The entire cabinet had the expression David Perdue wore when Ossoff said 'it's not just that you're a crook, Senator' which I compared to somebody being forced to drink neat horse piss.
Exchange rates and bond yields a can be up and down lilke yoyos but today both very much in the right direction suggesting that Hunt is very much on the money....to coin a phrase.
This UQ does really feel like the Tory party has moved on from Truss. Mordaunt has been excellent but these sound like attack lines from a new government not one trying to defend its current record.
Insufferably smug and full of herself (she did say “I am so lovely” didn’t she?) unable to think on her feet, and not actually answering or engaging with a single question.
Penny is No doubt number 1 preference of all opposition parties to replace Truss.
Oh FFS. How can Truss put us in the situation when I'm agreeing with Caroline Lucas?
Anna Firth even worse than that Leics bloke.
She is head and shoulders better than Long- Bailey who has just been put back in her box by Penny!
RLB, lol. She really is yesterdays twat
That's a bit harsh. But I do wonder whether the LP would be in the strong position it is in now if she had beat Starmer - even after all the gov's troubles.
Mordaunt "with regret she [the PM] is not here for a very good reason".
Maybe she is having some form of mental breakdown, the pressure she must be under would be incredible.
If that were the case, would it not be 'playing games' in a somewhat unpleasant manner for her party not to have briefed the opposition through channels, rather than allow the rather brutal political banter about her that we're now witnessing ?
What I like about Mordaunt is how she is so calm under pressure and with a quick wit. This was Penny's interview being put in to bat with the liveliest of pitches. She's passed with flying colours and she surely must be the prime candidate to take over.
Liz Truss is probably destined to become a figure like Sarah Ferguson, popping up in the tabloids from time to time for doing something embarrassing.
I think that's unnecessarily harsh.
She was a long-serving cabinet minister, who did a good enough job to be repeatedly promoted (albeit following Dr Fox means you are almost certain to look stellar by comparison).
But the Peter Principle applies.
She (and my friend Kwasi) assumed that you could cut taxes and increase spending, and that investors would not mind. And to be fair, until recently they haven't minded. Investors have bought Japanese government bonds, and Italian government bonds, and myriad others, despite money printing, government largesse and deficits galore.
But the UK's plans were regarded as too much - perhaps because for the first time, a government didn't even pretend that it cared about balancing the books. And credibility, like virginity, once lost...
Ms Truss is hoping that with a new CoE and a little bit of stability, things can turn around. And you know what, maybe they can, at least a bit. She's planning on staying out of the limelight, the markets settling, and that a coup won't happen.
And I think the 2-1 available for her to last the year is pretty good value. Because if she doesn't do anything, then I simply don't think there is enough of a groundswell to get rid of her. If there were an obvious replacement, it might be different. But there's not.
This UQ does really feel like the Tory party has moved on from Truss. Mordaunt has been excellent but these sound like attack lines from a new government not one trying to defend its current record.
Problem is this current Government has been elected by no-one at any point.
What I like about Mordaunt is how she is so calm under pressure and with a quick wit. This was Penny's interview being put in to bat with the liveliest of pitches. She's passed with flying colours and she surely must be the prime candidate to take over.
Yes, she has done very well indeed. Some false steps but given the circumstances she's held her own admirably.
What's particularly impressive as you say is how calm she's been.
If it turns out that Truss has got a serious and genuine reason for not being there then Labour are going to look very bad for pressing it so much. They've made their point - move on from it.
What I like about Mordaunt is how she is so calm under pressure and with a quick wit. This was Penny's interview being put in to bat with the liveliest of pitches. She's passed with flying colours and she surely must be the prime candidate to take over.
Yes, she has done very well indeed. Some false steps but given the circumstances she's held her own admirably.
What's particularly impressive as you say is how calm she's been.
Plus defusing attacks with touches of ‘human’ of which Truss simply wouldn’t be capable
If it turns out that Truss has got a serious and genuine reason for not being there then Labour are going to look very bad for pressing it so much. They've made their point - move on from it.
If it turns out that Truss has got a serious and genuine reason for not being there then Labour are going to look very bad for pressing it so much. They've made their point - move on from it.
Not really. It's their job to ask where she is, until they get an answer. Which they haven't yet.
What I like about Mordaunt is how she is so calm under pressure and with a quick wit. This was Penny's interview being put in to bat with the liveliest of pitches. She's passed with flying colours and she surely must be the prime candidate to take over.
If it turns out that Truss has got a serious and genuine reason for not being there then Labour are going to look very bad for pressing it so much. They've made their point - move on from it.
