Almost worth a trip to Stoke with a bootload of copies.

It’d be great of Led By Donkeys just did a billboard of that image

Not sunak directly but informative about tory disarray. ..yesterday morning Nus Ghani, the (then) Construction Minster, told a trade forum, in person, that she would be in post for ‘the rest of the year’ and trotted out the usual platitudes about commitment, focus, investment etc.

Today – she’s gone.

It must be literally like an episode of The Thick Of It, ringing around whichever backbench mug is next on the list offering jobs until they find somebody stupid enough to take it

Peter Obourne rips into the Tories again.

The kids also called him Jonathan Seagullis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDIXCbiSfgM

I think the Tory party are just trolling us now

Just when you thought the tories couldn’t get any worse…Seagullis has been appointed a vice chair of the party.

Let that sink in…

deep sigh

Will update my spreadsheet – so that’s at least *108* sitting MPs who have been given knighthoods/damehoods since 2010.

A reminder that between 1997 and 2010, Labour gave such honours to… *11* sitting MPs… https://t.co/Zu9dIXpwFY https://t.co/ZZbFNWM1mC

— Will Hazell (@whazell) March 28, 2024

It’s been an absolute golden age for those of little moral integrity and an absolute willingness to rubbish institutions and the country itself for personal gain.

A remarkable shift in wealth, power and influence in such a relatively short period of time.

When you say remarkable, do you mean criminal?

^^ It should be but when you have the power to literally make the laws…

philip davies aka Mr esther mcvey  – in the pocket of the gaming industry; also presents drivel on gb news.

mark spencer- wtf has he done or achieved?

mansour – is he tory donor alleged to be involved in dodgy art world dealings? Could be a different mansour.

mark spencer- wtf has he done or achieved?

The caterpillar cake is nice, and those pig sweets are OK.

This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.

Rishi Sunak

With sneaking out an honours list when there wasn’t one due, it’s almost as if he’s not expecting to be around for much longer, isn’t it?

In other completely unrelated news from that triumph of privatisation, the water industry…,

Thames Water is expected to collapse and have to be renationalised at huge taxpayer expense in the run up to the local elections. All while the shareholders (all overseas investment firms) saunter off with the billions they’ve trousered over the previous years, leaving a literal shitstorm in their wake

Thames Water is expected to collapse and have to be renationalised at huge taxpayer expense in the run up to the local elections. All while the shareholders (all overseas investment firms) saunter off with the billions they’ve trousered over the previous years, leaving a literal shitstorm in their wake

While I don’t disagree with your opinion on privatisation, not sure why you think it should cost the taxpayer a penny to ‘acquire’ Thames or any other of the indebted water companies, the Shareholders & Lenders knew the risks.

Macquarie should be banned from doing business in the UK.

It won’t happen – and probably cannot, legally.

Their past ownership was instrumental in causing the shitstorm swirling around Thames Water.

While I don’t disagree with your opinion on privatisation, not sure why you think it should cost the taxpayer a penny to ‘acquire’ Thames or any other of the indebted water companies, the Shareholders & Lenders knew the risks.

That should be the case, but we all know how this lot operate. They’ll bail them out with public (our) money and then hand it back to their mates for them to asset strip it and use their monopoly position to hold customers hostage all over again. Thames waters present debt is 18 billion and the (obscenely highly paid) management want to put water bills up by 40%

philip davies aka Mr esther mcvey – in the pocket of the gaming industry

Bloody knew Tim Sweeny would be involved somewhere!

binners
Full Member
With sneaking out an honours list when there wasn’t one due, it’s almost as if he’s not expecting to be around for much longer, isn’t it?

He’s going to call it later in May or into Summer isn’t he?

He apparently thinks that he can’t hold on until the autumn without a leadership challenge and it all collapsing into a civil war, so it looks like we’re on for a summer election.

It can’t come soon enough

I hope you’re right.

Just want to have as many Portillo moments as possible.

He apparently thinks that he can’t hold on until the autumn without a leadership challenge and it all collapsing into a civil war, so it looks like we’re on for a summer election.

i still think they’ll drag it out as long as possible

While I don’t disagree with your opinion on privatisation, not sure why you think it should cost the taxpayer a penny to ‘acquire’ Thames or any other of the indebted water companies, the Shareholders & Lenders knew the risks

It will never cost the tax payer a penny.

But they will use public money (new money) and build it back up and hand it back to the private sector, for sure.

