The Bid for Leadership Race....

[happy daze john in oz]

In emergency times as was the case during the Pandemic all manner of odd things occur, maybe not correct at the time but those doing so think it is the best way.

Our state premier thought what he was doing was correct, but no, though he pleaded he could not remember what he did, saying it was up to others!!!!!

But as is the case with ALL politicians it is them first, then them second and if a bit left over it goes to their mates.
The public get what is left, bugger all.

[happy daze john in oz]

Given the various crises besetting the UK, the seemingly inevitable passing of power from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss calls to mind that old political saying: out of the frying pan, into the heat death of the universe. The progression between the previous three prime ministers has shown us the timeline can always get worse. The country is basically trapped in that scene in Toy Story 3 where the toys escape the shredder only to find themselves heading towards the incinerator. Unfortunately, the grabber claw is not going to save us.

You may keep hearing Truss supporters say: “You underestimate Liz at your peril.” But the UK is already in grave peril, so … I’ll take that bet. Presumably I’ll be permitted to collect on it in a couple of years, if not in cash, then certainly in some form of subsistence bartering in District 11 of the sunlit uplands.

For now, Truss maintains the remorselessly upbeat demeanour of a holiday rep who regards herself as the life and soul of the booze cruise, and whose lower back is tattooed with the Chinese symbols for “Only depressing people get depressed”. The overwhelming vibe you get from her campaign appearances is that she is going to make destitution fun for people. The logic puts me in mind of the Depression-era dancehall marathons epitomised in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, where desperate competitors are given the opportunity to twirl, then lurch, then stagger their way out of poverty. Or to death – whichever comes sooner.

The fact that Liz will take over a country whose own sewage is literally lapping at its shores feels too on the nose – an image so hammily overdone it could have been crafted by recidivist newspaper columnist Boris Johnson. Which, in a more literal way, I suppose it was. We’re both the sick man of Europe and the dirty protest of Europe. Johnson – who wouldn’t dream of swimming in his own excrement, either literally or metaphorically – is currently on his second foreign holiday in a fortnight, displacing whole hogsheads of the Aegean in the cause of not giving a toss about what happens to the country he let down in the way he has always let everyone down in the end. Back home, consumer confidence has just hit a record low. One expert in charge of monitoring it declared on Thursday: “These findings point to a sense of capitulation, of financial events moving far beyond the control of ordinary people.”

Does anyone truly believe they will be within the control of Liz Truss, whose weathervaning and largely underachieving career thus far has marked her out as a very ordinary politician indeed? Her political philosophy appears to consist of only two immutable tenets: that tax cuts are the answer to everything, and that British workers are incredibly lazy.

Despite being a message somewhat questionably suited to the times, this has apparently caused a twitch in the phantom loins of the 0.42% of British voters who will be deciding the next prime minister. With just the two weeks left to run in a leadership contest that has been going on since sometime in the early Mesozoic period, Truss remains an absolute mine of withheld information. She tells every Tory member hustings all about her “day one” tax cuts, but precisely nothing about how the state will be shrunk to pay for them. Hers is a campaign in which reality is treated like a non-member at the club, whose unauthorised incursion into the 19th hole will be put down with putters and sand wedges, pour encourager les autres.


Liz Truss refuses to answer whether Brits work hard enough
Still, it’ll be interesting watching Liz try to give a pep talk to gravity. It emerged on Thursday that the Office for Budget Responsibility is to update its forecast of Britain’s public finances next month, stating that government borrowing will increase as a result of high inflation and a widely predicted recession. This halves the £30bn of fiscal headroom that Truss claims will pay for her tax cuts, which leaves us officially in yawning black – hole territory.

Related: Thatcherism is an obsolete ideology – but it’s the only one that Sunak and Truss have | Andy Beckett

Of course, we’ve spent a lot of this leadership context hearing from Liz that a recession is not even inevitable. So just assume that she’ll take the keys to No 10, like the idealistic heroine in a horror movie who buys her dream fixer-upper in Upstate Somewhere, and has barely got her whitewash out before a series of terrifyingly grotesque and inexplicable events begin to unfold.

You might be wondering how much worse our standard of government could actually get, given that we ceded control of the country to a newspaper columnist for almost three years. And in many ways you’d be right. It’s actually quite difficult to find people who are more wrong on a regular basis than newspaper columnists – but it’s possible that economists do edge it. Patrick Minford certainly does.

The Cardiff university professor so admired by Truss is one of Britain’s leading wrong people – tough field – having forecast such fantasies as Brexit boosting Britain’s GDP by almost 7% and significantly reducing consumer prices for British people, to say nothing of his giving the zealot’s shrug over the potential self-imposed destruction of the country’s car industry. “These things happen as evolution takes place in your economy,” Minford breezed to a parliamentary committee back in 2012. As for who’ll be joining Patrick in executive Loon Town, there are persistent rumours that Truss plans to exhume Iain Duncan Smith and John Redwood to give them operational roles.

