Mailwatch(ed) Forum

James O'Brien is fond of quoting from the late, great Maya Angelou, that "when people tell you who they are, believe them the first time". Liz Truss cannot be accused of not telling us what she is - she made it clear right the way through the Tory leadership circus that her core instinct was to channel Margaret Thatcher and unleash unbridled market forces and suicidal tax cuts in a shameless appeal to the greed of those at the top of the UK's economic pyramid. The notion of "trickle down" is a myth - not only does it not work, Truss (and her partner in crime Kwarteng) actually don't give a fuck if it works or not.

I note that sterling has already plummeted on the global currency markets in response to Kwarteng's hogwash, and Ian Dunt, I think, has noted that the Tories have just handed the election to Labour. But with two years to go and the country descending into recession as we speak, this isn't going to go well for the country. When Labour does come in in 2024, we are going to have FUCK of a lot of work to do.

Abernathy wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 12:45 pm When Labour does come in in 2024, we are going to have FUCK of a lot of work to do.

Is it even possible to fix this? A dysfunctional country with shattered communities, services which simply don't work any longer, and broken markets which makes housing impossible. On the bright side, crashing the GBP would promote exports but the country has very few significant trade arrangements.

There is also absolutely no levelling up while they are taking the country's meagre resources (plus eye-watering levels of borrowing) and shovelling them up.

That's a dystopian picture to paint but much of it is now firmly in the rear-view mirror. Could any administration fix it in four short years?

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 1:22 pm

Abernathy wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 12:45 pm When Labour does come in in 2024, we are going to have FUCK of a lot of work to do.

. Could any administration fix it in four short years?

I very much take your point, and agree with it. The longer that the Labour Party farted about in opposition without even any semi-serious attempt to present as a viable alternative choice for government (aka the Corbyn years) the more damage the Tories had time to be getting on with, filling the pockets of their backers with public cash, and wrecking absolutely everything decent. This is pretty high up the huge list of things for which I can never forgive Corbyn and his disciples.

We won’t be able to sort everything in one four year term, no. But we can make a meaningful start. Securing a second term will also be a critical parallel priority for Labour’s first term.

Everything in the 2019 manifesto would have needed at least 3 terms to get done, but there was never any prospect of being elected even for one term.

Would that be the verdict of the lefty currency markets?

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 1:22 pm

Abernathy wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 12:45 pm When Labour does come in in 2024, we are going to have FUCK of a lot of work to do.

Is it even possible to fix this? A dysfunctional country with shattered communities, services which simply don't work any longer, and broken markets which makes housing impossible. On the bright side, crashing the GBP would promote exports but the country has very few significant trade arrangements.

There is also absolutely no levelling up while they are taking the country's meagre resources (plus eye-watering levels of borrowing) and shovelling them up.

That's a dystopian picture to paint but much of it is now firmly in the rear-view mirror. Could any administration fix it in four short years?

Hopefully we would have at least 5 but I get your point. The party has to realise on priority I would hope today focused some minds but I doubt it will.

You do wonder whether it's all part of some grand plan - install the worst-possible Prime Minister, guaranteed to appoint a Cabinet that couldn't run a bath, totally ruin the country, call an election, minority/small majority Labour administration (more than likely given the number of seats they have to make up) struggles on for a couple of years while the long-term shit continues to hit the fan, return of the King Over the Water.

davidjay wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 12:08 pm You do wonder whether it's all part of some grand plan - install the worst-possible Prime Minister, guaranteed to appoint a Cabinet that couldn't run a bath, totally ruin the country, call an election, minority/small majority Labour administration (more than likely given the number of seats they have to make up) struggles on for a couple of years while the long-term shit continues to hit the fan, return of the King Over the Water.

Nobody mention ploughing the fields with salt.
They'll think that's another aspiration policy.

Since leaving the EU, we'v been able to grow our own salt.

Shiiit! Scipius Aemilianus as Home Secretary?

