Sailings between Skye, North Uist and Harris have been cancelled after a problem with the service's ferry CalMac's MV Hebrides require repairs to a fault with its firefighting system It has affected Tuesday and Wednesday sailings CalMac has apologised to customers for the inconvenience
I wonder which ferries will be in operation the soonest? The 2 being built in Turkey or the 2 that were supposed to be in use 6 years ago. My bets on Turkey.
Sailings between Skye, North Uist and Harris have been cancelled after a problem with the service's ferryCalMac's MV Hebrides require repairs to a fault with its firefighting systemIt has affected Tuesday and Wednesday sailingsCalMac has apologised t
Been a while since that's been used. Could've ironed that flag!
Jokes aside, well done to all of the UK, and Ireland for that matter, who bring home the bacon.
Been a while since that's been used. Could've ironed that flag! Jokes aside, well done to all of the UK, and Ireland for that matter, who bring home the bacon.
"We have a lot of powers at our disposal ,and we're using them" Nicolas words taken from this vid about Scotlands drug problem. Polly obviously hasn't heard this.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1552767394812133376
"We have a lot of powers at our disposal ,and we're using them"Nicolas words taken from this vid about Scotlands drug problem.Polly obviously hasn't heard this.https://twitter.com/i/status/1552767394812133376
Liz Truss “ There will be no second referendum on my watch “
“ Scottish nationalists accepted that the 2014 referendum was a once in a generation opportunity And I will hold them to that “
Liz Truss “ There will be no second referendum on my watch ““ Scottish nationalists accepted that the 2014 referendum was a once in a generation opportunity And I will hold them to that “
Long Covid Clinics in England: 100 Long Covid Clinics in Scotland: 0.
The SNP has plenty of money for independence, spin doctors, foreign junkets, ministerial limos and pretend embassies, but very little for covid sufferers.
(We now have pretend embassies in 8 countries - what a waste of money)
Long Covid Clinics in England: 100Long Covid Clinics in Scotland: 0.The SNP has plenty of money for independence, spin doctors, foreign junkets, ministerial limos and pretend embassies, but very little for covid sufferers.(We now have pretend embassi
by weegingerdug The British Government has now pretty much abandoned any pretence that the rule of law counts for anything. At least that is, when the rule of law is supposed to apply to the British Government. They are still extremely keen on enforcing laws on everyone else in order to prevent them challenging Conservative diktats, such as their insistence that it doesn’t matter what the people of Scotland have voted for in a democratic election, youse cannae have yer referendum jocks, because IT’S THE LAW!
The front runner in the Conservative Grimoire of incantations for raising the demons of corrupt authoritarianism, Liz Truss, has said that if she becomes Prime Minister, as seems likely, she made it clear that she would not ‘allow’ another independence referendum, note the imperialist attitude there. Truss said : “The Scottish Independence Referendum Bill isn’t legal and it will be invalidated if passed by the Scottish Parliament, adding “Any Scotland independence referendum would need to be authorised by the Westminster Parliament. If I become prime minister, I would not grant that authority.”
The view of the Conservatives, aided and abetted by the Labour party and the Lib Dems is that Scotland had its democracy in 2014, and by voting No the people of Scotland surrendered in all perpetuity any right to hold the British state to account for the promises that were made to secure that No vote. IT’S THE LAW!
However this eagerness to insist on the legal niceties is not so much apparent when it comes to laws which might constrain the Tories indulging themselves in full-frontal bastardy of the sort that we have seen of late with the despicable Rwanda policy which breaks all international norms which ensure the decent and humane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees, or the British Government’s decision that international treaties which it itself negotiated and agreed to can be unilaterally torn up the second that they are no longer politically convenient.
