POLITICS CORNER

[plaques]

I see we have entered that surreal world where there are no industrial strikes just a shortage of labour. Small firms are encouraged to move abroad into Europe and take advantages of energy price caps and trade to a bigger market on their doorstep. The transport supply chain has now been streamlined with larger lorry parks which can easily accommodate the two day waiting delay. The NHS may not get the 40 new hospitals but a supply of Acrow props to support the aging concrete roofs has been secured. The inflation crisis is only affecting those who can't afford to buy things so its wrong to call a bit of local difficulty a crisis. On and on it goes, spin on spin on spin. Why does it remind me of George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. (1984)

Later
Michael Gove backs Rishi Sunak for Tory leader as he accuses Liz Truss of taking 'holiday from reality' Gove

It looks like Gove has been reading OG. in effect 'we can't give you a pay rise because we've already given the money to the senior executives'. And what's more we intend to give them some more so that they can donate to the Tory party.

[Tizer]

Another word to remember alongside petrichor is geosmin, one of the chemicals responsible for its odour. Geosmin

Why does it remind me of George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. (1984).

Ministry of Truth reminds me of Trump's name for his social media platform: Truth Social

[Stanley]

Ken, Gove is so devious that I automatically suspect a hidden agenda. He says he has no interest in a Cabinet post which implies that anyone supporting Truss is in it for what they can get. Could it be that if she gets the Leadership she will immediately have to deal with a split in the Party? It reminds me of John Major and his 'bastards' and look what that led to.
Whichever gets the post they will be ultra right wing and this bodes ill for ordinary folk. We need organised and popular Opposition to force Parliament into a General Election although I am not sure that even that can stop the rot.
Later at 07:00. Liz Truss has repeated her belief that a recession isn't inevitable... I am sorry to say it but she is deluded if not actually barking mad. Doesn't she realise that it's already started? I am no fan of Sunak but at least he talks sense, if Truss gets to impose her views it will be a disaster!

[plaques]

Later at 07:00. Liz Truss has repeated her belief that a recession isn't inevitable... I am sorry to say it but she is deluded if not actually barking mad. Doesn't she realise that it's already started? I am no fan of Sunak but at least he talks sense, if Truss gets to impose her views it will be a disaster!

Recession, what recession? Its quite possible to have quite a deep recession without It meeting the technical definition of a recession. If say you start at a value of 'zero' and the first quarter drops 2% but the next remains level or slightly up but still 2% below zero then the third quarter drops another 2% taking the total to minus 4% followed by another level quarter , then repeated until say minus 16% then technically the definition of quarters being below the one before has never been met although the end result is minus 16%. Words mean what I want the to mean. Humpty Truss Dumpty.

I see Truss is at her misrepresentation wagon again. This time its a paper written in 2009 calling for a £10 visit fee to see a Doctor plus doctors are being paid too much. etc. Excuse... Just because I've helped to write a paper doesn't mean I agree with what's written in the paper.
How's that for weasel words?

[Tizer]

Whichever gets the post they will be ultra right wing and this bodes ill for ordinary folk. We need organised and popular Opposition to force Parliament into a General Election although I am not sure that even that can stop the rot.
Later at 07:00. Liz Truss has repeated her belief that a recession isn't inevitable... I am sorry to say it but she is deluded if not actually barking mad. Doesn't she realise that it's already started? I am no fan of Sunak but at least he talks sense, if Truss gets to impose her views it will be a disaster!

I agree with all of that except I'd say that Sunak is ordinary Tory right wing whereas Truss is seriously crazy ultra right wing and, yes, she's barking mad and frighteningly unpredictable. There's a touch of Trumpism and, like him, she'll be unsafe with the keys to the nuclear arsenal. She's due to meet Biden in Washington soon and that's going to be interesting - Biden is loyal to his Irish roots and he sees her as, like Boris, a threat to Ireland. Then she's off to an international conference in Bali and expected to meet Putin. She'll need a team around her, not for her protection but to make sure she doesn't start a war! Putin should take his big dog with him, the one he used to worry Merkel !
------------------------------------------

`Labour surges as Tory fears grow over Truss’s tax cut agenda: Likely PM’s policies will mean ‘big trouble’, say critics, as Starmer’s energy price initiative boosts him in polls' Guardian
`Senior Tories have warned that their party will suffer dire electoral consequences under a Liz Truss premiership that fails to address the cost of living crisis, as Labour enjoys a poll bounce suggesting Keir Starmer could be on course for No 10. Amid signs of mounting panic among high-ranking Conservatives about Truss’s economic policies, several former cabinet ministers told the Observer on Saturday the party would suffer devastating losses in blue and red wall seats unless Truss changes tack, if and when she enters No 10.
`After Michael Gove described Truss’s plan to focus on cutting taxes as a “holiday from reality” and announced he was supporting Rishi Sunak, the latest Opinium poll for the Observer gives Labour and its leader a double poll boost, days after he backed a complete freeze on energy bills this autumn. Labour now enjoys its biggest Opinium poll lead in months – eight points – while Starmer has surged well ahead of Truss in the past two weeks when voters are asked who would be the best prime minister.'...

