This month's Prime Minister

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This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

Excuse the title but I don't want to name them.

Excuse "them" but I'm being gender-neutral. I would not want to be judged moaning on account of gender in this instance.

That probably obliges me to avoid using their given name too. I'm going to call them "Opinion Truss" instead.

Opinion Truss has never, to my knowledge, actually been a reporter. Opinion was, while working on radio and for newspapers, an opinionist, a conveyor of opinion. Not a reporter. Just being employed to write for a newspaper doesn't actually bestow the career of "reporter" on anyone.

We, the citizens of the UK, are about to have another fully-installed genuine in-office Prime Minister foisted on us by the membership of the Conservative Party (pop.180,000) in a private exclusive election all of their own, just as we were given So-Called Cameron and Bergholt Stuttley Johnson.

The problem this time round is even more of a spectacular own-goal than the previous shots. Opinion Truss is known for only one official decision, as far as I remember - they announced, while cabinet minister for the Foreign Office, backing for any British vigilantes who wanted to fight in Ukraine. The subsequent U-turn is irrelevant. Other than that, Opinion hasn't actually done anything notable in the House.

'As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood".'

(The whole paragraph is the quote, the quote marks inside were Powell quoting Virgil. I thought I'd borrow an appropriate allusion.)
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

So, it appears that you all have narrowed it down to two.



The method of selecting a PM in the UK scares me, a bit.
There are folks in our Rethuglican Party who believe that we should model our selection of President to they way you guys do it.
That scares the shit out of me.
To have the Elephantine Nitwits free to decide who would take up residency in the White House would, in my opinion, be the death of the Good Ol' US of A.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

The rules here change slightly now and then but the essence is that the public elect constituency MPs, and any MP of any party is allowed to form the government of the day by demonstrating the support of the majority of MPs in the House of Commons. The Queen authorizes the recognized contenders to make their demonstration (a vote of confidence is sufficient) and they take turns a bit like the princesses in Cinderella, except they don't use a glass slipper.

To get on the Queens List of who to invite to form a government, the current policy of the Conservative Party is to select one MP and one only, firstly by repeated votes of the MPs like cardinals voting for the Pope but the last two get thrown to the party at large to see who has popular support out there. In theory if any government fails a confidence vote then the next largest party in the House puts one MP forward to the Queen for the same test and so on for all the parties. In practice, if the government loses a vote of confidence then a national election is immediately called, because the next party down is really unlikely to show the confidence of the House.

Once a governing party has selected which MP is their contender to be Prime Minister, that Prime Minister will appoint other MPs to run the various Ministries. That's where all the invisible back-door promises get paid. Disraeli described the process as climbing to the top of the greasy pole.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

So, the Queen could actually say, "Nope. Send someone else."

Has she ever done so?
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Bryn Mawr »

LarsMac wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:19 am So, the Queen could actually say, "Nope. Send someone else."

Has she ever done so?
Sadly, if she tried it would be the last time she could - they’d change the rules.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

According to the Washington Post, this potential new PM is a "Shapeshifter"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... -minister/

"It’s fair to say ***** is a shapeshifter. She fought for Britain to remain in the European Union before becoming a staunch defender of Brexit. Her supporters say she accepted the outcome of the 2016 referendum and got with the program. Others say she’s a weather vane, pivoting when it suits her advancement."
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

LarsMac wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2022 8:33 am According to the Washington Post, this potential new PM is a "Shapeshifter"
It's fair to say Opinion Truss has never had a principle in their political career, they're what we in the UK call a chancer.

They're being appointed at Balmoral this afternoon. Balmoral is in Scotland. The last time a Prime Minister was appointed in Balmoral was 1885, it's a long way from London.

I'm rather hoping that when they gets back and starts to make ministerial appointments to their cabinet, they surprise the entire world by inviting Boris Johnson to accept the Foreign Office (becoming what Americans call Secretary of State). Opinion has long been an admirer of their predecessor at Number 10.

