Mailwatch(ed) Forum

I wonder if Cameron saw her that way- she wasn't a particularly impressive figure in the Cabinet. But it's way beyond that now. She's actively an embarrassment to them because she calls them out.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 10:25 pm I wonder if Cameron saw her that way- she wasn't a particularly impressive figure in the Cabinet. But it's way beyond that now. She's actively an embarrassment to them because she calls them out.

Cameron likely saw her exactly as far as he needed to - another female mp to help him make the Tories look soft and cuddly, and an Asian one as an added bonus. Signed her up and probably swanned out of the room whistling with no thought for future repercussions.

In this case, it just so happened to work out to their detriment rather than ours.

As Warsi has pointed out, the 'traditional' Tory message - self-reliance, probity, community spirit, respect for law and order, social climbing - is something that should resonate strongly with the BAME population. The problem is that the old one nation Tory has been squeezed out by utter twats obsessed with being as vicious as possible.

In a related note, saw this on Bluesky today:

The tax bit of that isn't very true. There wasn't even Capital Gains Tax till 1965. And there wasn't much anti-avoidance.

Another win here.

Kemi Badenoch shadow minister rejected calls for mandatory child abuse reporting in 2018
Then-safeguarding minister Victoria Atkins - now a member of Kemi Badenoch's shadow cabinet - said the case for a mandatory reporting duty had "not been made."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... d-34462613

Some good points in this article by someone who sounds like a classic Kemi type otherwise.

https://thecritic.co.uk/kemis-achilles-heel/

As he says, the "fought adversity all the way" stuff is very tiresome. She was very clearly on a fast track almost as soon as she joined the party, with the push Cameron was giving to diversify the visible face of the party.

Among the targets of her ire is a teacher who told her she probably wouldn't get into Oxford for Medicine. He'd probably marked some of her school work.

She fought adversity with all the energy of Gene Wilder saying “No. Stop. Come back.” in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

She barely faced any, but is determined to ensure that the drawbridge is yanked up behind her so fast you could light a fag on the pulleys.

Not been here for about a month.

But she seems to find a level and dives under it. She’s so bad.

She now says she’s spoken to some survivors. And something about “peasants”.

Tories unbelievably calling for Rachel Reeves to resign. I would say "audience of one" (Elmo) but it's an audience of most of the UK media, not least the BBC.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2025 2:00 pm She now says she’s spoken to some survivors. And something about “peasants”.

And “sub-communities”, or Untermenschen, as they were known in 1933.

Are these the same peasants whose kids are doing well at school and going to university at a higher rate than working class whites?

Sexual exploitation is of course famously unknown in cities worldwide.

Nor amongst wealthy people.

Nor on internet sites owned by some very rich people.

Among other zingers from Kemi today, Labour was too concerned with making a woman chancellor that it didn't select the best person.

Previous qualifications for Chancellor include being David Cameron's best mate (George Osborne). He of course was better qualified than Ken Clarke who'd merely already been Chancellor for 3 years and 11 months. Or Vince Cable who'd previously been Chief Economist at Shell.

(I'm not saying these two were great- Clarke massively underinvested, and Cable went full "we were like Greece"- but in terms of qualification they rather outdid Osborne.

Another zinger was that Starmer is supposed to commit to no further tax rises, which I don't recall many Conservative leaders committing to. John Major notoriously did so at the 1992 election, and then did the biggest peacetime tax rise ever (and still the only one bigger than Reeves just did) in 1993.

I'm not sure Trump's going to be allowed do what he says over tariffs- plenty of Republican donors will know what a disaster they'd be- but at the moment they look pretty likely. Events, dear boy.

I think the most telling thing about Badenoch’s performance and level of talent is this: this week, a Labour anti-corruption minister had to resign because of a story about corruption, and somehow Badenoch converted that gift of an opportunity into a platform for Starmer to remind the whole country that Liz Truss crashed the economy, handing him the zinger soundbite of the day into the bargain.

It really is quite something - She creates own goal opportunities out of thin air and then lets Starmer walk them in.

If you want to know how Tories feel, remember Corbyn at PMQs and double the pain.

Ha ha ha.

At their post-PMQs briefing, a spokesperson for Badenoch said that Stride would remain shadow chancellor until the next election. Asked if that applied to all members of the shadow cabinet, the spokesperson said “Yes”. He added: “We’re very happy with the shadow cabinet as it is.”

I expect there was an extra question about the rest of the Shadow Cabinet which forced this ridiculous response. It's easy to criticize Kemi's advisors, as no doubt she will at some point, but this is where focussing on personalities gets you. She and Stride seem to be convinced Reeves is a massive weak link personally and have gone for that. Just like a football manager, a Chancellor is there, with full confidence until they aren't. People understand that, and even if Reeves later had to be moved, so what? The Tories had 5 of them in less than 5 years, including 2 consecutive ones who lasted less than 4 months between them.

Youngian wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2025 2:55 pm If you want to know how Tories feel, remember Corbyn at PMQs and double the pain.

He was actually better than I thought he'd be in terms of forensic criticism of the government. The problem was his previous. If Theresa May and (to his very rare credit) Nick Timothy hadn't decided they were home and dry and could fix care with progressive taxation. he'd have been buried on the previous alone.