This Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Quite genuinely well-liked in his constituency (as opposed to the, much more common, 'believed he was well-liked in his constituency'), so his absence from the ballot paper will have some sort of effect locally.

[TheTide]

Possibly the MP whose surname is the most similar to his constituency. On at least one occasion I've heard another MP mistakenly refer to him as the 'Member for Halfon' in the House of Commons.

Still not as good as Hooley for Heeley.

[Torrain]

Jonathan Gullis has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party, proving that nothing has been learnt from the Lee Anderson debacle.

[JimJamUK]

Jonathan Gullis has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party, proving that nothing has been learnt from the Lee Anderson debacle.

Going from a NUM striking miner to a school union rep, not exactly the traditional background of those occupying the upper echelons of the Conservative Party. Both solid culture warriors of course (moderates with those backgrounds wouldn’t be Conservative Party members).

[TheTide]

Tim Montgomerie reckons that Sunak might be ready to call it quits. As the founder of ConHome, he should on paper be good at assessing internal Tory politics, but he's always been a bit of an eccentric.

https://twitter.com/TimesRadio/status/1772722920617353633?s=20

[EastAnglianLefty]

Jonathan Gullis has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party, proving that nothing has been learnt from the Lee Anderson debacle.

I think there is a distinction. Gullis is thick (probably more so than Anderson) but more loyal to the Conservative Party as a concept.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Jonathan Gullis has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party, proving that nothing has been learnt from the Lee Anderson debacle.

Going from a NUM striking miner to a school union rep, not exactly the traditional background of those occupying the upper echelons of the Conservative Party. Both solid culture warriors of course (moderates with those backgrounds wouldn’t be Conservative Party members).

Gullis described his classroom personality as "a mixture of Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg", and said that he "liked to play the character of an English gent".[5] Gullis says that he was "nicknamed Grumpy Gullis – because I never smiled".[5] Upon being elected to Parliament Gullis left work at Fairfax Academy, and he described the pupils he was responsible for as head of year as "probably happy to see me go".[5]

I’d sure love to have him as a teacher! Not. How do the Tories consistently find such weird personalities!?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Possibly the MP whose surname is the most similar to his constituency. On at least one occasion I've heard another MP mistakenly refer to him as the 'Member for Halfon' in the House of Commons.

Still not as good as Hooley for Heeley.

What about Christian Wakeford MP and Wakefield CC both switching from Conservative to Labour in 2022? Both in the [may God forgive me for uttering this word] "Red Wall" as well.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Quite genuinely well-liked in his constituency (as opposed to the, much more common, 'believed he was well-liked in his constituency'), so his absence from the ballot paper will have some sort of effect locally.

He quite successfully built up an image of himself that has led people to assume he is an epitome of working-class Essex conservatism, even though in terms of his own personal background he is privately-educated and from Hampstead.

[CumbrianLefty]

Tim Montgomerie reckons that Sunak might be ready to call it quits. As the founder of ConHome, he should on paper be good at assessing internal Tory politics, but he's always been a bit of an eccentric.

Sorry to be "that" person (no, not really) but they aren't actually *cabinet* ministers, no?

And as for TM, he called for Sunak to resign just last week so maybe isn't the most objective on this.

[Torrain]

_{Going from a NUM striking miner to a school union rep, not exactly the traditional background of those occupying the upper echelons of the Conservative Party. Both solid culture warriors of course (moderates with those backgrounds wouldn’t be Conservative Party members).}

Just rereading my post (been busy this week), and wanted to clarity, I don’t have a problem with the party trying to show they’ve changed, and their coalition can include people with those backgrounds.

But there’s always this undertone, that they think the said MPs are a translator for voters, a reflection of the entire populace of that area. And the fact they’ve picked two buffoons who’ve built their brand on casual racism and yelling about ‘woke’ just feels patronising.

I do also agree that Gullis is more of a party man than Anderson was. He definitely seems to move with 'the herd', as Johnson would put it - resigning in protest against Johnson, joining Truss' leadership campaign, then supporting Johnson's October leadership bid.

