UK Politics: who's in charge today?

[Derfel Cadarn]

1 minute ago, Spockydog said:

They're actually going to try and bring the cunt back.

 

 

If they could figure out the spell, they’d bring Thatcher back.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Urban legend suggests: standing in front of a mirror and saying her name three times will do.

[Fez]

Well the law of US politics is that the dumbest thing always happens, and the UK is looking an awful lot like the US these days. So yeah, I assume Boris Johnson will in fact become prime minister again.

[DanteGabriel]

1 hour ago, Which Tyler said:

Cameron had a conscience?

Perhaps he at least tried to appear to have one, which is too much effort for the current lot.

[Maltaran]

21 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Interesting stat. John Major was Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, and the show ended in 1989 and restarted in 2005, but the one-off American TV movie did air in 1996 so that probably keeps his record safe.

Jodie Whittaker is, despite the low number of episodes to air during her tenure, the second-longest serving Doctor in terms of duration, so that's actually not bad going.

Also the Eastenders crossover special

[DaveSumm]

Surely Boris can’t come back. SURELY. It was MPs that ousted him, and MPs who’ll decide the next PM.* The optics of that would just be terrible.

Sunak PM and Hunt as Chancellor? Has to be the most probable outcome? And then just try desperately to look steady and boring and stave off calls for a general election? 

*The way I heard it earlier, it’d be the same process as before but with a strong expectation on the runner up to drop out, thus cutting out the part where the members get a say.

[mormont]

Yeah, the credibility gap of 'in July we all decided you were absolutely intolerable but now we want you back' would be enormous. I mean we've all had those post-breakup moments, but it never works out.

[DaveSumm]

Boris probably salivating over the prospect of two non-consecutive terms like Churchill.

[Maltaran]

2 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

Surely Boris can’t come back. SURELY. It was MPs that ousted him, and MPs who’ll decide the next PM.* The optics of that would just be terrible.

Sunak PM and Hunt as Chancellor? Has to be the most probable outcome? And then just try desperately to look steady and boring and stave off calls for a general election? 

*The way I heard it earlier, it’d be the same process as before but with a strong expectation on the runner up to drop out, thus cutting out the part where the members get a say.

The 1922 may well put a higher nomination threshold to begin with

[Werthead]

The problem is that Sunak is disliked in the party at large in the country, so if they voted him in, they'd know they'd have a leader whom large chunks of the party despised.

[mormont]

1 minute ago, Werthead said:

The problem is that Sunak is disliked in the party at large in the country, so if they voted him in, they'd know they'd have a leader whom large chunks of the part despised.

While that used to be true, his polling among members has mysteriously improved since they got a look at what Truss was actually like once you put her in charge. 

[DaveSumm]

1 minute ago, Werthead said:

The problem is that Sunak is disliked in the party at large in the country, so if they voted him in, they'd know they'd have a leader whom large chunks of the part despised.

I mentioned it a few weeks back but I’m still fascinated by this issue that seems to have damaged both Labour and the Tories; the party at large feel one way and the MPs another. How did this divide happen with both parties? We just ran the experiment of what happens when you go with the party and not the MPs, it’s a shitshow and lasts a feeble amount of time. What happens the other way around, what can the party do to hamper a PM Sunak?

[karaddin]

We live in the worst timeline so you've just got to ask yourself which outcome is the most farcical, the sort of choice that would get you fired if you tried to write it in fiction. With that lens it's clear they'll go back to Boris!

6 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

I mentioned it a few weeks back but I’m still fascinated by this issue that seems to have damaged both Labour and the Tories; the party at large feel one way and the MPs another. How did this divide happen with both parties? 

One reason it can happen is that the other MPs get to see more of the real person than the voting public does and may know the person in question is an utter dick. In other cases there could be a very obvious but disappointing reason the party members choose one candidate over another.

[Werthead]

Since this is up to the party, not the membership, it's unlikely they'll get back Johnson.

Both Wallace and Hunt seem keen to remain in post where they are for continuity reasons during their respective crises, and Hunt's calculus seems to be that there is not a viable alternative candidate to replace him as Chancellor whom would command the confidence of the markets.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

So if BoJo does come back, does that make the trivia question “Who was PM when the Queen died” easier or harder?

[Spockydog]

20 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Since this is up to the party, not the membership, it's unlikely they'll get back Johnson.

 

AFAIK, that's not been decided yet. There is talk of an online vote amongst party membership.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Larry the Downing St cat has outlasted his fourth prime minister

https://news.sky.com/story/liz-truss-resigns-live-updates-prime-minister-12593360?postid=4699382#liveblog-body

[Spockydog]

 

 

[Maltaran]

23 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

AFAIK, that's not been decided yet. There is talk of an online vote amongst party membership.

You’d think the MPs would at least make sure he’s not in the top two and so doesn’t go to the membership 

[Fragile Bird]

Lol, so the Queen is dead and Boris can come back because those side-by-side pictures of her alone at Philip’s funeral and him partying at #10 won’t work anymore?

 

eta: so Covid really is gone in the UK?