Politics

Lucy Frazer - ‘Rishi’s only been the prime minister for six months’ This week the fallout from the local election results mingled with news of the coronation. Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer spoke to Laura Kuenssberg about the Conservatives’ disastrous results, claiming her party just needed to deliver on their promises. But Kuenssberg questioned whether they might need to reflect more deeply, given they lost more seats than even their worst-case scenarios predicted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

The last twelve months have been traumatic for the Conservative Party. It has elected and deposed two party leaders. It has found itself caught in a financial crisis of its own making. And most recently it has faced a still largely unresolved ‘winter of discontent’ from a public sector workforce that, like much of those who are reliant on them, is unhappy about the state of public services.  The opinion polls have long since registered their estimate of the damage this sequence of dramas has inflicted on the party’s popularity. But the local elections last week provided us with the first firm evidence from across the country of actual choices in real ballot boxes.  The results make uncomfortable reading for the Conservatives.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says his party is on track to win the next general election after the Tories were hammered in local polls across England. The story of these local elections however appear to be Tory disaster rather than Labour triumph. The BBC's Projected National Share (PNS) of the vote – based on key wards – suggests that Labour would struggle to win a majority at a general election on the basis of last night's performance. The BBC's PNS gives Labour 35 per cent, Conservatives on 26 per cent, the Liberal Democrats 20 per cent and others 19 per cent. It is the biggest Labour lead over the Conservatives at the local elections since 1997 – but it's also the same vote share which the party won last year.

When Charles is crowned King today, he will be following in a long tradition of Christian kingship. The existing coronation practice of the British monarchy can be traced back over a thousand years to the crowning of the first King of All England, Edgar, in Bath Abbey in 973 AD. Edgar’s coronation service – devised by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Dunstan – has been the template for every coronation since. Key elements include the oath made by the monarch to God and a service of Holy Communion (in earlier times, the Mass). Some critics object to the Christian and biblical basis of the coronation ceremony.