Thankfully the legal genius Suella Braverman, who became a QC automatically after Johnson appointed her as the Attorney General, but didn’t actually earn the legal qualification by practicing as a barrister (in England) or advocate (in Scotland) for decades -unlike for example, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry – has come up with the perfect solution to the problem of government lawyers telling government ministers that their Daily Mail appeasing policies are illegal. Braverman has just ordered government lawyers to stop telling members of the government that their plans break the law. Instead lawyers are to give the government their best guess as to how likely it is that a court would overturn a government policy. Suella Braverman feels that if a policy is likely to be unlawful, but she believes there is just a 30% chance a judge could find it lawful, the government should go for it anyway. The new legal policy of this government of shysters is literally to break the law and just hope that a sympathetic judge will still find in the government’s favour.
Suella Braverman sums up the Johnson regime. The worst Prime Minister in history appointed the worst Attorney General in history. Neither has any respect for the law and both of them view the law as a tool to beat their opponents into submission but something which can be ignored, side lined, or circumvented if it threatens them or their interests.
We now, quite literally, not metaphorically or figuratively, literally, have a government of chancers. Let that sink in. Although it probably won’t sink in with much of the Scottish public as the overwhelmingly anti-independence media is far to busy banging on about ferries or the misbehaviour of a councillor to concern itself with the existential threat posed to democracy, decency, and the rule of law throughout the entire UK by the Conservative party. And that, dear readers, is the very definition of parochial.
Not that the UK media is much better, over the past couple of days we’ve had wall to wall coverage of sporting events, more sporting events, the spat over inane trivialities between two attention seeking women whose sole claim to celebrity is that they are married to men whose sole claim to notability is that they are very good at kicking a ball about on an expensively manicured lawn. But the BBC is virtually ignoring Braverman’s attempts to override the rule of law, the private and off the record meetings between an allegedly drunk Boris Johnson and a Russian oligarch with links to the Kremlin, the continuing ****how that is Brexit, and Johnson’s plans to stuff the House of Lords with pals and cronies who can be counted on to do his bidding. This is what holding power to account looks like in Britain in 2022.
When the history books of the future are written it will be noted that one of the reasons that the UK slid into corrupt authoritarianism was because those who should have been sounding the alarm about the unacceptable behaviour of our political overlords were far too busy with games, sports, and gossip about inconsequential so called celebrities. The UK is a society which has given up on the bread, we just get a wall to wall circus of the absurd.
If ever you wondered how ordinary people with functioning consciences and an understanding of the difference between right and wrong could stand by and watch while 1930s Germany descended into fascism, well now you know. They had a media that was force feeding them sporting matches, nationalist monarchist pageantry, and whatever the equivalent of the Wagatha Christie trial was. That said, there is an important difference between the Conservative party and actual fascists. Actual fascists could make the trains run on time.
In an interview published on Sunday in The National, the actor Brian Cox, who was a prominent advocate for a Yes vote in 2014, said that independence is now more important than it was in 2014 because this Tory government is ‘futility ridden’ The overwhelmingly male pale and stale membership of the Conservative party will choose the winner of an I’m more right wing than you are contest as the next worst Prime Minister that Britain has ever had, a winner who will insist that Scotland has no choice but to suck up whatever indignities or insults to democracy and decency that the Conservatives decide to inflict on us.
Well they’re wrong. One way or another Scotland is going to have its say, whether that’s an actual referendum or a de facto referendum at the next UK General Election. The Tories can either belatedly demonstrate that they respect democracy or they’ll be swept away by the tide of history.
Wee Ginger Dugby weegingerdugThe British Government has now pretty much abandoned any pretence that the rule of law counts for anything. At least that is, when the rule of law is supposed to apply to the British Government. They are still extremely k
This bit, 'Johnsons plans to stuff the House of Lords with pals and cronies who can be counted on to do his bidding'.
This if it comes to fruition is an attempt to be legally unaccountable.
Weegingerdug knows!This bit, 'Johnsons plans to stuff the House of Lords with pals and cronies who can be counted on to do his bidding'.This if it comes to fruition is an attempt to be legally unaccountable.
