All aboard the Davey train

As parties start laying out their election stalls, what is there for universities and research?

We have reached that stage of the campaign in which prime minister Rishi Sunak has emerged from days of self-imposed exile only to say that he hopes people can “find it in their hearts to forgive me”. As an election pitch, it lacks a certain Churchillian grandeur.

Today, Sunak will be at the centre of the launch of his party’s manifesto. Let’s hope he does not accidentally drop a copy on an orphan holding a bulldog puppy, knocking them into a fire alarm and setting off the water sprinklers—but at this stage you can’t rule anything out.