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?

I read that as him taking the piss out of VF. Which is fine, but not really what I expect the PM to be doing with his time. Then again, Boris does an awful lot with his time I don’t expect a PM to be doing 🤷‍♀️

Finally something from the Chancellor, Zahawi-
Energy bills: Middle earners will need help with rising prices too, says chancellor
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62695778

Acknowledging that even households with relatively higher incomes will struggle hugely with these energy prices and broader economic effects of it. Yes exactly! We all know that economic devastation affecting so much of the economy is looming, which will cause deep recession unless radical action is taken. Good to see it finally acknowledged.

But where, given this drastic crisis scenario we are in, is Boris Johnson to put his face as our actual PM and his famous Churchillian spirit to this economic and social emergency..??!!!!

Nowhere.

To all the people who think Johnson should not have resigned… this kind of lack of public duty and responsibility is exactly why he hasn’t resigned soon enough.

Well given we've all known for WEEKS what was happening with the price cap absolutely the Government & candidates should have been ready to present their policies.

Leaving people hanging for political reasons/benefits reveals quite where their priorities are.

The thing is, people will bleat that the 'middle earners' don't deserve any help at all , it's not fair etc. I can see the numerous threads now on Mumsnet!

How can anyone really determine who is a really worthy case and who isn't ? Unless we will all have to offer up tax returns or spreadsheets of our assets and savings to the government and those who do hide it away from the tax people will have to start showing their real worth and not what they tell them they earn ?
Might be interesting though as I know a few people who manage to moan and complain constantly but have several Caribbean holidays a year, big houses and cars , yet will still complain about the higher bills they could easily absorb with one less trip away. Not that I'm saying they hide their wealth.. but they probably work around it let's say that.

@saucery, I see that definitely but I was thinking in conjunction with his comments in parliament about the ‘deep state’. I haven’t been paying really close attention but there seems to be some conspiracy vocabulary creeping into his lexicon.

But where, given this drastic crisis scenario we are in, is Boris Johnson to put his face as our actual PM and his famous Churchillian spirit to this economic and social emergency..??!!!!

Exactly! Even with the leadership contest they’re all still tories! An actual leader could have sat down with Truss and Sunak and formulated a plan they could have gone ahead with no matter who won.

The 1922 committee knew when the price cap announcement would be issued. They could have chosen to shorten the length of the campaign to ensure the new PM was in place already.
They chose not to - again I can only assume because they were more interested in grabbing headlines directly before Parliament returned than to benefit citizens.

In short it's all about what suits the party not the country.

If they are holding back, that is disgraceful. There are businesses closing down now because they've done the sums and can see that carrying on is just going to lead to insolvency. That is putting people out of work. If the Tories have plans that will change that, they need to be in place as a matter of urgency.

@Notonthestairs I can’t help but feel there’s an element of punishment in there too, certainly from BJ.

So if that pipeline is available, there can be no logical reason why Boris can't turn it on. He is paid to lead, after all. He can discuss it with Truss and Sunak, and if they have any objection they can elucidate now. If their only objection is that they want to claim the credit, that would self-evidently be disgraceful.

You may well be right.
Tail wagging the dog again.
He'd certainly put his own objectives before party or country.

I actually think they've miscalculated and the gap between the price cap announcement & whatever support is offered is too long and people will notice they've been hung out to dry. I'll certainly remember the bloody great silence from our government.

My heart sank at the thought of Braverman running the Home Office, she’s even more fascist than Patel. As for Frost - the man for whom not a single vote has ever been cast … I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Seems to be very close links between Government and "ex" energy bigwigs. But don't worry I'm sure they make policy decisions with what's best for the nation in mind.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/ofgem-energy-price-cap-revolving-door-bills-government-oil-bp/

"Among those given key roles in UK energy policy are a former British Gas director who is now responsible for setting the energy price cap at Ofgem, the UK’s energy regulator, and a non-executive director at the business department who remains a board chairman at energy giant BP."

I remember during civic when all this stuff went on about the wallpaper and a labour minister was in who had claimed for some AirPods and they ripped into her. She kept saying she used a Mac and only got them because she had to now work from home. Said about having the right technology for the equipment.

Whether you agree or not about claiming for £200 EarPods I was more astounded they were comparing that to them having an issue with a doner paying £1000's for wallpaper!

It's worth remembering that many claim expenses which pays their staff. So sometimes they have 70/80k of which 60 is wages.

The other 10/20k is often dubious!

Well they did exactly that with the windfall tax they refused to call a windfall tax to avoid people (who aren't stupid and know exactly what it was and who suggested it) thinking it's a windfall tax

Very worrying report

NEW: The cost of living crisis is responsible for an ‘unprecedented’ rise in domestic abuse being reported to charities.

The number of cases has risen by a third since the start of the crisis.

Despite the huge rise, the number of prosecutions are down.

twitter.com/SkyAndyHughes/status/1563562776886669312?t=xRD1gTAscYAc-eUZOIgDkA&s=19

Despite the huge rise, the number of prosecutions are down

could this be in part due to barristers striking?

I don't think so, the conviction rates for rape and sexual assault have been going down for a while now

I meant prosecutions.

Ah

www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/cps-data-survivors-failed-record-number-sexual-offences/

They haven't started striking yet, but perhaps the reason for the lack of prosecutions is closely related to why barristers are striking.

They don't have sufficient courts open -it's holding up justice. If you follow the Secret Barrister he'll often retweet how many courts are open as opposed to how many courts there are.

Investment in the legal system - more judges, more barristers, courts open, better rates of pay, improve the actual fabric of most court buildings - would go along way to fixing prosecution rates.

By way of illustration. The county I live in no longer has a magistrates court (so ok doesn't involve barristers) for remand hearings, so it is an hours drive to court from the county town. But then you could live an hour from the county town.

Of course there are no buses. One could go by train. So what has happened since this efficiency saving is that people don't turn up the the hearing, the police then have to go and find them, and bring them to the court on another occassion.

Don't say that on the Feminism board. They think she's wonderful because she says the right things about trans issues.