Conservative party/opposition watch

[Potemkin Villager]

This utube video of interviews with Conservative Part members in Eastbourne
is a fascinating insight into their cognitive dissonance. I happened to be in Eastbourne
and Brighton recently and find it quite believable!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePwRtGxYG28

[UndercoverElephant]

I don't think the slide is finished. Her performance on TV is absolutely dreadful -- it is like Theresa May's "Nothing has changed!" moment, but ten times worse. "This is all the fault of covid and Putin. The crisis wasn't caused by our mini-budget." This has the effect of seriously insulting the intelligence of everybody listening to it. The harder she tries to defend herself like this, refusing to accept the reality of what has happened, the more people she will alienate. I can see the tories going down to 10% in the polls.

And their conference starts on Monday! I might have to actually watch it.

[UndercoverElephant]

Guardian editorial says Truss is finished:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... oust-truss

I agree. I cannot see any way she can regain control of the situation. If she maintains current course then she'll be in direct conflict with both the BoE and the markets, creating ever more "turmoil" until she resigns. If she announces massive spending cuts to get back into fiscal balance then we're talking about serious and widespread civil disorder until she resigns. And if she u-turns on the tax cuts then she's left with no credible economic policy, will presumably have to sack Kwarteng, and it is very hard to see how she can recover politically.

I think she's going to be forced to resign.

[Mark]

Meanwhile, the previous sleaze merchants get protected by the establishment....

Alleged Chris Pincher victims to appeal against decision to drop groping claims:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ing-claims

& BoJo still needs to appear before the Commons Privileges Committee, but no doubt they won't be able to find anything in all that long grass...
He's currently 10-1 to be back as PM...., as he said when departing..... 'hasta la vista'....??
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/br ... -liz-truss

[kenneal - lagger]

Anyone in agreement that appointing the fracking companies to gauge public opinion on their activities is akin to appointing Putin to carry out a referendum on four Ukrainian oblasts joining the Russian Federation?

[Potemkin Villager]

I think she's going to be forced to resign.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is writ large over all of this. Perhaps a new name will be invented for politicians in particular thus afflicted
"The Kwarteng-Truss" effect. Whatever they both seem to have totally lost the run of themselves some time ago.

[UndercoverElephant]

I think she's going to be forced to resign.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is writ large over all of this. Perhaps a new name will be invented for politicians in particular thus afflicted
"The Kwarteng-Truss" effect. Whatever they both seem to have totally lost the run of themselves some time ago.

Yes. It is painfully clear that neither of them know what they are doing, and that they don't comprehend the scale of the trouble they are in. It was obvious Truss didn't get it when she used the term "bean counters" to refer to politicians and civil servants who believe the numbers have to add up.

I am so looking forward to her conference speech.

[clv101]

Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown were intelligent, (mostly) honest prime ministers who genuinely had the wholesale best interest of the UK at heart. Big ideological differences, and all made mistakes - but since then it's just gone from bad to worse. With Truss we must have reached the absolute bottom, she simply isn't remotely competent or credible.

As bad as she is, what's more concerning is that a sizeable chunk of the parliamentary party thought she was the best among them. What were they thinking!?

[UndercoverElephant]

https://twitter.com/NewStatesman/status ... 8968886273

The phalanx of Conservative newspapers is preparing to enter full election mode.

Key editors loathe Keir Starmer for his role in prosecutions over phone hacking and have been told to do everything they possibly can to stop him reaching Downing Street.

[Stumuz2]

It was obvious Truss didn't get it when she used the term "bean counters" to refer to politicians and civil servants who believe the numbers have to add up.

Yes, it's very important when you print unbacked currency out of thin air, that you know how much you are printing. I mean you don't want to hit the ten trillion button when you only meant to print one trillion.

[Stumuz2]

With Truss we must have reached the absolute bottom, she simply isn't remotely competent or credible.

https://twitter.com/GlobalProTrader/sta ... rNgOArAAAA

A few things to chew on which will definitely happen at some point.

Why would you think Starmer would be any more competent at handling them?

[UndercoverElephant]

Truss has now banned the King from attending COP27 or speaking on climate change.

I think we're looking at the worst UK Prime Minister in modern history, and by quite some margin.

Interview on Kuensberg this morning was also a car crash. Body language said it all - with her forearm up all the time, and continually interrupting the interviewer so she could not get the questions out. "Are you going to cut public spending to get back into fiscal balance?" No answer. "Are you going to raise government department spending in line with inflation?" No answer.

