Current Affairs

[oldbluefox]

Actually I was repeating one of your quotes or does that not apply to you?

[Mervyn and Trish]

Those who repeatedly "bang on" about Bliar only do so in response to those who mistakenly believe Boris is the first PM to lie. And because they believe a lie which took us into a shameful illegal war in which innocent people died and because of which people are still dying today is more important than lies about parties and cake.

But fair enough, if the Boris Bashers don't want to move on and talk about the future that is their right. I presume they will keep us in suspense about what they'd like to see so they can then say "it wasn't that" later.

So bash away if that what pleases you. But if so don't presume to tell us we can't moan in our turn about the bashing. It's not depending Boris. It's expressing the opinion that the ongoing bashing is boring and pointless.

[Onelife]

I thought it a cleaver move to include Boris in the video….she’s trying to appeal to those who wanted change and those who didn’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swGdVIbbm2c

If that's the Penny Mordaunt video, I can't be bothered to watch it again. It needed to be about half the length, and she should have introduced herself into it much earlier, as I had nearly fallen asleep wading through the patriotic goo.

However, I think she is one of the better candidates, as she is not completely tainted by Johnson.

.............................................................

I tend to stick to two glasses of wine on a Sunday, any more and I get the same effects as what you have experienced

[Stephen]

I thought it a cleaver move to include Boris in the video….she’s trying to appeal to those who wanted change and those who didn’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swGdVIbbm2c

If that's the Penny Mordaunt video, I can't be bothered to watch it again. It needed to be about half the length, and she should have introduced herself into it much earlier, as I had nearly fallen asleep wading through the patriotic goo.

However, I think she is one of the better candidates, as she is not completely tainted by Johnson.

.............................................................

I tend to stick to two glasses of wine on a Sunday, any more and I get the same effects as what you have experienced

Light weight

[barney]

This is one game that I have absolutely no skin in.
I couldn’t give a flying fig who leads the Tories but of all the announced candidates, if I had a vote, I’d vote for Mordaunt.
She appears the most normal although that Kemi seems a sweet little thing.
Maybe?
Who knows?
The favourite rarely wins.
It’s slightly irrelevant anyway because irrespective of the leader, the Tory election machine will kick in when necessary.
I’d reckon that now Johnson is toast, the anti Brexit Tories will quietly return to the fold.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Now that Sir H has u-turned and said Brexit is a done deal I don't think Brexit itself will be an election issue. Both main parties are singing a similar tune and the Lib Dems demonstrated a policy of reversing it is electoral suicide. Any anti Brexit voices on either side are unlikely to make any headway.

What will be an issue is how to overcome the negative aspects of our new status outside the EU and capitalise on the positives. In particular we need to resolve the Irish situation. That will be the challenge for Sir H and the new Tory leader, whoever that turns out to be.

[Frank Manning]

Sunday Times carried some speculation that Boris Johnson's resignation honours will be a very long list. We may be justified in moving on from him to who the new PM will be, but I think he is going to figure in that decision if commentators are correct. He is apparently very anti Rishi Sunak. J R-M on Channel 4 would not be drawn conclusively, but reading between the lines of what he said I got the impression that Liz Truss was among his preferred candidates. On the same programme George Osborne indicated that the new PM will attract a popularity bounce, and will be tempted to call a general Election after the party conferences are over. There are some very significant problems facing the country, so my main hope is that they will not indulge in navel gazing with a new cabinet, or settling scores, but will outline a strategy for dealing with the problems and get competent people into ministerial posts to help deliver it. It's what is good for all of the UK which is important.

[Frank Manning]

Now that Sir H has u-turned and said Brexit is a done deal I don't think Brexit itself will be an election issue. Both main parties are singing a similar tune and the Lib Dems demonstrated a policy of reversing it is electoral suicide. Any anti Brexit voices on either side are unlikely to make any headway.

You are right that rejoining is not a good policy for a political party. The divisions in the country are still raw, and will not be served by keep banging on about it now. In any case it would be a forlorn hope that the UK could get a good deal out of it. The Eurocrats would get their pound of flesh. Far better to shut up about Brexit and rejoining and get on with getting the best with what we now have. A bit of civility in our dealings with them, and cooperation where possible would be good. The Mail, Express, and Sun need to stop briefing against Europe, they have won now so how about less hysteria and sticking to the truth. If this comes up twice, I apologise. I cant see if it has already been printed.