The new Prime Minister can be addressed throughout their time in office as @trussliz
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

I'm not at all sure our new Prime Minister will be any good in a crisis. This is their press statement yesterday and it is hard to imagine a more lost, panicked and dazed response. "Poignant" in this context appears to be a euphemism for wobbly.

Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

Well, she reads rather properly.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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LarsMac wrote: Fri Sep 09, 2022 8:45 am Well, she reads rather properly.
Don't be fooled by the accent. What she clearly needs is acting lessons.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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I thought that I had a grasp of the meaning of 'Poignant', but That does not seem to fit.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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LarsMac wrote: Fri Sep 09, 2022 11:51 am I thought that I had a grasp of the meaning of 'Poignant', but That does not seem to fit.
Perhaps this month's Prime Minister considers this week's news article poignant?
A clip has emerged of Liz Truss branding the monarchy "disgraceful"

"I'm not against any of [the Royals] personally, I'm against the idea that people can be born to rule – that people, because of the family they are born into, should be able to be the head of state of our country. I think that's disgraceful."

https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2022- ... isgraceful
Clearly someone who expressed opinions from an early age. Never a wise move in the long run.

Here's the opendemocracy.net poll result for their first week in office:

truss.png
truss.png (308.48 KiB) Viewed 1212 times
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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Well, I am not entirely in disagreement with her notion, there.

The idea that somebody is qualified to run things, simply because of their birth seems a bit ludicrous, and history has borne that out quite often.
Of course, the Democratic method has not always proved a more reliable method of bringing out the best, either.
The only difference seems to be that in Democracy the people have the opportunity to choose their poison.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

Ms Tuss was born in the right place, right time, went to Oxford, makes her no different to who she was whinging about ??
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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I believe that she may have people wishing for Ol' Boris again before long.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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The British unit of currency, the Pound, just hit an all-time low against the American unit of currency, the Dollar. And they've only been in office for three weeks.

I'm not sure where the profanity Christ on a bicycle originates but it definitely fits the circumstance.

Mr Biden said he was “sick and tired” of the theory that cutting taxes for businesses and the wealthy will see the benefits “trickle down” into the pockets of poorer workers.

His comments came after his British counterpart reiterated to broadcasters in New York that tax cuts were key to spurring economic growth across the UK.

Speaking to ITV News, Ms Truss also defended proposals to remove a cap on bankers' bonuses and admitted some of her measures "will be unpopular".

In a message on Twitter, Mr Biden said: “I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-09-20/bid ... -bonus-cap
Truss and Kwarteng like ‘gamblers in a casino’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... record-low

As for energy prices, we've spent years saying fossil fuel use has to be reduced and suddenly this new administration throws an estimated £150bn they don't possess directly at one single year's fuel price subsidies instead of allowing the price hikes to bludgeon the British public into actually reducing fossil fuel use. This is a fiscally suicidal mindbogglingly outrageous use of public borrowing.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

Reagan Reincarnate?
Hmmm

Probably not, She has none of his charm, or on-camera presence.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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If anyone's wondering why this happened, last month there were a mere 81,326 members of the Conservative party who successfully voted for Opinion Truss to become Prime Minister. It is not unreasonable to assume that these gold-diggers are predominantly greedy inheritors of the Thatcher barrow-boy generation's loadsamoney philosophy and that quite a few of today's registered trough-feeders have been paying tax at the highest rate band.

Three weeks after taking office as Prime Minister, their government abolished the highest rate band.

The immediate consequence is that British stocks lost half trillion dollars in a single week while the British pound crashed 8% against world currencies and shows every sign of dropping further still.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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Despite a barrage of criticism, from the International Monetary Trust and the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, the government is refusing to perform a U-turn on the package of £45bn of unfunded tax cuts aimed at the wealthy it announced on Friday.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/li ... iness-live

Today's further slippage of stocks, bonds and currency are a consequence. British government borrowing now has to carry a higher dividend than either Italy or Greece, which practically puts us into Zimbabwean territory.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

Ya Think?