I would expect Starmer to have been briefed on the quiet if that were the case.
Tory MPs are being told Truss will get Hunt to answer Starmer’s urgent question. If she sits mute next to him, that will be her vote of confidence in her Chancellor...but it may also fuel calls for a vote of no confidence in herself.
If Hunt answers the question surely it just confirms he is the PM in all but name.
And it confirms that Truss needs to go asap.
Equally Hunt hasn't been selected by anyone except Truss so that isn't exactly representing any version of democracy when the new DeFacto leader came last in the last leadership contest.
If Hunt is now made PM by coronation there would be civil war in the party, he knows that which is why he is happy staying Chancellor with Truss his puppet PM.
The ERG would also nominate a candidate against him unless the 1922 cttee put an absurd figure of say 150 Tory MPs required to nominate a leadership candidate
If the polls and the £ and the FTSE go up, I am sure they could cope with it.
Everyone knows that the hard Brexit is going to have to be undone; while the grown-ups are in charge they may as well start on that, too.
Rejoin the single market and restore free movement and that is it for the Tories, they not only lose by a landslide but Farage's party replaces them as the main opposition
70% of voters are not intending to vote for the Tories, RefUK or UKIP.
You might be obsessed by how the other 30% split their votes but frankly, it's irrelevant to the majority of us.
Amazing to remember that the Conservative Party didn't go for Hunt in 2019.
Interesting counterfactual as to what would have happened had the Conservatives gone for Hunt in 2019.
I suspect right now it could be Chancellor John McDonnell that would be dealing with market turmoil had he won.
No chance. The Conservative Party, not to mention the country, would be in a massively better place than it is now. As I wrote at the time:
The party is no longer recognisable as the pragmatic, business-friendly, economically-sound, reality-based party of government which I have supported for decades. It will justifiably get the electoral blame for the consequences of the disastrous course it has chosen, and will probably never be forgiven by younger voters.
The election of Boris Johnson as leader is irresponsible and unworthy in itself: many of those who voted for him are fully aware that he is unfit to be PM. But, worse than that, it is a symptom of a much deeper malaise in the party, one that goes to the very heart of what the Conservative Party should be about. It is a choice of denial as well as of desperation, showing that party members have lost interest in dealing with the world as it is, not as it they would like it to be.
If the Conservative Party no longer wishes to be a serious party of government, living in the real world and striving to act in the interests of the whole United Kingdom, what is the point of it?
I have no axe to grind with Hunt. But I find it implausible that he would have won a majority in 2019. We would have had a Starmer/Sturgeon double act as we went into covid.
Nah. For a start (as you have already corrected) it would have been Corbyn not Starmer and, far more importantly, if it had been Hunt vs Corbyn then Hunt would still have won. Corbyn just scared the horses way too much. It is a sign of how bad May was that he even got close to her in 2017.
What Hunt would then have done I have no idea. Judging Hunt by his actions today in a crisis when effectively all he has to do is stabilise the markets to be a hero is no real judge of how he would have handled the internal party politics 4 years ago, not how he would have handled Covid. I suspect he would have done better than Johnson on the latter but that is just my own anti-Johnson bias really.
This is all counterfactual, so who knows. *But*, I suspect he would have done less well on vaccine procurement, but better on lockdowns. (In that he would have been faster to implement them at the beginning, and therefore we would have avoided the same initial peak that took so long to come down from.)
But this is all conjecture. He might have been better, he might have been worse. No one knows for sure.
Liz Truss is probably destined to become a figure like Sarah Ferguson, popping up in the tabloids from time to time for doing something embarrassing.
I think that's unnecessarily harsh.
She was a long-serving cabinet minister, who did a good enough job to be repeatedly promoted (albeit following Dr Fox means you are almost certain to look stellar by comparison).
But the Peter Principle applies.
She (and my friend Kwasi) assumed that you could cut taxes and increase spending, and that investors would not mind. And to be fair, until recently they haven't minded. Investors have bought Japanese government bonds, and Italian government bonds, and myriad others, despite money printing, government largesse and deficits galore.
But the UK's plans were regarded as too much - perhaps because for the first time, a government didn't even pretend that it cared about balancing the books. And credibility, like virginity, once lost...
Ms Truss is hoping that with a new CoE and a little bit of stability, things can turn around. And you know what, maybe they can, at least a bit. She's planning on staying out of the limelight, the markets settling, and that a coup won't happen.
