United Kingdom

then in the end shrugged my shoulders because I was pretty speechless.

I checked out the Mail (where Sunak's - almost certainly ghostwritten - op ed about it appeared). There were all of four comments responding to it when I started writing this reply - two thinking it was bonkers, and two (who looked suspiciously robotic) giving it the "Yay!" - and now there's forty and climbing. I wouldn't say it's being greeted with boundless enthusiasm, responses ranging from "but Rishi's kids will be in the USA won't they? He is allegedly moving there straight after the election." to "I’m convinced they’re trying their hardest to lose the election. The WEF must have decided it’s Labour’s turn to pretend to run the country for a while." with a few contributions from Colonel Blimp types thrown in.

The Telegraph wrote a predictably stuffy low-key puff piece about it. In the context of what's happened since Sunak named the date, I suppose it's not the craziest idea as an election-winner.

The Spectator was fairly even-handed, not seeing it as necessarily a bad idea in itself, but also as a tactic to try to put Labour on the back foot in a debate about its newfound enthusiasm for national pride/jingoism and the Union Flag. I'd have read more, but then I realized the article was by Katy Balls, and we all have our limits.

Sky News was the only outlet I checked that bothered to get a quote from Labour, which made its article's grand finale: "Responding, a Labour Party spokesperson said the announcement was 'desperate' adding: 'This is not a plan - it's a review which could cost billions and is only needed because the Tories hollowed out the Armed Forces to their smallest size since Napoleon.'"

I have an inkling that this may be an electoral "dead cat" - something that will probably never happen (unless Starmer suddenly thinks it's a great idea and proposes to double Sunak's proposed length of service, which is depressingly less unlikely than it should be), but will keep tongues wagging and feathers ruffled, and maybe distract briefly from what a disaster the Tories have been in office and how unparodiably atrocious their campaign launch has been.