[Tubby Isaacs]

According to that speech he gave to the CSJ, low pay no longer exists, either. The Tories raising the NMW fixed it.

It's good that the NMW went up, but they cut the tax credits at the same time. The CSJ know that very well.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

They sink lower and lower in their pitiful and shameful efforts to court the votes of their primitive members in the shires and the human vermin that infests Reform and UKIP.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He's useless, isn't he?

[Tubby Isaacs]

More Record Breakers than Roy Castle.

[mattomac]

He claimed their would be thousands leaving, the agreement only is up to 500.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Or, to put it another way, taking it back to a level before David Cameron cut it.

Completely unfunded, of course. And very unlikely he's in office to have to do it.

[Samanfur]

It looks as though he's heading for a fight with the civil service:

Sunak ‘confident’ civil service will enact Rwanda bill despite legal concerns

Rishi Sunak has said he is confident Home Office staff will enact the Rwanda deportation scheme, despite fears that could put them in breach of international law.

The FDA, the union for senior civil servants, has threatened ministers with legal action if they are forced to implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.

The union has warned civil servants could be in violation of the civil service code, and potentially open to prosecution, if they followed a minister’s demands to ignore an urgent injunction from Strasbourg banning a deportation.

But speaking on a flight to Poland, Sunak said: “I’m clearly and firmly of the view that civil servants know that what they’re there to do is support the government and that’s what I’m confident they will do in this instance.

“That’s why we specifically changed the civil service code, which is one of the steps that we made a little while ago, to make it crystal clear that when it comes to rule 39 decisions, the bill gives ministers the discretion to decide what to do about those.”

He added: “I wouldn’t have put that power in there if I wasn’t prepared to use it, but our changes to the code make it crystal clear that civil servants will be expected to follow ministerial guidance on that point when we get there, or if we get there.”

The FDA sent a pre-action legal letter to James Cleverly, the home secretary, outlining its concerns last month.

[slilley]

I see he was interviewed by Trevor Phillips this morning. Again thin skinned having a pop because Phillips asked him about poll ratings, which Sunak did not think important. He may change his tune on Friday if the various election results reflect broadly what the opinion polls have been saying of late and the Conservatives get another spanking. That almost certainly will give backbenchers a renewed bout of the jitters and the plots could start again, always assuming they ever went away to begin with.

If he is going to be like that in the heat of an election campaign, then he could easily make things worse either in an interview, hustings debate, aor actualy meeting the public. Losing your temper is never a good look

[Andy McDandy]

Apparently one of the reasons why he misses PMQs so much is because he wants to project an air of "I'm so above this trivial stuff, excuse me while I meet with some world leaders".

I also note Chris Plop or whatever his name is doing the rounds today and saying that an election would be a "referendum on grumpiness with the government", so should only take place when people are going to take it seriously.

I'm going to stay up for him losing his seat.

[Abernathy]

I also note Chris Plop or whatever his name is doing the rounds today and saying that an election would be a "referendum on grumpiness with the government", so should only take place when people are going to take it seriously.

I'm going to stay up for him losing his seat.

They’re very much in denial, aren’t they ? Denial that this election is about a 14 year record of corruption, incompetence, cruelty, deliberate ideology-based damage (aks Brexit), and sheer nastiness .

And it always will be,. Not about a couple of pence knocked off NICs, nor about restrictions on buying fags, nor about increasing defence budgets, nor about sending vulnerable refugees to fucking Rwanda.

[davidjay]

It will certainly be nice to see that Labour aren't the party whose extremists blame a crushing defeat on not being extreme enough.

[satnav]

There were quite a few rumours last week that Rishi might call an election on Monday and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he does. Many of last weeks announcements on increasing defence spending, pushing on with Rwanda and cracking down on benefit claimants will all have played well with his core supporters but it is very unlikely that any of it will be achieved anytime soon.

If he does a call an election tomorrow next weeks mayoral elections and council elections will largely become irrelevant because sitting MPs will be more interested in saving their seats rather than slagging off Rishi or triggering a leadership election.

