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.

Shall we discuss eat out to help out?

@Mountaineer0009 I think it's a bit naive to think it's just because he's a 'nice bloke' and was doing everyone a favour. - virtually all of the major European countries had similar kind of arrangements because otherwise it would have been total pandemonium with regards to the benefits situation and sheer volume of businesses going bust - of all sizes. As it was it was very tough shit for very many self employed - and whilst it was easier to 'get' some help - it was in the form of loans - not given to you- those like us who were genuine are still paying these back - £169 a month- problem was the government (and banks) did next to no due diligence and many companies that were in trouble but had been going a fair bit of time , took the money and ran and went bust anyway.

And they called Remainers "hysterical"

Our mate Phil did a deep dive on polling as reported by national news sources, and was mightily amused that if you were to merely take Daily Mail readers as the electorate, the Tories still won't win the next election.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12613559/Keir-Starmer-Labour-conference-10-YEARS-Downing-Street-power-election.html

Worryingly for the Tories, their standing has actually gone backwards since Rishi Sunak wrapped up their conference last week.

We're calling "Second Wave Sunak" kicking off another wave of covid with EOTHO as a win now are we?

Covid numbers were so low that many commentators had declared the covid pandemic to be "over".

Then Sunak spent nigh on a £billion on Eat Out To Help Out and all our sacrifices were wasted.

More people in the U.K. died of covid in the second wave than in the first.

What went wrong in Germany then? They 'only' had 10,000 deaths from COVID during the first wave.

I think you need to research how different countries counted covid deaths! There was no consensus, so countries like the UK counted covid deaths as "deaths with covid" whereas other countries counted them as "deaths due to covid". Very big difference. Lots of people in the UK were already in hospital when they caught covid, so when they died, it went down as a covid death, even if they'd have died anyway from whatever they were in hospital for! You simply can't compare one country against another.

Did you mis the bit about how he excluded 3 million self employed and freelancers from the covid support schemes? Did you miss how he lied about the excluded in Parliament and misled the House of Commons about it?

Did you miss the stupidly insane eat out to help out scheme that caused the second wave?

He did nothing that most over developed countries did too. All Western economies did very similar, except most others didn't deliberately chose to exclude 3 million and most managed to avoid spunking billions on giving grants/loans to fraudsters and criminals!

That weird conspiracy theory imaginary meat tax conference was almost designed to shed the last few sane voters I would imagine.

Even before Penny Mordaunt got going.

My friend says HS2 is the last straw for her. She says it's an admission that we're no longer a proper country who can do things properly and it's too embarrassing to be allowed to continue. She likes Rachel Reeves.

DuncinToffee
So are you saying that Sunak just reads out what "liberal democrat voting Blair educated sloppy wfh civil servants' put in front of him wihout questions or checks?

Not in the FT extract you provided - Sunak isn't mentioned. You just blindly reposted a comment from some random on Twitter/X.

Passepartoute
Middle ranking and senior civil servants in place now were educated in the Thatcher years

My comment was tongue-in-cheek anyway, but someone aged 37 now would have started school in 91/92 (Major) - therefore their secondary school education was under Blair. Rachel Reeves left the Bank of England aged only 27 - apparently we are meant to believe she was helping to run the place.

Did you mis the bit about how he excluded 3 million self employed and freelancers from the covid support schemes?

Tories have always hated the self employed. With a passion that borders on religious.

You know all about blindly reposting....

I alos wouldn't call Jim Pickard a random poster on X/Twitter

And are you saying that Sunak has nothing to do with a government plan, even if he announces it?

The trouble with the self employed is that some of them do not know their place. It is fine if a plumber is poor and just about gets by, but as soon as plumber earns more than a doctor or bank manager because the plumber is good at their job and works hard that is a problem.

And are you saying that Sunak has nothing to do with a government plan, even if he announces it?

Remember: the current narrative is that this is a new government. Freshly non-elected and tasked with sorting out the unbelievable clusterfuck of the past 13 years. Out of that we get the logical conclusion that no Tory is responsible for anything. Ever.

Luckily they will soon be relieved of the non-burden of ruling and free to tell us all how much better they do it from opposition.

I have this image of a bewildered child Rishi sat in Number 10 Downing Street, playing with a toy cash till as civil servants rush around discussing all kinds of policies that go above his head.

He did think he was in Nothingham yesterday.

user1497207191
Did you miss the bit about how he excluded 3 million self employed and freelancers from the covid support schemes?

I don't believe the figure is that high - I know at least one person nominally included in that figure who received funding via his shop premises (x4) instead - he was very happy with the business support he received. Several others I know are mums who had recently started small businesses from home - they couldn't claim, however they both have husbands with well-paying jobs and they spent far less on holidays, commuting and going out than they would normally have done so they saved money as a family overall. Also, I wonder how many short-stay EU citizens were registered as self-employed - who then went back to their home countries during COVID.

I remember someone representing the 'excluded 3 million' group phoning in to LBC when Rachel Reeves was on the show - she didn't answer the question put to her and didn't seem interested in championing their complaint.

Did you miss the stupidly insane eat out to help out scheme that caused the second wave?

Everyone I know thought eat out to help out was great - we all chose our restaurants and pubs sensibly and ate outside.

Why did France have a second wave before we did?

DuncinToffee
I alos wouldn't call Jim Pickard a random poster on X/Twitter

Fair point.

Everyone I know thought eat out to help out was great - we all chose our restaurants and pubs sensibly and ate outside.

Oh it was wonderful. We ate out twice as often during that time as we would otherwise, and spent the same amount. Selfishly why wouldn't you?

But the point of government policy shouldn't be to pay for me to have a nice meal out, it should be to look after and improve the country, which Eat out To catch covid clearly did not do.

jgw1
But the point of government policy shouldn't be to pay for me to have a nice meal out, it should be to look after and improve the country, which Eat out To catch covid clearly did not do

I disagree - I thought it was a much needed morale booster at the time, particularly for ds1 who was waiting to start university. Not to mention that my immediate area has been enhanced with a legacy of attractive outside dining options.

The very first thing that covid smashed for six was any concessions for accessibility. And they were already sub optimal.

So not "everybody" could enjoy EOTHO.

@Clavinova

I remember someone representing the 'excluded 3 million' group phoning in to LBC when Rachel Reeves was on the show - she didn't answer the question put to her and didn't seem interested in championing their complaint.

She was also really poor in the HOC too, as was Starmer, re the 3 million excluded. I don't think either of them actually bothered to try to understand why and how 3 million were excluded. They could have really capitalised on Rishi's cock-ups, but couldn't be bothered, so both came across very weak both in the HOC and in the media. There was only a couple of MPs who actually understood the problem, who tried a couple of times to raise it in the HOC but Rishi just lied and shot them down.

This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level."

The official pricing details for the Bibby Stockholm barge have been released.

It would have been a greater morale boost if schools had been allowed to open instead and children get on with catching up on their missing learning.

Speaking of morale boosts, any word on why it was necessary for a 56 year old man to have a birthday party, whilst he denied that opportunity to millions of children?

And you still had to pay half the price of the meal. That's fine for me, middle class, middle income spare cash to eat out. Did nothing to help my neighbours on a lower income though. And really did I need to go out for two meals a week instead of one?

You are mistaken, Rishi did not lie. Rishi is not responsible for what he says.