Continuation General UK Politics III - Dumb and Dumber

[Trebuchet]

Originally Posted by KDLarsen

In the "What on earth are the smoking in the House of Lords"-category, we have Tory peer and Brexit architect Daniel Hannan:

Quote:

What we have seen since Friday is partly a market adjustment to the increased probability that Sir Keir Starmer will win in 2024 or 2025 – leading to higher taxes, higher spending, and a weaker economy.
...
Some pundits don’t like Truss, others have never forgiven the Tories for Brexit, yet others are horrified by the idea that growth, rather than equality, should be the government’s priority.

Fair enough. But let’s be clear-headed about what is happening.

https://conservativehome.com/2022/09...h-of-tax-cuts/

Reminiscent of the USA in 2008, when Republicans were blaming Obama for the economic crisis before he was even elected.

[GlennB]

Originally Posted by GlennB

Yesterday Truss was 11-1 to be replaced as PM in 2022. Now 7-1. I had a crafty £2 at 11s, so might clean up here! Unfortunately my winnings could be worth less than £2 of today's money, so maybe I should have spent it on rice and beans?

This morning it was 6-1, now it's 11-2.

[jimbob]

From scrutable.science

Lab.jpg

[Filippo Lippi]

Liz's highlight reel from the BBC local radio round

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Filippo Lippi

Liz's highlight reel from the BBC local radio round

Are you sure it wasn’t Philomena Cunk?

[GlennB]

It fell, afaics, to The Guardian's John Crace to come up with the obvious satirical name - Kamikazi Kwarteng.

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by GlennB

It fell, afaics, to The Guardian's John Crace to come up with the obvious satirical name - Kamikazi Kwarteng.

As Glenda Slagg might say, Kwasi name, Kwasi guy.

[P.J. Denyer]

Originally Posted by GlennB

It fell, afaics, to The Guardian's John Crace to come up with the obvious satirical name - Kamikazi Kwarteng.

Twitter did it first, & better #KamiKwazi

[Nessie]

Listen to the reaction of the audience at Question Time, when a first time buyer tells of the huge interest rate increase she faces in getting her mortgage;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-63084380

The Tories have done something that horrifies their middle class key voters. The people who expect to be able to buy expensive houses, with tiny rates of interest and then watch the value of that house rise and rise, so they can claim to have made a wise investment.

By damaging that essential to middle class life, the Tories have shot themselves in the foot in a way they will serious struggle to recover from. They can get away with Brexit and BJ, just, but harm the value of houses and there is no way back.

[P.J. Denyer]

I wonder if Liz Truss has sold the rights to her political memoirs yet?

I'm quite looking forward to "Truss: The Downing Street Weeks"

[GlennB]

Originally Posted by P.J. Denyer

Twitter did it first, & better #KamiKwazi

Actually that was my mistake up there, Crace used Kamikwasi. Maybe he nicked it from Twitter.

[jeremyp]

Originally Posted by jimbob

From scrutable.science

Attachment 47284

Somebody put the yougov result through an election predictor.

It came back with the Tories winning two seats.

https://twitter.com/TSEofPB/status/1575529929973805056

The official opposition would be the SNP.

[Nessie]

Originally Posted by jeremyp

Somebody put the yougov result through an election predictor.

It came back with the Tories winning two seats.

https://twitter.com/TSEofPB/status/1575529929973805056

The official opposition would be the SNP.

Makes the collapse in the 1997 General Election, when the Tories lost 178 seats and were wiped out in Scotland and Wales, where they got no seats, look like a good result.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by Nessie

Makes the collapse in the 1997 General Election, when the Tories lost 178 seats and were wiped out in Scotland and Wales, where they got no seats, look like a good result.

There's still a long, long time until the General Election.

The right wing press will do their very best to convince the electorate that all of the problems are down to a party which will by then not have been in power for a decade and a half and claiming that if they were to get back in power, things would get much worse.

IMO the next General Election will be a very close run thing (when it should be a slam-dunk).

[Nessie]

Originally Posted by The Don

There's still a long, long time until the General Election.

The right wing press will do their very best to convince the electorate that all of the problems are down to a party which will by then not have been in power for a decade and a half and claiming that if they were to get back in power, things would get much worse.

IMO the next General Election will be a very close run thing (when it should be a slam-dunk).

Right wing journalists own houses and the next batch aspire to own one. Even they cannot forgive the Tories for crashing the housing market.

It is hard to see how the economy can recover and get back to low interest rates and ever-increasing house prices in the next few years.

Ultimately the right wing press may be left with criticising Labour for also failing to get those property values back up again.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by Nessie

Right wing journalists own houses and the next batch aspire to own one. Even they cannot forgive the Tories for crashing the housing market.

What they personally think is irrelevant, the tone is set by the proprietors and editors who are financially insulated from all of this.

