Libertarian Culture Warrior Kemi Badenoch - Unfit for Office

Feb 3, 2024 | After Cameron’s victory in 2010, The Tory bathtub was brimming with confidence and authority. It was Brexit that pulled the plug, and ever since, the Nasty Party have been succumbing to the inevitable pull of the drain. The party, murky with the sediment of incompetence, corruption and sexual offences, swirls in a slow, relentless spiral towards collapse. But the bookies tell us that one person emerges. Kemi Badenoch is the embodiment of the systemic flaws of the Tory Hard Right, her words and actions magnifying Tory dysfunction as she and they circle closer to the plughole, she’s a stark reminder of just how badly the Tories have misjudged what THEY claim is the will of the people.

Kemi Badenoch as leader of the Conservative Party would make the Tories totally and utterly unelectable. This move could send the Tories the way of the Whigs before them – into oblivion, the way of the dodo. – © Mark Alexander

Boris Johnson Has 'Dented' the Conservative Party | Dominic Grieve

Jan 30, 2024 | "I feel that time is probably up." The Conservative Party will "lose very badly at the next election" after delivering an "extraordinarily bad government" with "charlatan" Boris Johnson says Dominic Grieve.

BoJo was/is a clown and a buffoon. He has caused this nation untold damage. Dominic Grieve is one of the few decent Conservatives left. – © Mark Alexander

Rishi Sunak Must Quit before He Leads Tories to Extinction, Says Ex-minister

THE GUARDIAN: Simon Clarke, who served in Liz Truss’s cabinet, sparks renewed Conservative party infighting

Simon Clarke, left, with Rishi Sunak in 2020. Photograph: Danny Lawson/AFP/Getty Images
Rishi Sunak should resign before he leads the Conservatives to “extinction”, a Tory MP has said in an excoriating attack on the prime minister.

In a dramatic intervention on Tuesday night, Simon Clarke, who was a cabinet minister in Liz Truss’s short-lived government, urged Sunak to quit and make way for a new Tory leader.

In an op-ed for the Telegraph, Clarke said Sunak’s “uninspiring leadership is the main obstacle to our recovery” and that he has “sadly gone from asset to anchor”.

He argued that Sunak “is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred” because “he does not get what Britain needs. And he is not listening to what the British people want.”

Clarke’s article set off a fresh round of internal party warfare. Tory grandees from all wings of the party hit back at Clarke on social media. » | Eleni Courea | Tuesday, January 23, 2024

That the Conservative Party is divided and weak should not surprise us one little bit. The Party pulled a fast one on the electorate with that nonsensical and unwise Brexit Referendum. With it, the Party was rent asunder rather than glued back together. Not only that, but the country was divided too – seriously divided. As it states in the Bible, as Jesus said: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” Matthew 25, NKJV.

This country needs a good, pro-business party, but one that is fair to all sectors of the economy and society, one that is pro-EU. (There's is big market across the English Channel: 450m consumers!) The Conservatives brought us Brexit and speaks incessantly of reviving Thatcherism. It is Thatcherism that has created the colossal divide in this country between the haves and the have-nots, the colossal divide between the rich and the poor, wealth inequality which this country hasn't seen since the Victorian Era.

Furthermore, it is the Conservatives who have brought this country abject poverty and food banks with Cameron and Osborne's insistence on austerity, year after year.

It is clear that the Conservative Party's glory days are well and truly over. Again, as it states in the Bible, in Ecclesiastes 3: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; ... KJV.

Maybe the Tories have outlived their usefulness; maybe it really is time for the Party to go the way of the Whigs: into oblivion. – © Mark Alexander

The Conservative Party Is Dead

Nov 18, 2023 | I thought I saw a sign of life as Suella Braverman was sacked but Sunak has confirmed that the moral leadership is missing- this is a party on the last stages of decay, what Bercow called "a rotting corpse". What is left, its zombie pretence of authority and life is controlled by the shady forces of the ERG [European Research Group] and its part-time members (each eager to stake out an afterlife in media or business) can no longer command respect. It is sad to see such a death.

Lee Anderson’s Vile Anti-migrant Comments Pose This Question: Do We Want Politics Like This?

