Liz Truss

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Unpopular opinion
Is Theresa May still ruining the country?

Not sure it’s unpopular. I’d suggest it was a weird opinion that probably needs explaining as it doesn’t make much sense to me.

 

[kaz7]

What she is not saying she will do about the cost of living is because she fears people who are voting for her might not agree , that scares me what plans she has and it will be her unfortunately

 

[El_george]

Unpopular opinion
Is Theresa May still ruining the country?

Yes

Not sure it’s unpopular. I’d suggest it was a weird opinion that probably needs explaining as it doesn’t make much sense to me.

Here is an explanation from a newspaper 3 days ago, the title of which was "Theresa May is still ruining Britain"!

"It was during her disastrous Conservative Party Conference speech in 2017 that Theresa May announced that the government would publish a Bill to put a price cap on energy bills.

Having earlier declared to a tabloid that she was “fed up of rip off energy prices”, between coughs, splutters and a protester handing her a fake P45, the former prime minister managed to declare: “We will always take on monopolies and vested interests when they are holding people back.”

Clearly the cap on standard variable tariffs was designed not only with the best of intentions – but also with focus group polling in mind.

Because something like it had originally been mooted by “Red” Ed Miliband, in between bites of a bacon sandwich. Given that the idea seemed to suggest that customers would get money off their bills, the public naturally lapped it up.

Everyone was evidently so distracted by the wheels coming off Mrs May’s car crash address that they failed to notice the concerns being raised by bodies like the Competition and Markets Authority, which had earlier warned that a cap ran “excessive risks of undermining the competitive process, likely resulting in worse outcomes for customers in the long run”.

And while Mrs May could not have predicted that Russia would go on to invade Ukraine four years after her Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act 2018 received Royal Assent (notwithstanding Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea), the policy has proved to be one of many disasters on her watch.

It has signally failed to hold down energy bills at the same time as destroying competition in the market, while pushing multiple suppliers into bankruptcy.

We tend to remember Mrs May for her squandered majority and her inability to get Brexit done. But her legacy is fast proving even more calamitous than that.

It is beyond ironic that she refused to clap Boris Johnson during his final Prime Minister’s Questions, when you consider that, if it wasn’t for her former foreign secretary, the Conservatives would currently be in political Siberia, with Mrs May considered even more of a political pariah than she is now.

Arms folded, face like thunder, it seems the Maybot has been reprogrammed to forget just how bad her three-year tenure was. But we still remember.

Consider the parts of her Brexit disaster that Mr Johnson couldn’t fix. Thanks to the MP for Maidenhead’s catastrophic mishandling of our negotiations with the EU, we have ended up with a Northern Ireland Protocol that serves both sides badly and which now needs to be reformed.

It is all very well the Remainiacs, who thrived under Mrs May’s hapless administration, blaming Johnson for signing it. But the truth is that Brexit would have been all but lost had he not reached some sort of exit agreement with the EU after being handed a bag full of Brussels fudge by his bungling predecessor, and having been denied the option of no deal by a Parliament that Mrs May had allowed to run riot.

Even today, we still have to endure those who drank the Chequers Kool-Aid arguing that we should rejoin the single market – as oblivious as ever to the constitutional consequences of reversing a once-in-a-life-time democratic mandate.

But it gets worse. Witness the Modern Slavery Act – a piece of legislative virtue-signalling, introduced by Mrs May when she was home secretary, that is now being used by illegal migrants to avoid deportation, along with foreign murderers and rapists.

It was classic Mayism; nobody’s idea of a public priority, and cooked up with so many loopholes that it’s now backfired disastrously.

As former immigration minister Chris Philp explained to this newspaper earlier this month, the poorly drafted legislation – intended to protect vulnerable people from labour exploitation, domestic servitude or being trafficked for sex – is now being dangerously exploited.

He said that he had witnessed Channel migrants denying they were victims of slavery, only to change their story to avoid deportation after speaking to their lawyers.

