Sunak only does carefully managed interactions with the public
because if he just meets with them at random....
https://twitter.com/josephtiman/status/1743242319527088458
deny the county a GE bounce...
https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1743289251918225528
They need to be careful with that approach... because real tax cuts might well be announced just before an election, so the Tories can campaign on policies they never have to deal with themselves to try and minimise loses. They can promise the earth if opposition is inevitable... challenge Labour to oppose things that'll never happen.
"Free owls for everyone... Labour want to stop you getting your free owl".
I think the point is they are deliberately targeting the frothing anti-tax Tory membership that visit conhome, just sewing general unrest amongst tories
though I think Labour wouldnt be sad if they forced Sunak into a Trussesque unfunded tax cut bonaza
because real tax cuts might well be announced just before an election
Or in the Spring budget. Predictions are some "healthy" cuts there.
They can promise the earth if opposition is inevitable… challenge Labour to oppose things that’ll never happen.
Or just backtrack on the promise if they do. Think it was 1997 where one of the ministers involved in the spending plans said they wouldnt have kept to it if they had managed to win and it was just a trap for labour.
All good points, from both of you.
I'm waiting for the Tories to agree a generous multi year pay deal with the junior doctors that the next government won't be able to afford to honour....
I’ve just watched the interview with Lil Rishi on BBC North West, during his hit’n’run stage managed ‘meet the public’ charade in Stockport
He really is like Talky the Toaster off Red Dwarf.
He was asked about banana-headed dimwit James Daly’s comments about ‘crap parents’, he was asked about child poverty rates in the North West, he was asked about the high tax burden, he was asked about the cost of living crisis
But on being asked each question, he just completely ignored it and just repeated the same pre-prepared soundbites like a malfunctioning droid
He makes Theresa May look spontaneous and engaging
Cold War SteveNot Cold War Steve, but looking like it is. from the official photo of the visit in Altrincham Today.
Rishi, the country is behind you, looking either stunned or despairing
https://twitter.com/altrinchamtoday/status/1743252892784435577?s=46&t=lTcFSBU-twDXB4KL3Bm_eQ
by-election claxon
> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67895246
That might be the last Tory I have any time for.
The expression on the faces of the Prime Minister and his well-fed, shiny-haired, Tory-boy minder shows how the Toraidh party think they are doing. Everybody else’s expression says how they are actually doing.
kicking off the new year with another Tory crisis
You'd think that would be business as usual by now and they'd be used to it!
That might be the last Tory I have any time for.
I thought the same thing when reading it... at least a noble reason to resign... unless that's an excuse before some kiddy fiddling or money laundering accusations come to light!
I thought the same thing when reading it… at least a noble reason to resign… unless that’s an excuse before some kiddy fiddling or money laundering accusations come to light!
i think it is best to try and give them the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise we end up with "all politicians are the same" and the complete turds getting away with it.
Amongst those who have commented favourable is Caroline Lucas so does seem like he was a committed environmentalist.
At worse I think it might be he got offered a job at the next parliament and when he heard Sunak was going to keep going decided he couldnt be arsed keeping his majority up.
i think it is best to try and give them the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise we end up with “all politicians are the same” and the complete turds getting away with it.
Amongst those who have commented favourable is Caroline Lucas so does seem like he was a committed environmentalist.
At worse I think it might be he got offered a job at the next parliament and when he heard Sunak was going to keep going decided he couldnt be arsed keeping his majority up.
I agree, I was just being (reasonably I think) pessimistic, with a bit of dark humour thrown in.
along with Truss, kweratang, raab & Patel he was one of the authors of Britannia unchained.....
Sunak & the Tories worried about 2024 starting so badly https://twitter.com/KevinASchofield/status/1743342659878404461?t=SUmJJCVR0Gn0CkdhJDtRoA&s=19
i think it is best to try and give them the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise we end up with “all politicians are the same” and the complete turds getting away with it.
Amongst those who have commented favourable is Caroline Lucas so does seem like he was a committed environmentalist.
I work in the industry and he's well respected.
The poor little mite just can't catch a break can he?😁
I take back what I said, Tory MP Skidmore is credited as having part in the book of britania unchained.
A) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_Unchained
His name is litteraly on the front cover.
