On Leadership Farce and Tory Debacle
They’ve had twelve years and the country is on its knees. Now they are parading as if they are the solution to the crises they have created on every front imaginable. Takes some balls I suppose.
Whether it’s PM4PM, Ready for Rishi?, TiT or whatever awful slogan Liz Truss has come up with, the poisoning of public discourse and the mainstreaming of disinformation is front and centre dominating and distorting any serious political debate. But now its backfired terribly and hilariously.
After weeks of wall-to-wall media coverage, as if this was somehow a democratic event that would warrant impartiality guidelines to be thrown out the window, the Tories have suddenly realised their toxic roadshow is actually just a terrible advert for a terrible bunch of people.
Having shifted the entire focus of policy onto a political agenda that basically says that Brexit was a good idea and climate change is unimportant, that workers pay should be suppressed and a Scottish referendum forever banned, the ‘candidates’ – who share pretty much all the same political outlook – were reduced to personal abuse.
Now, having been allowed to dominate every news outlet as if they are credible people and this is a credible process, they’ve just switched it off withdrawing from the live Sky leaders debate tomorrow night. The media are utterly complicit in all of this.
As the media debates wore on it became clear that they couldn’t resist trashing each others deplorable records and tragi-comic time in office.
There was a poignant moment on Sunday night when the ‘candidates’ were asked if they’d have Boris Johnson in their cabinet. No-one raised their hand, but trusty old Liz Truss attempted a feeble spluttering apology. There are loosely the following ‘camps’: the “Treasury establishment”, otherwise known as Rishi Sunak, the “Boris establishment”, which is falling in behind Liz Truss, then the Penny Mordaunt juggernaut, plus the unfortunate Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat. The likely result is that it goes down to Sunak via Mordaunt with the racist Conservative party members switching for the Thatcher-impersonator PM4PM rather than Rishi Sunak.
This could be further disaster for the UK, England and Scotland (not necessarily in that order). Mordaunt is socially liberal (these things are relative) but an aggressively orthodox Tory on economic policy. The combination of navy-background and cos-play Maggie will be catnip to the party faithful. She’s your next PM.
But the real tragedy and farce isn’t the Tories turning the media off and on like a faucet, the real tragedy and farce is the media failing to nail them to the wall about the costs of living crisis and the ecological crisis both spilling out into your worlds after twelve years of festering Tory intransigence.
As the candidates crowd each other out to denounce NetZero and ignore the biggest challenge facing our species it comes as no surprise at all that the frontrunner has been stuffing her pockets with cash from prominent climate deniers.
The trade minister has previously received £20,000 from First Corporate Consultants, a company run by Terence Mordaunt, who chaired the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) between 2019 and 2021.
Open Democracy tells us: “Earlier this year, the GWPF’s campaigning arm Net Zero Watch published two reports claiming that there was “no evidence of a climate crisis” and arguing that the UK should increase production of fossil fuels while phasing out renewables. The group says its aim is “to provide robust and reliable analysis of climate and energy issues”.
The entire process of the leadership challenge has just amplified everything that is broken about British politics and media.
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Whatever the frontrunner, a more apt slogan might be ‘the turtle is showing its head’. Well, the turd-flood, tax-stealing, sex-criminal, planet-torching Tories might have an electoral problem if the heatwave wipes out a key demographic of suitably bribed and corrupt elderly voters that survived Covid19.
Why are we watching this farce Nicola?
Other countries walk away from the crappy commonwealth…topple statues of that wee grinning wumman Betty Windsor/Saxe Coburg etc…but poor old Scotland have to BEG ( politely..even democratically ) to leave this evil corrupt toxic union….. the mind boggles. We ‘joined ‘ the union and now have to fight our way out of it..even tho the sassenachs ‘want rid of us’. Yeah right ..they have no resources of their own so they steal them from other countries and then allow them to join the Commonwealth You have to give them their due ..they’re brilliant at illusion.. don’t look here look over there…
UDI Nicola..a hard border( to protect ourselves)…and get on with being a brilliant country with loads of resources and brilliant folk. Anyone who objects…go and live in yon country..’where those feet in ancient times walked upon England’s green and pleasant land…..” I think they’ve roped in the bigga J to back them….God should be shaking in his shoes …while we escape…
There is no need for UDI. We joined in Union by agreement. If the people of Scotland wish, we could indicate that the agreement no longer obtains and we sever those connections as and when. What the SNP really need to work on is all the points that created the negativity at the last referendum. Resolve the issue of a central bank, a new currency, a tax system that will show we could be self sufficient, how we will develop the economy and infrastructure, how we will develop a constitution, how and when we will get rid of Trident, if and when we may rejoin the EU and or NATO. Sort all of this into a manifesto and if the majority in Scotland vote for it at the next election, then JUST DO IT!!!
Bill
ps. Perhaps wait a wee while before becoming a republic and dumping Betty and the bairns
But aren’t these issues that should be properly left until *after* we gain independence? Aren’t they matters for the first post-independence Scottish Government to decide?
Not at all. These issues will determine the nature of the independent country for which we will vote. It is important that people have a clear vision of what to expect and thus how they will vote.
