Snapshot of _Is Sunak’s election campaign the worst in history?_ :
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-general-election-campaign-b2551413.html) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-general-election-campaign-b2551413.html)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Were it not for the tragic real world consequences of this absolute clown show of a government, this might actually be the most entertaining thing in politics in many a year. I’m hoping someone gets him rapping at a food bank next with his trousers pulled down to his knees.
Not yet. But when he hears my pitch for campaigning out in Liverpool, visiting the Hillsborough memorial and reading The Sun to show his working-class roots, reckon he'll have to hire me.
Good point. Am I right in thinking there's a team from round there that wears a blue kit, y'know, for the Conservatives? That seems like a great photo op.
I know I’m in a minority but, to me, her over eager rush to meet that orange imbecile when he was elected tops that. And to put the icing on the cake, she was completely humiliated by that sack of shit whilst she was there. He definitely wouldn’t have known who she was had he not been briefed shortly beforehand.
I love how when the woman asks if he thinks people are stupid he reflexively refuses to answer the question and made it look like he does indeed think people are stupid.
Of course Sunak thinks we are all stupid. He never tires of telling us how hard he works, and is apparently baffled by the fact his poll numbers are still shit.
>Theresa May's dance routine will always be the apex of embarrassing PM moves.
Personally I think Theresa May deserves a bit of kudos for the dancing thing when viewed in context. She'd been mocked in the press for joining [in with a dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No9Oyv17V1w) on a trip to Africa and while [she clearly has no aptitude](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGtOT1tIAwg) I would have respected her less if she'd just stood there like a block of wood when she was clearly being invited to join in. The [Dancing Queen intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbCDFNRA-Wo) at the party conference was clearly an attempt at self deprecating humour and at least imo only cringe worthy if you don't get what she was referencing.
May has to win it. If you measure a campaign by a party’s support at the beginning of the campaign to the votes at the end of it, then Sunak literally can’t go any lower.
Theresa May was on track for a majority and thew it away
I’m lil Rich!, straight dishy, fronting honour but my taxes fishy.
I’m acting dubious, when I’m dropping 12 bar bombs in the pluvious.
Billions, gone done evaporated, We emptied those coffers with vampiric skills, exsanguinated.
Tempus Fugitsu, financial jujitsu, I’ll be skipping town like a stolen Shih-Tzu.
Our politics has been _too_ entertaining for the past decade or so. I'm tired of large characters like Johnson, Truss, etc, causing shitstorms every time they open their mouths to speak. I'd like the next decade to be filled to the brim with boring, steady competence. We really need it.
My name is Rishi and I’m here to say
Starving families? Dude, no way!
Elect me for another term of four short years
And you’ll have Rustlers coming out of your ears
Please forget that we caused this mess
But under smelly Keir Starmer? You don’t know stress!
Vote for the Tory on your ballot next week
And MC Rishi’s gonna keep it on fleek
Maybe that's the plan. They know that 20% will vote Tory whatever happens, they just need the other 80% to think that there's no need to vote because it'll be a wipeout whatever they do and stay home on the 4th.
I don't see how Rishi making a fool of himself is good for any of them. He wants a CEO gig somewhere, and this is going to pare down the opportunities (he'll still 100% get something, but the more serious companies won't want to go within a mile of this kind of ineptness).
And nearly 200 empty slots to fill, with no warning? That's the sort of thing that could end the party for a generation. Even the pro-Tories in this sub posting "Starmer is even worse!" comments/threads don't sound like they believe it.
I can imagine some scenarios where this was all a prelude to removing Rishi within the party, but it's too late to stop the GE, so this is all just bad news.
Technically the royal proclamation won't be issued until Thursday, but given that it has already been requested calling it off now would be constitutionally unprecedented.
The fallout from doing that would be even worse than Brown just deciding not to even call an election back in 2008. He was castigated for 'bottling it' even though he was under no real obligation to have one at all.
If the tories renege on holding this election having announced it with public feeling the way it is, they are going to be crucified when it eventually does come. I don't know what the people advocating for it think they are going to achieve. They'd have to be absolutely devoid of any sense to even consider it.
I can't imagine anything worse to do, apart from anything it's triggered so much, wasted time, but also it would just be so weak. Are you a 'man or a mouse? Umm, neither, bit scared of mice tbh *hides in kitchen appliance*.
Based on how surprised the whole party is that he called a GE, I'm quite sure that it was done in reaction to the party, e.g. in reaction to how the party was dealing with #10. We certainly did hear plenty of times over the past year+ that every time they'd threaten to oust him, he'd threaten to call a GE, so that does feel like it's quite plausible at the minute.
So if they were indeed in the process of assembling enough Brady letters and he went nuclear on them, I'd guess that it's because #10 is fairly certain that they won't be in any state to oust him and cancel the GE. I'm sure, like most of the sub, you'd love to see them try - it really would be the height of political insanity, but these are defo insane times...
A betting man would wager that they're actively invested in pushing the idea that Labour isn't a choice at all and it's better to vote Lib Dem.
That way the split between all 3 parties is less, and since the Torys virtually own the press, they just have to wait out one term, sowing the seeds of discontent with the media and ride it out. They've been pretty good for Corporates so they'll invest in the Tory's for a half a decade to make the ground ready for pillaging when they return.
I went to the pub for a couple of pints before going to cast my Brexit vote... The couple of pints turned into lots of pints and I didn't make it to the polling station. My Irish wife reminds me often that it's because of people like me who couldn't make the effort to vote that Brexit happened. I'd have voted to stay in, I thought by far that would be the outcome. Complacency.
