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TheStoicPaisano

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15348

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It's a pretty extraordinary position in which Jeremy Hunt finds himself.  He lost out to Boris Johnson in the leadership contest in 2016, and then had a pretty desultory showing in the leadership contest earlier this year.  But now, he's Chancellor of the Exchequer and is plainly more powerful than the PM.  I don't know how long that is going to last (or how long it realistically can last), but that's a pretty wild turn of events for him.

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softlynow

softlynow 1774

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20 minutes ago, Zepol87 said:

What did she do exactly? Please explain like I'm 5

Some Brits, swayed by Putin-planted propaganda, set fire to the country with Brexit. Truss dumped gasoline onto that fire by way of financial "reforms" that threatened everything from pensions to housing to government solvency.

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15348

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2 hours ago, softlynow said:

Some Brits, swayed by Putin-planted propaganda, set fire to the country with Brexit. Truss dumped gasoline onto that fire by way of financial "reforms" that threatened everything from pensions to housing to government solvency.

All while giving tax cuts to the rich and corporations, which if enacted would've blown a hole in the budget the size of France.  And that then caused sterling to tank (at one point going as low as $1.04 to the pound.  And that then exacerbated inflation, which is running at around 20%.

So she had to blame it all on the Chancellor of the Exchequer (i.e., what the Brits call their finance minister) and sacked him.  She then had to take on Jeremy Hunt, who is a political rival, as the new Chancellor.  And now everybody knows she can't sack Hunt because she can't very well lose two chancellors in less than six weeks.

So Hunt has all the power, and he knows it.  And so does she.  She's a massive failure, and now she's also an impotent one.  She may live at No. 10, but she's no real prime minister any more.

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15348

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I've got to tell you, if you're not following this, then you just don't really enjoy politics.  This is the very finest is luxury political disaster tourism.

Now Truss has sacked the Home Secretary.  Something about "but her emails."  Yeah--seriously.  The Home Secretary sent a confidential document from her private email.  But really, it's about the fact that the (now former) home secretary, Suella Braverman, believes in zero immigration (which is pretty fucking gross, given that she is the daughter of two immigrants), while Truss realizes that the British economy relies on immigrants and needs to rescind some of the restrictions put in place under Boris Johnson.

So that's two senior cabinet ministers getting shitcanned in a week.  That's not the stuff of a stable government.

And so now apparently you have others resigning.  Word is the deputy whip has resigned.  And there may be another resignation about to be announced.

So there are a few options.  None of them are great. 

The Tories could change the rules and oust Truss now.  But who is her replacement?  There's basically nobody who could rally a majority of the Conservative Party (much less the country).  And in any event, who would want it?  This is leading to some absurd speculation that you could see Boris Johnson make a triumphant return to No. 10.

Or maybe the Tories decide to keep Truss around to the end of the year.  They're figuring that there's going to be some economic pain associated with the new Chancellor's program of spending cuts.  So they might as well get that out of the way and pin all that on Truss before throwing her under the bus.  I mean, I give them points for cynicism.  But it's so nakedly so that it really defeats the purpose.

And then there's some discussion of having Truss resign and allowing Kier Starmer to form a Labour minority government with a limited confidence-and-support agreement from some Tory backbenchers.  The idea here being (1) the Tories are in too much of a shambles to form a government, irrespective of how many seats they may have in the Commons, and (2) some of the blame for the current economic pain could be shared with Labour, reducing the electoral blow when the next general election comes around.

I'm serious, though--if you're not scarfing down popcorn while all this is going on, you're just letting the best in life pass you by.

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45477

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1 hour ago, Ghost of LL said:

I've got to tell you, if you're not following this, then you just don't really enjoy politics.  This is the very finest is luxury political disaster tourism.

Now Truss has sacked the Home Secretary.  Something about "but her emails."  Yeah--seriously.  The Home Secretary sent a confidential document from her private email.  But really, it's about the fact that the (now former) home secretary, Suella Braverman, believes in zero immigration (which is pretty fucking gross, given that she is the daughter of two immigrants), while Truss realizes that the British economy relies on immigrants and needs to rescind some of the restrictions put in place under Boris Johnson.

So that's two senior cabinet ministers getting shitcanned in a week.  That's not the stuff of a stable government.