BBC: Ground should have been laid for tax cuts, admits Liz Truss

"Liz Truss has admitted she should have "laid the ground better" for her mini-budget, after it sparked days of market turmoil.
The prime minister told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg she had "learned from that", but she was confident her tax cutting package would boost economic growth.
"
I dunno. Seems to me that the whole Parliament might have wanted an opportunity to talk this through before allowing it to happen.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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Did they (the "conservatives") Actually expect that the rich folks would just run out and start a buying spree to celebrate their "lowered tax burden"?
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Bryn Mawr »

LarsMac wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:53 am Did they (the "conservatives") Actually expect that the rich folks would just run out and start a buying spree to celebrate their "lowered tax burden"?
Given how long it is since trickle down was discredited, no, they just expected the rich to get richer.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

Great song choice...
Just who do you think you are?
Stop actin' like some kind of star
Just who do you think you are?
This time you've gone too far
Maybe she meant for people to just focus on this part....
Movin' on up, you're movin' on out
Time to break free, nothing can stop me
Movin', movin', movin', nothin' can stop me
Movin', movin', time to break free, nothin' can stop me
But, if you know the tune, then you know the tune and 'who do you think you are?' is the most memorable part of it :lol:

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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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The clothes were interesting too, well done that person that picked up the fact she wore the exact same dress Emma Thompson wore in 'Years and Years'.
Emma portrayed the most vile woman in that series, she was brilliant.
I thought it a great show, and watched it with a feeling of dread of this is what we have coming to us. Scary stuff.

I wonder if someone suggested that dress to the Prime Minister, accidentally on purpose, knowing full well it would be linked back to a tyrannical fascist. :o

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/sh ... al-fascist
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

That is very clever and clearly can't be accidental.

The Guardian says it implies "a Nigel-Farage-meets-Katie-Hopkins figure", which may well turn out to fit our current PM. I'm far too biased to say.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

spot wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 2:22 am That is very clever and clearly can't be accidental.

The Guardian says it implies "a Nigel-Farage-meets-Katie-Hopkins figure", which may well turn out to fit our current PM. I'm far too biased to say.
I'm struggling to find a really good clip of the 'Farage meets Hopkins' figure but will keep looking.


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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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We seem to be in much the same place
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When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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spot wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 1:52 am
Despite a barrage of criticism, from the International Monetary Trust and the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, the government is refusing to perform a U-turn on the package of £45bn of unfunded tax cuts aimed at the wealthy it announced on Friday.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/li ... iness-live

Today's further slippage of stocks, bonds and currency are a consequence. British government borrowing now has to carry a higher dividend than either Italy or Greece, which practically puts us into Zimbabwean territory.
And today we're seeing a second earthquake in the bond market as the tensions fail to dissipate. It's seen here as primarily a refusal of the government to make any testable statement in Parliament regarding unfunded commitments since the one-sided Opinion Truss slid into the driver's seat and appointed a mound of yes-men to their Cabinet.

“This morning the Bank of England has once again felt the need to intervene in the fixed income market following yesterday’s announcement as it seeks to calm nerves and return stability to government bond markets. We are in somewhat unprecedented territory here and as a result yields continue to climb higher as investor fears are yet to be eased.

“The move by the BoE today to include index-linked gilts in their emergency quantitative easing programme is probably sensible given the massive rise in yields that occurred yesterday, however, it is going to be an incredibly difficult balancing act at a time when the Bank wants to be raising interest rates in order to bring inflation down.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/li ... iness-live
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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spot wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 3:51 am


We seem to be in much the same place
So, did the conservatives think that was what they were getting when they chose Truss?
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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LarsMac wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 2:36 pm So, did the conservatives that that was what they were getting when they chose Truss?
Absolutely they did, they threw their legs in the air and begged for it.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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spot wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 11:56 pm
LarsMac wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 2:36 pm So, did the conservatives think that was what they were getting when they chose Truss?
Absolutely they did, they threw their legs in the air and begged for it.
Thought so.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

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We could start with this perhaps.
Just hours earlier a minister told Sky News the prime minister has complete confidence in Mr Kwarteng and will stick to his growth plan.