Could be worse...

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 3:26 pm Shiiit! Scipius Aemilianus as Home Secretary?

Could be worse...

A tenner sayeth that I am not the only one here who had to look up the boy Scipius. Still, he was not a hamster-faced fascist kinkster, at least not in the artistic depictions of antiquity, so I am none the wiser.

Did he tell the centurions to stop jitterbugging at Superbia?

Brought up on the Punic Wars I was.

About a thousand years ag I admitted a youth who had been expelled from some of the worst schools in the area. Truculent.

His name was Scipio. Ah, I said, like Scipio Africanus!

Don't talk to me about the fucking Punic Wars he replied...

davidjay wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 12:08 pm You do wonder whether it's all part of some grand plan - install the worst-possible Prime Minister, guaranteed to appoint a Cabinet that couldn't run a bath, totally ruin the country, call an election, minority/small majority Labour administration (more than likely given the number of seats they have to make up) struggles on for a couple of years while the long-term shit continues to hit the fan, return of the King Over the Water.

Problem with that is, I think they’re doing too badly for it to be ‘the plan’. There’s a real risk (finally!) of PR, there’s a real risk of a Tory wipeout and split, and for it to be the plan it would need to have been plotted out by the very imbeciles who have been fucking up for 12 years who are now alienating increasingly large chunks of their own base.

Sadly, relentless greed and gross incompetence is the far more likely answer.

I am Abernathy, and I like the above post. Even though the board wouldn’t let me.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 7:47 pm

davidjay wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 12:08 pm You do wonder whether it's all part of some grand plan - install the worst-possible Prime Minister, guaranteed to appoint a Cabinet that couldn't run a bath, totally ruin the country, call an election, minority/small majority Labour administration (more than likely given the number of seats they have to make up) struggles on for a couple of years while the long-term shit continues to hit the fan, return of the King Over the Water.

Problem with that is, I think they’re doing too badly for it to be ‘the plan’. There’s a real risk (finally!) of PR, there’s a real risk of a Tory wipeout and split, and for it to be the plan it would need to have been plotted out by the very imbeciles who have been fucking up for 12 years who are now alienating increasingly large chunks of their own base.

Sadly, relentless greed and gross incompetence is the far more likely answer.

Which is why I think there might be something in my conspiracy theory. They haven't been doing badly - for them and theirs, they've been doing very well indeed. The last twelve years have been extremely lucrative ones if you're rich and well-connected.

I often wonder if a number of Tories would have been happy to have lost the 2017 election so that it would have been left to Labour to implement Brexit or to have introduce a second referendum. Either course would have destroyed Labour for years.

We’re all in it together!

Liz Truss’s chief of staff paid via lobbying firm in potential tax-saving move
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... SApp_Other

And even more coming out

Liz Truss ‘promised chief of staff next Tory election campaign in exchange for No 10 job’
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... SApp_Other

Excellent news!

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 7:47 pm

davidjay wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 12:08 pm You do wonder whether it's all part of some grand plan - install the worst-possible Prime Minister, guaranteed to appoint a Cabinet that couldn't run a bath, totally ruin the country, call an election, minority/small majority Labour administration (more than likely given the number of seats they have to make up) struggles on for a couple of years while the long-term shit continues to hit the fan, return of the King Over the Water.

Problem with that is, I think they’re doing too badly for it to be ‘the plan’. There’s a real risk (finally!) of PR, there’s a real risk of a Tory wipeout and split, and for it to be the plan it would need to have been plotted out by the very imbeciles who have been fucking up for 12 years who are now alienating increasingly large chunks of their own base.

Sadly, relentless greed and gross incompetence is the far more likely answer.

What if I told you:

There is a plan, and they are incompetent.

Watchman wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:28 pm We’re all in it together!

Liz Truss’s chief of staff paid via lobbying firm in potential tax-saving move
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... SApp_Other

Aspirational innit!!