like the queen this thread will never die: in which we ALL resign (ourselves to disgusting miseries to post-boris politics 2022)

glad to have confirmed that I wasn't being completely out of touch to think £8 cod was p extreme. the delights of small village down south living. on the other hand if I lived in noodle vague's ends with £4 cod,chips,peas available I'd probably be in there 3x a week and even more overweight than I already am!

our local fish and chip shop is run by two extremely macho guys who I am sure are sneering and giggling at me in a way I haven't encountered since secondary school, fish tastes stale too, not fussed if they close tbh.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/24/sunak-says-it-was-a-mistake-to-empower-scientists-during-covid-pandemic

going for the anti-lockdown vote. would thatcher've been anti-lockdown?

The former chancellor added: “I was like: ‘Forget about the economy – surely we can all agree that kids not being in school is a major nightmare.’

“There was a big silence afterwards. It was the first time someone had said it. I was so furious.”

Wow he's as stupid as Truss after all.

Nashwan, I too had an indicator today that Sunak was as stupid as Truss. He was saying that Johnson let lockdown go on too long and that scientists had too much control over Covid decision-making.

sorry, missed the link above, this is part of the same story, obvs.

Trying to outflank Truss on the right, a desperate mug's game played poorly. Still, if Truss calls and fails to win a GE she could be out in the new year! Then they can do the leadership contest all over again. Not a hugely likely scenario I guess.

Thatcher studied chemistry at Oxford so you would think she would be on the side of the scientists. But if she were in today's Conservative party, who knows.

Thatcher studied chemistry at Oxford so you would think she would be on the side of the scientists.

HAHAHAHA! Her savage cuts to university research funding and abolition of tenure strongly suggest otherwise, Ward.

if I were a member of the Tory party my nose would be serious out of joint by the fact that the MPs had their ridiculous summer-long reality-TV style whittling contest to reduce the ballot to those two loons rather than sending out a ballot paper with all the original candidates on it.

Which perhaps serves to demonstrate why I'm not a member of *any* political party and it's likely to remain that way, I guess.

Fair enough!

There is such a huge chasm between what they suppose the deranged membership want to hear from them and what is required right now that I can't take this bizarre side-show too seriously. If either of them were dangerously stupid enough to commit to the *even more* hardcore fiscal conservatism they've been talking up at hustings then we are all fucked. But there is so much bare faced lying going on here, they are making Starmer's leadership campaign look honest.

I don't know if Sunak is stupider than Truss - that's not so much a low bar as a subterranean one - but his leadership campaign surely has been. It's possibly the worst political campaign since Bobby Gillespie's dad lost Govan to the SNP.

i like that he was the sole voice of reason in the room* but his comments were stricken from the record so there's no proof...

* although kids back to school was never the sensible option, those places are petri dishes. no point in isolating the general population if you're going to make the younglings they live with mingle with everybody else's younglings.

He:s cycled through so many right wing nutjob talking points I'm just waiting for him to get to bringing back hanging.

at least bringing back child labour is still beyond the pale ... for now

I wonder if he has any thoughts on British cheese, or pork markets for that matter.

whither comedy marmalades in our time of trial

https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article364984.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/1D25EEE5-B93E-1613-370F8B4705BB7694.jpg

"Rather than simply saying the answer to everything is to give out more cash, we need to look at the root causes of this problem," says Liz Truss on what she'll do about surging energy bills.

"And that's why I support fracking..." pic.twitter.com/9BpOZthVZC

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) August 25, 2022

these fucking people

Liz Truss has said she would be "ready" to use the UK's nuclear arsenal if she was to become prime minister.

The Tory leadership frontrunner said she would be willing to press the nuclear button, even if it meant "global annihilation".

I blame the parents.

Gammon hard-on scenario #1

destroying the uk/the globe/whatever in order to save it is the entire tory m.o. these days iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCehccEZzX4

We've reached the point where if I didn't have loved ones nuclear apocalypse would feel like a hopeful future tbh

Be good if we could just know more about the button. Big? red? do you get a message after pressing it asking if you are definitely the PM? The only person who can press the single button that exists...are you sure you want to continue or would you rather cancel? To cancel click continue or to cancel this cancel plea and continue the nuke click cancel

Only click on the pictures with mushroom clouds

click on all the squares with traffic lights before commencing with the end of human civilisation

"erm, do squares with traffic light poles count as well? this is too hard"

it's mainly the prospect of surviving nuclear apocalypse that gives me the fear, there are far worse ways to go than getting instantly vapourised by one of Putin's special military firework displays.

