Thread 48 - Sunak - Capsized on the Ship of Lies

[DuncinToffee]

4 weeks to go

previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5086112-thread-47-sunak-the-ship-of-fools-sails-on?page=40&reply=135817929

Doing, and being seen to do the actual job of being Prime Minister in a competent way is surely an effective campaigning strategy. I just don’t understand why attending yesterday’s D Day commemorations wasn’t seen as a good use of Sunak’s time even in a purely self interested way

On Remembrance Day last year, Sunak said:
"Remembrance is sacred, a moment of unity, of shared British values"

Yesterday's commemoration events in Normandy was about as big as Remembrance gets.

I just can't express enough how furious I am with the squirmy little odious creature.

2 The focus should be on the veterans not politicians

Good idea. Let's replace the leaders debate tonight with an hour of interviews with veterans.

Absolutely. If a leader whose country is literally at war can be there and stay the duration, what conceivable excuse could there be for the absence of any other? When did politicians stop holding their hands up and admitting their fuck ups?

I think that Sunak has two big blind spots. One is empathy, the other is political instinct. Either would have saved him from this gaff. I think he saw the commemorations as a diary event that he needed to tick off and that being there for most of it would do that. He didn’t understand that leaving early and missing the most important bit was a) disrespectful and b) looks awful

But that's why you have advisors FFS. And well paid ones at that.

At this stage of the game, it's impossible to discount the very real possibility that there is a cabal of anti-Rish! (not necessarily anti-Tory) activists inside CCHQ.

Maybe Lizzie Dripping was right ?

Those are two pretty big blind spots which should disqualify him from most political roles. I honestly feel blindsided by this and all the other gaffes. The policy lurch to the right over the last couple of years I kind of get because he's dealing with difficult rifts in his party and doesn't have the leadership skills to steer a clear course. Its not the same as Labours lurch left, which Corbyn fundamentally wanted. But the rationale is the same - true believers feel safer keeping the ball up their end of the pitch even though its a really risky strategy.

But the campaign has exposed how fundamentally useless he is at just being a human and I would have expected that to have been exposed much sooner - when being selected for a safe seat, when a junior minister etc. He's just kept falling upwards by accident into a job he's massively unqualified for and now I think the whole country is looking at him, Tories, Reform votes, Labour and thinking who the hell is this?

Doing the rounds

😭

BREAKING: We have been informed enough letters of no confidence from members in #Basildon & #Billericay have gone in to trigger an emergency Special General Meeting about Chairman #RichardHolden standing as their candidate. Will Chairman Richard Moore call the meeting?

x.com/conspost/status/1799033041425481834?s=46&t=Uw4lJNwxFZFnX0Xs3doHYg

Holden working his magic.

I heard someone on Radio 5 this morning suggesting that Sunak may have been advised by very young Special Advisers who are wholly focused on the election campaign.

There was also an elderly lady who was a lifelong Conservative voter, whose father spent 3 years away from home during her childhood fighting in WW2. She was utterly disgusted, said she didn’t know who she was going to vote for now, but she didn’t think it would ever be the Conservatives again.

Thats a very good point, did his advisors just stay silent and let him fall on his face?
Or perhaps he never told anyone, like his EOTHO idea?

Heck, even Mercer has come out and criticised him.....

Yeah my Grandad used to be away for 3 years at a time, WW1 though, we recently found a postcard from him to my Gran when they were courting, he apologises for cancelling their "date" but duty calls (it was the battle of Jutland) in which his ship was hit and 100s killed.

Admiral Beatty is on the cover, resplendent in medals, different world and values & not one Sunak has a clue about.

Don't give a shit about what advice he did or didn't get, he should have wanted to be there with every fibre of his being.

I guess none of them are supposedly campaigning in an election!

Quite. Zelensky only has holding back the Russian horde to deal with. Of course he has more spare time to hobnob in France than Sunak.

😂😂😂

I was listening to electoral dysfunction where they said there are often US advisors to campaigning and they don't always understand nuances of UK culture. Perhaps it was that. Sunak and the Tories do seem quite reliant on the US right.

I found myself wondering of Matt Green reads these threads as I watched that.

Biden managed to be there. 🤷‍♀️

I was listening to electoral dysfunction where they said there are often US advisors to campaigning and they don't always understand nuances of UK culture.

Trump excepted. the US honours it's veterans at least as much as the UK. So you can stop with that crock of shite straightaway. This ia a 100% made in Britain - made in Rish! own own image - cock up.

And there is no rowing back.

The only person - and I post this to honour them - with an excuse for not attending was Robert “Al” Persichitti. RIP. This Brit salutes you.

https://www.itv.com/news/2024-06-07/102-year-old-us-veteran-dies-on-his-way-to-commemorate-d-day-in-france

Ha! That's a bit harsh. But I stand corrected 😂

Ha! That's a bit harsh. But I stand corrected 😂

Apologies, I was trying to rebut the idea, not the messenger.

I am sure there will be all sorts of fairy stories emerging to excuse Sunak and make us feel bad. In much the same way Tommy Knobinson tried to claim his gaffe was showing soldiers running into the water to rescue comrades. Predictably that hasn't gone well either.

I think Veterans are actually more respected in America than here, I feel it was tone deaf from that point of view as well. If he hopes to go to America from their point of view by not attending he has disrespected their President and their veterans.