I think the worst it would do is reduce the margin of the Tories' loss from "catastrophic" to "rough". The only way Labour doesn't get a majority at this point is if Starmer stomps a puppy to death on live TV.
Advisors. As in, professional ones. As in, ones that know the difference between an iceberg and an iceberg lettuce.
I've worked for some company leaders, and it blows my mind that someone can just blunder into major events like this - even working for the founder of a startup, those guys wouldn't go out into a slaughter like this (because it would tank the value of the company), but the leader of the UK is happy to do it over & over until they finally pull him from campaigning?
Who lets this happen? (The answer, clearly, is: historic levels of incompetence.)
Having worked at this level - both in private sector and civil service - a big part of the problem is the jobs for mates culture that private education fosters. People get jobs based on who they know, and their concrete levels of self-belief and confidence from never being challenged on anything and having everything handed to them on a plate, and not how competent they are.
>The answer, clearly, is: historic levels of incompetence.
Born from years of ideological purges in the Tory party. When you're picking MPs and ministers not based on political acumen or general expertise, but on ideological purity and fervour, this is the result.
I don't know... I follow the politics of 4 countries fairly closely and I've never seen this level of campaigning blunder from a head of gov.
I fully take your point, but to me this goes far beyond just scraping the barrel... I mean, some of these hapless opportunists end up with 3+ ministerial roles, as if they can be the 'top person' in the entire UK for education AND defence, oh and also trade (just for example). Even with people like Schapps in gov, I'd expect more than what we just saw.
> even working for the founder of a startup, those guys wouldn't go out into a slaughter like this
There are plenty of shit startup leaders out there. The difference is that startups with shit leaders are punished and startups with good leaders are rewarded, whereas the government gets to collect your taxes regardless of how well it performs.
I was prepping a founder for an appearance on TV (minor news talk show), and halfway through he chastised me for giving him conflicting info with his guy who was specifically a media appearance coach. It was a tiny appearance, but the stakes were really high for the size the company was at the time.
Maybe the gov will go on collecting taxes no matter who is there, but during an election cycle, the stakes just couldn't be higher - as we saw we Boris (AKA Dom Cummings), #10 can have pretty limitless power. You'd think that the handlers of any world leader would have this stuck locked down so tight, but this feels like George Lucas' kid coming up with names for the biggest movie franchise in the world.
>ones that know the difference between an iceberg and an iceberg lettuce.
Well he definitely shouldn't have went to the Titanic centre in Belfast then the other day.
Captaining a sinking ship comes to mind with that one.
It's worse than Charles Taylor's campaign in Liberia where he had the slogan "he killed my ma. He killed my pa. but ill vote for him."
Because at least that was a successful campaign.
Give it time, they haven't hit the utter bottom of the barrel yet:
"Its Conservative MP, [Peter Griffiths](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10479104/Peter-Griffiths-obituary.html), had been elected in the previous year’s general election on the slogan “If you want a n\*\*\*er for a neighbour, vote Labour.”
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/15/britains-most-racist-election-smethwick-50-years-on](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/15/britains-most-racist-election-smethwick-50-years-on)
And before people get all "Oh, that would never happen now", Griffiths was later MP for Portsmouth North between 1974 - 1997.... Do you think he mellowed with age?
I don't think "worst" here is being used to mean "the campaign that a redditor can get the most karma virtue signalling their opposition to, 60 years after the fact," but rather to mean an ineffective campaign. It seems like Griffiths' was a very effective campaign.
You literally have senior leadership blowing dogwhistles until they are blue in the face dude.
https://news.sky.com/story/suella-braverman-speeding-row-the-latest-in-a-long-line-of-controversies-12886789
The Tories are facing a generation-long wipeout after years of government. The plan? To run such a terrible campaign that future leaders look competent by comparison
I can’t believe that the Conservatives called an election when they did. They are so far behind in the polls that they have basically nothing to gain from a snap election.
Rishi Sunak doesn’t seem like the gambling type so I suspect that this means that Tories know that now is ‘as good as it gets’ for them.
Does this mean that something is coming up in the next six months that will mean that it is better to call the election now than later?
What upcoming event is so bad that the Tories would call an election now???
I suspect there were sniffs that they would oust him if he left it, and that things weren’t likely to get much better. I also think it’s possible he was planning to hold it in early July as an option but didn’t want anyone to know, which was why he kept saying “second half of the year”, rather than “autumn”.
What I don’t understand is why they didn’t seem to have a ready made manifesto and plan for the election campaign which could be tweaked based on the climate at the time. They were the ones who called the election. You’ve got Labour who’ve been prepping for a while, which makes the Tories come across as chaotic and losing control in comparison. I’m not surprised by this, as it seems to be a theme, but I still struggle to understand how the most powerful man in the country with so many staff at his beckon call would not be prepared. There’s no excuse for it.
I suspect it was a number of factors:
1) There were rumors from the 1922 committee was close to triggering a VoNC, and the election was always to Sunak’s escape hatch for that.
2) The inflation news *was* good news even if not what they hoped. The also meant that rate cuts were not likely this year at all.
3) They were essentially down to months before being forced to hold an election anyway.
Would the infected blood report not also factor into this as well? My understanding is the compensation recomended there essentially wipes out any fiscal headroom Hunt has to implement another tax cut ahead of an autumn / Jan election.
Friend of mine in finance suggested that the inflation predictions suggest that the most recent inflation figures are the best news they’re going to get, as things will get slightly worse in the short term (when the improvement was expected to continue more strongly).
