Liz Truss and the Conservative Party.

[birchesgreen]

Was some talk that if these power cuts do occur this Winter then Liz Truss is toast, or as some wag put it "bread".

 

[Bald Rick]

From Wikipedia:
Berry was born on 29 December 1978 in Liverpool

Wait - Jake Berry is only 43?

 

[nw1]

Wait - Jake Berry is only 43?

Being relatively young does seem to be a feature of the current Government. As I've said in an earlier post, there seem to be very few born before 1970, can only think of Rees-Mogg - born in 1869, of course, so a long time before 1970

Not sure if it's by design - are they trying to prove that they are not just a party for older people?

 

[Bald Rick]

Being relatively young does seem to be a feature of the current Government. As I've said in an earlier post, there seem to be very few born before 1970, can only think of Rees-Mogg - born in 1869, of course, so a long time before 1970

Not sure if it's by design - are they trying to prove that they are not just a party for older people?

Saw him on the TV yesterday, and I was surprised that someone called ‘Jake’ would be so old; I had him pegged as mid 50s. Perhaps the angle was unflaltering, and to be fair he’s had a tough week.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Perhaps the angle was unflaltering, and to be fair he’s had a tough week.

I think this sums it up quite well... https://twitter.com/MattCartoonist/status/1577696631289520133



(Link is to a cartoon on Twitter, that shows a picture of someone at the Tory conference announcing, "Great news! The Labour Party has offered to pay for our conference to continue for another three days"

 

[david1212]

The Rt Hon Jake Berry, Member for Rossendale and Darwen, Chairman of the Conservative Party:
Term Length- at the pleasure of the Leader of the Conservative Party, ie. one moth to date and counting
....

.... But the party chairman has apologised for saying that people should get better-paid jobs in order to pay their bills.
The whole lot of them seem so out of touch with reality as it applies to most people - those who live outside the Westminster bubble of course.
Slow collapse starts from here, as Bletchleyite says. Not quick enough for me. Will we get rid of Esther McVey?

He also has a third job

So, undoubtedly, he will have little difficulty coping with the current hike in energy bills for which he provided the following advice:

Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge yesterday, Berry said: “People know that when their bills arrive they can either cut their consumption, or they can go out there and get higher salary or higher wages, they can go out there and get that new job.

Doubtless such sage advice will go down well in Rossendale and Darwen where the median gross weekly pay for full time employees is just over £30,000 according to House of Commons stats for 2021.

Quotes from https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...h-from-second-job_uk_633af38ee4b0b7f89f434e7a

I had missed this until I read these posts ..... the hole they are digging themselves into is now a few bucket loads bigger.

 

[brad465]

It's not just opinion polling showing a switch, there's at least one former Tory donor who has turned into a Labour donor:

https://twitter.com/BethRigby/status/1578109734514614272

EXCLUSIVE: Gareth Quarry had been a life-long Conservative but now is backing Labour. The millionaire businessman's first TV interview on why he stopped giving money to the Tories under Johnson, & why he's now quit the party entirely and donated £100,000 to Labour. 9pm
@skynews

 

[nlogax]

There’s more than a whiff of the dying days of John Major’s government in all this. The main difference being that he and his minsters were still vaguely competent…can’t really suggest that of Truss and co even though they’ve only been in power for five minutes. But then as now voters were just tired of Conservative governments and needed a change. Just another couple of years left for you to rummage for your D:Ream cds..

 

[yorksrob]

It would be good if conservatism could take a rest for a couple of decades. It could rediscover it's true purpose of defending the British way of life (rather than being a vehicle for every half-baked, lunatic fringe, free market fantasy idea doing the rounds, as it is now).

 

[Bletchleyite]

It would be good if conservatism could take a rest for a couple of decades. It could rediscover it's true purpose of defending the British way of life (rather than being a vehicle for every half-baked, lunatic fringe, free market fantasy idea doing the rounds, as it is now).

At the moment, Conservatism is anything but conservative - it's basically neoliberal. Actual conservatism (small C) is about not changing stuff that doesn't need changing and about keeping things simple.

I'm no Tory voter, but I'd more than settle for some *actual* conservatism. A John Major or David Cameron* type figure.

* Without that stupid referendum.

 

[yorksrob]

At the moment, Conservatism is anything but conservative. Actual conservatism (small C) is about not changing stuff that doesn't need changing and about keeping things simple.

I'm no Tory voter, but I'd more than settle for some *actual* conservatism.

Indeed. More like a British version of Gaullism, which I would heartily support.

 

[AM9]

Saw him on the TV yesterday, and I was surprised that someone called ‘Jake’ would be so old; I had him pegged as mid 50s. Perhaps the angle was unflaltering, and to be fair he’s had a tough week.