I should have known better with him having a name like Skidmore... more the fool me for giving the benefit of the doubt.
My profound appologies.
Move on, nothing to see here!
I take back what I said, Tory MP Skidmore is credited as having part in the book of britania unchained.
That doesnt mean they didnt resign for good reasons.
For example whilst I disagree with David Davis on many matters he is often a good defender of civil liberties and data protection. He is what I consider to be a proper libertarian who actually accepts the consequences of their position in that it means people might do things he dislikes vs the standard right wing "libertarian" who thinks it means they can do what they want and everyone else has to comply.
For several matters eg brexit I think he is wrong but doesnt mean I think he is corrupt/shagging kids etc but just ended up with the wrong solution to the problem.
So I would go with thinking he did it on principle even if thats about the only one he shares with me.
So I would go with thinking he did it on principle even if thats about the only one he shares with me.
I'd be inclined to agree with you..but, and it's a big but... it seems like a very strange hill to die on, to me.
That also suggests to me that he decided to jump ship as a damage limitation excersise, and this is the path of least resistance for him, to me that sounds like a far more realitsic explanation in the face of electoral wipe-out.
I mean, If he really gave a crap about net-zero carbon pledges, he would have resigned the second the Conservative party as a whole, flushed that idea down the toilet.
But he didn't.
So the natural question is, why now?
And the logical answer is...he know's his game is probably up.
Isn’t there a US election in the autumn as well?
I wonder if that has any bearing.
It's free bile and given current form you'd have to think a lightbulb went on in some tory schemers head.
I mean, If he really gave a crap about net-zero carbon pledges, he would have resigned the second the Conservative party as a whole, flushed that idea down the toilet.
I can’t believe I’m defending a Tory, particularly one of the swivel-eyed arxh-Brexiteers, but….
the Parliamentary vote on the awarding of these new oil and gas drilling licences is on Monday. So he’s timed his resignation and vocal assertion of the reason why, so as to cause maximum damage to Sunak and his anti-green, pro-fossil fuel agenda. I’m sure he’s hoping this might encourage a few more to vote against it
You can kind of see how it might work. Not all Tory voters are as mad as these ultra-free-market, climate-change-denying zealots.
There are many in green and pleasant rural seats, who the Lib Dems are presently courting, who do believe that climate change is very real, and net zero is not part of some ‘woke agenda’.
Not least as their house might presently be under 2ft of floodwater. Could the timing be any worse? Not a great look, is it? Has your house just flooded? Never mind… let’s drill for more fossil fuel
It just proves, once again, how politically clueless Sunak is. No wonder he won’t be visiting any flooded areas. The headlines will write themselves
These new licenses will do nothing for UK energy security (as claimed) and will just line corporate pockets while fuelling climate change. Most people can see that as the reality of the situation and will have that in mind when they vote this year
https://twitter.com/ACJSissons/status/1743577144616263917?t=qVt1I3XZYglbRH8vJT98MA&s=19
I assume that the Government will arrest the water and take it all away for daring to block the important roads put there for important drivers.
It's what they'd do with a Just Stop Oil protester...
Wait is it not foreign water? Stopping British people going to work and disrupting our traditions.
Stop the clouds (big or small).
The young are less likely to vote and more likely to vote Labour. An October election makes Tory sense as hundreds of thousands will have gone off to study and are all-consumed with freshers' shenanigans. So, if you have 18yr old kids, make sure they register for a postal vote and/or register where they are studying, and VOTE!
Bit like Brexit, then, when a lot of the young were too busy frolicking in fields, etc to vote.
I have to say that in much of my experience - admittedly middle class - most of the climate angst is from parents worrying about their children’s future - whilst for every kid thinking about the future, there’s at least one more bent on short break holiday flights, consuming, and with little appetite to recycle.
Unfortunately political engagement/awareness is not the generational issue many suggest.
I honestly can’t see Sunak having the election in May or October making a scrap of difference to the final result in the grand scheme of things.
The only reason he’s hanging on is so they can transfer as much public money as possible, between now and the inevitable, into the pockets of him and his mates and probably do things like abolish inheritance tax to again benefit the rich, while robbing an incoming labour government of funds
It’s scorched earth from here on in. He’ll be like Saddam Hussain setting fire to the oil wells as he left Kuwait
Unfortunately political engagement/awareness is not the generational issue many suggest.
