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

997 replies

cakeorwine · 08/08/2022 19:09

New thread as needed.

I wonder what new promises will come out this week?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
itsgettingweird · 09/08/2022 17:37

My DF is not a Tory supporter.

Hates the lot of them.

Never said he's Labour but he was pleased Starmer got leadership for Labour so assume he is.

My mum never let us discuss politics though. Well not in front of her. I imagine we'll discuss it more now she can't tell us to shut up Grin

GoTeamRocket · 09/08/2022 18:28

My Conservative DF thinks Boris Johnson couldn't stay (the lies and cronyism).

He believe that the right wing press is supporting Truss because she is going to be a disaster and create good newspaper copy over the next 2 years before she crashes and burns.

I think the right wing press are supporting Truss because they think they can manipulate her and also she is not going to increase corperation tax.

We both agree that she will be a disaster.

L1ttledrummergirl · 09/08/2022 19:57

I think they need to scrap the standing charge ASAP. It's unfair that even if you turn everything off you are still expected to pay.
It might be a drop in the ocean but its a start and it's immediate.

jgw1 · 09/08/2022 20:18

L1ttledrummergirl · 09/08/2022 19:57

I think they need to scrap the standing charge ASAP. It's unfair that even if you turn everything off you are still expected to pay.
It might be a drop in the ocean but its a start and it's immediate.

Does anyone know why the standing charge has gone up so much, surely it doesn't suddenly cost more to send electricity down the pipe to me?

tobee · 09/08/2022 20:26

While we're on d parents (Grin) my df 87 and dm 86 are lifelong labour supporters even though they lived in (and I grew up in) what was then 7th safest Tory seat in U.K. Df marched against capital punishment, Alfermaston and against the Iraq War. We talked politics a lot growing up, despite mostly agreeing! Pretty proud of my oldsters! 😄

tobee · 09/08/2022 20:27

Alfermaston? Aldermaston!

itsgettingweird · 09/08/2022 21:01

L1ttledrummergirl · 09/08/2022 19:57

I think they need to scrap the standing charge ASAP. It's unfair that even if you turn everything off you are still expected to pay.
It might be a drop in the ocean but its a start and it's immediate.

I asked this on the DD thread running currently and no one answered.

I don't have a clue Grin

DuncinToffee · 09/08/2022 22:58

Postal strike from 26th August

115,000 postal workers will strike for a proper pay rise.

Four days. All action commenting 0400.

Friday 26th August
Wednesday 31st August
Thursday 8th September
Friday 9th September

This comes after Royal Mail made £750m profit, paid £400m to shareholders, but failed to offer workers a proper pay rise.
^^

L1ttledrummergirl · 09/08/2022 23:51

Well done them. I hope that the post office don't try to deliver mail by using anyone who hasn't been through their usual security checks.

I'm not sure if they are now allowed to break the strike with other workers or not, the government seems to have announced so many illegal and unworkable things in the last few years

DowningStreetParty · 10/08/2022 04:40

Boris Johnson defends leaving fuel crisis response to successor
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62477155

Energy bills forecast to hit over £4,200 a year
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62475171

Do the Tories even have control of the economy any more? Do they even care, seeing as they just want to finish their holidays before saying anything at all?
I think back to August last year when Kabul fell to the Taliban while Boris’ government refused to recall Parliament.

Yet again, one year later, we’re now in a unbelievably bad domestic economic catastrophe… and they couldn’t give a shit either.

The fact that yesterday the most awful yet unprecedented energy price rises have been announced and Boris is still committed to being on holiday and is saying that this all this is a matter for the next PM.

WHY IS BORIS JOHNSON STILL PM IF HES NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING? Why didn’t he just resign cleanly? Why didn’t we get a general election then? Why are we being expected to swallow all this while the Conservative party continues to put itself before people’s lives- no exaggeration whatsoever, this level of economic stress will be killing some very vulnerable people in the UK right now.

Gordon Brown was in the Observer last Sunday saying that we need an emergency budget, recall of Parliament and a Cobra meeting on the cost of living crisis. Yes we do. And what does our Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson do- absolutely nothing, because he’s too busy having parties and holidays paid for by god knows who, and flying military jets for fun at taxpayer expense. He’s disgusting.

Gordon Brown wrote: “The facts are grim: Four in every five pensioners, four in every five single parents and four in every five large families face fuel poverty – that’s when their energy bills come to more than 10 per cent of their weekly incomes. About 35million people in 13.5million households are under threat of fuel poverty in October – that’s an unprecedented 49.6 per cent of the UK

OK this is mass economic catastrophe.

