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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

#321

Post by gpderetta »

cloutchaser wrote: post #62
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.

This lady was for turning. Unfortunately, if you want to shake things up and introduce even moderately radical policies, you better have the stamina and political will and skill to push them through and keep at it. Britain's first female prime minister had that. The third one didn't...

> you better have the stamina and political will and skill to push them through and keep at it.

not bankrupting your country also helps.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#322

Post by wbl »

samwillis wrote: post #290
petesergeant wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a general election would be the obviously correct solution As much as I'd love a GE and to see Tory MPs swept from power en-masse, that's just not how a Parliamentary system works. Everyone in the UK voted for (whether they think it or not) an MP to elect them for five years. Those MPs get to choose who leads them.

Technically yes, but if they can’t form a government the King can and will call an election. I think there is a very high chance they will be unable to agree on a new leader and will therefor be unable to form a government. Even if they do elect a new leader, if that leader can barely control the party that would not a functioning government, and they should call an election. At some point Tory MPs need to grow some,…

The UK is not the continent where the monarch decides who will be sent to shepard the negotiations over the government.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#323

Post by scott_w »

smcl wrote: post #308
scott_w wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not even remotely true. The Leader of the Opposition (Keir Starmer) went to Reigate, then to Leeds University. Gordon Brown went to Edinburgh University, Jeremy Corbyn went to North London Poly. Only Ed Milliband and Tony Blair went to Oxford, which is where (of the Conservative Party): David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Liz Truss went. Saying "living under both sides is the same thing" is also obse…

So all the names of PMs you mentioned bar one went to Oxford...

Considering the LAST FOUR PMs came from the Conservative party, that's not the epic own you think it is.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#324

Post by chrisseaton »

bearmode wrote: post #315
chrisseaton wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're doing in a way that feels somehow good-hearted and doesn't lay bare the naked resentment and hatred that seems to be all we have left in the USA It's nice that it looks this way, but the different parties and their supporters in the UK absolutely hate each other. Front-bench party members now routinely and openly using words like 'scum' and 'detest' to talk about their colleagues on the other side. I don't…

Let's be clear here: there was a left-winger killed for trying to make the country a better place, and a right-winger killed by an ISIS sympathiser (literally no reason to think this MP was targeted for his party)

> Let's be clear here

No, let's not try to dog-whistle one as acceptable and the other as not. That's exactly the thing I'm talking about.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#326

Post by ceejayoz »

photochemsyn wrote: post #257

I think the relevant question is, why did a Thatcherite monetary policy collapse overnight in 2022 when it didn't in the early 1980s? One reason is that the British nationalized services that Thatcher sold off to private investors in the 1980s (railroads, electricity, etc.) no longer exist, other than the national health service, which the British public would riot over if it was privatized. With nothing left to cann…

> I think the relevant question is, why did a Thatcherite monetary policy collapse overnight in 2022 when it didn't in the early 1980s?

40 years of seeing how they work out?

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#327

Post by bearmode »

rayiner wrote: post #151
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…

What’s incredible to me is how honestly they talk about the facts on the ground. Truss admitted that the tax cuts were a bad idea in an inflationary environment and taxes would go up. American politicians would have lied and said “taxes will go up to curb inflation but they’ll go down also and you won’t pay more in taxes.”

They lie out of their arses. She also tried claiming that revoking a law limiting the bonuses that bankers could get (which was instated after the '08 crash...) would help poor people.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#328

Post by foldr »

flintchip wrote: post #200
drexlspivey wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t elect a Prime Minister in the UK, you elect a parliament

If only the electorate knew that

I think they do? The UK's electoral system is far from ideal, but it's at least very straightforward. No-one outside of Boris Johnson's constituency saw the name 'Boris Johnson' on their ballot paper, so you'd hope it would be clear to averagely intelligent people that they weren't voting directly for him.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#329

Post by ngc248 »

screye wrote: post #136
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

> Britain, Brazil, Australia, Philippines, India, Turkey, U.S I know it is fairly popular on HN to say that any party that is coded ring-wing is terrible. But, I genuinely think that there isn't a single person with enough nuanced knowledge of even 3 of those countries at the same time to make any kind of sweeping political statement about them. What makes you think that countries or opposition parties with less spot…

>> The hubris of us highly-educated workers to think that degrees or 'elite coded appearance' are what define intelligence. The likes of Boris and Modi are political geniuses with carefully cultivated identities and a keen understanding of the landscape.

Exactly, when I was a young lad, I used to think, if only well educated people got into politics. But now I understand, it is those who are connected on the ground to people's issues or at least have an understanding of them are the ones who get elected. Being educated or not is immaterial. In fact the more educated you are, the more you may not understand people's issue.

Re: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

#330

Post by Loughla »

martopix wrote: post #190
bsenftner wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I think the USA is completely ruined, I remember how much worse the citizens of the UK have it. I remote worked for a London based CTO for years, with a science Phd, and to hear him discuss UK politics gave me an insight how effective propaganda and being immersed in a culture impacts one's judgement.

Uhm, what? I think UK politics is pretty sane actually. It has a lot of problems, but definitely not this almost civil-war-like type of language that you have in the USA. And although the UK is getting worse and worse, there are European countries that still have a worse political environment.

I'm not sure that just the force of rhetoric used is a good measure for how sane politics is.

You can be polite, and still be insane or evil (see: Brexit and all of the politicking and --from what I can tell-- outright lies that were sold to people). That whole process was mostly civil and polite, but not necessarily healthy.

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