[Stanley]

Good posts and my main comment is that I hope I am sadly in error about Starmer if he is set to be the next PM. I think the man is totally lacking in charisma and seriously lacking in left-wing sentiment but suppose I am wrong? He could be a good incumbent, certainly preferable to either truss or any other Tory candidate.

[plaques]

Truss promises immediate tax cuts. Sunak tax cuts eventually.

Assuming the voter is quite wealthy who can easily absorb a 13% increase in the cost of living. Is not dependent on day wages and has a substantial retirement pension. Also derives a large income from investment in shares which will increase if corporation taxes are reduced.

Now the starter for ten. Which candidate would you vote for?

Nuff said.

[Stanley]

Sadly Ken, I fear you are right. Truss is beginning to look like a shoo-in.
Did you see the estimates of rate of inflation are up to 18% now and the cap on energy up to £6000. I am getting very worried about this winter.

[plaques]

With fuel prices hitting new highs every time the subject is mentioned we now have a do nothing government stirring up apathy by saying gas and electricity usage is down to the individual. Fuel usage. For many the the 'decision' is whether they can afford it or not. The government are studiously avoiding having to impose restrictions on usage to balance supply and demand. There is even a suggestion that those with smart meters could pay less if they avoided peek demand times. Some people may be astute enough to see that the opposite could also be applied.

On the subject of fuel poverty there are numerous estimates of how many people will fall into fuel poverty. Old guide lines were relatively easy to follow ..
Until recently, the usual definition of fuel poverty was that a household was considered to be in fuel poverty when it needed to spend more than 10% of its income on fuel – or energy as it is often called.

This has now changed to...
They have required fuel costs that are above average (the national median level), and. Were they to spend that amount they would be left with a residual income below the official poverty line.

We are now beginning to require a PhD in gobbledygook to understand the definition. This requires average household energy rating in council band widths. Then medium income levels, which are usually a lot more than those of the poorest paid making it difficult to assess at an individual level.
All this is available in.. LILEE Report which runs to 84 pages of data and statistics. Talk about burying bad news.

[PanBiker]

Truss is beginning to look like a shoo-in.

Regardless of who wins the minority Tory vote they should be tested with a general election once in post. Wont happen of course because they are all corrupt and don't give a monkeys about the general populace.

[Tizer]

Editorial in today's Guardian...
`The Guardian view on Liz Truss: a Little Englander PM risks running a Little England: The frontrunner to be the next prime minister is winning by widening divides rather than bridging them' Guardian

And front page article ....
`Liz Truss ‘has sewage on her hands’ over Environment Agency cuts: Exclusive: Truss oversaw cut in funds to tackle water pollution, since when raw sewage discharge has risen' Guardian

Meanwhile, tomorrow, the 24th August is Independence Day in Ukraine commemorating the Declaration of Independence in 1991. Zelensky has warned Russia could do "something particularly ugly" ahead of Wednesday's holiday and the US state department warns Russia is planning to launch fresh attacks against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure and government buildings.

On the weekend a Times journalist who is in close contact with Ukrainian partisans in Russian held northern Ukraine said they believe that on the 24th Belarus will join the Russian invasion and attack northern Ukraine. We'll have to wait and see if that claim is correct.

[Stanley]

" the rightwing politics of Brexit, which was a revolt pitting England against itself."

This was the quote that hit me. What a good description of Brexit. Add Rich against Poor to Leave against Remain.

[Tripps]

When - as happened last weekend, the Prime Minister's sister interviewed the Prime Minister's father about the Prime Minister's policies, you may be forgiven for thinking that 'summat's up'. Can it be another dead cat being thrown on our table to distract us from the autonomous / driverless phase of the current Parliament?

I came across this a few days ago. I think it's worth a look. The Water Industry

Now the annointed one - Ms Truss - who was described recently as 'the evil of two lessers' has been found to have been involved in the process a while ago, and not in a good way.