[Onelife]

All these alledged affairs?

He must have some hidden talent.!

Rumour has it he's has a big plonker

[Kendhni]

Real comedy gold when a Boris butt kisser whines about Boris bashing but continues with the Starmer bashing.

But in the spirit of what was requested, I am looking forward to
- someone who with the maturity and ability to show true leadership
- someone who can get to grips with the current financial crisis and finally take control of other self-inflicted issues
- someone who is honest and has integrity
- someone who is competent
- someone who puts the country before their own personal agenda
- someone who is not a conman of the simple minded
- someone who will actually start the process of creating tory policy rather than 'winging it'
- someone who does not surrender every red line of the country they are meant to represent
- someone who actually reads and understands what they are signing the UK up for
- someone who can actually deliver what they promise
- someone who doesn't take credit for everyone else's work
- someone who is not so insecure that they need to surround themselves with yes men
- someone who can put in place a cabinet that actually has ideas and the deservation of being there
- someone who can lead a government and steer this country without weekly u-turns
- someone who doesn't need to hold daily insincere apology briefings
- someone who takes ownership without having to rely on kindergarten politics of 'it is someone elses fault'.

So I reckon anything that isn't a clone of the clown PM, from a sponge upwards, would guarantee more probity.

Fortunately, there are some strong contenders in among the dross putting their names forward. I was sorry to see Ben Wallace rule himself out (would have been in my top 3). At the minute we need someone who puts in place a long term plan to rebuild the current botch up for the next generation, rather than focussing on short term appeasement of the entitled grey brigade ... back in 1997 Labour came to power on the back of 'Things can only get better' ... it is even more true today than it was then.

[Kendhni]

Far better to shut up about Brexit and rejoining and get on with getting the best with what we now have.

Agree totally. For some strange reason, across social media, including this board it is usually the 'b's that bring the topic up, and whine whenever anyone else dares to mention the 'b' word. There seems to be some concensus that the reason is that the 'b's are in desperate need of validation of what we, as a country, have chosen to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on (and continue to fork out billions on). Why people need such validation at this point is strange simply because it is well documented that we are not expected to show verifiable tangible benefits for at least a decade or two (beyond the odd headline grabbing bit of political fluff).

[screwy]

All these alledged affairs?

He must have some hidden talent.!

Rumour has it he's has a big plonker

And there's me thinking it must be his natural charm and charisma.

[towny44]

Far better to shut up about Brexit and rejoining and get on with getting the best with what we now have.

Agree totally. For some strange reason, across social media, including this board it is usually the 'b's that bring the topic up, and whine whenever anyone else dares to mention the 'b' word. There seems to be some concensus that the reason is that the 'b's are in desperate need of validation of what we, as a country, have chosen to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on (and continue to fork out billions on). Why people need such validation at this point is strange simply because it is well documented that we are not expected to show verifiable tangible benefits for at least a decade or two (beyond the odd headline grabbing bit of political fluff).

You do talk a lload of tosh.Ken, I know you like the sound of your own voice, but sometimes it seems to run out of sensible ideas.

[Kendhni]

Penny Mordaunt already making mistakes, using images of people without their consent or even checking if they back her ... with a somewhat sickening faux patriotic music and dreary male voice over? A very poor effort but still someone that could do well (wasn't she the one that made a speech about cock welfare?).

[Kendhni]

Far better to shut up about Brexit and rejoining and get on with getting the best with what we now have.

Agree totally. For some strange reason, across social media, including this board it is usually the 'b's that bring the topic up, and whine whenever anyone else dares to mention the 'b' word. There seems to be some concensus that the reason is that the 'b's are in desperate need of validation of what we, as a country, have chosen to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on (and continue to fork out billions on). Why people need such validation at this point is strange simply because it is well documented that we are not expected to show verifiable tangible benefits for at least a decade or two (beyond the odd headline grabbing bit of political fluff).