Best off to just to damn nationalise the whole lot – there are no good arguments these days for water privatisation.

Both parties on the same page with this – but it’s bluster.

This is probably the first glimpse of total failure of public utility needing public money to survive.  I’m all for the government putting their hands in their huge pockets but they must not return it back to the private sector.

We will see how the country is financed very soon when the government who is the backstop for failed industry creates the money needed when things are too big to fail.

Tories might just want to pass this shit on to Labour though.

Don’t forget that only a few weeks ago Labour didn’t have a PPC in >200 constituencies.

They have made some (limited) progress since then but that number is still >100.

Without a PPC, effective campaigning is not possible so I can see Labour scrambling around – but, hopefully, not panicking – if Sunak goes for June.

The fine words about…being ready and bring it on…are not supported by the reality.

anniversary of  D-Day….. with lots of faux patriotism and flag shagging.

An awful lots of those seats are where Labour have been running third… the numbers don’t tell the whole story. In fact in many battleground seats that have selected PPC, the accelerated timetables didn’t go down well with members (and some potential candidates) but was strategically the right thing to do… get candidates known by members and potential voters alike before the campaign period begins (whenever the hell that is).

Proper fixed term parliaments should be a thing.

Without a PPC, effective campaigning is not possible so I can see Labour scrambling around – but, hopefully, not panicking – if Sunak goes for June.

I suppose it depends on the constituency. We’re in a key marginal and I got my latest lot of election bumph (council and general election) to go out and deliver only this morning. The campaigning started in Autumn last year and has been ongoing.

The assumption has always been he would go for May, but he’s bottled it.

I’ve been doing leafletting recently but only for PCC and East Midlands Mayor as there is still no PPC.

Candidates were selected anything upto 18 months ago for battleground seats/key marginals – Hamish Falconer, Charlie’s boy, was selected in late 2022 in Lincoln Central which is an adjoining constituency to mine.

Since then more seats have moved from long-shot to winnable so…more battleground ground seats.

I live in jenrick’s constituency which, until recently, was a very long way down the target list as it was viewed as solid tory; recent polling shows a Labour lead – and that’s without a PPC so the anti-jenrick and anti-tory sentiment is strong.

As for…’an awful lof those seats are where Labour have been running third’ – complete nonsense. In most of them Labour have been running second.

I don’t want to start another political thread so I’ll leave this one here – Jeffrey Donaldson has resigned as DUP leader due to ‘allegations of a historical nature’.

BBC describing them as ‘…of a sexual nature’; he’s been charged and a court date has been set.

Naughty boy.

Since then more seats have moved from long-shot to winnable so…more battleground ground seats.

Good point.

Priority has been give to (more likely) winnable seats though. A lot of those PPC announced this month, and those still not selected, are in seats where Labour have been running third, or in more normal times a distant second. You’re right that shouldn’t be a guide this year… and selection should have been stepped up in what traditionally have been “unwinnable” seats in recent general elections. But “200” still not being selected before this month started looks far worse than it is… there are a great many seats where the Labour national lead in the polls doesn’t mean Labour have any realistic chance of winning… and shouldn’t be made a priority (or even more cynically, the local constituency party should perhaps soft pedal to avoid splitting the “get the Tories out” vote).

theres an richard littlejohn opinion piece in  the fail demanding Sunak call an election

richard who?

yeah i can’t see them being in any rush to call one soon

Another dire poll for the Tories (@Survation via @thetimes) which is unlikely to do much to improve the mood of Rishi Sunak’s MPs over Easter break….

Labour 468 seats
Tories 98 seats
SNP 41 seats (not the wipe-out some seem to be expecting)
Lib Dems 22 seats pic.twitter.com/XLet0xiszk

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) March 30, 2024

Pretty dire for the Greens too – predicted to lose their only MP

that’s weird other pols have them gaining an extra one, Bristol i think

I expect the SNP to lose more than that but I have never bought the predicted big losses.  10 to 15 losses i bet

Lucas has proven herself as a parliamentarian. One of our best. Her support is greater than that for her party. I’ve donated to her fighting fund at the last few elections, despite not voting Green. Berry is likely to lose out to Labour if the election is soonish. She made little impact while (joint) leader, and Labour are riding high. I’m hoping she holds the seat, and the party can pick up another. I don’t think it’s likely though.

Anyway, Sunak won’t be thinking about the Green Party, they are not a threat in any way come a general election. It’s Labour & LibDems that can take seats, and Reform that can help lose them seats.