General Election 2024

I think he's still not really caught on to how willing the Tories are to just make shit up.

Although he's not the only one, the whole political system is really struggling with happily allowing bullshit to be propagated.

Treasury has gone to the unusual length releasing a statement that the tax figures Sunak was quoting most of last night weren’t produced by civil servants, as he claimed. Oh dear.

This is so good.

There's a suggestion labour were forewarned about the 2000 thing and let the Tories run with it, knowing it would implode and be a strategic failure once scrutinized.

Why are people even engaging with all of this? Are they hoping Sunak says something that will make them forget the last 14 years and vote Tory again?

In theory I think the purpose is to understand more about the candidates and interrogate their arguments and personalities.

Rishi walking into a trap he pretty much made and set himself is impressive.

The last search party sent out to find Starmer's personality were all found dead. I still want him to win by an unprecedented landslide.

Bullshit post-rationalisation I think. Given how awful the debate was I expect many, many people will have only watched the first 10 mins or so, by which time Sunak had hammered home the £2k tax thing and Starmer hadn't challenged it all. That will be the takeaway and any subsequent implosion won't matter. See £350m bus for details.

Which one? He seems to have set multiple traps that he's then triggered himself.

Astounding. #rep

That would make sense if the candidates were strangers that were randomly chosen from the population but they have been in the public eye for years and the Tories had 14 years to show
what they want to do.

Carol Vorderman
@carolvorders
·
43m
BREAKING

Tory claim of "£2,000 Labour tax" has just been blown apart by the
Chief Treasury civil servant

He said the tax attack "should NOT be presented as having been
produced by the civil service"

Sunak claimed it had & that it was independent

Sunak lied

I'd take dull and slightly competent TBH

Carol is the official opposition

1 Attachment

Bullshit post-rationalisation I think. Given how awful the debate was I expect many, many people will have only watched the first 10 mins or so, by which time Sunak had hammered home the £2k tax thing and Starmer hadn't challenged it all. That will be the takeaway and any subsequent implosion won't matter. See £350m bus for details.

This.

It was a massive mistake not to counter this straight away and when he belatedly did his explanation was too technical for the format. Starmer might be good at forensic questioning in settings like PMQs but he dropped a massive ball here.

Remember Starmer saying "desperate", "garbage" and "nonsense" last night. I think he did pretty well establishing that Sunak was full of it. There are probably 20 more of these debates anyway. Boris had personality.

Agree, Starmer needed to call out the lie immediately and describe it as exactly that, a lie.

As it is, it’s all over the front pages and no way to get that toothpaste back in the tube.

Sunak saying he didn't want to talk about the past should stick too. What an insult to all of us.

When you are explaining you are losing, the first rule of debates.

I think what Labour have done this morning is perfect, they’ve attacked Sunak’s integrity and the letter from the Treasury official is the icing on the cake.

Agreed - the attempt at explaining was far too wonky. It seemed to me like an ideal opportunity to call Sunak a liar plainly and watch him squirm - but then I'm not a politician

I don't think these debates will necessarily sway any undecided voters. If you support Labour, you'll come away with confirmation. Same with Tory.

All Starmer has to be is not the Tories IMO. He's the right sort of Blair/Brown mix of slightly boring. I can't see how the Tories can make back enough ground personally

Sunak leading the D Day veterans thing this morning. Haven't they been through enough?

The format was terrible. 45 seconds, an audience more asleep than Question Time, constant goading from the chair like she was stood outside a Spoons at 2am. "Go on tell him then... to his face".

Chris Bryant
@RhonddaBryant
·
2h
Looking the public straight in the eye, Sunak deliberately chose to lie about Labour plans. Not once but repeatedly. Not as a slip of the tongue but on purpose. And he had been expressly told not to do so by the head of the Treasury. He’s desperate. He’s no better than Johnson.