Politics Today

[arthur]

Not accepting anything that smacks of racism is not connected with any liberal sensibilities, Tavers, but it is like a red flag to a bull in my case It's just a matter of fairness and decency to denounce it: you don"t have to be a liberal to do that.
Regarding your attachment : I will read it tomorrow my time and will get back to you. I always reply to anyone who kindly takes the time to comment on my posts and engage.

I wouldn't hold your breath Indo. A lot of straw men Truss sets up so that she can knock them down. None of them will come as a surprise - Tavy's been mouthing them for years. The fact is conveniently ignored that geographic inequality has been caused primarily by a) Thatcher's destruction of the manufacturing sector in the midlands and north b) subsequent governments (including Blair's) refusing to acknowledge the damage to the social and political fabric caused by not addressing the consequences and c) George Osborne's unnecessary and counter productive austerity programme which has left swathes of the country looking and feeling run down, shabby and neglected

You have to realise that in Tavyworld, if you take measures raise a group of people's life chances and general wellbeing from 50% satisfactory to 60%, those who are at 65% have been hard done by and are falling behind. You can understand the frustration of the 65%ers, but saying that the reason they can't get any higher is because of those poorer people have had too much time, effort and money spent on them is simply a lie.

But a lie that is easy to sell. But selling lies is what this government does, not because they believe them, but because they think it will win them votes. I can't think of any other government as flagrantly dishonest as this one - there are plenty that have been wrong, or spun to make things look better than they were, but all of them at least thought they were doing the right thing.

Their biggest lie is to claim to be patriotic, led as they are by a man who willfully damaged the country in order to advance his political career. But this doesn't stop his followers branding anyone who does not share their narrow view of what is historically, presently or potentially Great about Britain unpatriotic or "self loathing". Unutterably depressing beyond measure

 

[Grecian2K]

Liz Truss brought race into it albeit in a nuanced fashion and I agree with her.
You’re going to have to suspend your deep dislike for the Tories for a minute to two and perhaps read the link I’ve provided below. It is from Conservative Home, so I hope reading it doesn’t disagree with your liberal sensibilities too much Mike.
This isn’t about playing one group off with another or electioneering, it’s about recognising that for too long a forgotten group of our number has not benefited as regards Government assistance when you compare them with other groups.
Now as a one time Labour voter myself I would’ve perhaps preferred it if the traditional advocates for the English working class were engaged in a levelling up agenda, but as Liz Truss suggests the Labour Party’s priorities seem elsewhere nowadays.
You’re right to be cynical, but I’m with all those former Labour people up North who are at least willing to give the Tories a fair go when it comes their levelling up agenda.

"Dignity and humanity… not quotas and targets, or equality of outcome." Truss's speech on fairness – full text | Conservative Home

"Although time and time again, the Left's ideas have been shown to fail, they still pervade our body politic."

www.conservativehome.com

In the interest of democratic discourse I did try to wade my way through that lump of Tory click-bait (although it goes against the grain even to venture into CONservativeHome!). A stream of consciousness that makes even the most verbose rantings of the late Cummings seem precise.

A few saccharine cliches and platitudes but, as they say, "fine words butter no parsnips", especially when they come from someone with a record of right wing autocratic views like Truss. Lest we forget, she (along with the likes of Patel, Raab & Kwarteng) was co-author to that gospel of praise to unfettered, feral, dog-eat-dog capitalism "Britannia Unchained" - parts of which made even Ayd Rand seem like a bleeding hear liberal.

I wouldn't trust Truss (and her ilk) to deliver an amazon order let alone a real agenda of social fairness. This seems a blatant attempt to try and present a more "cuddly Lizibet". Just like May did when she (quite rightly) called out the Tories as the nasty party - before going on to become one of the most mean-spirited and nasty Home Secs ever! Perhaps the article you reference is ET's own first salvo of an eventual leadership bid.

Still, if you choose to swallow her sugar-glazed words then fair enough. All I can say is "caveat emptor".

