Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party.

[takno]

Twenty to twenty-five years' time, because of infirmity and demise, a similar photograph might begin with (from the right) Cameron and a rather stooping and thinning, but still recognisable, Johnson. Then will be the person few will be able to put a name too. Commentators might even have to add that she was prime minister in 2022. She has got that event in her diary for the next thirty to forty years, when the public will be reminded of how her short a period of office she served. Kwarteng will long have been forgotten.
This will be a heavy price for putting ambition before ability. It will the lack of the latter which will mean that she will struggle to find another meaningful role. May will always be able to command an audience as a competent Home Secretary (compare with successors), Johnson will make a fortune with lectures (showing that some organisations have too much money at their disposal), Cameron will have the links to find another role if he wants one. But, Truss?

May was a vicious and damaging Home Secretary, who relentlessly talked up immigration as an issue, had a comically bad approach to drugs legislation, and wrecked the police with damaging budget cuts and novelty police and crime commissioners. Admittedly most of it was probably driven by her poisonous SPADs, who were also largely responsible for the messy red-lines Brexit, but she was largely responsible for keeping them on throughout. She was a far better PM than Home Secretary

 

[Typhoon]

May was a vicious and damaging Home Secretary, who relentlessly talked up immigration as an issue, had a comically bad approach to drugs legislation, and wrecked the police with damaging budget cuts and novelty police and crime commissioners. Admittedly most of it was probably driven by her poisonous SPADs, who were also largely responsible for the messy red-lines Brexit, but she was largely responsible for keeping them on throughout. She was a far better PM than Home Secretary

I agree with the PCCs and the stupid vans with the 'go home' messages I had forgotten about. How much choice she had over budget cuts, I am not certain; what Osbourne wanted, Osbourne got, and I did deliberately mention 'compared with successors'. I also don't think she was a bad PM - who was given the Brexit poisoned chalice. My point was really, whatever we think about her, if she speaks on home affairs issues, she will be listened to; I am not certain whether anything Truss says on anything will be given any weight.

Completely different point 'Truss' merch available on Amazon, for instance tank tops at £16.99 (I am assuming 'print on demand'). I'm not sure there will be much demand.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liz-Truss-...b5-bf82-3e9e15e6bb55&pd_rd_i=B0B92JDM3V&psc=1

 

[edwin_m]

Completely different point 'Truss' merch available on Amazon, for instance tank tops at £16.99 (I am assuming 'print on demand'). I'm not sure there will be much demand.

That'll be a "tank the market" top.

 

[takno]

I agree with the PCCs and the stupid vans with the 'go home' messages I had forgotten about. How much choice she had over budget cuts, I am not certain; what Osbourne wanted, Osbourne got, and I did deliberately mention 'compared with successors'. I also don't think she was a bad PM - who was given the Brexit poisoned chalice. My point was really, whatever we think about her, if she speaks on home affairs issues, she will be listened to; I am not certain whether anything Truss says on anything will be given any weight.

I think that's all fair

 

[Busaholic]

Cameron will have the links to find another role if he wants one. But, Truss?

Offering free samples of Suffolk cheese in supermarkets, maybe with Matt Hancock as her right hand man and official taster?

 

[Lost property]

Offering free samples of Suffolk cheese in supermarkets, maybe with Matt Hancock as her right hand man and official taster?

it appears Truss won't be selling cheese, or pork for that matter....but instead will be very, very busy explaining to local farmers how her deal with Aus / N.Z is going to swell their bank accounts...there again, I loved the immortal line from, as reported, the Aussie news crew at the Queens funeral, " who the f$&ks she ?.....minor royal ? "....so she clearly made a lasting impression in Australia....same as she has done here of course, but for all the wrong reasons as. no doubt, will be revealed on Thursday.

Australia free trade deal a failure for UK, says George Eustice

George Eustice helped negotiate the free trade agreement with Australia while environment secretary.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Gloster]

I can see Truss in thirty years time in her care home, if care homes still exist, saying, ”I used to be Prime Minister, you know.” “Yes, dear, of course you were. Now drink your hot drink.”

 

[DC1989]

So Australia, whose economy is about half our size, has took us to the cleaners in a trade deal. Imagine if we got one with the US!

 

[Lost property]

So Australia, whose economy is about half our size, has took us to the cleaners in a trade deal. Imagine if we got one with the US!

Had a couple of blonde haired narcissus still been in place this does not bear thinking about..remember that statement about "nothing is off the table ".....apart from a pigs head stuffed with apples as a metaphor for any "deal" that is.