Greg Hands, the international trade minister, said: "I know the prime minister's got total confidence in Kwasi Kwarteng.
Advertisement

"I've worked very closely with Kwasi, he is an incredibly capable person, a very, very bright person who makes good judgment calls.

"And I have absolute confidence in Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor of the exchequer."

Asked if Mr Kwarteng and Liz Truss will still be chancellor and prime minister in a month's time, he said: "Yes, absolutely."

[...]The chancellor was at IMF meetings in Washington DC this week but left a day early to arrive back in the UK today.

https://news.sky.com/story/chancellor-k ... s-12720008
The flight of the Chancellor back to the UK last night, abandoning the IMF meeting in Washington a day early, conjures up the desperation of the Nazgûl trying to reach Mount Doom before the One Ring is destroyed. The Chancellor landed to find himself fired by Opinion Truss and actually said as much in his response letter, if I can find it...
You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... itics-live
While I would be delighted to see Opinion Truss lead their party to oblivion at the 2024 General Election, I'm not sure how they're now supposed to last out 2022. I also hope Boris would be the likeliest replacement should Opinion fall in the next few weeks, which would be a spectacular bit of story development.

Corporation Tax got bumped from 19% to 25% while the Chancellor's flight was passing the Azores. That's quite a leap. I'm not sure anyone's got round to discussing that on the news channels yet.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

Opinion Truss gave a press conference this afternoon. I'm not sure I know what a doozy is[1] but that was definitely one of them. The full transcript of the opening remarks is at https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ ... tober-2022 (and went wildly off-piste when she subsequently took four questions from the Telegraph, Sun, BBC and a seemingly unaffiliated Robert Peston).

I focus in particular:

My conviction that this country needs to go for growth is rooted in my personal experience.

Of all the insignificant woolly waffle to start this particular press conference, that was plain ridiculous and went on its homespun way for some while. It was totally irrelevant to what had happened since dawn.

I want to deliver a low tax, high wage, high growth economy.

For a minority of the public, yes. We get that bit. So did Thatcher and look at the wreckage she left for those still alive today. The people who need urgent action for the remainder of this parliament are the poor, the unwaged, the low paid, the disabled, the people who have too little to cover basic needs as opposed to champagne, new cars and annual redecoration. Wanting to deliver a low tax, high wage, high growth economy is not going to help the disadvantaged this year or next year one iota, it is going to collapse any financial stability they may have established for themselves, if indeed they have, since Brexit exploded over the country.

we acted to support businesses and households with their energy costs this winter.

You chose to set up a system where those who spent more on fuel got more financial assistance, actually. The poor who couldn't afford fuel in the first place get far less assistance than the average Conservative voter. Simply paying £100 a month free of benefit considerations into every household's fuel account would have cost a lot less and advantaged those least able to cope.

Secondly, the right approach is to reduce fuel demand this year and next, not to enable fuel demand by subsidizing it. Every penny of this scandalous 50 billion pound giveaway from future taxation on fuel subsidy or however much it turns out to cost - it may well be more - is fuel which could have been saved, it's a lunatic thing to have embarked on and it's entirely your own administration's choice to have enabled it.

We need to act now to reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline.

What a shame you didn't choose to do that on a daily basis since you became Prime Minister. The country is now in a far more parlous state than it was, thanks to your choice of policies and reaction to events.

To quote the king yesterday evening, "So you’ve come back again? Dear, oh dear. Anyway …" - and that may be the nearest you get to reality this week.