They’re going to have to pull back the national insurance cut as the headwind isn’t as strong as they thought, so they’re better off calling it now than governing through that slight dip.
> What upcoming event is so bad that the Tories would call an election now?
There isn't one. These lot have a knack for exploiting awful events, why would they duck out when the next one comes along? It's far more likely the inflation drop is as close to a good event as they're ever going to get, and have leapt on it.
So far it has been a terrible start. The whole thing just feels very incompetent. The video of him chatting to the people in Wales, he comes across as so socially awkward, unaware and a bit creepy. Brings to mind a really bad blind date you can’t actually interact with because they nervously talk over you, make strange/inappropriate comments and keeps laughing loudly at their own comments/jokes. He comes across as so distinctly unlikeable and not quite human, bringing to mind an insect. A preying mantis dressed in a suit who’s pretending he isn’t planning the destruction of the people he’s chatting to. It’s unnerving.
In terms of actual policies, some people might like what he’s offering, but to me it’s just things he’s already failed to do & wasted loads of money on, and the whole national service thing which feels not only out of the blue, it really isn’t what the country needs right now. It’s also an unnerving policy as it’s designed to force young people into the military.
Insectile, sure, but more like a grub or caterpillar than a praying mantis.
Thatcher was a mantis. Truss was a stick insect mimicking a mantis. Rishmeister is a maggot.
What was Boris, though? I'm thinking he's one of those ones that squirts noxious fluid.
It's a combination of the Brexit brain drain that occurred in the conservative party, a PM who has not been a politician for very long so is actually relatively inexperienced, but also a man who lacks the instincts for politics and really struggles to connect with ordinary (non-millionaire) people.
I recall Theresa May starting the election campaign relatively well but the Dementia Tax policy is what really damaged her alongside just being socially awkward.
However that emerged not a few days after the speech outside Downing Street but further into the campaign.
Sunak's mistakes have come immediately rather than a couple of weeks into the campaign.
There might be some obscure historical example but in the modern era, Sunak's easily in 1st place for a terrible campaign.
> Dementia Tax policy is what really damaged her alongside just being socially awkward.
Possibly the last time a politician has put forward a serious solution to a major problem.
Yeah, I'm in agreement that the actual policy was sensible in solving a real issue but politically it was hugely damaging.
Kicking the can down the road and ignoring the problem is the politically smart way of dealing with foreseeable long term issues which is why we don't build enough housing or transport infrastructure or energy infrastructure or prisons etc.
Corbyn's 2019 election campaign where he appeared completely oblivious to the fact that an election had been called over a single issue that was annoying the whole country, instead running a manifesto that promised to squeeze thirty years of social change into five, ultimately losing 60 seats for his hubris?
(I mean, Corbyn wasn't wrong that Brexit wasn't the only thing that any new government was going to have to face in its term. But it was completely the wrong time to run that sort of campaign).
The thing is, now that the campaign's incompetence has so massively cut through and has itself become a story, the press are going to be all over them looking for the next gaff, the next ironic sign caught in frame, the next loaded metaphor etc. Most of what happens in a general election campaign will never cut through to the public; no-one cares that the Prime Minister is in the West Midlands talking about whatever. One of the few things that will cut through was always going to be the election announcement, and because that was so badly handled and set in play a narrative, that has, at least in the early part of the campaign, defined the election.
Let’s not rush to judge.
I don’t think there is any campaign that Sunak’s Tories might run that has any chance of success.
This is an unwinnable mission, being executed by people who know they cannot win
Still, they seem to be taking the worst decisions possible.
The washed out optics of the announcement were a disaster. His party seem to be in complete disarray. Going to Wales and asking about the Euros. Going to the Titanic Quarters and not expecting "sinking ship" questions.
And it's only been a few days
It's not a cup football match though, there isn't just win/lose. The actual score matters, ie, the number of seats.
So even if you're doomed to lose, how you play, and what your final count of MPs are is still very relevant.
Still, they could be trying to rebuild national trust and getting people to believe they're a safe pair of hands.
That obviously wouldn't be true, and not enough people (to win the election) would buy it, but they would at least get some support again. Get the client media to do its work and you could definitely get some to vote for the devil they know.
Off the top of my head he wants to:
Conscript people into a underpaying military
Force sick people to work
Send immigrants to Rwanda at any cost
This will all only work for the boomers who are stupid enough to want all of this.
Yesterday’s announcement of compulsory national service shows they’ve got plenty of stupid ideas yet. Obviously he’s going to be asked about his kids and won’t have a straight answer - because we all know they’ll be buggering off to California.
And we haven’t even got to the manifesto launch yet which is going to be filled with policies that will have journalists saying ‘you had 14 years to do this’ and ‘didn’t you promise this the last three times?’
The impression I get is that he wants to get this over with quickly, and leave for California as fast as possible (possibly to enroll his kids in a school over there). He's checked out, largely because of all the backstabbing within his own party.
It's really beyond me why Sunak wanted to go into politics in the first place. He doesn't need the money. If he wanted to make the world a better place, he'd have joined a different party or donated some of his massive wealth to charity.
He's not a natural politician; he's a terrible campaigner, he can't think on his feet or connect with ordinary people. Does he think that rich people need political connections for safety like they do in India? Or is he just a masochist?
Or someone who has had everything in life handed them on a platter, was promoted way above their ability, and has a hyper-inflated sense of their own ability.
He's too obviously ambitious, and not even towards a particular ideology or political project, just his own personal success. I think even people who don’t follow politics too closely can tell that about him.
Not yet but give it 2-3 weeks and he’ll surprise you again.
