Agree entirely with Keiran but I think it would be too little, too late. I the vacuum created by his premiership to date, Sunakism has already been defined by his detractors and (more tellingly) neutral observers in an entirely negative way.
He appears to stand for nothing and even does that incompetantly.
@OGH, I love you to bits, but if you aren't the editor of the article you shouldn't be credited as the author in the heading. Ever since the site was refreshed from the old green "winning here" version, non-PB authors (other than Cyclefree) have been credited wrongly in the heading.
On topic - appreciate the thread header from Keiran P.
Sunakism thus far seems to be coalescing as 'opportunistic populism' (probably the most positive framing I can muster). Still as close as evens for me that there'll be a proposal to bring back the gallows.
Sunak is so weird, it's like he's trying to do Trumpism from a catalog.
It doesn't work, to pull it off you need to be the kind of person who would call up a child at Christmas time and tell them there's no such thing as Santa.
On topic - appreciate the thread header from Keiran P.
Sunakism thus far seems to be coalescing as 'opportunistic populism' (probably the most positive framing I can muster). Still as close as evens for me that there'll be a proposal to bring back the gallows.
That is a culture war step I hadn’t even considered. Is it seriously on the cards?
OT, I could see Sunak losing ground and Starmer gaining ground during the course of an election campaign. The public see Starmer as a bit of a blank sheet of paper, he's really not that well known, so a campaign with him more in the forefront along with a fairly presentable shadow cabinet might boost favourability. He isn't inspirational but generally comes across as less wooden in practice than his reputation.
The public at least until recently saw Sunak as a dull but safe pair of hands. A election campaign may well show up his petulance and irritation at being asked difficult questions. We've already seen a bit of this during conference.
She's very good but I think we could do with Rishi now....
She would do well on a US political drama as First Lady. But I don't think many people doubt that Sunak is a nice hard working family bloke who would like things to be better.
They doubt he has the slightest inkling of how to make things better and see him losing the plot in an attempt to work it out.
On topic - appreciate the thread header from Keiran P.
Sunakism thus far seems to be coalescing as 'opportunistic populism' (probably the most positive framing I can muster). Still as close as evens for me that there'll be a proposal to bring back the gallows.
That is a culture war step I hadn’t even considered. Is it seriously on the cards?
I think they'll wait until after the election for that. But it's coming, I'm pretty sure. It would be as or more divisive and destructive to national cohesion than Brexit, but since when did that ever bother populists?
@OGH, I love you to bits, but if you aren't the editor of the article you shouldn't be credited as the author in the heading. Ever since the site was refreshed from the old green "winning here" version, non-PB authors (other than Cyclefree) have been credited wrongly in the heading.
The author is listed at the bottom, as it always is when it is a guest contribution.
"I learnt the importance of making good on your promises," says Sunak, five minutes before he's about to announce the cancellation of a promised railway line to Manchester.
"I learnt the importance of making good on your promises," says Sunak, five minutes before he's about to announce the cancellation of a promised railway line to Manchester.
ISERROR (Keep your promise + Make long term decisions = Cancel long term promised investment)=TRUE
"I learnt the importance of making good on your promises," says Sunak, five minutes before he's about to announce the cancellation of a promised railway line to Manchester.
Self awareness levels sub zero aren't they!
He is also apparently going to talk about long term decisions at the same time as cancelling a long term infrastructure project.
"I learnt the importance of making good on your promises," says Sunak, five minutes before he's about to announce the cancellation of a promised railway line to Manchester.
Self awareness levels sub zero aren't they!
He is also apparently going to talk about long term decisions at the same time as cancelling a long term infrastructure project.
I maintain that a far better tactical approach would be to have given Hunt the bad HS2 news - if anything it would have fed into his 'there's no money for anything' theme. Then have Rishi be 'good cop' with the bus routes and potholes (hopefully he has a bit more than that) levelling up agenda in his speech.