Originally Posted by Nessie

It is hard to see how the economy can recover and get back to low interest rates and ever-increasing house prices in the next few years.

It doesn't really need to, they just need to convince middle-England that house prices will collapse and interest rates will be higher if the Labour Party were in power.

Originally Posted by Nessie

Ultimately the right wing press may be left with criticising Labour for also failing to get those property values back up again.

And that they will, and it may be enough to convince the chronically under-informed.

[jimbob]

This is my Tory MP with a majority of about 500

https://twitter.com/robertlargan/sta...y-KEW_8YqfQjZQ

Quote:

Robert Largan
@robertlargan
This is untenable. You cannot freeze benefits and pensions while cutting taxes for millionaires.

A debt reduction plan needs to be both economically and politically sustainable to be credible.
11:57 PM · Sep 29, 2022
·Twitter for iPhone

[Ian Osborne]

According to Popbitch, Tory staffers compiled a dossier a few years back, to keep tabs on potential scandals.

Originally Posted by Popbitch

Only two women managed to smash the glass ceiling and bag themselves a place on the list. Liz Truss was one of them. Fingers crossed her entry was all just baseless gossip, otherwise the pound might not just end up in trouble. It might end up in a throuple...

A throuple? I wonder what that could be.

[Darat]

Originally Posted by The Don

What they personally think is irrelevant, the tone is set by the proprietors and editors who are financially insulated from all of this.



It doesn't really need to, they just need to convince middle-England that house prices will collapse and interest rates will be higher and it's all the fault of the last government - they've only been in power for 2 weeks and if the Labour Party were in power it would be worse.



And that they will, and it may be enough to convince the chronically under-informed.

FTFY

[Matthew Best]

Originally Posted by P.J. Denyer

Twitter did it first, & better #KamiKwazi

My wife keeps getting confused and saying "why do we have a quasi-Kwarteng? Shouldn't we have the real thing?"

Of course, the only possible answer to that is "this one's bad enough!"

[jeremyp]

Originally Posted by The Don

There's still a long, long time until the General Election.

Indeed there is. I think the Truss government will do plenty to remind us how useless and awful they are in the meantime.

Quote:

The right wing press will do their very best to convince the electorate that all of the problems are down to a party which will by then not have been in power for a decade and a half and claiming that if they were to get back in power, things would get much worse.

IMO the next General Election will be a very close run thing (when it should be a slam-dunk).

I don't think it will be a close run thing at all. I think the government will limp from crisis to crisis. The only question is whether the damage will be irreversible.

[Wudang]

Originally Posted by P.J. Denyer

Twitter did it first, & better #KamiKwazi

Also @cstross using (maybe not original but) "La Trussterduck" as my autocorrect might spell it despite it almost never being duck I intend to type.

[KDLarsen]

It really should raise an eyebrow, when the levelling up minister, whose brief I'd imagine would include investments in destitute areas in order to y'know level them up (yes yes I know, few Tories ever managed to figure out what exactly levelling up was supposed mean), is telling the populace to prepare for a new age of austerity.

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by KDLarsen

It really should raise an eyebrow, when the levelling up minister, whose brief I'd imagine would include investments in destitute areas in order to y'know level them up (yes yes I know, few Tories ever managed to figure out what exactly levelling up was supposed mean), is telling the populace to prepare for a new age of austerity.

Oh Christ:

Quote:

He also said the prime minister was “enjoying having the chance” to enact policies that “she believes is right”. Despite the turmoil in financial markets, Clarke said that Truss was “astonishingly resilient” and urged the government to channel the spirit of Margaret Thatcher to push ahead with their vision.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...cs-latest-news

We’re ******.

[Mojo]

Plus ca change…

https://www.private-eye.co.uk/covers/cover-1273

[KDLarsen]

The Eye could run that exact same cover today without anyone realising it was a rerun.

[Darat]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-minister-role

… The City business partner of Jacob Rees-Mogg has been handed a peerage and job as a senior minister by Liz Truss’s government in a move likely to trigger accusations of cronyism.

Dominic Johnson, a financier who cofounded Somerset Capital Management with Rees-Mogg, was appointed as a minister in the Cabinet Office and the Department for International Trade.

The announcement was slipped out on the government’s website, which said he had been appointed as of Sunday.…

[GlennB]

It's little better than plain looting now, isn't it?

[jimbob]

This graph is - um.... striking


https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-...nited-kingdom/

[MarkCorrigan]

The Tory Party chairman Jake Berry has a simple solution to those worried about their energy bills. Get a better paying job or just use less energy.

It's like The Onion has become reality.

[wobs]

This morning, a young Conservative on 5Live basically said (and remember this is just before the Tory conference), that they may as well forget the next election, that for the good of not just the party, but also the country, that Truss and Kwarteng should go, and that they should just forget the next election.

