“I take my responsibilities seriously. I did not lie” - UK politics June 23 on

He might have to call a GE to make it go away?

i'd describe it as a fight for the soul of the Conservative Party but, well, y'know

Starmer will back Sunak

lol

I think at some points between the Tory leadership debate and during Sunak's time as PM, both him and Truss have accused each other of having socialist policies. I think with Sunak it was his CoL payments and with Truss it was her unfunded tax cuts for the rich. But mentioning the rich was a bit awkward for him so he just called it something for nothing socialism.

is this demented US-style rhetorical turn happening in other countries or is it mostly just this shithole?

When it comes to summing up what’s going on at the Conservative Party conference, phone footage of Priti Patel and Nigel Farage dancing and singing along to ‘Can't Take My Eyes Off You’ could hardly be more on point.pic.twitter.com/mSDiau2gGt

— Nicholas Pegg (@NicholasPegg) October 3, 2023

Thought politics was solved once that awful Jeremy Corbyn was defeated. What happened?

We need robust and serious journalism as the General Election draws near. Sunak and his team of ministers cannot be allowed to get away with demonstrably false claims like meat taxes, blanket 20mph zones and 15 minute cities where councils regulate how often we can go shopping.

— Matthew Stadlen (@MatthewStadlen) October 3, 2023

xp oh jfc they absolutely fucked and now I have that image in my head

is this demented US-style rhetorical turn happening in other countries or is it mostly just this shithole?

From the places I know I'd say it's yes and no. Portugal, France and Germany all have far right parties in charge of promoting this kind of rhetoric, so it doesn't penetrate the establishment right as much. But otoh, the establishment right is consistently losing votes to these parties, so they'll probably head that way soon enough.

Actually we love Sunak and co's thrillingly stupid claims.

I can see them fooling Starmer into asserting that he's totally seen this on the doorsteps too, yes.

https://x.com/AdamBienkov/status/1709098695902314794?s=20

Bah

Just a government minister openly spreading a far right conspiracy theory, even after being challenged on it pic.twitter.com/caJczDvDYq

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) October 3, 2023

They've completely lost their minds since they managed not to lose the Uxbridge by-election. They're obviously been frantically focus- grouping.

Boris Johnson's final gift to UK pol was the fallout from that by-election.

That Sophy Ridge interview of Claire Coutinho, 2 points: 1. So antisemitism (joking about a Jewish man and a pork sandwich) is good now, it's like 2015-2019 never happened 2. Despite everything Coutinho actually does make a solid point at the end about no one knowing what Starmer thinks about anything, and she could easily have added "and he lies so much we thought we'd have a bit of fun with it". You can hardly complain about misrepresentation of your policies when you are the biggest misrepresenter of policies you held even just a few months ago, and everyone is now familiar with your strategy of suggesting and dropping policy on a whim because you are playing some game where you think you are beating your own part members.

*party members

https://news.sky.com/story/tory-london-mayor-candidate-urged-to-apologise-for-suggesting-jewish-people-are-frightened-by-sadiq-khan-12975414

Could do without Wes Streeting going on about "decent Conservatives" though.

Meat tax? That's not on Keith, not when so many are struggling to put food on the table

The Jewish Labour Movement accused Ms Hall of "gutter divisive politics that seeks to use the Jewish community as political pawns".

"We had quite enough of this from Jeremy Corbyn and saw him off - and have no patience for it from Susan Hall," it said.

*look to camera*

fucking hell, I just saw that ch4 news clip of a wheelchair bound woman with no legs who was declared fit for work. She even showed up at the job centre after receiving no benefits for weeks and was told there are obv no job vacancies that would be appropriate for her. Who could have figured?

Just for all that hateful anti-disability spiel in Jeremy Cunt's conf speech. I genuinely hope he get's hung drawn and quartered and has the slowest and most intensely painful death in all history.

More than a million British children do not have their own bed to sleep in. https://t.co/os4z1cLKzj

— James B (@piercepenniless) October 3, 2023

Yvette Cooper just can't wait to get started on torpedoing migrants crossing the channel:

Suella Braverman’s speech was devoid of practical policies and divorced from the reality of Tory failure over the last 13 years. She had nothing to say about the knife crime killing our children, the epidemic of town centre crime undermining our communities, or the collapse in prosecutions under the Tories which means more criminals are getting off. Nor did she mention the 1,000 people who have arrived on small boats since Tory conference started, all because she has totally lost control of border security.

