Bloody hell, we are being governed by an idiot

[GreenLunchBox]

Well, I knew that already, but every day she shocks me with the heights her deluded self-confidence goes to

Liz Truss had to be convinced to issue statement amid market turmoil after mini-budget

news.sky.com/story/liz-truss-had-to-be-convinced-to-issue-govt-statement-to-calm-markets-after-meeting-with-chancellor-12706352

Yes. And turns out they didn't need to kill, what was it.. 150,000 extra people with there Tory austerity after all.

And yet people will still vote for them.

There's a poll going around somewhere showing 45% voting intention for Labour at the next election vs 28% Conservative. Great, until you think -

The super-rich who will benefit from this are not anywhere near 28% of the population. They're more like 1%. EVEN older retired middle class confirmed Tories are unlikely to benefit much because they're very unlikely to pay 45% income tax when they're retired. Their state pensions will eventually be affected by the scale of government debt, and if they have children those children's societal futures, employment prosepcts and ability to live on a habitable planet will be fucked.

Which means a good quarter of the electorate are so absolutely irretrievably brain dead that EVEN THIS isn't enough to make them put down the Tory Kool Aid. And that number will swell again when, going into the next election, they inevitably start a war or whatever.

signed

Do you actually think that that's all he was guilty of? A few parties? Very worrying that you are probably quite representative of the wider electorate. Which is why we keep getting lumbered with these incompetents.

The problem with Labour is that they don't choose a leader well. They choose people who lack charisma, who lack charm, who lack inspiring ideas and who bore people to death. The importance of an inspiring leader is not to be underestimated

@Heswipedright

Choosing a leader based on appeal to the sort of people who think of politics as a form of entertainment, or prefer catchy soundbites and slogans to solid and well-thought out policies is a recipe for ending up with someone like Donald Trump.

Can you enlighten me as to what he did do?

One thing he did not do was destroy the economy and reputation of the UK!!!!

The 'problem' with democracy is that people are elected by the people. Are you suggesting that only an elite few educated classes should get a vote?

Politics is a mixture of economics, policy, diplomacy and marketing. It is by the people and for the people (or it should be). Politicians should be representative of the general populace.

The 'problem' with democracy is that people are elected by the people. Are you suggesting that only an elite few educated classes should get a vote?
Politics is a mixture of economics, policy, diplomacy and marketing. It is by the people and for the people (or it should be). Politicians should be representative of the general populace.

It is only in the very recent past in the UK and US that some politicians have decided to run a race to the bottom. Democracy did very well for many decades following the introduction of universal suffrage, featuring politicians who did not pander to ignorance, prejudice, or short little attention spans. Literate speeches contained reasoned arguments and were not dumbed down.

Unfortunately, thanks to a recent massive change in culture and the rise of social media manipulation in a country where the tabloids have a disproportionate influence on popular thought, the FPTP system encourages pandering to mob mentality. Elections become a popularity contest. Political discourse is backward looking and instead of reasoned argument we are treated to dog whistles. Proportional representation results in a wider range of elected parliamentarians in each multi-member constituency, and a more nuanced expression of the popular will.

But we repeatedly vote in Oxbridge graduates...... It's a case of baffling us with bullshit.

I think a lot of British people are somehow in awe of Oxford or Cambridge and presume (wrongly) that anyone who went there must be clever at the very least.

There is a disproportionate amount of cabinet who have gone to one or the other of those institutions. What they 'read' (they don't study things at Oxford - they fucking read) is usually not remotely applicable to the real world. It's like a farm for future Tories! Ridiculous institutions imo.

Now watch as they slash government spending even further. They will destroy this society completely. There was a thread the other day that said they will aim to take away the right to paid leave. Everyone said that was crazy and they’d never dare. I now think they absolutely would. They are completely unhinged.

If they want to cut government spending, they could start with the spending they all directly benefit from.

Like the subsidised restaurant and bar, the £4000 hairdresser fees or even the tendancy to dump proper process and hand big government contracts to mates and family.

But your initial point was about labour leaders boring public, to who pp replied.
Now you are arguing of pp thinks only elite should get elected. Labour leaders are less elite than your favourite Boris Johnson and other Tory leaders.

Boris Johnson is the same politician who was irresponsible enough to dismiss pandameic on TV and said he shook hands with patients with corona virus, despite warnings from Italy, took too long to take any actions, didn't listen to experts, and thanks to him UK had the highest per capita covid fatalities, not to mention lies about benefits of Brexit.
BoJo was as bad as Liz Truss, they both don't care about UK and its people. They care for their position, own ambition of being at the top.
Donald Trump said the same things about Joe Boden, calling him boring, sleepy Joe. But under 'boring' Joe US was able to turnaround pandemic situation and also economy. Sometimes boring, sincere people are the best leaders, let's not have this unreasonable demand on politicians to entertain us. We have TV and movies for that

The problem with Labour is that they don't choose a leader well. They choose people who lack charisma, who lack charm, who lack inspiring ideas and who bore people to death. The importance of an inspiring leader is not to be underestimated

Totally agree, and it IS important in this day and age, and not shallow.

