Since Sunak announced I was serially reloading just waiting for him to put out the first video on it.
(His live shows are pretty great too, if you’re in the UK. Also Stewart Lee’s shows. I guess they don’t make it over to the US very often, so we’re better off as I got to see Alex Edelman and Lewis Black over here too.)
Silentbobsays
July 4th eh? Seems an auspicious day to oust a UK government. X-D
birgerjohanssonsays
In the first Sunak- Starmer debate The Lord Idiot made the claim that his accusations (that Labour would increase the taxes by 2000£ for each Briton) was calculated by independent civil servants.
This has since turned out to be -- can you guess it? -- a blatant lie, and it is all over media, including TV. Even tory voters who stick to tory newspapers will have heard it.
Remember, after 14 years no one of non-millionaire voters are better off.
Sunak has to hope voters will trust him to lead Britain to a better future. He has lied before and often, but this time he has been caught out in such a public way that eceryone can see how untrustworthy he is.
Britain does not have an analog of the Trump cult. Tory voters will remember.
xohjoh2nsays
@4:
The Lord Idiot made the claim that his accusations (that Labour would increase the taxes by 2000£ for each Briton) was calculated by independent civil servants.
If it had been, I’m not sure I understand why that wouldn’t have been a breach of purdah.
xohjoh2n@ 5
Here are the details.
“Sunak Trapped in His Own Lies”
sonofrojblakesays
It is no longer credible that Sunak is doing anything other than deliberately trying to lose.
Imagine calling a general election so the campaign overlaps with the 80th anniversary of D-day so you can do a good photo-op to appeal to the flag-shaggers… Then fucking it up.
He’s TRYING to lose. It’s the only explanation.
birgerjohanssonsays
For the benefit of Mericans: The Sunak left the D-day anniversary event early… not very respectful to the veterans the tories claim to respect.
But this is what Sunak and the other Boris- era leading tories are like.
Nobody expects them to be sincere, but they are expected to pretend to care in a convincing way.
Left the event early, just to go record a TV interview that’s not due to be shown until next week.
KGsays
Is it possible the Tories will, even now, cast Sunak out before the election? They could use this crass insult to D-Day veterans in their late nineties or older as the excuse.
sonofrojblakesays
No. Nobody apart from liz truss would be mind shatteringly stupid enough to want his job. And nobody apart from liz truss would be mind shatteringly stupid enough to think giving truss another go was a good idea.
John Moralessays
Nobody apart from liz truss would be mind shatteringly stupid enough to want his job.
Depends. There’s this thing called “the Public Duty Costs Allowance” (PDCA).
Incredibly, Sunak’s ability to lead the Tories even until polling day on 4 July – never mind beyond – is now being called into doubt by some on his own side.
Tory candidates and staff out campaigning this weekend to save their seats are beyond despair. One said on Friday: “If you had actually tried to pick an issue on which to upset my constituents, you could not have chosen a better one.”
On Friday morning, the former Tory special adviser Sam Freedman revealed how talk of replacing Sunak before the election was spreading among his friends and followers on X: “Had several messages this morning asking me if there’s any precedent, in any country, for a major party leader being replaced during a campaign. I can’t find one.”
The Tories probably wouldn’t have time to install a new leader before the election, even if they could find someone “mindshatteringly stupid enough” [h/t sonofrojblake] to take the job (which I wouldn’t altogether rule out -- these are Tories, remember, many of whom got to where they are through family or “old boy” networks, without needing to show normal intelligence, let alone any particular talent: Jacob Rees-Mogg, MIchael Fabricant, James Cleverly -- the one-man refutation of nominative determinism…). In any case, they couldn’t be certain the new leader would survive the election. But they might just be able to force Sunak out without replacing him, standing as a leaderless rabble, and leaving the choice of a new leader to the post-election remnant. The point would be to repudiate any connection with “the man who insulted D-Day veterans”.
sonofrojblakesays
“they might just be able to force Sunak out without replacing him, standing as a leaderless rabble”
On its face, that suggestion is crazy. But given how badly they’ve managed their campaign so far, I wouldn’t put it past them. At this point, nothing sounds too stupid. Appoint Farage as leader? Why not? Oh, he doesn’t want the job? Appoint him anyway, see how he gets on, can’t be worse than Sunak. I mean, he’s actively campaigning against the tories, but he’s doing less damage to them than Sunak…
Silentbobsays
Surely the lettuce has shown leadership potential.
xohjoh2nsays
@15 KG/Graun:
From humiliation to annihilation: could this election mean the end of the Tory party as we know it?