In an interview over the weekend, Rish! Sunak and his exclamation mark of ambition, tried to make up the ground in the “I’m a total Tory bastard stakes” that he was losing to Liz Truss, whose campaign is assisted by the fact that the only ideology she’s ever had is whatever is going to aid her advancement at any given moment. Bereft as she is of any notable talent or skills other than annexing the credit for other people’s work, Truss has ascended to her current position due to her willingness to do the bidding of whoever holds power, and not speaking out even when that power is wielded by someone as manifestly unfit for the office of Prime Minister as Boris Johnson, a corrupt serial liar who has open contempt for democracy. Truss is what happens when you put into high office one of those British nationalist social media trolls whose response to every outrage against democracy, common decency, the rule of law, or basic honesty of this Conservative Government is a snarky comment about the Arran ferry or Patrick Grady as though that negates the destruction of the few and fragile democratic safeguards afforded by what passes for the British constitution. It’s the politics of nyah nyah nyah.
At the Tory party hustings on Monday, Truss, with her personal mandate of less than 0.2% of the Scottish electorate said that she will not “allow” another independence referendum and branded the Scottish First Minister as an “attention seeker, ” adding, “The best thing to do with Nicola Sturgeon is ignore her.” That’s what the Tories have been doing to Scotland for years, hiding their heads in the sand and hoping their nightmare of Scottish independence will just go away. Just for Truss’s information, the number of days since the SNP last won an election in Scotland is 88, the number of days since the Conservatives last won an election in Scotland is 24,588. But yeah just ignore them Liz, how’s that working out for you?
Truss’s remark sums up why Scotland needs independence. Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s First Minister, she has a clear mandate for another independence referendum from the people of Scotland, but Truss thinks the best thing is to ignore all that. That same day Truss’s supporters amongst the Scottish Tories at Holyrood boasted that with Truss as PM, Scotland would be “at the centre of the UK”. Timing is everything in comedy.
This would be the same attention seeking Liz Truss who hired a photographer at taxpayers’ expense in order to build her own brand on a world tour. Truss charged the taxpayer £1,483 to hire a professional photographer for her tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. The public purse also coughed up a further £1,190 for Truss’s “PR-related activities” on the trip. This produced a pic of Truss sitting with a union flag umbrella on a British made bicycle in the pouring rain in front of the Sydney Opera House. Truss also loves to pose for photos when she’s on the phone as though she’s on a terribly important call with a global leader. On Monday she posed in an England football strip with a football and an England flag. Truss’s entire career is an exercise in attention seeking.
Right now the most important ideology aiding the principle free void who is the Foreign Secretary is the one that says she’s not Rishi Sunak. Despite the fact that he was always a supporter of a hard Brexit, it’s Truss who has now become the darling of the batshit crazy Brextremist Anglo-British nationalist wing of the Conservative party, which these days is to say most of it. Truss is reportedly far ahead amongst Conservative party members, who blame Sunak for defenestrating Johnson, a view which Johnson himself is keen to foster. There is no greater victim on this planet than an entitled upper middle class English Conservative who has suffered the loss of his immense privilege. The way in which Johnson protects his grudges is inversely proportional to his lack of care for the truth. Johnson and his supporters are determined that Sunak will be punished for his lack of loyalty, which they have now decided is the most heinous crime possible, although they seemed to have a different view when it was them who were plotting to unseat Theresa May.
Truss is the favoured candidate of Johnson and the European Research Group and the rest of the extreme right of the Conservative party, in no small measure because they believe that Truss will be their puppet. The clear advantage enjoyed by Truss amongst Conservative party members has led one senior Tory after another to publicly back her campaign. Over the weekend she got the support of early favourites Ben Wallace and Tom Tugendhat, and on Monday evening Penny Mordaunt, one of the final three candidates, announced that she too was giving her backing to Liz Truss. A straw poll of Conservative party members in Devon on Monday on Channel 4 news failed to find a single person who preferred Rishi Sunak. Ballot papers started being delivered to party members this week, and habitually they are returned promptly so barring some unforeseen circumstance, it looks as though Truss will become Britain’s next worst Prime Minister ever.
