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Big day for Boris the bullet-dodger
Today sees;
Prime Ministers Questions
Publication of the Sue Gray report
Will he survive?
Should he survive?
Prime Ministers Questions
Publication of the Sue Gray report
Will he survive?
Should he survive?
Comments
Should he? In its way, that is a difficult question. It is easy to say he should go. But this will be the 3rd election in a row where the public have voted in a PM, only for him to fall due to a coup by the unelected (for this purpose) 1922 Committee. And a period of no real leader while the Tories divvy up the spoils. This is the UK Government. Not Watford FC.
Well I take your point.
My worry is what are the alternatives. Rumours suggest if he went he'd be replaced by Liz Truss, which truly horrifies me. I mean, unlike Boris I imagine she is reasonably honest, but she does appear to me to be lacking somewhat in gravitas, intelligence & judgement.
Fibber or fool - not much of a choice is it?
I wonder what Lady Thatcher might think of all this?
She was loved & hated in almost equal measure, but she did have integrity, & was totally honest, such as politicians ever can be.
Where she had 2 political heavyweights after her job-Heseltine and Hurd. And her "friend" Major got the job. Not because he was good. But because he was not Heseltine or Hurd.
She would recognise the words of colleagues. And how their actions differ from their words.
She would view Sunak as Wet. Truss as hopeless. The other contenders as a mixture of yesterday's men, and people who are more likely to the leader after next than the next leader.
But mostly she would remember the disloyalty within her own Party.
I had a quick look back this morning to remind myself about the reason I did this.
I didnt have to look too hard.
Amazingly the average house price was £13,650, inflation was running at an eye watering 17%, and the worlds first £1million footballer was bought.
Sony launched the Walkman in the US, McDonalds introduced Happy Meals. Mother Theresa won the Nobel peace prize, China ordered its citizens to have no more than one child, and smallpox was eliminated.
The General Election followed the Winter of Discontent, and widespread strikes.
I remember Red Robbo, and the Longbridge strikes.
A quick glance at the headlines this morning informs me that he was responsible for 523 strikes in his lifetime.
He definitely wasnt a working class hero to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election
Moving on to Boris, I believe it would be another massive mistake not to publish the Sue Gray report in full, and hold back parts of it for security reasons, as Liz Truss suggested this morning.
I dont think he can survive, but am not sure how long he will hang on for.
He is extremely unlikely to resign, and will probably have to be dragged out of number 10, kicking and screaming.
His replacement options are very disappointing.
Inflation did run at 17%. Under the Tories in 1980. Inflation under Callaghan was lower than under Wilson before him, or Thatcher after him. It was 13% in 1979. The world's first £1million-plus footballer was Giuseppe Savoldi. In 1975. He apologises for not being British.
The Winter of Discontent was a major factor. The fact that it was caused by Labour trying to reduce the power of the Unions, and people like Red Robbo, has of course been forgotten.
If only you had looked harder. We might still have a manufacturing industry. And Council Houses.
For those interested, what may be a rather lively Prime Ministers Questions is scheduled to start at Noon.
It can be seen live on BBC Parliament & Sky News.
So however hard I looked it would have not changed anything.
I have lived my life in Alan Williams Swansea West constituency.
You can blame the Guardian for my inaccuracies, if they were.
Red Robbo will only be remembered for the damage he caused.
I thought selling council houses was a good idea, if only they had used the receipts to fund the building of new ones.
Hard times – and no Times: What life was like in 1979
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/dec/30/papers-released-30-year-rule
1979: Thatcher wins Tory landslide
Labour's failure to manage the economy or control the unions was heavily punished by the voters as Margaret Thatcher - Britain's first woman prime minister - led the Conservatives back to power in what proved to be a landmark election.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/basics/4393311.stm
The Conservative campaign employed the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and pledged to control inflation as well as curbing the power of the trade unions. The Conservatives also ran their campaign on the theme that "Labour Isn't Working" (unemployment reached a 40-year high of 1.5 million during 1978).
The election saw a 5.2% swing from Labour to the Conservatives, the largest swing since the 1945 election,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election
If the chart below is correct, your inflation facts are incorrect, and the Thatcher Government got it under control fairly quickly.
https://www.icalculator.info/inflation/historical-inflation-rates.html
MOST FOOTBALL TRIVIA BUFFS AND HISTORIANS you ask will tell you that the transfer of Trevor Francis to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in 1979 was the first million pound deal in football.
https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrId5D4M_FhYx0A5wNLBQx.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcxNzAwMwRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LXMEZnIyA3NiLXRvcARncHJpZAN3WGFPSURSU1FRR3VRMEE5VmFHenpBBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwM0BG9yaWdpbgN1ay5zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDMARxc3RybAM0NARxdWVyeQN0aGUlMjB3b3JsZHMlMjBmaXJzdCUyMCVDMiVBMzFtaWxsaW9uJTIwZm9vdGJhbGwlMjB0cmFuc2ZlcgR0X3N0bXADMTY0MzE5Nzg2NQ--?p=the+worlds+first+£1million+football+transfer&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-s&fp=1
1970
There were more strikes in 1969 than ever before in our history. Already in the first three months of 1970 there were 1,134 strikes compared with 718 in the same period last year, when the Labour Government said the position was so serious that legislation was essential in the national interest. This rapid and serious deterioration directly stems from Labour's failure to carry through its own policy for the reform of industrial relations.
http://www.conservativemanifesto.com/1970/1970-conservative-manifesto.shtml
1970 to 1974
Union superstars
Labour lost the general election of 1970 and the Conservatives quickly introduced the Industrial Relations Act to curb the powers of the unions.
