United Kingdom General Election: July 4, 2024

[Zinneke]

On that subject, really the most plausible theory for an October/November election I've read/heard in terms of electoral strategy (rather than Sunak's legacy) is that coinciding it with the US election will help at least a little in distracting people in just how awful a campaigner Sunak is. He could let the US campaign and all the utter insanity that is likely to throw up do the heavy lifting in terms of media coverage.

[Zinneke]

Can’t wait for it to be another pointless “game-changer” reshuffle bringing back Lord Clarke as Secretary of State for Health.

Who is the Peter Mandleson of the Tories?

[Zinneke]

https://twitter.com/KateEMcCann/status/1793297957313273939

If the weather's good all you island monkeys should log off and already get celebrating outside

Unless of course the no confidence letters start pouring in. Then you can put the kettle on

In all seriousness though i maintain that Sunak should have gone for the Autumn election and ride off the coattails of the American Conservative psyops and astroturfing social media campaigns

[Zinneke]

Hugh grant four weddings and a funeral vibes

[Zinneke]

Are the Tories barred from changing leaders after the election is called?

No, but obviously the idea is insane.

Just seeing Sunak he might actually sink the boat deeper. Is there no one who can at least stablise the situation?

There is one last hope...

[Zinneke]

Sky News just forcibly removed from Tory campaign launch.

Were other media allowed?

[Zinneke]

Talking of cringeworthy moments (from Sunak and whoever else), what's it going to be like once the Euros actually get going? There isn't much precedent for this. The 1970 World Cup was of course before the 24/7 news cycle, let alone social media. There's already been plenty of stupid photos and posts on Twitter etc from politicians during Euros and World Cups but they weren't during general election campaigns.

Cringeworthy photo ops of politicians in England's home kit with a beer in hand and a barbecue sizzling in the background cheering on. That is all. (I seem to recall Gordon Brown being advised not to do anything about England 2010 because it would seem inauthentic because he's Scottish)

More relevant is if Sunak turns up to support Southampton at Wembley or if like Cameron he gets his team wrong and support Olympiakos in Athens instead.

[Zinneke]

Just read the national service plan the  tories want to institute, WTF are they thinking haha. Seriously, it’s like sunak absolutely wants to make sure he doesn’t have a job asap.

You write that last bit as if it's a surprise if he does want to just call it quits and get his kids in a nice Californian school before start of term. Like I said in a previous thread, it's patently obvious he has no respect for the status of the office. I doubt for example he'll even bother turning up for "Former PM events".

He sees it as another line on the CV. It's part of what makes him horrible at politics.

[Zinneke]

I had a dream in which the Conservatives finished with 226 seats and 22.2% of the vote; Labour with 386 seats and 40.1% of the vote; Reform won one seat and 4.1%; the Lib Dems had 30 seats, the SNP massively underwhelmed, and people were congratulating someone else on almost successfully predicting that Labour would get less than 40%. Make of this what you will.

Those numbers for Lab, Con, LD and Reform come to 643. So it looks like the SNP as well as Plaid have been virtually wiped out, and that there has been a stunning breakthrough by the Northern Ireland Conservatives.

Do the NI Conservatives still exist?

[Zinneke]

I’m genuinely flabbergasted that Gullis is only 34. I would have said mid 40s at least.

He's been too loyal to the foil

[Zinneke]

https://x.com/dylanwwfc/status/1795934440826270104

So Mr Darcy's mate is a guy who thinks the UN is anti-Semitic.