UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[AustralianSwingVoter]

https://twitter.com/The_TUC/status/1646464949441507328

What on earth is in the water in Haverfordwest?

[CumbrianLefty]

The real question is why so many in our media* still feel obliged to report on Truss as if what she said still carried either merit or import.

(*even outside her client nutters on the likes of the Barclaygraph, I mean)

[Torrain]

SNP Westminster group have until May 31st to find an auditor to check their books - otherwise their right to use taxpayer cash ("Short Money") to fund their offices will be withdrawn.

(Note, this is separate from the party-at-large's auditing problem, that deadline is July, although the fact the same firm, Johnston Carmichael, ditched both sets of accounts suggests the problem may be similar).

Last year, SNP MPs withdrew £1.15 million to fund their offices and staffers - which could all be on the line if they can't solve the problem in the next six weeks.

Unclear why Stephen Flynn (who's read into this news as "second finance officer", a role all SNP Westminster leaders assume), and Ian Blackford before him, let things get this bad, and tried to sit on the news.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The real question is why so many in our media* still feel obliged to report on Truss as if what she said still carried either merit or import.

It's interesting as it didn't use to be this way if a politician were discredited, no matter how senior they had previously been. No one wished to hear of Stanley Baldwin's views about anything after 1939 and so on.

[Cassius]

The real question is why so many in our media* still feel obliged to report on Truss as if what she said still carried either merit or import.

It's interesting as it didn't use to be this way if a politician were discredited, no matter how senior they had previously been. No one wished to hear of Stanley Baldwin's views about anything after 1939 and so on.

Of course, Baldwin was independently wealthy so had no need (or desire to be fair) to try and turn his failed premiership into cash, unlike Truss.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Of course, Baldwin was independently wealthy so had no need (or desire to be fair) to try and turn his failed premiership into cash, unlike Truss.

He appears to have spent his (massive) inheritance like a drunken sailor, and yet still died with total assets of c.£280,000, which was a lot of money in those days.

[TheTide]

Cameron is probably the most ignored of the living former Prime Ministers. Major and Blair get a fair bit of attention whenever they make a public statement, Brown and May are treated as wise elder statespeople and Johnson is Johnson.

[Zinneke]

Yeah what does Cameron actually do? Isn't he a bit bored? Is he just a retired country gent who occasionally lobbies the UK gov through back channels? What happened to his bid to become NATO sec gen. For all his hubris and faults, by all accounts he seemed to be an excellent operator in the "summit" type setting in terms of knowing his brief and everyone elses.

[Battista Minola 1616]

Yeah what does Cameron actually do? Isn't he a bit bored? Is he just a retired country gent who occasionally lobbies the UK gov through back channels? What happened to his bid to become NATO sec gen. For all his hubris and faults, by all accounts he seemed to be an excellent operator in the "summit" type setting in terms of knowing his brief and everyone elses.

The last I heard about him was that a few months ago he got to teach a brief course at New York University Abu Dhabi, so he seems to have joined the "top European politicians making money in autocratic petrostates" club.

[Cassius]

To be fair to him he did drive across Europe in a van last year to deliver some supplies to Ukraine (peak posh British dad activity).

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/ukraine-war-former-pm-david-cameron-driving-van-to-poland-with-nappies-and-first-aid-kits-for-ukrainian-refugees-12569614

[CumbrianLefty]

I agree with the general view that Cameron's PMship was ultimately a failure, and find him a rather annoying person in some respects too. But still, I do wonder if he might have been a different - and better - PM without his evil twin Osborne whispering poison into his ear all the time.

[Silent Hunter]

Coronation honours are coming up soon; wonder if any of the former PMs will get the Garter or Thistle? It's exclusively the King's decision, BTW.

