POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

As one of the rail union bosses said, how does Labour expect to win a General Election if it alienates the union members. Starmer is a liability and I think a lot of people know it. As for Liz Truss and her Thatcher bid, we are in deep shit if she gets the leadership.
Did anyone hear Martin Lewis on BBC R4 Today this morning?

[PanBiker]

[Tripps]

I just braved the start of the latest hustings on LBC. As I switched on I heard someone making a joke about the sunny weather and said he had been asked about his 'sun tan'. Amazed to discover that it came from Rishi Sunak. That remark delivered by his opponent would result in immediate and total disaster, and probably the end of her career. .

None of the above - but especially him. . . .

[Tripps]

From June 13th 2022.

Politics - eh. I've just had fed to me by Youtube.a full meeting of Oldham Council. I loyally slogged through a lot of it, and wondered why I bothered. Deeply unimpressive bunch of shouty morbidly obese people with an exaggerated sense of their own importance. Meeting acieved nothing I'd say. The elephant was still in the room.

I read the other day that one outcome of this raucous meeting - which was followed by another where Labour voted down an independent enquiry into CSE in Oldham, which the outgoing Leader has said is still going on - was that several of the loud protestors in the public gallery )including an 80 year old) have been given Asbo's and forbidden to attend further meetings.

Not verified from more than one source, but the photo of the Asbo looked convincing.

Strange cove democracy.

[Stanley]

Anyone who votes against enquiring unto Child Sexual Abuse in these enlightened times is automatically classified as an ostrich with its head in the sand.... (I don't think ostriches do that actually....)
As for Sunak and colour, he's a devious spiv using every card in the pack because he knows he is losing. Did you see he favours bringing Grammar Schools back into main stream education. I wonder what his attitude is towards Capital Punishment? He's pressing all the Tory buttons, don't be surprised by anything he says or does.
Truss looks like a complete amateur...

[plaques]

Did you see he favours bringing Grammar Schools back into main stream education.

Meanwhile Liz Truss is rubbishing the school that sent her to Oxford. I believe this was the Leeds school that Wendy went to. Recently it has just been rated top marks from Ofsted. Why is she doing this? Possibly a bit of chutzpah to say the school was rubbish but I was so brilliant that in spite of it I went to Oxford. Or is it a move that is saying private paid education would be better so lets move in that direction.

In my days at grammar school 10% were paid places. That's not to say they were dummies. Some were slower than average but caught up by home tutoring something the plebs couldn't afford. I'm not against this extra tuition which I think is a good thing but it should be made more wide spread so everyone can benefit from it. But that's socialism and we can't have that can we.

[PanBiker]

Pendle Constituency Labour Party AGM tonight at St Joseph's in Barlick. Should be short and sweet if they stick to the agenda. I am suggested for my existing role in the Constituency Party. Jacobs Join afterwards and the bar will be open I believe.

[Tripps]

Watched A.Neil v R.Sunak on Ch 4. Caught the last five minutes on the first house, and the questions about his wife's non dom status - wondered why his second hadn't hoisted a white flag, or thrown a towel on the table.

Waited for the second showing and the rest wasn't as bad for him. Neil is showing his age I'd say (tell me about it) and not as sharp as he was. He missed the canard that USA interest rates are 50% higher than ours. The betting puts Truss at 1/14 and Sunak about 7/1.

Meanwhile Lord JCB is funding Boris's 'wedding' party tomorrow.

[plaques]

Watched A.Neil v R.Sunak on Ch 4. Caught the last five minutes on the first house, and the questions about his wife's non dom status - wondered why his second hadn't hoisted a white flag, or thrown a towel on the table.

Sunak, "if I became Prime Minister", a rather pathetic approach to absolving himself from his two years as chancellor. The government has access to a whole army of economists and analysts who would have been mapping out the outcomes of various actions. Somehow the fact that they have been in control for the past 12 years slowly eroding living standards, wreaking the economy and killing of the NHS seems to come as a surprise that there is little they can do or want to do when the fat cats they have been promoting start screwing the people for all they are worth. At least Sunak was brave enough to face off with Neil whereas Truss has chickened out completely.

[Stanley]

I think that when Truss slagged off the school at Roundhay she did it to bolster her contention that she had a deprived childhood and fought her way to the top by her own efforts. This ploy of course means that all the workhouse children have a field marshall's baton in their schoolbag.

[Stanley]

Listening to a news report on the Tory leadership contest I have just heard these words....
"John Redwood and Jacob Rees Mogg are expected to be influential in Liz Truss's campaign"
Good Grief......

[Wendyf]

No way did Liz Truss have a deprived childhood with her father a professor of pure maths at Leeds University and her mother a teacher. They lived in one of the wealthiest areas of Leeds and despite Roundhay School having turned comprehensive in the mid 70's it was and is one of the finest schools in Leeds. It's hard to grasp why she is saying these things unless she is just making the point that she was closer to real life than her other Tory pals.

[Tizer]

At present I can't think of anything worth saying about the direction of British politics except that it will probably solve the immigration problem because eventually no-one will want to come here.

[Stanley]

I second that Peter but my hope is that the end result of all this when it happens over the winter is going to be so bad it will trigger a reboot of UK politics. God knows we need it.

[plaques]

An advisory study has been published which suggests Johnson should flood the House of Lords with compliant peers who have agreed to back the government as part of their terms to become peers. Bribery.

This draft plan to add 39 to 50 new Tory peers includes an extraordinary requirement that each new peer sign away their right to make their own judgment on legislation that comes before them. They have to give, the paper says, a written undertaking to attend and vote with the government.

