The fall of the Tory party

Shocked to hear Boris Johnson's ethics advisor has been rebuked for unethical behaviour

https://archive.is/bKst2

And an honours list snuck out giving a knighthood to Mohamed Mansour who recently gave the Tory party £5m and a similar sum to HMRC for tax misunderstandings.

Sunak is clearly a bright and very capable person. He wouldn't have had the working career he had if he wasn't.

propping the tories up with beliefs like that

Good to see some Blue-on-Blue infighting;
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/28/andrew-bridgen-must-pay-matt-hancock-legal-fees-of-40000-in-libel-claim

Glass houses etc etc

When you say "beliefs", what do you mean?

I'm not discounting his advantages, but I'd guess Winchester probably had an entrance exam and minimum Common Entrance grades. It's not like he had a history of family attendance.

Likewise getting in to Oxford isn't easy. Yes the majority have been to private schools but that doesn't mean you get to go just because you went to private school.

Again you don't get either a Fulbright scholarship or into Stanford easily.

Sure once you've built up a CV like that it's a lot easier to get a job at GS. But getting to that point requires consistent academic excellence from a young age and a lot of hard work and focus.

And contacts and money.

Passing entrance exams for private schools isn’t particularly difficult.
Getting into Oxford from a state school is difficult compared to coming from private education. There’s an interview designed to keep the oiks out.

Yeah I'm not denying that.

I'm contesting what I read as a dismissel of his intelligence and career success. As though your immigrant parents being able to afford school fees in the 90s buys you a spot at the top.

Someone from his generation who isn't from a dynasty of privilege doesn't tick all those boxes with ease.

When you say not particularly difficult, no. Generally they are not mensa tests. But they, plus CE grades >60% (which is what my guess would be) mean that you have to be in a higher achieving academic bracket for starters. Neither are easy.

I'm not arguing about the relative ease between State and private to get to Oxford. Sure you have an interview for Oxford. But you also don't get an interview without having straight As from GCSE onwards - so what's that? At a minimum the 20% in the country?

Someone from his generation who isn't from a dynasty of privilege doesn't tick all those boxes with ease.

yeah, I agree with this. he's not trad establishment. that doesn't excuse or prevent him from being toxic, though.

Agreed, he’s not stupid
I think he’s great at his job. His job isn’t being prime minister, it’s working in his father in law’s business with a prime minister hat on

Definitely. Fwiw my OP was actually about his lack of political acumen and experience - street-smart vs book-smart, I guess.

I just find it annoying when people talk as if he's some sort of underachieving legacy Etonian given a job in the City in the 70s because of his last name.

1000 years of Tory parliamentary experience to be lost,
or,
just 4 years experience 250 times over?

It's all BS. the ineptitude and fuckwittery possessed by a huge chunk of the current PCP doesn't amount to any worthwhile loss

Khan's London, unrecognisable:

https://twitter.com/christhebarker/status/1772721841469018571

Sunak is clever, no doubt, it's got him where he is.

But he's not good at Politics which is an art craft and skill in it's own right, having the Common Touch also helps which he ain't got.

Wilson, Thatcher, Blair don't have reputations for being super clever but they could,in their own ways do Politics very well, each won three elections and dominated their political generation.

Sunak might be remembered as the first Asian PM; which is an achievement but nothing else* because there isn't anything else.

*ok maybe hopefully leading the tories to a generational disaster of a defeat.

This is probably the first time in his life that Sunak has encountered failure.
His top down technocratic beliefs and practice are just adding to the problems that 40 years of neo- liberalism has given us.
What's left? Grifting on behalf of the family?

So smart, but can't see the massive arse-up he's making of...(points at everything). Roll on the election please.

Carol Vorderman. The official opposition 👌

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Someone needs to get Rishi some savlon...

Is Liz Truss a latter day Brian Clough?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/she-still-carries-an-aura-of-spectacular-failure-why-hasnt-liz-truss-gone-away

She isn't the worst PM we've ever had, but she's certainly in the top one.

Rep