Rishi is PM - coronation, unelected -GE Now

[MrsRobinsonsHandprints]

This is not democracy.

The Conservatives have clearly given up all hope on the next election - hence their indifference with party members, that is now written it off, so now they will do their worst in the next two years. I am a conservative, and I now feel very afraid of what is coming next. Sunak won't be thinking with his heart or his past experience of poverty which is non existent - he will be thinking purely through his spreadsheet.

The Tory party, the party that brought so many years of austerity - in complete disregard of the best advice and models from abroad - has a majority of 80 seats in Parliament.

Who is voting for all the austerity?
The shocking disregard for human dignity that the current incarnation of the welfare state involves?
The destruction of the NHS?
People who are thinking with their hearts and their past experience of poverty?

The Tories won 48 seats from other parties at the last GE, when they were led by a buffoon who apparently thought he had a fighting chance of returning to his lavishly decorated quarters this time round.

Lol, he even interrupted his nice holiday in the Dominican Republic to get back to care for the British poor...

Nonsense. Do you honestly believe that the Tory MPs all suddenly located their moral compasses when they started calling for BoJos resignation in Jul? No of course they didn’t. They knew that the tide had started to turn and self preservation kicked in

However, that opportunists swindled the government facilitation of the furlough scheme is on those swindlers - it's not the government's fault.

Well. Depends when we're talking about.

In March 2020, I have some sympathy for the government. A scheme where the state pays lots of people to stay at home and behave has to happen in order for the public to observe lockdown, and that was obvious. But as lockdown had never been part of our pandemic planning, there was no planning for furlough either and it genuinely did have to be cobbled together in a pretty short period of time. Even if you think it was clear which way the wind was blowing and they should've started earlier, that's still only an extra few weeks at most. Not long enough to make the furlough scheme anything other than very broad brush. So at the start, yes absolutely.

However... the scheme lasted a very long time. Didn't finally finish until September 2021. At some point between the implementation and the end, it becomes a choice not to address the flaws.

Local authorities worked during covid. Very few were furloughed. I know because I worked during covid for a local authority and it was horrendous. Our authority had adult care homes and were running about trying to get PPE and food packages to people as central government let them down. Staff were volunteering- on top of their day jobs - to deliver things. Yes they WFH because that was the guidance, although offices were still open and council staff kept going in.

The government has to take some fault because it should have fraud protections in place.

@Stars71 Gammon is racist😀 Well who knew!!
It’s the best description ever of a certain type of Tory. Whoever coined is a genius!

Our system works very well. Margaret Beckett (Labour) was just on Radio 4 supporting it, the advantages of first past the post etc. It works fine.

Proud to be a Tory while it’s others that suffer, as soon as it hits their doorstep they suddenly gain an objection

I would love Rishi to go back and investigate all the fraudulent covid applications. From small business to big business. That would solve our deficit, right there.

I don’t think the ship should have sailed on that. My husband is self employed and could have claimed a shedload of money. He didn’t because he is honest. Lots of people we know were not and so far it has been written off. I am very angry about that.

So your criticism of racism is a joke. No surprise there then. Hilarious when white people are the butt of racist jokes, according to you. Well who knew?

You voted for the party not a candidate, and he's promised to deliver what you voted for . . .

Rishi is the right person to do this Job now. If Keir took over I think we could all truly just say goodbye to this country.

I complained about it, and MNHQ saw fit to delete my posts about it as they were "triggering" to the banana-bread crew. I complained about it vociferously, and have been complaining about it ever since. It was so fucking obvious that we were going to have to pay for it down the line. But I suppose if you were paid to stay at home and sunbathe, you might have preferred not to think about it. You don't need to know anything much about economics to see this one coming.

Our system works very well. Margaret Beckett (Labour) was just on Radio 4 supporting it, the advantages of first past the post etc. It works fine.

Aye right, things are going swimmingly.

I don't think it's totally the case that the opposition viewpoint doesn't matter. At least not in terms of understanding why certain decisions were made.

It's often the case, and often really the ideal, that a ruling party will consider the standpoint of the opposition when formulating policy. Especially where it's not something that is a bill but just decision making in the face of a crises.

The fact is that the zeitgeist at the time was very pro-lockdown. And everyone was unsure about how serious it was, and maybe more importantly initially many people thought it would be short-lived.

No political party or PM has a huge appetite for doing something that the public don't want, that isn't what other countries are doing, and which the opposition is arguing against.

