The Lemon Fool

Thrown under the bus by Truss, to try and save her job:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-63221738

Who in their right mind would want the job now - Truss is 'dead woman walking'

Seems like KK was the fall guy, so Liz could keep the job as PM.

Part of this drama is the left agitating for a general election. However I think they're going to be disappointed.

As the fixed term parliament act means a GE doesn't need to be held until Jan 2025.

And what matters to unseat Liz is same as was for Boris, which is enough tory mps to vote no confidence. Just can't see that happening. Of course if Liz were to call a GE that would be a Labour govt now on today's polls.

So I'd say outcome will be bit more drama, then calm down a bit, long wait until 24 jan 2025. Which would be liz Truss best bet in being elected. Edit, as a lot can happen between now 14 Oct 22 and 24 jan 25, we could be in post recession, post inflation, recovery mode by then.

Adamski wrote:Seems like KK was the fall guy, so Liz could keep the job as PM.

Part of this drama is the left agitating for a general election. However I think they're going to be disappointed.

As the fixed term parliament act means a GE doesn't need to be held until Jan 2025.

And what matters to unseat Liz is same as was for Boris, which is enough tory mps to vote no confidence. Just can't see that happening. Of course if Liz were to call a GE that would be a Labour govt now on today's polls.

So I'd say outcome will be bit more drama, then calm down a bit, long wait until 24 jan 2025. Which would be liz Truss best bet in being elected. Edit, as a lot can happen between now 14 Oct 22 and 24 jan 25, we could be in post recession, post inflation, recovery mode by then.

A lot can happen between now and the end of the month. A week is a long time in politics, as has often been said.

Dod

Nemo wrote:Who in their right mind would want the job now - Truss is 'dead woman walking'

Truss was selected by party members from a short-list of two selected by MP's.

MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity. They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

Sounds a bit like the EU or perhaps Russia.

That said, I'm not sure she's up to the job but then I can't see an Torys being up to the job. Kwarteng certainly wasn't.

A man is sacked for following the instructions of his boss. She's toast.

A day seems a long time in politics at the moment.

John

Maroochydore wrote:

Nemo wrote:Who in their right mind would want the job now - Truss is 'dead woman walking'

Truss was selected by party members from a short-list of two selected by MP's.

MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity. They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

Sounds a bit like the EU or perhaps Russia.

It also sounds like the Labour party under Corbyn. So many shadow cabinet members either quit or were sacked that at one point JC had to double up people in roles to get a quorum. He ended up with a no-name shadow cabinet, some of whom were very new MPs.

Lootman wrote:

Maroochydore wrote:

Nemo wrote:Who in their right mind would want the job now - Truss is 'dead woman walking'

Truss was selected by party members from a short-list of two selected by MP's.

MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity. They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

Sounds a bit like the EU or perhaps Russia.

It also sounds like the Labour party under Corbyn. So many shadow cabinet members either quit or were sacked that at one point JC had to double up people in roles to get a quorum. He ended up with a no-name shadow cabinet, some of whom were very new MPs.

My guess would be Javid. She's got to have someone with some credibility, and as Javid resigned rather than be dictated to by BJ, he has that.

scrumpyjack wrote:

Lootman wrote:

Maroochydore wrote:

Nemo wrote:Who in their right mind would want the job now - Truss is 'dead woman walking'

Truss was selected by party members from a short-list of two selected by MP's.

MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity. They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

Sounds a bit like the EU or perhaps Russia.

It also sounds like the Labour party under Corbyn. So many shadow cabinet members either quit or were sacked that at one point JC had to double up people in roles to get a quorum. He ended up with a no-name shadow cabinet, some of whom were very new MPs.

My guess would be Javid. She's got to have someone with some credibility, and as Javid resigned rather than be dictated to by BJ, he has that.

Is Jeremy Hunt totally stupid?

Dod

Dod101 wrote:

scrumpyjack wrote:

Lootman wrote:

Maroochydore wrote:

Nemo wrote:Who in their right mind would want the job now - Truss is 'dead woman walking'

Truss was selected by party members from a short-list of two selected by MP's.

MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity. They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

Sounds a bit like the EU or perhaps Russia.

It also sounds like the Labour party under Corbyn. So many shadow cabinet members either quit or were sacked that at one point JC had to double up people in roles to get a quorum. He ended up with a no-name shadow cabinet, some of whom were very new MPs.

My guess would be Javid. She's got to have someone with some credibility, and as Javid resigned rather than be dictated to by BJ, he has that.

Is Jeremy Hunt totally stupid?

No, he's just a bit boring. I think he is seen as a "safe pair of hands" and perhaps that is needed right now. The nation evidently wasn't ready for radical change and prefers more muddling through.

Maroochydore wrote:MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity.

Nonsense - she's brought this one herself by her incompetence and extreme policies, unless you reckon a few Tory MPs are manipulating the global bond markets.

Maroochydore wrote:They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

The Tory members are not "plebs". If you want the plebs to have their say - call for a general election. Or do you not believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say?

Maroochydore wrote:That said, I'm not sure she's up to the job but then I can't see an Torys being up to the job. Kwarteng certainly wasn't.

So you want to be governed by incompetents? Surely if you think that you should be campaigning to get rid of them?