THE GUARDIAN: Even Thatcher’s governments were above the hateful, toxic rhetoric now being favoured by Sunak and his lieutenants

Does it matter if Lee Anderson, the deputy chair of the Conservative party, thinks disgruntled asylum seekers should “fuck off back to France” and says so?

“If they don’t like barges then they should fuck off back to France,” Anderson said. “These people come across the Channel in small boats … if they don’t like the conditions they are housed in here then they should go back to France, or better, not come at all in the first place.” He was speaking to the Daily Express, with the knowledge that this once-great British newspaper now thrives on printing such things.

One can be dismayed, if not surprised. Anderson likes to see himself as his party’s man of the people. He serves a purpose as the supposed link between a political organisation controlled and given its raison d’etre by the hyper-wealthy and the Friday-night saloon bar of a rundown pub. » | Hugh Muir | Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Related article.

Is Brexit Pulling the Conservative Party Apart?

Jul 7, 2023 | In this new Federal Trust video, John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly discuss the current state of the Conservative Party in the light of Brexit’s failure. They predict that after losing the next election the Conservatives will veer dramatically to the right, particularly on European policy linked to Brexit. This will create opportunities but also challenges for the Labour government. It is certainly not a foregone conclusion that the Labour Party will be reelected after its likely success in 2024.

Johnson, Sunak and Brexit: A Trio from Hell

Jun 14, 2023 | In this new Federal Trust video, John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly discuss the disruptive and divisive consequences of Brexit for the Conservative Party. This division is now crystallised in the personal and political conflict between Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson. At present Johnson seems largely motivated by personal resentments. It may be however that in the coming months Johnson will ally himself with political forces hostile to Sunak such as Farage, Fox and Tice. This could lead to a disastrous outcome for the Conservative Party in the next General Election.

SPEAKERS
Brendan Donnelly is the Director of the Federal Trust and a former Conservative MEP. John Stevens is the Chairman of the Federal Trust and a former Conservative MEP.

ABOUT THE FEDERAL TRUST
The Federal Trust is a research institute studying regional, national, European and global levels of government. It has always had a particular interest in the European Union and Britain’s place in it. The Federal Trust has no allegiance to any political party. It is registered as a charity for the purposes of education and research.

The Conservative Party Is 'Dragging the BBC through the Mud', Says Sir Ed Davey

Apr 28, 2023 | Sir Ed Davey has criticised the Conservative Party's handling of Richard Sharp's appointment to the BBC and said they were "dragging the BBC through the mud". The leader of the Liberal Democrats said: "I think the British public will be very angry. This is another example of this government's incompetence. "Boris Johnson should never have appointed Mr Sharp in the first place and Rishi Sunak should have shown some leadership by sacking him."

Related.

Rishi Sunak “WON’T SAVE” the Conservative Party | UK Politics | New Statesman

The Guardian view on Rishi Sunak: profits in the City, austerity in the country: Symbols are important, but the Tory leader’s background as a hedge fund manager rather than his race explains his politics »

Mark Drakeford: 'The Conservative Party Is Ungovernable'

First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford has said the Conservative Party is "ungovernable" and has called for a general election.

He also spoke about Boris Johnson's chances of a comeback and said "anyone who thinks Boris Johnson returning is a get out of jail card must have some of the shortest memories in political history."


FFS! Keep BoJo the Clown well away from the levers of power! We’ve only just managed to get rid of that idiot. – © Mark Alexander

Britain hangs by a thread. Give the end to Boris Johnson and we’ll unravel: This must be the moment to root out the C-listers and crackpots who have dominated the Tory party ever since Brexit »

Sharon Graham: We Are Witnessing a Horror Story'

General Secretary of trade union Unite Sharon Graham told Sophy Ridge the political situation is like "witnessing a horror story" and insisted the UK needs a change of government.

"It's like watching a film behind your hands and every time you look there's something worse happening," Ms Graham said.

Peter Oborne Absolutely DEMOLISHES Liz Truss

"Liz Truss is FINISHED & may have DESTROYED the Conservative Party altogether"

Former Tory Minister Rory Stewart Says Liz Truss Is Not Conservative | LBC

Former Development Secretary, Rory Stewart, tells Andrew Marr Liz Truss’ ‘ideological’ talk about growth may work but ’it’s not very conservative’.

