Who’s running the country?
Cabinet ministers jostling in any future reshuffle must remember they are far from the most important people in the government. Red Box analysis of newspaper stories since the Tory manifesto launch reveals, unsurprisingly, that Theresa May is the most mentioned, followed by Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond, David Davis and Sir Michael Fallon.
The next person in the league table is Nick Timothy, one of Mrs May’s joint chiefs of staff, who has more column inches than Jeremy Hunt and Damian Green, followed by Fiona Hill, his co-chief, who has more mentions than the rest of the cabinet.
Don’t bank on it
For a man who makes a name for himself spray painting other people’s property, Banksy seems to be a stickler for the law. The grafitti artist had offered to send a print of a new work to anyone who posted a photo of their ballot paper not voting for the Tories.
The Electoral Commission ruled it illegal and risked invalidating the whole election, and now Banksy has scrapped his “ill-conceived and legally dubious promotion”.
Sinking ship
Bob Geldof came out in support of the Liberal Democrats yesterday, insisting that “this election is about nothing else except Brexit”. They will be hoping that his endorsement is rather more successful than his noisy boat protest on the Thames last year in favour of Remain.
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Cereal killer
Theresa May has revealed that the naughtiest thing she ever did as a child was running through fields of wheat. “The farmers weren’t too pleased.” Then one day she gazed across the open farmland to a group of agricultural outbuildings and took inspiration for her political career from a particularly strong stable.
Say my name
Paul Nuttall got into trouble for calling Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood “Natalie” during a TV debate. Now the Ukip leader has told LBC he had “absolutely no idea” why. “Even during prep that day, I kept calling her Natalie,” he said. “I went onto the platform saying: ‘Leanne, Leanne, Leanne’, and it just came out wrong.”