This Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/ionewells/status/1711410452972875882
So I guess all of the proposed lines are DOA. A refresher:

Don’t worry, there’s more!

• We’ll protect the £12 billion to link up Manchester and Liverpool as planned, and we will engage with local leaders on how best to deliver that scheme.
• We’ll build the Midlands Rail Hub, connecting 50 stations.
• We’ll help Andy Street extend the West Midlands Metro.
• We’ll build the Leeds tram, electrify the North Wales mainline.
• Upgrade the A1, the A2, the A5, the M6.
• There is more. There’s lots more…
• We’ll connect our Union with the A75, boosting links between Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• We’ll fund the Shipley bypass, the Blyth relief road, and deliver 70 other road schemes.
• We’ll resurface roads across the country.
• We’ll bring back the Don Valley line.
• We’ll upgrade the energy coast line between Carlisle, Workington, and Barrow.
• Build hundreds of other schemes.
• And keep the £2 bus fare across the whole country.

[Torrain]

Hands is testing our new attack lines on Labour’s squeeze on private schools. Presumably trying to make ‘Parent Tax’ the new ‘Bedroom Tax’. Wish that particular rhetorical trick would die a death. Always a naked attempt to oversimplify a policy that deserves more scrutiny.
https://twitter.com/GregHands/status/1711753096265617628
Side note: picking an article centred on the plight of Sarah Kostense-Winterton, the child of two expense-fiddling MPs is a bit of a choice. Moreso given she’s discussing the necessity of private schooling for special-needs kids, in a way that ignores that a clear majority just don’t have that option.

[CumbrianLefty]

The willingness of Hands to humiliate himself on a daily basis is almost becoming admirable now.

[Blair]

Really really baffles me they’re making this a big issue.

Tories tried it in 1997 with assisted places (which imho was actually an easier policy to attack) and it fell flat.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Really really baffles me they’re making this a big issue.

Because of where they send their children and were often educated themselves...

[Pericles]

The issues a party chooses to fight on are indicative of its priorities, and the Tories picking this one just shows how out of touch they are.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

The issues a party chooses to fight on are indicative of its priorities, and the Tories picking this one just shows how out of touch they are.

Or maybe their Australian strategists are too Australiabrained to realise British private schools aren’t anything as ubiquitous as they are in Sydney.

[Intell]

The issues a party chooses to fight on are indicative of its priorities, and the Tories picking this one just shows how out of touch they are.

Or maybe their Australian strategists are too Australiabrained to realise British private schools aren’t anything as ubiquitous as they are in Sydney.

~40% of Australians go to private school (higher in metro areas), that's why no Australian politician can touch private schools without backlash, this is not the situation in the UK

[AustralianSwingVoter]

The issues a party chooses to fight on are indicative of its priorities, and the Tories picking this one just shows how out of touch they are.

Or maybe their Australian strategists are too Australiabrained to realise British private schools aren’t anything as ubiquitous as they are in Sydney.

~40% of Australians go to private school (higher in metro areas), that's why no Australian politician can touch private schools without backlash, this is not the situation in the UK

Yea ik, the tories just keep hiring failed Liberal Party strategists who don't seem to understand British politics and just copy what works in Western Sydney. Rishi Sunak's immigration slogan is literally stop the boats.

[Zinneke]

The issues a party chooses to fight on are indicative of its priorities, and the Tories picking this one just shows how out of touch they are.

Or maybe their Australian strategists are too Australiabrained to realise British private schools aren’t anything as ubiquitous as they are in Sydney.

~40% of Australians go to private school (higher in metro areas), that's why no Australian politician can touch private schools without backlash, this is not the situation in the UK

Wow 40% and they still can't deliver a proper Rugby team?

[Coldstream]

The issues a party chooses to fight on are indicative of its priorities, and the Tories picking this one just shows how out of touch they are.

Or maybe their Australian strategists are too Australiabrained to realise British private schools aren’t anything as ubiquitous as they are in Sydney.

