[Crabcakes]

So, what’s the betting?

A. The local elections are a shitshow and Sunak calls a GE before he’s ousted as he knows it isn’t going to improve
B. The local elections are a shitshow and Sunak is ousted before he can call a GE

[Yug]

Going by Sunak's obvious inability to grasp the nettle I'm going for option B.

[Dalem Lake]

I'll go for option B as well. He's clinging on for some reason, maybe something to do with this India trade deal, and it will take the Tories to literally crowbar him out of Downing St.

[Watchman]

I think he wants to be ousted, so he doesn't have to be seen as giving up his seat, and not fight a GE

[Yug]

Was looking at the election results on the BBC site and this popped up. They're not having a good time at the moment.

[Abernathy]

Mark Harper has been given the shitty job of doing the modern media round on this apocalyptic morning after. He’s following the standard script, describing the Tories’ massive losses as “disappointing” (well, no, they weren’t disappointing in the slightest to me and thousands of others that want to see the back of these cunts), and that they’re going to carry on with their “plan”, Rishi is the leader they need, and the general election is not yet a done deal.

Meanwhile 30p Lee has summed things up nicely (for once) since he has reportedly said that the British people have already made up their minds about Sunak’s Tories, and that Sunak could fly a helicopter across the UK and drop a million quid down the chimney of every house, and they’d still vote him out.

[Oboogie]

Mark Harper has been given the shitty job of doing the modern media round on this apocalyptic morning after. He’s following the standard script, describing the Tories’ massive losses as “disappointing” (well, no, they weren’t disappointing in the slightest to me and thousands of others that want to see the back of these cunts), and that they’re going to carry on with their “plan”, Rishi is the leader they need, and the general election is not yet a done deal.

Harper's still touting Sky News' Friday night bullshit that the local election results prove Labour cannot win a majority and we're on course for a hung parliament. There is of course zero evidence to support that assertion.

[Bones McCoy]

Special delivery to central office

[Tubby Isaacs]

Here speaks Miriam Cates (BA Cambridge). It was higher education, before the age of 30. Expressly so to encompass the many people who have gone into "the real world" first and then decide that study would help them progress. Plus as Sam says, the biggest expansion occurred under Thatcher/Major.

Miriam, not short of advice for the Prime Minister, won't allow comments.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Support for Miriam from one her straight-talking local Tory councillors. I'd be surprised if people who attend university would be unemployed otherwise. Then again I haven't just watched a boxset of Shelley.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And here's her advice for the PM today. "Cultural security". I thought "our voters" were interested in levelling up? And fuck that international clever shit, or something.

[Andy McDandy]

Funny, I thought that Cambridge degrees started at master's level. Happy to be proved wrong though.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Does she think Rishi Sunak isn't patriotic? Or am I reading that wrong?

[Oboogie]

Miriam Cates was born in 1982 and therefore turned 18 in 2000. Which is presumably when she went to Cambridge to help Blair cynically massage the unemployment figures.

[Tubby Isaacs]

More advice for the party, from a man well known for his election strategising.

I've only read this BTL post. It seems to involve spending lots of money and cutting taxes.. He may be right that this wouldn't cause a Truss-style meltdown, but it would be quite the U-turn. Do Tories still bore on about Heath's U-turn?

He's almost resurrected the VIchy France slogan at the end too. Truly a vision to excite the young. Immigration reduced to a "minimum" whatever that means. Run that one through the OBR computer.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Miriam Cates was born in 1982 and therefore turned 18 in 2000. Which is presumably when she went to Cambridge to help Blair cynically massage the unemployment figures.

Her parents both went to university too. Doubtless part of a cunning trick pulled by Harold Wilson.

[satnav]

According to many sages on Twitter the Tories problem is that they are not right wing enough. This seems to be a bit far fetched given that in the week before the local election the government locked up thousands of asylum seekers in preparation for sending them to Rwanda, the Tories launched and attack on people on disability benefits and announced a sharp rise in defence spending. Despite all these right wing measures the Torie were still trounced in the elections.

[Bones McCoy]

Meanwhile reports suggest Rishi's "Man in Kigali"has left the country with his £3,000.


Shades here of the Indonesian Sugarto dictatorship's "Transmigrasi" programme.
Poor peasants were offered incentives to locate from populous heartland islands to sparsely populated outer islands.
The plan being that they'd clear jungle, plant rice and ...
(Well OK there wasn't much of a plan, Rice doesn't grow on cleared jungle).

Some settled and burned the jungle for land.
Some formed gangs and engaged in localised warfare with indigenous peoples.
Many spent some of heir bounty on a Prahu trip home to extended family - and repeated the paid trip on an annual basis.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Surprised to see replies allowed by Cates here.

Seems like it's from the same article where she talked about "cultural security". I'll take a wild guess that her Legatum pals aren't that bothered about manufacturing in South Yorkshire.

[davidjay]

People in West Bromwich, Stoke and Bury didn't vote Tory in 2019 because of levelling-up. It was because Boris was a Ledge, he was going to Get Brexit Done and Corbyn was anti-British.