Rishi Sunak tries to lead the UK

Politics & Elections
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It was announced in November 2022 that the Energy Price Guarantee would be extended from April 2023 (its original end date) to April 2024, albeit at a higher level (a notional £3,000 as opposed to £2,500). So this does provide some ongoing reassurance for consumers. Not having a go at you - I don’t think it was particularly well publicised at the time, it was a (relatively welcome) surprise to me when I found out about it last month.

Cites:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support/energy-bills-support-factsheet-8-september-2022

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/energy-price-guarantee/

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Thank you.

Teach me not to read the whole story; the concern being raised is about the increase in the price cap, not it’s removal. Which is by no means as bad.

In fact, I can see the argument for sticking with that: gas prices are coming down, April is warmer than January, it does cost money… you can make a case.

But it will be initially unpopular, and Sunak simplly does not have the headroom to do stuff that is temporarily unpopular right now.

304

I see the Telegraph is reporting a poll which, if replicated in a general election, would see the Tories cut down to 45 seats, behind the Scottish Nationalists. A more considered poll of polls is just a bit less doom-laden for them, but still comprehensively disastrous;

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html

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Yes, and the list of Tory MPs who are regretfully announcing that, with a heavy heart, they will be standing down at the next election to allow others the opportunity to serve grows longer.

Former Culture Secretary* Nadine Dorries announced today that her future lay elsewhere; Jo Gideon (who is admittedly 70) went yesterday… That adds to the 13, including Sajid Javid who had already regretfully announced they would be pursuing other opportunities. Doubtless more will follow.

Question: Is the next Conservative Prime Minister:

Currently in the Cabinet?
Currently an MP?
Currently doing their GCSE revision?

*For God’s sake

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Born yet?

:wink:

307

Now, now, don’t tease a fellow.

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Depends on whether they can find someone who can ride the various different horses on opposition, sufficiently to persuade the voters they’re a credible alternative. The closet Faragists and Brexit/Singapore-on-Thames fanatics won’t like a Cameron-style tack to the centre, and there will be plenty of voters old enough to remember how that turned out as well.

So it may depend on whether a Starmer government puts a lot of current controversies to rest, thereby helping to change the political climate as external events bring new problems.

309

And the UK can just become Untied Kingdom

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Surprising.

311

See here for dedicated thread on point:

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Oddly, when I saw that Starmer had given Corbin his marching orders, I thought that this would be a relief to his Party and a problem for the Conservatives.

In the event, it has had the opposite effect and now I hear people on the radio seriously discussing a breakaway party on the extreme left which would guarantee a Conservative majority at the next election.

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Unless the Faragistas can be persuaded to restart a far-right party for balance.

IOW … My wackadoodles can out-offset your wackadoodles. It’s wackadoodles all the way down.

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There is [yet another] one already - in its current incarnation called Reform, though it hasn’t exactly troubled the pollsters - yet. But if Sunak finds the guts to do a Robert Peel and face down the Brexit purists over the Northern Ireland protocol deal he seems to be about to announce, well, who knows?

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Can you provide more context to the Robert Peel reference, please?

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Sorry. Peel forced through abolition of the Corn Laws (that put a heavy tariff on imported grain), thereby splitting his party and keeping it out of office for ages.

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I haven’t seen this posted elsewhere; I’ll post it here, because it’s one more damn thing that’s doing Rishi no favors. First the background - food shortages and “rationing”:

The UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, and discounter Aldi have said they are putting limits of three per customer on sales of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.

Asda has capped sales of lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberry punnets to three per customer, along with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

And Morrisons has set limits of two on cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers.

The principle cause for the shortages is that there has been very cold weather in Morocco and Spain, where these crops are grown, but Brexit also appears to be a (less significant) contributing factor.

OK, so that’s the background… and then this:

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has suggested turnips could be a suitable alternative while other vegetables remain in short supply.…

…Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused the minister of a “let them eat turnips” strategy - a reference to 18th Century French queen Marie Antionette, who supposedly responded to a bread shortage by saying “let them eat cake”…

… Ms Coffey has also come under fire after appearing to suggest people struggling to afford food could work more hours or improve their skills to get a higher income.

(Bolding as in the BBC News article.)

Her point - not well made - seems to be that we grow turnips in this country, so, well…

As I said, none of this is doing Rishi any favors. I can’t see him lasting to the end of the year.

j

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…and read through the first cite above to find out why it’s nothing to do with Brexit. Of course …

319

Asda has capped sales of lettuce

Well, that’s one bit of bright news for Rishi, at least.

320

My post above was largely about gems of wisdom from Therese Coffey, one of Rishi’s senior ministers. I’ll be having turnip in my lunchtime salad tomorrow - thanks for the tip, Therese. But these days Brexit, perhaps more than Europe, is becoming the whipping boy for national woes - an interesting transformation to watch.

It’s not without some justification in this case. Here’s a summary of the multiple harms caused by Brexit, brought together pretty well in one article. See the section Where does Brexit come into all this?

j

ETA – I meant to also add, there’s a headline in the right-wing, lower-middle-brow, Brexit-championing Daily Mail (which I’m not linking to for obvious reasons) which reads:

Fruit and vegetable shortage: Expats taunt Brits

The google snippet goes on to say:

1 day ago — Gloating expats in the EU today shared pictures of their supermarkets awash with fruit and vegetables as some UK grocers began rationing.

I can only guess that it just isn’t worth trying to hide/deny it. We live in interesting times indeed.

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I think one of the most worrying implications is that without these limitations, people might be stupid enough to panic-buy the items in question. Who the hell buys more than 3 cucumbers at a time (yes, the jokes write themselves)? It’s not as if you can stockpile fresh tomatoes like toilet paper, they go bad after a few days and I can’t imagine they freeze well.