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Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#171

Post by kranke155 »

evgen wrote: post #114
ranko wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling an election is now back in the hands of the government (not parliament) since the repeal of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act; a PM can ask the monarch to call an election without having to get the agreement of parliament. Neither the current nor next PM (whoever they end up being) is likely to do this if the polling numbers are anything to go by, of course. I think the only other way an election can be called i…

Technically speaking, King Charles III does not actually need to PM to ask in order to dismiss parliament and force a new election. Given that Charles I and Charles II both dismissed parliament maybe Charles III will grow a pair and do the same. It is somewhat ironic that while dismissing parliament caused the downfall of the monarchy for Charles I is it likely to buy a significant amount of time for the monarchy if…

I doubt that’s going to happen in the modern era?

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#172

Post by mcv »

1980phipsi wrote: post #124
mcv wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both countries suffer from winner-takes-all district systems, and would probably be much improved by a system of proportional representation.

Because Italy and Israel benefit so much from their proportional representation systems...

It's obviously not a silver bullet that will magically fix everything, but a lot of countries are doing very well with proportional representation.

Also, I think Italy actually has a hybrid system.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#174

Post by xorcist »

akudha wrote: post #45
nemo44x wrote: post #7

Imagine rising to the ranks of prime minister of one of the most influential countries ever and for your legacy to be a head of lettuce out-survived your reign. That the Queen literally died the day after meeting you. Unbelievable.

Britain, Brazil, Australia, Philippines, India, Turkey, U.S … it is mind numbing that of all the good, talented people these countries have, only the dumbest, worst of the worst end up in positions of power. Depressing. At this point, we can just randomly pick a citizen to be President or PM. We might have better chances that way

There is somewhat established, half serious, idea in political science to pick a random citizen instead of a general election, I can't remember the name though.

Over time the two systems would converge, and it's much harder to exert undue influence over the candidates when it really could be anybody.

It's one of those ideas that's worth taking seriously even if it's never implemented anywhere.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#175

Post by tialaramex »

bowsamic wrote: post #27
edmcnulty101 wrote: post #11

Can anyone explain why??

Because she caused fast, massive damage to the UK economy with her economic plan on which she was already advised was untenable even during her leadership race with Rishi. Yesterday there was a vote on banning fracking with a three-line whip on Tory MPs to vote no, but which many Tory MPs are very much for, which was very controversial, with bullying and forced voting using physical means (physically pushing the MPs…

The Fracking thing was just simple tactical incompetence and thus definitive proof Liz wasn't up to the job.

I think this might cause some second thoughts, at first for Tories, about whether it's actually a good idea to ask their membership who should be Prime Minister.

Many of these MPs knew Liz wasn't fit for this post from the outset, but their own party's rules said they should allow ordinary members (a few thousand people who are disproportionately old, white and male IIRC) to decide from the best two put forward by MPs. The members, in effect, picked the woman who said the things they wanted to hear, even if those things were nonsense. If those members were your general electorate, then arguably the country gets what it deserved - but they're not, they're just the party members. If you thought US party primaries were a bad idea, well, yeah, that.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#176

Post by sanitycheck »

elforce002 wrote: post #155

I find this interesting. I've never seen politicians relinquishing power just like they do it in the UK.

She didn't jump, she was pushed. The resignation happened immediately after a meeting with the chairman of the party's "1922 Committee" - that's the body that (to greatly simplify) gets to make the rules about how they get rid of their leaders.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#177

Post by martopix »

vbezhenar wrote: post #164
evgen wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically speaking, King Charles III does not actually need to PM to ask in order to dismiss parliament and force a new election. Given that Charles I and Charles II both dismissed parliament maybe Charles III will grow a pair and do the same. It is somewhat ironic that while dismissing parliament caused the downfall of the monarchy for Charles I is it likely to buy a significant amount of time for the monarchy if…

Is it only me who thinks it's crazy that in modern world some guy with birth right have the authority over entire western country? So much for democracy.

He does not. Kings have not done this kind of thing out of their own initiative for at least a century or so.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#178

Post by jjar »

kamaal wrote: post #93
samwillis wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

George Canning died in office, he wasn’t pushed out for being a miserable failure who crashed the economy.

>>a miserable failure who crashed the economy. Can somebody from the UK tell us what did she do that the economy crashed, in just under two months?

Announced a lot of unfunded tax cuts financed by borrowing - these have now been walked back on. The main issue was not really that she cut taxes, it's the unfunded borrowing to cover. Borrowing with the current high interest rates was always going to be risky and the market didn't have confidence that the cuts would lead to growth. This caused the value of the pound and of UK gov bonds (gilts) to plummet. Several large pension funds (which usually hold large numbers of gilts) were in danger of being margin called, which would cause them to have to sell gilts to cover the responsibility, which would drive down the price further, causing more sell offs. To prevent this the Bank of England (BoE) announced that they would be buying up to £65B of UK gilts - which calmed the markets and prevented a sell off (for now). But it has significantly worsened the economic outly for the country, buying your own bonds at a premium during a period of high inflation is a horrible position to be in.

The gov also declined to get the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) to check the impact of the plans. This is something the OBR does before every budget and it's very unusual that they didn't do this - even though it turns out they offered to before the budget was released. It didn't help that a lot of the taxes cut were targeted for high earners - It's hard to argue how cutting the top 45pc tax rate for earners over £150,000 and dropping a cap on bankers bonuses would help people in the short term (or dare. I say, the long), when the majority of people in the UK were struggling with the massively increased cost of living. It almost seemed as if the conservatives were trying to force through a list of long desired for tax cuts for the wealthy without the proper mandate (as Truss was only. elected by Conservative party members, rather than the general electorate) - and this made her gov monstrously unpopular.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#179

Post by Nextgrid »

capableweb wrote: post #75
akudha wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Britain, Brazil, Australia, Philippines, India, Turkey, U.S … it is mind numbing that of all the good, talented people these countries have, only the dumbest, worst of the worst end up in positions of power. Depressing. At this point, we can just randomly pick a citizen to be President or PM. We might have better chances that way

> At this point, we can just randomly pick a citizen to be President or PM. We might have better chances that way I have a wild idea. What if we try to select people based on their respective expertise in an area, rather than based on just popularity? If they have a science/knowledge background, even better. Since it's based on skill and governance, we can call it something like "tekhne kratos", taking inspiration fr…

A true technocracy would mean a lot of oxygen wasters will lose their jobs, money, livelihood and influence.

It will probably work out better for the citizenry, but I don't see how we'd ever end up there short of a violent revolution - the current system is self-serving first and foremost and will never allow itself to be replaced even if that is the true will of the citizens.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#180

Post by chx »

hairofadog wrote: post #90

I know this topic is important in substance and the thing I'm about to say is an aesthetic issue, but as an American watching this unfold I have admired the Brits for the sense of heart that still seems to be present in their politics. I'm referring to the parliamentary sessions in which, even though they're savagely roasting each other, they're doing in a way that feels somehow good-hearted and doesn't lay bare the…

> hatred that seems to be all we have left in the USA.

UK and USA, they make a very interesting pair https://eand.co/how-america-collapsed-and-became-a-fourth-wo...

> Both nations, too, now, are nasty places. They feel so markedly different than the great social democracies of Western Europe and Canada. The atmosphere and mood are ones of constant, omnipresent hostility — to everyone, from everyone

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