You have to pick one - which

The rumour is that Penny M took over from Liz Truss doing the cocktail dinners with donors and members, which explains her rise in popularity. She's also a fairly crap liar - including both about signing trade deals with US states (Memorandums of understanding that are unlikely to ever amount to anything) and the UK not having a veto over Turkey joining the EU are among the most recent.

 

My current opinion on the leadership race can be summed up in 2 sentences:

1. Theresa May was in the 5 worst Prime Ministers of all time
2. Theresa May is probably the best candidate to be Prime Minister in the entire party.

That is how bad it is. We have a choice between a set of individuals with horrendous voting records, most of which brazenly lie, have dodgy tax dealings (Zahawi & Sunak), are tainted by support of Johnson and/or dislike scrutiny (watch Sunak's launch after Beth Rigby asked a question) - and at best have 30 months in the role before Alexander Johnson takes out his fourth consecutive Tory PM.

Its like the worst ever episode of the Apprentice and you could find 8 better candidates in any crack den.

 

Sorry to pick you up on this DB, but Sunak is completely right, tax cuts at the moment would be insanity. All the politicians know this, but the rest are just saying what they think people want to hear.

Inflation is at 11%, it's is caused by currency being devalued amongst other factors like the war in Ukraine and global energy crises. The government printed £450 billion during the pandemic adding a huge amount of cash into the system, this will of course lead to currency being devalued and huge inflation - the more money there is the less its value. The way to stop this is by stopping banks printing money by raising interest rates and keeping taxes steady. If taxes are lowered it increases spending money and will continue to increase inflation.

The country has to get a handle on inflation before talking about tax cuts and putting money back into the economy. It's an unpopular call, but the right one.

 

This is supply push inflation on a necessity good. It's a unique problem which requires a specific solution. The Tory party is too caught up in battles of ideologies to solve the real world problem.

 

I'm not sure if this huge inflation is just because of gas and oil prices. No doubt this is one factor but the inflation figures have been accelerated massively by the government printing astonishing volumes of cash during covid. Much of this was necessary, but it was always going to have a knock-on affect on inflation as printing money devalues currency.

 

I'd argue that energy and fuel prices are by far the biggest driver of inflation. The problem with oil/gas etc is that it affects absolutely everything, from raw materials to production to transport so it's largely indiscriminate in terms of product type. An example on transport is that shipping costs are roughly 7x what they were a couple of years ago.

I don't think you're totally off the mark in terms of currency, but I'm not of the opinion that it's the largest driver. You also have to consider the EUR/USD exchange rate which has also taken a hit recently as many products travel through the EU to come through to the UK market.

 

He’s right about taxation but wrong on who he taxes and which taxes he’s chosen to pay for his policy and it’s not the richest in society that he’s going after as usual it’s the ordinary working man and when he cuts taxes it’ll be for the richest on pretence it’s for investment .

 

Will their membership vote for Sunak the law breaker?

 

A yougov poll out in the last hour showing Mordaunt would currently beat any other contender at the membership stage. Sunak was currently joint 3rd with Truss after Mordaunt and Badenoch.

 

Yet in his Constituency he has one of the biggest majorities in Parliament.

 

Will we find out who's voted for who in each round? Hardly any MPs have come out and backed someone in public.

 

I'd do it myself but I don't know how, so can you put another poll on with the same title but the following options please?

1 COVID
2 Herpes
3 Thrush
4 Leprosy
5 Black Death
6 Stage 4 Bowel cancer

 

I've got to say, watching this all play out in the public glare is morbidly fascinating.

A barrel of rats eating each other. A pretence of morality, when many of them voted for the previous liar and then pretty much all of them enabled him for up to 3 years. The contortions and mental gymnastics is extraordinary in itself but the thing thats really standing out is the delusion.

We've some massive problems and the way through this is in their mind is apparently a swathe of tax cuts and making lots of people in the civil service unemployed. Now don't get me wrong, nobody especially enjoys paying tax, but given the mess we're in and how so many people are struggling, paying less tax just shouldn't be on the agenda, as long as the support is there for them.

On top of that we've got culture wars on acid, efforts to walk away from human rights conventions and attacking the trans community.

Most of the candidates left are a mix of out of touch, inexperienced, deluded, evil, incompetent and stupid. And some tick far more than one box.

I'd say the next GE can't come soon enough. But I long lost confidence in the public making sensible decisions.

 

Thank god she’s gone!

 

Celebration indeed.... the second biggest psychopath has dropped out!

It's really grim though. The next Prime Minister is going to be Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt or Liz Truss. I feel queasy at the thought.