And so now apparently you have others resigning.  Word is the deputy whip has resigned.  And there may be another resignation about to be announced.

So there are a few options.  None of them are great. 

The Tories could change the rules and oust Truss now.  But who is her replacement?  There's basically nobody who could rally a majority of the Conservative Party (much less the country).  And in any event, who would want it?  This is leading to some absurd speculation that you could see Boris Johnson make a triumphant return to No. 10.

Or maybe the Tories decide to keep Truss around to the end of the year.  They're figuring that there's going to be some economic pain associated with the new Chancellor's program of spending cuts.  So they might as well get that out of the way and pin all that on Truss before throwing her under the bus.  I mean, I give them points for cynicism.  But it's so nakedly so that it really defeats the purpose.

And then there's some discussion of having Truss resign and allowing Kier Starmer to form a Labour minority government with a limited confidence-and-support agreement from some Tory backbenchers.  The idea here being (1) the Tories are in too much of a shambles to form a government, irrespective of how many seats they may have in the Commons, and (2) some of the blame for the current economic pain could be shared with Labour, reducing the electoral blow when the next general election comes around.

I'm serious, though--if you're not scarfing down popcorn while all this is going on, you're just letting the best in life pass you by.

It is pretty wild watching them completely implode in spectacular fashion.  If only the Rs in America would do the same.

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15348

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1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

It is pretty wild watching them completely implode in spectacular fashion.  If only the Rs in America would do the same.

I think it's actually a mark of the maturity and stability of their democracy that Truss has a 9% approval rating.  That's unthinkable here.  But that's because politics here isn't about policy or the national interest or anything other than "Go Team Red/Blue."

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45477

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1 hour ago, Ghost of LL said:

I think it's actually a mark of the maturity and stability of their democracy that Truss has a 9% approval rating.  That's unthinkable here.  But that's because politics here isn't about policy or the national interest or anything other than "Go Team Red/Blue."

Our whole congress has like a 9% approval rating and they keep getting re-elected.

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Dr. Teeth

Dr. Teeth 5813

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3 minutes ago, washparkhorn said:

Borrowing money to cut the taxes of the most wealthy is not a winning play in Brexit Britain. 

Those people are fucking idiots. It works in a good economy. It isn’t a winning play with runaway inflation. Brexit shows how it could work. 

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13049

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15 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

I've got to tell you, if you're not following this, then you just don't really enjoy politics.  This is the very finest is luxury political disaster tourism.

 

I had been giving it a desultory watch and listen over the last week on our BBC channel and it had a bit of everything didn't it?

It's pretty crazy, but Brit humor is just top shelf really.

Plus this little summation got a chuckle.

 

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15348

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46 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

This sounds somewhat likely. Remember that the choice will be made by the dues-paying members of the Tory party, nobody else will have a say.

 

I think they actually changed the rules so that now it'll be decided by just the Conservative MPs.  And, at this point, who really gives a fuck?  It's not like the new PM will have any democratic mandate, irrespective of how s/he is appointed.  S/he will just be inheriting a shitshow that can easily or quickly be put back.  That's why guys like Jeremy Hunt are like, "yeah, no." this morning--who on earth would want this fucking job.

You do have to respect King Charles, though.  At this rate, he's going to go through as many prime ministers in just more than a year as the late Queen had during her entire reign.  And that's a lot of kissing hands.  Must be very tiring for him.

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washparkhorn

washparkhorn 9931

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Unlike the US, floating mortgage interest rates in Britain are the norm. Inflation hits mortgage holders harder and more immediately in Britain. Landlords pass on those rate hikes to renters.

Add in doubt whether London will remain a financial center - and you have this mess.

 

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15348

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15 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

I think it's actually a mark of the maturity and stability of their democracy that Truss has a 9% approval rating.  That's unthinkable here.  But that's because politics here isn't about policy or the national interest or anything other than "Go Team Red/Blue."

Back to this, and to @Neonmoon's point, I think it's healthy to have a party that will ruthlessly throw its leadership overboard as soon as he/she/they become an embarrassment.  Here, our political parties rally around them and pretend it's perfectly alright for a Q-Anon supporter to hold high political office.

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