Where is Johnson’s OR Truss’ or Sunak’s or anyone else in Government’s sense of shame and responsibility about this? They’d rather that millions of people live in fear over how to live- than to do their actual jobs and pause their holidays to help. I’m still constantly shocked by how shamefully this Conservative government can treat us. They’ve done it again. This is jaw-droppingly bad.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/06/gordon-brown-set-emergency-budget-or-risk-a-winter-of-dire-poverty

Labour are working on their economic solution, tbc. Meanwhile Lib Dems have just suggested a new approach that looks worth exploring- Liberal Democrats call for scrapping of energy price cap rise www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62466386

i’m going to write to my Tory MP to express my utter disgust at this failure of duty but I’m fully expecting to just get an Out of Office reply instead. I wish we could all heat our homes and cook our food on the burning hot shame that the Conservative party should be feeling right now.

Whats it going to take, to find some government responsibility, a plea from the Queen?

I don’t know how anyone with a conscience can justify remaining a Tory party member while this goes on, let alone supporting this protracted leadership election just to serve Johnson’s vanity and wish not to be a shorter-serving PM than May.
I’m baffled how anyone would consider voting Tory ever again after they’re apparently so relaxed about this complete and utter failure of their government, in their own interests if they really couldn’t care less about anyone else’s lives.

Now we are seeing, out of necessity, news reports giving out debt advice to the public:

*Households already in debt as energy bills rise’
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62483770

Notonthestairs · 10/08/2022 07:47

"Truss says she would vote to stop privileges committee inquiry into PM"

twitter.com/johnrentoul/status/1557089689261285380?s=21&t=vIISBDSXt8x7NXDHeX44gg

Remember Patterson?

I agree DowningStreetParty.
They'll announce policy regarding fuel costs when it suits them, not the nation. So let's hope September isn't too late.

itsgettingweird · 10/08/2022 08:06

So......

We have a PM who can't make decisions due to policy.

But we are paying him.

We have a deputy PM who also apparently can't do what a deputy does and make decisions when their leader can't.

But we are paying him.

We have 2 people who are trying to become PM who can't make decisions because they aren't yet PM - but apparently nothing in policy to stop them trying to support solving the issue.

Yet....... when they want to change policy and how things are done (staff can cover for sticking workers as the latest example) - they seem to manage to act quickly.

How the fuck have we got to the point where basic living costs in apparently one if the richest countries in the world cannot be met and we have a government who apparently aren't allowed to do anything about it until it's too late. Angry

Quia · 10/08/2022 08:23

tobee · 08/08/2022 22:57

Downside :- people didn't value his wonderfulness and pay him enough
Upside :- loads of people loved to give him freebies

Downside also that people had the audacity to expect him to do some work occasionally.

Quia · 10/08/2022 08:27

Lonelycrab · 09/08/2022 16:43

Thanks for the new thread.

Asked my very brexy df82 what he thought of Truss: “not a lot”
Asked him about Sunak: “no better”

He then said he wanted Boris back.

Even my 90 year old "Thatcher was a saint" mother thinks Boris is a total idiot.

DowningStreetParty · 10/08/2022 08:51

Exactly. What’s it going to take? Why can’t they recall and all agree that something will be done and decide what- so we can all know if it’s adequate or not and we can decide how to respond to that?

Instead they are letting us all wait cap in hand like anxious serfs to find out which Tory-party-appointed unelected PM is going to take which tack. And maybe no help will come.

And if it’s Tory party favourite Truss it looks like we’re in serious trouble: BBC today:

‘Boris Johnson has ruled out making big spending decisions before he steps down in September, and what his successor would do has become a key issue in the battle to replace him in Downing Street.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak said he would welcome a meeting to agree emergency support ahead of the winter.
His rival Foreign Secretary Liz Truss branded the proposal "bizarre" and a "kangaroo committee", describing widespread cash handouts to deal with the cost-of-living crisis as "Gordon Brown economics".’

Truss can absolutely get to fuck trying to slate Gordon Brown. He showed a hell of a lot of economic leadership during the global financial crisis in 2008 and his actions cushioned us from the worst.

Whereas Rishi Sunak ‘would welcome’ some kind of a chat ‘ahead of the winter’… Way, way, way, too casual and vague. This is all someone else’s problem.

Nobody is actually leading this country.

And also reported:
‘Consumer expert Martin Lewis has called on what he described as the "zombie" government to "wake up" and put together a plan immediately.’

Yes. Honestly Martin Lewis is showing more leadership than anyone in the Cabinet. Just to repeat:

Almost a quarter of households owe £206 to energy firms, on average, with the total debt owed by the public triple that of September last year, according to a survey of 2,000 households.
Forecasts predict average annual energy bills could rise to over £4,200 by January - almost half the basic state pension of £9,628 this year
.

