UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Reading Liz Truss's Wikipedia page (or I guess that of her husband to be precise) on this most important day for her I found out that one of her two daughters is named Liberty... lol.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

From a distance, it's almost impressive how brutally incompetent Truss is - some sort of amalgamation of the worst characteristics of Thatcher (without any intellect) or Reagan (without any charisma), on top of being particularly ill-advised. Like Æthelred, Elizabeth the Unready...

She almost seems like she is deliberately trying her best to make her Tory predecessors look positive in comparison, which is quite the feat (in less than a month too). The jokes about her being a Labour - or more fittingly, Lib Dem - plant abound...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Even Larry doesn't want anything to do with her.
https://twitter.com/Cat_Headley/status/1575612283719278593

I checked his age and he is believed to be almost 16 (so pretty old for a cat). I wouldn't be surprised if Liz Truss ends up killing him like she did for the Queen and the British economy.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Even Larry doesn't want anything to do with her.
https://twitter.com/Cat_Headley/status/1575612283719278593

I checked his age and he is believed to be almost 16 (so pretty old for a cat). I wouldn't be surprised if Liz Truss ends up killing him like she did for the Queen and the British economy.

Larry and I actually share a birth month and year.

I did not know cats were allowed on Atlas.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I guess 20% of the government party's electorate flipping to the opposition overnight is an effective form of public pressure!

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

https://twitter.com/ed_miliband/status/1580931307185401856?s=46&t=YHSGup5mOz...

This is the greatest tweet in British politics ever since "Ed Balls" imo

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Remember when the British right was full of figures with ordinal numbers and the word "of" in their names and made metaphors involving things like family silver? I do, and the contrast sort of makes me want to treat old-school aristos with a little more respect.

An absurd and risible bunch, but now that they're gone we do miss them. They turned out to be a stabilizing presence. I suppose there are obvious parallels with the old DCs in Italy.

British politics in the last month or so has certainly been trying to imitate Italy with all our absurdity and chaos a lot, hasn't it?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

That approval rating is just mind-boggling.

Liz Hollande. Liz Olmert. Liz Alphonso Taft III.

This can't go on.

I think we have yet to reach Park Mary-Liz levels but then again she was directly impeached and removed from office so that'd be the end...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Only the Member for Maidenhead can save the party now.

Who knew this gif would ever make a return in 2022?

Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - Strong and Stable leadership with me, or chaos with Liz Truss.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

For all the Italy comparisons, note that Truss’ tenure was considerably shorter than that of the average Italian PM.

Not sure how much longer she will stay on as "caretaker" but we've had governments which never received the confidence of Parliament in the first place that lasted significantly longer than she is likely to. Anyway, good riddance!

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

For all the Italy comparisons, note that Truss’ tenure was considerably shorter than that of the average Italian PM.

Actually, for the entire history of the Italian republic, only one PM lasted less than 100 days in office: Amintore Fanfani, during his very first tenure in 1954. He lasted only 22 days in office, so he still beats Truss, but that was very much the exception rather than the rule.

Truss' tenure is more in line with the Fourth French Republic, which was far more unstable than Italy ever was. Even then, it had 21 PMs in 12 years, so an average tenure of about 200 days.

Amintore Fanfani's last government in 1987 (do not research).

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

For all the Italy comparisons, note that Truss’ tenure was considerably shorter than that of the average Italian PM.

Actually, for the entire history of the Italian republic, only one PM lasted less than 100 days in office: Amintore Fanfani, during his very first tenure in 1954. He lasted only 22 days in office, so he still beats Truss, but that was very much the exception rather than the rule.

Truss' tenure is more in line with the Fourth French Republic, which was far more unstable than Italy ever was. Even then, it had 21 PMs in 12 years, so an average tenure of about 200 days.

Amintore Fanfani's last government in 1987 (do not research).

102 days according to Wikipedia

Oh I know it very narrowly beat that threshold... I was referring to just about everything else about that government's existence (so much for crazy confidence votes).

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Summer 2022 leadership election: 60 days
Eventual winner's tenure as leader: 50 days

Autumn 2022 leadership election: 4 days
Eventual winner's tenure as leader:   7 hours?

When this trend continues to the point of multiple PMs and leadership elections being superimposed upon the same instant, will Number 10 become a wormhole?

Quantum superposition of Tory leaders (Boris with positive spin and Truss with negative spin, catastrophically negative in fact).

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

hahahahaha there's SERIOUSLY a movement to just immediately go back to BoJo??? Incredible.

The most sophisticated electorate in the World!

A bombastic but slick womanizer/abuser who knows how to exploit the media and speak to the electorate's basic instincts becoming the object of cult-like devotion? Wow, who could have possibly predicted this...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

hahahahaha there's SERIOUSLY a movement to just immediately go back to BoJo??? Incredible.

