Thatcher Cosplay - Can't Truss It

[Logan Mountstuart]

Ask my niece, who was a junior doctor at the time, how effective Jeremy *unt, as he was known at the time, was as a minister.

I've never seen Lizzy Burden before. She's quite impressive, judging by that one video.

I wish they'd all just FOAD, Starmer too. And I don't even live in the country. It just seems to me that if you're comfortable and stable then it's all an intruiging game. If you're not, you're fucked and you must feel completely ignored.

What a horrible, scandalous mess.

[Sean of the Shed]

38 days (10 in government shutdown). Even Clough got 44 at Leeds

As for Truss, her spirit Leeds manager has to be Dave Hockaday. Way out of their depth and put in place to do the bidding and be the mouthpiece of dark malevolent forces that were actually in charge.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I'm not particularly fond of Tom McTague as a columnist, and Liz Truss must be the easiest target for political ridicule in more than three generations, but I did laugh at this:

"Never before has Britain found itself in such a humiliatingly risible position. It is the stuff of nightmares: the national equivalent of getting caught short onstage in front of your entire school because you chose not to go to the bathroom when you had the chance."

[Discordant Resonance]

Even Graham Brady must be weary at this stage:

https://twitter.com/BethRigby/status/1580982554588762112

[Patrick Thistle]

Allardyce, Bruce, and now this...

https://twitter.com/warnockofficial/status/1580981281617489920?t=j8JONlL8wP1ZfRb65tDRyg&s=19

[WOM]

Even Graham Brady must be weary at this stage:

https://twitter.com/BethRigby/status/1580982554588762112

Anyone who says 'a substantial amount of letters' instead 'a substantial number of letters' shouldn't be taken seriously.

[diggedy derek]

You often get those kind of mistakes with lobby correspondents as they're desperate to tweet something before someone else does it.

[Erskine Bridges]

Ask my niece, who was a junior doctor at the time, how effective Jeremy *unt, as he was known at the time, was as a minister.

I've never seen Lizzy Burden before. She's quite impressive, judging by that one video.

I wish they'd all just FOAD, Starmer too. And I don't even live in the country. It just seems to me that if you're comfortable and stable then it's all an intruiging game. If you're not, you're fucked and you must feel completely ignored.

What a horrible, scandalous mess.

Agreed. If this wasn’t so unbelievably damaging to people already struggling with the pandemic, rising costs and the Ukraine war ( which is nearly all of us) it would be hilarious.

[Sean of the Shed]

Agreed. If this wasn’t so unbelievably damaging to people already struggling with the pandemic, rising costs and the Ukraine war ( which is nearly all of us) it would be hilarious.

I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. It's vary cathartic watching the people who have been making people's lives so miserable thrashing around like the T1000 in the vat of molten metal in Terminator 2.

[Fussbudget]

As for Truss, her spirit Leeds manager has to be Dave Hockaday. Way out of their depth and put in place to do the bidding and be the mouthpiece of dark malevolent forces that were actually in charge.

Ah you've got me all nostalgic now. Halcyon days

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

While the Express maintains the line and its all about "fending off plotters" apparently.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Sir Christopher Chode is very upset.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1580678940850810880?s=20&t=qIIWinIYAstL5hnZbwaFnA

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Ah you've got me all nostalgic now. Halcyon days

I take that as nostalgia at schadenfreude against Leeds. But honestly, I'd take a few years of Hockaday or similar again rather than suffer the indignity of having the likes of Dennis Wise in charge even for one week. After the spell with Ken Bates as owner and Wise as manager, nothing could ever feel so grim again, LUFC-wise.

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/JayMitchinson/status/1581038446906593282?t=S4hudZM9zDnCEoms5-lEtQ&s=19

[jwdd27]

Bet365 still offering odds of 4/5 (1.8) that she'll be replaced this year, which I would suggest is an absolute steal and a source of free cash, which you're going to need.
Approaching 1/2 elsewhere (I.e. a 66% probability) which is much more realistic.

Remember to gamble responsibly even if your government doesn't.

[Satchmo Distel]

You just need to run through the consequences if she is NOT gone by Xmas:

Markets in meltdown
Weekly shambolic Commons performances
Ministers having to squirm through TV interviews defending someone they don't respect or rate
Members probably leaving in droves
Tory papers constantly running negative front pages until she goes
She'll probably lose votes in the Commons and won't be backed in the Lords
Money being withdrawn by backers

The best case scenario if she doesn't quit is that the cabinet somehow runs the country while she merely swans around as a figurehead rubber stamping their decisions, sort of like how Cheney ran the GW Bush era, but that's not how the UK system is designed to work; the whole scenario of Question Time etc is that the PM is actually in charge. You could argue that deputies ran the show when leaders like Churchill (1951-55) and maybe Wilson (1974-76) were incapacitated, but they were still operating in a framework that the leader had established before his faculties/health started to go. There's never been a GWB-type UK premier who was led by the nose due to never having been competent.

[Crystal Staples]

That's an ok bet but I'd be wary of the time gap between announcing her resignation / being ousted, and actually being replaced. The last two incumbants have stayed in post for a couple of months, even though the critical mass of their allies thought they weren't up to it. If the end of that timeframe coincides with Christmas it could delay the announcement to the start of Jan, so you'd be looking for something to happen in the next ten days.

I suspect they'll get it done quickly though somehow. A moving of the goalposts and retrospective rewriting of the rules, e.g. no second leadership contest within 12 months of the last one, the runner up gets it by default.

[Satchmo Distel]

Agreed, though then you have a legitimacy issue whereby Sunak (assuming it's him) is a leader that wasn't even elected by his own party, although he was the MPs' choice in all five of their ballots. OTOH, as noted above, the positioning of Hunt* seems to be to enable him to become a transitional PM up to the next leadership election, instead of being stuck with Truss as a lame duck for two months.

But the longer-term issue is that the membership can't be trusted to choose a viable leader so there's an inherent contradiction between "internal party democracy" and rational succession planning. You either have a system that elects viable PMs or one that allows the members to create utter chaos.

*Note that in the first ballot in the summer, Hunt got only 18 MPs' votes (5%) so I don't think he's a positive choice but really the one who offends the least.

[MrLeam]

https://twitter.com/JayMitchinson/status/1581038446906593282?t=S4hudZM9zDnCEoms5-lEtQ&s=19

Absolutely disgraceful comment. As if the Tory party couldn't get any worse, we've now got their MPs openly mocking people with perfectly normal hobbies. So what if I enjoy sex with grilled slices of bread? SO WHAT???

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I suspect they'll get it done quickly though somehow. A moving of the goalposts and retrospective rewriting of the rules, e.g. no second leadership contest within 12 months of the last one, the runner up gets it by default.

Agree, there's no chance of them running another two month election process in quick succession. Not because the resulting uncertainty would be bad for the country of course, but because it would be bad for them. The first one was damaging enough for them, by exposing their lack of leadership talent to the daylight and allowing the candidates to trash each other in public (and to make ever more rash promises to the party membership - like that time Truss nearly agreed to abolish speed limits on motorways). Another one in quick succession will look self indulgent even by their standards and would be fatal for them.

It'll be grey suits time and the MPs won't even get a vote, I predict.

[Satchmo Distel]

Sex with bread? Eye crumbser!!

[pebblethefish]

Of course, this would mean that the Premiership of Liz Truss, would have lasted a shorter time than the selection of her.

[Nefertiti2]

Miriam Margolyes speaks for us all

https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1581186908419665920?s=20&t=mGhO8LnYdcC7rjhomqp-JQ