And I think the 2-1 available for her to last the year is pretty good value. Because if she doesn't do anything, then I simply don't think there is enough of a groundswell to get rid of her. If there were an obvious replacement, it might be different. But there's not.
There is if you had the BBC on. And there’ll be another along in a mo..
Who amongst us had not demonstrated our courage by sacking someone for implementing the decisions we took, then sending someone else out to tell everyone how courageous we were.
Hodge asking directly why the PM isn’t there; Mordaunt ducks the question - says she asked if she could disclose the reasons but was told that she could not
If it turns out that Truss has got a serious and genuine reason for not being there then Labour are going to look very bad for pressing it so much. They've made their point - move on from it.
As I noted above, is that is really the case, then the opposition ought to have been briefed. Allowing them to continue with what is otherwise entirely justified, if brutal criticism is more than bad form.
I don't think Mordaunt's line about "the PM is not under a desk" was intentional. She didn't know Creasy was going to ask that question. And she looked slightly flustered and hesitant responding.
Amazing to remember that the Conservative Party didn't go for Hunt in 2019.
Interesting counterfactual as to what would have happened had the Conservatives gone for Hunt in 2019.
I suspect right now it could be Chancellor John McDonnell that would be dealing with market turmoil had he won.
No chance. The Conservative Party, not to mention the country, would be in a massively better place than it is now. As I wrote at the time:
The party is no longer recognisable as the pragmatic, business-friendly, economically-sound, reality-based party of government which I have supported for decades. It will justifiably get the electoral blame for the consequences of the disastrous course it has chosen, and will probably never be forgiven by younger voters.
The election of Boris Johnson as leader is irresponsible and unworthy in itself: many of those who voted for him are fully aware that he is unfit to be PM. But, worse than that, it is a symptom of a much deeper malaise in the party, one that goes to the very heart of what the Conservative Party should be about. It is a choice of denial as well as of desperation, showing that party members have lost interest in dealing with the world as it is, not as it they would like it to be.
If the Conservative Party no longer wishes to be a serious party of government, living in the real world and striving to act in the interests of the whole United Kingdom, what is the point of it?
I have no axe to grind with Hunt. But I find it implausible that he would have won a majority in 2019. We would have had a Starmer/Sturgeon double act as we went into covid.
Nah. For a start (as you have already corrected) it would have been Corbyn not Starmer and, far more importantly, if it had been Hunt vs Corbyn then Hunt would still have won. Corbyn just scared the horses way too much. It is a sign of how bad May was that he even got close to her in 2017.
What Hunt would then have done I have no idea. Judging Hunt by his actions today in a crisis when effectively all he has to do is stabilise the markets to be a hero is no real judge of how he would have handled the internal party politics 4 years ago, not how he would have handled Covid. I suspect he would have done better than Johnson on the latter but that is just my own anti-Johnson bias really.
Would Blyth really have voted for Hunt? Leigh? Heywood and Middelton? Durham North West? Redcar? Where Hunt would have done well, the Tories won anyway. Absolute best case Hunt would have scraped a narrow majority but at the mercy of a restive and rebellious back bench.
I would personally give Johnson 5/10 for covid, which is higher (in my estimation) than almost any of his counterparts elsewhere in these islands or the wider world (Scandinavia apart). I certainly have no faith Hunt would have done any better. Would vaccine procurement have been any better - or would Hunt in times of emergency have taken the seemingly low risk option and joined the EU procurement system. We'll never know, of course. Should be noted it was of course a very difficult situation. Not surprising that so many dealt poorly with it and I'm certainly not saying I'd have done any better.
Hodge asking directly why the PM isn’t there; Mordaunt ducks the question - says she asked if she could disclose the reasons but was told that she could not
shes plotting to nuke moscow in a last ditch bid to save her premiership
Hodge asking directly why the PM isn’t there; Mordaunt ducks the question - says she asked if she could disclose the reasons but was told that she could not
shes plotting to nuke moscow in a last ditch bid to save her premiership
Liz Truss is probably destined to become a figure like Sarah Ferguson, popping up in the tabloids from time to time for doing something embarrassing.
I think that's unnecessarily harsh.
She was a long-serving cabinet minister, who did a good enough job to be repeatedly promoted (albeit following Dr Fox means you are almost certain to look stellar by comparison).
But the Peter Principle applies.
She (and my friend Kwasi) assumed that you could cut taxes and increase spending, and that investors would not mind. And to be fair, until recently they haven't minded. Investors have bought Japanese government bonds, and Italian government bonds, and myriad others, despite money printing, government largesse and deficits galore.