Truss has never displayed any independence of thought or backbone throughout her political career, it would be surprising if she started now. Truss is also hampered by her lack of charisma and showmanship, qualities which a Prime Minister needs in order to be able to sell unpopular policies. Dominic Cummings believes that the real reason Johnson supports the woman Cummings calls the hand grenade for her propensity to leave a trail of destruction in her wake is because he thinks that Truss will be hopelessly out of her depth as Prime Minister, and will be unable to deal with a cost of living crisis which is only expected to worsen next year. Johnson is calculating that Truss will be so inept that the slide in Conservative party fortunes in the polls will become a rout, leading to panicking MPs deciding to get rid of Truss and giving Johnson the opportunity to make a triumphant return. This may or may not be true, but Johnson is certainly cynical enough to think along these lines.
Meanwhile for his part Sunak is trying to prove to Conservative party members that he too can be intolerantly right wing, although given that he was a leading figure in Johnson’s government for two and a half years, we already knew that. In an interview over the weekend Sunak said : “We clearly have a problem with human rights laws in this country which makes it difficult for us to achieve our objectives.” Sunak was talking about how the breaches of human rights caused by the government’s inhumane policy of sending refugees and asylum seekers on a one way trip to Rwanda had been blocked by the courts. The Conservative response to this is not to recognise that a cruel and despicable policy which breaches human rights is a policy that has to be abolished, or at the very least substantially changed, it is to seek to abolish the human rights laws that stand in their way.
If you have to abolish human rights in order to achieve your objectives, the problem does not lie with the human rights, it lies with your objectives, objectives which are by definition cruel and inhumane. This simple logic is however clearly beyond the modern Conservative party.
In an interview over the weekend, Rish! Sunak and his exclamation mark of ambition, tried to make up the ground in the “I’m a total Tory bastard stakes” that he was losing to Liz Truss, whose campaign is assisted by the fact that the only ideol
https://twitter.com/i/status/1554449474432471042 Well said Liz Truss.
https://twitter.com/AgentP22/status/1554460544110940160/video/1 Very well said Jacob Rees-Mogg.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1553644230710542336 Scotlands top ten - some good songs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1554449474432471042Well said Liz Truss.https://twitter.com/AgentP22/status/1554460544110940160/video/1Very well said Jacob Rees-Mogg.https://twitter.com/i/status/1553644230710542336Scotlands top ten - some good songs
Liz telling the Scots to ignore the person they elected.
Only about one third of the electorate voted SNP meaning two thirds didn't. They'll all be cheering Liz for her comments.
Liz telling the Scots to ignore the person they elected.Only about one third of the electorate voted SNP meaning two thirds didn't. They'll all be cheering Liz for her comments.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1554449474432471042 Well said Liz Truss.
https://twitter.com/AgentP22/status/1554460544110940160/video/1 Very well said Jacob Rees-Mogg.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1553644230710542336 Scotlands top ten - some good songs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1554449474432471042Well said Liz Truss.https://twitter.com/AgentP22/status/1554460544110940160/video/1Very well said Jacob Rees-Mogg.https://twitter.com/i/status/1553644230710542336Scotlands top ten - some good songs
Sturgeon has a bitterly divided country on her hands if independence was ever achieved that'd make Brexit look like a quarrel at a church fete.
She knows banging the indyref2 drum occasionally calms the perennial anti-English seethers & allows her to keep weighing the vote.
The last thing she wants is independence - wouldn't be able to blame the wicked tories for everything then.
Sturgeon has a bitterly divided country on her hands if independence was ever achieved that'd make Brexit look like a quarrel at a church fete.She knows banging the indyref2 drum occasionally calms the perennial anti-English seethers & allows her to
My spinning head is saying Truss wanted to give the Scots(and NI) a pay cut,then told them they are basically irrelevant and you are saying that is greeted with 'cheers'
Pure loop de loop.
My spinning head is saying Truss wanted to give the Scots(and NI) a pay cut,then told them they are basically irrelevant and you are saying that is greeted with 'cheers' Pure loop de loop.
"Unless Nicola Sturgeon has the vanity of Louis XIV, ignoring her is not the same thing as ignoring Scotland. If that is not the case she must think "L'État, c'est moi" No one is ignoring Scotland. Just the SNP."
