Breaking news: Liz Truss is the next PM

[ErmagerdtheQuern]

God help us all.

Labour should take this opportunity to elect a new leader too.

I think a lot of us think Labour should have been taking stock long ago and with such dismal governance should have led in polls well before now.

Now they are doing better in the polls I think they have even less incentive to make any changes including their leader.

I do think their chances are looking up in next general election more because Troy's situation - but nothing is certain and does depend on events.

Now they are doing better in the polls I think they have even less incentive to make any changes including their leader.

If it ain’t broke, why fix it? I’m getting really tired of the constant talking down of Starmer. He’s intelligent and articulate, has built an excellent front bench and is so far avoiding all the traps that have been set for him. The Labour Party is showing fiscal responsibility with all its policies costed. Why change any of that?

@Blossomtoes exactly. Part of the Tory plan is to let they are all the same there's no point in voting be a dominant theme to weaponise their silverbacks to go out and vote in self-interest. That said Sir Keir is so boring (actually heard that said to my friend's 84-year-old mum when I was visiting by a canvasser) doesn't work when you have taken the Clown-in-Chief out of the equation.

The ERG coup is finally over - Boris was got rid of because he couldn't be trusted not to shit all over the place. Let the looting begin at pace now.

twitter.com/bmay/status/1567229706231062530

The last thing Labour need is another leader election and uncertainty. While the tories are all stabbing each other in the back and squabbling, Labour need to look like the adults in the room. If they would just drop the ID politics and concentrate on the bigger issues

If it ain’t broke, why fix it? I’m getting really tired of the constant talking down of Starmer. He’s intelligent and articulate, has built an excellent front bench and is so far avoiding all the traps that have been set for him. The Labour Party is showing fiscal responsibility with all its policies costed. Why change any of that

Maybe he's getting constantly talked down because others don't share your view. I don't see him as a credible leader of the country and for that reason would not vote Labour while he was leader. The party is shambolic.

He may be intelligent but he does seem to lack conviction , clear policies

He doesn't want to rock boats or upset anyone

He wasn't very visible in the covid crisis - he only seemed to push for anything once the public opinion was clear

Lol at suggesting Labour should have a leadership contest at its most stable period for 7 years. Because if there's one thing voters love its internal division.

His policies are clear enough for the Tories to keep stealing them @midgetastic.

I am not sure they have stolen anything

The policies I have seen actually happening don't seem to be labour policies to me

@midgetastic

For your info:

freezing energy bills which Liz is going to announce tomorrow is Labour's policy (except they would fund it through a windfall tax on energy companies instead of borrowing and asking the British people to pay).

Rishi Sunak's previous energy company windfall tax was also a Labour policy which they bagged on about for 2 months until Tories took it.

Beat me to it @83DanishMum!

'freezing energy bills which Liz is going to announce tomorrow is Labour's policy'

Honestly. There is a crisis, freezing bills is the only solution. Just because the Conservatives hadn't announced anything due to the ridiculous leadership contest does not mean they hadn't thought of it sooner.

Then why was there no mention of it in the leadership contest or from the PM himself? If it was always going to be the only solution why was it not talked about whilst the public was practically crying out for any plan from the party in power?

It's still quite depressing to hear that some people will still be voting Tory.

Truss lied at PMQT today and did the classic Tory thing by saying that if we tax too much then we won't get any foreign investment citing France as an example. France have had more foreign investment than the UK (or any European country) for 4 years running I believe.

We are completely screwed by Brexit, no one wants to invest here and immediately face trade barriers with our nearest neighbours. Not to mention that no overseas investors will want to invest in a collapsing domestic economy in the first place.

Has anyone seen the value of the pound today? It's absolute trash and at its lowest levels since 1984 (£1 now gets you $1.14). Based on this alone the future is very bleak as you can usually gauge a countries economic health by the value of a currency .

As a few posters have said in previous posts unless we ditch FPTP sooner rather than later then the country really will go to the dogs and lurch further to the right both in terms of living standards, public services and future. Obviously Brexit is not going to get overturned anytime soon but at least FPTP will see an end to the short term, tribal and lack of strategic governance.

I still despair reading people talking about government spending, covid debt, tax, etc as though it's the same as a household credit card bill. George Osbourne and David Cameron gaslighting a large proportion of the nation into thinking like this really hasn't helped Labour's cause and is just another Eton schoolboy lie to get working people into voting against their own self interest.

Sorry for the incoherent rant, just despairing about the current state of the nation at the moment and the fact that the Tories haven't been finished off after the past 12 years.

There is a crisis, freezing bills is the only solution.

A crisis they apparently didn't anticipate 10 weeks ago (even though all the warnings were there - even I knew about it!)
A leadership election which should have been truncated so that the Government would get on with doing what they are paid to do.
A solution which they didn't dare mention at hustings in case somebody thought that it might be a handout.
And a method of repaying which pushes everything back on to the tax payer.

@sally037 that's why I want a hung Parliament with a strong Lib Dem showing that can ram through PR in a pact, and kill the SNP separatism as there will no longer be Westminster Tory governing hegemony and destroy the Tories as governing party. I'm probably deluded (no I am) but that's my political dream, anyway. The Tories will steam ahead with gerrymandering the electoral process with voter id, boundary changes and the like.

@vera99 That's my hope too! My dream is that the price for Ed Davey to hand the keys to Kier Starmer for Downing Street is full Electoral Reform and rejoining the Single market.

Ideally for that I think you'd need Labour to get around 300 seats with Lib Dems propping them up with 50ish seats.

Probably wishful thinking though.

The fact that the whole summer of impending disaster was squandered in policy terms, resulting in such public anxiety because Johnson refused to go but then went on endless holidays and refused to govern is something the electorate really should find hard to forgive. It showed utter contempt for the public and the idea of responsibility. But that 30% seems untouchable.

It's still quite depressing to hear that some people will still be voting Tory.

Some people will always vote Tory.

However many like me would like to vote Labour or some left leaning party but currently don't think they look great options.

I'm in Wales - 20+ years of Labour governance with an increasingly ideological government who don't seem to listen to anyone and services that often seem to be in a worse state than across boarder all influence my skepticism.

I can also still think Tory UK government is shit - just not sure Labour one in Wales is all that either.

Weren't the Lib Dems the first to call for energy prices to be frozen?

So the policy is the same but different?

Er... Truss literally said she wouldn't do "handouts". She said her only action to tackle the crisis was going to be tax cuts.

Tax cuts are handouts.

Indeed. The difference being that the Tories are going to borrow and get us into even more debt to fund it, while Labour would tax the energy companies’ £170 billion profits. Which makes the most sense to you?