[1]: doozy: Something remarkable, amazing, or unbelievable. Frequently ironic.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

It's all so dire, I don't know whats going to happen. We need change now. How do us poorer people ever get ourselves up off the floor. Everything is stacked against us making any headway.
What a bloody mess the mortgage industry is in, is that ever going to settle down?
My landlord already has my home on the market - I've not been given any notice to leave yet, but you know it's coming, he's not actively looking for another landlord to buy it and its advertised as 'no onward chain', no mention to prospective buyers of a tenant until they are outside the door coming in to view the place! I'm just a caretaker doing as I'm told, keeping it looking nice for the prospective buyers whilst paying him for the upset he's causing us, he doesn't give a shit about how it's affecting me or my children mentally.
Then what? I'm fighting with dozens of other families for any three bed that comes onto the rental market, have been told by letting agents I won't get anything nice for my budget and some agents won't even help as I'm on benefits. Social housing options are few and far between, when I get a chance to bid on a three bed in my area I end up 100 th on the list. Meanwhile, there are now 11 holiday lets on my street, and at a guess my current home will be the next second home for someone living out of the county to rake in £1000 a week for the 50 weeks a year they aren't holidaying here themselves.

No matter what happens, whether this place sells or not I am going to be living somewhere costing over £1000 a month by this time next year. He has to remortgage in December so I can guarantee he'll put my rent up, it already went up £75 a month in May.

Well done Tories and thank you for making me feel like a worthless piece of scum for having children with extra needs.

By the way, I wrote to my independent councillor and my local MP late one afternoon this week for help and advice. By mid morning the next day one had responded to me and referred me to a charity for an assessment to see if I can be assigned a case worker. The MP hasn't sent a thing other than an automated email that states unless I have included my full name, address and postcode they won't be writing back. All on the same day a leaflet dropped through my door from the MP advertising all the charities where people can get 'cost of living crisis' help from, can the MP not see the irony that he should be pushing charities because the Government are failing us.

Rant over. Sorry, took the thread off-piste there a bit.

Lots of people are calling for Martin Lewis to be PM, at least he has empathy.
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spot
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

We might step back a moment and consider yesterday's Government behaviour.

We have a Prime Minister who has been in office for less than two months. They appointed a Cabinet of their own choosing which consisted entirely of loyal supporters, leaving out any Conservative MP who had opposed the PM's election to office.

Their new Chancellor concocted his own financial plan which would have been firmly opposed by Treasury scrutiny. To avoid such negative criticism he refused to publish Treasury or independent advice before announcing his new commitments at last month's Party Conference, citing insufficient notice. The financial markets reacted to his announcement by devaluing the country's stocks, bonds and currency by around perhaps £500bn, and stabilized only when the Prime Minister fired the Chancellor, appointed a critic in his place, and had to passively watch while the new chap immediately scrapped the proposed financial plan in its entirety. The only aspect remaining of that plan is the £50bn winter fuel subsidy which is itself a short-sighted piece of Conservative imbecility and should actually have involved a self-financing windfall tax subsidy paid for by the profiteering power generation industry.

Five days later the 7-week-old Home Secretary went on an ultra-right-wing fantasy rant which even Alaric the Goth would have blushed at. The Prime Minister fired her too (citing a technical infraction of a procedural nicety as an excuse). To have given the actual reason - that the Home Secretary was enthusiastically engaged in a power-crazed scorched-earth instant implementation of Conservative manifesto "Hostile Environment" immigration commitments which should never have been made - would have been too embarrassing to the party as a whole, so the technical excuse was the only way to shut the Home Secretary up.

Last night, just hours later and entirely eclipsing the rabid screams of the now ex Home Secretary, both the Chief and the Deputy Chief Conservative Whips resigned in disgust after they had been obliged to force Conservative MPs to vote in favour of re-legalizing fracking. Forty MPs rebelled, the Prime Minister then reneged on the order forcing obedience rather than actually expelling forty of their own MPs from the party, at which point both Whips figuratively burned themselves alive in protest at the pointless humiliation they'd been exposed to. It took hours to talk them back to life and withdraw their resignations.

What is baffling is this notion that fracking in the UK should be re-legalized. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that any commercial fracking is ever going to be done under British soil or that a penny of net profit is ever going to accrue to any attempt to make it happen. It appears to be a proposal led by Jacob Rees-Mogg and his advocacy is inexplicable. No doubt private money is at the root of it but I can't see how or why.