Homophobic Abuse Allegedly Used at Tory Party LGBT Event in Birmingham

THE GUARDIAN: Several people had to be removed for allegedly using vitriolic language at party celebrating LGBT diversity

Conservative party members have been accused of using homophobic insults at a party celebrating LGBT diversity at the party conference in Birmingham.

Several people had to be removed for allegedly using vitriolic language at an event at Reflex nightclub, it is claimed.

Two sources told ITV News that one person had to be escorted from the venue for calling a gay man a “f**”, while another man was ejected for calling two women a “dirty l*****”. » | Nadeem Badshah | Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Truss v Sunak: A Sorry Spectacle of Playground Bragging from a Party without a Purpose

THE GUARDIAN: When it comes to the most pressing issues for our nation, all this divided Tory party can do is repress, displace and deny

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. ‘There is no ballast of gravitas to level out the swagger, so it comes across as the overcompensating neurosis of careerist nerds.’ Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
The two candidates in the race to succeed Boris Johnson represent two parties, although the distinction between them is not acknowledged. Rishi Sunak is the candidate of conservatism as it was until 2019, when Theresa May’s government was still trying to reconcile Brexit ideology with the demands of economic and diplomatic reality. Liz Truss appeals to the successor movement, the “Boris” party, which resolved the tension by denying its existence.

That conflict is buried in a contest that purports to be about other things. Tax policy is the measurable difference between the two candidates and so it dominated Monday night’s TV debate. The lines are by now well-rehearsed: Truss wants immediate cuts; Sunak wants to wait. He says fiscal loosening will stoke inflation; she says it will unleash growth. He frets that lost revenues will mean less money for the NHS; she would borrow the shortfall.

But those positions are proxies for different notions of what it now means to be a Conservative. Sunak embraced the label of “bean counter” when Truss used it as a pejorative. He is styling himself as a frugal Tory of the old school. Truss accused him of sounding like Gordon Brown, wedded to outmoded Treasury rules. She would “take on the orthodoxy” – an appeal to the Johnsonian maverick spirit. » | Rafael Behr | Monday, July 25, 2022

First Truss-Sunak Tory leadership debate: five key takeaways: The rivals did not pull their punches, on the economy or China, as they kicked off a month of debates »

Truss and Sunak trade blows in acrimonious first TV debate: Leadership candidates ignored calls from fellow Conservatives not to ‘tarnish the brand’ as they wrangled over tax cuts, inflation and relations with China »

Succession de Boris Johnson : Liz Truss conforte son statut de favorite : La ministre des affaires étrangères a évité les faux pas lors du premier débat, lundi sur la BBC, avec l’ancien chancelier de l’Echiquier, Rishi Sunak. Les échanges entre les deux candidats au 10 Downing Street se sont concentrés sur la question du pouvoir d’achat au Royaume-Uni. »

Truss und Sunak liefern sich harten Schlagabtausch: Die Bewerber um die Nachfolge von Boris Johnson an der britischen Regierungsspitze streiten sich über die Steuerpolitik und China. Der frühere Finanzminister Sunak bezeichnet die Pläne von Außenministerin Truss als „nicht verantwortungsvoll und sicherlich nicht konservativ“. »

Tax-cut Stunts Can’t Cover Up the Disaster That Is Brexit

THE GUARDIAN: Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak feel bound to talk lower spending to party members, but the former chancellor at least must see the folly of losing billions off our GDP

Liz Truss’s loathing for the EU is not lost on Brussels and Dublin. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
‘They are trying to hide the failure of Brexit behind policy stunts.” This observation about the fiasco of the Conservative party’s leadership contest came from an economist friend and neatly sums it up.

Liz Truss, who voted Remain but is now an ardent Brexiter, cannot admit to herself that she was right first time, and that the trade deals she goes on about that are supposed to have made up for our crass departure from the European Union do not amount to a hill of beans.

Sunak, who was always a Brexiter, must surely have learned from his time as chancellor that the Treasury’s hostility to Brexit was right all along. He is an intelligent man but, like Truss, is fantasising about Brexit “opportunities” that the Treasury and other Whitehall departments know are chimerical.

