This is the sixth time a Prime Minister has resigned in the last ten years.
24 Jun 2016: David Cameron 24 Jul 2019: Theresa May 07 Jul 2022: Boris Johnson 20 Oct 2022: Liz Truss 05 Jul 2024: Rishi Sunak 22 Jun 2026: Keir Starmer
Note that only Rishi Sunak resigned as Prime Minister on these dates, the others resigned as leader of their party forcing a leadership election.
Only Rishi lost a General Election, the others were all personal decisions.
Note that all but one of these PMs resigned in June or July, only Liz Truss didn't.
Other than Liz, every PM since Margaret Thatcher has resigned in May, June or July.
These are the days the Prime Minister actually changed.
13 Jul 2016: Cameron → May 24 Jul 2019: May → Johnson 06 Sep 2022: Johnson → Truss 25 Oct 2022: Truss → Sunak 05 Jul 2024: Sunak → Starmer ?? ??? 2026: Starmer → ???????
Note that we haven't actually had seven Prime Ministers in 10 years, not yet.
That will only happen if Sir Keir's successor starts in the job before 5pm on 13th July.
Note that recent Prime Ministers have served brief tenures.
50 days: Truss 2 years: Sunak, Starmer 3 years: May, Johnson
Before that...
3/4 years: Heath, Callaghan, Brown 6/7 years: Major, Cameron, Wilson 10/11 years: Thatcher, Blair
Since 1721 the average Prime Ministerial term has been 3 years and 4 months.
The last PM to exceed this median duration was David Cameron.
When this year's Remembrance Sunday commemoration takes place, expect ten living PMs to be in attendance.
That'd be 17% of all Britain's Prime Minsters (i.e. 1 in 6)
Have we all become incredibly impatient with Prime Ministers that don't deliver?
Or have the last half-dozen Prime Ministers all been very poor at their job?
Or have international crises made improving the British economy impossible?
Or is there a foreign trollfarm somewhere successfully destabilising everything?
IT'S THE 10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BREXIT REFERENDUM
Ten years!
Ten years since David Cameron launched a referendum assuming we'd never vote Leave.
Ten years since Jeremy Corbyn wasn't overly engaged in campaigning for Remain.
Ten years since lies on a bus and discrediting experts struck a chord.
Ten years since it wasn't explained what would happen if we left.
Ten years since just enough people decided they wanted some kind of change.
Ten years since London, Scotland and Northern Ireland didn't vote Leave.
Ten years since 52%/48% became an accursed ratio.
Ten years since politics ruptured along new tribal lines.
Ten years since Nigel Farage's greatest triumph... so far.
Ten years since an ill-explained ego-driven leap in the dark, disastrously followed through.
I invite you to present your own "Ten years since..." completed in ten words or fewer.
No longer than that, and just the one, thanks.
IT'S GOING TO BE THE HOTTEST JUNE DAY ON RECORD (or tomorrow is)
The five hottest June days on record 1) 29 June 1927 (35.6°C) Camden Square 1) 28 June 1976 (35.6°C) Southampton 3) 27 June 1976 (35.5°C) Southampton 4) 26 June 1947 (35.4°C) Horsham/Dereham 5) 21 June 2017 (34.5°C) Heathrow
June is normally the least hot summer month because the sea hasn't fully warmed up yet, ditto the land.
That'll be why the temperature's only ever topped 35°C four times in June, and not since the fabled summer of 1976.
That 50 year record looks likely to be broken today...
...and tomorrow absolutely shattered, perhaps by a margin of 3°C.
The five hottest July days on record 1) 19 July 2022 (40.3°C) Coningsby 2) 25 July 2019 (38.7°C) Cambridge 3) 18 July 2022 (38.2°C) Northants/Suffolk 4) 31 July 2020 (37.8°C) Heathrow 5) 01 July 2015 (36.7°C) Heathrow
All five of these are hotter than any days in June.
That's because the hottest days tend to be in late July - land and sea have warmed up and there's still a lot of daylight.
What's extraordinary this week is that we're about to see these temperatures a month earlier than we've ever seen them before.
Just like in May when we saw temperatures more typical of June records but a month early.
Here again is my table of the years in which the UK's monthly temperature records were last broken.
For June that's currently 1976 but is about to be 2026.
When the UK maximum monthly temperature record was last broken
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2024
2019
1968
1949
2026
1976
2022
2003
1906
2011
2015
2019
Years in the 21st century are underlined. There are eight of these, and are about to be nine, i.e. three-quarters of our monthly records have been broken since the millennium. Six have changed in the last ten years.
What's truly exceptional is breaking two monthly records in one calendar year, indeed less than four weeks apart.
And not just breaking them, but smashing them.
And we still have two summer months to go.
Imagine what 2027, 2030, 2040 or 2060 might feel like.
We've long known climate change is coming, just perhaps not appreciated how strongly and how fast.
What's really important today isn't the change of Prime Ministers or 10 years since Brexit, it's that our climate is doing extraordinary things prematurely and will continue to do so because we're letting it slip out of our control because no global consensus has been achieved on the best way to stop it because politicians only seem to be able to make short-term self-interested decisions and stuff the future.
If you expect to be on this planet in 30 years time good luck to you, whoever the Prime Minister is.
Wednesday update: 36.1°C at Gosport (Hants) breaks the record for the warmest June day ever. 1976 has been trumped. Thursday update: 36.7°C at Merryfield (Somerset) breaks the record again. 36.7°C was the UK's hottest temperature record from 1911 to 1990. Friday update: 37.3°C at Santon Downham (Suffolk) is the new June maximum. That's 1.7°C higher that the previous 1976 record. Monday update: Updated record for Friday... 37.7°C at Lingwood (Norfolk). The new June maximum is 2.1°C higher than 1976.
