So ONS figures have been revised (as is normal) showing the UK is no longer way behind Euro countries in being the worst of the G7 to bounceback from the pandemic.
In fact it's now only behind the US and Canada I believe (who have had much bigger stimulus packages) - so expect the Tories to dine out on this one.
However big caveat - other countries have yet to revise their figures. And using GDP as a post-pandemic metric of success is always going to be full of problems - but was seized upon by the Centrist broadcasters to bash the Tories around the head with over and over again (without truly understanding the revisions that take place )
Also 'bigger picture' current 3 month growth in the UK is 0.2% to June 23. Let's be real we're a low growth country, and collapse and expansion during the pandemic is such an outlier of regular metrics. That said Germany is currently stagnating too.
But expect Tory noises on this.
They can trumpet economomic growth all they like but it won’t make the slightest bit of difference to your average person who’s seen their real incomes decimated due to the rest of their **** ups.
Even the Daily Mail is now going with the ‘Everything is Broken line in their editorials
John Major was presiding over economic growth back in 1997. Fat lot of good it did him.
Anybody else shocked to find that the electoral boundaries are drawn up to favour Tory voters?
No, me neither.
To be fair, the Labour government also tweaked the boundaries when they had the chance
you know it’s been a bad week for the tories as the fail is running “Di tapes”, the usually tactic of just not covering thestories isn’t going to cut the mustard.
Al-Fayed had the good grace to die yesterday so that's the excuse for revisiting everything about the People's Princess...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66690623
I can see why some MPs might be getting desperate, hut surely they know it doesn't matter who their leader is when 13 years of austerity, brexit, Trussonomics etc etc have trashed the country
https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1697668599442288692?t=GPxI10Vudg_W_YdH3cWCSg&s=19
I can see why some MPs might be getting desperate, hut surely they know it doesn't matter who their leader is when 13 years of austerity, brexit, Trussonomics etc etc have trashed the country
https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1697668599442288692?t=GPxI10Vudg_W_YdH3cWCSg&s=19
David Maddox is political editor of the Daily Express, no doubt he has his own agenda and it is impossible to know, until the critical number is reached, how many letters of no confidence have been handed to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee.
I can't imagine that there is any real taste for another leadership election right now. What is certain though is that the Tory Party is in a deep crisis, and it is above all now idealogical rudderless - the perfect conditions for vicious infighting as different factions jostle for control.
And yet despite all that the Tories still appear to be setting the agenda, certainly in respect of the economy.
Admiral Mordaunt is leading an interal military coup, soon we will have a new Tory Junta.
Could be three unelected PMs ( yes i understand the PM is not strictly elected) on the bounce, must be a record.
it's not Sunak that has failed but rather neoliberal capitalism has failed in its own terms. The tragedy is that Starmer and Reeves are devoted to giving it another go.
What have the conservatives done to increase by 2 points? Is that a problem with polls or the idiots who respond to them?
A 14 point lead for Labour is not that great is it given the state of the tory party and 13 years of shit. That could easily go down to single digit once the election machine and media gets going.
Opinium's methodology tends to favour the Tories more than other pollsters. I believe that they make some allowance for the shy Tory factor. I suspect that a 14% Labour lead is more realistic than a 25% Labour lead.
And if a 14% Labour lead isn't considered that great then it is a reflection on how much things have changed in British politics. A 14% lead is huge - the Labour landslide victory of 1997 was the result of a 12% Labour lead over the Tories.
As for why the 2% increase since the previous Opinium poll, UK pollsters margin of error is about plus or minus 3% so if a pollster was carrying out two identical polls simultaneously at the same time I would expect something like a 2% discrepancy.
Although other factors might be responsible for a slight change in support, eg, no significantly bad recent news on the economy.
And if a 14% Labour lead isn’t considered that great then it is a reflection on how much things have changed in British politics. A 14% lead is huge – the Labour landslide victory of 1997 was the result of a 12% Labour lead over the Tories.
Remember the the election machine hasn't started yet and the tories will be a lot better at it than "U turn" Starmer who can't be trusted as you can never believe a word he says.
I am 55, nothing has changed in my view of British politics. The point is that if come election Stamrer only wins by single digit % that is not that great is it given the competition.
Remember the the election machine hasn’t started yet
Well yes, I am aware of that, which is why I believe that Opinium's 14% lead is likely to be more realistic than other pollsters claims of a 25% Labour lead.
Braverman hasnt even bothered to disguise her own leadership bid for months now, openly voicing opinions which totally contradict government policy (on leaving the ECHR for example), knowing full well that Rishi is too week to sack her
Now Mordaunt is getting her own bid firmly underway, again without even bothering to disguise it
Rishi is a dead man walking. The only question is are they really that unhinged that they’ll try and depose him now or wait until he’s lost the election?
In the meantime, we don’t really have a functioning government, do we? We’re in limbo, waiting for the inevitable, while Rishi tries desperately to postpone it, but seriously… why bother? To what end?
We’re in limbo, waiting for the inevitable, while Rishi tries desperately to postpone it, but seriously… why bother? To what end?
Bit more public money to be had first.
After all, they're on lovely high 80k salaries plus unlimited expenses which is going to disappear when they lose their seats, why hasten that?!
Few more extensions to build, moats to be cleaned, ducks to be fed, bit more travel on the Government jet, plus some time to line up their forthcoming Non-Exec Director roles. Also, the papers need some time to really fire up the anti-Starmer rhetoric.
We’re in limbo, waiting for the inevitable, while Rishi tries desperately to postpone it, but seriously… why bother? To what end?
