Who's next?

[dyqik]

I have a suspicion Truss might not be as good as we expect.

Do you mean good as in good for the country, or good as in good for comedy reasons?

Trump has shown that there's always new lows to be reached, so I can definitely read this either way.

[IvanV]

I read with some amusement an article on the Guardian a few weeks ago that actually Truss was really clever* and her odd behaviours and statements were a function of her being too intelligent rather than the whale omelette she frequently appears to be, no really.

*I think the principal evidence of this was her liking for giving underlings snap verbal maths tests and then berating them when they can't instantly mentally park the ramifications of what the latest North Korean missile test are in order to tell her what "7 x 8" is.

I'm not sure "intelligent" is the primary characteristic I'd associate with that sort of behaviour.

I have seen "intellectually rigid" used. Which would fit with all that. And even how she could graduate simply by regurgitating what she had been taught.

Intellectually rigid, and without principles so following whatever policy is good for her career.

A common reason for saying Liz Truss is really clever is that, like me, she went to Merton College, and you have to be "really clever" to go there. In recent years it has consolidated a reputation of being the most academically focused of Oxford undergrad colleges, which previously St John's probably had a better claim to.

The other current MPs who went to Merton I am aware of are Jesse Norman (Hereford) and Jonathan Lord (Woking). Norman has a reputation of being clever, but he was foolish to support Johnson and he now regrets that. No one would describe Lord as some super-clever type. You've probably never heard of him. He's a right-wing foot-soldier who keeps his head well below the parapet.

About 15 years ago, a student's alternative guide to the colleges described Merton as "where fun goes to die". It's a description that has stuck to the place like a spat-out chewing gum, and you can hardly avoid discovering it if you think about going there. But I think they quite like it really. It means their applicants are seriously focused on study. And it is since then that they have consolidated their position of being the college most regularly placed on top of the Norrington Table.

When I was there, there were a number of more normal students who seemed to have applied unaware that they were applying to a very academic college, but nevertheless got in by some strange accident of fate. Since Merton didn't have the St John's (alleged) policy of trying to kick people out merely for mediocre results, St John's usually came top in those days.

The reality is that skill in academic study is a rather different thing from political intelligence and political skill. And understanding what makes a practically successful policy. Truss did a bachelors degree in PPE, which no economist would consider as including a serious study of economics.

Jimbob's characterisation that her main skill seems to be abandoning principle to follow whatever trend will do her career best is what I see too. Especially when compared with her LibDem conference speech that has been recorded for posterity. She has had some strong examples to follow of late.

[El Pollo Diablo]

Fwiw I wouldn't particularly consider someone clever simply because they went to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. It's a risk factor for cleverness, sure, but not a guarantee. Cleverness is much more about what you do with it, and you only have to look at Boris Johnson to see the effect that, for example, exceptional narcissism and a total lack of self-restraint can have as limiting factors on the practical impact of intelligence. Not that Johnson is necessarily that intelligent, of course. He's strategically blind, latches onto moon-shooting infrastructure projects faster than a rottweiler onto a child's face and has a particularly stunted set of ethics even for someone sent to a boarding school as a child.

[Gfamily]

Blatant misrepresentation by the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62765529

Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss would have to raise taxes or make cuts elsewhere to meet her spending pledges on defence, a think tank has said.
In a report, the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) said her commitment to spend 3% of national income on defence by 2030 would cost an extra £157bn.

Obviously, Truss's plan isn't to spend more on defence, but simply to allow the national income to decline until defence catches up with the 3% target.

She's out foxed her critics by playing 1D chess.

[bjn]

I have a suspicion Truss might not be as good as we expect.

I thoroughly expect her to fail to achieve anywhere my already low expectations.

There’s a saying in software engineering that things always take twice as long to do as you expected them, even when you have factored in taking twice as long. It’s sort of like that.

My expectations will be continually revised downwards and asymptotically approach a level of despair that I cannot yet conceive.

[Tessa K]

There's only so far you can go to allay despair with jokes about trusses containing bollocks.

[Brightonian]

I have a suspicion Truss might not be as good as we expect.

I thoroughly expect her to fail to achieve anywhere my already low expectations.

There’s a saying in software engineering that things always take twice as long to do as you expected them, even when you have factored in taking twice as long. It’s sort of like that.

My expectations will be continually revised downwards and asymptotically approach a level of despair that I cannot yet conceive.

Hofstadter's law

[El Pollo Diablo]

I'm concerned that people might think this is my fault.