Spot on.
"Unless Nicola Sturgeon has the vanity of Louis XIV, ignoring her is not the same thing as ignoring Scotland. If that is not the case she must think "L'État, c'est moi" No one is ignoring Scotland. Just the SNP."Spot on.
A monster 0.004% of the electorate will choose our next prime minister. And they'll all be Tories. That;s 160,000 people from an electorate of 47,000,000. Kind of puts the forum liar akabula's stat. of the SNP gaining only 34% of the electorate vote into perspective. Try again loudmouth.
A monster 0.004% of the electorate will choose our next prime minister. And they'll all be Tories. That;s 160,000 people from an electorate of 47,000,000. Kind of puts the forum liar akabula's stat. of the SNP gaining only 34% of the electorate vo
The 0.004% of the electorate are choosing the next Tory leader. As they are in government the winner will become PM as well. Thats democracy in action.
The 0.004% of the electorate are choosing the next Tory leader.As they are in government the winner will become PM as well.Thats democracy in action.
The SNP MPs and MSPs all lining up to show their leader that they are outraged at this. All trying to outdo each other to impress wee Nicki. Ah such devotion.
The SNP MPs and MSPs all lining up to show their leader that they are outraged at this. All trying to outdo each other to impress wee Nicki. Ah such devotion.
LoyalHoncho 03 Aug 22 03:45 A monster 0.004% of the electorate will choose our next prime minister. And they'll all be Tories
......................
They'd have to be really, I doubt any of them had a vote on Starmer getting the Labour leadership and he might end up PM.
LoyalHoncho 03 Aug 22 03:45 A monster 0.004% of the electorate will choose our next prime minister. And they'll all be Tories......................They'd have to be really, I doubt any of them had a vote on Starmer getting the Labour leadership and
Mouthing off about the SNP gets votes in Toryland, while the SNP is certainly not Scotland, its a hell of a lot more of Scotland than Labour or Conservatives or Lib Dems are.
So what does mouthing off do - its solidifies SNP base. Which is huge in Scotland. Not smart. Not the way to make the "SNP problem" go away.
Scots Labour or Con voters know this too. They realise Mavis's bravado is for the English Tory vote = close to giving up on the Tories in terms of holding onto the union. Where to turn? Nowhere - it's practically over.
SNP? Please God, the half-wit becomes PM.
(I'm not actually anti-conservative. I'm for independence, when independent I'd consider voting for a Scottish Conservative party that accepted independence. But on the subject how many conservatives UK-wide must be disillusioned that Liz Truss could now be leader !!! How that party has fallen. I always said Johnson was a corrupt liar ( now proven), not once did I say he was stupid. He isn't really well educated despite the schools he attended, but he is cunning. Truss is just downright limited (being kind) - thick is more accurate).
Don't get it.Mouthing off about the SNP gets votes in Toryland, while the SNP is certainly not Scotland, its a hell of a lot more of Scotland than Labour or Conservatives or Lib Dems are.So what does mouthing off do - its solidifies SNP base. Which i
99.6% of the UK electorate will have no say in who becomes the UK's next prime minister. And that is democracy in action? An almost every one of you, wherever you are, accepts that.
99.6% of the UK electorate will have no say in who becomes the UK's next prime minister.And that is democracy in action? An almost every one of you, wherever you are, accepts that.
Great win for Eilish and great to see her celebrate with her Mum. Mum Liz won the same race at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and again 4 years later in Aukland, New Zealand. Listened to the commentator saying at the bell that she was "hanging on". What a finish, determination written all over her face. Fantastic.
Great win for Eilish and great to see her celebrate with her Mum.Mum Liz won the same race at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and again 4 years later in Aukland, New Zealand.Listened to the commentator saying at the bell that she was "hangin
Blackford having a go at Boris for being on holiday during this cost of living (Covid) crisis. Having a go at Boris was the first task of Bunter after returning from holiday in America. What a brass neck the Lard of the Isles has.