But the UK's plans were regarded as too much - perhaps because for the first time, a government didn't even pretend that it cared about balancing the books. And credibility, like virginity, once lost...
Ms Truss is hoping that with a new CoE and a little bit of stability, things can turn around. And you know what, maybe they can, at least a bit. She's planning on staying out of the limelight, the markets settling, and that a coup won't happen.
And I think the 2-1 available for her to last the year is pretty good value. Because if she doesn't do anything, then I simply don't think there is enough of a groundswell to get rid of her. If there were an obvious replacement, it might be different. But there's not.
I would say this is what she is trying to do, her strategy. But I think the situation is untenable. There is no sign at the moment that she can either manage the party, or put up an even vaguely credible face to the world. We've had a pattern of 'disappearances' at crucial times. The most recent press conference was a disaster. She seems to completely lack self awareness and is a terrible communicator.
If Truss manages to do one appearance that is not a total disaster, then she can probably limp on, and this changes the betting outlook. But this seems to be a long way off.
Amazing to remember that the Conservative Party didn't go for Hunt in 2019.
Interesting counterfactual as to what would have happened had the Conservatives gone for Hunt in 2019.
I suspect right now it could be Chancellor John McDonnell that would be dealing with market turmoil had he won.
No chance. The Conservative Party, not to mention the country, would be in a massively better place than it is now. As I wrote at the time:
The party is no longer recognisable as the pragmatic, business-friendly, economically-sound, reality-based party of government which I have supported for decades. It will justifiably get the electoral blame for the consequences of the disastrous course it has chosen, and will probably never be forgiven by younger voters.
The election of Boris Johnson as leader is irresponsible and unworthy in itself: many of those who voted for him are fully aware that he is unfit to be PM. But, worse than that, it is a symptom of a much deeper malaise in the party, one that goes to the very heart of what the Conservative Party should be about. It is a choice of denial as well as of desperation, showing that party members have lost interest in dealing with the world as it is, not as it they would like it to be.
If the Conservative Party no longer wishes to be a serious party of government, living in the real world and striving to act in the interests of the whole United Kingdom, what is the point of it?
I have no axe to grind with Hunt. But I find it implausible that he would have won a majority in 2019. We would have had a Starmer/Sturgeon double act as we went into covid.
We wouldn't have had an election in 2019, it was Boris's high stakes politics on Brexit (which Hunt completely opposed) which led to the Get Brexit Done election. Hunt was willing to extend Article 50, Boris wasn't, which is what set the clash with Parliament that led to the election; Hunt wouldn't have followed that path.
If Hunt won the Tory leadership election in 2019 he had no answer to resolve the Brexit dilemma that had trapped Theresa May and he would have extended Article 50. The Brexit Party would have regrettably still been getting a very large share of the vote, which is why Corbyn's Labour was registering some 10 point poll leads by the end of May's tenure.
In this counterfactual then we would have gone into 2020 still a member of the EU, with the 2017 Parliament still running and divided, the Tories flailing in the polls, the UK in Article 50 still, with Corbyn secure as Leader of the Opposition still . . . and then the pandemic would have struck.
Would we have been able to resolve a Brexit deal while in lockdown when we hadn't been able to get one beforehand? Would Brexit have been kicked into the "too hard to deal with" long grass?
The next election would have been held in May this year and may have even seen Corbyn win it.
Hodge asking directly why the PM isn’t there; Mordaunt ducks the question - says she asked if she could disclose the reasons but was told that she could not
shes plotting to nuke moscow in a last ditch bid to save her premiership
If I were Putin, I'd send a couple of Bears over Shetland to give Truss an excuse to stay out of the house and retain the premiership.
Ah - so the line was that grown-up Government is going on at No 10 and that Starmer's question was a waste of time. Hence, Truss didn't dignify it with her presence. Not sure that works. Also has some pretty severe implications as regards both political accountability and the importance of Parliament.
Anyone here blamed all this on Truss being a Remainer yet?
So are they making up some national security reason for the Truss absence . Are we all about to be nuked. Where is Leon ?
Nope there would have been a briefing to Labour Party if it was that serious. That said I would have thought they would also have shared her being ill.
Comments
(She just arrived, so Hunt can't be far away)
https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1582024444385447936
The entire cabinet had the expression David Perdue wore when Ossoff said 'it's not just that you're a crook, Senator' which I compared to somebody being forced to drink neat horse piss.
can be up and down lilke yoyos but today both very much in the right direction suggesting that Hunt is very much on the money....to coin a phrase.