[JimJamUK]

_{Going from a NUM striking miner to a school union rep, not exactly the traditional background of those occupying the upper echelons of the Conservative Party. Both solid culture warriors of course (moderates with those backgrounds wouldn’t be Conservative Party members).}

Just rereading my post (been busy this week), and wanted to clarity, I don’t have a problem with the party trying to show they’ve changed, and their coalition can include people with those backgrounds.

But there’s always this undertone, that they think the said MPs are a translator for voters, a reflection of the entire populace of that area. And the fact they’ve picked two buffoons who’ve built their brand on casual racism and yelling about ‘woke’ just feels patronising.

Oh to be clear I wasn’t accusing you of snobbery or anything like that. Both Anderson and Gullis are not representative of their electorates even if people at the top of the Tory party seem to think they are.

[Coldstream]

_{Going from a NUM striking miner to a school union rep, not exactly the traditional background of those occupying the upper echelons of the Conservative Party. Both solid culture warriors of course (moderates with those backgrounds wouldn’t be Conservative Party members).}

Just rereading my post (been busy this week), and wanted to clarity, I don’t have a problem with the party trying to show they’ve changed, and their coalition can include people with those backgrounds.

But there’s always this undertone, that they think the said MPs are a translator for voters, a reflection of the entire populace of that area. And the fact they’ve picked two buffoons who’ve built their brand on casual racism and yelling about ‘woke’ just feels patronising.

Oh to be clear I wasn’t accusing you of snobbery or anything like that. Both Anderson and Gullis are not representative of their electorates even if people at the top of the Tory party seem to think they are.

Anderson kinda is, Ashfield is a weird place.

[Torrain]

I want Truss to go away as much as the next guy. But when she does, I hope she keeps posting.
https://twitter.com/trussliz/status/1774346969189658634
I mean, who else is going to wish us a Happy Easter from outside a semi-demolished church, while holding a terrified lamb with a grin that suggests she’s off to turn it into stew. No one does it like her.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

So, the church was gutted by a serious fire in (oh lol) 2022.

[CumbrianLefty]

I want Truss to go away as much as the next guy. But when she does, I hope she keeps posting

<insert your own "lamb to the slaughter" political metaphor here>

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I see Liz Truss has devoted herself to the ovine business, making use of her experience with pork markets.

[CumbrianLefty]

She was actually chanting "mint sauce"?

[Torrain]

Very awkward Sunak interview with BBC Radio Tees today. He's told that there'll be some audience questions, but that they'd start with the most commonly submitted one, which was a demand to know when the election was going to be held.

Sunak does this nervous fake laugh for an uncomfortably long time, clumsily evades twice and then goes back to laughing again. The interviewer asks why he's laughing at the audience, and he gives this very dismissive "that's not how we do thing" answer.

And then, in a follow-up listener question, they tried once more ("Please ask the PM why he hasn't got the guts to call an election right now?"), at which point, he told the interviewer that people aren't interested in the date of the election, despite that being the number-one issue of the audience this morning.

He's just not able to respond to a set of facts that contradict his line, even if it makes him look like a liar - or just patently silly. Unless they can sharpen him up, the gaffe potential, once parliament dissolves and all eyes are on him, is going to be off the charts.

[CumbrianLefty]

Even after the memorable Truss experience, the suits around Sunak still seem to have thought this would be easy for him - when in fact he would be much better off being fed long hops by Laura K.

[TheTide]

Truss, Jenkyns and Francois all spotted at Farage's 60th.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68731273

[CumbrianLefty]

The cream of the crop eh.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Bit old to have clowns in to entertain the guests, isn't he?

[Alcibiades]

The most shocking thing to me about this story is that Farage is somehow still only 60.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The most shocking thing to me about this story is that Farage is somehow still only 60.

He looks significantly older than my father who is, well, significantly older than him.