The most sophisticated electorate in the World!

A bombastic but slick womanizer/abuser who knows how to exploit the media and speak to the electorate's basic instincts becoming the object of cult-like devotion? Wow, who could have possibly predicted this...

Italy did it first, but the Anglos stole your thunder. Sad!

On the one hand it's true that Berlusconi's star power has gone away to a huge extent and Forza Italia polled 8% last month, on the other hand at the rate things are going the Tories could be hitting similar numbers soon...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I believe 21% is a lower share for the Conservatives than Omnisis ever registered while Truss was Prime Minister... (caveats expounded by JimJamUK aside) how ironic would it be if Sunak's budget managed to sink the Tories even more than Truss's proposal did?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Johnson has informed his constituency party in Uxbridge that he intends to stand again.

Feels notable. Any plan to switch seats to run somewhere safer in the Home Counties (floated repeatedly over the past year) is now essentially over. Either he bails last minute, or runs in a seat that’s going to be a tad marginal.

The Telegraph (who broke the story) are wish-casting that this indicates a leadership challenge against Sunak is on the cards after the local elections next May.

Johnson challenging Sunak and winning would not meaningfully help the Tories but would likely give Labour the better-than-a-Portillo-moment satisfaction of seeing the incumbent PM lose his seat. But I imagine the Telegraph is too far into the cult of Boris to think this way.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

It’s true that the UK is a real outlier in being one of the very few countries in the world where pupils don’t have to study maths in some form until 18 (the same is also true for their native language). More broadly, this is an illustration of how our educational system makes pupils specialise absurdly early - 16 is really very young for subject choices that inevitably end up restricting a lot of what you can study at uni, at which age a lot of people really have no idea what they want to do later on.

As an example, here in Italy as you know students are effectively asked to (partially) specialize at 14, but the 'core' subjects, which of course include Maths and Italian, are part of the curriculum of every type of high school in every year. It feels pretty odd, although I suppose this is all relative. And of course if you're going to ask the students themselves, I bet majorities in most other countries would happily vote to take two or three years less of mandatory Maths classes...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I'm sure this has been answered before, but I was looking over the election results from 2010 to 2019 I had written down on a piece of paper, and it dawned on me that the Conservatives have been in government but will have had four different leaders in four consecutive elections:

2015: David Cameron
2017: Theresa May
2019: Boris Johnson
202?: Rishi Sunak (probably)

Has this ever happened anywhere in the world with a party in government before?

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan was led by Eisaku Satō in 1969, Kakuei Tanaka in 1972, Takeo Miki in 1976 and Masayoshi Ōhira in 1979 (Ōhira died a week before the following election in 1980 but I don't think his interim successor should count).

The Christian Democracy here easily produced an even longer streak, but being DC secretary and being President of the Council were only tangentially related jobs even though the DC was always by far the largest party in government because, you know, Italy.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

After a full fourteen hours, the tweet where the UK Prime Minister talks about "the UK's modern slavery system" is still up. I suppose this also classifies as thinking voters are morons? I just have no words.

Some random cabinet minister is going to start bleating about 'battlers' and 'the Mortgage Belt' next.

Bogans in the mortgage belt are the key to the classic bellwether electorate of Dartford. They are against an Indigenous Voice [i.e. devolution, because Indigenous = Celtic] but they bought into Mediscare after seeing Jeremy Hunt's performance.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

After a full fourteen hours, the tweet where the UK Prime Minister talks about "the UK's modern slavery system" is still up. I suppose this also classifies as thinking voters are morons? I just have no words.

Sadly, a lot of voters are morons. So, they are right.

Maybe voters who keep voting for them after this stunt (on top of everything else), sure.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Bogans in the mortgage belt are the key to the classic bellwether electorate of Dartford. They are against an Indigenous Voice [i.e. devolution, because Indigenous = Celtic] but they bought into Mediscare after seeing Jeremy Hunt's performance.

Inside the Teal Wave: How Climate Independents flipped Kensington & Chelsea with Ben Goldsmith (?)'s money

Speaking of people named Goldsmith, the Teal Wave was foreshadowed in Richmond Park in 2016 surely?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

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.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Which government is in more of a mess at the moment - the Holyrood one or the Westminster one?

Can I write in the Stormont here?

But the Stormont government is the Westminster government...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

But the Stormont government is the Westminster government...

Ah, well, yes and no and that's actually quite a big problem. They've not actually imposed Direct Rule yet, so instead there is this weird void in which no actual policies can be implemented and very little can be done.

Oh well, that's true... I should have just said there is no "Stormont government".