Tories 3 Labour 0

[ex-khobar Andy]

I predict Suella Braverman for PM and I also predict she will be out by Christmas.

[Gob]

Assuming you pay attention to details, you might recall that a very clear majority of our voting population chose a very capable woman for president in 2016.

AKA "We've never had a woman president."

[Gob]

[BoSoxGal]

Assuming you pay attention to details, you might recall that a very clear majority of our voting population chose a very capable woman for president in 2016.

AKA "We've never had a woman president."

I actually had a rather pleasant drive to work so thank you for making sure more junior high intellect was present in my day.

[Gob]

[BoSoxGal]

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -liz-truss

[ex-khobar Andy]

Interesting piece in today's Atlantic, by an American expatriate in London. Brian Klaas is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, and a global-politics professor at University College London. From the piece:

Paradoxically, Truss’s downfall shows that British democracy is still working. Polarization is so toxic in the U.S. that Trump never dipped below about 35 percent approval, no matter what he did. Truss, who was incompetent but far less dangerous, saw her approval ratings flirt with single digits before she was forced out. Her political party and political base turned on her.

. . . .

Despite all that, [thousands of lies, repeatedly praising Putin etc etc] Trump’s approval rating barely budged. At his highest, Trump commanded the support of 49 percent of the American electorate. At his lowest, he still had 34 percent on his side. Given that polls have a margin of error of a few percentage points, Trump’s real overall approval rating likely stayed within a band of about 10 percentage points during his entire presidency.

Truss, for all her incompetence, was far from the malicious authoritarianism of Trump. She tried to usher in tax cuts for the very wealthy and her plans led to mortgage payments rising for millions, but she didn’t encourage a violent mob to descend on 10 Downing Street, praise racists and dictators, or get people killed with unhinged medical advice. And yet, the only YouGov poll taken during her time in office saw her with the support of just 11 percent of the electorate, whereas 44 percent of voters backed her political party in the last general election.

[Gob]

Boris will be back, you mark my words.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Boris will be back, you mark my words.

Somehow memories are short. BoJo had to resign because of the sheer number of scandals and (local and national) election losses. There were all the party-gate things - i.e., ignoring the COVID induced lockdown from which most of the country suffered - recall the Queen on her own at Philip's funeral - and the ministerial resignations and the Deputy Chief Whip who was bothering men against their wishes (there's a joke there but I'm not sure I'm in a mood to attempt it) and other things I cannot now recall. To bring him back now would be an admission that the Tories have zero competent MPs. (Actually of course that is true but it's not something they should be wearing on their sleeves.)

I rather think that Gob might be right and that is horrific. And it's no less likely than the return of TFG in 2024.

[Sue U]

[BoSoxGal]

A Brit pundit on Morning Joe described what’s happening as a dog returning to its vomit.

[Gob]

p07hr5g3.jpg (13.91 KiB) Viewed 1144 times

[Gob]

Currying favour?

[BoSoxGal]

Oh my goodness! I’m so glad of heart that I assembled the ingredients and am making a lovely curry tomorrow.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Looks as if Johnson, the phenomenally wealthy Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt are the front runners to replace the hapless Truss.

One piece in the Guardian had this to say:

He [Boris Johnson], more than anyone else, more even than herself, is culpable for the catastrophe of the Truss premiership. Dominic Cummings was the first to advance the idea that Mr Johnson backed her, and told his acolytes to do the same, in the belief that she would self-destruct, opening the door for him to return. Many thought that theory too outlandish; I didn’t. That’s exactly how his utterly cynical, absolutely selfish mind works, though I doubt he anticipated she’d blow up quite as rapidly as she did.

Were I as cynical as Johnson, I would wish for him to be reinstalled as PM. Nothing will bring about the death of the Conservative party for a generation more quickly. Tory members should look up Kim Campbell before voting. Luckily I am not and I want the Tories to succeed - there is no getting away from the fact that we still have nearly three years of this government to go.

[BoSoxGal]

[Econoline]

Jonathan Pie has been thoughtfully pondering the latest developments—in his usual careful and sensitive manner, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIh7XJVxCAY

[ex-khobar Andy]

I see Boris has dropped out of the leadership race which probably hands the premiership to Rishi Sunak who is widely seen as sensible sort of chap.

I can't help thinking that Boris's dropping out is really - this is such a fucking mess that Rishi can have it. Twelve years of Tory rule - including Brexit of course - have resulted in the present disaster which is the British economy. Sunak probably has the balls to improve things a bit but not to the point of everyone basking in sunshine and eating grapes. So Boris will wait in the wings as the once and future king and be ready to take over a functioning economy in a year or two. He's still only 58 so plenty of miles left in the tyres includng of course the spare.

[BoSoxGal]

Under the headline “Rishi set for No 10 as Boris bows out” the Daily Mail writes that “The former prime minister insisted he had the backers to make the ballot paper and could win a vote among party members. But he said this would simply not be the right thing to do.”

The paper also carries a comment piece that says, “For the good of the party and the country, Mr Johnson set his dream aside. This is a gesture of wisdom, honour and statesmanship. His time will come again.”

[Big RR]

Well it is the Daily Mail.