The banker loving, baby-eating Tory party thread (regenerated)

[Chindie]

And there's still a couple of months left of the year, might get to more than 1 a year at this rate.

[Genie]

Just now, Chindie said:

And there's still a couple of months left of the year, might get to more than 1 a year at this rate.

Brexit still the massive elephant in the room, and always will be. 

 

[trekka]

 

[The Fun Factory]

1 hour ago, AshVilla said:

Like we all knew that Truss would be a car crash.

But did anyone expect her to do this badly.

Mistake after mistake, U-turn after u-turn.

She is massively out of her depth.

She reminds me of a guy at one of my previous jobs. He was brought in at a fairly senior level and by all accounts was utterly clueless. He used to just wonder around a bit in all of the offices. He then left rather abruptly when they realised they made a terrible choice in hiring him.

[bickster]

1 hour ago, ml1dch said:

Just to recap, Sunak was still Chancellor in July, and we've had three more since then.

I think I've probably still got socks somewhere that I haven't washed in that time frame.

@Stevo985is that you?

[Straggler]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

Brexit still the massive elephant in the room, and always will be. 

 

Stunning isn't it.

"We want a high growth economy."

"But Brexit knocked 4% off GDP and is the biggest single impediment to growth."

"Not that sort of growth."

Not that growth is even the answer.  You can't grow forever on a finite planet.  It is the elephant in the room that the Brexit elephant is standing on.

[blandy]

 

[ml1dch]

6 minutes ago, Straggler said:

Stunning isn't it.

"We want a high growth economy."

"But Brexit knocked 4% off GDP and is the biggest single impediment to growth."

"Not that sort of growth."

Then again, it's not just that specifically. The emboldened bit could apply to loads of things that would help growth but are just unpalatable to Tory vermin.

Legalisation and taxation of cannabis would bring in billions in revenue and create a whole new industry.

Allowing asylum seekers to work while claims were processed would save money in handouts and fill labour shortages in crucial industries, as well as being a humane and decent thing to do.

Weirdly I've not heard them suggested in Tory circles as helpful measures. 

Edited October 14, 2022 by ml1dch

[Panto_Villan]

9 minutes ago, Straggler said:

Stunning isn't it.

"We want a high growth economy."

"But Brexit knocked 4% off GDP and is the biggest single impediment to growth."

"Not that sort of growth."

Not that growth is even the answer.  You can't grow forever on a finite planet.  It is the elephant in the room that the Brexit elephant is standing on.

You can grow on a finite planet through productivity growth. You invent a combine harvester so harvesting wheat takes 1 man instead of 100. Then 99 people are free to do other things to improve society, and food gets cheaper for everyone, etc.

Simplified example but “growth = bad” is equally simplistic. Making work more productive is always a worthwhile goal imo.

[ml1dch]

17 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

You invent a combine harvester so harvesting wheat takes 1 man instead of 100. Then 99 people are free to do other things to improve society, and food gets cheaper for everyone, etc.

But it's then a fine line between "99 people are free to do other things" and "99 people no longer earn any money to buy any cheaper food with".

That's a balancing act which is very difficult to get right.

[Panto_Villan]

Just now, ml1dch said:

But it's then a fine line between "99 people are free to do other things" and "99 people no longer earn any money to buy any cheaper food with".

That's a balancing act which is very difficult to get right.

Well, not really. The increased efficiency is a definite benefit to society. Same with better education or healthcare.

The point of politics is to determine how those benefits are spread. If that population votes to give all the benefits to one person and let the others starve to death, that’s a problem with politics rather than a problem with increased efficiency.