She cannot and will not get away with refusing to answer questions that fundamental. I believe we are now just going to see her spiraling, out of control, until she hits the ground. I think the tories will find some way to get rid of her, and replace her with Sunak, without going through the normal leadership election process.

[clv101]

With Truss we must have reached the absolute bottom, she simply isn't remotely competent or credible.

https://twitter.com/GlobalProTrader/sta ... rNgOArAAAA

A few things to chew on which will definitely happen at some point.

Why would you think Starmer would be any more competent at handling them?

I'm not saying about about Starmer, my point is that Truss isn't remotely competent or credible. Shame on the Tory party for elevating her to the role.

[UndercoverElephant]

Article by Kier Starmer in the Telegraph. The TELEGRAPH.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... omy-cliff/

On Thursday night, a young woman stood up in front of the BBC’s Question Time audience close to tears. Her mortgage had been withdrawn. The interest rate had doubled. The audience collectively gasped. The air left the room.
This was the destructive impact of last week’s kamikaze budget already being felt. Anyone trying to buy a home or coming to the end of their fixed-term mortgage will soon experience similar. Homes will be lost. Pensions are under threat. This is a crisis made in Downing Street, paid for by working people.
I have listened to the ludicrous excuses trotted out by the Prime Minister and her remaining acolytes. The reality is simple and inarguable. They have crashed the economy. They did so by handing enormous, unfunded tax cuts to those who least need them.
The reason people are now worried about their homes and their pensions is not because of Vladimir Putin’s illegal war. It is because the Chancellor has chosen to gift a totally unfunded £40,000 tax break to those earning £1 million a year.
Placeholder image for youtube video: mm1UuFD02MY
The reason businesses are worrying about spiralling interest rates is not because of necessary action on energy bills. It is because the biggest companies have been handed a totally unfunded £17 billion corporation tax cut they were not asking for.
To claim otherwise is nonsense, offensive, a deceit on the British people.
For the vast majority of those who still live in the reality-based community – tethered to gravity and maths - it is clear what has happened. The markets do not believe in the fantasy economics of untrammelled borrowing and unfunded tax cuts any more than the average person on the street does.
They do not believe in the myth of trickle-down economics, where making the richest richer magically benefits everyone else.
Eroding our tax base just as there are pressures for spending is not just bad economics or childlike delusion – it is a real and present danger to economic health. It is the gambler chasing good money with bad, the smoker puffing away outside the hospital doors. It is unsustainable.
Rather than force working people to pay, Liz Truss and the Conservative Party must get back to Parliament this week and reverse their disastrous decisions. Permanent damage has been done, but the only way to stop the rot is for the hubris and the excuses to end. Waltzing off to their annual conference in Birmingham to congratulate themselves while the country is in turmoil is not an option.
If the Prime Minister continues to bury her head in the sand, it will fall on others to act.
Neither the country nor Parliament has had any say on these measures. That is unacceptable. The economy is not a laboratory experiment for the maddest scientists of the Conservative Party.
Mortgages, pensions and family finances are not WE ARE DODGY chips for a government intoxicated by dogma. There are many decent Conservative MPs who know this. My message to them is that Labour will work with anyone to ensure some semblance of economic sanity is restored.
But make no mistake - whatever action is taken now, this is the moment the Conservatives forfeited any claim to careful stewardship of the nation’s finances. The pain about to be inflicted on the whole country is the result of a Prime Minister and a Chancellor wedded to a disastrous ideology.
Placeholder image for youtube video: xq38W1LQOws
Having seized control of the nation’s wheel over the summer, they have proceeded to drive the economy off a cliff. The damage will be felt by the working people of this country for years to come. The next Labour government will do the painstaking work of fixing that wreckage – carefully and deliberately, the party of sound money acting in the interests of the whole country, not just a gilded few.

[Stumuz2]

With Truss we must have reached the absolute bottom, she simply isn't remotely competent or credible.

https://twitter.com/GlobalProTrader/sta ... rNgOArAAAA

A few things to chew on which will definitely happen at some point.

Why would you think Starmer would be any more competent at handling them?

I'm not saying about about Starmer, my point is that Truss isn't remotely competent or credible. Shame on the Tory party for elevating her to the role.

But we don't need a lot of competency for what's coming. We have printed to oblivion, people are slowly catching on, they will lose faith in the system. Remember, this madness started with Brown, carried on under Cameron, May, Boris. These were all people you said are credible.