That is because Labour will take all their money away and give it to other people. What they don't realise is that they are the other people.
I see Rees-Mogg and Miss Pork Markets have launched the totally misnamed Popular Conservatives.
It's just culture war noise and fireworks, the Lettuce' backers over the pond need to think they're getting their money's worth.
The Tufton Street Crew are really just crashing Rishi's GE for him and "renegade" Tory's are just a handy tool, but I think it's really what The majority of the party now wants. The Conservatives just don't want to be in power come 2025, but they do want to leave office with a narrative in place that some shadowy, lefty cabal did for them, not their own ineptitude and infighting, sow the seeds for the 2030s to be dominated by conspiracy driven Left/Right nonsense and a new, populist Donald to rise in the UK.
Laughably some journo reporting on "Pop-Con" said "The Battle for the soul of the Tory party has just started" when I was listening to 'PM' on the way home last night. That battle started well over a Decade ago, and it's last shred of 'Soul' was finally lost some time about 2019 I reckon.
In other news they were announcing "New Money" for NHS dentistry this morning, £200m was quoted to bolster a £3.1B budget, which is apparently underspent (by how much wasn't said). So the equivalent of pissing in the pacific to top it up.
The problem being that Dentists can't cover the costs of delivering dentistry under the terms of the NHS contract.
This should be used as a big stick to beat Rishi with at PMQs today.
The problem being that Dentists can’t cover the costs of delivering dentistry under the terms of the NHS contract.
So exactly the same deal as these newly promised nursery places then? The government want private nurseries to provide childcare, free at the point of delivery, but won't actually provide enough money for them to cover their costs.
Same deal with expecting pharmacists to take up the work from GPs, but don't want to pay them to do it
Maybe a bold idea would be to fully cover the costs the dentists charge for those who are eligible for NHS dentistry (assuming we want to keep dentistry pretty much private). The dentists would then do the work as their costs covered as normal and people who cannot afford dentistry at private prices can get free dentistry, which they should be entitled too as teeth are part of body, body = NHS.
Yep it really should be that simple but that involves a spend that successive governments have been unwilling to commit too.
We are just at the end of a sequence of events that the profession has been telling government will happen since before 2006.
Worth noting that Labour actually brought in the current disastrous contract...
If you fancy a laugh, then seeing the Tufton Street Muppet, who was one of Liz Trusses advisers, get shredded by Victoria Derbyshire on last nights Newsnight is quite something
https://twitter.com/vicderbyshire/status/1755018518347554836?s=20
And there's still a big chunk of the Tory party that are in thrall to these clowns
He's thrashing around like a hostage attempting to convince his captors, "If you let me go I promise I won't go to the police"
Same deal with expecting pharmacists to take up the work from GPs, but don’t want to pay them to do it
Same as the new GP contract; Govt says "Here's a 1.9% increase, can you give everyone a 10% increase in pay with that please?"
That is because Labour will take all their money away and give it to other people. What they don’t realise is that they are the other people.
Labour need to explain that on the side of a bus
Evil bastard.
the whole of the tory benches were gaffawing at the joke wtf?
Odious little prick gets more odious everyday.
I hate him.
Absolutely unreal!
They're utterly insensitive monsters, the lot of them!
https://twitter.com/TobyonTV/status/1755203219934900239?s=20
There's been a Trans "joke" or jibe at Starmer nearly every week at PMQs. Sunak has got so used to using it against Labour that the horrible effect of his culture war nonsense on non-politicians will have completely passed him by... or is collateral damage he simply doesn't care about.
The sigh of relief when they are gone will be similar to many Americans when Trump went I imagine. The lesson to learn is that Trump has not gone away and is back within one term....
Hope Brianna's mum gets to meet him and knee him in the sunakers.
He's a sh*t head, no doubt about it.
Sunak refused to apologise in parliament and he's now doubling down and has issued a statement via his press secretary refusing to apologise yet again, saying
“It’s legitimate to point out the number of U-turns the Leader of the Opposition has made.”
He really is a truly vile little shit
Who is his press secretary?
Who is advising him?
Is this him?
He is absolutely hopeless at politics.
He's clearly just utterly devoid of any empathy, compassion or humanity
To have a pre-scripted line and not have the sensitivity to pick up that it might not be the most appropriate comment to make is bad enough, but to then refuse to apologise, then issue a statement refusing once again and trying to justify it?
Beyond belief!
Its a good question, who's advising him. Looks like they just handed him a bigger shovel and told him to keep digging
Maybe a bold idea would be to fully cover the costs the dentists charge for those who are eligible for NHS dentistry (assuming we want to keep dentistry pretty much private). The dentists would then do the work as their costs covered as normal and people who cannot afford dentistry at private prices can get free dentistry, which they should be entitled too as teeth are part of body, body = NHS.