The document proposes that Johnson ride roughshod over every convention and standard of propriety in an effort to secure political nominees who will vote for the Tory government, especially its bill to disown the international treaty it has itself signed over Northern Ireland.


By doing this Johnson and his cronies hope that the illegal Brexit bill will get voted through the House. This is shear corrupt bribery making a total mockery of our claim to democracy. Whether the Tories follow through with this study is not the point. The point is that they are willing to consider it in the first place. The mind set of these people is pure evil.

[Stanley]

Ken, if they really do mean to attempt this it is beyond disgraceful. It confirms my contention that our system is broken and needs a reboot and somehow I don't think Starmer is the person to drive that agenda forward.
Johnson is getting away with murder and we let him do it.....

[PanBiker]

At the AGM of the Constituency Labour Party we passed a motion to go to the NEC and discussion at conference. It was for the party to engage in discussions about changing the electoral system for General Elections to some form of PR. Also to make the move to PR part of the manifesto.

The latter point probably useless as Starmer has already reneged on existing manifest commitments with the sacking of ministers for supporting workers.

He has also kicked the female member out of the party that recently gave him a tongue lashing in LIverpool. Disgraceful behaviour on both accounts.

[Stanley]

Like you Ian I am not amused. By backing off from supporting a legitimate strike over wages and conditions Starmer negates the main reason the Labour Party exists. LOOK AT THE NAME OF THE PARTY. DUMMY!!!

[plaques]

'I believe in miracles*'. And for my next trick has anybody got seven loaves and a couple of fishes. Both Truss and Sunak are promising the Tory faithful untold wealth by cutting taxes, growing the economy and ending inflation. Truss's stage act starts within weeks with tax cuts which may put millions into poverty. This hardly matters as long as the millions are at the bottom of the heap and unlikely to vote Conservative, nothing to conserve? Sunak is a bit more circumspect his 4% tax cut are promised for 2029. 'If man is still alive'* but only after he has inflation under control. Does this mean the inflation and cost of living crisis is to last another seven years. Taking a leaf out of Johnson's book there's no need to break promises just forget about them. Meanwhile 'sitting in a nest of bad men*' the ERG are still calling the shots and will be pushing both of them to give them a bigger share of the cake.

Name that song *

[Stanley]

The dawning of the age of Aquarius?
Yes I heard him saying that the tax cuts will be paid for by 'efficiencies' in public services. Is that like the ones that left the NHS short of beds and staff?

[PanBiker]

Who said he would be here in seven years to action that? Some folk will be sucked in no doubt, now't as queer as folk.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report that Lisa Nandy has defied Starmer and stood on a picket line. Or could it be a cunning wheeze to take the heat off the leadership of the Labour Party because the MP who was sacked wasn't punished for being on the picket line but making policy statements off the cuff. Politics is so complicated these days!
As for the Tory Leadership race. Both are making ridiculous promises to bribe the blue rinse voters that in November when they get hold of the reins they will have to attend to promises before belatedly addressing the cost of living crisis. Tax cuts for the Shires and children going hungry.

[plaques]

Here are some snippets from the BBC news,

Ms Truss announced a "war on Whitehall waste" in her campaign's latest policy offering.

She claimed she would save taxpayers £11bn by cutting civil service time off, ending national pay deals and scrapping jobs aimed at increasing inclusion and diversity in the public sector. Most of the savings would come from tailoring pay to living costs where civil servants work.

Alex Thomas, from the Institute for Government think tank, said the £8.8bn proposed savings from regional pay bargaining would not come from Whitehall. "The whole Civil Service pay bill is only about £9bn," "You're not going to reduce the Civil Service pay bill to £200m unless you pretty radically reshape the state.

"I know she wants to be radical but possibly not quite that much, so it's going to come from the wider public sector, it's going to come from nurses and teachers and local authorities.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner condemned her plans, saying: "This wannabe prime minister is stuck in the past, fighting old battles, and promising a race to the bottom on public sector workers' pay and rights."

Ms Truss has also been endorsed by West Midlands mayor Andy Street, who said she had a "bold, optimistic vision" for the country.

In reality it means more cuts for the poor where they can enjoy their poverty, stiff upper lip and all that. They are used to being poor so what's the problem?

[PanBiker]

the MP who was sacked wasn't punished for being on the picket line but making policy statements off the cuff.

He must be a bloody mind reader then because I don't have clue along with thousands of other members of what our policy is supposed to be! It should be easy with a socialist party for the very basics of workers rights. Complicated, I would say its abandonment of basic principles in an effort to get elected at all costs.

[Tizer]

She [Truss] claimed she would save taxpayers £11bn...

Why should we believe anything they tell us? Boris Johnson has established blatant lying as a routine part of politics. What we can be sure of is that Truss will shift our government even further towards populism and the right wing.

This morning the front page of the `i' newspaper tells us that Boris Johnson blames the 2019 intake of MPs for his downfall and says they are `flaky', `neurotic' and `lacking robustness' and with less loyalty to a leader. Well, that's one in the eye for the `red wall' MPs then - I wonder which party they'll vote for next time?

The Mail gleefully reports that Truss has vowed to call a halt on taxes aimed at buying junk food. She'll scrap proposals for a ban on `buy one get one free' deals. That's another dose of populism and one that will only result in more unhealthy people, increase the pressure on the NHS and lower our productivity due to ill-health.
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Later...I've been reading about Donald Trump and Mike Pence in Arizona backing their respective candidates in the election for state governor. Trump backs Kari Lake and Pence backs Karrin Taylor Robson. What caught my attention was that Kari Lake has said repeatedly that if she loses she will declare the election invalid. In fact she already claims that fraud is going on and that China is involved even though she can provide no evidence for any of it. America has got serious political problems and I don't know how they're going to solve them.