She might as well lie on the road in front of the Tory battle bus. Ruth Davidson’s recent promises to tell the SNP to protect Scotland’s old folk against her own boss’s manifesto must surely have caused confusion and resentment amongst English Tory supporters. See:

Ruth wants a special deal for Scotland including keeping the winter fuel allowance, the free bus pass and TV licence. These are all completely contrary to Theresa’s slash and burn policy south of the border. I’ve searched but can find no report of Theresa’s anger with Ruth. Are they just going to pretend they haven’t noticed they’re in different dimensions, like the Sun and Daily Express headlines have pretended in the past?

Within days, we see the above Sun headline telling us of a poll where the Tory lead has shrunk to single figures and, according to Political Betting:

‘The launching of the Conservative manifesto on Thursday has changed the whole narrative of this election. …From a situation where the only real outcome that appeared possible was a very substantial Conservative majority, certainly more than 100, we now have the first post manifesto polls with the gap closing sharply. The exemption of Scotland from the ending of winter fuel allowance for wealthy pensioners looked very tricky. Also, closing down other areas of public spending such as free school meals for the for the 4-7 year olds hasn’t polled very well at all.’

I know there will have been other factors in the latest Tory lead slump – the child tax benefit rape clause, the dementia tax and other nasty Tory bits in their manifesto. Also, the impressive Labour manifesto will be a factor in their increase. Sometimes, not often, I wish I was English so I could become a Corbynite.

http://politicalbetting.com/