Big Dog is enjoying his last weeks. Who will be leader - Truss or Sunak Thread 13

[cakeorwine]

New thread as needed.

I wonder what new promises will come out this week?

Another thing that shows how the conservative party values money over the electorate.

Meanwhile the gall of Boris Johnson putting out his off the cuff statement about free speech after poor Salman Rushdie has been stabbed for blasphemy in the US. Boris didn’t even recall Parliament last year when the Taliban rolled straight back into Kabul. Which is a far greater and longer lasting threat to freedom of speech and global stability and safety than this attack (just as one example). Johnson can’t claim moral leadership on freedom of speech (or anything else, for that matter).
www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4610029-salman-rushdie-stabbed?page=6&reply=119208948

It's just a shame BJ was ousted by Cummings led backstabbers or else I'm sure he'd have sorted the energy crisis too

Janiiee thanks for the laugh. You know Boris is still our elected PM for weeks yet? Meanwhile the rest of us worry ourselves sick about energy bills while Boris pisses about in army jets, holidays and parties doing fuck all saying it will be dealt with by his successors in September. WTF?

The only responsible people bringing ideas so far are Gordon Brown and Ed Davey and neither of them are in power. Starmer should be cancelling his holidays and coming back to set out his economic plan and I’m disappointed in him. I don’t think he’s got out of the grip of Labour Party introspection enough to be the super effective leader that we all need in extremely challenging times.

Starmer is back from his holiday and Labour will set out their plans on Monday.

I don’t think Starmer has understood the urgency to assure people that he’s on the case, in that instance. The power vacuum is being filled by other people in the meantime.

Agree 100%.

Is it? I feel like there’s a lot of people sounding the alarm but no one in the fire engine.

You’re quite right Cornetto the power vacuum remains ..as vacated by Blojo.

I should have said: the ideas/credibility/moral authority/leadership gap - which should be an opposition leader’s natural territory.. is not occupied enough by Starmer at this time of crisis.

He should be drip feeding his stategy now- then I’d give him some credibility for releasing something on Monday. I don’t think any of them really realise how scary this is for so many people. I’m a Labour voter, I want Labour to help us. That’s why the Tories leaving it all to get around to at some point in September shows me that they live on another fucking planet to most of us in the UK. I want better from Labour on the economy than Starmer seems to be able to give.

I suggested nor implied any such thing, that would be against MN rules :)

Robust debate would mean you answering at least of some of the questions asked but you don't.
Correction would again mean engaging.
Balanced view would require some criticism of the Conservatives and constructive acknowledgement of one or two Labour/opposition policies.

As you don't, i can draw my own conclusions.

The only responsible people bringing ideas so far are Gordon Brown and Ed Davey and neither of them are in power. Starmer should be cancelling his holidays and coming back to set out his economic plan and I’m disappointed in him. I don’t think he’s got out of the grip of Labour Party introspection enough to be the super effective leader that we all need in extremely challenging times

True, they have but Davey's plan would cost over £35 billion & Browns is un costed, as these social tariffs would need to be paid for plus wouldn't help any of the millions just above the MW but not on UC, also companies nationalised would have an on going cost.

I would prefer Starmer to come out with ideas that would work, however, i'm also concerned that if any good, the TOries would claim them as their own, as would their media friends and it wouldn't do Labour any good, with the usual suspects still coming out with "But Labour... " who have been calling for various policies, inc a WF tax, since January...

i’m not an economist so I don’t know about the merit for those Brown and Davey plans or not but I am looking for someone to trust with economic strategy for the future and I really want to see Starmer or Rachel Reeves front and centre on these issues. That visibility is what’s lacking.

Hopefully on Monday we’ll have something to build from when Starmer and team have set it all out. If I was them I’d be doing it in the Sunday papers tomorrow, but let’s see what happens.

The longer this drags on the more I’m questioning why the onus is on us to find a way to pay tbh. The energy producers and suppliers are hardly turning over tiny profit margins. It’s short sighted too, with every price increase they’re reducing their customer pool. It’ll be devastating at a societal level but having a product no one can afford to buy doesn’t make any sense either.

This isn’t just a UK issue, here is an actual opportunity for someone to actually be world-leading and call for an emergency global summit to put pressure on the fat cats enjoying their cream.

Keep in mind when swimming in open waters

Govt will not now publish plan to stop water firms dumping raw sewage in rivers, lakes, and sea. Expected September now ‘in due course’, civil servant speak for no political will to act. So firms can continue to dump sewage 1000 times a day into what little water is left.
twitter.com/paullewismoney/status/1558136306835890176?t=X3bg0ax5GxJ1HvzcREOVLA&s=19

If you're wondering why the government would rather let people starve than curb profits.

The Conservatives received £6 million in donations from private firms during the 2019 election campaign.

All the other parties combined received just £550,000.

twitter.com/WritesBright/status/1558024364230049795?t=elw0VfJWMjNloDn9oE5_MA&s=19

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62531870
.. why is this wife-assaulting man still a Plaid Cymru MP?!

New Opinium poll of Conservative party members gives Truss a 22-point lead.

Truss: 61%
Sunak: 39%

Almost two-thirds (63%) would prefer Boris Johnson to stay in charge, however, compared to 22% who are happy with Truss.

Thérèse Coffey, DWP Minister, said she would not publish 5 reports or research on the benefit cap, deaths of benefits claimants, the impact of UC & benefit sanctions, & that she had no plans to publish 2 further reports on unpaid carers & work capability

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/14/british-minister-accused-of-trying-to-hide-reports-on-impact-of-tory-welfare-reforms?

Don't lke the result? Hide it.

That’s just disgusting.

God forbid that the public should know what the effects of Tory policies are.

It would be good if, just for once, the Murdoch and Rothermere press would have some balls and demand full disclosure.

That is disgraceful. A department committed to making life better for citizens - our most vulnerable citizens at that - wouldn't need to hide reports and data.

Once again Minister's avoiding scrutiny of their work.

Public money paid for those reports.

Coffrey should be bloody ashamed.

When the Right and Far Right talk about free speech they don't mean yours.

twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1558746739238178816?t=O8NI-KP615luH_FHwwK8ng&s=19

Johnson is off on holiday again

It's just all so disturbing.

Quite.

But some people don't understand that we don't vote for a Prime Minister. We actually vote for parties to form the government AND choose an individual to be a Prime Minister.

It's common in both Sovereign National UK GEs and devolved administration elections too. Sturgeon wasn't elected by the Scottish electorate when Alex Salmond stood down originally. Unlike Brown for Labour, she was able to be elected thereafter at the earliest opportunity .

It's a feature of democracy.

Oh God, you n features of democracy! lol!

However, you are right, we do vote for an MP and their policies, however, given all the "...i couldn't vote for Corbyn" posts, it would appear we do in fact, to some extent, vote for the Leader.

Bojo thinks he got the Tories an 80 seat majority.