Labour should be streets ahead in the polls, says Owen Jones in The Guardian. Boris Johnson has “spectacularly self-immolated, tainting his colleagues and party”; the cost-of-living crisis is hammering people’s wallets; the Tory leadership contest promises to have “all the dignity of a pack of cornered rats”. Yet voters still aren’t convinced by the alternative. Polls show that just 33% think Labour is “fit to govern”, down five points from when Jeremy Corbyn was leader in 2017. Only 50% say the party is concerned about people in need, down 16 points, and 45% that it understands the problems facing Britain, down nine points. How on earth is the opposition doing so badly?

“Sri Lanka has fallen,” says Michael Shellenberger in his Substack newsletter. Over the weekend, protesters stormed the official residences of the PM and president, both of whom are stepping down. With inflation soaring – over 50% in June – millions are struggling to buy fuel, food and medicine. The nation is effectively bankrupt. Covid is partly to blame: lockdowns hammered the tourism industry. But the main cause is that Sri Lanka’s leaders “fell under the spell of Western green elites” peddling organic farming. In a bid to boost its “Environmental, Social and Governance” credentials – and backed by the likes of the EU and the World Bank – the government banned chemical fertilisers in April 2021.