 

[tavyred]

Welcome back Art.
I obviously can’t make you think that Tories will be true to their word on this this, the proof will be in the pudding. That said, the money in things like the Towns Fund looks real enough, the 750 Treasury North look real enough and the intent to move a further 30K public sector jobs from London to the regions looks real enough too. With respect, you sound like you’re in denial about the Tories levelling up agenda and can’t accept despite the evidence that it’s actually happening.
Finally it really is not a good look for you to suggest that whereas you can see through the quite obvious Tory lies others for some reason can’t. YouGov currently has the Tories leading by 25% with working class voters, perhaps the people who are going to directly benefit from this Tory initiative just see what is happening and believe the promises being made to them.

 

[RedPaul]

Johnson has broken the law in relation to Covid contracts and misleading parliament. He should immediately apologise and put the record straight, or subject himself to an inquiry.

 

[Grecian2K]

Johnson has broken the law in relation to Covid contracts and misleading parliament. He should immediately apologise and put the record straight, or subject himself to an inquiry.

More chance of my bacon joint and leg of pork flying itself into the freezer!

 

[IndoMike]

Poor little kitten. .. ..Not so tough now he isn't backed up with thousands of redneck nutters.

"Of all the pictures that were taken during the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January, one of the most famous is of a man sitting on a chair with one foot on the desk of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
That man, Richard Barnett, was told by a judge on Thursday that he is to remain in jail until his next court date in May.
Barnett, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, began to yell at US district judge Christopher Cooper, saying “it’s not fair” that he should remain in custody as he awaits trial".

Never mind, buddy. Enjoy doing your time...

 

[DB9]

Poor little kitten. .. ..Not so tough now he isn't backed up with thousands of redneck nutters.

"Of all the pictures that were taken during the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January, one of the most famous is of a man sitting on a chair with one foot on the desk of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
That man, Richard Barnett, was told by a judge on Thursday that he is to remain in jail until his next court date in May.
Barnett, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, began to yell at US district judge Christopher Cooper, saying “it’s not fair” that he should remain in custody as he awaits trial".

Never mind, buddy. Enjoy doing your time...

Yep, Don't slip on the soap in the shower!

 

[elginCity]

Johnson has broken the law in relation to Covid contracts and misleading parliament. He should immediately apologise and put the record straight, or subject himself to an inquiry.

Johnson has broken the law, again.

If £1 million was given to Dido Harding every single day to cover test and trace, it would take more than a 100 years to accumulate the total cost to date. Mind boggling number is £37 billion.

 

[tavyred]

Mind boggling number is £37 billion.

Like you Elgy (probably) I’ve no idea how the billions have been or will be spent, but looking at how we’ve gone from scratch to having the capability to test hundreds of thousands of people a day, it wasn’t going to cheap surely?
Some people seem to think that we’ve spent 20 billion on just an app.
The cost of building and staffing multiple labs and satellite testing sites was never going to cost peanuts.

 

[arthur]

A few saccharine cliches and platitudes but, as they say, "fine words butter no parsnips", especially when they come from someone with a record of right wing autocratic views like Truss. Lest we forget, she (along with the likes of Patel, Raab & Kwarteng) was co-author to that gospel of praise to unfettered, feral, dog-eat-dog capitalism "Britannia Unchained" - parts of which made even Ayd Rand seem like a bleeding hear liberal.

"British workers are "among the worst idlers in the world", a group of Conservative MPs has claimed.
The UK "rewards laziness", does not encourage risk-taking and must strive to emulate the work ethic and low-tax culture in parts of Asia, the five MPs argue in a book due out next month.
The authors include Elizabeth Truss and Dominic Raab, both tipped to be promoted in a future reshuffle.
"Too many people in Britain prefer a lie-in to hard work," they argue.
The other contributors to Britannia Unchained are Priti Patel, Chris Skidmore and Kwasi Kwarteng, influential members of the "class of 2010" - MPs elected to Parliament at the last election."

An opinion also shared by our glorious leader:

If we left the EU, we would end this sterile debate, and we would have to recognise that most of our problems are not caused by “Bwussels”, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and under-investment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure.

Sloth, laziness and easy gratification - surely not Tavy's "white working class". So who must they be talking about?