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The Premiership of Mary Elizabeth Truss.Sept 2022 - Oct 2022

Seanm said:
Beyond that I honestly don't think that you can "exclude the new populist right from power" with what will almost certainly be seen as electoral shenanigans without very serious consequences
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Yeah, I should probably have said exclude from complete power.

I don't want to suggest that a party that gets a 30 to 40% share of the vote should not have some representation, only that we need to make sure they don't get an overall majority when they have shown themselves to do things like suspend parliament, Brexit, austerity, gerrymandering, deport asylum seekers, etc.

Basically I used to be against PR for broadly the reasons you state (it's to some extent giving in on ever forming a government that can make significant change) but given the way the Tories have learnt from other crypto-fascist experiments I think we need to protect ourselves against them ever forming a majority government again. Everything we see in history is once they cross this line, they will get worse and there is significant danger of a weakening of democracy and a slide into authoritarianism.
 
matthewr said:
Yeah, I should probably have said exclude from complete power.

I don't want to suggest that a party that gets a 30 to 40% share of the vote should not have some representation, only that we need to make sure they don't get an overall majority when they have shown themselves to do things like suspend parliament, Brexit, austerity, gerrymandering, deport asylum seekers, etc.

Basically I used to be against PR for broadly the reasons you state (it's to some extent giving in on ever forming a government that can make significant change) but given the way the Tories have learnt from other crypto-fascist experiments I think we need to protect ourselves against them ever forming a majority government again. Everything we see in history is once they cross this line, they will get worse and there is significant danger of a weakening of democracy and a slide into authoritarianism.
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The real problem is that the ideology that weakens democracy and tends to authoritarianism is embedded in to Labour politics and in Tory politics. The problem isn’t how our parties are elected, but that they all believe in the same thing.

PR will have no effect while there is no alternative to vote for.
 
matthewr said:
Yeah, I should probably have said exclude from complete power.

I don't want to suggest that a party that gets a 30 to 40% share of the vote should not have some representation, only that we need to make sure they don't get an overall majority when they have shown themselves to do things like suspend parliament, Brexit, austerity, gerrymandering, deport asylum seekers, etc.

Basically I used to be against PR for broadly the reasons you state (it's to some extent giving in on ever forming a government that can make significant change) but given the way the Tories have learnt from other crypto-fascist experiments I think we need to protect ourselves against them ever forming a majority government again. Everything we see in history is once they cross this line, they will get worse and there is significant danger of a weakening of democracy and a slide into authoritarianism.
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That ship has sailed :).

Seriously tho my main objection is that PR won't do any of the things you think it will and will quite likely make things worse; but if it happens, and it works, then grand, I'll be delighted.
 
SteveS1 said:
He's not good on his feet. Her little jibe about "tax and spend" could have been bettered by retorting that her position appeared to be "don't tax but still spend."
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She deployed it after he'd asked his last question. He only gets a set number. One of the rules of the panto that is PMQs. Result being the PM always can get the 'last word' against the head of the opposition. So can deliver the sound bite then.
 
TheDecameron said:
Voters thought Liz Truss’ Downing St speech was ‘strong’, ‘confident’ - Shown PMQs clip, one said she ‘blew Starmer away’

-health warning, poll by ex-May Downing St hack. No doubt slavered all over the Brit tabloid rags tomorrow
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Yes. I watched it live and thought Starmer did OK at exposing the idiocy of the Trussonomics. But of course the media will cherry-pick. And prefer showy put-downs to questions about actual policy and its consequences.
 
I imagine Truss is quite busy today, focused on the UK’s major challenges. It won’t be easy planning what to wear to the Queen’s funeral and memorial events, but I think the UK can rest easy knowing her chosen garments will be fab.
 
Hook said:
I imagine Truss is quite busy today, focused on the UK’s major challenges. It won’t be easy planning what to wear to the Queen’s funeral and memorial events, but I think the UK can rest easy knowing her chosen garments will be fab.
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Hopefully not the black ( *look at me*) plaited lampshade she wore on her head at Remembrance Day.
 
Kwarteng has effectively removed the head of the Treasury, Tom Scholar (Guardian). All Truss's leadership election complaints about how the 'Treasury orthodoxy' needed to be swept away are now made manifest.

Former head of the Treasury, Nick MacPherson, is not impressed (Twitter), calling Scholar 'the best civil servant of his generation'. MacPherson continues: 'As Gordon Brown used to say "they're not thinking".'

EDIT: I notice @TheDecameron posted this earlier. Ah well, it bears repeating.
 
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