I wonder how much of that is a fatalistic "well they're all as bad as each other" attitude.
Doesn't help that Labour's publicity at the moment seems to be "we're not as bad as the Tories" which rather plays into the perception that all politicians are lazy/corrupt/useless.
Well Rishi may have said that there won’t be an election until next Autumn, but I’m just getting some Labour Party general election leaflets dropped off this afternoon to go and post out locally tomorrow
So Labour central office clearly either doesn’t believe him or don’t believe he’s in enough control of his own party, or events, to be making calls like that.
Or both?
Either way, we just need shut of our useless, banana-headed Tory MP with his minuscule majority and enormous forehead
binners - is your MP's appearance due to inbreeding?
Definitely peanut shape head.
"the poll suggests that Britons think the government should prioritize tackling the cost of living more than any other issue"
Who would have thought "stopping the boats" wasn't the most important issue for voters? An issue so important that it apparently needs 'emergency legislation' to deal with it.
while robbing an incoming labour government of funds
The government doesn't have a savings account building cash up.
The BoE performs a sweep every night and all government accounts are reset to zero. (It's more complex than that but that's the essence.)
Labour could spend whatever they need to - but they've enforced their own dumb-ass made up rules.
There's enough to go at with the Tories without misrepresenting what Labour can and can't do.
This is just getting excuses in early to run the country as a Conservative would.
The fact is the matter is that inheritance tax raises 8 billion quid a year for the government in real money.
If the Tories abolish it, that’s 8 billion a year that any incoming government now doesn’t have to spend on health or education, all to give a massive tax break to the top 4%
They’ve already made enough noises about doing it. Would anyone bet against that being in Hunts March budget, with plenty of other similar measures as a last final **** you! to the country before they’re booted out?
Like burglars having a dump on your living room carpet before they make off with your valuables
The fact is the matter is that inheritance tax raises 8 billion quid a year for the government in real money.
If the Tories abolish it, that’s 8 billion a year that any incoming government now doesn’t have to spend on health or education, all to give a massive tax break to the top 4%
Except that's not quite how it works. That 8 billion could easily be found down the back of the bank of England's sofa if the government at the time chose to (see banks, COVID etc). The real difference is it continues to hand money and assets to the rich to accumulate, accelerating the housing crisis and rise of inequality etc.
That ain't a forehead, that's at least a fivehead, possibly a sixhead. Still, at least we know where Beavis and Butthead sprung from...
The real difference is it continues to hand money and assets to the rich to accumulate, accelerating the housing crisis and rise of inequality etc
That’s my point.
They’re bad enough at the best of times, but I fully expect that this upcoming March budget - their final one - will be a big bonus giveaway bonanza to the richest in society, probably with a side-helping of a fire sale of any public asserts they haven’t already flogged off on the cheap to their mates.
Apparently, everybody at Westminster reckons Rishi will 100% go for a May general election after a Truss style unfunded tax giveaway budget in March
Absolutely nobody is buying this Autumn election nonsense, but they think he’s dropping it in as possibility/smokescreen in case the polling is still really, really bad post-budget and he (spineless as ever) bottles it and tries to cling on, completely pointlessly, through the summer.
Have to disagree. I have just recently been reliably informed that October gives them more time for scorched earth, it's grab all you can and leaved the new government with an empty cupboard. Hence Labour continuously backing off from commitments. Also a £1.1bn contract has just been awarded to a company owned by a, err, very rich marital partner of a 'very senior' Tory. Kinell, it's worse than even I thought.
Yeah, they have little reason to go early. If you know you’ve only got this term, why not hold on to power, even if the polls keep moving further against you. Hell of a lot of licenses and contracts to sign away, and public projects to bin and then salt the earth to make reinstating them next to impossible. Democracy be damned, no matter what the public say, they have the power and they get another summer of shitting on the UK out it before buggering off leaving Labour with a heap of shit to spend years cleaning up. There’s little glamour for the next government, just hard graft and service. The Tories know that Labour won’t be thanked for that, and will be hoping to make capital out of the slowness of the (or even apparent non-existence of in the short term) turn around while in opposition. The longer they have before an election, the harder they can make it for their successors, while funnelling money out to associates… why wouldn’t they? To do what’s right for the country? To do what the voters want? Don’t make me laugh.
