New UK Prime Minister. 2022 edition. Liz Truss, conservative.

[FAST6191]

In a somewhat surprising turn of events the new UK prime minister (last one outed after some fairly minor scandals actually which was impressive given what he got away with previously) and leader of conservative party is Liz Truss. Most would not have bet on her after initial rounds of candidates were put forward a few months back, and even after they got whittled down she was still somewhat lower on the odds.

Pick any news site and you can probably find a dozen articles
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62596329
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...omes-uk-prime-minister-meeting-queen-balmoral
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11184991/Truss-shakes-hands-Queen-official-takes-PM.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/19720415/liz-truss-is-officially-prime-minister/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...s-johnson-queen-balmoral-latest-b2160693.html
https://www.express.co.uk/news/poli...son-speech-tory-leadership-new-prime-minister
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/liz-truss-live-prime-minister-27916442
https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/06/liz-...to-officially-become-prime-minister-17308571/
...

Previous posts were some reasonably notable ones, though none of the major ones people might well know the names for, some have dubbed her a conservative in name only (though that/the ? in name only could apply to any number of political movers, and most of the candidates of everything these days) and rather tepid as these things go (time will tell as to whether she is as weak as Teresa May, not the previous prime minister but the one before that. Those expecting any kind of firebrand or populist are probably going to be disappointed, not that any populist anywhere in the world I have seen has done all that much when all is said and done).
If we believe the prime minister has any great powers (possibly more than some countries but hardly that much and still constrained by any number of factors would be my assessment) then it is about 2 years before the next general election*, inflation is out of control (energy bills being the main topic but food is not far behind, though it seems some still believe in modern monetary theory and more money is to be printed), the popularity boost that saw the so called red wall drop last time is minimal (and the local elections that have happened since, consider something of a bellwether on the way the tide is going have been... not good), the labour party and their leader ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/new-uk-labour-party-main-left-wing-party-leader-keir-starmer.561791/ ) actually seem to be getting something gone (though as a coalition of unions, old school working class**, literal communists, the intersectionals, default opposition and one or two more classical labour types then many masters do not a cohesive vision make) , the leaving the EU lark is still having a bit of a hangover (especially as it pertains to the whole country of countries thing) and the UK is still suffering from being a first world nation after industry has gone, nowhere near enough housing has been built for decades, something of a divided political system and while not quite as much of a carte blanche as after the last general election then still a fairly decent majority ( https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/MPs , of the 650 MPs, of which 639 vote then Conservative (357), Labour (200), Scottish National Party (44), Liberal Democrat (14)).

*UK general elections are sometimes a bit different to elsewhere in the world. These days they are nominally on a schedule but they can be called outside that, as indeed the last one was.

**arguably what left them with the fall of the red wall mentioned.

 

[smf]

The result was announced yesterday, but known before hand.

Liz Truss interview


Joy Lycett response to Liz Truss


Joy Lycett response to Rishi Sunak


And then this happens...

 

[x65943]

Truss is another May, a scapegoat to run the party while public sentiment is negative - so that once it's time for a serious election, an actual Tory star can come to the forefront and attempt to win. Whereas no one expects any Tory wins any time soon.

Election is 3 years out, but Labour is ahead like mad at the moment

 

[lolcatzuru]

whoa! no communism in england? awesome!

 

[Xzi]

Sucks to be stuck under the same party that brought you the Brexit dumpster fire for three more years, not that there's any putting that genie back in the bottle now. C'est la vie.

 

[Maximumbeans]

It's hard to muster the energy to even be disappointed. I mean, we knew it was going to be Truss, ever since it came down to her and Sunak there's basically been no talk of a competition to even have.
I wish we actually had an opposition showing its face. Starmer kind of just pops up to state the obvious and disappears again. I'm not sure what he spends his time doing. It'll be fun to see Liz take him on in PMQs though, we'll see if she can do any better than Boris but I highly doubt it.

 

[x65943]

It's hard to muster the energy to even be disappointed. I mean, we knew it was going to be Truss, ever since it came down to her and Sunak there's basically been no talk of a competition to even have.
I wish we actually had an opposition showing its face. Starmer kind of just pops up to state the obvious and disappears again. I'm not sure what he spends his time doing. It'll be fun to see Liz take him on in PMQs though, we'll see if she can do any better than Boris but I highly doubt it.