By 1974 however, Labour were back in power and the trade union movement had become a hugely visible part of British public life. Union leaders became household names, even appearing on primetime TV chat shows to ruminate with stars of stage and screen on the state of the world.
1979
During the industrial strife of last winter, confidence, self-respect, common sense, and even our sense of common humanity were shaken. At times this society seemed on the brink of disintegration.
Third, by heaping privilege without responsibility on the trade unions, Labour have given a minority of extremists the power to abuse individual liberties and to thwart Britain's chances of success. One result is that the trade union movement, which sprang from a deep and genuine fellow-feeling for the brotherhood of man, is today more distrusted and feared than ever before.
The Control of Inflation
Under Labour prices have risen faster than at any peacetime period in the three centuries in which records have been kept, and inflation is now accelerating again. The pound today is worth less than half its 1974 value. On present form it would be halved in value yet again within eight years. Inflation on this scale has come near to destroying our political and social stability.
Trade Union Reform
Free trade unions can only flourish in a free society. A strong and responsible trade union movement could play a big part in our economic recovery. We cannot go on, year after year, tearing ourselves apart in increasingly bitter and calamitous industrial disputes. In bringing about economic recovery, we should all be on the same side. Government and public, management and unions, employers and employees, all have a common interest in raising productivity and profits, thus increasing investment and employment, and improving real living standards for everyone in a high-productivity, high-wage, low-tax economy. Yet at the moment we have the reverse an economy in which the Government has to hold wages down to try to make us competitive with other countries where higher real wages are paid for by higher output.
The crippling industrial disruption which hit Britain last winter had several causes: years with no growth in production; rigid pay control; high marginal rates of taxation; and the extension of trade union power and privileges. Between 1974 and 1976, Labour enacted a 'militants' charter' of trade union legislation. It tilted the balance of power in bargaining throughout industry away from responsible management and towards unions, and sometimes towards unofficial groups of workers acting in defiance of their official union leadership.
We propose three changes which must be made at once. Although the Government refused our offer of support to carry them through the House of Commons last January, our proposals command general assent inside and outside the trade union movement.
. THE CLOSED SHOP
Labour's strengthening of the closed shop has made picketing a more objectionable weapon. In some disputes, pickets have threatened other workers with the withdrawal of their union cards if they refuse to co-operate. No union card can mean no job. So the law must be changed. People arbitrarily excluded or expelled from any union must be given the right of appeal to a court of law. Existing employees and those with personal conviction must be adequately protected, and if they lose their jobs as a result of a closed shop they must be entitled to ample compensation.
In addition, all agreements for a closed shop must be drawn up in line with the best practice followed at present and only if an overwhelming majority of the workers involved vote for it by secret ballot. We shall therefore propose a statutory code under Section 6 of the 1975 Employment Protection Act. We will not permit a closed shop in the non-industrial civil service and will resist further moves towards it in the newspaper industry. We are also committed to an enquiry into the activities of the SLADE union, which have done so much to bring trade unionism into disrepute.
http://www.conservativemanifesto.com/1979/1979-conservative-manifesto.shtml
You rely on the 1979 Tory Manifesto as to what happened in the 1980's. And I'll rely on the 1980's.
First-the Trevor Francis thing. The first £1 million plus transfer was Giuseppe Savoldi in 1975. Bologna-Napoli. £1.2 million.
The record in 1979? Paolo Rossi. Vicenza-Juventus. 1976. £1.75 million.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_association_football_transfers#Historical_progression
The 1979 Tory Manifesto was, even by today's standards, riddled with half-truths and downright lies.
1. Inflation was higher under Wilson and Thatcher either side of Callaghan. Inflation remained a massive problem throughout the 1970's and 1980's. It was 1992/3 that saw the problem reduce
2. "Labour isn't working" posters. Showing 1.5 million out of work. It was 3 million by 1982.
3. Between 1979-87 the following national assets were sold:-
(1) Gas
(2) Water
(3) Electric
(4) British Rail
(5) BT
(6) British Airways
(7) BP
(8)British Steel
(9) British Aerospace
(10) Rolls Royce
It is believed that that amounted, at that time, to £60BILLION of our assets. Where did the money go? Assets that belonged to all of us. Sold at a discount to the rich, with massive payments to the Banks. But nothing left. Think of the shareholders getting rich instead at all those lovely monopolies and oligopolies. And look at which industries are currently holding us to ransom. That would be (1), (2), (3) and (5).
Finally-Council Houses. As you rightly say, it would have been fine if the money had gone to building new ones. But it did not.
I live in the Tendring area. An area of 150,000 people. One of the most deprived areas of the country.
Number of 4-bed Council Houses in the entire Tendring Peninsula? 12.
Boris said he wasn't involved in the evacuation of the dogs from Kabul.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/rishi-sunak-puts-final-touches-125918690.html
The Conservative chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said 'it would be a huge privilege' to run the UK and revealed he would mount a campaign in the event of a leadership race.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10454755/Army-veteran-Tom-Tugendhat-Tory-MP-say-wants-succeed-Boris-Johnson-PM.html
Being 1st to covet the top job is not normally seen as wise.
But still think 18/1 represents good value.