[ibagli]

Blair's appointment last year cleared up the logjam, so possibly the Garter for Cameron and the Thistle for Brown. Vacancies aren't filled right away necessarily, but if they are, my other picks for the Garter are the Duke of Norfolk, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Soames of Fletching (Nicholas Soames), Sir Ken Olisa, and Peaches Golding.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yeah what does Cameron actually do? Isn't he a bit bored? Is he just a retired country gent who occasionally lobbies the UK gov through back channels? What happened to his bid to become NATO sec gen. For all his hubris and faults, by all accounts he seemed to be an excellent operator in the "summit" type setting in terms of knowing his brief and everyone elses.

Essentially he's on the consultancy racket. His main activity was as a lobbyist for Greensill Capital (which was run by a friend of his), which did not end very well for anyone.

[Suburbia]

https://twitter.com/The_TUC/status/1646464949441507328

What on earth is in the water in Haverfordwest?

He is a clown and he is the reason why conservatives, particularly white Western conservatives whether in the US, UK, or Australia have a hard time winning minorities.

[Zinneke]

Is it true the SNP are going bankrupt?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is it true the SNP are going bankrupt?

No, because political parties in the UK cannot go bankrupt as legally they are what is known as 'unincorporated associations'. They can become insolvent, but it's a messier process if they do: the organization itself would not be held to be liable for any debts, but its officers would be personally.

[CumbrianLefty]

Though there does seem to be an entity called the "Scottish Independence Party" being trailed.

Alba Party Mark 2, replacement for a liquidated SNP, or even maybe something in between?

[Torrain]

Speaking of - been a bit of a weird weekend north of the border:

• Ian Blackford has done a bizzare media round where he reassures journalists that everything is financially fine, but has "forgotten" when he was first told the auditors had resigned - even though he was Second Finance Officer for the SNP Westminster group when their auditors departed last year.
• Humza Yousaf has spent all week breaking the first rule of media management, and outrighting denying journalist's claims - amplifying them rather than spinning them. Quotes like this: "We're not close to bankruptcy. This is something that I've read in some social media circles, but the party is solvent" have become a round of stories like this: Humza Yousaf denies SNP going bankrupt as party finances strained
• The Herald has uncovered that the party asked for an extension to their Electoral Commission audit back in "early February". In unrelated news, Sturgeon resigned on Feb 15th, in the days following this conversation.
• Also, the Record published a leaked video of Sturgeon from 2021 assuring the SNP NEC that the finances are fine, asking them not to pry into them, and telling them to stop leaking to the press.

The old-guard are still going full-throttle "wheesht for indy". See this from one of my former MSPs, and the former (supposedly neutral) Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament:
https://twitter.com/TriciaMarwick/status/1647636472915165184

[Хahar 🤔]

I didn't know that the SNP was a democratic centralist organization.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I didn't know that the SNP was a democratic centralist organization.

Yes, they banned 'factionalism' (which, to an extent, was often interpreted as public dissent from the leadership) forty years ago after some very brutal infighting that nearly killed the party. And a very secretive internal culture developed around that: a lot of the issues that have blown up this year are what happens when that collides with the inevitable demands for transparency from a party of government in a liberal society.

[ingemann]

Yeah what does Cameron actually do? Isn't he a bit bored? Is he just a retired country gent who occasionally lobbies the UK gov through back channels? What happened to his bid to become NATO sec gen. For all his hubris and faults, by all accounts he seemed to be an excellent operator in the "summit" type setting in terms of knowing his brief and everyone elses.

I can’t see Cameron getting any international job where he would need to deal with leaders from other European countries. While Cameron may or may not be personally loathed by non-British European politicians, they have still spend years and large amount of political capital on cleaning up the mess he left behind.
Cameron next problem is that no one owe him anything, you usually get an international job by your country’s  government sponsoring you and by calling in favors abroad.

[CumbrianLefty]

The irony is, doing international glad-handing was one of the parts of being PM that he most enjoyed. Until it all went wrong, anyway.

[Torrain]

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has opened an inquiry into Rishi Sunak.

Appears to be for failing to declare his wife holding shares in a childcare business, which is financially benefitted by last month’s budget, and was apparently involved in the pilot scheme for the policy.

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/BBCPhilipSim/status/1648235428309336066

Edit - released pending further investigation as of 20.30.