[The Red Arrow]

Well that's one for the 'News You Won't Read In The M*il' thread. Let's hope Byline picks it up and runs with it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

What I missing here? Do rich people not pass the virus on?

[Bones McCoy]

What I missing here? Do rich people not pass the virus on?

D.O.N.E.R.Z.

[The Red Arrow]

[Tubby Isaacs]

[davidjay]

I do wonder if they're trying to compete for some sort of end of year trophy as to who's been the most blatant.

[Bones McCoy]

They're everywhere - hoovering up those PPE contracts.

[The Red Arrow]

Profiteering Pita Emolument?

[youngian]

Have pranksters been signing up? Liz4PM sounds an entertaining prospect. Like Thick of It’s Nicola Murray

[Boiler]

Alarmingly, I reckon cheesy pork woman could be a real contender.

[The Red Arrow]

[Tubby Isaacs]

What's Amanda Milling done that's upset them? Why is she polling 56 net points behind George Eustice?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Have pranksters been signing up? Liz4PM sounds an entertaining prospect. Like Thick of It’s Nicola Murray

I don't think this is actually that surprising.

The International Trade brief is a nice one to have. It comes with such low expectations that signing anything looks like a triumph. And few Brexit Tory members will look at the deals themselves, nor care if it's better or worse than the EU deals with trade partners. The spin basically writes itself- "We will be selling lots more <insert quintessentially British thing> to <insert who we've just signed a deal with>.

Vote Leave made quite a lot of trade deals in the referendum. Bullshit, of course, but it sounded forward looking and doubtless made a few people feel like they weren't just voting to stop Poles coming here. And even better, if you talk about deals with New Zealand, Australia etc, there's a nice nostalgic bus.

So even Truss can look good showboating on this stuff.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[Tubby Isaacs]

They really think this sort of stuff plays well in the "Red Wall". I wonder if they're completely wrong about this. They've done well picking up some older voters (via Brexit and Corbyn, and promising to spaff without raising taxes) but those might not those might not be winning issues in the future. And culture wars can backfire easily- nobody in Britain cars about god, guns and gays.