Thread 38 Sunak: Soooo, square one is an option then?

[AdamRyan]

Thanks to @cornettoninja For the epic title!

The Express isn't happy

Jeremy Hunt fails to boost Tories as pensioners abandon the party | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

Even more worrying for Rishi Sunak is that less than one in five (19%) of a core group of Tory voters - pensions aged 64 and above - would now vote Conservative with 23% going to Labour.

People's polling has the Tories at 18%.

Be interesting to see how this compares with other polls. (as apparently this polling firm "is a bit whack") There may be some more MPs stepping down today. https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1766003924299895100?t=tifUv9c_Dc5lHK0ZlQI3dw&s=19

I think she’s number 60. I wonder if their entire 2019 majority will step down by the time election’s announced.

A Tory minister on Sky just told a complete lie, claimed 50 Labour MPs were also quitting!
Its actually 17! fortunately quickly pointed out.

He obviously just made up that number.

TM like so many other Tories' are seeing the writing on the wall and abandoning the sinking ship.

January GE for me now, they'll bleed the country and do all they can to stuff up Labour for as long as they possibly can.

That's scary. They will take the whole country down with them.

I have lost hope of a May election. They are going to hang on for as long as possible.

I know I’m ridiculously optimistic but the worse they are now, the more damage they’re inflicting on themselves and the harder it will be for them to come back from it. If tolerating this means two or three terms of a Labour government maybe, just maybe it might be worth it. I’m old enough that I might never see a Tory government again if they fuck it up enough.

59 or 60 I reckon

Share token for the Times article on £200m pulled from council budget

https://www.ft.com/content/79d479fe-7ab1-4f5c-83f6-cbeb9e2e8843?shareType=nongift

Labour lead at 27 points in latest YouGov poll for The Times

CON 20 (=)
LAB 47 (+1)
LIB DEM 9 (+2)
REF UK 13 (-1)
GRN 7 (=)

Fieldwork 6 - 7 March

x.com/lara_spirit/status/1765997110749483467?s=46&t=Uw4lJNwxFZFnX0Xs3doHYg

A week or so ago there was some discussion about different methodologies (squeezing Don't Knows etc) which marked out PP as different but I can't remember the details.

People Polling 7th March

LAB: 46% (+1)
CON: 18% (-2)
REF: 13% (+1)
LDM: 10% (=)

I’m quite saddened by Theresa May stepping down. She was a terrible PM but I feel she’s one of the few Tories with some integrity.

I imagine a lot of Maidenhead Tory votes were down to personal loyalty to May as apparently she’s a great constituency MP. It’ll be interesting to see what happens there now.

Sunak was waffling about his 'working assumption' again yesterday

Tory and integrity are not two words that can ever be put together.

Her stance over Brexit has caused untold harm to the UK, she put party unity over what was best for the UK, she started the whole "hard brexit" stuff by ruling out SM and CU membership.

She reminds me of Hunt, cold and ruthless in office, mellows when on the back benches but in the case of Hunt, goes back to his old ways once back in the cabinet.
If May had ever been made a minister again, she'd also have gone the same way & "modern slavery" quickly forgotten, just as Hunt has forgotten about his concerns over the NHS.

She made very good arguments against the Rwanda deal but when it came to the vote, she abstained.

I imagine she was a good constituency MP - showed up, worked hard and good with detail. I appreciate that sounds like a low bar but I have had a terrible consistency MP and it does make a difference.

But I haven't forgotten the Mansion House speech & being described as a citizen of nowhere.

I didn't catch the name on the minister on radio duty but he claimed he didn't recognise the figures

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68501370

Didn't recognise the figures? They must spend a lot of cabinet meetings coming up with new phrases to deflect questions.

She also approved of the "go home" vans.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/19/theresa-may-was-not-opposed-to-go-home-vans-official-accounts-suggest

Not recognising things is an old one. There’s a lot of Prosopagnosia in this government.

Maybe I’m just being overly kind to May after the horror that was BJ and this current lot.

Yes, compared to Johnson, Truss and Sunak she almost seems kind and capable!

Backbone...

He is a man of great attention to detail apparently. Which is why he can attend a party without knowing he is at one.