Sunak has always had poor political instincts and poor judgment. Remember when Covid first hit his initial response was to provide businesses which could no longer operate because of lockdown with loans. When they had no income with which to repay them. It was only after the stupidity of this was pointed out that grants and furlough came in.
The years since have not improved him. Admittedly the party he is in has been tearing itself apart for years. Even Solomon would struggle. But I can see no-one in the party who can articulate any sense of what Conservatism should be.
Frankly there are posters on here who could do a better job of spelling out what such a political position should be - and who could almost certainly make it more attractive than anything on offer from current Tory Ministers.
Not watching but these speeches always, always get overegged as "speech of a lifetime"; "pulled it out the bag" by the loyal toadies at conference. So it will be interesting to see if this gets the same reaction.
"I learnt the importance of making good on your promises," says Sunak, five minutes before he's about to announce the cancellation of a promised railway line to Manchester.
Self awareness levels sub zero aren't they!
He is also apparently going to talk about long term decisions at the same time as cancelling a long term infrastructure project.
I maintain that a far better tactical approach would be to have given Hunt the bad HS2 news - if anything it would have fed into his 'there's no money for anything' theme. Then have Rishi be 'good cop' with the bus routes and potholes (hopefully he has a bit more than that) levelling up agenda in his speech.
Boris was good at tactics, not so much strategy. Truss's strategy was right, her tactics were poor. Sunak seems to be terrible at both.
Quite remarkable how bad Tory MPs are at selecting leaders....
OT, I could see Sunak losing ground and Starmer gaining ground during the course of an election campaign. The public see Starmer as a bit of a blank sheet of paper, he's really not that well known, so a campaign with him more in the forefront along with a fairly presentable shadow cabinet might boost favourability. He isn't inspirational but generally comes across as less wooden in practice than his reputation.
The public at least until recently saw Sunak as a dull but safe pair of hands. A election campaign may well show up his petulance and irritation at being asked difficult questions. We've already seen a bit of this during conference.
Some friends of mine know Starmer well and say that in private he is charming, relaxed and very humorous, very different from his public image. They find it a bit frustrating that he does not show that side of himself though I can see why he does not.
Sunak - like a a lot of people in the City - is not used to being challenged and has not had a lot of experience of this in politics. It shows. It's a mark of inexperience. I know that we don't want geriatrics in power as in the US but too many of our politicians are put in senior positions too early: Sunak is one such and has not been able to learn from his mistakes, possibly because he has been dazzled by his early PR coups during Covid.
@OGH, I love you to bits, but if you aren't the editor of the article you shouldn't be credited as the author in the heading. Ever since the site was refreshed from the old green "winning here" version, non-PB authors (other than Cyclefree) have been credited wrongly in the heading.
The author is listed at the bottom, as it always is when it is a guest contribution.
It's the accreditation at the top I was referring to. For example the following links exist
I’m not sure this speech has any bearing on reality. Are businesses really feeling like they’re “freed” to grow? Are we feeling the benefits of free ports?
He really is. There's no passion. It just sounds patronising.
Right now he's trying to take the piss out of Starmer - and the rise in his voice at the end of each phrase is so half-hearted. It's almost as if even he can't be bothered any more.
OT, I could see Sunak losing ground and Starmer gaining ground during the course of an election campaign. The public see Starmer as a bit of a blank sheet of paper, he's really not that well known, so a campaign with him more in the forefront along with a fairly presentable shadow cabinet might boost favourability. He isn't inspirational but generally comes across as less wooden in practice than his reputation.
The public at least until recently saw Sunak as a dull but safe pair of hands. A election campaign may well show up his petulance and irritation at being asked difficult questions. We've already seen a bit of this during conference.
Some friends of mine know Starmer well and say that in private he is charming, relaxed and very humorous, very different from his public image. They find it a bit frustrating that he does not show that side of himself though I can see why he does not.