Bill
I was being ironic, Bill.
I tend to think that these substantive issues should be left until after independence, but I’d like to know the formal processes by which we’ll get to decide them. That would really help me decide how to vote in next year’s referendum.
The specifics yes. The broad principles/reassurances no. It needs to be demonstrated an independent Scotland could choose from a smorgasbord of options on all of these issues. No specific solution should be bound to the question as it gives the false impression there is only one way forward for an independent Scotland, while other countries can choose from many different possible futures. Why should the question of Scottish independence be hog-tied to only one vision of many possible visions? Why should we risk alienating many, many potential Indy supporters by writing off their preferred vision before a vote is cast? Why should we stupidly sabotage the chances of a positive vote for Scotland’s independence in this way?
It needs to be demonstrated an independent Scotland could choose from a smorgasbord of options on all of these issues.
Not quite, but you’re nearly there. It needs to be demonstrated HOW ‘we’ (the people of Scotland), and not just the political establishment, will be able to decide public policy on these substantive issues.
There is a need for an immediate DECLARATION of independence. Fact: In 1707 the Scottish Gov’t VOTED to an EQUAL arrangement between two not one SOVEREIGN countries. Scotland and England. All the Scottish Gov’t has to do is vote right now for independence. The problem is the refusal of the F.M. and her equally weak executive followers to do it. She and they were given the Scottish authority to do that last year when they were VOTED in for that purpose. However F.M. Sturgeon conned the Scottish people by stating that it was for a 2nd referendum which it was not. The 2nd referendum was the 2021 vote. Then along came ALBA. Our useless F.M. after stalling for over 8 years since 2014 had to do something to keep up her pretense of being an Independista as now a true independista Alex Salmond was appointed ALBA’S leader.
What did she do? Went begging to Boris Johnson for permission to hold another referendum. Of course she was told NO. This happened many times and the answer was the same NO. Recently she went begging to the ENGLISH Supreme Court causing a further delay. NEITHER Boris Johnson nor the ENGLISH Supreme have the power or authority to say YES or NO. Scotland is a SOVEREIGN country and doesn’t have to have ANY foreign country’s permission to do ANYTHING.
The reason Scotland is not independent right now is not because of England but F.M. Sturgeon who created the begging permission and conned 50% of Scots into believing that this was the only way for independence. It is obvious from FM Sturgeon’s actions over the last 8 years that she has absolutely no intention of Scotland ever being independent. She has never stated that she is an Independista but that it its up to the Scottish people. She has done everything in her power to make sure that Scottish voices will never be heard. She, like the English Tories, has never given we Scots any reason just how better off we would be with independence. If you think that running down Boris and the English aristocrats who run our country will give us independence PLEASE TELL ME HOW?
ALBA with the ISP and all other true Indy parties will deliver Independence. The ‘new’ SNP MP’s in Holyrood won’t nor the SNP’s at Westminster who are laughed at , ridiculed and ignored and not allowed to stand up for Scotland. Instead of walking out with the two ALBA MP’s as they were kicked out for STANDING UP FOR SCOTLAND they just sat humbly by and allowed themselves to be humiliated by their English bosses. Ms. Sturgeon later stated that her MP’s did the right thing. Scotland is a laughing stock on the world stage thanks to Ms. Sturgeon.
Solution:
TIME TO GET A NEW DYNAMIC LEADER LEADING THE YES MOVEMENT. The ‘new’ SNP has failed miserably with Ms. Sturgeon. We must remember that she is NOT the YES leader and never was. ALEX SALMOND WAS and STILL IS.
I supported you the other day when someone said all you wanted was revenge, and I said no, it’s just that you’re angry, as am I. However, this is just drivel Squiggly, sorry.
It is a crying shame and utter disgrace that the next, ahem! (Leader), of the Government, will be a second rate no hoper that, rightly, would never have made it past their 6 month probation in any other job.
All of them are lies, all of them are hopelessly out of their depth. To make matters worse, they are all trumpeting the same soundbites denying Scotland a vote on remaining in this shit show.
The same words from 5 different mouths, the same tired, lame, moronic statements, and to listen to that fecking ex soldier yesterday, pretending to choke up when he buried a Scottish soldier as an excuse for keeping the union together was sickening, he should have been made to apologise for that blatant attempt at emotional blackmail.
None of this shower of incompetent half wits should be allowed anywhere near the levers of power, and none have ANY right to deny Scotland anything as we are getting no say in who gets to play King for a few months.
Governments won’t do anything about global warning, because on of the key things is to reduce consumption – which has an adverse effect on economic growth.
The pollution that needs addressed is that from manufacturing, mineral extraction and agriculture.
Based on polling of the Conservative party membership, it seems that whoever gets through, they will prefer them to Sunak. And Truss has momentum, she might edge Mordaunt out for second place…
‘They’ve had twelve years and the country is on its knees.’
The country – whether the UK or Scotland – is not on its knees.
The market for such hyperbole is small.
Indeed! And, after a while, as it becomes more and more ritualistic and audiences become more and more inured to it, it not loses its impact but also becomes counter-productive.