To be starting to really worry about Liz Truss

[Anothernamechangeplease]

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?

@Justanotherlurker from your link ....

However, Ms Stone noted that the “breaches were minor and/or inadvertent and that there was no deliberate attempt to mislead”.

NEXT

Single issue politics isn't my thing, personally.
I find it quite troubling that some people will vote in incompetence, stupidity and cruelty, simply based on their candidate giving the answer they want to 'what is a woman'

This. They have a significant proportion of their non-white MPs in higher positions than Labour, even if Labour have nominally more in the party.

And they've had two female PMs. Labour? Zero.

If you want a laugh, look at how diverse the SNP is and how little flak they get over that.

Apparently, according to "Our Liz" Nicola Sturgeon is an attention seeker. Some photos from her taxpayer-funded official photographer for the FCDO. Boris had 3. They really are taking the piss.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-accused-vanity-over-23444593

for those saying people wont vote labour of lib dem at the next election didn't take note of the 3 latest by-elections. The two lib dem ones specifically were not just protest votes against the governing party but well past that with the amount they overhauled.

Lib Dems winning tory seats where labour don't stand a chance helps Labour overall as it reduces the gap between the parties. Labour don't need everyone to vote for them to get a majority, albeit i would expect we would end up with a hung parliament with labour being the largest party.

will be interesting to see then if they follow the same principle of Gordon Brown or if they try and form a coalition first

Well, it's going to be Sunak or Truss; Conservatives won the last national election and will be there until the next one. And these two are the coin that Con MPs have given the membership to toss. I don't see much in it, although I will give Truss credit for being one of the very few Western European politicans not to pander to Putin.

What's really needed is for both Conservatives AND Labour to lose the next election spectacularly, so both parties can reset and get rid of their mediocre leaders. Can't happen, of course. Labour have to figure out how to outright WIN, if not a majority then at least more seats than the Conservatives so they can attempt a coalition or minority government. It's the only way.

For now, I'm just waiting to see if Trussunak is going to be goaded into calling an early election in spite of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act being gone, so we can enjoy yet another round of the popular political theatre production "Scotland's Mandate".

I'm watching the Kay Burley debate - she's absolutely terrible confronted time and again with her screening u-turns or promises (1 million homes for under 40s on Green Belt 2019 ) but not now. She doesn't even address the substance of her thinking - assuming there is any. At least Rishi is uber clever and has mastered his brief even though he's forced to chuck red meat to the Tory dinosaur member voters.

To cap it all now calls for a sleaze enquiry for not declaring her Fizz with Liz £3000 funded schmoozing of Tory MPs at an exclusive private members club last October.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liz-truss-fizz-champagne-dinner-donations-investigation-b2138193.html

Liz Truss was at the same school and at the same time as the aunt and mother of a friend of me - it was not a rubbish school - she is lying

History of the school here:
www.roundhayschool.org.uk/our-school/history/

In the early 1970s Roundhay School shared the premises with Allerton Grange School after high luminous cement was found at Allerton Grange: Roundhay School 8-1pm and Allerton Grange 1-6pm.
During the early 1980s pupils suffered a good deal of disruption due to the presence of asbestos in the buildings. Many pupils attended school on alternate days only.
January 1990 Roundhay's headmaster died unexpectedly.
1992 Roundhay converted to an 11-18 school (previously 13-18) - Years 7, 8 & 9 pupils as well as many re-deployed middle & high school teachers all arrived on 1st September 1992.
HMI visited in 1995 and rated the school 'satisfactory'.

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/what-happened-when-i-met-liz-truss-shows-she-lacks-the-character-to-be-prime-minister/

I found her rudeness breathtaking and her eagerness to take credit for the work of others disconcerting

Liz Truss does not have what it takes to be prime minister, and Liz Truss is going to be prime minister. Those are two things I heard Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart agree on in their The Rest Is Politics podcast the other day. It was a discussion that reminded me forcibly of my own limited but very illuminating experience of dealing with Truss.

As we have seen with Boris Johnson – to his detriment – character ultimately does matter in any position of leadership. What happened the only time Liz Truss and I were in close proximity makes me worry about hers.

