UK Election!

I’m not the first person on the thread to suggest this series of gaffs is being orchestrated by forces within the Tory party to get rid of Rishi. And he’s failed to see he’s being set up to fall. The alternative being he’s planning all these gaffs himself for reasons known only to himself.

Shit, I’m back on the election thread, drawn in by elitist bollocks about private schools. I’d shut the lot and turn them into centers for refugees.

*dips out again*

@Edukator Hanlon’s Razor applies, surely?

Twitter is quite worth spending some time with today…….can’t help but think Sunak is toast

I’m not the first person on the thread to suggest this series of gaffs is being orchestrated by forces within the Tory party to get rid of Rishi.

He’s out at the next election anyway, so why bother? At this point he’s as good a person as any to take the blame.

Suspect this doesn’t affect many on here directly, but if you know anyone who wants to vote without a fixed address and feels they are disenfranchised…..

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-to-vote-if-you-havent-got-a-fixed-or-permanent-address

Its odd.

His manoeuvring to increase his power as chancellor after accepting it when Javid walked away rather than be controlled by Cummings and co indicate some political skill. As does his careful planning around  when to knife Johnson without being the knifer in chief but it appears to vanish entirely once he deals with anyone but tory mps/officials.

Hemel Hempsted: Tory MP has pulled out at the very last minute (no explanation, but assume skeleton in his closet about to emerge) so theyve signed up a local councilor

doesn’t that just end up as “the poor are lazy” ?

The trouble with that sort of straw manning is it convinces no one to listen to a valid argument.

I try to take a balanced view on these things and see both sides. And explained it to my politically uninterested nephew last week (who can vote but doesn’t) how it’s supposed to work. It is possible to frame both ideologies in a positive way and then let people make up their mind based on either which argument they agree with or which political party just does things more competently.

Left of center –

The rich pay pay taxes which pay for a bus lane which brings people to their business, therefore they make more money overall.

The poor have access to a bus which get’s them to work, therefore they make more money.

Right of center –

The rich pay less taxes and no bus lane is built. Therefore they have more money.

The poor pay less taxes therefore have more money in their pocket to buy a car and don’t need the bus.

Substitute in education, defense, health care or whatever you like into the analogy as appropriate.

It’s entirely valid to extend that analogy at the moment and say that the Tories are actually spending money on busses but the bus company is owned by their mate and doesn’t have any busses and the staff are all on strike because they’ve not had a fair pay deal in a decade so no one is benefitting. And that should be enough to convince you to vote for something else even if you are philosophically right of center.

The “schedule was already set” really needed the follow up question “why?”

No, the follow-up should’ve been a statement, “Oh, you were never going to stay…” and be silent.

It’s an interesting thought experiment to think about what might happen if Sunak resigns before the election. Presumably the tories would have to install an emergency interim leader. But who? Morduant is almost certainly going to lose her seat, Hunt and Shapps are also on the at risk list. The only other one I can think of is Cameron. At least he can’t be kicked out of parliament but I doubt he wants it. Actually maybe he does and that’s why he didn’t stop Sunak buggering off to do his interview? Him coming to the rescue to rebuild whatever’s left would allow the centrists to regain control of the party in much the same way as Starmer did with labour. I can’t image having a lord as leader of the opposition is going to work though for obvious reasons.

I can’t image having a lord as leader of the opposition is going to work though for obvious reasons.

It’s convention that the PM is an MP, but not essential. So I can’t see why a Lord couldn’t be leader of the opposition.

The pragmatic solution is to get an MP in a safe seat to quit and hold a by-election, although that’s probably easier said than done when there might not be all that many safe seats and you’ve lost your leverage of being able to make them a peer in return.

Lest we forget, come July 4. #toriesaredone #sunak #apology #vote pic.twitter.com/hk7WJnIYSx

— Ben Golik (@bengolik) June 7, 2024

that hemel hempstead candidate..

? HEMEL HEMPSTEAD: I hear that the complaint against Jaymey McIvor was accompanied by a photograph. https://t.co/zeIoYZMA2T

— @Tomorrow'sMPs (@tomorrowsmps) June 7, 2024

actually a shame this didnt come out after 4pm then they’d have to expell him but keep him on the ballot, in that rarest of things, a safe Tory seat!

get the popcorn out for othe candidates being outed over the weekend

The pragmatic solution is to get an MP in a safe seat to quit and hold a by-election

He’d have to renounce his peerage before he could be elected as an MP. I doubt he would want to do that as it gets him invited to all sorts of nice parties.

Just came here to post the same pic as Kimbers. Twitter is brutal today and deservedly so.

The immediate interest for me is how tonitghts debate plays out……..How does Sunak handle that? Is it just more hectoring and truculence? How can his spads possibly give him any kind of playbook?

