Liz Truss has resigned. Part 4: The Desolation of Boris

[sunnydaytoday0]

Continuation from last thread, for those of us following all the action on Monday.

And yes I'm a LOTR fan, so tried to continue the theme in the thread title 😉

I just cringe at Starmer’s jokes but I can see that Labour supporters might not.

Still better than his Love Island era whatever that painful period was.

If Labour are smart they will paint him as a disconnected Fauntleroy figure, and brand him as the cornerstone of every mistake made by his colleagues.

Politics is not a fair game, you have to play the man and the ball.

I’m sorry about your DS, derxa. Sunak was also in favour of lockdowns too (now he says he want, but at the time they were happening, he was). A Tory is a nickname for a Conservative.

Will be interesting to see how much of a Sunak bounce there is and if the tories improve from their near extinction level polling.

A Tory is a nickname for a Conservative. I was speaking in jest. They're just people like you and me with hopes and fears. No baby is born a 'Tory'. It's not a genetic variation.
Thanks for your concern about DS. He's not a child but he couldn't get out and socialise. It almost did his head in and only just recovering. There must be millions like him.

I think they bounced off each other well and it was nice to see a lively, engaged debate even if Sunak didn't give much away. He's following the BJ tactic of repeating taglines for now but he'll find his own style. Starmer will need to dig a little deeper in weeks to come, BJ and Truss were easy targets for personal digs (and crap dad jokes) and with his background I'm sure he'll enjoy doing some proper debating rather than the weekly panto performance.

I think that's fair. Do people in general care about PMQs? I think they want their bills to fall.

I doubt many people notice PMQs. Tbf I didn’t until I listened to programme I mentioned below, however it’s entertaining.

What they do do is deliver lines to the media, which get picked up and some stick with the public so they might end up in focus groups later on and form part of overall view on a leader.

But its true, the Star run the lettuce thing and even humble little me predicted Truss wouldn't last 30 days following her budget which cost 100s of '000s of people considerable amounts of money & has dramatically increased govt borrowing costs - Sunak lost to her, thats fact.

The Tories cannot escape responsibility for this inconvenient truth, they foisted Truss and Kwarteng on us all - yet now we have a PM who thanked her for her public service! FGS!

@derxa I don't think many people do care, no. COL no doubt the priority for most of us whether we are engaged with politics or not.

You’d say that whatever he was like.

I’m sorry about your DS, derxa. Sunak was also in favour of lockdowns too (now he says he want, but at the time they were happening, he was).

Yes, I've no objection at all to criticism of Labour MPs for their positions on lockdown and restrictions. That's absolutely fine. But Sunak is one of the people who was ultimately responsible for it. He held the second most powerful office in the country throughout the entirety of the period of restrictions. He had a point in that article in the Spectator a few weeks back when he said the financial costs weren't really discussed, but it's a bit much coming from someone who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.

Sunak will keep the ban on fracking.

Which is strange as 7 days ago he voted against a motion to ban it..

It may surprise you to learn that the function of the Opposition Leader at PMQs is not to provide entertainment.

derxa · Today 12:58

"Not really. He's as dull as ditch water"

It's just become a right wing soundbite.

Sunak U-turn #1 (and counting…)

Why does he make jokes about lettuces then?

Dull is the new cool in politics on both sides. Gove has apologised in advance to media as dull is what we'll be getting with this new government apparently!

Anyone's entitled to make jokes. The point is, fairly obviously, that the measure of whether an opposition leader does well at PMQs is not whether he was entertaining or otherwise..

I don’t mind dull. Although I didn’t find it that dull considering who was in PMQs

Politicians getting on with it is fine.

I hope that it’ll be fought out over policy and vision rather than personal wealth of spouse with some racism on top though.

I thought the lettuce gag was pretty good! Labour are in it to win it, just like the Conservatives. Starmer is obviously going to keep playing the rich, disconnected and not elected line, so Sunak will have to get a comeback or prove himself.

I agree. They should take a leaf out of the Scottish parliament's book. Everyone sits or stands at a bench and faces the front. Not this pantomime

But you’re all Labour voters? Bar Derxa iirc

It comes down to the middle ground voters who switch, not if you are Labour supporter already.

I don’t care about rich or Asian (and it grates when people push this as it’s trying to provoke racism), they can try and do that elitist line but it’s petty.

Obviously they have a lot of ground to catch up so it may not be possible.

Gosh it's almost as if PMQs has an element of theatre....

Gove is doing the script for PMQs. I'm sure Sunak will have something to respond as necessary.

Yours, the savaged dead sheep of Captain Hindsight

"They should take a leaf out of the Scottish parliament's book. "

Yes please. I'd love to see a redesigned House of Commons intended to foster a bit of collegiate thinking. The current theatre/panto isn't really working or at least encourages a certain form of debate.
In amongst the talentless there are some excellent minds working across Parliament (I'm just not convinced we get to hear from them often enough!).