Childish joke alert;

We never knew how old 'Jake the Peg' was.

 

[nw1]

Saw him on the TV yesterday, and I was surprised that someone called ‘Jake’ would be so old; I had him pegged as mid 50s. Perhaps the angle was unflaltering, and to be fair he’s had a tough week.

Yes, Jakes are normally pretty young. I don't remember any Jakes at my school (attended 1980s), for instance.

I won't make myself popular, but I thought Therese Coffey was a good deal older than she is, I'd have said late 50s, not vastly different in age to Theresa May

In fact, she's slightly younger than David Tennant and only slightly older than Eminem and Liam Gallagher.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Oct 2022 ==

At the moment, Conservatism is anything but conservative - it's basically neoliberal. Actual conservatism (small C) is about not changing stuff that doesn't need changing and about keeping things simple.

I know what you mean. If "conservatism" is defined as "keeping things as they were in the 90s and early 00s" or "not relaxing planning laws to make it easier to develop in an AONB" then I suppose I am a conservative!

 

[takno]

Yes, Jakes are normally pretty young. I don't remember any Jakes at my school (attended 1980s), for instance

Reasonable number of Jacobs around at school in the 80s, many of whom shortened it to Jake. Alan Bleasdale also did a drama in 1995 called Jake's progress.

Agreed that it's much more recent as a free-standing name in its own right though

 

[AM9]

Reasonable number of Jacobs around at school in the 80s, many of whom shortened it to Jake. Alan Bleasdale also did a drama in 1995 called Jake's progress.

Agreed that it's much more recent as a free-standing name in its own right though

Jake Thackeray was never young in my memory. The majority of Jacobs that I remember years ago expected to hear their name pronounced with the 'J' as a 'Y' as in many germanic and central european speeches.

 

[SteveP29]

If we do, she'll end up on GB News five days a week instead of two! Every silver lining has a (pretty large, dark) cloud!

It remains a cloud free silver lining if you don't watch it

 

[ABB125]

BBC News - Trade minister Conor Burns sacked after misconduct claim

Trade minister Conor Burns sacked after misconduct claim

The trade minister also had the Tory whip removed after allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

www.bbc.co.uk

Can't copy any text as I'm on my phone, sorry.

 

[WizCastro197]

BBC News - Trade minister Conor Burns sacked after misconduct claim

Trade minister Conor Burns sacked after misconduct claim

The trade minister also had the Tory whip removed after allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

www.bbc.co.uk

Can't copy any text as I'm on my phone, sorry.

So Both Bournemouth MPs now sit as independent although one (east) didn’t commit a serious offence?

 

[brad465]

There have been reports that Jacob Rees-Mogg had actually prepared an information campaign to help reduce energy usage this winter, but that Truss blocked it because she was ideologically opposed to it. Things must be really bad when JRM is actually the sane one here:

Subscribe to the Financial Times

A subscription to the Financial Times provides you with the insights and perspective you need to succeed, now.

on.ft.com

Liz Truss vetoed a £15mn public information campaign urging British households to save energy this winter ahead of potential import shortages from Europe, government insiders have confirmed.

This also means that if there are blackouts, while Truss will inevitably blame Russia, she is largely responsible as she stopped efforts to reduce consumption that would have gone a long way to averting blackouts.

 

[Busaholic]

Sturgeon professes herself puzzled as to why Truss has not bothered to contact her yet. Cameron did so a day or two after she became Leader of the SNP, and both May and Johnson had the courtesy to do so as soon as they became PM. Guess she has too many semi and actual fascists in Italy to try to compare notes with rather than the elected leader of one of the home nations.

 

[43096]

Sturgeon professes herself puzzled as to why Truss has not bothered to contact her yet. Cameron did so a day or two after she became Leader of the SNP, and both May and Johnson had the courtesy to do so as soon as they became PM. Guess she has too many semi and actual fascists in Italy to try to compare notes with rather than the elected leader of one of the home nations.

Perhaps it is deliberate on Truss' part - she can replay the "attention seeker" line now that Sturgeon has piped up.

 

[birchesgreen]

I find Truss' actions increasingly weird, why wouldn't you want the figleaf of warning the public if things turn bad after powercuts? (15 million is nothing in government budget terms).

She really is completely blinded by ideology it seems.

 

[baz962]

He also has a third job

So, undoubtedly, he will have little difficulty coping with the current hike in energy bills for which he provided the following advice:

Doubtless such sage advice will go down well in Rossendale and Darwen where the median gross weekly pay for full time employees is just over £30,000 according to House of Commons stats for 2021.

Quotes from https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...h-from-second-job_uk_633af38ee4b0b7f89f434e7a

I'm moving to Rossendale if it's 30k a week.