Guardian live election text feed:

Here is [a picture of] Rishi Sunak looking at a laptop on a visit to Great Oldbury Primary Academy in Stonehouse this afternoon. We hope, for his sake, he’s not looking at Twitter …

The immediate interest for me is how tonitghts debate plays out

He’s not doing the debate tonight, Mordaunt is. Bet she’s thrilled about that! 😂

The alternative being he’s planning all these gaffs himself for reasons known only to himself.

Or its just the inevitable fall-out of a group of people that were [by all accounts] . 1. caught off-guard by the sudden announcement of the date of the election that went against their advice, and 2. given the polling and odds on the gambling sites are now in full on panic mode and this is result of them running about like headless chickens. I get them impression that no one is really in charge, or more likely it’s a game of reverse pass the parcel when the idea is not to be holding the parcel when the music stops in July.

dazh – that is a crying shame – unusually I was looking forward to some bloodsports

BBC Newscast hosts downplay Rishi Sunak dodging D-Day.

"With prime ministers duty calls all the time and sometimes the duty isn't world leader stuff…"

"Prime ministers are trying to run the country as well as an election campaign, that's a challenge [Starmer] doesn't have" pic.twitter.com/uY0XBAQYq3

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) June 7, 2024

yet Biden, Macron and Scholz seemed to have found the time, **** Tory Shills

@Solarider – fair enough, I hadn’t considered the VAT on school fees effecting anyone in that way as I don’t know anyone that privately educates their kids that couldn’t afford the extra.  I do feel for you and have a lot of sympathy with the “private schools take the pressure off public schools” line but private schools aren’t charities and the fees shouldn’t be VAT free.  If ever there was a luxury item, it’s private education.

I hope for your sake it’s a nuanced introduction.

Perhaps if the rich had to use the same schools, hospitals, dentists, doctors…

I have private medical insurance (which unfortunately I’m getting a lot of use from at the moment). The dentists I use are the same private dentists as anywhere else – the real scandal there is that it’s practically impossible to get enrolled as an NHS patient! Bizarrely the hospitals and doctors and surgeons private patients use are often the same as rhe ones NHS patients use – just on different days and often with shorter wait times. Ultimately it is a weird system in which many medical staff allow their private patients fees to “top up” their continued employment in the NHS. And of course there is no private A and E etc.

It shouldn’t be this way.

https://x.com/AlanOak4/status/1798999515405677018

X is being brutal isn’t it?

PMSL

Hearing consistently now that the D-Day error has absolutely cut through to voters and is already being brought up frequently on doorsteps

— robert shrimsley (@robertshrimsley) June 7, 2024

https://x.com/karen_flynn/status/1798984633750802734/photo/1

https://x.com/karen_flynn/status/1798984633750802734/photo/1

“ If ever there was a luxury item, it’s private education.”

that and a rolling collection of very expensive titanium bikes.

Am wondering what is going to happen on HIGNFY later.  They only have 30 minutes

Earlier in the thread someone started doing a Day 1, Day 2 list of gaffs.  I can only assume that has stopped due to the author getting RSI from having to type so much.

that and a rolling collection of very expensive titanium bikes.

…you pay VAT on those though – and probably import duty indirectly too!  😜

Well I for one sincerely hope Sunak doesn’t resign before the election. He’s doing s great job, crack on lad.

Presumably the tories would have to install an emergency interim leader. But who?

I hope they’ve not found a way to crowbar Johnson in somewhere.

Starting to see some fall-out from some party functionaries……. i didn’t click the telegrah link – god no

Tories have apparently suspended all online advertisingtoday…….

https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/why-have-the-conservatives-suspended?r=76aro&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

@politecameraaction except dentists aren’t employed by the nhs and the nhs doesn’t currently pay their businesses enough to remain viable without being subsidised by private income….

hate to say it but no one is fixing nhs dentistry anymore, that ship sailed somewhere in the last 14 years

Mordaunt must be absolutely fuming about being trotted out tonight.

Obviously in one way it raises her profile (for which she is about as craven an attention-seeker as I’ve seen).

But surely, if she makes it through election night, she knows that if she gets the leadership Labour can just play her defence of the indefensible back at her when she gets a bit big for her boots.

This implosion is so utterly delicious to see.

So I can’t see why a Lord couldn’t be leader of the opposition.

PMQs would be a problem and it would provide a handy attack option if bored/on back foot “unelected blah blah”.

The pragmatic solution is to get an MP in a safe seat to quit and hold a by-election

Alec Douglas-Home sort of did this when he became PM whilst a Earl.

Not wanting to worry any tories in a safe seat but that by-election was due to the death of the incumbent though.

Mordaunt must be absolutely fuming about being trotted out tonight.

She’ll dress up in finery, brandish a sword and cry out “there can be only one”