UK Politics - Now is the Spring of our Discontent

[BigFatCoward]

Now there's an understatement - Liz Truss 'I didn't do everything perfectly'.  The fucking nerve of these people. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-64835179

 

[Gaston de Foix]

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

How can you say that? There will definitely be people who suck up the JRM Kool-aid. And Labour's lead in the polls is already shrinking by the day. 

Starmer's team were briefing that appointing Gray was another sign that Labour are 'preparing for Government.'

But why oh why did he insist on doing this at *precisely* the moment the Privileges Committee reports for the first time?

Why not wait a while? Why give the likes of JRM and Hartley-Brewer and all the rest of them any ammunition? It's fucking bizarre.

 

 

I think he intended to wait but then the news leaked and he was forced to accelerate the process.  I agree it is tin-eared.

It's a fact established by a mountain of evidence that Boris misled the House.  His only slim reed is that he was honestly mistaken as to the facts.  That is (a) not very credible in light of his personal attendance and knowledge; (b) the fact that in telling the House he was "assured" the rules were followed he misled the House as to the scope of his assurances. It really has nothing to do with Sue Grey at all.  She had a fact-finding mission (appointed by Boris!) which she executed. 

Boris' whole premiership was a test of whether the British people would allow someone who didn't believe in the deeply-held British sense of fair play to continue in office.  He got in trouble, and he lied to get out of it.  A pattern he has repeated his whole life, except this time he was PM and he lied to Parliament and not just the British people or his wives.  He should resign as an MP, but since he is shameless, he deserves to be kicked out.  Doubtful his party will oblige though.

Also, let's not delude ourselves.  The most damning evidence has been hidden or obscured because it involved private convos between Boris and those he has nominated for peerages and knighthoods.  

[mormont]

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

How can you say that? There will definitely be people who suck up the JRM Kool-aid.

Sure. They're people who were never going to vote for Starmer anyway. I mentioned that Starmer has made mistakes: his principal one is caring too much what those people think.

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

And Labour's lead in the polls is already shrinking by the day. 

It's consistently been in double figures for five months straight, and presently Labour is at 45-50%.

 

[Spockydog]

If you can't see the problem with this then I don't know what to say. 

It's the sort of thing Corbyn would have been slaughtered for. And another indicator that he is going to be a terrible fucking PM. 

 

 

[mormont]

We can agree, I think, that Corbyn would never have appointed Sue Gray.

[Spockydog]

1 hour ago, mormont said:

Sure. They're people who were never going to vote for Starmer anyway. I mentioned that Starmer has made mistakes: his principal one is caring too much what those people think.

It's consistently been in double figures for five months straight, and presently Labour is at 45-50%.

 

https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/

Since Sunak took over Labour is going down, Tories are on the up. 

I don't think there will bemuch daylight between them in two years time. 

[Heartofice]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/

Since Sunak took over Labour is going down, Tories are on the up. 

I don't think there will bemuch daylight between them in two years time. 

I suspect Labour will still be well ahead by the time of the election, even if Rishi can manage to add some semblance of competence to the Tories during that time. It would take a series of Boris style own goals for Kier to bollocks it up now.

[Maithanet]

I would fully expect the Tories to get a dead cat bounce from where they were 6 months ago.  It is almost impossible for a major party to remain that unpopular. 

[williamjm]

5 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I would fully expect the Tories to get a dead cat bounce from where they were 6 months ago.  It is almost impossible for a major party to remain that unpopular. 

I think the Trusspocalypse was clearly their biggest problem and Sunak initially regained a bit of ground but it seems to have been pretty static since then. Since the 3rd November that polling average has gone from a 22 point lead to a 20 point lead, I imagine Sunak was hoping to make more of an impact than that.

I suspect Labour won't be winning the next General Election by 20 points, but at the moment it's still a healthy lead.

[Gaston de Foix]

Does Sunak have a shot to turn it around and win the next election? Yes, stranger things have happened in politics, e.g., Major turning it around in 1992.  Are the odds slim? Yes. 

No skin off Rishi's nose - he gets to be PM and if he wins the GE, a second term.  If he loses, he'll do a Kushner and set up a PE fund.  He's also benefitting from low expectations, and from Keir trying a little too hard to position Labour as a responsible party of government. 

I can't understand why Sunak won't get rid of the Prada loafers and the slick suits.  Can you imagine Alistair Campbell allowing Tony Blair to put in a heated swimming pool in his constituency home? 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

55 minutes ago, williamjm said:

I suspect Labour won't be winning the next General Election by 20 points, but at the moment it's still a healthy lead.

And I would bet they'll swiftly lose the election after that.

[mormont]

3 hours ago, Spockydog said:

Since Sunak took over Labour is going down, Tories are on the up. 

That's an eccentric reading of data showing no movement in the polls for the last three months.

What the polls actually say is that when Truss resigned, there was a small rise in Tory support and a corresponding decline in Labour support. Both start a week before Sunak is appointed and stop less than two weeks later. Both are so small they're within the margin of error and could be a statistical anomaly. Labour's lead is still double what it was when Truss was appointed.

Yes, there are two years to go and anything can happen. But ask any Tory MP if that makes them feel better about things.

[Spockydog]

 

[Spockydog]

 

[Spockydog]

 

[Derfel Cadarn]

The awkward moment when the media organisation you work for learn you sent your big ‘scoop’ to a rival publication

 

[Fragile Bird]

2 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

The awkward moment when the media organisation you work for learn you sent your big ‘scoop’ to a rival publication

 

I hadn’t realized that all those quotes you guys were posting came from her leaking 100,000 messages, which she had access to because he hired her to help write a book about these years of the Covid pandemic.

Shouldn't she be worried about 1) being sued and 2) completely trashing her reputation? Or will UK media outlets say OMG what a ruthless shark let’s hire her?

[Derfel Cadarn]

27 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I hadn’t realized that all those quotes you guys were posting came from her leaking 100,000 messages, which she had access to because he hired her to help write a book about these years of the Covid pandemic.

Shouldn't she be worried about 1) being sued and 2) completely trashing her reputation? Or will UK media outlets say OMG what a ruthless shark let’s hire her?

She has form for this type of thing, but not on this scale. She probably should be worried about legal consequences because she signed an NDA, but guessing the Telegraph will fund any defence saying it was in public interest.

I wouldn’t be surprised of her company quietly lets her go in a few months, since she didnt leak it via them. But who knows.

Pretty sure her career is largely toast, because who is going to trust her now.  
 

It’s interesting (and shows how appalling many of the messagea are) that a lot of people assumed they were spoofs.

Edit: Hancock’s a raging idiot. Who the fuck hires an anti-lockdown ‘journalist’ to ‘help’ write their book justifying lockdown and other anti-covid measures, and gives them unrestricted access to 100k messages fewturing many prominent politicians/advisors?

 

[kiko]

1 hour ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Edit: Hancock’s a raging idiot. Who the fuck hires an anti-lockdown ‘journalist’ to ‘help’ write their book justifying lockdown and other anti-covid measures, and gives them unrestricted access to 100k messages fewturing many prominent politicians/advisors?

 

Assuming that he is not completely brain dead, maybe it's his way to get that out and burn as many adversaries as possible in the process? Where is the money from this flowing?

Otoh...he's not exactly a 4D chess player, is he?

 

[Which Tyler]

37 minutes ago, kiko said:

Assuming that he is not completely brain dead...

Brave assumption