The FT yesterday reminded us all that it is largely down to Brexit that we are in this mess.

The energy crisis is no no small part due to the market based system of our energy system. A system brought about by the Tories many years ago.

I would also remind people that my parents would vote for a turnip if they put a blue rosette on it.

[jimbob]

Originally Posted by wobs

This morning, a young Conservative on 5Live basically said (and remember this is just before the Tory conference), that they may as well forget the next election, that for the good of not just the party, but also the country, that Truss and Kwarteng should go, and that they should just forget the next election.

The FT yesterday reminded us all that it is largely down to Brexit that we are in this mess.

The energy crisis is no no small part due to the market based system of our energy system. A system brought about by the Tories many years ago.

I would also remind people that my parents would vote for a turnip if they put a blue rosette on it.

So they're probably feeling a bit unsure about Truss then?

In that context this is an interesting tweet

Quote:

Could there be anything worse than unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy? Liz Truss has come up with the answer. Tax cuts for the wealthy funded by cuts to public services #kuenssberg

https://twitter.com/montie/status/15...ROkkS0npiCTl2w

Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧
@montie
Normal
11%
Founder of
@ConHome
,
@csjthinktank
,
@UK_CCF
and
@UnHerd
. Freelance journalist and Senior Contributor to
@GBNews
. Coming soon: 'The Conservative Project'...
Joined September 2008

See also My MPs tweet, and there are lots of other Tory MPs saying similar

https://twitter.com/robertlargan/sta...ROkkS0npiCTl2w

Quote:

Robert Largan
@robertlargan
·
Sep 29
Normal
5%
This is untenable. You cannot freeze benefits and pensions while cutting taxes for millionaires.

A debt reduction plan needs to be both economically and politically sustainable to be credible.

I think Truss is undoing a lot of Tory spin on the economy.

[Filippo Lippi]

U-turn on the top-rate tax cut imminent

[Norman Alexander]

Originally Posted by Filippo Lippi

U-turn on the top-rate tax cut imminent

So Kwarteng is going to take the blame? I will believe it when I see it.

[junkshop]

Originally Posted by Norman Alexander

So Kwarteng is going to take the blame? I will believe it when I see it.

Well, I wouldn't say he took the blame, but the 'distraction' has been canned.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-p...ost_type=share

https://twitter.com/KwasiKwarteng/st...f2mayy9_g&s=19

[Darat]

Originally Posted by wobs

This morning, a young Conservative on 5Live basically said (and remember this is just before the Tory conference), that they may as well forget the next election, that for the good of not just the party, but also the country, that Truss and Kwarteng should go, and that they should just forget the next election.

The FT yesterday reminded us all that it is largely down to Brexit that we are in this mess.

The energy crisis is no no small part due to the market based system of our energy system. A system brought about by the Tories many years ago.

I would also remind people that my parents would vote for a turnip if they put a blue rosette on it.

I'm doing my best to try and explain to people around me that the problems in NHS England are problems caused by the past 12 years of Tory policies. Might as well be trying to push a lead football up a hill with soggy noodles.

[lionking]

Originally Posted by junkshop

Well, I wouldn't say he took the blame, but the 'distraction' has been canned.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-p...ost_type=share

https://twitter.com/KwasiKwarteng/st...f2mayy9_g&s=19

Ah, the “party of principal” ***** up again. I’d back Labour next election, but the odds will be too short.

[Garrison]

So how does Kwarteng carry on as Chancellor? I mean he isn't Boris who could just bluff his way out of taking any shred of responsibility for his cock ups? Either this tax cut was a massive mistake on the part of the Chancellor that somehow made it into the budget, or he still believes it was the right policy and has thrown in the towel because he's afraid he'll get heckled at the conference, either way it's not going to inspire confidence in the financial markets.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Garrison

So how does Kwarteng carry on as Chancellor? I mean he isn't Boris who could just bluff his way out of taking any shred of responsibility for his cock ups? Either this tax cut was a massive mistake on the part of the Chancellor that somehow made it into the budget, or he still believes it was the right policy and has thrown in the towel because he's afraid he'll get heckled at the conference, either way it's not going to inspire confidence in the financial markets.

It's all ERG driven. It is their trying to realise their Ayn Rand philosophy of small state. In other words, why should the hardworking heroic entrepreneur (as in Atlas Shrugged) have to give away his earnings (via tax) to help the lazy slovenly dimwitted poor?

Yep. This is a popular political school of thought.

[3point14]

Originally Posted by Vixen

It's all ERG driven. It is their trying to realise their Ayn Rand philosophy of small state. In other words, why should the hardworking heroic entrepreneur (as in Atlas Shrugged) have to give away his earnings (via tax) to help the lazy slovenly dimwitted poor?

Yep. This is a popular political school of thought.

People just aren't smart enough to work out that governments are the only thing standing between them and sefdom. It drives me mental.