[Tubby Isaacs]

The what?

[Tubby Isaacs]

The what?!

[satnav]

Looking at some of the shit coming out of the Tory conference I'm still not sure whether or not they have simply run out of ideas or whether they are saving the best ideas for next year ready to kick start their election campaign.

[kreuzberger]

It's a national holiday here, today, so we have been doing as little as humanly possible. I have just been flicking back and forth from my roster of news sources.

That in mind, I started the afternoon, finding the tories faintly ridiculous with their war on woke carrots or somesuch arrant nonsense. Then the clouds gathered their skirts and brought an ill wind.

I finish the day, utterly fearful for some of those I love and like the most, and who I have brought in to this world. The Island of Hate is now such a dangerous place with the potential for vast unpleasantness being a very viable future.

Of course, it might not come to that but, if I was forced to choose, I would be getting the fuck out - however possible - until after the next election.

[Boiler]

Well, let's hope that they lose the next GE then.

[Boiler]

Does Tugendhat, supposedly a specialist on national security and defence know Farage’s views on the Ukraine war? Tom Arsehat more like.

I'm sure I heard on the radio that in the US, a quarter of Repugs now align with Russia rather than Ukraine.

Come a long way since Joe McCarthy, haven't we?

[Watchman]

Looking at some of the shit coming out of the Tory conference I'm still not sure whether or not they have simply run out of ideas or whether they are saving the best ideas for next year ready to kick start their election campaign.

I was applying my “Nuremberg” rule; get the faithful riled up with mad rhetoric, then anything we may want to publish will be blindly accepted

[Tubby Isaacs]

Unusual bit of good sense here, from an unlikely source. Rachel Maclean was last seen opining that people renting property weren't all dopeheads who were in gangs.

[Bones McCoy]

The what?!

For context they were pinning their mortgages (Pah, like tories have mortgages ...) on getting a deal with Trump.

Interested observers may have noticed that most people who deal with trump end up getting bilked.

[Tubby Isaacs]

We've seen these sort of predictions before, and they might have happened if IDS had stuck around as Tory leader. But this is plausible. Though I think there's too much radical right among Tory voters for the Lib Dems to sweep them away as sane right. And anyway the Lib Dems have always had more dustbin voters than they like to admit- how do they react to the Lib Dems sounding like a party of government?

[Crabcakes]

I finish the day, utterly fearful for some of those I love and like the most, and who I have brought in to this world. The Island of Hate is now such a dangerous place with the potential for vast unpleasantness being a very viable future.

Of course, it might not come to that but, if I was forced to choose, I would be getting the fuck out - however possible - until after the next election.

I think above all else, the one thing that is likely to see the U.K. scrape through until they are finally forced to hold a general election is that the damage the Tories can do is being severely limited by 3 things:
1. Their own constant infighting meaning everyone is trying to prevent anyone else gaining traction
2. Their blatant stupidity and incompetence meaning their schemes simply don’t work
3. Their absolute, all-encompassing laziness and outright terror of being held accountable for something.

None of them want to do anything, but they all want the credit. So all that will happen is repeated shuffling of the same headline statements until Sunak has to go to the King.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is anyone making any kind of pitch for the sane Tory vote? There are lots of Tory councillors in power who just have to get on with things. When the local rag asks you why you've closed a youth club in Hereford you can't do a Braverman. Such people who are interested in local politics will think "That's a shame, kids need somewhere to go". They won't think "this is justified because woke".

[Yug]

I think Tubby has put his finger on one of the big problems the Tories have. They've been so wrapped up in themselves and their echo chamber that they've forgotten that the majority of British people aren't like them, and they're now trying to appeal to a voter base that doesn't exist in any great numbers. Long may they continue to do so, it just turns more people away from them.

[Andy McDandy]

Is anyone making any kind of pitch for the sane Tory vote? There are lots of Tory councillors in power who just have to get on with things. When the local rag asks you why you've closed a youth club in Hereford you can't do a Braverman. Such people who are interested in local politics will think "That's a shame, kids need somewhere to go". They won't think "this is justified because woke".

I think it was John O'Farrell who noted that if you ask someone their political views, if they say "I don't do politics" or "middle of the road", what they mean is they're Tory. In big parts of the country, Tory is the default option.

Labour, Lib Dems, any party on the "progressive" side has to be about making a noise, getting things done, changing things about, because they're all working on the basis that there are injustices in society that need fixing. For all the Tories talk on similar lines, what they're actually advocating is a status quo - everyone knowing their place in a strict hierarchy, and with some groups to look down upon.