Whichever contender succeeds the worst prime minister in living memory will have to come to terms with two fundamental consequences of Brexit. One is that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s estimate of a 4% annual loss to gross domestic product not only makes the country poorer but severely limits their tax-cutting ambitions – hers now, his later. Foolishly losing tens of billions of potential tax revenues through Brexit is not a good start to either of their ambitions.

The second is the devaluation of the pound by up to 12%, which the financial markets attribute to, yes, Brexit. This has not only made the country poorer but has also severely aggravated the inflation problem the government and Bank of England now face – with price growth running significantly higher than in most other European and G7 nations. » | William Keegan | Sunday, July 24, 2022

In Full: Conservative Party Leadership Election - Online Debate

The five remaining candidates in the Conservative leadership race go head-to-head in an online debate hosted by Conservative Home, which sees the Tory leader hopefuls dial in on Zoom to answer questions
This is like the song of the cuckoo! Every year it sounds just the same! Haven't these people got any creative brain cells? They continue to peddle the same ol' solutions year after year. Thatcher's ghost stalks the Party. Maggie was good for the 1980s. But the 1980s was roughly forty years ago! We had different problems to solve back then; today we have very different ones to solve. All these candidates are as dull as ditchwater! – © Mark Alexander

Boris the Billionaire's Bitch

Jun 15, 2022 • Peter Oborne on how Boris Johnson's ruthless drive for power is dismantling democracy in the interest of the super-rich

Major Donation to U.K. Conservative Party Was Flagged Over Russia Concerns

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The cash was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s party to victory in 2019. Records track $630,225 to a Russian bank account.

Ehud Sheleg in London in 2018. Mr. Sheleg is suspected of channeling money to the Conservatives from a Russian bank account belonging to his father-in-law. | Tereza Červeňová
LONDON — One of the biggest donors to Britain’s Conservative Party is suspected of secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the party from a Russian account, according to a bank alert filed to Britain’s national law enforcement agency.

The donation, of $630,225, was made in February 2018 in the name of Ehud Sheleg, a wealthy London art dealer who was most recently the Conservative Party’s treasurer. The money was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party to a landslide victory in the 2019 general election.

But documents filed with the authorities last year and reviewed by The New York Times say that the money originated in a Russian account of Mr. Sheleg’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov, who was once a senior politician in the previous pro-Kremlin government of Ukraine. He now owns real estate and hotel businesses in Crimea and Russia. » | Jane Bradley | Thursday, May 12, 2022

Tory Donor’s 'Link' to Sanctioned Oligarch’s Secret London Property

Lubov Chernukhin, nee Golubeva | LONDON NEWS PICTURES
BBC: A major Conservative Party donor was listed as a director of a company secretly owned by a Russian oligarch close to President Putin.

The BBC has seen a document dated 2006 and signed "Lubov Golubeva", the maiden name of Lubov Chernukhin, a Tory donor.

Mrs Chernukhin says she "does not recall consenting in writing" to being a director of Suleiman Kerimov's firm.

Mr Kerimov, now sanctioned, previously denied any connection with Mrs Chernukhin.

Papers seen by the BBC appear to show that Mrs Chernukhin, then Lubov Golubeva, was appointed a director of offshore company Radlett Estates Limited, in 2005 - following its acquisition of a substantial property, 1 Radlett Place, in north London.

Another firm - Swiru Holding AG - was the sole shareholder of Radlett Estates. The directors of Radlett Estates were Swiss businessman Alexander Studhalter and Suleiman Kerimov's nephew, Nariman Gadzhiev.

Mr Studhalter was accused in a French court of being a so-called "straw man", or proxy, for Mr Kerimov - involved in hiding the oligarch's wealth. » | James Oliver, Steve Swann and Nassos Stylianou, BBC Panorama and BBC News | Thursday, April 21, 2022

These people have come a very long way in a very short time. It’s surprising how far one can come when a communist country collapses and the assets are stripped by the élite! When the Soviet Union collapsed, the masses were impoverished to enrich the super-priviliged few. – © Mark