Here’s the scary part, and I speak from experience, the center - right is about to be replaced by a milquetoast center - left, if the new government doesn’t work, it may very well be replaced by the extreme - right.
Eek!!!
This was the plot of the 2019 BBC Miniseries Years and Years.
I had to stop watching that because it was too depressingly realistic
Germany, early 20th Century.
You would hope that people would at least give the center-left government credit for not being as bad as the horrendously-bad performance of the center-right.
You would hope.
Brexit? What Brexit?
This is going to be funny. Next we will see the Silly Party, the Very Silly Party and the Lettuce party overtaking the Tories in the polls too!
Not sure anymore this will be funny. It’s almost as if voters had no atention span and no memory. And no taste.
Well until we actually vote, we won’t really know.
Where’s Lord Buckethead when you need him?
Or Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F’tang-F’tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel!
Unsure about the degree of wishful thinking involved but this guy claims his model based on the latest YouGov poll has the Tories at 20 seats and in 5th place!
The most unbelievable thing about that is the lib Dems doing so well
If anyone wants to delve into policy detail, the manifestos are now out:
An interesting story about fake accounts that may be trying to push Reform UK.
I imagine that some of Reform’s gains this cycle are from conservatives who still want to vote for conservative policies, but who have decided that this particular bunch of conservative politicians are the problem, not the policies they’re pushing, and so have switched from Tory to Reform.
As for the problem of Labour possibly getting too many seats, and so having resentful MPs for whom there’s no room in government… If that happens, it’ll be because a lot of candidates are winning in districts where, in recent history, it’s been extremely unlikely for a Labour candidate to win. Shouldn’t candidates of that sort be happy to just be getting into Parliament at all? You don’t go straight from being a no-hoper to being the Minister of Silly Walks, or whatever.
(aside: I think this provides some important context for that Monty Python skit. Am I right in guessing that previously, when a party has held a very large majority, they’ve created a bunch of extra government positions just to have something to give to all of their MPs? And the Ministry of Silly Walks was a spoof of such extra positions?)
I don’t think you are right. That was just juxtaposing silliness with po-faced bureaucracy.
There is a “Minister for Common Sense” which is not that far off from “Silly Walks”, usefulness-wise.
If I were PM, I would definitely appoint someone as Minister for Silly Walks, and then put some serious responsibilities as part of their portfolio, just to force MPs to make serious references to them during parliamentary debate.
Probably tailormade for Ed Davey, if his party would let him
It’s slightly disingenuous from Vice as the official title of that position is Minister of State without Portfolio or Constitution Minister. Really it’s a way of putting an extra body round the cabinet table and they can pick up a few projects that don’t quite suit a minister with a department. The incumbent Esther McVey has been placed in this slightly meaningless position to appease the right wing of the Conservative Party and ‘Minister of Common Sense’ is a self-proclaimed title. I don’t think anyone else in the government uses that title to describe the position.
But it does fit in with the government’s desire to wage culture wars that appeal to their base. A mistake I think, they should be taking the centre ground, but as usual the in-fighting in the Conservative party has dictated government decision making.
Jacob Rees-Mogg was Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency for a while. His tenure was marked by a distinct lack of identified Brexit opportunities or created government efficiencies. Mostly he just wandered around harassing civil servants.