Even more worryingly, he added: “I saw case after case where serious foreign criminals – including sadistic rapists and brutal murderers – used last-minute modern slavery claims to prevent deportation back to their home country.”

Calling for a tightening of the law, he said that the Act, introduced in 2015, allowed “absurdly low levels” of proof of slavery and “no supporting evidence”. He also pointed to the UK’s “incredibly naive” application of a Council of Europe treaty to combat modern slavery. While France and Germany had applied a tighter definition of slavery claims, Britain was more lax – meaning it had 10 times the annual 1,000 to 2,000 claims of the two EU countries.

Priti Patel, Mrs May’s successor as Home Secretary, is now having to clear up the mess by reviewing the Act “to make sure the system is about the recovery of victims rather than an open immigration route”.

Then there’s net zero, rushed through on the nod just a month before Mrs May left office – with no debate and little scrutiny. As with the Modern Slavery Act, it was designed to curry favour with the sorts of tree huggers who are never going to vote Tory in some attempt to divorce today's Conservatives from what Mrs May once described as the “nasty party”.

But in reality, all the 2050 target has succeeded in doing is leaving a very nasty after-taste for ordinary taxpayers. The types of people who separate their recycling and would buy an electric car – if only they could afford it. The rush to decarbonise the economy, with no plan for how to achieve that over such a short period of time, threatens to become one of the most expensive mistakes in recent British history.

We have also been forced to count the cost of Mrs May’s cuts to police numbers. Fine the coalition was committed to an austerity programme, but her decision, as home secretary, to slash budgets by 18 per cent in 2010, was a total disaster. Little over a decade on and despite attempts to reverse the cuts, lo and behold we’re now being plagued by a crime wave.

From innocent Olivia Pratt-Korbel, aged nine, shot dead in her Liverpool home to machete wielding thugs rampaging through residential areas, to people being robbed of their Rolexes in the heart of Mayfair, there’s a sense of rampant lawlessness on the streets of Britain.

Recorded crime in England and Wales is now at a 20-year high, according to figures released last month by the Office for National Statistics with some 6.3 million crimes reported to police in the year to March 2022. Yet just 5.6 per cent of offences reported to police led to a suspect being charged or summonsed – a new low.

Part of it is down to a failure of leadership – but as any copper will tell you, the rot started to set in with Mrs May’s cuts.

And to think we haven’t even got on to her pioneering the trend of giving the NHS billions for nothing in return (remember when she gave it £20 billion for its 70th 'birthday' in 2018?) or how she managed to toxify social care reform with her farcical “nothing has changed” u-turn. Now no politician will dare do anything brave to fix the system.

There has been much criticism of Mr Johnson but the next prime minister may well find themselves devoting more time to unravelling the mistakes made by Mrs May – not the Big Dog to whom she refused to throw a bone."

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Yes

Here is an explanation from a newspaper 3 days ago, the title of which was "Theresa May is still ruining Britain"!

"It was during her disastrous Conservative Party Conference speech in 2017 that Theresa May announced that the government would publish a Bill to put a price cap on energy bills.

Having earlier declared to a tabloid that she was “fed up of rip off energy prices”, between coughs, splutters and a protester handing her a fake P45, the former prime minister managed to declare: “We will always take on monopolies and vested interests when they are holding people back.”

Clearly the cap on standard variable tariffs was designed not only with the best of intentions – but also with focus group polling in mind.

Because something like it had originally been mooted by “Red” Ed Miliband, in between bites of a bacon sandwich. Given that the idea seemed to suggest that customers would get money off their bills, the public naturally lapped it up.

Everyone was evidently so distracted by the wheels coming off Mrs May’s car crash address that they failed to notice the concerns being raised by bodies like the Competition and Markets Authority, which had earlier warned that a cap ran “excessive risks of undermining the competitive process, likely resulting in worse outcomes for customers in the long run”.