[a m ole]

lol

[theboyangel]

 

[blandy]

I’ve just read an editorial or opinion piece on my iPad, in the news app. It’s originally from The Times and it’s brutal. extracts below:

https://apple.news/A5ojaZ72QRiOGaMy5jdPyRg

Quote

How Liz Truss’s robotic speech failed to calm nerves — our writers’ verdicts

October 14 2022, The Times

As a hack covering politics down the years, I’ve sat through some terrible press conferences. There have been leaders who malfunctioned under fire, imploding by-election candidates and once, during the devolution referendum in Scotland in 1997, a man with a walrus moustache who lit a pipe mid-answer. But that televised press conference from the prime minister is one of the worst of the genre it has ever been my misfortune to watch.

…Not only were her worried MPs watching, the viewing public will have wanted some indication that the prime minister grasps the scale of events, empathises with the country and can restore confidence.

That was not the impression that came across. This was a strange, unsettling, robotic performance. …

Only four questions were allowed from the press pack. There was incredulity when she failed to answer any of them properly.

…it is difficult to see how the PM survives.

she sounded like she was making a resignation speech justifying her actions during 38 days in power, 29 days longer than Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days Queen…
Lord Saatchi, Margaret Thatcher’s advertising guru, always said the Tories could win if they were competent and cruel, rather than incompetent and caring. Now they look chaotic and callous. ….It’s almost comical but it’s not — it’s our billions the Bank of England has been risking to prop up the gilt market, our money we’re spending on higher mortgage rates and on higher food prices. It’s our international humiliation as well as her embarrassment. So, while I almost feel sorry for Truss, I can’t. As for the Tory party, they have shown themselves to be incapable of choosing the next prime minister. The country should now be allowed to make the decision.

Robotic, hesitant, tone-deaf, defiant and still utterly convinced of the purity and necessity of her mission, Liz Truss killed off her political career in a matter of minutes. Her only tiny chance of survival lay in convincing markets, MPs and voters that she now understood the devastating effect of her uncosted fantasy plans, that she had withdrawn them, and that a new seriousness would underpin everything the government undertook from now on.

Instead, it was “very clear” — to repeat one of her favourite phrases — that she had learnt nothing, understood nothing, regretted nothing about her trashing of Britain’s economy and reputation except for the small matter of the timing of her proposals. …her swift defenestration of her friend and co-conspirator Kwasi Kwarteng demonstrated only her political brutality and underlined her lack of judgment.

She was terrified of the questioning that followed her painfully thin, brief speech…

What does she believe in? Markets. Stability. Growth. And how is that going, we wonder? The markets’ verdict on her mission has already been brutal; the FTSE sank another 100 points after she spoke today. Stability? Tell that to every home and business owner petrified by the sudden soaring in the price of mortgages and loans. Growth? The economy is shrinking as we watch.

The shock is that it’s Tory members, the traditional believers in caution, in a reverence for institutions, in evolutionary not revolutionary change, who have chosen and imposed this intellectually limited, awkwardly arrogant and socially stunted politician on the rest of us, with disastrous consequences. The party must recognise its responsibility and replace her with someone of intelligence and sense, very fast.

 

 

[trekka]

2 minutes ago, theboyangel said:

 

That is fantastic.  Just needed an "Oh boy". 

[MCU]

6 minutes ago, a m ole said:

lol

Where's the puking reaction?

[DCJonah]

25 minutes ago, blandy said:

I’ve just read an editorial or opinion piece on my iPad, in the news app. It’s originally from The Times and it’s brutal. extracts below:

https://apple.news/A5ojaZ72QRiOGaMy5jdPyRg

 

I was genuinely stunned listening to it. 

It was so bad. 

[DCJonah]

29 minutes ago, a m ole said:

lol

It's hilarious how the right wing media have made themselves look foolish, first with Boris and now Truss. Wonder if their readers will ever care enough to stop reading.

[It's Your Round]

25 minutes ago, blandy said:

As for the Tory party, they have shown themselves to be incapable of choosing the next prime minister. The country should now be allowed to make the decision.

[ml1dch]

3 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

It's hilarious how the right wing media have made themselves look foolish, first with Boris and now Truss. Wonder if their readers will ever care enough to stop reading.

Go back three years before Johnson became Prime Minister as well.