More of this.
Dead easy. Money is not scarce!
Political will.
Just when I thought I couldn't hate the vile despicable little shit anymore...
To have a pre-scripted line and not have the sensitivity to pick up that it might not be the most appropriate comment to make is bad enough
Whilst I think the worse example it does seem to be his standard PMQ approach.
Get list of prescripted "joke"/attack lines which have to be used up no matter what.
Each question find the closest even if its a few thousand lightyears away and then use.
Starmer should just ask him about the weather/what he had for breakfast to see him trot them out.
Dreadful little ****
I can sort of see Starmer's predicament - PMQs has become such a punch and judy show that its almost impossible for anyone to come away from it with any credit. As anyone knows who has tried to argue with a horrible racist scumbag, they just bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
It really isn't fit for purpose any more.
.
Absolutely disgusting. But I expect he can go lower still.
It takes a lot for Starmer to lose his normal control and show real anger, but it was totally deserved. This government, and this prime minister are beneath contempt.
PMQs has become such a punch and judy show that its almost impossible for anyone to come away from it with any credit.
Yep, have said that for ages. If I was in opposition I would not participate in it giving the 1,000s of examples of why it is a waste of time to back me up.
So this popped on my newsfeed today. Local MP sends the police to an old lady's house for the crime of sticking a notice to her door...
the whole of the tory benches were gaffawing at the joke wtf?
What else did you expect?
They're all followers of the Berkley Hunt.
The school my wife works at has no money to buy any more paper for the year.
The size of that four-heed. Would work as a SH landing site.
He must have been a forceps delivery, or a large set of Knipex
Just checking he is still a utter c***
✅
It's seldom that this thread gives me a bit of a giggle but it has. 👍😁
I do wonder if he'll just jack it all in and sod off to California
https://twitter.com/SkyPoliticsHub/status/1755323489332994358?t=W3fYBntp71E6B3yttbHDcQ&s=09
I wonder how much longer he’ll carry on digging? Will he start actively arguing with the parents of a murdered teenager to carry on his vile, petty culture war?
Brianna Ghey’s father demands apology from Sunak over transgender remark
“For the prime minister of our country to come out with degrading comments like he did, regardless of them being in relation to discussions in parliament, they are absolutely dehumanising,” he told Sky News. “Identities of people should not be used in that manner, and I personally feel shocked by his comments and feel he should apologise for his remarks.”
I didn’t feel it was possible to view the successor of Truss and Johnson with even more contempt, but somehow he’s managed it.
These really are new depths and he clearly couldn’t give a flying ****!
These really are new depths and he clearly couldn’t give a flying ****!
The conservatives clearly do care very passionately about a lot of things. Unfortunately running a country in a reasonable manner isn't one of those things.
This is is problematic, as that is what we are all paying for, for what is seemingly to thier benefit.
His forehead is massive!
Looking more like USA billboards every day.
Give him a shave, and he’d pass for that odious buttplug Gaetz in Florida! And that’s not just looks, either. It’s got so that there’s nothing between the Conservatives and the Republicans when it comes to utterly repugnant behaviour.
I wonder how much longer he’ll carry on digging? Will he start actively arguing with the parents of a murdered teenager to carry on his vile, petty culture war?
As mentioned a page or so back, PMQs now is little more than stand up theatre, it's like the high school debating chamber where you don't need to believe anything you're saying, you just need to show how smart you are in arguing for or against it.
It's like Sunak is given a set of jibes by his speechwriters every week to use against SKS and that's what he does. First question, respond with first jibe, no matter how inappropriate or irrelevant it is.
Second question, second jibe.
And Sunak is not intelligent enough to work out whether jokes that might have been OK coming from Bernard Manning in the 1980's are appropriate now.
And since he can't ever be wrong, he can't ever apologise except in one of those non-apology ways that politicians manage when they say "I'm sorry that you feel my comment was insensitive...", a phrase which makes it sound like you are the one with the problem and you need to adjust your feelings.
He's a vile little man attempting to preside over a party of vile people who delight in being absolute gits to anyone not like them.
Its actually a bit annoying that the camera had zoomed in so close, because you could hear the tory benches all laughing and see the equalities minister! badenoch shaking with laughter but not her face at the trans joke
that would be damning, as it is Badenoch got out ahead and No 10 OK'd her tweet saying it was all starners fault, obvs
The fact that a backward, right wing reactionary like Badenoch is Equalities Minister is a joke in its own right. But then we all know that none of these people are there on merit, but on the basis of which particular warring faction Rishi has to pacify on any given day
Chris Phelp was the muppet doing the morning rounds, also doubling down and refusing to apologise.