I believe that the King is at Balmoral.
Insufferably smug and full of herself (she did say “I am so lovely” didn’t she?) unable to think on her feet, and not actually answering or engaging with a single question.
Penny is No doubt number 1 preference of all opposition parties to replace Truss.
NZ’s conservative National Party ousted its leader in favour of some backwoodsman called Todd Muller in 2020.
He lasted six weeks before succumbing to some kind of breakdown, which he had to publicly acknowledge as he stepped down.
Truss’s level of failure and humiliation is bigger by orders of magnitude.
Not that she's wrong!
Sounds about right. But refreshingly honest from a politician.
So family issues perhaps which amazingly appear today .
She was a long-serving cabinet minister, who did a good enough job to be repeatedly promoted (albeit following Dr Fox means you are almost certain to look stellar by comparison).
But the Peter Principle applies.
She (and my friend Kwasi) assumed that you could cut taxes and increase spending, and that investors would not mind. And to be fair, until recently they haven't minded. Investors have bought Japanese government bonds, and Italian government bonds, and myriad others, despite money printing, government largesse and deficits galore.
But the UK's plans were regarded as too much - perhaps because for the first time, a government didn't even pretend that it cared about balancing the books. And credibility, like virginity, once lost...
Ms Truss is hoping that with a new CoE and a little bit of stability, things can turn around. And you know what, maybe they can, at least a bit. She's planning on staying out of the limelight, the markets settling, and that a coup won't happen.
And I think the 2-1 available for her to last the year is pretty good value. Because if she doesn't do anything, then I simply don't think there is enough of a groundswell to get rid of her. If there were an obvious replacement, it might be different. But there's not.
What's particularly impressive as you say is how calm she's been.
Edit - ignore, misunderstood something I'd read.
PM has just left Downing Street. She went out of the back of Number 10 along with her police escort.
https://twitter.com/isobeljourno/status/1582024131645964290?t=2Y3k8zniO53GeBZQ4vFk0A&s=19
You might be obsessed by how the other 30% split their votes but frankly, it's irrelevant to the majority of us.
But this is all conjecture. He might have been better, he might have been worse. No one knows for sure.
Jessica Elgot
@jessicaelgot
·
12m
Penny Mordaunt knew exactly how that desk line would land, this is not her first rodeo
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1582027316003495937
Tune out to avoid damage...
My god, it's going to be a blood bath
Allowing them to continue with what is otherwise entirely justified, if brutal criticism is more than bad form.
Is Truss on the edge and about to resign
I would personally give Johnson 5/10 for covid, which is higher (in my estimation) than almost any of his counterparts elsewhere in these islands or the wider world (Scandinavia apart). I certainly have no faith Hunt would have done any better. Would vaccine procurement have been any better - or would Hunt in times of emergency have taken the seemingly low risk option and joined the EU procurement system. We'll never know, of course.
Should be noted it was of course a very difficult situation. Not surprising that so many dealt poorly with it and I'm certainly not saying I'd have done any better.
'What is the point of the Prime Minister?'
'Ummmm.'
Terrible misjudgement by Mordaunt.
Mind you given the hostility of the questions I suppose some slips were inevitable!
Tom Larkin
@TomLarkinSky
Penny Mordaunt repeatedly defending Liz Truss's absence from the Commons because of 'urgent business'.
The PM arrived in parliament half an hour ago, still no sign of her in the chamber.
Mordaunt hints there is something else serious going on, that is detaining Truss.
If Truss manages to do one appearance that is not a total disaster, then she can probably limp on, and this changes the betting outlook. But this seems to be a long way off.
If Hunt won the Tory leadership election in 2019 he had no answer to resolve the Brexit dilemma that had trapped Theresa May and he would have extended Article 50. The Brexit Party would have regrettably still been getting a very large share of the vote, which is why Corbyn's Labour was registering some 10 point poll leads by the end of May's tenure.
In this counterfactual then we would have gone into 2020 still a member of the EU, with the 2017 Parliament still running and divided, the Tories flailing in the polls, the UK in Article 50 still, with Corbyn secure as Leader of the Opposition still . . . and then the pandemic would have struck.
Would we have been able to resolve a Brexit deal while in lockdown when we hadn't been able to get one beforehand? Would Brexit have been kicked into the "too hard to deal with" long grass?
The next election would have been held in May this year and may have even seen Corbyn win it.
Was 4th favourite an hour ago.
Anyone here blamed all this on Truss being a Remainer yet?