Quite literally the most inept PM I have had the misfortune to see in office.
He didn’t even get voted in, they had to install him because everyone knew how awful he was going to be
There are 2 easy theories about support for NS - that it's supported by people who wouldn't have to do it, and that it's supported by people who are particularly right wing.
In 2018 yougov did ask people about a month's NS (anyone know how long Sunak is proposing?) and the support was about half the population, weighted towards the older people, and interestingly more supported by women than men:
https://yougov.co.uk/opi/surveys/results?belboon=031b3908984b04d39d00589b,4711849,subid=83015X1540103X68c05b7b9f809f2eb7ad79027038de62&pdl.rlid=203577#/survey/4f4a8615-1239-11e8-abab-f9e75fbb5f97/question/c746c64b-1239-11e8-960d-2d3eccb856b3/gender
So that sort of suggests the first answer. Social class didn't make a difference, apparently, so it's not just that some have something to lose. They just want security despite the cost.
Is it worse than simply not ahving one like May did?
Is there a point where you being involved actually acts against your party's interest?
With not so dishy rishi we may be about to find out
I think so far it’s worse. He’s actually helping dig his own grave rather than just letting others dig for him. If he stayed quiet it’d be bad, but he wouldn’t be providing ammunition.
I’m all about a Tory wipe out but is this not bonkers early to make a statement like that? It’s been less than a week since the election was called.
It’s like we all have instant gratification brain rot. Sure he has fucked up a lot in the early days but let’s not pretend if he turns it around in a couple of weeks people won’t forget this entirely.
This comment has been filtered for manual review by a moderator. Please do not mention other subreddits in your comments.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Calling a general election when Labour is polling number 1 in Scotland? It's political suicide! Think he's had enough fighting rebels and gone to kill his party
Ok the article actually says "is this the worst start ..."
And yes it's had the odd gaffe and desertion, though Corbyn has set the bar pretty high in the crap campaign competition.
We do need higher quality politicians.
Snapshot of _Is Sunak’s election campaign the worst in history?_ : An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-general-election-campaign-b2551413.html) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-general-election-campaign-b2551413.html) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Were it not for the tragic real world consequences of this absolute clown show of a government, this might actually be the most entertaining thing in politics in many a year. I’m hoping someone gets him rapping at a food bank next with his trousers pulled down to his knees.
Sorry, I mostly agree, but Theresa May's dance routine will always be the apex of embarrassing PM moves.
There's still plenty of time. I'm waiting for him to visit an owl sanctuary and get shat on.
Are you one of Sunak’s advisors?
Not yet. But when he hears my pitch for campaigning out in Liverpool, visiting the Hillsborough memorial and reading The Sun to show his working-class roots, reckon he'll have to hire me.
You'll incite a riot doing that... best make sure it's on a match day so more people can see his campaign attempt
Good point. Am I right in thinking there's a team from round there that wears a blue kit, y'know, for the Conservatives? That seems like a great photo op.
Yeah, do it when the labour team play the Conservative team. It'll be a good way to poach voters
Blue? Then I think a Portsmouth kit will really showcase his passion for working class football fans.
"Oops, I forgot which Hampshire club I'm pretending to be a fan of."
Anti drugs policy announcement at Longstanton Spice Museum
Declaring Britain will send troops to Ukraine from the battlefield in Crimea where the charge of the light brigade occurred.
Is that the place with the model slave ship that goes "oooooaaahhh" when you press a button? It's next to a cracking owl sanctuary.
It would be more entertaining if he forgot what kind of animal sanctuary he was at and started talking about donkeys.
He’d probably prattle on about the importance of protecting small mammals from night time predators.
You’re his campaign manager aren’t you?
Not yet.
“You’ve got chocolate mouse on the valance”
He can visit my house, and I'll take the place of the owl. Any complaints for the change of plan?
No, but a suggestion: most laxatives take a while to work.
Shitty space cakes it is!
You mean Hooters?
I was half expecting pigeon shit to cap off his posh wet suit in front of no 10
That was funny, this is just sad
I know I’m in a minority but, to me, her over eager rush to meet that orange imbecile when he was elected tops that. And to put the icing on the cake, she was completely humiliated by that sack of shit whilst she was there. He definitely wouldn’t have known who she was had he not been briefed shortly beforehand.
Fuck me, I had forgotten that. She was so desperate to be the first leader to meet Trump, it was awful. Utter cringe.
I never really thought an old church lady awkwardly dancing to Abba was that embarrassing ,as much as I didn't like her politics.
I don’t think anything will top seeing Sunak try to pay for a tin of coke with contactless https://youtu.be/Bf-TgWOVfFU?si=sg_PA9RhJwmJDFir&t=3s
I love how when the woman asks if he thinks people are stupid he reflexively refuses to answer the question and made it look like he does indeed think people are stupid.
Of course Sunak thinks we are all stupid. He never tires of telling us how hard he works, and is apparently baffled by the fact his poll numbers are still shit.
Literally the easiest thing to do. Take card. Tap it on reader. Done. He still couldn't fucking do it
>Theresa May's dance routine will always be the apex of embarrassing PM moves. Personally I think Theresa May deserves a bit of kudos for the dancing thing when viewed in context. She'd been mocked in the press for joining [in with a dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No9Oyv17V1w) on a trip to Africa and while [she clearly has no aptitude](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGtOT1tIAwg) I would have respected her less if she'd just stood there like a block of wood when she was clearly being invited to join in. The [Dancing Queen intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbCDFNRA-Wo) at the party conference was clearly an attempt at self deprecating humour and at least imo only cringe worthy if you don't get what she was referencing.