Sunak - like a a lot of people in the City - is not used to being challenged and has not had a lot of experience of this in politics. It shows. It's a mark of inexperience. I know that we don't want geriatrics in power as in the US but too many of our politicians are put in senior positions too early: Sunak is one such and has not been able to learn from his mistakes, possibly because he has been dazzled by his early PR coups during Covid.
Sunak's assassination of 30 years of Starmer failure is going down well in the hall.
OT, I could see Sunak losing ground and Starmer gaining ground during the course of an election campaign. The public see Starmer as a bit of a blank sheet of paper, he's really not that well known, so a campaign with him more in the forefront along with a fairly presentable shadow cabinet might boost favourability. He isn't inspirational but generally comes across as less wooden in practice than his reputation.
The public at least until recently saw Sunak as a dull but safe pair of hands. A election campaign may well show up his petulance and irritation at being asked difficult questions. We've already seen a bit of this during conference.
Some friends of mine know Starmer well and say that in private he is charming, relaxed and very humorous, very different from his public image. They find it a bit frustrating that he does not show that side of himself though I can see why he does not.
Sunak - like a a lot of people in the City - is not used to being challenged and has not had a lot of experience of this in politics. It shows. It's a mark of inexperience. I know that we don't want geriatrics in power as in the US but too many of our politicians are put in senior positions too early: Sunak is one such and has not been able to learn from his mistakes, possibly because he has been dazzled by his early PR coups during Covid.
Sunak's assassination of 30 years of Starmer failure is going down well in the hall.
HS2 is an example of "consensus" thinking says Sunak.
Does Rishi realise that Birmingham is in the Midlands? And how does stopping the connection between Birmingham and Manchester help connections between the north and the midlands?
Again, I have to marvel at - even if they'd decided it was the course of action they wanted to take, they didn't HAVE to announce abandoning HS2 to Manchester, at the party conference, in Manchester. They chose to. This is their three days to focus on whatever makes them look good. It's a baffling piece of news management from which I can only conclude that they saw an upside for themselves in this.
@OGH, I love you to bits, but if you aren't the editor of the article you shouldn't be credited as the author in the heading. Ever since the site was refreshed from the old green "winning here" version, non-PB authors (other than Cyclefree) have been credited wrongly in the heading.
The author is listed at the bottom, as it always is when it is a guest contribution.
It's the accreditation at the top I was referring to. For example the following links exist
In other news: Mark Cavendish has delayed plans to retire and will race in next year's Tour de France.
As soon as his team said they would extend his contract for another year if he wanted (straight after he crashed) I think this was always the likely option. Good for him.
Excellent announcement from Rishi on a whole range of new transport schemes in the North and Midlands, electrification of North Wales line and improved links between Scotland + NI funded by scrapping of final leg of HS2
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 21s Rishi Sunak’s central argument appears to be that Keir Starmer changes his mind, and that is a weakness of leadership. But also that he changes his own mind, and that represents strength of leadership.
What we're getting is Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes reannounced, and the money 'saved' from scrapping HS2 north being spent on it. There's nothing much new, and vast savings for the treasury.
@OGH, I love you to bits, but if you aren't the editor of the article you shouldn't be credited as the author in the heading. Ever since the site was refreshed from the old green "winning here" version, non-PB authors (other than Cyclefree) have been credited wrongly in the heading.
The author is listed at the bottom, as it always is when it is a guest contribution.
It's the accreditation at the top I was referring to. For example the following links exist
Excellent announcement from Rishi on a whole range of new transport schemes in the North and Midlands, electrification of North Wales line and improved links between Scotland + NI funded by scrapping of final leg of HS2
Just think how much more he could have funded if they hadn't pissed away billions on the white elephant leg of HS2 from London to Brum.
"You can't have both" - so instead of £96bn for the Midlands and North, £36bn gets spread across the whole country. Wonder where the bulk of that will be spent?
Comments
Veterans Affair minister Johnny Mercer up next. "If it’s any consolation, I was quite surprised they gave me this slot as well," he says.