Always remember the first rule of politics: it doesn’t really matter whether you win or not, but you must make absolutely sure that your enemy loses. (No, in this case Labour are not the enemy.)
Also never forget the prevalence of “I got mine, now fuck you”. Especially as he has several rather more easy options for places to fuck off too than most other (even Tory) MPs. Especially if he can stick it to all those who were insufficiently loyal to him during his tenure.
Many exiting PMs/Ministers/MPs at least appear to continue to place some value outside of their own self-interest in the party or its values, but he might actually not or might have had it burned out of him.
KGsays
Always remember the first rule of politics: it doesn’t really matter whether you win or not, but you must make absolutely sure that your enemy loses. (No, in this case Labour are not the enemy.) -- xohjoh2n
Oh yes, they are. That the Tories will be out after July 4th is as near certain as anything in politics. St. Keir could be videod biting the heads off live kittens and the Tories would still lose. Believing otherwise is stupid, pretending to believe otherwise, dishonest.
KGsays
Always remember the first rule of politics: it doesn’t really matter whether you win or not, but you must make absolutely sure that your enemy loses. -- xohjoh2n@18
In any case, this is a remarkably silly “first rule of politics”. Did you just make it up? If not, where’s it from?
John Moralessays
[heh]
Tony Blair: The first rule in politics is that there are no rules, at least not in the sense of inevitable defeats or inevitable victories
Lyndon B. Johnson famously said the first rule of politics was to learn how to count.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: The first rule of politics: never believe anything until it’s been officially denied.
Donald Rumsfeld: First rule of politics: you can’t win unless you’re on the ballot.
John Hewson: First rule of politics is to show you can govern yourselves.
(etc etc)
sonofrojblakesays
I read “Labour are not the enemy” to mean that Sunak views his enemies as the other tories venal pack of bastards that they all are. I agree. Obviously labour will win, what’s important to Rishi is that e. g. Gove loses
KGsays
sonofrojblake@22,
Ah, you could be right. In which case, apologies to xohjoh2n@18. Reminds me of the old story of the young, newly-elected Labour MP, talking to an experienced colleague, and referring to the Tories as “the enemy”: “No, no, son, they’re our opponents. Your enemies will all be on this side of the house!” although I think that was perhaps from the less politically fraught period of the post-WW2 “Butskellite consensus”.
KGsays
what’s important to Rishi is that e. g. Gove loses -- sonofrojblake@22
In that particular case, Gove has forestalled the possibility by deciding not to stand!
Pretty good.
Since Sunak announced I was serially reloading just waiting for him to put out the first video on it.
(His live shows are pretty great too, if you’re in the UK. Also Stewart Lee’s shows. I guess they don’t make it over to the US very often, so we’re better off as I got to see Alex Edelman and Lewis Black over here too.)
July 4th eh? Seems an auspicious day to oust a UK government. X-D
In the first Sunak- Starmer debate The Lord Idiot made the claim that his accusations (that Labour would increase the taxes by 2000£ for each Briton) was calculated by independent civil servants.
This has since turned out to be -- can you guess it? -- a blatant lie, and it is all over media, including TV. Even tory voters who stick to tory newspapers will have heard it.
Remember, after 14 years no one of non-millionaire voters are better off.
Sunak has to hope voters will trust him to lead Britain to a better future. He has lied before and often, but this time he has been caught out in such a public way that eceryone can see how untrustworthy he is.
Britain does not have an analog of the Trump cult. Tory voters will remember.
@4:
If it had been, I’m not sure I understand why that wouldn’t have been a breach of purdah.
Britain: Farage Factor Shows in Polls
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=smZRTbnQ6O0
xohjoh2n@ 5
Here are the details.
“Sunak Trapped in His Own Lies”
It is no longer credible that Sunak is doing anything other than deliberately trying to lose.
Imagine calling a general election so the campaign overlaps with the 80th anniversary of D-day so you can do a good photo-op to appeal to the flag-shaggers… Then fucking it up.
He’s TRYING to lose. It’s the only explanation.