And while Mrs May could not have predicted that Russia would go on to invade Ukraine four years after her Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act 2018 received Royal Assent (notwithstanding Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea), the policy has proved to be one of many disasters on her watch.

It has signally failed to hold down energy bills at the same time as destroying competition in the market, while pushing multiple suppliers into bankruptcy.

We tend to remember Mrs May for her squandered majority and her inability to get Brexit done. But her legacy is fast proving even more calamitous than that.

It is beyond ironic that she refused to clap Boris Johnson during his final Prime Minister’s Questions, when you consider that, if it wasn’t for her former foreign secretary, the Conservatives would currently be in political Siberia, with Mrs May considered even more of a political pariah than she is now.

Arms folded, face like thunder, it seems the Maybot has been reprogrammed to forget just how bad her three-year tenure was. But we still remember.

Consider the parts of her Brexit disaster that Mr Johnson couldn’t fix. Thanks to the MP for Maidenhead’s catastrophic mishandling of our negotiations with the EU, we have ended up with a Northern Ireland Protocol that serves both sides badly and which now needs to be reformed.

It is all very well the Remainiacs, who thrived under Mrs May’s hapless administration, blaming Johnson for signing it. But the truth is that Brexit would have been all but lost had he not reached some sort of exit agreement with the EU after being handed a bag full of Brussels fudge by his bungling predecessor, and having been denied the option of no deal by a Parliament that Mrs May had allowed to run riot.

Even today, we still have to endure those who drank the Chequers Kool-Aid arguing that we should rejoin the single market – as oblivious as ever to the constitutional consequences of reversing a once-in-a-life-time democratic mandate.

But it gets worse. Witness the Modern Slavery Act – a piece of legislative virtue-signalling, introduced by Mrs May when she was home secretary, that is now being used by illegal migrants to avoid deportation, along with foreign murderers and rapists.

It was classic Mayism; nobody’s idea of a public priority, and cooked up with so many loopholes that it’s now backfired disastrously.

As former immigration minister Chris Philp explained to this newspaper earlier this month, the poorly drafted legislation – intended to protect vulnerable people from labour exploitation, domestic servitude or being trafficked for sex – is now being dangerously exploited.

He said that he had witnessed Channel migrants denying they were victims of slavery, only to change their story to avoid deportation after speaking to their lawyers.

Even more worryingly, he added: “I saw case after case where serious foreign criminals – including sadistic rapists and brutal murderers – used last-minute modern slavery claims to prevent deportation back to their home country.”

Calling for a tightening of the law, he said that the Act, introduced in 2015, allowed “absurdly low levels” of proof of slavery and “no supporting evidence”. He also pointed to the UK’s “incredibly naive” application of a Council of Europe treaty to combat modern slavery. While France and Germany had applied a tighter definition of slavery claims, Britain was more lax – meaning it had 10 times the annual 1,000 to 2,000 claims of the two EU countries.

Priti Patel, Mrs May’s successor as Home Secretary, is now having to clear up the mess by reviewing the Act “to make sure the system is about the recovery of victims rather than an open immigration route”.

Then there’s net zero, rushed through on the nod just a month before Mrs May left office – with no debate and little scrutiny. As with the Modern Slavery Act, it was designed to curry favour with the sorts of tree huggers who are never going to vote Tory in some attempt to divorce today's Conservatives from what Mrs May once described as the “nasty party”.

But in reality, all the 2050 target has succeeded in doing is leaving a very nasty after-taste for ordinary taxpayers. The types of people who separate their recycling and would buy an electric car – if only they could afford it. The rush to decarbonise the economy, with no plan for how to achieve that over such a short period of time, threatens to become one of the most expensive mistakes in recent British history.

We have also been forced to count the cost of Mrs May’s cuts to police numbers. Fine the coalition was committed to an austerity programme, but her decision, as home secretary, to slash budgets by 18 per cent in 2010, was a total disaster. Little over a decade on and despite attempts to reverse the cuts, lo and behold we’re now being plagued by a crime wave.