[Stanley]

Both are valid points David. Thanks for 'The evil of two lessers', Brilliant!
Looking at the devastated wasteland that is today's political scene I reflect that this is what the culmination of 12 years in office looks like for the Tories. Dominic Raab splutters about Barristers holding the country to ransom, Shapps fulminates about the rail strikes but I believe Mick Lynch of the RMT when he says that Shapps is tightening the purse strings to stop the companies making reasonable offers, he denies this and waffles about autonomous vehicles. Not a word from Quasi Kwarteng about possible the most damaging strike, the dockers at Felixstowe who have paralysed half the UK container traffic for at least ten days... It's almost as if Parliament is overwhelmed by the scale of the economic crisis bearing down on us. Oh by the way, Did you hear UNISON president Andrea Egan putting her case on R4 yesterday? If she was up for PM I'd vote for her, clear, fair and reasonable but backed by steely resolve.....There is so much talent out there but we are tied to what we see in Westminster. We need a total clear out and a reboot of politics.
Did you also hear the farmer on Farming Today laying out how Brexit was inexorably leading us towards a moribund farming industry and food shortages this Autumn?

[plaques]

I hear that Liz Truss has refused to do an Impact Assessment on her proposals to lower taxes in an attempt to stimulate the economy. Impact assessment are the time honoured way of judging the affect of changes in policy that will affect the country. The last time this refusal happened was under Boris Johnson with Brexit and we all know what the downsides are now. Either Liz Truss has no intention of carrying out these suicidal policies or she is willing to sink the country just to get her portrait on Downing St No10 staircase.

[Tizer]

...Dominic Raab splutters about Barristers holding the country to ransom...

We've all made fun of Raab ever since the moment he supposedly said something like `I didn't recognise the full significance of that'. Recently there was a long, 2-page interview with Raab in The Times and I was surprised and impressed. Nothing like he's made out to be in the news stories. Perhaps there are two Dominic Raabs!

Now why does this not surprise me...
`Tory leadership: Liz Truss signals she would not appoint ethics adviser' LINK
`Tory leadership contender Liz Truss has suggested she would not appoint an ethics adviser if she became prime minister. Ms Truss said she had "always acted with integrity" and would take a new approach to ministerial conduct. But her rival Rishi Sunak said he would fill the vacant ethics adviser role to ensure the government "works properly".'...

[Stanley]

"Either Liz Truss has no intention of carrying out these suicidal policies or she is willing to sink the country just to get her portrait on Downing St No10 staircase."
I think that once more Ken has hit the nail squarely on the head.....

[Stanley]

I see the Buffoon was playing his Churchillian mode for all it was worth yesterday.... (LINK)
Meanwhile, back at home, the BBC publishes a list of key dates for price rises which make for very uncomfortable reading. (LINK)
It's all right for Johnson and his ilk to tell us what we should do but it all rings hollow when you realise that he won't be choosing between heat and eat this winter. All the signs point to the worst winter of my long life in terms of simply surviving.....
I;m still enjoying 'the evil of the two lessers'. Thanks David....

[plaques]

Mr Johnson said the West must "stay the course" on Ukraine despite rising living costs, driven by the war.

We shall fight them at the gas taps. We shall fight them at the food banks. When the lamps go out this may be our darkest hour. We shall defend our coast with extra discharges of effluent which we shall endeavour to maximise from No10.

[Tizer]

...We shall defend our coast with extra discharges of effluent which we shall endeavour to maximise from No10.

Defend against who? Against the French judging by this news!...
`Sewage in sea: French appeal to EU over UK discharges of waste' LINK

[Stanley]

We used to hear the phrase 'the poor man of Europe'. Now it's the dirty man.
It's very hard to see anything positive in the field of politics. It seems to me that everything is being handled badly. Johnson is getting his salary under false pretences and will be discussing his severance package with the Treasury. He will leave office with all the privileges a real PM would have got.
Later.... See THIS BBC report for a good example of how sure Liz Truss's grasp on foreign affairs is.... Just the thing that will lubricate negotiations with the EU which will have to be started on a variety of measures, not least Northern Ireland.
(She is considering triggering Article 16 to solve the Irish Problem...)

[plaques]

Liz Truss is reasonably relaxed about pushing the doomsday nuclear button. That's the energy crises sorted in a flash. Free energy for the Uk for about 2 nanoseconds. If she picks a day with a strong westerly wind that will be the EU and Russia sorted. America will have to wait another 24 hours for the special relationship to kick in.

Twelve years of Tory rule and we see a sudden admission that after 12 years of having all the right people and policies in place the UK is broken. But looking on the bright side it has spawned a number of competitions under the heading 'spot the advantage'. Contestants are require to name ONE feature during this tenure that has improved their lives and living standards. Momentarily top of the potential winners was Jacob Rees-Mogg but since both his entries were judged to be fictitious and outside the time frame of 40 years they were discounted so the competition is still open.

[Tizer]

I wonder what she'll trigger to solve the Russia problem?

[Stanley]

Good to have a sense of humour but if we had any sense we'd be in the streets protesting against a complete lack of credible policies. But come to think, what's new about that?

[Tizer]

That's what puzzles me most - these days people whinge to each other on social media and call strikes which cause even more grief for everyone but don't take any direct action against the government.