I'll dig out a passage by Kurt Vonnegut later and post it. From memory it has a passing relevance, and I like the book it's from.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

And the Prime Minister has just resigned.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

Who's next?
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

Betty Boop wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 6:35 am Who's next?

Far be it from me to be so presumptuous.


I heard a voice that said
"Henceforth be blind, for thou hast seen too much,
And speak the truth that no man may believe."

Tiresias; Alfred Lord Tennyson; 1885
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
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Bryn Mawr
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Bryn Mawr »

spot wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 7:25 am
Betty Boop wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 6:35 am Who's next?

Far be it from me to be so presumptuous.


I heard a voice that said
"Henceforth be blind, for thou hast seen too much,
And speak the truth that no man may believe."

Tiresias; Alfred Lord Tennyson; 1885
Never a truer word spoken
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Betty Boop
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

Surely nobody is going to let that buffoon back in. We are already a laughing stock around the world.
Have been horrified at the amount of people who still think he did a 'good job given the circumstances'.
Maybe the idea in Years and Years of passing an IQ test to be able to vote isn't such a bad idea after all :shock:
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

Well, there ya go, you get Boris back, and come 24, we get the Donald back. Makes perfect sense to me.
Of course, I've been experimenting for a few days with the Mushrooms I found growing out on the field, so,...
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

Waiting with baited breath...
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

We're hearing around here that Boris bailed, and Sunak will get the job.
He at least comes across as literate. More than I got from listening to Truss.
The home of the soul is the Open Road.
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Betty Boop
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

LarsMac wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 8:30 am We're hearing around here that Boris bailed, and Sunak will get the job.
He at least comes across as literate. More than I got from listening to Truss.
Boris bailed last night, Penny someone didn't make the 100 backers so at 2pm the last loser was announced as the winner :o (you couldn't make this **** up)

We're the losers, I think.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

And, here I thought that the US political structure was convoluted and difficult.
The home of the soul is the Open Road.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Betty Boop »

Oh my god!!! Did no one tell her about the dress! She's wearing it again for her farewell speech, albeit in a shade of green this time :lol:

She has no emotion that woman. No remorse, no regret, no apology.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

She's won't be going into the books as one of the "Great Orators" of the realm, it seems.
The home of the soul is the Open Road.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by spot »

Opinion Truss has been advised not to submit a long list of new Peers to the House of Lords.

The way by which the upper house acquires new members at the moment is rather different to the American Senate.

What we do here annually is appoint individuals for life as political appointees of the government. Additionally when a Prime Minister leaves office they submit an Honours List of whatever length they choose.

Finally, 90 or so existing members inherited their seat and will be succeeded in turn when they die. Those are the hereditary peerages and nobody has a say in who those new members will be, it's an inheritance. The only way that can be changed is by an amendment of constitutional law agreed by both houses. That law has been fought over for the last hundred years and shows no sign of ejecting the next generation of the British aristocracy.

Nobody has ever submitted an Honours List after just 7 catastrophic weeks in office until now. People are bracing themselves.

I'm rather hoping Opinion Truss will leave a poisoned chalice for Boris Johnson. If he is appointed to the House of Lords he can never again be reappointed Prime Minister - that's a constitutional convention. As Baron Johnson of Manhattan he would be, if I may use the word, shafted.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by LarsMac »

I think that my entire exposure to the House of Lords and such is primarily credited to "the Ruling Class" a rather entertaining piece, starring Peter O'Toole.

Correction:
Well, I did watch that "Downton Abbey" series that our PBS folks put together.
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Re: This month's Prime Minister

Post by Bryn Mawr »

LarsMac wrote: Mon Oct 31, 2022 12:03 pm I think that my entire exposure to the House of Lords and such is primarily credited to "the Ruling Class" a rather entertaining piece, starring Peter O'Toole.

Correction:
Well, I did watch that "Downton Abbey" series that our PBS folks put together.
I’ve watched it occasionally on the Parliament channel - mostly three quarters empty with them as is there asleep.
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