Sunak isn't a very good politician

[Itllfalloff]

YABU - he's great, I love him
YANBU - only an absolute IDIOT of a PM would have left the D-DAY remembrance early

It’s true^
He was elected MP
because he’s got money, he also has good memory and speaks good, it’s not natural it’s the skill he learned at his school. When he speaks It looks like he is doing a task at a lesson and he is doing it very very well. He is also from minority so another positive tick. Then he came into position of premiership a bit by accident. But he is not clever politically and he is disconnected from real life that’s why he’s done so many small mistakes which are really telling.

I mean it’s hardly surprising- before entering politics Sunak was privately educated, went to Oxford and had worked at Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund, plus marrying a billionaire heiress who’s a former tax non-dom, whereas Starmer had been the Director of Public Prosecutions. On a basic level you have to respect that to even want to do that, let alone do it decently there is some desire to serve the public rather than just get your hands by any means necessary on more money than you can spaff away in tax havens.

By his own admission I don’t think Sunak knew anyone working class when he was in his teens, and I strongly suspect that won’t have changed. So making gaffe after gaffe when he’s being asked to show respect, empathy and be truthful to the plebs is hardly going to be his forte.

He’s one of the least shit Tories, and head and shoulders above Boris or Truss.

@AmpleFatball this is the best backhanded compliment that I have heard for some time- may we all aspire to be better than a woman who was outlasted by a salad item and the best known philandering liar in modern history!

I must say, Boris wouldn't have been stupid enough to leave a D Day commemoration early. While I will hear a great many things against Boris Johnson, failure to take an opportunity to schmooze world leaders and get photos with Zelenskyy is not one of them.

Re: the election announcement debacle. I listened to a very good episode of the Tortoise Slow Newscast about what's gone on the last few weeks.

It said they refused to hold it indoors because they are historically made outside No 10 and wouldn't deviate from that; and he refused an umbrella in case it made him look out of touch making someone hold it for him. Ha! Ha! And that was just the beginning of a comically incompetent campaign.

Jesus, that’s a low bar!

Is it because he’s always had servants to hold an umbrella for him, the poor lamb doesn’t know how to hold one?

"Sunak isn't a very good politician" - in some ways that could be seen as a compliment.

Oh he wouldn't have left. He'd have been in his element hob nobbing with heads of state. No way would he have passed that up.

Yes. He's a terrible human being and he was a terrible PM, but he had great political skills.

It's getting so bad I can no longer tell who is being serious & who is being sarcastic!!

I don't understand the decision to leave the D Day event. It's beyond stupid.

I get they might not be even trying to win against Labour at this point but I would have thought they'd be focused on not haemorrhaging votes to Reform as some sort of damage limitation.

Their own base voting Reform potentially will change this election from merely a disastrous loss to an extinction event. It's this base that are likely to find his D Day snub offensive.

I can only think it's a set up of some sort because how was there nobody who pointed out leaving was dreadful optics from so many angles?

I'm actually starting to feel (very very slightly) sorry for some of the conservative MPs that will lose their jobs due to Sunak's stupidity.
Our Conservative MP is an OK-person. I wasn't originally convinced when they were parachuted in by Tory HQ, but they have turned out OK.
However, Sunak said about 18 months ago (I paraphrase) "I want everybody who isn't standing at the next election to tell me now." Surprisingly a load of MPs said they were going to jump ship. They knew that the Tories were in trouble and therefore lined up other jobs to go to. Our MP (sensible, gets things done) is one of them: the Private Sector's gain is Politics' loss.
Why on earth did Sunak think that it was a good idea to force the issue like that? He should be promising plum positions, not encouraging capable MPs to leave! He has no political nous.

He'd have been the very last one to leave. Probably still be there now working the photo opps with the locals!

I think this is rather strategic of the Tories tbh. They know they don't have a hope in hell of winning with Rishi at the helm - he'd not win a general election full stop so they needed to get him out one way or another. That he wasn't suitably advised he shouldn't leave Normandy is really no accident. Everyone knows that's something of a giant faux pas where the electorate or the type of people who you need on your side to get a win are concerned. I don't particularly think one way or another about his leaving early but I can see how this has been blown into such fanfare because it was just such a huge misstep.

He could have held the umbrella himself.

Then again he can't pay for his own fuel....

Showed his true self- not bothered about the veterans feelings or the other leaders who had the decency to stay. Also, the way he spoke over Liz Truss in the leadership contest and over Keir Starmer earlier this week showed the real person. I think the more we see of him the more the mask is slipping and those very elderly gentleman have more decency than he can ever have. It was a stupid decision politically but not surprising given he didn't have the moral courage to act when those endless parties were happening in number 10 during lockdowns and he was in number 11. My dad died from covid - 15 people at his funeral, not able to be with him, I see this lot and hope,finally, they will be voted out.

@ilovesooty

He could avoided making a tit of himself with most of those things if he'd done his homework and employed a modicum of common sense.

Can't say I disagree with this. From the very beginning, making PR stunts when first MP to now leaving D day commemorations early. What was he thinking? 🌹

He's just useless. Morally repugnant, arrogant, self-serving, and an absolute fool on top of it all.

Is Sunak’s exit being stage managed, by his friends or enemies? The repeated gaffes are now giving that impression. It’s becoming so cartoon-like, it’s looking scripted. The Lib Dem’s boat was not a coincidence. And I can’t believe that none of Sunak’s handlers anticipated the D-day backlash. It’s as if somebody (possibly Sunak himself) is trying to make damn sure he’s not back in.

This with bells on. Terrible politician who hasn’t a clue. Being prime minister is all about checking the box and feeding his (small man) ego.

Don't know why he even became a politician. He's got no political skills or awareness.

He was in the right place at the right time to move up quick in the Tories after the brain drain post-2016 - Sunak was a Brexit supporter and all the remainers were chucked out the party. That's how you got no marks like Hancock as Health Sec and Sunak as chancellor in a pandemic because there was nobody competent left. But furlough (which any chancellor would have had to bring in) got him enough popularity to be able to run for leader. Although eat out to help out was a disaster and another one of his dozy ideas.

Johnson was terrible, and always going to be terrible, but for whatever reason a lot of people liked him. Truss and Sunak have nothing going for them at all.

Some at least advised him properly. Cameron is reported in The Times as saying he tried to get through to him but being unable to change his mind. There is really no hope for a PM hasn't got the sense to listen to his Foreign Secretary who is a former PM who was at the 70th anniversary D Day celebrations.

He still sounds grumpy even while apologising. And he somehow thinks it's an excuse that this was planned some time ago. Surely that makes it worse?

Starmer is never going to make the massive series of gaffes that Johnson did, so I can't seriously see it arising.