~40% of Australians go to private school (higher in metro areas), that's why no Australian politician can touch private schools without backlash, this is not the situation in the UK

Wow 40% and they still can't deliver a proper Rugby team?

Never recommended anything so hard.

[morgieb]

The issues a party chooses to fight on are indicative of its priorities, and the Tories picking this one just shows how out of touch they are.

Or maybe their Australian strategists are too Australiabrained to realise British private schools aren’t anything as ubiquitous as they are in Sydney.

~40% of Australians go to private school (higher in metro areas), that's why no Australian politician can touch private schools without backlash, this is not the situation in the UK

Wow 40% and they still can't deliver a proper Rugby team?

A lot of that 40% play other sports as well.

[CumbrianLefty]

I absolutely did not know that so many Aussies are privately educated. Mind blown.

[Torrain]

One of the lines I've heard repeatedly during conference season is that Conservative strategists believe that the Tory brand is too damaged to win, and - because he outpolls them - Sunak should run a presidential campaign. Hence trying to position Sunak as "the change candidate", and his speech launching attacks on the approach of his Conservative predecessors.

However... we've just had the first YouGov numbers since conference - and Sunak's approvals have hit a record low. In the "who would make the best PM" numbers, Sunak has slumped to 20%. That's equal to Johnson's worst ever result in that category on July 7th 2022 - right in the midst of the mass resignations:



As ever - throw it in the average, and wait for more data. But, given how 2017 played out, it's wild that the Tories could potentially be lulled into another election where they place the personality of a technocratic, rather stiff PM who flubs interviews, at the centre of the campaign. Maybe they're acting on more sage advice from Crosby and Levido?

[CumbrianLefty]

Even by current government standards, Grant Shapps hit a real low on the airwaves yesterday.

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/Josh_Self_/status/1713814470470877358

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

What i'd give to have her self-confidence.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Peter Bone suspended from commons for six weeks for bullying and indecent exposure

[Pericles]

Peter Bone suspended from commons for six weeks for bullying and indecent exposure

Who knew Mr Bone was a creep lmao

[Torrain]

This sounds grim. Beyond the details, there’s the fact the party has known about this since *2017* apparently:
https://twitter.com/Mr_John_Oxley/status/1713865357025243572
Galling that Johnson gave him a made-up ministerial job (Deputy Leader of the House) in his caretaker government, as thanks for his loyalty, right after being ousted for the very similar Pincher scandal.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

O.K. the 'indecent exposure' part is a surprise. Christ.

[EastAnglianLefty]

This sounds grim. Beyond the details, there’s the fact the party has known about this since *2017* apparently:
https://twitter.com/Mr_John_Oxley/status/1713865357025243572
Galling that Johnson gave him a made-up ministerial job (Deputy Leader of the House) in his caretaker government, as thanks for his loyalty, right after being ousted for the very similar Pincher scandal.

Since 2015 - the allegations were first made to the party in 2015, but no action was taken until they were reported again in 2017.

[TheTide]

Some must have had fantasies about Labour being led by Ed Balls and the Tories being led by Peter Bone at the same time. Bone against Balls etc.

[CumbrianLefty]

His slightly comic image has always obfuscated the fact that he is a nasty piece of work.

(even before he entered parliament, he gained notoriety in the 1990s for being notably ungenerous with workers in his business - and got featured in Labour pro-minimum wage propaganda)

[TheTide]

His slightly comic image has always obfuscated the fact that he is a nasty piece of work.

(even before he entered parliament, he gained notoriety in the 1990s for being notably ungenerous with workers in his business - and got featured in Labour pro-minimum wage propaganda)

There are quite a lot of nasty people on the right (both in politics and in journalism) who put on a faux friendliness (or at least politeness) when they are taking part in any kind of broadcast. Gove and JRM spring to mind. I have a slight admiration for Isabel Oakeshott because she doesn't try to be even slightly likeable when she appears in a broadcast. She always comes across as Margaret Thatcher after losing a bet of a few thousand on the quarter past twelve at Doncaster.