So they can reward more dodgy contracts to the usual suspects.
So they can rip up the NHS even more, so that when Labour get in it's almost impossible to get right and line up further for more privatisation.
If Braverman took the leadership, then surely that means a complete wipeout at the next election? The majority of people in this country are not far right loons, there may be a small, very vocal minority but that's about it.
£80k isn’t that much to a Tory MP
It isn't that much to a lot of people but the difference is I don't have all the other benefits such as dodgy deals, future guarantees of money/jobs, nice little earners etc,.
In the meantime, we don’t really have a functioning government, do we?
That's nothing new, it's been the case since May's tenure!
The pool of talent, if you can call it that, just keeps on getting more shallow...
The tory party are like a bunch of hippos fighting over a slowly drying up pool of mud.
I mean... Braverman or Mordant? What a choice!
At least sunak makes an attempt to give off an air of competence.
Talent perhaps you don't want in a minister of the crown ?
Braverman hasnt even bothered to disguise her own leadership bid for months now
But surely she doesn't want the job now anyway. Far better to watch Sunak be defeated at the GE, and then launch a leadership campaign on a platform of returning to true Thatcherite values, not the wet Tory nonsense that lost us the election. Then she's got 5 years in power opposite Starmer, and a chance of actually winning next time.
But surely she doesn’t want the job now anyway
I think you’re hugely underestimating just how stupid she is
Talking of stupidity and people completely unfit for high office, this makes for gob-smacking reading in yesterdays Guardian… the inside track of Liz Truss’s catastrophic 40-odd days in office
She’s totally lost it’: inside story of the unravelling of Liz Truss’s premiership
Oh
'Sunak halved schools repair budget in 2021'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-66701626 ?
not the back from holidays headline Sunak Wanted
just read the truss link above
wonder how it compares to the mood in No10 now?
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/04/england-crumbling-schools-rishi-sunak-repairs-civil-servant
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I think you’re hugely underestimating just how stupid she is
But the way she held that sword! Pure PM material!
just read the truss link above
wonder how it compares to the mood in No10 now?
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/04/england-crumbling-schools-rishi-sunak-repairs-civil-servant
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If it’s dishing out fat contracts to cronies then billions can be found, fixing schools, not so much
I wonder how many Tory donors are presently registering new companies in the Caymen Islands named School Roof Repairs LTD, ready for the taxpayer-funded taps to be turned on?
I wonder how many Tory donors are presently registering new companies in the Caymen Islands named School Roof Repairs LTD, ready for the taxpayer-funded taps to be turned on?
Nah thats actual work even with subcontracting the actual work there will be some standards required.
The money will be in the portacabins and marquees.
Just another day in Toryland…. toxic little inadequate ‘Sir’ Frank Spencer joins the massed ranks of bullies
https://twitter.com/nazirafzal/status/1698629282895892552?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
X-Free link : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66706287
Former cabinet minister Sir Gavin Williamson has been told to apologise after an parliamentary inquiry found he had bullied a colleague in texts.
Sir Gavin quit as a minister last year after sending expletive-laden texts to former Tory chief whip Wendy Morton.
In the texts, Sir Gavin accused Ms Morton of excluding some MPs from the Queen's funeral in September last year.
He did announce a "new ten year programme"... no claims that it was a better funded plan than what it replaced, or that it came close to what he was told was required (on safety grounds, never mind suitability grounds). In fact, no denial that it meant less funding and fewer new schools. So not really "a lie", just more deflection. There's mountains of it coming from Tories this morning.
Head master of the school I can see from the window (and both my kids went to)... essential viewing... from June this year, but this has all been known for years...
He did announce a “new ten year programme
I think we can immediately file that alongside the 40 new hospitals, a nuclear power station a year, ‘Global Britain’ and all the other tenuous bullshit that was never intended to be anything more than tomorrows headlines
He’s even more full of shit than Boris and that pathetic ‘interview’ is just pure gaslighting
kelvin - for clarity, sunak isa liar on this subject and many others.
He is not that 'nice mr sunak'.
I love the maths of the rebuttal.
Accused of slashing the funding from the existing 100 schools down to 50 a year, instead of the 200-400 he was told was required, he says that this is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ then immediately says his ‘ten year plan’ would mean 500 schools refurbished over ten years
So… pay attention at the back kids… 500 schools, refurbished over ten years, means how many schools are refurbished each year?
Show your working out in the margins…
I mean… FFS! Seriously?! That’s his ****ing defence?!
He’s very thin skinned if his response is to say it’s wrong to blame him. He is the PM, the buck stops with him, and he should be expected to find a way out of this problem, not whinge that he’s been criticised.
Maybe he could start by diverting the budget for renovating the House of Commons towards the schools.
Gillian Keegan is upset no one has patted her on the back and said "good ****ing job". the self entitlement of these cretins is off the chart.
https://twitter.com/supertanskiii/status/1698684003463676393
The Labour Press Office will no doubt be thanking her for doing such a great job in just a few minutes
The last few weeks really have been absolutely clown-show stupidity from top to bottom
Sky News are presently properly taking the piss, saying ‘we’ve no idea who Gillan Keegan could possibly be referring to as sitting on their arses, doing absolutely nothing, but I’m sure we’ll probably find out in due course…’ while openly s****ing 😂
It really is just one long episode of the Thick Of It with these morons.
EDIT: number 10 has just issued a statement with the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’ in Gillian Keegan. Maybe they’ll bring Gavin Williamson back as education secretary?