To be starting to really worry about Liz Truss

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OK, so I'm not a Tory. I hate Boris, and despise the rest of them. I don't hold or much hope of any of them actually doing anything to address the problems that we're currently facing, because I don't think any of them actually give a toss about ordinary people. Of the two candidates that are left in the Tory leadership contest, I would pick Rishi, because I think he has a more realistic understanding of the economic challenges, but obviously, I'm not a party member so I have no say in the matter.

Nevertheless, I have been relatively sanguine and the prospect of Liz Truss as leader, a) because I figured that things couldn't get much worse than the shit show that we have had under Boris, and b) because I am pretty sure that she will be utterly unelectable when it comes to the next general election, so worst case scenario would be that we have another couple of years of crappy Tory government, exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, and then we can be pretty confident of getting shot of them. So, pretty shit all in all, but survivable.

But listening to everything that she is saying she wants to do, to the economic forecasts, and to the analysis from both within and beyond the Tory party, I'm starting to get really very worried. All this talk of huge tax cuts and massive reductions in public spending...I fear that she is going to make the looming economic crisis infinitely worse at a time when we can least afford to risk it. Nearly all economists seem to agree that her plans are going to make things worse, not better.

We are already at breaking point. Public services are on their knees. Businesses are struggling to stay afloat. People both in work and out of work are struggling. The most vulnerable are already having to choose between bare essentials such as eating and heating. Inflation continues to soar, energy prices are going off the scale, interest rates are going up... and she is about to make it worse! We just don't have the resilience in the system to cope with this.

I am actually very worried about what is going to happen. This could be very bad indeed, and a lot of people are going to suffer. If we end up with austerity on steroids in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis, there will be massive civil unrest, surely?

Sunak still wants to win he probably didn’t think it would be released

I doubt he’ll win but she won’t be that damaged by it

Is this the new Chris Whitty looks terrified? ;

Not that I miss that

A party likes to call an election at a time of its choosing to capitalise on opinion polls and support.

It's not going to be 2023 - and then 2024 doesn't leave much time for them to capitalise on polls.

But maybe things have changed since the 2019 election. This was a combination of things. Corbyn was made out to be unelectable, Jonhnson was the new leader and Brexit.
Labours view of Brexit wasn’t clear and that’s why the north east, North west and Wales turned blue. It was all about ending deadlock with Brexit- even people that voted to remain and had enough.

But Brexit is done now, what else can the tories offer to previous Labour safe seats?

Labour do however need to up their game if they have any chance of getting into government and so far Starmer has been pretty poor.

Also remember lots of retired people live in the south east. Tory voters.
Why would they care about workers rights being taken away ? I don’t mean that in a nasty way, I’m just saying.The Tories try to appeal to the older voters because that’s who predominantly vote.
The south east of England is very much a conservative safe region.

The entire Tory party s damaged by it.

Some won’t care - will have to see what the polls do

The gaps closing maybe it will reverse or not

@Sporty2022 brexit most certainly isn't "done" in Northern Ireland!!

I pay a shedload of tax and am excited by tax cuts. Love Liz Truss.

Not a big fan of either, but Truss appeals more due to her foreign policy stance.

I don’t pay too much attention to opinion polls. What do they really mean anyway? It’s not like there’s an election coming up.
Dont get too excited about the Tories going down in opinion polls.

The thread is about Liz Truss- and I’m terrified of her taking away workers rights and making industrial action illegal.

Truss is totally bonkers, she looks and acts like someone who is heavily medicated, like the lights are on but no one is home. I can foresee a Truss inspired poll tax riots mk2. I'm not sure that even the core (30% of) tory voters would want her in the job for long.

If Sunak had a touch of the evils about him he should turn down any poison chalice job Truss may give him and join Johnson sniping from the back benches and when he's bored of that resign his seat at an opportune time as revenge for losing and "trolling" his wife. That said he has a 20k majority but why would he care he is as rich as Croesus?

It’s not something I particularly care about as I agree they change - although I believe pp put them up and I said the same. They change.

It’s numbers at time of GE that count more than polls today.

You do know she's just the puppet, put in there to do the bidding of the ERG and the others pulling the strings, right? And they seem to want nothing more than complete destruction of the countries and islands formerly known as the United Kingdom.

We all need to start thinking local and buckle up for a seriously bumpy road ahead. Central government doesn't give a monkey's about the rest of us, whatever colour tie or pussycat bow they wear.

If you mean by foreign policy stance re Russia/China then there is bipartisan agreement on that and besides, we will do whatever the US wants us to do. That's the deal, orwell it would be but if Trump wins the next US election who knows? The last possible date the UK could have one is Jan 25 2025 and the US president will be decided on November 2024. If Trump decides to run then I'm sadly confident he could win again but that's for another thread.

I love JOE they are particularly good on politics. They have put all the mental Truss vids into one glorious compilation.

I am not convinced. Rishi very carefully avoids the topic, and even when asked, goes on about sanctions and how it wasn't just him but a collective decision by all EU and US finance ministers or equivalent. Very skillfully avoids direct questions on defence.

She used to be very good - her she is as a teenage anti-monarchist Lib Dem student apparently Paddy Pantsdown (I've truly forgotten his real name must be age creeping up on me) - oh remembered now Ashdown - tore a strip off her behind the scenes. !

How has it come to this?

inconceivable that someone so manifestly incompetent is going to be the next prime minister - and at a time of such peril. Putin must be very pleased.

She was President of Oxford University Liberal Democrats - so when John Major was PM.

Something must have happened to her

Putin chucking some money and his troll farm at the Brexit vote and Trump's election has turned out to be a very wise investment indeed sadly though his destabilisation efforts and the fact that his oligarch's got a free run for many years emboldened him to invade Ukraine.

Hasn't this been said about a lot of leaders though? That Boris would become more moderate, that Trump was only trying to win over his base etc etc.

She's showing you who she is. Believe her. The NI Protocol nonsense alone would be enough to make Truss a no go for me, but like everyone else in Ireland, we'll just have to live with the consequences of whatever inept eejit is voted in next.

Boris had the pandemic to cover up his tracks and the outcomes of his policies. She will be staring down the barrel of an unprecedented economic cataclysm with policy bombs blowing up all over the place. May God have mercy upon her soul for she knows not what she does.

If she has any sense her cabinet would be the best possible picks for each position based on experience and talent and even consider the Lords and take the fury of the ERG on the chin. She won't of course and that and events, dear boy will be her undoing.

By then Kemi will be ready to take on
Starmer and the misfits that can’t identify 51% of the electorate - so yes I wound say bring it on.

We are very close to becoming a one party nation. It’s not good for democracy but where is the Labour talent, policy, dynamism and new ideas?! Nowhere to be seen - they are frantically trying to hold the party together which is just about to burst open into the public consciousness is that the Labour Party is splitting straight through the middle as we speak the affluent Islington moderates on one side and the Unions and working class on the other. A tinderbox that has been simmering away for years now is just about to blow sky high.