 

[jfollows]

I know it's been said already, but this latest report just reinforces the impression I'm now getting in spades that Liz Truss is exceptionally incompetent, arrogant, self-centred, driven by outdated theories rather than facts or reality, all of which made her a good fit in Boris Johnson's cabinet I guess. I didn't ever like or believe her, especially when she was standing for the leadership job, but I thought - wrongly - that she had some modicum of competence.
Rishi Sunak is far and away the best prime minister of the last three, but that's not a very high bar to hurdle, and I don't think he's very good actually. I guess the considered outcome of the impending budget will make or break him in the long run.

 

[edwin_m]

.....apart from a pigs head stuffed with apples as a metaphor for any "deal" that is.

Better not tell David Cameron.

 

[Typhoon]

There must be a chance that Truss will end up being a pale imitation of Edward Heath post 1975, sitting on the green benches muttering away (though she doesn't have Heath's command of policy areas). There is little chance that she will be able to follow the likes of Johnson, Blair, May and, probably, Cameron on to the lecture circuit, there is no fluidity in her speaking. She cannot reasonably be the public face of anything as she is known for one thing only, the shortest serving PM. Even Brown gets a hearing - it was his management that was his weakness

 

[Gloster]

I know it's been said already, but this latest report just reinforces the impression I'm now getting in spades that Liz Truss is exceptionally incompetent, arrogant, self-centred, driven by outdated theories rather than facts or reality, all of which made her a good fit in Boris Johnson's cabinet I guess. I didn't ever like or believe her, especially when she was standing for the leadership job, but I thought - wrongly - that she had some modicum of competence.

To my mind it is that she is quite extraordinarily ambitious and has absolutely no shame about doing or saying anything to get on. At the same time she is quite incapable of seeing her large number of weaknesses. Still, she is yesterdays’s woman, but the damage she caused will be with the rest of us for years. I can see her in a year or two trying to make a comeback because she will once more be blindly unaware of what a failure she has been.

 

[SuspectUsual]

I think that's all fair

I also don't think she was a bad PM - who was given the Brexit poisoned chalice

No. She chose to become PM despite knowing what she was walking into.

 

[Busaholic]

it appears Truss won't be selling cheese, or pork for that matter....but instead will be very, very busy explaining to local farmers how her deal with Aus / N.Z is going to swell their bank accounts...there again, I loved the immortal line from, as reported, the Aussie news crew at the Queens funeral, " who the f$&ks she ?.....minor royal ? "....so she clearly made a lasting impression in Australia....same as she has done here of course, but for all the wrong reasons as. no doubt, will be revealed on Thursday.

Australia free trade deal a failure for UK, says George Eustice

George Eustice helped negotiate the free trade agreement with Australia while environment secretary.

www.bbc.co.uk

George Eustice has been saying this privately in and around his constituency (and family farming business incorporating shop/restaurant etc) for weeks - it's caused great schisms with some neighbouring Cornish Tory MPs (tee hee ), not all of them Truss supporters either.

 

[brad465]

Matt Hancock really isn't helping himself:

Matt Hancock: Covid campaigners fly banner over I'm A Celebrity jungle

Covid family groups fly a message for the former health secretary over the I'm A Celebrity camp.

www.bbc.co.uk

The families of some of those who died during the Covid-19 pandemic say they have flown a message over the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! camp, demanding the removal of Matt Hancock.
Campaign groups 28 Degrees and Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice posted photos of a banner, which read: "Covid bereaved say get out of here!"
Hancock, who was health secretary at the height of the pandemic, is in the TV show's jungle camp in Australia.
Broadcaster ITV has not commented.

In a statement, Lobby Akinnola from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, who lost his father to the disease, said: "Matt Hancock isn't a 'celebrity', he's the former health secretary who oversaw the UK having one of the highest death tolls in the world from Covid-19 whilst breaking his own lockdown rules."
Hancock was forced to resign as health secretary in June 2021 after breaking the government's social distancing rules by kissing a colleague.

Matthew McGregor, chief executive of 38 Degrees, said: "No-one has forgotten how Matt Hancock conducted himself during the Covid-19 pandemic: not the general public, not his campmates, and certainly not those who lost loved ones.
"Our message emblazoned across the skies makes crystal clear to Matt Hancock: you should be representing the people of West Suffolk and giving Covid Bereaved Families the answers they deserve, rather than playing games for dingo dollars, plastic stars and a [reported] £400,000 paycheck."
The airborne protest came after more than 44,000 people signed a petition calling for ITV to reverse its decision to include the serving West Suffolk MP on the programme.