Blair was the first Labour leader to take advice on this, and he won 3 landslides.

However, at the moment, Starmers ‘boringness’ is appealing. He’s steady. And this is what the country needs.

Do you by any chance remember the business with Paterson, school meals, failure to order PPE, care home deaths, lying to the queen? We reached a point where no-one seriously believed a word he said unless it was verified elsewhere. How is that compatible with being Prime Minister?

And how about a little matter of putting a known sex pest in a position where he could molest junior staff members and MPs, then acting far too slowly when he duly molested some, then sending ministers out to tell a series of inconsistent lies about it? Do you remember him getting into a position where an unprecedentedly high number of ministers and office holders refused to work with him because they couldn't trust him?

There was also the illegal prorogueing of parliament and kicking every moderate Tory out of the party. But yes, Johnson was a model of exemplary politics. 🙄

It is strategic incompetence. I think they know exactly what they are doing. It is a controlled demolition of people's wealth. It's funny how some people have benefitted massively from this and they all seem closely linked to them.

Did anyone else hear Chris Philp on R4 Today this morning?
Mishal H did her best, but he very confidently talked absolute bollocks at 100 miles an hour, defending the indefensible with lies and more lies. He's dangerous.

I'm lost for fucking words I really am.

Boris did not get kicked out for holding a few parties FFS. He quite famously became the first serving PM to be found guilty of breaking the law, get fined and still keep his job. The list of things which Boris (and other Tory MPs) did that would have been a resigning matter a decade ago is as long as your arm.

Truss appears to be trying to see whether crashing the global economy can be added to that list.

The less said about the handling of the pandemic the better, but the second late lockdown after the first one was unforgiveable. And that ruined Christmas of 2020 was IMHO a direct result of lifting the restrictions too early in the November/ early December.

Protests are unproductive. The billions in borrowing has already screwed up prospects for the two generations ahead of me. It was initially justified (covid was unforeseeable) but the BOEs costly intervention this week was a different matter altogether. I suppose that the threat to pensions may be the only thing that brings the goldfish bowl Tories out of a coma.

As for Truss/Kwarteng being intelligent for being Oxbridge educated, I would say that in a typical class of twelve, you will find two geniuses, four good, four unremarkable and two dimwits. I think I know where Liz belongs 😉

Truss on Radio Lancs this morning re fracking: Graham Liver wiping the floor with her. When asked what 'local consent' for fracking means, lots of hesitation, unclear answers and when asked if she knows the areas where fracking is proposed (as in, knows the type of land that might qualify for fracking), she doesn't.

Truss on Radio Stoke this morning re mortgages going up: John Acres also wiping the floor with her. When asked about how her actions will cause a greater increase on mortgages than we got in savings on energy. Truss has no answer.

Truss on Radio Kent this morning re rising inflation: Anna Cookson. When Truss says she needed to act (tax cuts) to tackle inflation, Anna points out that inflation got a whole lot worse as soon as she did. No answer from Truss.

Truss on Radio Leeds this morning re the state of the markets. RimaAhmed asking her where she has been these last few days during a crisis. Truss has no answer.

Bristol, Norfolk both similarly bad interviews.

If she thought picking the local radios for her round of interviews this morning meant an easier time of it, she must be very disappointed.

She also said on almost all interviews that "no one will pay more than £2500 a year for their energy" which is so infuriatingly misleading.

He damaged the reputation of the UK by publicly stating he would breach a binding treaty with the EU - the Northern Ireland protocol. Something that is probably a factor in our inability to get a trade deal with the US.

I 100% would rather have him and I was not happy to see him go, but until Liz Truss arrived he was hands down the worst prime minister of my life time. Hats off to her for being so much worse so quickly.

She has rejected most invitations to speak publicly since she became PM because she puts her foot in it every single time. She is just awful. Rishi was laughing at her lack of understanding during the hustings (she was presumably parroting Kwazi's briefings). She does not even have the requisite skills or credibility to be a Graham Brady puppet or placeholder for Boris Round Two.

A bit of common sense here:

She was rejecting them before she became PM during the leadership contest, IIRC.

Seem to remember her avoiding the more ‘difficult’ interviewers. Sunak made a point of bringing it up.