Shropshire Star

WINNERS AND LOSERS

WINNERS

Published

EMMANUEL MACRON: There cannot be any dispute about this. He is a winner - the newly-elected President of France. Not bad going for a man who had previously never stood in an election and whose party did not exist a little over a year ago. He will probably not be a friend in Europe for Britain during Brexit. But then who will be?

DIANE ABBOTT: Diane qualifies as a winner by going a whole week of campaigning (at least at the time of writing) without putting her foot in it. Come to think of it, where has she been? The shadow home secretary has been keeping a low profile. Perhaps Labour are saving her up for later in the campaign. Or maybe she is poring over the Labour manifesto so that she knows it by heart if she is asked about it. Or both.

PHILIP MAY: The Prime Minister's husband actually got to appear on television. And he appeared a natural and normal human being, despite being portrayed by a Guardian columnist as a "dull, live-in human shield." Also in the winners' column should be included the BBC's The One Show which got Mr May and Theresa May to agree to come on the programme together. In the interests of balance, Jeremy Corbyn has been invited on too.

NICK FERRARI: What, again? After doing for Diane Abbott last week (see above), radio host Ferrari claimed another Labour scalp through the devious tactic of asking a simple question. Shadow education spokeswoman Angela Rayner had no answer when Ferrari asked her how many pupils would be affected by a particular Labour policy. She did not start plucking figures out of the air, and simply said she did not have the exact figure. This was wise, as Ferrari was asking a question to which he already knew the answer. Not so much a radio interview, as an ambush.

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LOSERS

BBC CAMERAMEN: While filming the arrival by car of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for a party meeting, the Beeb's Giles Wooltorton had his foot run over and had to be taken to hospital for treatment. It is not clear whether this will make any difference to Giles' voting intentions, whatever they may be. Nevertheless, this should be taken as a terrible warning - Jeremy's team is not going to let anything stand in his way.

TAX DODGERS, ASSET STRIPPERS, GREEDY BANKERS, RIP-OFF BOSSES: Do you come into any of these categories? Be afraid, be very afraid. However inclusive Jeremy's Britain might be, there is no place for all of the above. There is a smidgeon of good news for them. Britain's departure from the European Union is still nearly two years away, so if Jeremy does win next month, they will be able to take advantage of the free movement of labour and decamp to somewhere in Europe, skewing the net migration figures in the process.

LABOUR MANIFESTO SCRIPTWRITERS: You spend hours and hours penning this stuff, produce a draft document, arrange the big launch, and show it to a select few in advance. And then somebody blows the whole thing apart by leaking it to the lizards of the media. It ruins your big moment. There again, the only people who bother reading these documents are politicians and journalists. They are not exactly light reading, and inevitably for all but the election winner (usually) they will be fit only for pulping on June 9.

JOHN MCDONNELL: If you think election manifestos are dull, try reading Das Kapital. You haven't? It's by Karl Marx and is short on jokes. Mr McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has got into hot water by saying that there is a lot to learn from reading it. Previously he has got into trouble for flourishing Chairman Mao's Little Red Book in the Commons chamber. It is, of course, up to Mr McDonnell to choose his own reading material. But does he possess the world's dullest library?

PAUL NUTTALL: Still not making an impact, except perhaps by saying that Jeremy Corbyn would "have surrendered the Falkland Islands to Australia."