Her promise to only “begin” closing hotels sometime “soon” is a massive watering down of the prime minister’s pledge to end hotel use [to house asylum seekers] last year, all while hotel use is still going up not down, and is now costing the taxpayer an astronomical £8m a day because they have simply failed to get a grip.

Suella Braverman and helicopter-riding Rishi Sunak may have the luxury of ignoring the blight of town centre crime or the serious problems our country faces but the British people don’t

Just for all that hateful anti-disability spiel in Jeremy Cunt's conf speech. I genuinely hope he get's hung drawn and quartered and has the slowest and most intensely painful death in all history.

Yet I'm betting Wes Streeting would consider him a "decent Conservative".

pretty feeb when you have to get your spouse on as a hype man. must've sucked for Ted Heath

Sarah Brown did it twice! Didn’t help him much in the long run.

i think there's a pattern of "partner is possibly more media-friendly than the main guy" here

pretty feeb when you have to get your spouse on as a hype man. must've sucked for Ted Heath

Starmer's wife keeps a pretty low profile though?

xp lol i knew what i was saying

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7hh3cXXsAAJaLG?format=jpg&name=large

leadership makeover has her looking increasingly like Martian Girl from Mars Attacks, Braverman standing on a guide dog's tail. That's about right really.

Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, seemed moved to tears at one point during Rishi Sunak’s speech when Sunak talked about the pride his immigrant grandfather expressed when Sunak became an MP.

this is also conservative housing policy https://t.co/AfEIHrZXJ7

— 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔰 🧲 (@PerthshireMags) October 4, 2023

lol otm

smoking ban sounds awesome, hope i live long enough to watch middle aged people getting carded, might prove to be a moneyspinner in the absence of a pension

Almost a quarter of the HS2 money, unless I’ve misunderstood the background paper, is going on pothole repairs

— Jennifer Williams (@JenWilliams_FT) October 4, 2023

I cannot stop watching this. It’s one of the most peculiar things I’ve ever seen, which given the venue, is really saying something. Get to the end (if you can). pic.twitter.com/tvn3HCxsSC

— Brendan May (@bmay) October 4, 2023

if i wanted to avoid being accused of fascism i would simply avoid copping the language and mannerisms of a fascist

that was so laughably Trussesque, not really up there with the sword carrying symbolic fascism that made her a Tory pin-up at QEII's planting ceremony.

i'm sure she was coached - whoever coached her must be head in hands - but the Mussolini/Hitler hand jive is a bit on the nose for a dogwhistle

Well their most succesful leader was Thatcher who remains one of the weirdest, most outré, public figures I have ever seen.

twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!

post Truss, they all know it doesn't matter how embarrassing, widely mocked and self-debasing their conference speeches are - they've still got a shot at leadership.

it's true people seem to have forgotten all the bizarre shit thatcher came out with on a daily basis

Ok this government is fucked

Mate you need to tell your photoshop team to bear in mind that when they search for stock images, "UK" also stands for University of Kentucky. https://t.co/1iuvCBcjSb

— Ledbury Dan (@LedburyGas) October 5, 2023

Step one. Seize the land, demolish homes and businesses.
Step two: Sell off the land for billions of pounds and take the profits elsewhere. https://t.co/MKZhITAUGP

— Richard Osley (@RichardOsley) October 5, 2023

RIP the Bree Louise

Turns out there are University of Kentucky fans in Cornwall, UK government to last 100 years

Sorry that was in response to Alphie's first link there, which is now dead - a recent picture of Rishi and some delighted fans looked like a bad (subject) photoshop when it's probably just a bad (methods) photoshop.

They may or may not be from the UK and he may or may not have met them, but its certainly a photoshop... pic.twitter.com/BOIRT5Qnpg

— David (@WondrousDavid) October 5, 2023

Correct number of fingers = That'll do

That’s not exactly a given with tories