Options
Sunak’s constant boasting is not doing him any good – politicalbetting.com
Sunak’s constant boasting is not doing him any good – politicalbetting.com
You would have thought that someone who has risen to the top in politics would have a greater sense of self-awareness than that which we see from Sunak week after week after week.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
No, it isn't working, but it's just spin, not especial lack of self awareness from Sunak. Others not popping up could easily be down to them not being trusted to do it, or being even less popular than he is.
The Tories don't do humility or self-reflection very well.
However, turns out even semi-successful crap-spouting is an art NOT a science.
In other words, for most politicos, do NOT try this at home . . . even if "home" is No. 10 Downing St.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interview
World record attendance for women's sports event set in Lincoln, Nebraska
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dILae6YuP50
92,002 according to the cheerleaders.
There must be dozens of super large stadiums in the USA.
Be modest and self effacing.
Rishi, if you're reading this, I am happy to given you lessons on this.
beheadsack Eddie Howe?If the public begins to acknowledge that the economy is improving, that would clear the way for the Tories to campaign on a message of “we are turning the corner, don’t let Labour ruin it”. Going in May could prevent local election results damaging the Tories further, and would avoid another summer of small boat arrivals.
A senior Labour source said: “They seem to be keeping the option of May open and making it viable in a way they weren’t before. They’ve speeded-up candidate selection. They’re doing a lot more direct mail.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/summers-over-for-rishi-sunak-and-keir-starmer-but-theyre-still-all-at-sea-8gkqf50cc
One last week compared the minister, who once sold get-rich-quick schemes under the pseudonym Michael Green, to Lawrence of Arabia, who entered the air force using a false name, TE Shaw. “He’s the new Lawrence,” the commander said. “We are wondering which name to do the vetting checks on: Grant Shapps or Michael Green.”
Note that Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, NB, ranked 15th in capacity, is rated at just 85,458; however, that is when it's configured for U of Neb football games, it's designed function; you can see from the YouTube clip that seating was added on the field itself for the volleyball match.
I popped into Waitrose on the way home and got cheap dinner (a minted pea and bacon quiche for £1.39!). On my way in, I saw Peter Mandelson at the checkout (buying sushi and what looked like stir fry ingredients). I’ve known for years that he lives nearby, but it’s the first time I’ve seen him
Although I did have to look up where Stanford was. After making my brain interpret "Stanford" as "University near San Francisco" and not "character in SATC". And work out what the "Atlantic Coast Conference" was. But I got there in the end.
Yes I know that hotel and region well. The golden villages of the beaujolais
I did a whole piece about it over a week. I found the food a bit hit and miss and I got bored of gamay wine but those villages are charming and that particular hotel is fabulous. Enjoy!
They also gave me a red 2CV to pootle around in. I have never felt so French
Shapps is actually a stupid appointment by Rishi.
Shapps is actually a pretty good communicator, and should be Minister for the Today Programme or some such.
I suspect Coutinho, looking at her CV, is also a shit appointment for “Energy Security”, but let’s see.
My issue with Mandelson in this story is that it’s not really possible to get edible sushi from a supermarket in Britain.
I've kept stumm to avoid Mike potentially being approached by M'learned Friends.
Uk Defence Journal has a relevant thread:
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/grant-shapps-appointed-as-new-defence-secretary/
https://twitter.com/paddypower/status/1698034617305968654
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-12_Conference
I know literally zero about football.
I “support” Tranmere Rovers because my father does, and Tottenham on geographic grounds.
AFAICS it is Oxford, City of London, right wing think-tank, Tory MP.
Just like all the others.
OTOH, -15% is actually quite a good approval rating for a British PM. The average of the IPSOS-MORI data (comparing between pollsters, I know) since they've been asking the question is -30% or so.
Either we're terrible at choosing PMs or we're an extremely grumpy and ungrateful nation. Or both.
Although she has rather less actual work experience and rather more bouncing-around-think-tanks-talking-shite than many.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGw_hrlaOY
Good food in the hotel itself. The beautiful courtyard under glass! I found some of the local restaurants a tad too ambitious for their skill-levels
I know quite a few people that have met him socially, or served him in shops, or worked at his place, and they've all liked him. Even though most of them haven't liked his politics
And whilst -15 percent approval isn't that bad, the trajectory is, even if it's the same path as every other PM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gNT0SWf3Ls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FOAd1mbtiM
The latest Opinium survey for the Observer shows the Conservative have failed to shift the dial in Sunak’s favour, with the prime minister dropping two points in the past two weeks to a net score of -25% (24% approve, 49% disapprove).
Overall, Labour holds a healthy 14-point lead, with 42% of the vote share (+1 compared with a fortnight ago) against 28% for the Conservatives (+2). The Liberal Democrats are on 9% (-2), Reform UK is on 8% (-1) as is the Green party (+1).
Keir Starmer’s approval rating, while also negative, is far better than Sunak’s, with the Labour leader standing on -7% (28% approve, 35% disapprove).
Similarly, views about who would make the best prime minister have also remained stable – Starmer now leads with 27% choosing the Labour leader, versus 23% who prefer Sunak.
While this support could be stronger for Starmer, there is no evidence that voters are moving to Sunak as Tory strategists had hoped.