Blackford having a go at Boris for being on holiday during this cost of living (Covid) crisis.Having a go at Boris was the first task of Bunter after returning from holiday in America.What a brass neck the Lard of the Isles has.
In 2015 Sturgeon made a speech in Holyrood saying that education was her priority and we should judge her on that.
We have and shes failed. Time to go.
Maybe if she did have priorities and stopped talking about independence she could concentrate on our many problems.
In 2015 Sturgeon made a speech in Holyrood saying that education was her priority and we should judge her on that.We have and shes failed. Time to go. Maybe if she did have priorities and stopped talking about independence she could concentrate on ou
Everything in turmoil in Scotland. Islanders stranded because of a lack of ferries. A chronic shortage of nurses at our 'flagship' hospital. One night last week showed 1 nurse for 8 wards. Drugs deaths still a major problem. etc etc And all Sturgeon can do is try to force through a referendum that the majority of Scots don't want.
Everything in turmoil in Scotland.Islanders stranded because of a lack of ferries.A chronic shortage of nurses at our 'flagship' hospital.One night last week showed 1 nurse for 8 wards.Drugs deaths still a major problem. etc etc And all Sturgeon can
The new Prime Minister is due to take over from Boris Johnson on 5 September, that however is unlikely to be the last that we hear from the serial liar and law breaker who spent years plotting and conniving to get the top job only to be wheeched out of it just halfway through a five year term despite winning the Tories their largest majority since Thatcher, after even the craven enablers in his own government started to realise that his dishonesty and entitlement posed a severe risk to their own political careers and the Conservative party’s chances of re-election. They are creatures in Johnson’s own image, concerned only for themselves.
The most likely winner according to a number of opinion polls will be the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, a woman who has passionately held political convictions, and if those passionately held political convictions aren’t going to help her career advancement she’s got some different political convictions that she will hold just as passionately. Truss is the ultimate political chameleon.
However Truss has successfully positioned herself with the party membership who will choose the next Prime Minister as the Johnson continuity candidate. She has the support of all the prominent Johnson loyalists such as Nadhim Zahawi and Jacob Rees-Mogg as well as the Johnson fan girl Nadine Dorries whose declarations of unconditional loyalty to her spurned prince would make her come across as a deranged stalker if she was not actually a cabinThe new Prime Minister is due to take over from Boris Johnson on 5 September, that however is unlikely to be the last that we hear from the serial liar and law breaker who spent years plotting and conniving to get the top job only to be wheeched out of it just halfway through a five year term despite winning the Tories their largest majority since Thatcher, after even the craven enablers in his own government started to realise that his dishonesty and entitlement posed a severe risk to their own political careers and the Conservative party’s chances of re-election. They are creatures in Johnson’s own image, concerned only for themselves.
The most likely winner according to a number of opinion polls will be the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, a woman who has passionately held political convictions, and if those passionately held political convictions aren’t going to help her career advancement she’s got some different political convictions that she will hold just as passionately. Truss is the ultimate political chameleon.
However Truss has successfully positioned herself with the party membership who will choose the next Prime Minister as the Johnson continuity candidate. She has the support of all the prominent Johnson loyalists such as Nadhim Zahawi and Jacob Rees-Mogg as well as the Johnson fan girl Nadine Dorries whose declarations of unconditional loyalty to her spurned prince would make her come across as a deranged stalker if she was not actually a cabinet minister. There are rumours that Dorries will be elevated to the peerage in Johnson’s resignation dishonours list, this will leave a vacancy in her ultra safe Conservative constituency and some have speculated that Johnson intends to take her place rather than face the humiliation of losing his more marginal Uxbridge seat at the next election or if he is found to have mislead Parliament and has to face a recall. Dorries has described the investigation by the Commons Privileges Committee into whether Johnson misled Parliament – spoiler alert – he did, as a witch hunt and “the most egregious abuse of power witnessed in Westminster,” adding that “it will cast serious doubt not only on the reputation of individual MPs sitting on the committee, but on the processes of Parliament and democracy itself.” Would you call a senior politician of a NATO country dropping his security detail and flying over 1,000 miles to have undeclared meetings with an ex KGB agent and Kremlin associate whose son he later ennobled an ‘egregious abuse of power’ or is it just plain and simple treason? Just wondering, Nadine.
