And that, perhaps, is the only honest answer. In Westminster this week, nobody knows the ending. They only know that the clock is ticking.
I went to a coffee shop across from Parliament this lunchtime. A nurse in scrubs was staring at her phone, refreshing a news page. “I don’t care who wins,” she told me. “I just need to know if I can pay my rent on the 1st. You lot in the media talk about ‘process.’ I talk about my daughter’s school shoes.”
That is the core of it. The intellectual battle has been lost. The only remaining question is whether the political one will be fought or forfeited.
One Labour strategist put it to me bluntly: “We don’t need to push the apple. It’s already rolling off the table. Our job is to be there when it hits the floor.”
BBC Senior Political Correspondent
Jessie Ames is the BBC’s Senior Political Correspondent. Follow her on BBC News at Ten and on the BBC Politics Live panel this Thursday.
Jessie Ames Bbc |best| May 2026
And that, perhaps, is the only honest answer. In Westminster this week, nobody knows the ending. They only know that the clock is ticking.
I went to a coffee shop across from Parliament this lunchtime. A nurse in scrubs was staring at her phone, refreshing a news page. “I don’t care who wins,” she told me. “I just need to know if I can pay my rent on the 1st. You lot in the media talk about ‘process.’ I talk about my daughter’s school shoes.” jessie ames bbc
That is the core of it. The intellectual battle has been lost. The only remaining question is whether the political one will be fought or forfeited. And that, perhaps, is the only honest answer
One Labour strategist put it to me bluntly: “We don’t need to push the apple. It’s already rolling off the table. Our job is to be there when it hits the floor.” I went to a coffee shop across from
BBC Senior Political Correspondent
Jessie Ames is the BBC’s Senior Political Correspondent. Follow her on BBC News at Ten and on the BBC Politics Live panel this Thursday.