 

[Thirteen]

I'm honestly more impressed these campaigners spent money to fly that banner in Australia, it likely wasn't cheap!

 

[najaB]

I'm honestly more impressed these campaigners spent money to fly that banner in Australia, it likely wasn't cheap!

Pretty sure they didn't fly it all the way from Blighty.

A quick look online shows you can get a towed banner for around AUS$2000.

 

[jfollows]

The parliamentary commissioner for standards has suggested that Matt Hancock's participation in this television farce has demeaned politics - she's received dozens of complaints but can't act because it's not against the code of conduct for MPs. Like with Boris Johnson rushing off on holiday when parliament is sitting, she says that this raises questions about MPs doing other things when they're supposed to be fulfilling their parliamentary duties. Questions about the "dignity of public office" have been raised with her.
I presume that Hancock and others no longer care about what the electorate thinks - they know they're doomed anyway so they might as well earn as much money as they can when their public persona still has value. You can't see Hancock doing something similar in a couple of years because he'll be a non-entity to the credulous TV public by then.
Taken from https://www.theguardian.com/politic...unak-china-g20-jeremy-hunt-uk-politics-latest :

Parliamentary commissioner for standards suggests Hancock's I'm a Celebrity appearance has demeaned politics

Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, has suggested that Matt Hancock’s decision to take part in I’m a Celebrity has demeaned politics.

She is giving evidence to the Commons standards committee about her work and Chris Bryant, the chairman, started by asking her to set out what she found frustrating about her job.

She said one problem was people complaining about matters that fell outside the code of conduct, and she said Hancock was an example. She had received dozens of complaints about his appearance on the reality TV show, she said. She said she could not deal with them because what he was doing was not in breach of the code of conduct for MPs. But she suggested she sympathised with the points people were making. She told the committee:

[The case] raises really important questions about members’ proper activities while they’re supposed to be fulfilling their parliamentary duties, and representing their constituents.

If I may, I’d like to share some correspondence that I heard from a member of the public on this matter. One member of the public contrasted the dignity of veterans on Remembrance Sunday with a former secretary of state, and they said this individual was “waiting for a buffet of animal genitalia” and they wondered what had happened to the dignity of public office.

Stone said the case did raise the question as to what activities MPs should engage in when parliament is sitting. She suggested that was something the committee should consider.

Stone said another aspect she found frustrating was the large number of complaints she was getting about ministers. She suggested this was linked to the absence of an independent adviser on ministers’ interests. And she said the largest volume of complaints she received – just under 1,500 – were about the Partygate fines issued to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. She said these were outside her remit, but people complained to her because they had nowhere else to go, she said.

 

[Acfb]

I don't like Hancock although more because he was a careerist lickspittle and toadied up to Osborne/Johnson.

Having said that while it's wrong IMO for any sitting elected politicians to go on this, it is not any worse than when Kezia Dugdale did it so this does have a whiff of confected media nonsense as Nw1 has pointed out to distract from more serious matters.

 

[Busaholic]

I don't like Hancock although more because he was a careerist lickspittle and toadied up to Osborne/Johnson.

Having said that while it's wrong IMO for any sitting elected politicians to go on this, it is not any worse than when Kezia Dugdale did it so this does have a whiff of confected media nonsense as Nw1 has pointed out to distract from more serious matters.

Kezia Dugdale was hardly known outside her family at the time, even less so now. To suggest whatever she did (I have no idea) bears comparison is ridiculous.

 

[Typhoon]

No. She chose to become PM despite knowing what she was walking into

While that is true, she probably expected a bit more loyalty from AB Johnson. On reflection, it would probably have been better to leave him out in the cold, he wsa no asset at the cabinet table. Either that or she may have reckoned that she was in a position to defeat Johnson realising he would be the complete disaster as PM that he was,

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

it appears Truss won't be selling cheese, or pork for that matter....but instead will be very, very busy explaining to local farmers how her deal with Aus / N.Z is going to swell their bank accounts...there again, I loved the immortal line from, as reported, the Aussie news crew at the Queens funeral, " who the f$&ks she ?.....minor royal ? "....so she clearly made a lasting impression in Australia....same as she has done here of course, but for all the wrong reasons as. no doubt, will be revealed on Thursday.