Sorry Nadine, the entire world knows that the object of your hero worship isn’t going to leave his wife for you. He will leave her, just not for you.
Truss’s political career has largely consisted of achieving nothing on her own merit but ruthlessly taking credit for the achievements of others. She gave herself the lion’s share of the credit for securing the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori from prison in Iran, which was the result of long and complex negotiations carried out by civil servants at the Foreign Office, for the most part under her predecessors.
Pauline Buchanan Black wrote about her experience of Liz Truss for The New European . At the time Truss was the Environment Secretary. Ms Buchanan Black who was the director general of a tree planting charity, wrote a damning assessment of Truss, saying : “It quickly became apparent to me that Liz Truss is someone who likes to take credit for work that is not hers, and shun those whose work it actually is. I see that as the worst quality a leader can have.”
Truss recently dismissed Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of being an “attention seeker,” there was a heavy dose of psychological projection there. Truss is notoriously obsessed with publicity and her social media profile so much so that employees at the Department for International Trade supposedly joked that they worked at the Department for Instagramming Truss.
According to Dominic Cummings, who knows a thing or two about transactional politicians, the real reason that Johnson has told his supporters to get behind Truss is because he knows that she will be a disaster. Cummings described Truss “as close to properly crackers as anybody I have met in parliament,” and said that she was called the hand grenade because she destroyed everything she came into contact with. Cummings believes that Johnson thinks that Truss will be just as much of a hand grenade in Number 10 and will prove utterly incapable of rising to the challenges of the cost of living crisis which will bite in a serious way next year. Truss will be a prisoner of the extreme right of the Conservative party and will concentrate on policies aimed at pleasing her core support. We have already seen signs of this in just the few short weeks of the leadership contest. Truss has managed to anger swathes of Scottish and Welsh public opinion, not just independence supporters.
The rising public anger and industrial unrest which will be provoked by the cost of living crisis and the inability of Liz Truss to deal with the widespread problems that will crop up for the government next year with ever increasing frequency will lead to a catastrophic showing in the polls for the Conservatives. The reality is that this is not a cost of living crisis, it’s a cost of corporate greed crisis. Truss will do nothing to deal with that. She will reward the rich with tax cuts. Truss will attempt to crack down on protests rather than tackle the underlying issues which led to the protests in the first place. Johnson is banking on panicking Conservative MPs ditching Truss in order to save themselves just as he was ditched, and then he hopes to ride their wave of discontent back into number 10. The havoc that will be wrought on public services and ordinary working people in the meantime is of no concern to Johnson or the Conservative party.
However should by some miracle the equally insanely ambitious Rishi Sunak beat the odds and take the top job, Johnson and his supporters will devote themselves to plotting against him from the back benches. It will be a repeat of the way in which the right wing extremists of the European Research Group plotted against and undermined Theresa May. Johnson really is the English nationalist Trump. He’s not going to concede defeat even after he’s been forced out of office and a successor has been appointed. Johnson’s baleful legacy will be casting its shadow over British politics for quite some time to come. Johnson is determined to return, which is why he finished his churlish and graceless final statement to the Commons as Prime Minister with the words Hasta la vista, a Spanish phrase which means See you later or until the next time. Hasta la vista baby is most associated with the Terminator from the movies, an amoral machine for wreaking havoc and destruction, completely lacking in empathy or compassion, so very much like Johnson then.et minister. There are rumours that Dorries will be elevated to the peerage in Johnson’s resignation dishonours list, this will leave a vacancy in her ultra safe Conservative constituency and some have speculated that Johnson intends to take her place rather than face the humiliation of losing his more marginal Uxbridge seat at the next election or if he is found to have mislead Parliament and has to face a recall. Dorries has described the investigation by the Commons Privileges Committee into whether Johnson misled Parliament – spoiler alert – he did, as a witch hunt and “the most egregious abuse of power witnessed in Westminster,” adding that “it will cast serious doubt not only on the reputation of individual MPs sitting on the committee, but on the processes of Parliament and democracy itself.” Would you call a senior politician of a NATO country dropping his security detail and flying over 1,000 miles to have undeclared meetings with an ex KGB agent and Kremlin associate whose son he later ennobled an ‘egregious abuse of power’ or is it just plain and simple treason? Just wondering, Nadine.