I can't work out if they're genuinely so thick that they can't see how bad the optics of this are to most people, or whether this is a deliberate dog-whistle to their nasty, trans-phobic, racist, homophobic reactionary base? Probably a combination of the two
Its indicative of how far and how fast the Tory party has fallen, post-Brexit, that the party that brought in gay marriage only 10 years ago is now completely unrecognisable. That 10 years seems a lifetime ago now, doesn't it?
I wonder what he is going to do today to ramp up my hatred of him?
He seems to be doing on a daily basis at the moment.
I fully expect him to be releasing pictures of him attending (and laying bets, obvs) on an organised dog fight in his constituency at the weekend.
And then Laura Trott defending him on GMTV at 8am on Monday morning.
Rishi Sunaks personal approval ratings are now even worse than both Liz Truss after she'd bombed the economy and Jeremy Corbyn at his lowest, and that was before his latest outburst. Hopefully he'll be going down to a similar electoral defeat.
They were reporting yesterday (I think it was the Mirror) that it was absolute chaos in Downing Street yesterday and that Rishi was being advised that it wasn't a good look and he'd be best off apologising, but Badanoch was busking it and had already gone on the airwaves to double down and go on the offensive without Rishi's knowledge, so they then had to go with that.
Does make you wonder why Starmer is so scared of this particular Tory shambles.
The Tory party appears to direct the Labour party's current plans at every step.
Terrified of the Tory party? Or terrified of the voters who've fallen for their campaigns (ably assisted by the media) again, and again. It still boggles the mind how the Tories won in 2015, 2017, 2019...
He doesn't care about reading the room. Unfortunately its landed well with his target audience, as I'm sure he expected it would
It does seem like its just damage limitation now. They know they're going down to a landslide, but they're trying to get their core vote of elderly bigots out to try and hold on to a few seats.
In which case, expect a lot more of this vicious nastiness from 'The Nasty Party' in the coming months
Interview today with Sunak about yesterday's PMQ's. It's all Starmer's fault and he even managed to get a slogan in, "he has no plan."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68237826
It doesn't really matter what Rishi thinks. The only people who's opinions matter here are Brianha's parents and her father has demanded an apology (which he's clearly not going to get) and referred to Sunak's comments as 'degrading' and 'dehumanising'
Sunak is still trying to make political capital out of it today. He really is a horrible little ****!
I notice Chris Phelp deliberately misgendered her this morning, and then refused to apologise for that when picked up on it.
Again... this is just playing to their base of small-minded idiots who get themselves frothing with anger about peoples preferred pronouns
Sunak is trapped in the culture war narrative
he can't back down now
IMO Starmer appeared worse in this exchange, as it was him who brought Brianna Ghey into it.
Sunak listed many of Starmer’s u-turns, of which flapping about the definition of woman was one, and Starmer ducked the point by essentially hiding behind a dead child.
Sunak went low. Starmer went lower. It was dismal politics.
@benos - Starmer was merely pointing out that taking the piss out of trans people isn't acceptable and on that particular day Sunak should have reigned himself in a bit, even if he can't help it.
The guffawing from the Tory benches at Sunak's gag were equally unacceptable.
IMO Starmer appeared worse in this exchange, as it was him who brought Brianna Ghey into it.
Sunak listed many of Starmer’s u-turns, of which flapping about the definition of woman was one, and Starmer ducked the point by essentially hiding behind a dead child.
Sunak went low. Starmer went lower. It was dismal politics.
That's your takeaway from this? Have a serious word with yourself
Starmer was merely pointing out that taking the piss out of trans people isn’t acceptable
It isn't acceptable - but the PM didn't do that.
He was taking the piss out of SKS - who promptly hid behind a murder victim and accused the PM of insulting her memory. All to protect himself from a valid criticism. SKS needs to sit on the naughty step and think about what he's done.
PM owes no-one an apology IMHO.
It's sunak who should be on the naughty step thinking about the insensitivity of his comment as he knew Brianna Ghey's mother was present - as Starmer welcomed her in his opening remarks only minutes earlier.
It was pathetic and feeble politicking by sunak, reflecting what he is.
PM owes no-one an apology IMHO.
After announcing to the world that he thinks people like her recently murdered daughter are just in fact; useful pawns in the Culture War. I think Sunak at least owes Brianna's parents an apology. Especially after her father specifically asked for one. I note that he didn't think Starmer has anything to apologise for.
IMO Starmer appeared worse in this exchange, as it was him who brought Brianna Ghey into it.