So, the Tory councillor who quietly does their job and only occasionally lets their friends sneak a look at what's on the planning committee's agenda will be "nice Councillor Harris", rather than "that Labour one who's always banging on".

[Bones McCoy]

I think Tubby has put his finger on one of the big problems the Tories have. They've been so wrapped up in themselves and their echo chamber that they've forgotten that the majority of British people aren't like them, and they're now trying to appeal to a voter base that doesn't exist in any great numbers. Long may they continue to do so, it just turns more people away from them.

Conservativehome certainly echoes this.
There's a noisy minority claiming that Truss' only mistake was not going far enough.
Others describing Sunak as WEF puppet or communist.

I see it as another NHS failure - shortage of anti-pshychotic meds?

But these people claim to be activists.
They're not clear whether they're Tory activists, or represent the slew of further right parties whose lawns are being invaded by the likes of Braverman, Mogg, IDS ....
What's clear is that their idea of activism is being on-line 18 hours a day posting one-eyed opinion.


Regarding the Liberals (Libdems or whatever), they have tended to swing left with their rhetoric when Labour have moved rightward.
Nick Clegg caught us all by surprise when his left leaning manifesto stepped into coalition with Cameron, with student fees and running interference for Uncle Rupert.

We shouldn't forget that they are a broad church, prone to short term single issue fads.
As time passes I'm growing more comfortable with the old Militant slogan that they're the "Tory 2nd XI".

[Crabcakes]

I think Tubby has put his finger on one of the big problems the Tories have. They've been so wrapped up in themselves and their echo chamber that they've forgotten that the majority of British people aren't like them, and they're now trying to appeal to a voter base that doesn't exist in any great numbers. Long may they continue to do so, it just turns more people away from them.

They have essentially 'done a Corbyn' - appealing to the voter base they assume exists (and aiming all their policies as such), and ignoring any and all polls saying this isn't working on the assumption that on election day these people will suddenly show up from somewhere.

And if they don't, I suspect the remaining Tory rump will blame the electorate for not being sophisticated enough to appreciate their offering.

[Abernathy]

Quite an interesting Tory conference, I thought. Sunak not waving but drowning, with a desperate pitch to cast himself as “the change”, deploying the abandonment of the northern phase of HS2 disguised dissemblingly as a great investment programme to improve every rail route in the north of England and apparently resurface every fucking road in England and Wales, some extremely vague promises about NHS reform, and a good dose of forriner bashing. Plus one sensible idea pinched from NZ to raise the minimum purchase age for cancer sticks every year.

Every year, this conference serves to remind me not just how massively wrong these people are, but also what appalling people they are. Those shots of a front row of the likes of Cleverly, Braverman, Badenoch, Keegan, Coffey, and so on clapping like demented fucking sealions makes me want to lose my lunch.

Christ, but this election really can’t come quickly enough.

[Crabcakes]

It’s like they looked up ‘aspirational’ and just did the polar opposite in every category. No decent public transport. No inclusivity. No compassion. No choice of subject that you still have to pay for, so what’s it to them? No educational reform outside of more, for longer, and delivered in a drier way. No NHS reform outside of more managers and less for frontline services. A decline in the speed of costs rising presented as a tax cut when it’s nothing of the sort. And the one ‘good’ thing is a free vote that will probably be quietly pulled if it looks like numbers aren’t good enough, or kicked into grass so long it’ll never see the light of day again because he knows full well the tobacco lobby will be waving wads of tenners in front of his very, very persuadable MPs.

To borrow a general gist from Neil Kinnock, I urge you to be late middle aged and well off, white, straight, able to afford private healthcare and able to prove your British citizenship beyond all doubt. Because god help you if you’re not.

[Youngian]

Tories are working to a template that serves Trump, Orban, Le Pen etc. very well. But they served their populist main course in 2016 and no longer even want to mention Brexit. Nothing is better than it was four, eight or 12 years ago. So all they have left is an eccentric collection of low level culture war moaning that most of the public haven’t even been prepped for by the media.* Pretending you haven’t been in charge for 13 years because of unelected liberal elite forces won’t do much to inspire confidence in your ability to govern. They appear to have forgotten Ted Heath asking the electorate who runs the country.

*The most underrated bullshit this week is Theresa Coffey’s war on woke walking

[mattomac]

They’ve not just let the mask slip they want you to see the whole rotten edifice