#onethreads

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/28/britons-need-to-be-less-squeamish-about-drinking-water-from-sewage-says-agency-head

There is stuff in this we all need to face. Less water for washing cars, but also less cars.

"Get a water meter: your company will install one free" says Sir James Bevan. Not a chance, pal. I appreciate it is going that way anyway, but I'll delay getting metered water for as long as it is possible.

These bills have to be written off by the state.

A worker on £30k pays £3,486 income tax and £2,399 NI

Energy bills are expected to go to £7,700 in April, up from £1,042 in 2020

Even if you completely scrapped both income tax and NI it would not cover the increase in bills.

The idea that tax cuts will solve this is deluded

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) August 28, 2022

it’s hard to know how things will shake out but one thing i am 100% certain of is that if Labour ever get back into power these ghouls will immediately insist that austerity is the only remedy for the unforeseeable spending they had to make during the pandemic and the fuel crisis.

Truss has 2 maths A-levels and can add up apparently. Speaking directly to the membership and dismissing universal "handouts" and promoting tax cuts that benefit only business and the wealthy as her flagship policy with vague wishy washy talk of targeted help for others is utterly degenerate in these circumstances, but it's probably been a winning tactic for her. This is turning into some scary shit, the foodbanks won't be able to cope with the massive increase in users. Pensioners and people with health conditions are facing winter oblivion, and this shitshow is still going on.

And if people fall behind with the payments, energy companies will no doubt pay a visit and forcibly fit a pre-payment meter. Although how you do this with 20 million households I'm not sure, which is the crux of the problem isn't it - driving the lowest earners into poverty is fine for the Tory electorate, driving most of the country into penury is unsustainable.

I didn't realise until recently how badly people with pre-payment meters are getting fucked now. Not had one for twenty odd years, so this was back in the days when you could put £40 on the gas key and it would last for a reasonable amount of time, like weeks iirc. Was never in the situation where I couldn't afford to cook.

food banks won't cope even without an increase in users. who left can afford to donate stuff to them in the first place?

do pre-payment meters still have that double-rate "emergency credit" which you're not supposed to use but inevitable do end up using?

The ticket fed electric ones used to have about £6-7 emergency credit on them, probably enough to boil your kettle, use your toaster and have a quick shower these days. When I got my first flat I was constantly in the emergency credit.

Acting like a PM already

Liz Truss has cancelled her BBC One interview with Nick Robinson which was due to air this Tuesday evening (30th August) at 7pm. Ms Truss’ team say she can no longer spare the time to appear on “Our Next Prime Minister”. (1/2)

— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) August 29, 2022

bbc news editors haaaate shit like this because they are supposed to balance views across their programme output. not the same gravity as in a general election but they would have never agreed to give sunak that amount of time without a commitment from truss

hence the snark, which is slightly unprofessional imo but quite delicious

do pre-payment meters still have that double-rate "emergency credit" which you're not supposed to use but inevitable do end up using?

― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

Yes, they do. They just raised the emergency credit to £20, because £10 would go down too fast. And yeah, we are getting majorly fucked.

It’s not looking great pic.twitter.com/VeaL41CD03

— Cobie (@cobie) August 29, 2022

Absolute morons thinking five days in the office a week again will be a moneysaver for most.

This is assuming the office can afford to pay the heating. Ditto the vaguely-defined 'elsewhere'.
Let's see if the Tories propose some govt-funded 'energy mortgage' wheeze, where everyone pays back the shareholders over the entire course of their natural lives.

A lot of companies have gone into a remote working model, and they won't be going back so they can supply a communal shower.

In London you see quite a few Offices for Hire, so I wonder if some of those companies will go bust as well.

oh, you have free shower places? nice.

If that piece affects anyone's thinking at all it'll be to make employers more keen on WFH, as buildings are expensive to light and heat and on top of that your employees will be scrounging all your leccy lol