Of course, other parties have to be prepared for May still, just in case. Bonus for Sunak here is that he has a budget for an election campaign many times bigger than all the other parties put together. If he can play his cards close to his chest, he can get others to stretch their meagre funds over the next 9 months before outspending them hugely at a time of his choosing to try and limit loses.
We should have genuine fixed term parliaments that everyone can plan for. Not these games being played, while services crumble and the state is bled dry.
A few days ago I posted about lil rish! stopping in Lincoln on his way to Richmond for Christmas - went to a pub where he, reportedly, enjoyed a pint; he's teetotal but it could have been a soft drink.
What was less well reported was his visit to Lincoln County Hospital; he stayed - or was kept - away from the many wards which are over-crowded and under-staffed.
The only photo I can find is of him handing out quality street to a very few carefully chosen members of staff.
The majority of staff are angry that they weren't made aware of his visit and were denied the opportunity to meet him and tell him about their real life hands-on experiences of working on the NHS front-line.
Another exercise in cowardice and another example of his absence of political nous.
He is doubly pathetic.
Sunak might be losing another MP!
only another 11 months to go before a GE 😳
Looks like Lil Rishi is also expecting the nicotine-stained man-frog back with Reform/Brexit/Whatever they’re called this week, before the election and he’s bricking it at the prospect
They were stupid enough to trust Boris at the last election and pulled their candidates in Tory seats. They won’t be doing that again and they’re presently polling at 10%. The Tories are barely scraping double that in the polls, so he’s trying this approach in his interview with the Torygraph.
Absolutely desperate!
As for the other content of the interview, you’ll be shocked to hear…
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph Rishi Sunak pledges that benefits will be cut further, public services will be slashed, promised free child care will be delayed and civil service recruitment frozen, despite retirements, to make tax cuts in March
If any of the reported content of the Sunday Torygraph is accurate he really is a pointless, despicable little shit.
Naughty Tory! No! Bad boy, baaad boy!
It's a bit endemic is it not?
Please can someone remind me that "all politicians are the same"?😆 Anyone totting up totals per party as I think we have a clear winner?
Watchdog to assess claims against pensions minister Paul Maynard
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67905092
Lil Rishi is on Laura Kuensberg this morning, which doubtless will be like a party political broadcast as he’s allowed to spout his pre-prepared soundbites, totally unchallenged, in that horribly condescending tone of his
I wish the BBC had given the gig to Victoria Derbyshire full time. Actually… there’s no way Rishi would do an interview with Victoria Derbyshire, is there? He’s far to cowardly for that
Meanwhile Rishi’s promise to reform childcare to make it more affordable has now fallen apart after…
*checks notes*
… a month?
Is the 737 a metaphor for the Tory party now?
Anyone know what's happening with Miriam Cates as well? It was announced she was under investigation 3 weeks ago, and nothing since then...
Is the 737 a metaphor for the Tory party now?
They rip the shirts off small children and try to suck them out?
IGMC
Apparently, everybody at Westminster reckons Rishi will 100% go for a May general election after a Truss style unfunded tax giveaway budget in March
I'm with binners on this. Unfunded tax cuts, maybe get rid of inheritance tax. Use the bounceback appeal of "Tories, the party for the people, putting money in your pocket!" to go straight into an election.
If the Tories do lose anyway, it's left Labour with needing to do some emergency tax hikes somewhere and they can immediately be painted as the big bad tax party.
Plus a May election runs straight into summer recess leaving Labour little time to do much before summer break.
I’ve just watched it myself. He just did what he always does. Ignore every question he’s asked and just repeat the same meaningless soundbite over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over…
The gaslighting is off the chart! Our Rwanda scheme will work because our return arrangement with Albania has worked.
Eh?
Thats like me saying that me fixing your car engine with a hammer will work because I once successfully cooked a chicken dinner
Just watched Lil’ Rishi being interviewed by Kuennsberg; he could settle the chain lube/wax argument after all those slippery, non-stick answers. The guy is half Teflon, half brass-neck.<br /><br />
I was about to say the only way to get a straight answer from him would be to punch him in the face every time he doesn’t answer but I doubt that’d make a difference as he’s a ****ing android stuck on repeat
If Timbuktu became the meme for the back end of nowhere, the word Rwanda is destined to become the meme for a kind of abstract purgatory or an impossible dream.