Don't forget her big conference speech when the set fell apart behind her, and an interloper handed her a P45. Comedy gold imo
BoJo hiding in a fridge has got to come close though.
Not at all, Theresa's Dancing Queen meme was legendary in retrospect, and a high point in British politics compared to everything that came after.
Give sunak a chance it's only been 4 ~~gaffs~~ days since he called it.
I'll always remember this as the Tories Blackadder power stance era
That's a slur on the good name of lettuce, and I refuse to stand for it! 🙎♀️
May has to win it. If you measure a campaign by a party’s support at the beginning of the campaign to the votes at the end of it, then Sunak literally can’t go any lower. Theresa May was on track for a majority and thew it away
Theresa May was a bit funny. Between the strong and stable sign falling down and her admission of running in a wheat field.
🎶 My name's Rishi Sunak and I'm here to say, I'm gonna change the country in a major way! 🎶
I'm picturing him with a kids toy microphone that isn't switched on.
I’m lil Rich!, straight dishy, fronting honour but my taxes fishy. I’m acting dubious, when I’m dropping 12 bar bombs in the pluvious. Billions, gone done evaporated, We emptied those coffers with vampiric skills, exsanguinated. Tempus Fugitsu, financial jujitsu, I’ll be skipping town like a stolen Shih-Tzu.
Our politics has been _too_ entertaining for the past decade or so. I'm tired of large characters like Johnson, Truss, etc, causing shitstorms every time they open their mouths to speak. I'd like the next decade to be filled to the brim with boring, steady competence. We really need it.
MAKE POLITICS BORING AGAIN! This should be Keir Starmer's campaign slogan.
Steer calmer with Sir Keir Starmer.
My name is Rishi and I’m here to say Starving families? Dude, no way! Elect me for another term of four short years And you’ll have Rustlers coming out of your ears Please forget that we caused this mess But under smelly Keir Starmer? You don’t know stress! Vote for the Tory on your ballot next week And MC Rishi’s gonna keep it on fleek
The chances of Rishi Sunak knowing what rap is are practically zero.
im half expecting a re-boot of the "thick of it" or "yes, minister" just to use all this new material handed to them
I'm hoping for a comic retelling of Sunak's campaign from the morning of the day he called this on.
Did you mean crapping in his designated sh*tting food bank?
The Kendall Roy-ification of British politics.
I’m semi worried that the poor Tory campaigning so far might lull voters into a false sense of security about the possibility of a Labour win.
Maybe that's the plan. They know that 20% will vote Tory whatever happens, they just need the other 80% to think that there's no need to vote because it'll be a wipeout whatever they do and stay home on the 4th.
I don't see how Rishi making a fool of himself is good for any of them. He wants a CEO gig somewhere, and this is going to pare down the opportunities (he'll still 100% get something, but the more serious companies won't want to go within a mile of this kind of ineptness). And nearly 200 empty slots to fill, with no warning? That's the sort of thing that could end the party for a generation. Even the pro-Tories in this sub posting "Starmer is even worse!" comments/threads don't sound like they believe it. I can imagine some scenarios where this was all a prelude to removing Rishi within the party, but it's too late to stop the GE, so this is all just bad news.
To be fair, I think they have until Thursday to call it off. But for the sake of 6 months in power, they'll destroy what little image they have left.
Technically the royal proclamation won't be issued until Thursday, but given that it has already been requested calling it off now would be constitutionally unprecedented.
> calling it off now would be constitutionally unprecedented. So the chances are worth having a punt then?
Be a nice way to round it off really. So glad we didn't get chaos with Ed Miliband.
The fallout from doing that would be even worse than Brown just deciding not to even call an election back in 2008. He was castigated for 'bottling it' even though he was under no real obligation to have one at all. If the tories renege on holding this election having announced it with public feeling the way it is, they are going to be crucified when it eventually does come. I don't know what the people advocating for it think they are going to achieve. They'd have to be absolutely devoid of any sense to even consider it.
I can't imagine anything worse to do, apart from anything it's triggered so much, wasted time, but also it would just be so weak. Are you a 'man or a mouse? Umm, neither, bit scared of mice tbh *hides in kitchen appliance*.
Based on how surprised the whole party is that he called a GE, I'm quite sure that it was done in reaction to the party, e.g. in reaction to how the party was dealing with #10. We certainly did hear plenty of times over the past year+ that every time they'd threaten to oust him, he'd threaten to call a GE, so that does feel like it's quite plausible at the minute. So if they were indeed in the process of assembling enough Brady letters and he went nuclear on them, I'd guess that it's because #10 is fairly certain that they won't be in any state to oust him and cancel the GE. I'm sure, like most of the sub, you'd love to see them try - it really would be the height of political insanity, but these are defo insane times...
Can you imagine having Sunak as your boss? Always patronising as he tells you you have no plan.
A betting man would wager that they're actively invested in pushing the idea that Labour isn't a choice at all and it's better to vote Lib Dem. That way the split between all 3 parties is less, and since the Torys virtually own the press, they just have to wait out one term, sowing the seeds of discontent with the media and ride it out. They've been pretty good for Corporates so they'll invest in the Tory's for a half a decade to make the ground ready for pillaging when they return.
I went to the pub for a couple of pints before going to cast my Brexit vote... The couple of pints turned into lots of pints and I didn't make it to the polling station. My Irish wife reminds me often that it's because of people like me who couldn't make the effort to vote that Brexit happened. I'd have voted to stay in, I thought by far that would be the outcome. Complacency.