If he doesn't call an election he risks being called a bottler and also risks the possibility of a damaging leadership election.

[Andy McDandy]

They’re very much in denial, aren’t they ? Denial that this election is about a 14 year record of corruption, incompetence, cruelty, deliberate ideology-based damage (aks Brexit), and sheer nastiness .

And it always will be,. Not about a couple of pence knocked off NICs, nor about restrictions on buying fags, nor about increasing defence budgets, nor about sending vulnerable refugees to fucking Rwanda.

This is what happens when you ignore anyone disagreeing with you (because they're woke lefties and they'll never stop moaning) and surround yourself with sycophants, and judge everything by its immediate effect on you personally.

[slilley]

It will certainly be nice to see that Labour aren't the party whose extremists blame a crushing defeat on not being extreme enough.

Political parties dont learn the lessons of history or learn from the mistakes of other parties. Labout in the 1979-1983 period blamed their 1979 defeat on not being socialist enough. The result was the 1983 manifesto and an absolute thrashing at the polls.

I expect the next Conservative manifesto to be pretty hard right and for them to be well beaten. The denial factor going on is staggering. Philp on Laura Kunnesberg this morning played the Jeremy Corbyn card, someone who is no longer a Labour Party member nor will he be a Labour candidate next time around.

A General Election is fought primarily on the Government's record and this one after 14 years is going to struggle to defend their "achievements". Any candidate from an opposition party at a hustings meeting or elsewhere can simply say"do you feel you and the country are better off after 14 years of Conservative led government?".In all probability the answer coming back will be no.

Simon

[Watchman]

https://www.facebook.com/share/gYmca3qT ... tid=WC7FNe

[Abernathy]

the Jeremy Corbyn card, someone who is no longer a Labour Party member nor will he be a Labour candidate next time around.

Not quite right. Though Corbyn will definitely not be a Labour candidate at the election, he remains a member of the Labour Party. Of course, the instant he declares as a candidate against the official Labour candidate in Islington North, he won’t be. Automatic expulsion.

[slilley]

Thank you Abernathy for the clarification of Corbyn’s status

[Crabcakes]

Sunak, to his very minimal credit, is not insane like Truss. So consequently I can’t see why he doesn’t call an election right now. The Tories aren’t going to win - you can’t overturn over a decade of deliberately harmful, mean-spirited policies and naked corruption with the threat of sending some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world to a dictator-run backwater, with a chaser of taking the remaining dignity of some disabled people away so a handful of billionaires can enjoy a tax cut. It’s going to appeal to a sliver of society, while to the rest of us - including many former Tory voters - it’s abhorrent. So why not get it over with?

He’s outlasted Truss. Boris won’t be able to force him out in revenge because he’s a joke now and has shown his support evaporates in the light of day. He can’t beat Boris’s term as he’d have to win an election for that. So losing now means he can slip off into luxurious obscurity and become a footnote that he was the guy who followed the worst and then the shortest-tenured and most stupid PMs. There’s literally no legacy he can leave, no big impact to make. Unless he’s also secretly absolutely barking and genuinely thinks he can win, there’s no reason to stay put other than to prolong his embarrassment.

[Andy McDandy]

I think it was Rayner who said he wanted one last summer with his company helicopter. Sure he could afford his own, but the sheer joy of getting chauffeur-flown on taxpayer money is hard to beat.

Also, remember who he's surrounded by - MPs who have had 14 years of privileged access, and SpAds who depend on their guys being in power for anything meaningful. As Daniel Craig said in Layer Cake, people love to walk through doors marked private. A few extra months on the inside are better than the indignity of being a former MP, of no interest to anyone*.

And finally, the horse might just learn to talk.

*Important point, this. An opposition MP, while less influential than a government one, still has some clout and is of interest to lobbyists. An ex-MP though, is no use to anybody.

[Abernathy]

Surely Sunak must be thinking “Fuck it, let ‘s just have the fucking election now. “