Australia free trade deal a failure for UK, says George Eustice

George Eustice helped negotiate the free trade agreement with Australia while environment secretary.

www.bbc.co.uk

Why didn't he speak up at the time or resign on principle

 

[nw1]

I can see Truss in thirty years time in her care home, if care homes still exist, saying, ”I used to be Prime Minister, you know.” “Yes, dear, of course you were. Now drink your hot drink.”

Truss is only 47, I doubt she'll be in a care home in 30 years!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Nov 2022 ==

I don't like Hancock although more because he was a careerist lickspittle and toadied up to Osborne/Johnson.

Having said that while it's wrong IMO for any sitting elected politicians to go on this, it is not any worse than when Kezia Dugdale did it so this does have a whiff of confected media nonsense as Nw1 has pointed out to distract from more serious matters.

I do wish there was as much anger directed at Jeremy Hunt as there is at Matt Hancock. (Even though, and I will say this again, I am not a Hancock fan).

I say again, Hancock is in the past. The plans of the current government could cause misery to millions. Focusing on Hancock as the supposedly worst politician in the UK, or whatever, is in late 2022, a distraction. If they'd have spent money flying a plane over Haslemere to denounce Hunt for his penny pinching austerity, that would have been a better action for a campaign group than spending money flying a plane over the jungle in Australia to condemn a backbench independent MP, who will be out in the next election anyway, for decisions made in the past.

 

[najaB]

Why didn't he speak up at the time or resign on principle

He couldn't speak up and must not have found it objectionable enough to resign over.

 

[nw1]

He couldn't speak up and must not have found it objectionable enough to resign over.

Typical Tory following the party line, like they all do.

Mindless loyalty is one of the defining features of the party.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Kezia Dugdale was hardly known outside her family at the time, even less so now. To suggest whatever she did (I have no idea) bears comparison is ridiculous.

I'm not sure where you get that there's no comparison.

Matt Hancock chose to go on I'm a Celebrity... while serving as an MP and while Parliament was in session. I think we'd agree that's ethically wrong because he's supposed to be working full time as an MP.
Kezia Dugdale chose to go on I'm a Celebrity... while serving as an MSP and while the Scottish Parliament was in session. Surely that's ethically just as wrong and for exactly the same reasons?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Nov 2022 ==

Mindless loyalty is one of the defining features of the party.

It's called collective responsibility. If you're serving as a Government minister, then you're broadly expected to support the Government in public, and voice any concerns or disagreements in private. It's not something that's unique to the Tories - Labour ministers are broadly expected to keep to the same standard when Labour is in Government.

 

[takno]

Matt Hancock chose to go on I'm a Celebrity... while serving as an MP and while Parliament was in session. I think we'd agree that's ethically wrong because he's supposed to be working full time as an MP.
Kezia Dugdale chose to go on I'm a Celebrity... while serving as an MSP and while the Scottish Parliament was in session. Surely that's ethically just as wrong and for exactly the same reasons?

I'd say it was pretty similar. The main defence I'd offer for Dugdale was that she was a list MP, so she wasn't abandoning constituents to the same extent. Quite a lot of the Labour party were furious about it, but since she'd managed to come third in the Holyrood elections and was in the process of being replaced as leader by a hapless Corbyn impersonator it wasn't all that high up the list of things people were annoyed about.

 

[MikeWM]

I do wish there was as much anger directed at Jeremy Hunt as there is at Matt Hancock. (Even though, and I will say this again, I am not a Hancock fan).

I say again, Hancock is in the past. The plans of the current government could cause misery to millions. Focusing on Hancock as the supposedly worst politician in the UK, or whatever, is in late 2022, a distraction.

I'm in two minds about this. I agree that I think Hunt should be coming under more criticism, especially given he is executing a massive about-turn from merely a few months ago when he stood for the Tory leadership on a platform of tax *cuts* and certainly no-one was mentioning austerity 2.0.

But I will find it very hard to forgive Hancock for his actions during 2020, and he is partly responsible for where we are now, and not remotely contrite about it. His signature is on all the early lockdown regulations, for example. Much as I am concerned about the damage Hunt is about to do to the country, Hancock did significantly worse.

 

[Lost property]

Boris simply went on holiday...there again, Boris has never had any ethics anyway, so nobody could accuse him of such a breach.

Elsewhere, Raab has said he'll resign if the bullying allegations are substantiated....bye bye then ( not that this should be construed as in any way being pre-emptive of his guilt of course )