Adamski wrote:As the fixed term parliament act means a GE doesn't need to be held until Jan 2025.

In practice the FTPA can be easily got round if there's a will for it - otherwise we wouldn't have had elections in 2017 and 2019.

Adamski wrote:what matters to unseat Liz is same as was for Boris, which is enough tory mps to vote no confidence. Just can't see that happening. Of course if Liz were to call a GE that would be a Labour govt now on today's polls.

The New Statesman reportthat "a pile" of no confidence letters have already gone in to Brady.

Letters have been going in over the past week, and the executive is ready to suspend the rule that currently prevents a vote against Truss within a year of taking office...its members can only do so once they feel that there is a “groundswell of support” for deposing Truss, but sources on the 1922 expect that point to be reached by Christmas....Crucially, the 1922 executive will not wait for more than half of the Conservatives in the Commons to express their dissatisfaction. A precedent has been set by the confidence vote against Johnson.

Per Peston :
A member of Truss's own cabinet tells me Truss's and Kwarteng's governance is so dire that some Tory MPs would vote against her in a confidence vote, preferring even a general election that cost them their seats to the current economic chaos

Adamski wrote:as a lot can happen between now 14 Oct 22 and 24 jan 25, we could be in post recession, post inflation, recovery mode by then.

The energy crisis will go on for at least the 2023/4 winter, possibly beyond that. I'd recall Black Wednesday in 1992 - the economy had recovered quite well by 1997, but perception that the Tories were incompetent on the economy persisted, when normally that's their key strong suit.

A GB News poll from Peoplepolling puts the Tories below 20% (19-53), although most pollsters have it around 26-48. A deficit of 34% is up there with the all-time records. They won't recover from this.

Dod101 wrote:Is Jeremy Hunt totally stupid?

Given what appear to be the admission standards for PPE at Oxford, you do wonder...

But I can see this works from both sides.

Truss knows that the markets need a safe pair of hands that isn't identified with Trussonomics. But the likes of Sunak won't work with her, and so the pool of candidates is not that large.

Hunt still appears to have ambitions for the poisoned chalice that is the Tory leadership, but as he found recently, it's hard to do that from the back benches. Leaders are almost always chosen from one of the "Big 3" ministers - Home/Foreign/Chancellor, so this is a great place to launch a leadership bid as long as you don't mess up. And the benchmark for "not messing up" is now so low that it's something like "doesn't cause a run on the pound and doesn't call in the IMF".

Lootman wrote:

Dod101 wrote:

scrumpyjack wrote:

Lootman wrote:

Maroochydore wrote:Truss was selected by party members from a short-list of two selected by MP's.

MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity. They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

Sounds a bit like the EU or perhaps Russia.

It also sounds like the Labour party under Corbyn. So many shadow cabinet members either quit or were sacked that at one point JC had to double up people in roles to get a quorum. He ended up with a no-name shadow cabinet, some of whom were very new MPs.

My guess would be Javid. She's got to have someone with some credibility, and as Javid resigned rather than be dictated to by BJ, he has that.

Is Jeremy Hunt totally stupid?

No, he's just a bit boring. I think he is seen as a "safe pair of hands" and perhaps that is needed right now. The nation evidently wasn't ready for radical change and prefers more muddling through.

What my question meant was, why on earth would he want to take on this job? I agree that he is a safe pair of hands but it surely puts him on a collision course with Truss since he does not look like one who is likely to agree with Truss.

Dod

Hunt will have agreed with LT how much independence he has. He will have had the upper hand in those negotiations.

What a car crash of a press briefing that was by Truss. The same answer to each question asked by the press ("What I am doing, is focussing on growth, high-wage economy etc etc etc"). And she really struggled to identify most of the press, so cut the briefing short when she obviously could not remember any more names.

Maybe the country has the government it deserves?
doolally

What a car crash of a press briefing that was by Truss. The same answer to each question asked by the press

Absolutely cringeworthy. She's finished.

Makes you (me anyway) wonder who turned down the job.

If at first you don't succeed, try try try again.

Lootman wrote:

Maroochydore wrote:Truss was selected by party members from a short-list of two selected by MP's.

MP's wanted Sunak and have set out to undermine her at any opportunity. They obviously don't believe in allowing the 'plebs' to have their say.

Sounds a bit like the EU or perhaps Russia.

It also sounds like the Labour party under Corbyn.

Quite so. I think what we are witnessing now is the right-wing version of a Corbyn government.

Lootman wrote:

Dod101 wrote:Is Jeremy Hunt totally stupid?

No, he's just a bit boring. I think he is seen as a "safe pair of hands" and perhaps that is needed right now. The nation evidently wasn't ready for radical change and prefers more muddling through.

Prefers "muddling through"? You don't think what we have currently is a right old muddle?

doolally wrote:What a car crash of a press briefing that was by Truss. The same answer to each question asked by the press ("What I am doing, is focussing on growth, high-wage economy etc etc etc"). And she really struggled to identify most of the press, so cut the briefing short when she obviously could not remember any more names.

Maybe the country has the government it deserves?
doolally

I thought Beth Rigby bleating on sky about others being picked ahead of her was more fun. In a sea of bad news today that bit seemed like a highlight.