1. Paul Krugman in the New York Times
on the upside of Donald Trump’s instability
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“It says a lot about the modern G.O.P. that the party is still solidly behind a man so obviously, grotesquely, not up to the job (although some rank-and-file Republicans now back an impeachment inquiry). But those of us who want America as we know it to survive should be grateful that Trump is so immature and incompetent. His character flaws are the only thing that gives us a fighting chance.”
2. Mark Steel in The Independent
on the impact of the climate change movement
Has Greta changed everything?
“The stardom of Thunberg has already reshaped society, partly because middle-class parents ambitious for their kids no longer force them to rehearse a solo on the oboe all night. Instead, they scream ‘come on, you’ll never get a Nobel Peace prize if you don’t practice making a speech about the decline of the sea lion while glueing yourself to the wing of a Boeing 737’.”
3. Christian May in City AM
on Boris and Leo’s Brexit ‘breakthrough’
Is this the beginning of the end, or…
“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Then again, it might not be.”
4. Daniel Trilling in The Guardian
on the Tories’ ‘pantomime authoritarianism’
The party’s current rhetoric is ‘more viscous than Thatcher’
“The rightwingers who now dominate the Conservative party see enemies everywhere they look. In parliament, ‘collaborators’ with the European Union, who will force Britain to ‘surrender’. Behind them, shadowy financial backers such as George Soros, singled out by Jacob Rees-Mogg as ‘remoaner funder-in-chief’. In the universities and the media, the promoters of ‘cultural Marxism’, an alien ideology that must be rooted out, according to Suella Braverman. And above all, an unaccountable liberal elite that stands in the way of the hopes and aspirations of the British people.”
5. Philip Collins in The Times
on why Jo Swinson’s Lib Dems are finished
Despite recent hype Swinson cannot break the mould
“I sense the limits of the ambitions of the Lib Dems in their new policy of revoking Article 50 which would, in effect, cancel the 2016 referendum. This is wrong in principle. I also think that its political cost, paid in the currency of trust, would be exorbitant. It is also a strangely defensive move, merely locking in Remain voters who have no other party to call home.”