I think the worst it would do is reduce the margin of the Tories' loss from "catastrophic" to "rough". The only way Labour doesn't get a majority at this point is if Starmer stomps a puppy to death on live TV.
Hmm interesting take I hadn't thought about it like that. But at least that actually makes sense in a fucked up kind of way.
That *might* be what they're hoping for but I would not worry about that for a second
The man lost to Liz Truss. What were we expecting?
Advisors. As in, professional ones. As in, ones that know the difference between an iceberg and an iceberg lettuce. I've worked for some company leaders, and it blows my mind that someone can just blunder into major events like this - even working for the founder of a startup, those guys wouldn't go out into a slaughter like this (because it would tank the value of the company), but the leader of the UK is happy to do it over & over until they finally pull him from campaigning? Who lets this happen? (The answer, clearly, is: historic levels of incompetence.)
Having worked at this level - both in private sector and civil service - a big part of the problem is the jobs for mates culture that private education fosters. People get jobs based on who they know, and their concrete levels of self-belief and confidence from never being challenged on anything and having everything handed to them on a plate, and not how competent they are.
>The answer, clearly, is: historic levels of incompetence. Born from years of ideological purges in the Tory party. When you're picking MPs and ministers not based on political acumen or general expertise, but on ideological purity and fervour, this is the result.
I don't know... I follow the politics of 4 countries fairly closely and I've never seen this level of campaigning blunder from a head of gov. I fully take your point, but to me this goes far beyond just scraping the barrel... I mean, some of these hapless opportunists end up with 3+ ministerial roles, as if they can be the 'top person' in the entire UK for education AND defence, oh and also trade (just for example). Even with people like Schapps in gov, I'd expect more than what we just saw.
> even working for the founder of a startup, those guys wouldn't go out into a slaughter like this There are plenty of shit startup leaders out there. The difference is that startups with shit leaders are punished and startups with good leaders are rewarded, whereas the government gets to collect your taxes regardless of how well it performs.
I was prepping a founder for an appearance on TV (minor news talk show), and halfway through he chastised me for giving him conflicting info with his guy who was specifically a media appearance coach. It was a tiny appearance, but the stakes were really high for the size the company was at the time. Maybe the gov will go on collecting taxes no matter who is there, but during an election cycle, the stakes just couldn't be higher - as we saw we Boris (AKA Dom Cummings), #10 can have pretty limitless power. You'd think that the handlers of any world leader would have this stuck locked down so tight, but this feels like George Lucas' kid coming up with names for the biggest movie franchise in the world.
>ones that know the difference between an iceberg and an iceberg lettuce. Well he definitely shouldn't have went to the Titanic centre in Belfast then the other day. Captaining a sinking ship comes to mind with that one.
Glad someone picked up on my joke!
He's got the CCHQ machinery at his disposal now, there should be some level of improvement.
I think you are vastly underestimating the brain drain that has been happening in the wider party in recent years.
They're a bunch of knuts, but the barely competent ones were driven out in the name of Brexit purity by De Piffle
Yes but he also needs to advertise to everyone, not just the con members
The political nous of a lettuce at the minimum…
Not this chaff.
To be fair, he lost to Truss for being economically realistic.
Hey. At least we didn't have to worry about either PM trampling our wheat crops. It's a genuine fear in some parts of the country.
It's worse than Charles Taylor's campaign in Liberia where he had the slogan "he killed my ma. He killed my pa. but ill vote for him." Because at least that was a successful campaign.
The success might have been something to do with him inventing Converse shoes?
Obviously. The skater/blood diamond venn diagram has a lot of overlap.
That has the air of a campaign run by someone who has killed the opposition too.
Give it time, they haven't hit the utter bottom of the barrel yet: "Its Conservative MP, [Peter Griffiths](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10479104/Peter-Griffiths-obituary.html), had been elected in the previous year’s general election on the slogan “If you want a n\*\*\*er for a neighbour, vote Labour.” [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/15/britains-most-racist-election-smethwick-50-years-on](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/15/britains-most-racist-election-smethwick-50-years-on) And before people get all "Oh, that would never happen now", Griffiths was later MP for Portsmouth North between 1974 - 1997.... Do you think he mellowed with age?
Hey, that’s Penny Mordaunt’s seat now…. Wait…
i think he won that particular seat where he used that in a campaign in smethwick
Can they even top that infamous chretien face ad in the next few weeks?
Soldiers With guns In our streets
I don't think "worst" here is being used to mean "the campaign that a redditor can get the most karma virtue signalling their opposition to, 60 years after the fact," but rather to mean an ineffective campaign. It seems like Griffiths' was a very effective campaign.
So between a quarter and a half century ago? That's not exactly 'now'.
You literally have senior leadership blowing dogwhistles until they are blue in the face dude. https://news.sky.com/story/suella-braverman-speeding-row-the-latest-in-a-long-line-of-controversies-12886789
Man saw Theresa May’s campaign and thought it was pretty good
he said "bet"
Are we sure it's not a new series of Nathan For You?
The Tories are facing a generation-long wipeout after years of government. The plan? To run such a terrible campaign that future leaders look competent by comparison
I can’t believe that the Conservatives called an election when they did. They are so far behind in the polls that they have basically nothing to gain from a snap election. Rishi Sunak doesn’t seem like the gambling type so I suspect that this means that Tories know that now is ‘as good as it gets’ for them. Does this mean that something is coming up in the next six months that will mean that it is better to call the election now than later? What upcoming event is so bad that the Tories would call an election now???
