“It will change. We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning. Believe me.”
Well, well, well – it certainly has changed. Whether we get bored of the winning is another matter but Ted Cruz, Donald Trump’s closest rival in the race for Republican party nominee, finally threw in the towel this week as he acknowledged there was ‘no viable path to victory’.
The business and real estate mogul will now turn his focus to November’s presidential election as he prepares to fight the Democratic nominee — almost certainly Hillary Clinton — for US presidency. With the traditional election rulebook already trumped once (and Leicester City FC proving that pigs can fly), we can expect a heated summer.
Super Thursday
Political events also dominated UK headlines as voters set out for their local polling stations on ‘Super Thursday’. The Scottish National Party claimed a third successive victory in the Scottish Parliament elections, although they didn’t win enough seats to form a majority government. Jeremy Corbyn will be licking his wounds after Labour was pushed into third place in Scotland, while in Wales UKIP won its first assembly seats.
A number of cities will be appointing new mayors, with Labour’s Sadiq Khan and Conservative Zac Goldsmith frontrunners for the London crown. Both candidates have renewed their bid for votes in the final few days of campaigning with the former hoping to woo Londoners with his plan to tackle the housing crisis, while Goldsmith has vowed to set up a £1m fund to fight violence against women and girls in the capital.
Growth stalls as BHS falls
UK companies and consumers appear to be on standby mode ahead of the EU referendum vote on 23 June. Economic growth has all but stalled, judging by a weak services sector survey released on Thursday and a report by Barclays suggesting no growth at all in the second quarter.
British retailers have been hit hard particularly hard. Figures released this week showed high street sales falling 6% over the last year, the sharpest drop since 2008 according to CityAM. This was epitomised by the downfall of high street fixture BHS, which entered administration on Monday. Next Retail has seen its share price slump by more than 25% this year, while M&S and Sainbury’s are also reporting tough trading conditions, with low consumer confidence and erratic weather partly to blame.
On a more positive note, there was good news for pubs nationwide as the British Beer and Pub Association dedicated the recent improvement in beer sales to the Queen’s 90th birthday. Hurrah.
And Finally…
Leicester City FC are Premier League champions. Rank outsiders with odds of 5000-1 at the beginning of the season, surely no sane punter would have bet on the relegation favourites to be lifting the trophy this weekend. Leicester’s triumph is a truly remarkable feat and one that will go down as one of the greatest sporting stories of all time. And it turns out there were indeed a handful of insane punters who beat the bookies. Very well played.