Nothing Starmer can do, it's not possible for anyone but a Tory to be PM until 2025

That is unless there was mass rebellion in the Tory ranks and they collapsed their own government and called for a no confidence vote (hint: that will never ever happen, they would all be de-selected at election time)

Labour is currently smashing the polls right now, so they are doing their best - people clearly favor labour at the moment. All they can do is muster a strong opposition until the next general election

 

[Maximumbeans]

Nothing Starmer can do, it's not possible for anyone but a Tory to be PM until 2025

That is unless there was mass rebellion in the Tory ranks and they collapsed their own government and called for a no confidence vote (hint: that will never ever happen, they would all be de-selected at election time)

Labour is currently smashing the polls right now, so they are doing their best - people clearly favor labour at the moment. All they can do is muster a strong opposition until the next general election

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect him to seize the country by force, I just wish he was more visible and vocal in his opposition right now.

But like you say, if Labour are doing well in the polls, they just need to keep it rolling until the time comes.

 

[x65943]

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect him to seize the country by force, I just wish he was more visible and vocal in his opposition right now.

But like you say, if Labour are doing well in the polls, they just need to keep it rolling until the time comes.

If there was an election today, no Tory would be safe

If we try to calculate how many seats that would be in a FPTP system:

Electoral Calculus (Proposed 2023 Boundaries):

Labour - 379 (+176)
Tories - 178 (-187)
Lib Dems - 17 (+6)
Greens - 1
SNP - 54 (+6)
Plaid - 3 (-1)
NI - 18

That would be 58% of seats for Labour, or basically free rein

 

[Maximumbeans]

If there was an election today, no Tory would be safe

[graph]

Now that is encouraging fingers crossed.

 

[smf]

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect him to seize the country by force, I just wish he was more visible and vocal in his opposition right now.

It was pointless going against Boris, he was the classic playground bully.

I think PMQ will be interesting today. Especially as one of the first things Liz will do is implement policy that Labour have been going on about for a while.

 

[smf]

If there was an election today, no Tory would be safe

In the 2019 general election, Conservatives landslide victory was achieved with 42.4% of the vote compared to Labours 40% of the vote. So Labour hasn't gained very much.

Also we aren't having an election tomorrow and right now it's a shit show, we don't know what it will be like in a couple of years time.

Polls are notoriously wrong.

 

[Xzi]

In the 2019 general election, Conservatives landslide victory was achieved with 42.4% of the vote compared to Labours 40% of the vote. So Labour hasn't gained very much.

Nice way of saying conservatives are hemorrhaging voters. Labour didn't need to gain anything at all, but they did.

Also we aren't having an election tomorrow and right now it's a shit show, we don't know what it will be like in a couple of years time.

Nothing is gonna change as long as conservatives have no new ideas and aren't willing to try anything new even if they did. They're a lot like American conservatives in that regard.

 

[smf]

Nothing is gonna change as long as conservatives have no new ideas and aren't willing to try anything new even if they did. They're a lot like American conservatives in that regard.

The rumored help for energy is going to go a long way, people have pretty much overlooked the sewage being pumped into the sea & so I think we can tell what their priorities are.

I still hear "however bad this becomes, at least it's not labour" quite a lot

 

[Xzi]

I still hear "however bad this becomes, at least it's not labour" quite a lot

Yeah, from diehard conservatives I'm sure. Would rather see the country driven off a cliff than ever admit their guys fucked up, and bad.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

Nothing surprising about it, the 0.2% who elected her made it really clear

 

[Maximumbeans]

I still hear "however bad this becomes, at least it's not labour" quite a lot

That's literally the only card left to play. Some people are so fucking desperate that they'll pull shit out like 'have people forgotten Gordon Brown?!'. The whataboutism is off the charts.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

That's literally the only card left to play. Some people are so fucking desperate that they'll pull shit out like 'have people forgotten Gordon Brown?!'. The whataboutism is off the charts.

I haven't. Things were nowhere as bad under Brown. Interestingly enough, however, when Brown became PM the tories banged incessantly about how his appointment was illegitimate and required a GE. I can't help but notice how quiet they are on this.

 

[Maximumbeans]

I haven't. Things were nowhere as bad under Brown. Interestingly enough, however, when Brown became PM the tories banged incessantly about how his appointment was illegitimate and required a GE. I can't help but notice how quiet they are on this.

Absolutely, he wasn't great but we weren't anywhere near the shite we're chest-deep in now. Different times, I know, but still.
Good point concerning his appointment. Just look at the track record since then!

 

[Dark_Ansem]

Absolutely, he wasn't great but we weren't anywhere near the shite we're chest-deep in now. Different times, I know, but still.

Wasn't even his fault entirely back then, middle of financial crisis caused by the Americans!