PM

Out of Johnson Mordaunt and Sunak, certainly Mordaunt or Sunak will be the least worst option, certainly better than Johnson and Truss, but admittedly that is an extremely low bar.

So, Bojo has dropped out of the race to be PM.

He's either not got the votes he thought he would, or more likely, the grandees have had a word in his ear.

Wouldn't surprise me if he has another go in the future, as his ego is the size of a planet.

Quoted from ginnywings

So, Bojo has dropped out of the race to be PM.

He's either not got the votes he thought he would, or more likely, the grandees have had a word in his ear.

Wouldn't surprise me if he has another go in the future, as his ego is the size of a planet.

I'm sure the whole of Grimsby will be telling Lia Nici who they want tomorrow.

I hope he really did cut short a holiday to come back for 36hrs of failure rather than doing it all for show.

Johnson as classy as always.

"Firstly, I could have walked this leadership contest. I'd have flipping drunk the next General Election as well. But to be honest I've decided I can't be arsed with it all".

It sums up Bojo that his supporters have been saying he’s changed, is contrite and has learnt his lessons; yet it appears he’s lied to them and everyone else that he had the necessary 100 nominations.

The guy just can’t tell the truth.

Sorry state of affairs that the coronation of slimeball Sunak almost feels like a release (albeit a rubbish release, like an Ed Sheeran Greatest Hits album).

Democracy, what democracy! We have a population of about 67 million people but only 100k+ were allowed to vote in the last PM election and they cocked it up with Truss. Now democracy has 357 tory MPs who will decide who will govern.

What an entire shambles. We need an election for the country to decide, not an elite few who do not represent the entire country as the 650 seats in parliament represent the entire country.

Quoted from DB

Democracy, what democracy! We have a population of about 67 million people but only 100k+ were allowed to vote in the last PM election and they cocked it up with Truss. Now democracy has 357 tory MPs who will decide who will govern.

What an entire shambles. We need an election for the country to decide, not an elite few who do not represent the entire country as the 650 seats in parliament represent the entire country.

But you don't vote for a person, you vote for a party and it's up to them who leads that party. This is one of the problems with the voting system as it becomes about the personality of the leader and not the views and policies that his/her party represent.

The mostly right-wing press love this because it's easier to destroy a person than it is a party.

The last election became about Boris v Corbyn and it was easy to tell you that Corbyn was an antisemitic, terrorist sympathiser and lefty socialist who would destroy the country and the economy, when in fact, he is a fairly boring social democrat who had a proper and fair manifesto and was backed by the party membership which had swelled to around 600,000. The other issue of course being about Brexit, which Boris jumped all over despite being quite happy to back the remain campaign had that been seen as more of a vote winner. At no point did the press tell you about Boris being a liar, cheat, racist and philanderer who would do and say anything to get elected. He also found that magic money tree that they had used to mock Labour's plans.

So, here we are, with the Tories in a shambolic state, the country in a mess and the economy tanked. Brexit didn't bring the sunlit uplands you were promised. Levelling up was a myth and we are back to austerity 2.0.

I'm actually laughing at people such as yourself who fell for all the guff and are now complaining that you want a general election. Didn't go according to plan, did it?

I want a general election myself, but it won't happen because all the Tories care about and all they have EVER cared about, is themselves and being in power. They are not going to give that up by calling a GE in which they would get annihilated.

So now we will have the oily and clean-cut Sunak, who is richer than the King, telling us how we will have to bear the brunt of their fook ups.

Quoted from ginnywings

But you don't vote for a person, you vote for a party and it's up to them who leads that party. This is one of the problems with the voting system as it becomes about the personality of the leader and not the views and policies that his/her party represent.

The mostly right-wing press love this because it's easier to destroy a person than it is a party.

The last election became about Boris v Corbyn and it was easy to tell you that Corbyn was an antisemitic, terrorist sympathiser and lefty socialist who would destroy the country and the economy, when in fact, he is a fairly boring social democrat who had a proper and fair manifesto and was backed by the party membership which had swelled to around 600,000. The other issue of course being about Brexit, which Boris jumped all over despite being quite happy to back the remain campaign had that been seen as more of a vote winner. At no point did the press tell you about Boris being a liar, cheat, racist and philanderer who would do and say anything to get elected. He also found that magic money tree that they had used to mock Labour's plans.

So, here we are, with the Tories in a shambolic state, the country in a mess and the economy tanked. Brexit didn't bring the sunlit uplands you were promised. Levelling up was a myth and we are back to austerity 2.0.

I'm actually laughing at people such as yourself who fell for all the guff and are now complaining that you want a general election. Didn't go according to plan, did it?

I want a general election myself, but it won't happen because all the Tories care about and all they have EVER cared about, is themselves and being in power. They are not going to give that up by calling a GE in which they would get annihilated.

So now we will have the oily and clean-cut Sunak, who is richer than the King, telling us how we will have to bear the brunt of their fook ups.

It is not a matter of falling for guff but the fact that what parties put in their manifesto is not legally binding. If it were legally binding then the promises would have to be acted upon and the 'guff ' would not appear. As you know I have already said I voted for Brexit and if Corbyn had said this I would have voted for Labour.

Sadly I learnt today that we are still paying into the EU

"But in July 2022, the government's own estimate put the bill higher, at £42.5bn. It says the increase is due to the most recent valuation of the UK's obligation for EU pensions."  [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/51110096 ].

Exit to me means you leave and shut the door. This did not happen. If it was stated that exit would have to have conditions attached to it then I would not have voted that way.

Have you ever decided to cancel a phone contract mid-way through because you fancied a change? If so, you'll have known in advance that you would have to pay what was due on the remainder of the contract.

It was the same with leaving the EU. We were signed up as full members which known costs factored in (and known benefits), and it was necessary to negotiate our way out of our promises. The fact that Brexiteers may have lied and blustered about we would have to pay or that we could simply refuse to pay is neither here nor there. They were, unsurprisingly, not being honest. If we'd withdrawn unilaterally and not paid our dues, it would have been the hardest possible of Brexits which would have damaged our economy even more than has been the case.

Since you mentioned Brexit, how well do you think that is going? As Mark Carney pointed out the other day, before Brexit, the UK economy was 90% the size of the German economy. Now, it is 70% of the size. That's some going in just a short amount of time.

Also, I notice that the latest is that the government is planning to pass a law to repeal and replace all legislation passed while we were members of the EU. 2,400 laws to be rewritten (or some perhaps abandoned) by the end of 2023:

https://www.theguardian.com/la.....sappear-lawyers-warn

It's simply not possible in the timescale or resources available. Given the libertarian bent of the Brexiteers who are currently in government, I suspect that the laws protecting workers rights and environmental protections will be weakened at the very least. Who knows what other sort of crazy crap they will come up with before the public finally get the opportunity to turf them out of office? Government ministers can quite literally just create new laws to replace the old ones and put whatever they like in them, given the powers they have allocated themselves to deal with the Brexit process. Look at this government. Do you really trust them to do anything right at the moment?

As for the new PM, it's looking like a stitch up to ensure that Sunak gets in unopposed. They obviously don't want to give the Tory members the chance to pick someone a bit paler once again. It is even less democratic than the process which gave the job to Truss! They've completely changed the rules of their contest to fix it. Crazy stuff.