I'm not sure Lil' Rishi is going to even bother mounting an election campaign, it's all about the giveaways from here on in. I was quite looking forward to watching him being eviscerated on he stump by perhaps the dullest man in Britain but I think he'll just find a fridge to hide under.
A vote for Relapse / Revolt or whatever they're now called is indeed a vote for Starmer but a lot of right-whingers will vote that way anyhow, if only out of spite. Tanks for the reminder Rishi.
The Conservatives party will undergo a complete self- immolation that will see Labour waltz into office though I still get the feeling that Labour are going to find it hard to win a second term...
straight answer from him would be to punch him in the face every time he doesn’t answer but I doubt that’d make a difference as he’s a **** android stuck on repeat
his programming prevents a straight answer. It’ll be like Kryten trying to say smeghead
Urrm...
The Conservatives have chosen the partner of disgraced ex-MP Peter Bone to fight a by-election to replace him.
Mr Bone’s constituents used a recall petition to kick him out of parliament last month, after he was found to have indecently exposed himself to a staff member and trapped him in the bathroom of a hotel room.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-partner-peter-bone-byelection-b2474589.html
You could separate his head from his body (David the android from Prometheus) and he would still repeat his pre programmed talking points,
It's quite astonishing how every PM has managed to be worse than the last. You reach Theresa May and think, yeah the automated response Brexit means Brexit bollocks that she keeps churning out can't get worse but then a fly-tipped sofa arrives on scene and promptly shits all over the stage.
Liz Truss comes along and manages to make the average 4 year old look clever and worldly wise.
And then Sunak enters stage (far) right and it's like a very buggy beta version of the first Maybot.
It's a really low bar to be "better than the previous disaster" and yet they all fail at the first hurdle.
If Timbuktu became the meme for the back end of nowhere, the word Rwanda is destined to become the meme for a kind of abstract purgatory or an impossible dream.
I mentioned on the other thread that I had received a random post on FB promoting Kigali (it did look very nice in the picture...) and then I noticed the 'Visit Rwanda' billboards during Arsenal v Liverpool in the FA Cup today.
Did Rwanda always promote itself at this level and I've just started noticing it?
even by present Tory standards this is funny
he threatened to stand as an independent if his gf didn't get selected
https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1744020947433120218?t=cKbHhFp4XGrURrKB0zMyPw&s=19
any excuse to rip out this picture of bone and the wife he left for this new woman
even by present Tory standards this is funny
he threatened to stand as an independent if his gf didn't get selected
https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1744020947433120218?t=cKbHhFp4XGrURrKB0zMyPw&s=19
any excuse to rip out this picture of bone and the wife he left for this new woman
By picking Bones partner as a candidate is like sticking two fingers up to the people of Wellingborough. The people of Wellingborough deserved a fresh choice away from Bone. The Tories will get absolutely hammered because of this and quite rightly so.
first reply is absolute ****ing bollox, the people of wellingborough live in a pigsty of a shithole town for over 15 years yet they've return this dick with increasing majorities... made their ****ing bed now ****ing lie in it. You reap what you sow. The town deserves them.
I noticed the ‘Visit Rwanda’ billboards during Arsenal v Liverpool in the FA Cup today.
Did Rwanda always promote itself at this level and I’ve just started noticing it?
Tbf, Arsenal have been sponsored by 'Visit Rwanda' since long before bin juice Boris and his evil step sister Patel dreamt up the idea to get them out of a hole.
Tbf, Arsenal have been sponsored by ‘Visit Rwanda’ since long before bin juice Boris and his evil step sister Patel dreamt up the idea to get them out of a hole.
D'oh, OK my bad, just seemed a strange coincidence.
any excuse to rip out this picture of bone and the wife he left for this new woman
That pic has the look of a hostage situation, I’m sure she’s now perfectly happy and settled
Good grief, his Mrs looks like she's about to drop dead.
How's she going to be an MP?
Just look at the clenched fist on his wife... she's not a happy person.
She’s not. He has released her.
It’s his new partner/old mistress lined up to be the candidate.
Like you, I noticed the fist. She was certainly there under duress!