So this is ALREADY extremely serious and a colossal failure of Boris Johnson’s government.
It’s OK though folks… our new Chancellor Zahawi and Business Sec Kwarteng are going to be meeting energy- producing companies to talk about their colossal profits. Hmm To what end?

As BBC says: ‘Currently, the energy profits levy - which the Treasury previously said could raise up to £5 billion - comes into effect from 26 May next year. Energy firms like BP have reported record quarterly profits this year that will not be impacted by the levy.

Companies supplying energy are getting much more money for their oil and gas than they were last year, partly because demand has increased as the world emerges from the pandemic, but more recently because of supply constraints following Russia's invasion of Ukraine’.

Too right these companies are getting record profits because by this coming winter all of our energy bills will have gone up by about 300% in one year. How is normal people’s budgeting possibly supposed to withstand that?

I took my examples from this article:
Ministers to meet energy giants over cost of living
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62486509

Big Dog is enjoying his last weeks. Who will be leader - Truss or Sunak Thread 13
cakeorwine · 10/08/2022 08:55

The plans to stop the NI rise will give rich people even more money and do little for low earners.

The Social and Environmental levy (because that's what it's called) will do little as well if it's scrapped.

I don't think they truly understand how little disposable income some people have - and what is going to happen this winter when people - especially those on payment meters or people who pay on receipt of bill suddenly get a gas bill that is 3 x what is was last winter.

OP posts:
DowningStreetParty · 10/08/2022 08:55

Meanwhile, irresponsible populist Truss, shows her attitude to ‘the media’ taken straight from Trump or Putin’s playbook. Her attitude is repellent. Any critical questioning of policy is blamed on journalists being politically biased and opposed to her. Errr.. What does she think a free press is for? More importantly why on earth does she think she or her colleagues in government should not be be publicly accountable for their actions? Her attitude is really scary.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/09/liz-truss-rebuked-for-cheap-jibes-at-hustings-after-criticising-media

AdamRyan · 10/08/2022 08:56

I wish we could all heat our homes and cook our food on the burning hot shame that the Conservative party should be feeling right now.
👏

BoreOfWhabylon · 10/08/2022 08:58

Michael Howard on LBC now, says he's backing Sunak.

SueSaid · 10/08/2022 09:02

'mother thinks Boris is a total idiot.'

Why? Has the msm brainwashed her too?

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/09/nhs-backlog-two-year-waits-routine-surgery-shrinks-england-pandemic

Those useless Tories. Boris awol! gallivanting on posh holidays and no doubt having non stop partying yet the nhs backlog shrinks from 22k to under 200! How very dare he be sooooo competent.

Of course a bit like the vaccines this will all be solely down to the heroic NHS, nothing to do with Government who fund and direct them according to some very knowledgeable mumsnetters. You'd think the media would be shouting about this as loudly as they did about cake at work but Pippa and Brand don't seem that excited. Funny that.

There are sure to be more energy hand outs. The initial payments are still being sent out. Stop letting the media whip you up constantly.

Notonthestairs · 10/08/2022 09:04

"A big fiscal decision for the new PM and Chancellor will be whether to provide any extra funding to shore up public services. To fully compensate departments for higher inflation could require at least £8 billion this year, and £18 billion (or more) in future years."

twitter.com/benzaranko/status/1557245466412306432?s=21&t=vIISBDSXt8x7NXDHeX44gg

Thread goes on to say

"Choosing not to compensate departments for unexpectedly high cost pressures would be a deliberate decision to cut spending in real-terms, at a time when many public services are showing signs of strain."

Worth a read of the full thread if you've got time.

AdamRyan · 10/08/2022 09:05

the nhs backlog shrinks from 22k to under 200!
The NHS backlog was caused by the impact of treating Covid on the NHS. Since vaccines, less people are hospitalised so of course the backlog is reduced. What exactly do you think Johnson did specifically that allows him to take credit?

Notonthestairs · 10/08/2022 09:08

ifs.org.uk/publications/16145

Meant to link to this from IFS - "The Inflation Squeeze on Public Services".

InMySpareTime · 10/08/2022 09:08

He can only take the credit along with the blame for the backlog in the first place. Both happened on his watch. Both or neither are on him.

SueSaid · 10/08/2022 09:09

'The NHS backlog was caused by the impact of treating Covid on the NHS. Since vaccines, less people are hospitalised so of course the backlog is reduced. What exactly do you think Johnson did specifically that allows him to take credit?'

Oh I think there's been a big backlog recovery plan. You think hospitals massively increasing lists and diagnostics has all happened by accident Confused.