You do talk a lload of tosh.Ken, I know you like the sound of your own voice, but sometimes it seems to run out of sensible ideas.

Nurse, his medication has worn off again!!!
With such a strong counter argument, I am sure that there are sponges around the world that consider you to be a literary hero.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The problem with your spec for a new Tory leader Ken is it's all hot air about personality traits with zero about actual policy. It's merely an expansion of Not Boris. And of course it leaves you with maximum opportunity to say Not That when actual policies are declared.

[Kendhni]

The problem with your spec for a new Tory leader Ken is it's all hot air about personality traits with zero about actual policy. It's merely an expansion of Not Boris. And of course it leaves you with maximum opportunity to say Not That when actual policies are declared.

I suspected you had that answer queued up ready to go ,.. and it proves you went with the reply before fully reading the post. At the minute it is about the personalities .. over the next few weeks it will become about the policies ... so you are a bit early/predictable on using the 'not Boris' (you should have held onto that one for a few days until it actually applied).

I have been asking for years what Tory policy is ... for the last few years it has been blowing about in the wind, changing on a daily basis depending on what Johnson decided it would be on any given day, and often adopting stated labour policy after several u-turns (totally ignoring protocol and what both front and back benchers had been sent out to tell us).

That is why the most important thing is to bring integrity back into toryism, and its followers, so that they can create a policy on which they will be judged. I appreciate there are those that have been accepting of the incredibly low standards and corruption within politics (who will continue in trying to push blame elsewhere) and I am sure there are some equally infantile types that will fall into the 'Not that' category ... but until there is actually some policy, nobody can make any judgement.

I look forward to hearing new ideas from a new leader, and then, when we actually hear what tory policy is, I am pretty sure that I will be just like everybody else in finding that there will be those things that I like and those I do not like.

[Manoverboard]

Ah, but will the new leader be ' sexually incontinent ' ?

What an idiotic point to make within a Political discussion.

[oldbluefox]

Penny Mordaunt already making mistakes, using images of people without their consent or even checking if they back her ... with a somewhat sickening faux patriotic music and dreary male voice over? A very poor effort but still someone that could do well (wasn't she the one that made a speech about cock welfare?).

I've already had a word with her about that. When you're out and about with your iPhone you have to be careful who you are videoing since not everybody wants to be included in your Adobe Photoshopped promotional video.

I do agree it is disappointing as a promotional video and Penny is better than what was presented.

[Onelife]

I thought the video came across more like a party-political broadcast rather than showing off her credentials as a future leader…that being said, apart from the two gaffs I quite liked the video as it reminded me of the time when I had pride in my country.

[oldbluefox]

Unfortunately there seems to be a trend to run this country down at every opportunity in a way which you don't see in other countries whose populations are proud of where they live, proud of their heritage and not ashamed to show their love for the country. We seem to spend most of our time apologising and allowing others to run us down. Time to reverse that trend.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Another non answer Ken. And they accused Boris of bluster.

So two simple ones. As our resident economics expert, tax cuts or no tax cuts? And if yes which ones?

And as our Ireland correspondent keep or scrap NI protocol? The EU have seemingly ruled out renegotiation.

[CaroleF]

Foxy, I couldn't agree more. Having seen other clips of Penny Mordaunt speaking in the House of Commons I do think she'd be a good leader. I think one of the most important things is that the new PM must also be capable of attracting the voters in the country, not just someone who the Parliamentary Party thinks is good. Having heard two of the contenders speak on the news this morning I can't see either of them attracting the Tory voters who will vote on the final two.

Carole

[Stephen]

Unfortunately there seems to be a trend to run this country down at every opportunity in a way which you don't see in other countries whose populations are proud of where they live, proud of their heritage and not ashamed to show their love for the country. We seem to spend most of our time apologising and allowing others to run us down. Time to reverse that trend.

Some won't, but I agree Foxy.

Those that don't like this country can simply bu99er off somewhere else. I personally feel we have gone too far the other way kowtowing to all and sundry so as not to hurt they're feelings.

[Onelife]

I’m agreeing with everyone this morning… even Ken and Merv