From innocent Olivia Pratt-Korbel, aged nine, shot dead in her Liverpool home to machete wielding thugs rampaging through residential areas, to people being robbed of their Rolexes in the heart of Mayfair, there’s a sense of rampant lawlessness on the streets of Britain.

Recorded crime in England and Wales is now at a 20-year high, according to figures released last month by the Office for National Statistics with some 6.3 million crimes reported to police in the year to March 2022. Yet just 5.6 per cent of offences reported to police led to a suspect being charged or summonsed – a new low.

Part of it is down to a failure of leadership – but as any copper will tell you, the rot started to set in with Mrs May’s cuts.

And to think we haven’t even got on to her pioneering the trend of giving the NHS billions for nothing in return (remember when she gave it £20 billion for its 70th 'birthday' in 2018?) or how she managed to toxify social care reform with her farcical “nothing has changed” u-turn. Now no politician will dare do anything brave to fix the system.

There has been much criticism of Mr Johnson but the next prime minister may well find themselves devoting more time to unravelling the mistakes made by Mrs May – not the Big Dog to whom she refused to throw a bone."

I doubt you’ll find many people that would suggest May was a decent prime minister.

She’s also not been PM for3 years now. All of her policies could have been changed, should Johnson have wished to do so.

So no, she isn’t still ruining the country.

 

[El_george]

I doubt you’ll find many people that would suggest May was a decent prime minister.

She’s also not been PM for3 years now. All of her policies could have been changed, should Johnson have wished to do so.

So no, she isn’t still ruining the country.

Well that is true - probably too busy dealing with Coronavirus and just when that seemed to be under control (Feb 2022) Russia goes and invades Ukraine.

Whatever else people say about Boris Johnson, the fact is he had a bloody tough time of it as Prime Minister and mostly because of things way beyond his control.

I sometimes believe that after a period of good luck, sometimes you get the opposite. Or indeed after a period of bad luck, you are due some good fortune - well that is what I tell myself when I think everything is going wrong in my life! Perhaps Johnson had used up all his 'good luck' already, up to and including getting the job he'd always wanted and then it all went pear shaped! (...is it also called karma?).

 

[Cricket Blue]

I doubt you’ll find many people that would suggest May was a decent prime minister.

She’s also not been PM for3 years now. All of her policies could have been changed, should Johnson have wished to do so.

So no, she isn’t still ruining the country.

I agree she wasn't but I think a lot of it was to do with the fact she was a woman.
The house of commons is full of obnoxious individuals and some male mps seemed to talk to treat her appallingly.
Truss will face the same issues no doubt.

 

[El_george]

I doubt you’ll find many people that would suggest May was a decent prime minister.

She’s also not been PM for3 years now. All of her policies could have been changed, should Johnson have wished to do so.

So no, she isn’t still ruining the country.

Its a tricky one (the time issue) for example I still blame Tony Blair for much of what is wrong with the UK today. Similarly, there are many, many people who hold Mrs Thatcher responsible and that was thirty years ago, not 3!

I'd contend that in politics three years ago is like the day before yesterday in normal life.

I'd draw a comparison with petrol prices here, they go up like a rocket and down like a feather. Likewise, it is easy enough to bring in new legislation or announce a new policy, it is a totally different thing to rewind/reverse them. In that article it mentions 6:

* Energy price caps
* NI Protocol
* The Modern Slavery Act
* Net-zero by 2050
* Cutting police numbers
* Social care reform

I'd suggest that in the current world all of these are causing problems and so with respect although Theresa May isn't running the country, she is ruining it.

P.S. Boris Johnson wouldn't have gone anywhere near the net-zero target as he'd be sleeping in the spare room at Number 10 if he had of done. But somebody needs to address this at least while there is a war in Europe and somebody also needs to go back to the way we fund and organise care for the elderly. As that article mentions: because May managed to "toxify social care reform with her farcical “nothing has changed” u-turn, now no politician will dare do anything brave to fix the system."

