour, the scales of justice are balanced by a force beyond mortal comprehension.”

I’ve watched it a few times now, in a sort of horrified fascination, trying to work out what they’re trying to do. There’s a bit of Oliver Stone in there but it finally dawned on me what they were actually after: the opening monologue to that Batman film that came out a couple of years ago.

Is Mr Sunak trying to position himself as the Caped Crusader? The hero the city needs?

Imagine lighting up the Batsignal and having him turn up.

Citizens of Gotham, you would want your money back.

I’ve not seen anything like this and it’s only going to get worse