So that’s the lie of the land, two weeks out from an expected Truss premiership. There will be those of you feeling pessimism is the rational response, and it’s hard to disagree. I think we used to produce hope, but as part of some efficiency drive or other we have run down the industry and allowed other nations to corner the market in it. Ah well. As Team Liz will soon be explaining: these things happen.

[vic mcclymont]

To portray the UK as the dirty man of Europe is unfair and completely wrong and is based on headlines from ill informed UK newspapers.
Other EU countries pump raw sewerage at times into the oceans.
The Seine in France is used as an open sewer.
Spain pumps sewerage into the seas near holiday beaches.
Is the Cardiff professor a remoaner? I would bet yes.
The car industry was doing well after Brexit.
The UK was doing well, but then came the gas crisis and that has affected every European country not just the UK.
John, be careful off what you read regarding the UK, the remoaners have never forgiven those that voted to leave the EU and will do everything in their power to discredit the land of their birth.
Vic

[j.sabourn]

The whole problem if there is one is politics themselves , I am no physcologist and doubt even one of those would be hard put to figure out how their minds work. To me they are only ordinary people some may have more talent in certain spheres than others , the reason they choose a political life is of the most interest , I would think it is mainly for the craving for power and recognition , followed by the ample remuneration which will give them a money free lifestyle. All this guff about wanting to serve their country I take with a pinch of salt. If they want to scratch and claw their way to what they consider is the tops , let them. I for one consider them in their true light as just ordinary people with the ordinary faults and making the same errors as we all make. They are not Gods and will not be treated as such by most , in fact I consider a lot of them as having low morals and doing a job that a 12 year old could do. They deserve each other. And still think Boris would have lasted a bit longer if he had got a proper haircut. JS....

[thomas michael]

hi john #302
good morning, well where does one stop biting at the bit and get back to a even keel,( on this one, ) Im afraid that there is no sensible answer that can be given, as this country has been f##### over time and time again by both the labour party and the conservatives, and since the signing of the zero emissions by blairs and then browns incompetent goverment and carried through by the conservatives until the present day no change of office be it labour or conservative will change the outcome one iota. It will only change if we get rid of both of them.as The agenda for the future is set by them both and it will run accordingly.
tom
UK 082033

[thomas michael]

hi john sabourn #304
good morning, i watched a intresting piece with tony abbot ex premier of australia talking to nigel farage on GB news and he spoke in the same terms as yourself regarding individual politicians and their quest to get to the top of the pile, without any qualifications other than a university back ground.
tom
UK 082033

[cappy]

Michael we have whingers and carpers constantly complaining ..what we need is some bloody doers who will the dump the wishy washy cradle to grave policies of both parties ....instead of handouts for this that or any other bloody thing let folk stand up for themselves instead of wasting so much of our assets on bludgers and losers ....constantly now is the cry ...i cannot keep warm ...jeez it has been the hottest three months on record ...iam hungary cos i need to keep warm ...the spirit that once ruled in this country has gone .....we are watered down by the whingers and workshy and thousands working and not even on the nations records.....the attitude well im all right jack was once the unions warcry ......well feckit its my warcry now.....im allright so feckemall ..R683532

[thomas michael]

HI CAPPY #307
good morning , did you ever see that excellent film butch cassidy and the sundance kid, paul newman and robert redford, well if you did then you would remember that at the end when they faced imminent death they chose to jump like men over the cliff into the river hundreds of feet below, Not that they knew they where going to die, but that it was a slim chance of living, Well sadly whats happening all around us is the population that has been spoon fed on handouts since they where born and are now content with changing sex in the middle of a sentence, with no moral back bone or compaass or the will to do anything for themselves are walking drugged like lemmons to edge of the cliff because they are being indoctrinated with the new religeon of the green agenda, and they are prepared to follow that trail, because they have no need to think or do anything that might tax or upset their cosy fairy story life fed to them by the liberal left maxists,
tom
UK082033

[Graham Shaw]

Just to inform members,that though I am still following this thread with interest ( after all I started it !),I will no longer be contributing towards it.
This is because certain member(s) took 'offence'-believe it or not-at one of my replies to a comment of theirs .This occurred over a week ago, resulting in a vexatious complaint(s)to Admin,resulting in a warning to me from the same,which I shall respect,of course.

I shall choose,therefore in future ,to sit at one of the quieter messroom tables,where Politics is not being discussed.....

Graham

I'd like to ask for no Replies to my comment please,as we do not want the whole thread Closed !

[j.sabourn]

#305. Hi Thomas I try not to champ at the bit and let them get on with what they are going to do in any case, they are a necessary thing that we have to have to our way of life and thinking , and hope they have enough common sense to do the least damage possible whilst in power. It is up to them that countries go to war for , they are a power to themselves whether good or bad, and most of them don’t have a very good record up to now. The only way to stop them is when their tour of duty finishes , is about the only advantage we have over different types of governments , those who can’t change their governments are in a worse state than us , so be thankful for small mercies , it gives us a slight working edge at present only. As well as the degree they also have the gift of the gab , an essential part for any politician. I’m pleased none of them got to pat the head of my kids . Cheers JS