It was notable at the time the degree to which MN, and the media, and even medical experts, were wanting BJ to do more. Enough that he abandoned his original plan. There really was a kind of mass hysteria.

To the extent that Starmer was pushing that same narrative, rather than asking pointy questions about economics and civil liberties, he has some responsibility.

Was your job affected by the lock down?

Self preservation? By installing Sunak - how many red wallers or blue wallers will vote for a billionaire banker do you suppose? How many of Johnson 18M voters are going to vote for the guy that stabbed Johnson in the back and plunged the party into chaos? Do you actually think Sunak stands ANY chance whatsoever winning a GE? Especially after the cuts he is planning and implementing as we speak. It is for the birds.

Most people think it is a stitch up - and they are not wrong.

While he's at it, he could re-divert funds fraudulently claimed to all of those who fell between all the gaps and who had fuck all money coming in for over a year. Though it's too late for the people I know died by suicide during lockdown because they lost their businesses and their homes.

etopp I think I had similar deleted....I would have preferred a GE but Sunak having been a hawk is something.

I'll never forget the criticism he got for serving those Waga meals without a mask.

I repeat - only 4% of potentially eligible workers were furloughed. The vast majority worked through the lockdown period I worked throughout myself, but I don't resent people who were furloughed - if their business was closed, what choice did they have?

This is interesting actually.

www.scotsman.com/news/politics/who-is-akshata-murty-where-did-rishi-sunaks-wife-get-her-money-from-how-much-is-she-worth-and-what-do-her-parents-do-3891806

"Sunak's mother is an engineer, author and actor."

We all know about the Dad who has been listed as one of the 12 greatest entrepreneurs by Fortune magazine blah blah.

So Sunak's wife comes from a strong line of strong women. He also has 2 daughters who they keep out of the public eye. That is a good characteristic to have in my view. He didn't choose a trophy wife (though she is beautiful) and since they met at Stanford, they're both pretty intelligent and well educated. Also hard-working. They're good work ethics to have and good moral values to have too.

Her potential inheritance is always counted against Sunak, but his FIL isn't dead yet lol.

This is exactly what has happened. Brady and the rest of the 1922 committee have been working behind the scenes on this. But that is nothing new. The party Whip system pretty much ensures that the majority of MPs vote the whip and not based on their own views/consciousness or even based on the wants of their constituents

i don’t suppose we will ever know if BoJo reached the 100 supporters mark (I suspect not) but the Tories have decided that they need to stop the infighting and present a united front and have the single candidate for leader.

I want the Tories out yesterday and would be delighted if there were a GE called but Sunak being selected as Tory leader (especially considering the alternatives) is not a sign of lack of democracy

Yes it was. My entire sector was wiped out overnight and has still not recovered properly yet.

Well start bloody waving Berry because we are counting down unless something truly extraordinary and unlikely happens, conservative chances are now roughly what? 0 on a good day now.

Can you see the country getting behind any banker much less one that is so untrustworthy? So wealthy? So out of touch?

Nope! That is the short answer, particularly not in a time of real hardship and suffering.

I imagine Labour supporters will sleep well tonight.

It's so typically Tory to complain about having to pay back the furlough scheme, particularly if you didn't benefit from it. "It has to personally benefit me or I don't agree with it." It's so typically selfish. I bet there are far less Labour voters whingeing about paying back the furlough scheme, because many people (most that I know) don't vote Labour just for their own benefit and would actually be better off under conservatives.

I had to work throughout lockdowns. My husband was made redundant so received no furlough. I do not resent having to cover the scheme now, in the same way I don't resent covering people's benefits. Yes, people cheated the system and people cheat the benefit system - but it's there to protect the majority. People who weren't able to work due to lockdown had to live and have some money. Lockdown was necessary to save lives. Some of my colleagues who were furloughed did benefit even though I didn't personally.

You can't apply stats to individuals that way. Lots of people of 84 recovered from covid just fine.

But lots of elderly people who had it would not have. Many of them were in various kinds o institutions - typically, once someone enters such a place, he or she will be dead within two years. Because they are at that point failing. The final cause of death has a good chance of being something like a respiratory illness.

But looking at who is being affected is important to understanding how to weigh mitigation. So on the one hand many old people who would have been susceptible to respiratory infection no matter what. Now, on the end of mitigation we have kids with liver failure, teen depression, and middle aged people with stage 4 cancers.