 

[MikeWM]

There have been reports that Jacob Rees-Mogg had actually prepared an information campaign to help reduce energy usage this winter, but that Truss blocked it because she was ideologically opposed to it.

Good for Truss (though probably she'll u-turn tomorrow...)

There's no point in the government spending lots of money on telling the population things a five-year-old should be able to work out for themselves. If Truss is going to treat us like adults as opposed to idiots that need continually prodding or nudging, that's a big plus in my opinion.

There seem very close echoes of the media pressure we saw over covid here. Once again, there is a massive demand for the Government to tell us, in great detail, what we should and shouldn't be doing, which directly implies that people will act irresponsibly if they're not instructed by central authority. Personally I think people are better than that, and on the whole are mostly capable of making sensible decisions, without needing detailed government instructions, nudges or regulations about every tiny detail of their lives.

 

[najaB]

There's no point in the government spending lots of money on telling the population things a five-year-old should be able to work out for themselves. If Truss is going to treat us like adults as opposed to idiots that need continually prodding or nudging, that's a big plus in my opinion.

If that was the ideology that was driving it, I could see the logic in that argument, however the reason that she's opposed to it is simply a case of her putting her fingers in her ears and going "la la la" in denial of reality. And this campaign wasn't simply about telling people to cut down on energy use to save money, but rather was driven by the high probability of highly damaging blackouts.

 

[DerekC]

Good for Truss (though probably she'll u-turn tomorrow...)

There's no point in the government spending lots of money on telling the population things a five-year-old should be able to work out for themselves. If Truss is going to treat us like adults as opposed to idiots that need continually prodding or nudging, that's a big plus in my opinion.

There seem very close echoes of the media pressure we saw over covid here. Once again, there is a massive demand for the Government to tell us, in great detail, what we should and shouldn't be doing, which directly implies that people will act irresponsibly if they're not instructed by central authority. Personally I think people are better than that, and on the whole are mostly capable of making sensible decisions, without needing detailed government instructions, nudges or regulations about every tiny detail of their lives.

Truss has already told everyone that we will have plenty of energy this winter, so she can't have Moggy going round making her look stupid by asking them to save it. I think a lot of people would reduce energy consumption if asked to do so, who might otherwise keep their thermostats up at 23 degrees or whatever because they can afford it. It's a question of presenting people with the right information and making clear what's in the communal interest. I really don't see what there is to complain of in that.

 

[eMeS]

Have we now got our (gas?) storage systems working again? Seemed crazy to me to let such a facility go out of use.

 

[Gloster]

This is definitely not an area that I know much about, but my understanding is that we already have a total storage capacity far lower, in the sense of days’ capacity held, than most countries in Europe. This situation was already poor before the Rough storage area off Yorkshire was closed in 2017 to save money. Rough may be in the process of being reopened, but is unlikely to have much capacity available this winter.

Others will almost certainly be able to confirm or shoot down my comments.

 

[Busaholic]

There have been reports that Jacob Rees-Mogg had actually prepared an information campaign to help reduce energy usage this winter, but that Truss blocked it because she was ideologically opposed to it. Things must be really bad when JRM is actually the sane one here:

JRM could be in big trouble in the strange North East Somerset seat at the next General Election. The seat was only created in time for the 2010 election, and its weird boundaries seemed to have been created with a Tory victory in mind. It partly took in the previous Wansdyke seat, which had returned a Labour MP. He contested the new seat and only lost to JRM by a little under 5,000 votes. Why JRM should be worried, apart from the obvious, is that he polled almost the same number of votes in the 2017 and 2019 elections, but his majority over Labour and LibDem combined was approx 6,000 in 2017 but only 2,000 in 2019. The LibDems put in a particularly strong performance in 2019, and the new unitary Somerset Council went to them in the May local elections. As long as Labour agree 'to do a Honiton' in the seat, I foresee it joining neighbouring Bath as a LibDem gain. Surely we won't have to wait for a possible January 2025 date to rid ourselves of these jokers!!

 

[brad465]

The i are reporting a plot by senior Tories to try and oust Truss and get Sunak in as a caretaker PM:

Senior Tories plot to install Rishi Sunak as caretaker PM to prevent election meltdown

Ex-ministers want to oust Liz Truss and anoint a leader in a 'coronation' to get the economy back on track and give the Tories a better chance of holding seats at the next election

inews.co.uk

Ex-ministers want to oust Liz Truss and anoint a leader in a ‘coronation’ to get the economy back on track and give the Tories a better chance of holding seats at the next election

Conservative former ministers are plotting to remove Liz Truss as Prime Minister to install a caretaker leader, with Rishi Sunak emerging as the rebels’ choice, i has learned.