Sunak listed many of Starmer’s u-turns, of which flapping about the definition of woman was one, and Starmer ducked the point by essentially hiding behind a dead child.
Sunak went low. Starmer went lower. It was dismal politics.
A child murdered by two people who misgendered her and dehumanised her for being trans. Trans hate is relevant in the murder of the child. Sunak cracking jibes about misgendering on the day the child's mother was visiting parliament is redolent of some of humanity's darkest acts. I don't trust Starmer on the issues involved, but his reaction here is to his credit.
After announcing to the world that he thinks people like her recently murdered daughter are just in fact; useful pawns in the Culture War.
Not that I want to defend the grasping incompetent, and I still fully intend to vote Labour, but Sunak didn’t do that. Starmer did.
Starmer’s 99% idiocy has been a standard jibe for months. Starmer brought Brianna Ghey into it. It was low.
Somehow this place still occasionally manages to astonish me, and sadly not in a good way...
He was taking the piss out of SKS
To be honest that is how I saw it too. Sunak was ridiculing Starmer not trans people. Where Sunak was clearly wrong imo was in thinking it was an appropriate time to bring up that particular apparent U-turn by Starmer.
With the current headlines and Brianna Ghey's mother alledgedly in the public gallery it very obviously wasn't. He could have listed all of Starmer's many U-turns and left that particular one out. It suggests a lack of awareness and sensitivity which he should imo apologise for.
Of course there is always the possibility that Sunak wasn't aware that Brianna Ghey was transgender - unless you closely followed the case you could easily be unaware. It was hardly mentioned in the articles that I read and there was no way her photo provided any clues, imo.
Anyway RIP Brianna Ghey.
Agreed, Ernie. It gave me that sinking feeling of watching a weak PM being challenged by a weak opposition leader.
He absolutely does now
Obviously he does now. But he could have been easily aware of the case without being aware that Brianna was transgender. He is after all Prime Minister and you would think that he has enough to focus on without reading the details of a very tragic murder case.
I agree that he should apologise but not for poking fun at transgenders, I don't feel that he did that.
Starmer's U-turns are a hypocritical but legitimate line of attack, but there was no need to add that pathetic dig at the end which just shows how out of touch with the zeitgeist Sunak is
I also don't feel this part of the culture war is helping the Cons either. Trans people are increasingly out and not hiding. More and more people know a trans person in their own family or one of their friends families. They're not faceless but someone's grandchild or cousin that they've known and see struggle for years.
Perhaps Sunak should focus more on answering questions in PMQs and save the electioneering attacks for Media interviews (if he is brave enough to face them).
More and more people know a trans person in their own family or one of their friends families. They’re not faceless but someone’s grandchild or cousin that they’ve known and see struggle for years.
Spot on. The grandchild of one of my very best friends is transgender and of a similar age to Brianna. In fact apart from the glasses I could see a very strong similarity with my friend's grandchild. It added a more "personal" (for want of a better word) angle to the tragic Brianna case.
Sunaks Seat in Richmond North Yorkshire had a 63% Tory vote at last election, labour got 13%
Current poling has Sunack at 49, Labour at 31, Libs at 13 and greens on 8% if Starmer had kept his green pledge he might have got a tactical vote on this one.
This is the most robust seat probably in England.
This is the most robust seat probably in England.
Don't know where you see polling by constituency but I would say my MP Desmond Swayne has a seat as equally safe.
Just found prediction that Labour will get 44% and tories 27% so may be proved wrong. Swayne even got around 50% in 1997 so let's wait and see. I had better vote Labour through gritted teeth rather than my real choice of Green who are predicted to get 6%.
F*cksake! The odious prick is in my city tonight and just happened to be where our Scouts (my daughter being one of them) are having a climbing session tonight. He spent time with/talking to the troop and I'm not there to ask some questions to make him squirm! 😠
I detest Sunak as much as the next sane individual, have always voted labour or green and always will. However my first reaction was also that there was no need for SKS to bring in the dead child. Especially as her mother was not actually in the gallery at the time. I honestly believe he was going for political points. Sunak’s comment was shameful and SKS should have pointed that out in a more general way.
As I said yesterday, nobody came out with any credit. However since then Sunak has scooped the crown by doubling down, refusing to apologise for his insensitive remarks and generally acting like it’s the snowflakes that have a problem not him.
We deserve more than this.
It's worth remembering Starmer's look and body language as he stood up to reply to Sunak.
That wasn't a man thinking, "I can make a bit of political gain from this." He was genuinely angry, it was driven by pure disgust at what Sunak said within minutes of him being told Brianna's mother was in the chamber.
Simple as that.