Rishi has absolutely lost it, hasn't he?

[noblegiraffe]

What with his random shite this week about scrapping a non-existent meat tax and an imaginary 7 bins, actually scrapping his own home insulation workforce that was only set up a few months ago, scrapping any useful bits of HS2 and now scrapping A-levels (which is so far removed from what is actually possible in schools right now that it's not even funny), what the fuck is he on?

He's just flailing around madly scrapping everything in case someone, somewhere might vote Tory over it.

And he was supposed to be the sensible replacement to Liz Truss.

I think we can agree that politicians of all colours for the past 25 years have been pretty useless and incompetent, and that we, as a country, just hasn't moved on nor developed for a generation at least. That's very sad. What's even more sad, is that I can't see any improvement for the next decade or so given the poor standard of the politicians (of all parties) hoping to be in power for the foreseeable future.

We will descend into a dictatorship. It's inevitable. It's just a question of are we at the "in 50 years" stage, or "in 5 years" stage, or "in 100 years" stage.

By the time Romans realised and offed Caesar, it was too late. They then spent 300 years dreaming about the return of the Republic.

The shape of the earth is changing. Or rather, the lines drawn upon it. And whether we deign to notice or not, it will be like ignoring the weather. It will still rain, it will still blow and you can only stand there wondering why it's wet and windy.

Or Lee Anderson.

He's not even returning the land to nature, but it's being sold to building developers as we speak.

@ilovesooty oh yes indeed- MP for my place of birth-!!

Are we back to the Prime Minister can only be expected to be responsible for the pot plants and not what he says?

Why is it that headteachers are responsible for concrete in their schools that they know nothing about, but the Prime Minister isn't responsible even for what he says?

Remember Truss and Kwarteng who not only failed to consult the ONS before they bankrupted the country but also fired Tom Scholar, the most fiscally competent civil servant in the country? And Javid resigning as Chancellor because they tried to foist Cummings’ advisors on him? Sunak, of course, accepted them.

Sunak got no bounce from his conference and instead the press are going through the remnants for the extreme stuff again and the HS2 announcement which was so wrong it's absurd.

The Tories are now properly UKIP. If you close your eyes and hear them speak it is all UKIP, EU bad, foreigners bad, migrants bad, ECHR bad.

People won't vote for that as a majority. Froot loops will, but not a majority.

I fucking hope not but I'm not so sure.

The pro-car, anti-trans, scared of small boats package has a lot of appeal, unfortunately

I reckon that cohort of loonies is firmly conservative already. It is not a majority.

Where did that nutty UKIP vote go? It's in the Tory party now. It's having a dance with Priti Patel.

Reform UK

Reform vote is tiny. It's all in the Tory party. The conference was very revealing, because they had to start doing all the pro UKIP stuff, migrants, hate the EU, scrap the ECHR.

UKIP was never that huge either

Any Tory with morals and a conscience would have trusted - and known - that the grassroots tories (the decent one nation ones that used to be members of the Tory party) would never in a million years been remotely swayed by a disgusting far right loon tunes party like UKIP.

However as someone who had no morals and less of a conscience, David "porky" Cameron didn't trust his own party and this is where we are.

And it's not Godwinning it to remind everyone that the Nazis were a minority party in 1933.

As for HS2 when Labour wanted it everyone I know was moaning how its a waste money and the North esp on here were moaning they don't need it but want better links between northern towns like Leeds to Manchester etc

All the Northern Mayors, including the Tory one wanted HS2.

So now he has scrapped what ppl were moaning about and saying its better to spend the money on better links between northern towns the moaning starts again

You d have a point if the money was going to spent on better rail links in the North but it wont be, down South in sunny Devon, we ve just been told that Tavistock and Cullompton will both get new rail links, costing 100s of millions... of course they wont happen either, by the time planning etc has happened we are looking 10 or 15 years away and that £36bn will be long gone.... all spent on £2 bus fares!

Sunak won't be held accountable for his conference speech promises... he'll safely tucked up in California.

@BIossomtoes I think the idea of selling flip flops with Sir Keir Starmer's face on them is pretty shoddy, then to hold them up for a "laugh" - it is pathetic and disrespectful. I don't know why this has bothered and annoyed me so much but it really has!

All the Northern Mayors, including the Tory one wanted HS2.

I would argue (in fact I am) that was when the original intent was to provide a much faster connection that would actually make it worth using a fucking train. Not when it was kneecapped to shave five minutes off the journey at 300% the price.

I have frequently driven from Birmingham to London in much less than the time it would have taken to use the train. And it goes without saying at a fraction the price.

Advisers and civil servant prepare what the PM or the relevant minister wants. If they have a PM who has made it very clear indeed that s/he is not going to put up with stupidities like this, they don't do it. The problem of course is that under Johnson they had someone to whom the truth was a total stranger, and who reckoned that he could bluster his way out of anything if he got found out. After a year it is looking pretty clear to them (and indeed the rest of us) that Sunak's not too bothered about the truth either.

Given that the railway line already goes through Cullompton, also Wellington, it is bizarre they don't have stations.
Reinstating a line to Tavistock is much more complicated, since the old line is a cycle path, has other buildings on it, the bridges will need renewing and so on.

DuncinToffee
Sunak's maths is up to scratch as usual
Sunak’s “Plan For Drivers” claimed that 42% of all parking fines are successfully appealed
the actual figure? 0.24%

Sunak isn't even mentioned in the FT extract you've linked to. The article quite clearly states that the error was spotted in a document produced by the Department for Transport. It wasn't really a maths error either - more a typo;

After the Financial Times pointed out the error, the transport department on Friday changed the document to make clear that 42.8% per cent of drivers who appealed were successful.

If Labour win the next election they will inherit the same sloppy civil servants - who were probably educated in the Blair years, vote Liberal Democrat and 'work from home'.

It was interesting in work today, eavesdropping on our group of early 20s petrol heads discussing Sunaks performance. They weren't impressed with any of it. I was impressed by how engaged they were with politics and the high standard of their discussion.

Does Rishi have members of his cabinet being photographed with supporters of Hamas.

Let's all check.

Whilst we're at it let's see if members of the shadow cabinet have done this.

Probably not. Starmer is such a fantastic PM in waiting - never flip flops, deputy chancellor right on the ball with the importance of inflation, knows what a woman is - he'd have to be a total incompetent to allow it.

Let's all vote for him.

But with all these excellent qualities Rishi cannot catch up. It is mysterious

It really is a mystery, why everyone is being so beastly to Rishi. All he wants to do is make his inlaws richer proud.

The only poll that counts is the GE.

Let's see what happens.

Starmer is one of the greatest UK statesmen of all time, so I'm sure he'll storm it.

If anyone thought not there'd be a threat rubbishing Rishi.

Oh, wait ... there is. Wonder why.