[Grumble]

I'm concerned that people might think this is my fault.

Truss’s publicist aren’t you?

[El Pollo Diablo]

I would suggest more a sort of an unintentional Cassandra

[El Pollo Diablo]

Truss 81,326 (57.4%)
Sunak 60,399 (42.6%)

Turnout 82%

My God have mercy on our souls.

[lpm]

f.cking hell, EPD, why the hell did you do this?

[El Pollo Diablo]

I originally created that gif because the vacuity is just so stark, it seemed like the bottom of the barrel in terms of conservative party talent.

I suppose I just made the whole thing inevitable. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean any of this.

[IvanV]

Like The Simpsons and Donald Trump?

[lpm]

I'm so, so sorry.

Saying sorry isn't enough.

Say sorry, then pause for applause, then look alarmed when the applause doesn't emerge, then stand rigid when half-hearted applause belatedly occurs.

Then repeat your trademark failed-pause-for-applause trick several times.

[Bird on a Fire]

Thank f.ck I've emigrated.

Good luck to the rest of you.

[lpm]

Luck? Where we're going we won't need luck.

We will need food parcels, firework and rat recipes.

[TopBadger]

I'm so, so sorry.

Saying sorry isn't enough.

Say sorry, then pause for applause, then look alarmed when the applause doesn't emerge, then stand rigid when half-hearted applause belatedly occurs.

Then repeat your trademark failed-pause-for-applause trick several times.

Lolz. She is more wooden than pinocchio, and less charisma than a brick. Apparently she can expect some letters of no confidence to go in immediately...

Will she be the leader at the next GE?

[Aitch]

...
Lolz. She is more wooden than pinocchio, and less charisma than a brick. Apparently she can expect some letters of no confidence to go in immediately...

Will she be the leader at the next GE?

And when will it be?

Will she tough it out or call an early one she is sure she'll lose so that the Tories can blame Labour?

[Bird on a Fire]

Luck? Where we're going we won't need luck.

We will need food parcels, firework and rat recipes.

I expect any food parcels and fireworks will get held up in customs, but I'll look into rat recipes.

I'm sure there's an element of luck involved in catching the biggest, tastiest, least-diseased rat too.

Didn't your parents teach you not to mess around with animated gifs, EPD? For shame.

[Bird on a Fire]

...
Lolz. She is more wooden than pinocchio, and less charisma than a brick. Apparently she can expect some letters of no confidence to go in immediately...

Will she be the leader at the next GE?

And when will it be?

Will she tough it out or call an early one she is sure she'll lose so that the Tories can blame Labour?

Can't see sufficient Tory MPs voting to lose their jobs and access to the gravy-train, so no-conf won't happen.

Similarly, I don't think Truss would be deluded enough to expect to win an early GE, unless Starmer joins ISIS or mentions socialism or something else catastrophic.

Next election is due by 28 January 2025. Wouldn't expect to shave much off that.

[TopBadger]

And when will it be?

Will she tough it out or call an early one she is sure she'll lose so that the Tories can blame Labour?

I think she either toughs it out, or does something(s) incredibly populist in her first month in charge then calls one whilst riding the crest of whatever positive wave she can create.

Longer shes in office the more people will get to know and detest her. She'll be worse than Boris, she can't work the affable bumbling act to get herself out of the corners she will inevitably get herself into.

[IvanV]

Thank f.ck I've emigrated.

Good luck to the rest of you.

That was true on 23 July 2019 when ABdeP Johnson was elected leader of the English National Party, to use a more accurate designation.

In looking up that date, I was entertained to discover that when I typed "Boris Johnson" into the search box on Wikipedia, the second option offered to me was this. Unfortunately the anti-swear forum editor modifies the URL so the link doesn't work.

[Martin_B]

Lolz. She is more wooden than pinocchio, and less charisma than a brick. Apparently she can expect some letters of no confidence to go in immediately...

Will she be the leader at the next GE?

The Tories have rules on a leader winning a leadership contest not being able to be challenged again for 12 months (without half the party submitting letters of no confidence), but do they have rules about challengers winning a leadership contest not being able to be challenged within a set time frame? Because Truss wasn't the leader the MPs wanted, but if they submit those letters and Truss can't contest the election, can Boris make a comeback?

[Tessa K]

I thought this would be a short lived thread when I started it but I reckoned without the lively state of current politics. And I mean lively in the sense a pit of vipers is lively.