The agent says "I'm sorry sir, these people were here first, please join the back of the queue".
The irate man shouts "Don't you know who I am?", at which the agent picks up the tannoy mic and broadcasts: "There's a man at check-in who doesn't know who he is, if anyone can help identify him please make yourself known to security."
The left hated him for pretty much the same reason.
I don't think Sunak is anything like such a flawed character as Boris Johnson but in terms of political electability he is far worse. He is not (yet) the liability that Liz Truss was but he is extraordinarily tone deaf to where people are at. And he becomes petulant when questioned: how dare any minion be so rude as to doubt his truth?
I have Conservative friends who really dislike him and that's not a good sign.
It was back at the time of the Remainer Parliament and Mandy impressed me by saying to me that we had to enact the will of the people who had voted in a democratic election.
Kudos.
Sunak is the best the conservatives have got, despite his flaws, and the mountain that the toxic legacy of Johnson and the diabolical Truss left him is a very tall order to overcome
If tonight's poll by Opinium in the Guardian is anything to go by neither Sunak or Starmer are setting the narrative alight with only 27% and 23% respectively seeing Starmer better than Sunak as PM
I expect the conservatives to pay a price at the next GE, but even Starmer's most avid fans must accept he is hardly inspiring the nation
Oh I give up.
🏳️
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/adolf-hitler-micro-penis-slept-22397919
Lab 36%
SNP 32%
Via Opinium.
That and a couple of tweaks to tax policy - who knows. Sad though it makes me - I can see them winning and chugging downwards for another few years yet.
Moral quandary for ye, if you could time travel and encountered Mandy as a baby, would you use your crossbow on him?
Modern times...
The UK was theoretically sovereign but not practically sovereign. Now its both. That's a meaningful change.
Its like if a couple are married but the man insists upon making all decisions for the couple. The wife can get divorced, but otherwise doesn't get a say in making decisions.
If the husband insists upon making all decisions, then is the wife making the decisions, because she's choosing not to get divorced?
To give you some idea of how low Halifax's standards were, he rather liked Goebbels.
So to be fundamentally disliked by Halifax was quite an achievement.
He would have made an excellent, Machiavellian prime minister. A British Macron
Sunak hasn't taken any meaningful decisions that made inflation fall. The inflation spike was always temporary for known reasons and was always going to fall. Its fallen globally.
Your logic is like saying if the temperature falls between August and February that the PM deserve credit for resolving global warming.
The first Opinium of this year in mid January had Labour 45%, Conservatives 29% and Liberal Democrats 9% so that's Labour down three and Conservatives down one and LDs unchanged. Reform are up from six to eight.
Effectively, as with Techne, little or no change.
Go further back and the late October 2022 poll from Opinium was 44-28-10 so well within margin of error of tonight's poll so it's quite clear while Sunak was able to improve on the disastrous ratings from the end of the Truss debacle, he's made no substantive headway in nearly a year. Opinion (or Opinium) hasn't shifted.
A shiny tax cut though. And who really needs roofs anyway? When you think about it?
The interesting Hitler (from a social perspective) is the lower class corporal who rose to power from the end of WW1 to 1932. He was, by many accounts, intriguing, articulate and charismatic. He didn't rise all that way entirely by accident
That is completely edible and a world of difference from traditional supermarket sushi.
Its also priced accordingly, its £10 for a sushi box that would be £3 for the same sized box in the sandwich fridges typically, but you pay for quality.
No, Sunak is not “the best the Conservatives have got” not by any measure. You are dangerously misreading this situation. Sunak is now out of touch with the public, not because he is filthy rich but because his politics and that of the government he leads has been revealed to be too dry and right wing for the UK today. He promises, over promises, and doesn’t deliver. Which makes every new promise, vow and policy, worthless. The result is voters are no longer listening to him selectively quoting and talking up we have never had it so good, and they won’t all they way up to voting day.
The scale of the Tory catastrophe at the next General Election does not rest at all on Starmer and his policy’s “inspiring the nation”, it will be based on the breadth and depth of voters no longer listening to the Conservatives, making the weeks of the election campaign all about how sleazy, useless, out of touch and dangerous the Tory Party are.
The best hope for the Conservatives now is to change these faces and voices at the top of the government to more everyday, grounded and in touch fresh faces, in order for a more aspirational message that has more broader appeal across more voters to be listened to and considered.
Hunt and Sunak cannot deliver that message, because they are no longer listened to. From here the Conservatives need to be listened to again, to save as many seats as they can. That’s why Sunak, Hunt and Braverman have to go.
It's nice to hear that he's nice to people in his normal life though - I set a fair bit of store by that, genuinely. It's the first time I can recall hearing something about Mandelson to put in the plus column.
He portrayed Hitler as a boorish, lightweight misogynist, summed up by one character commenting, with a laugh, 'your saviour of Germany is quite the funniest [as in, weirdest] little man I've ever met.'
How do you get Mandelson into Number Ten?
Hard to see how that happens, but yes, smart enough to do an elegant job once butterflied there.
Possibly a Starmeresque "made LotO to do an internal cleanup before handing over to the next PM,but the Conservatives collapse prematurely" job...