He goes on: "Everybody wants change after 13 years. Just ask my wife."
https://x.com/PippaCrerar/status/1709520253481357544?s=20
Try the Rish.
Not nearly as funny as Mordaunt's '[Labour] will undo everything we've achieved'.
Reintroduction of capital punishment
or
Postponement of General Elections for 20 years.
Nice intro by Mrs S.
He appears to stand for nothing and even does that incompetantly.
Sunakism thus far seems to be coalescing as 'opportunistic populism' (probably the most positive framing I can muster). Still as close as evens for me that there'll be a proposal to bring back the gallows.
If his speech is simply. "Thank you and goodbye", he will have had a good conference.
It doesn't work, to pull it off you need to be the kind of person who would call up a child at Christmas time and tell them there's no such thing as Santa.
The public at least until recently saw Sunak as a dull but safe pair of hands. A election campaign may well show up his petulance and irritation at being asked difficult questions. We've already seen a bit of this during conference.
Probably doesn’t help she was more recently a non dom, and extremely wealthy
She was very effective.
They doubt he has the slightest inkling of how to make things better and see him losing the plot in an attempt to work it out.
He is also apparently going to talk about long term decisions at the same time as cancelling a long term infrastructure project.
Just a pity he's the PM.
I know! I know! He's hired @TheScreamingEagles as adviser and he's going to announce PR for Westminster in the next few minutes.
The years since have not improved him. Admittedly the party he is in has been tearing itself apart for years. Even Solomon would struggle. But I can see no-one in the party who can articulate any sense of what Conservatism should be.
Frankly there are posters on here who could do a better job of spelling out what such a political position should be - and who could almost certainly make it more attractive than anything on offer from current Tory Ministers.
You have to admit he is a bit of an expert on this
It is already very, very bitty - it's not a building narrative yet.
Why is he calling into question Labour's reliability on that ?
So far, utter shit.
Quite remarkable how bad Tory MPs are at selecting leaders....
Sunak - like a a lot of people in the City - is not used to being challenged and has not had a lot of experience of this in politics. It shows. It's a mark of inexperience. I know that we don't want geriatrics in power as in the US but too many of our politicians are put in senior positions too early: Sunak is one such and has not been able to learn from his mistakes, possibly because he has been dazzled by his early PR coups during Covid.
Clearly he has to go for "Time for a Change" and everyone is nodding, you're dead right it is. He has an impossible task.
And he's a boring speaker.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67003581
Football's coming home. Another success for Rishi.
- https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/author/mike-smithson/
- https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/author/tse/
- https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/author/cyclefree/
In the older site individual authors had individual entries, but that's stopped. So the following links no longer exist- https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/author/corporeal/
- https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/author/quincel/
If the site cannot create an entry for all the contributors, then there should be an "other", thus- https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/author/other/
But there isn't. So at the moment Kieran Pedley's articles are accredited to mike-smithson. Hence my point.Bizarre
Right now he's trying to take the piss out of Starmer - and the rise in his voice at the end of each phrase is so half-hearted. It's almost as if even he can't be bothered any more.
Why would he or should he?
Two fingers to Cameron and Osborne.
Crossrail 2 confirmed
This is their three days to focus on whatever makes them look good. It's a baffling piece of news management from which I can only conclude that they saw an upside for themselves in this.
I hope it's more than lines drawn in Crayon on an AA map.
Well I'll have to vote for Phillip Davies now.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeesh
He's got Bart's vote...
Shipley bypass? That's not going to be mired in planning for 20 years, oh no.
This one described as Network North, as opposed to NPR is this:
https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/network-north-a-fully-integrated-rail-network-for-northern-england/
Agreed.
@DPJHodges
·
21s
Rishi Sunak’s central argument appears to be that Keir Starmer changes his mind, and that is a weakness of leadership. But also that he changes his own mind, and that represents strength of leadership.