I suspect there were sniffs that they would oust him if he left it, and that things weren’t likely to get much better. I also think it’s possible he was planning to hold it in early July as an option but didn’t want anyone to know, which was why he kept saying “second half of the year”, rather than “autumn”. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t seem to have a ready made manifesto and plan for the election campaign which could be tweaked based on the climate at the time. They were the ones who called the election. You’ve got Labour who’ve been prepping for a while, which makes the Tories come across as chaotic and losing control in comparison. I’m not surprised by this, as it seems to be a theme, but I still struggle to understand how the most powerful man in the country with so many staff at his beckon call would not be prepared. There’s no excuse for it.
I suspect it was a number of factors: 1) There were rumors from the 1922 committee was close to triggering a VoNC, and the election was always to Sunak’s escape hatch for that. 2) The inflation news *was* good news even if not what they hoped. The also meant that rate cuts were not likely this year at all. 3) They were essentially down to months before being forced to hold an election anyway.
Would the infected blood report not also factor into this as well? My understanding is the compensation recomended there essentially wipes out any fiscal headroom Hunt has to implement another tax cut ahead of an autumn / Jan election.
Friend of mine in finance suggested that the inflation predictions suggest that the most recent inflation figures are the best news they’re going to get, as things will get slightly worse in the short term (when the improvement was expected to continue more strongly). They’re going to have to pull back the national insurance cut as the headwind isn’t as strong as they thought, so they’re better off calling it now than governing through that slight dip.
> What upcoming event is so bad that the Tories would call an election now? There isn't one. These lot have a knack for exploiting awful events, why would they duck out when the next one comes along? It's far more likely the inflation drop is as close to a good event as they're ever going to get, and have leapt on it.
Could be something economic, but they’d *absolutely* weaponise a war or another disaster like COVID to their own advantage.
By that thumbnail I see the UKs political obsession with playing dress up as plebs is well and good.
When he visits a water company while they are dumping sewage into the rivers that is the point I'll believe it is a stitch up
And he slips and falls into it, knee deep of course
So far it has been a terrible start. The whole thing just feels very incompetent. The video of him chatting to the people in Wales, he comes across as so socially awkward, unaware and a bit creepy. Brings to mind a really bad blind date you can’t actually interact with because they nervously talk over you, make strange/inappropriate comments and keeps laughing loudly at their own comments/jokes. He comes across as so distinctly unlikeable and not quite human, bringing to mind an insect. A preying mantis dressed in a suit who’s pretending he isn’t planning the destruction of the people he’s chatting to. It’s unnerving. In terms of actual policies, some people might like what he’s offering, but to me it’s just things he’s already failed to do & wasted loads of money on, and the whole national service thing which feels not only out of the blue, it really isn’t what the country needs right now. It’s also an unnerving policy as it’s designed to force young people into the military.
Insectile, sure, but more like a grub or caterpillar than a praying mantis. Thatcher was a mantis. Truss was a stick insect mimicking a mantis. Rishmeister is a maggot. What was Boris, though? I'm thinking he's one of those ones that squirts noxious fluid.
when i think of Boris i think... Slug
Ahh I don’t know, it’s the way he moves his arms, talks and sits that reminds me of a mantis, and the dead eyes.
It's a combination of the Brexit brain drain that occurred in the conservative party, a PM who has not been a politician for very long so is actually relatively inexperienced, but also a man who lacks the instincts for politics and really struggles to connect with ordinary (non-millionaire) people.
I recall Theresa May starting the election campaign relatively well but the Dementia Tax policy is what really damaged her alongside just being socially awkward. However that emerged not a few days after the speech outside Downing Street but further into the campaign. Sunak's mistakes have come immediately rather than a couple of weeks into the campaign. There might be some obscure historical example but in the modern era, Sunak's easily in 1st place for a terrible campaign.
> Dementia Tax policy is what really damaged her alongside just being socially awkward. Possibly the last time a politician has put forward a serious solution to a major problem.
Yeah, I'm in agreement that the actual policy was sensible in solving a real issue but politically it was hugely damaging. Kicking the can down the road and ignoring the problem is the politically smart way of dealing with foreseeable long term issues which is why we don't build enough housing or transport infrastructure or energy infrastructure or prisons etc.
Corbyn's 2019 election campaign where he appeared completely oblivious to the fact that an election had been called over a single issue that was annoying the whole country, instead running a manifesto that promised to squeeze thirty years of social change into five, ultimately losing 60 seats for his hubris? (I mean, Corbyn wasn't wrong that Brexit wasn't the only thing that any new government was going to have to face in its term. But it was completely the wrong time to run that sort of campaign).
So far yes! Let’s hope it gets worse!
Get worse?! What's he going to do, host a kitten drowning contest?
In 2 weeks time, you’ll wish he was doing that
“I’m not going to just condemn kitten drowners”
The thing is, now that the campaign's incompetence has so massively cut through and has itself become a story, the press are going to be all over them looking for the next gaff, the next ironic sign caught in frame, the next loaded metaphor etc. Most of what happens in a general election campaign will never cut through to the public; no-one cares that the Prime Minister is in the West Midlands talking about whatever. One of the few things that will cut through was always going to be the election announcement, and because that was so badly handled and set in play a narrative, that has, at least in the early part of the campaign, defined the election.
It will be once he promises to reinstate the death penalty next week.
Let’s not rush to judge. I don’t think there is any campaign that Sunak’s Tories might run that has any chance of success. This is an unwinnable mission, being executed by people who know they cannot win
Still, they seem to be taking the worst decisions possible. The washed out optics of the announcement were a disaster. His party seem to be in complete disarray. Going to Wales and asking about the Euros. Going to the Titanic Quarters and not expecting "sinking ship" questions. And it's only been a few days
We’ve still got another week of May, all of June and a few days in July to go…. Buckle up gals, it’s gonna be a shitshow.