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Well that is true - probably too busy dealing with Coronavirus and just when that seemed to be under control (Feb 2022) Russia goes and invades Ukraine.

Whatever else people say about Boris Johnson, the fact is he had a bloody tough time of it as Prime Minister and mostly because of things way beyond his control.

I sometimes believe that after a period of good luck, sometimes you get the opposite. Or indeed after a period of bad luck, you are due some good fortune - well that is what I tell myself when I think everything is going wrong in my life! Perhaps Johnson had used up all his 'good luck' already, up to and including getting the job he'd always wanted and then it all went pear shaped! (...is it also called karma?).

Johnson got what he deserved. He campaigned and got Brexit. It was right that he had to deal with the impossibilities of it.

Problem is, is that he’s a lazy bullshitter without principles. He’s reaping what he sewed.

He hasn’t changed any of May’s policies as he won’t know the affect of them even if he was aware of them.

Truss will be no different either.

Roll on 2025.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Its a tricky one (the time issue) for example I still blame Tony Blair for much of what is wrong with the UK today. Similarly, there are many, many people who hold Mrs Thatcher responsible and that was thirty years ago, not 3!

I'd contend that in politics three years ago is like the day before yesterday in normal life.

I'd draw a comparison with petrol prices here, they go up like a rocket and down like a feather. Likewise, it is easy enough to bring in new legislation or announce a new policy, it is a totally different thing to rewind/reverse them. In that article it mentions 6:

* Energy price caps
* NI Protocol
* The Modern Slavery Act
* Net-zero by 2050
* Cutting police numbers
* Social care reform

I'd suggest that in the current world all of these are causing problems and so with respect although Theresa May isn't running the country, she is ruining it.

P.S. Boris Johnson wouldn't have gone anywhere near the net-zero target as he'd be sleeping in the spare room at Number 10 if he had of done. But somebody needs to address this at least while there is a war in Europe and somebody also needs to go back to the way we fund and organise care for the elderly. As that article mentions: because May managed to "toxify social care reform with her farcical “nothing has changed” u-turn, now no politician will dare do anything brave to fix the system."

Sure, the effect of May’s policies is still being felt, but some could have been changed if we’d voted in a competent government.

The NI protocol, I would argue, is more of Johnson’s doing than May. It was placed in the long weeds and dubbed project fear. If it had been properly debated and the public made properly aware, I don’t think Brexit would have happened.

The energy price caps are a direct result of May and this is going to make millions suffer unless that system is changed by Truss next month.

The last two are part of the longer 12 year austerity project.

 

[Cricket Blue]

Its a tricky one (the time issue) for example I still blame Tony Blair for much of what is wrong with the UK today. Similarly, there are many, many people who hold Mrs Thatcher responsible and that was thirty years ago, not 3!

I'd contend that in politics three years ago is like the day before yesterday in normal life.

I'd draw a comparison with petrol prices here, they go up like a rocket and down like a feather. Likewise, it is easy enough to bring in new legislation or announce a new policy, it is a totally different thing to rewind/reverse them. In that article it mentions 6:

* Energy price caps
* NI Protocol
* The Modern Slavery Act
* Net-zero by 2050
* Cutting police numbers
* Social care reform

I'd suggest that in the current world all of these are causing problems and so with respect although Theresa May isn't running the country, she is ruining it.

P.S. Boris Johnson wouldn't have gone anywhere near the net-zero target as he'd be sleeping in the spare room at Number 10 if he had of done. But somebody needs to address this at least while there is a war in Europe and somebody also needs to go back to the way we fund and organise care for the elderly. As that article mentions: because May managed to "toxify social care reform with her farcical “nothing has changed” u-turn, now no politician will dare do anything brave to fix the system."

The country is crying out for a new party to be honest.
Is Labour the answer to the countries woes?