Sorry Nadine, the entire world knows that the object of your hero worship isn’t going to leave his wife for you. He will leave her, just not for you.
Truss’s political career has largely consisted of achieving nothing on her own merit but ruthlessly taking credit for the achievements of others. She gave herself the lion’s share of the credit for securing the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori from prison in Iran, which was the result of long and complex negotiations carried out by civil servants at the Foreign Office, for the most part under her predecessors.
Pauline Buchanan Black wrote about her experience of Liz Truss for The New European . At the time Truss was the Environment Secretary. Ms Buchanan Black who was the director general of a tree planting charity, wrote a damning assessment of Truss, saying : “It quickly became apparent to me that Liz Truss is someone who likes to take credit for work that is not hers, and shun those whose work it actually is. I see that as the worst quality a leader can have.”
Truss recently dismissed Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of being an “attention seeker,” there was a heavy dose of psychological projection there. Truss is notoriously obsessed with publicity and her social media profile so much so that employees at the Department for International Trade supposedly joked that they worked at the Department for Instagramming Truss.
According to Dominic Cummings, who knows a thing or two about transactional politicians, the real reason that Johnson has told his supporters to get behind Truss is because he knows that she will be a disaster. Cummings described Truss “as close to properly crackers as anybody I have met in parliament,” and said that she was called the hand grenade because she destroyed everything she came into contact with. Cummings believes that Johnson thinks that Truss will be just as much of a hand grenade in Number 10 and will prove utterly incapable of rising to the challenges of the cost of living crisis which will bite in a serious way next year. Truss will be a prisoner of the extreme right of the Conservative party and will concentrate on policies aimed at pleasing her core support. We have already seen signs of this in just the few short weeks of the leadership contest. Truss has managed to anger swathes of Scottish and Welsh public opinion, not just independence supporters.
The rising public anger and industrial unrest which will be provoked by the cost of living crisis and the inability of Liz Truss to deal with the widespread problems that will crop up for the government next year with ever increasing frequency will lead to a catastrophic showing in the polls for the Conservatives. The reality is that this is not a cost of living crisis, it’s a cost of corporate greed crisis. Truss will do nothing to deal with that. She will reward the rich with tax cuts. Truss will attempt to crack down on protests rather than tackle the underlying issues which led to the protests in the first place. Johnson is banking on panicking Conservative MPs ditching Truss in order to save themselves just as he was ditched, and then he hopes to ride their wave of discontent back into number 10. The havoc that will be wrought on public services and ordinary working people in the meantime is of no concern to Johnson or the Conservative party.
However should by some miracle the equally insanely ambitious Rishi Sunak beat the odds and take the top job, Johnson and his supporters will devote themselves to plotting against him from the back benches. It will be a repeat of the way in which the right wing extremists of the European Research Group plotted against and undermined Theresa May. Johnson really is the English nationalist Trump. He’s not going to concede defeat even after he’s been forced out of office and a successor has been appointed. Johnson’s baleful legacy will be casting its shadow over British politics for quite some time to come. Johnson is determined to return, which is why he finished his churlish and graceless final statement to the Commons as Prime Minister with the words Hasta la vista, a Spanish phrase which means See you later or until the next time. Hasta la vista baby is most associated with the Terminator from the movies, an amoral machine for wreaking havoc and destruction, completely lacking in empathy or compassion, so very much like Johnson then.
The new Prime Minister is due to take over from Boris Johnson on 5 September, that however is unlikely to be the last that we hear from the serial liar and law breaker who spent years plotting and conniving to get the top job only to be wheeched out