One way would be to reduce subsidies to employers, by compelling them to pay their employees a proper living wage. This would eliminate the majority of universal benefit top ups to people working full time, who find themselves still unable to earn a living wage

Maybe this needs to be looked at strategically depending on the industry.

You can't 'compel' businesses to do anything. They will simply stop investing and close.

I find it quite troubling that some people will vote in incompetence, stupidity and cruelty, simply based on their candidate giving the answer they want to 'what is a woman'

It's much more than that, though.

A leader (and party, for that matter) must be able to stand up to pressure and be able to say 'NO'. Enough is enough. The inability to do this denotes weakness, and this is not a time when we can afford as a nation to have frail individuals at the top.

Yes education was disrupted due to issues with the building but she talks as if it was a failing school which it definitely was not.

Liz Truss is 47. By my estimate, that probably means that she started at the school you refer to in around 1988. So I'm not sure why you think disruption in the 1970s or early 1980s would have affected her in any way?

Yes, the school apparently expanded and there were some new teachers arriving in her last year, but I doubt that would have had a major impact on LT who would have been in the upper sixth at the time. And while a headteacher dying suddenly is very sad for any school, this happened at my old school and it didn't impact on the continuity of our education in any way.

So I'm not quite sure what point you're making here? Maybe the school was good, or maybe it wasn't. I'd be more inclined to believe what has been said by another pupil who was there at the time than I would judge it by what was going on years before LT even started at the school.

So while its quite understandable to be fearful now, you have to remember shes playing for the hardline vote.

I remember people making the same reassuring noises about Boris Johnson and Brexit. Rule number one - when people show you who they are - believe them

Yes, indeed.

And Liz Truss is a glaring example of someone who demonstrably failed to say no, enough is enough, in the face of Boris's flagrant rule breaking, repeated lies and failures of judgment. I totally agree that this shows weakness and an unfitness to lead that we simply cannot tolerate at the moment.

Much of the Tory party is guilty of failing to say no as well, so perhaps it's time for a general election?

Yes, her policies are batshit but does she actually have the willpower and efficiency to carry them out?

Based on her current performance and the really crap set of circumstances coming her way, I think she will spend most of her time in the top job reacting.

Yes, her policies are batshit but does she actually have the willpower and efficiency to carry them out?

Based on her current performance and the really crap set of circumstances coming her way, I think she will spend most of her time in the top job reacting.

I totally agree that this shows weakness and an unfitness to lead that we simply cannot tolerate at the moment

Who do you think would be suitable then Anothernamechangeplease?

I remember people making the same reassuring noises about Boris Johnson and Brexit

Well, Boris perhaps made mistakes but he certainly wasn't wet. He did deliver

I find the idea of Truss as PM hugely distressing. The primary reason being that she is an absolute idiot and scarily unequipped for the job. I say that as someone who was at Oxford at the exact same time as Truss and can confirm it’s no guarantee of intelligence. Lavrov ran rings around her in the FO. The idea that she is our country’s next leader is laughable.

He delivered lies and chaos!

I don't think either of the current candidates are suitable for such high office, but I would pick Rishi over Liz any day.

As for who else, I would love to see someone like Yvette Cooper in charge. She is immensely capable, has bags of integrity and is a great communicator.

Can't say I'm a big fan of Keir Starmer at all, but he would certainly be better than either of the candidates currently on offer. Not that that's saying much...

YANBU. She is appalling, but I am beginning to find Sunak pretty chilling too with his eagerness to extend Prevent and his praise of the Rwanda scheme.
It’s not misogynistic at all to call her out. We want a pm who will be intelligent - Truss thought that barking dogs would deter drones. We want a PM with integrity - she drops any principles in the name of advancement. She defended Johnson when she should not have done. She dashes around to get her photo taken in Thatcher poses, which is wasteful and embarrassing. She pretends she has not said what she did say.
she is appalling, but so is Sunak. And it speaks volumes about the Tory party members that they are both getting more and more extreme in order to court their votes.

The tory party supported the war - all of them bar one, Ken Clarke. There was far more opposition from Labour. So even on that measure if makes no sense to say we should feel lucky not to have a Labour government now.

Yanbu. We need a Labour government. The Tories are finished. Truss will strip the last vestages of decency from our country. Terrifying times.