For the benefit of Mericans: The Sunak left the D-day anniversary event early… not very respectful to the veterans the tories claim to respect.
But this is what Sunak and the other Boris- era leading tories are like.
Nobody expects them to be sincere, but they are expected to pretend to care in a convincing way.
Times Radio: “Rishi Sunak’s D-Day early exit plays into Nigel Farage’s fanbase”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hRI1nXcGvug
Left the event early, just to go record a TV interview that’s not due to be shown until next week.
Is it possible the Tories will, even now, cast Sunak out before the election? They could use this crass insult to D-Day veterans in their late nineties or older as the excuse.
No. Nobody apart from liz truss would be mind shatteringly stupid enough to want his job. And nobody apart from liz truss would be mind shatteringly stupid enough to think giving truss another go was a good idea.
Depends. There’s this thing called “the Public Duty Costs Allowance” (PDCA).
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-duty-cost-allowance/public-duty-costs-allowance-guidance
(Pretty juicy)
From humiliation to annihilation: could this election mean the end of the Tory party as we know it?:
The Tories probably wouldn’t have time to install a new leader before the election, even if they could find someone “mindshatteringly stupid enough” [h/t sonofrojblake] to take the job (which I wouldn’t altogether rule out -- these are Tories, remember, many of whom got to where they are through family or “old boy” networks, without needing to show normal intelligence, let alone any particular talent: Jacob Rees-Mogg, MIchael Fabricant, James Cleverly -- the one-man refutation of nominative determinism…). In any case, they couldn’t be certain the new leader would survive the election. But they might just be able to force Sunak out without replacing him, standing as a leaderless rabble, and leaving the choice of a new leader to the post-election remnant. The point would be to repudiate any connection with “the man who insulted D-Day veterans”.
“they might just be able to force Sunak out without replacing him, standing as a leaderless rabble”
On its face, that suggestion is crazy. But given how badly they’ve managed their campaign so far, I wouldn’t put it past them. At this point, nothing sounds too stupid. Appoint Farage as leader? Why not? Oh, he doesn’t want the job? Appoint him anyway, see how he gets on, can’t be worse than Sunak. I mean, he’s actively campaigning against the tories, but he’s doing less damage to them than Sunak…
Surely the lettuce has shown leadership potential.
@15 KG/Graun:
Always remember the first rule of politics: it doesn’t really matter whether you win or not, but you must make absolutely sure that your enemy loses. (No, in this case Labour are not the enemy.)
Also never forget the prevalence of “I got mine, now fuck you”. Especially as he has several rather more easy options for places to fuck off too than most other (even Tory) MPs. Especially if he can stick it to all those who were insufficiently loyal to him during his tenure.
Many exiting PMs/Ministers/MPs at least appear to continue to place some value outside of their own self-interest in the party or its values, but he might actually not or might have had it burned out of him.
Oh yes, they are. That the Tories will be out after July 4th is as near certain as anything in politics. St. Keir could be videod biting the heads off live kittens and the Tories would still lose. Believing otherwise is stupid, pretending to believe otherwise, dishonest.
In any case, this is a remarkably silly “first rule of politics”. Did you just make it up? If not, where’s it from?
[heh]
Tony Blair: The first rule in politics is that there are no rules, at least not in the sense of inevitable defeats or inevitable victories
Lyndon B. Johnson famously said the first rule of politics was to learn how to count.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: The first rule of politics: never believe anything until it’s been officially denied.
Donald Rumsfeld: First rule of politics: you can’t win unless you’re on the ballot.
John Hewson: First rule of politics is to show you can govern yourselves.
(etc etc)
I read “Labour are not the enemy” to mean that Sunak views his enemies as the other tories venal pack of bastards that they all are. I agree. Obviously labour will win, what’s important to Rishi is that e. g. Gove loses
sonofrojblake@22,
Ah, you could be right. In which case, apologies to xohjoh2n@18. Reminds me of the old story of the young, newly-elected Labour MP, talking to an experienced colleague, and referring to the Tories as “the enemy”: “No, no, son, they’re our opponents. Your enemies will all be on this side of the house!” although I think that was perhaps from the less politically fraught period of the post-WW2 “Butskellite consensus”.
In that particular case, Gove has forestalled the possibility by deciding not to stand!