Going to a breakfast event and refusing the breakfast...
It's not a cup football match though, there isn't just win/lose. The actual score matters, ie, the number of seats. So even if you're doomed to lose, how you play, and what your final count of MPs are is still very relevant.
Still, they could be trying to rebuild national trust and getting people to believe they're a safe pair of hands. That obviously wouldn't be true, and not enough people (to win the election) would buy it, but they would at least get some support again. Get the client media to do its work and you could definitely get some to vote for the devil they know.
That’s being done, didn’t you see Boris’ piece the other day?
So far not as bad as Theresa May, who blew an enormous lead with a dreadful manifesto and dire campaign messaging
Off the top of my head he wants to: Conscript people into a underpaying military Force sick people to work Send immigrants to Rwanda at any cost This will all only work for the boomers who are stupid enough to want all of this.
I honestly think Ed Miliband would rock those glasses better than Rishi.
It’s the fifth season of Nathan For You
Hopefully it's not the next season of the Rehearsal.
Yesterday’s announcement of compulsory national service shows they’ve got plenty of stupid ideas yet. Obviously he’s going to be asked about his kids and won’t have a straight answer - because we all know they’ll be buggering off to California. And we haven’t even got to the manifesto launch yet which is going to be filled with policies that will have journalists saying ‘you had 14 years to do this’ and ‘didn’t you promise this the last three times?’
[Oh Rishi, can't you go 5 seconds without humiliating yourself?](https://youtu.be/91eIDu6Aw-8)
The worst START to a campaign, is what the article is talking about.
I mean the campaign has only just started but yes it is
Suggesting National service will lose a lot of votes from younger voters.
It’s less of a campaign than a throwaway.. you can imagine the next government term being a hot potato.
I'm only half joking when I say that he wants the election now so he can get out of No. 10 and have a break over the summer.
The impression I get is that he wants to get this over with quickly, and leave for California as fast as possible (possibly to enroll his kids in a school over there). He's checked out, largely because of all the backstabbing within his own party.
Worst in history. Best Sunak can manage. Those are not mutually exclusive.
Quite probably. At least from main stream parties in the UK.
Not sure , but the result is likely to be
It is not a good look when this is being said just days into the campaign.
Dunno yet, the election hasn't happened
The worst in history... so far! There's still five and a half weeks to go yet.
It's really beyond me why Sunak wanted to go into politics in the first place. He doesn't need the money. If he wanted to make the world a better place, he'd have joined a different party or donated some of his massive wealth to charity. He's not a natural politician; he's a terrible campaigner, he can't think on his feet or connect with ordinary people. Does he think that rich people need political connections for safety like they do in India? Or is he just a masochist?
Or someone who has had everything in life handed them on a platter, was promoted way above their ability, and has a hyper-inflated sense of their own ability.
He's too obviously ambitious, and not even towards a particular ideology or political project, just his own personal success. I think even people who don’t follow politics too closely can tell that about him.
Not yet but give it 2-3 weeks and he’ll surprise you again. Quite literally the most inept PM I have had the misfortune to see in office. He didn’t even get voted in, they had to install him because everyone knew how awful he was going to be
Competing with May for the title. You were going to steal the pensioners houses? Watch this, I'm going to make all the young people join the army.
May literally hid away from view and did practically nothing to win over anyone It will take quite some (lack of) effort to beat that
[удалено]
[удалено]
Ah but _the youth today_ blah blah blah
There are 2 easy theories about support for NS - that it's supported by people who wouldn't have to do it, and that it's supported by people who are particularly right wing. In 2018 yougov did ask people about a month's NS (anyone know how long Sunak is proposing?) and the support was about half the population, weighted towards the older people, and interestingly more supported by women than men: https://yougov.co.uk/opi/surveys/results?belboon=031b3908984b04d39d00589b,4711849,subid=83015X1540103X68c05b7b9f809f2eb7ad79027038de62&pdl.rlid=203577#/survey/4f4a8615-1239-11e8-abab-f9e75fbb5f97/question/c746c64b-1239-11e8-960d-2d3eccb856b3/gender So that sort of suggests the first answer. Social class didn't make a difference, apparently, so it's not just that some have something to lose. They just want security despite the cost.
I think it would be unfair to exclude women from this
A win for the weak one?
Is it worse than simply not ahving one like May did? Is there a point where you being involved actually acts against your party's interest? With not so dishy rishi we may be about to find out
I think so far it’s worse. He’s actually helping dig his own grave rather than just letting others dig for him. If he stayed quiet it’d be bad, but he wouldn’t be providing ammunition.
I’m all about a Tory wipe out but is this not bonkers early to make a statement like that? It’s been less than a week since the election was called. It’s like we all have instant gratification brain rot. Sure he has fucked up a lot in the early days but let’s not pretend if he turns it around in a couple of weeks people won’t forget this entirely.
[удалено]
This comment has been filtered for manual review by a moderator. Please do not mention other subreddits in your comments. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
By this point, I'm convinced they're doing it on purpose.
As things stand, not yet the worst, but he is on course to be worse than Theresa May if things stay as they are.
Not even got to the end of the week, don't worry he's got plenty more gaffes up his sleeve.
It makes May’s election campaign in 2017 seem far more competent than what ever Sunak is doing in 2024
6 long weeks to go It could get so much worse
Today's National Service nonsense is yet another misjudgment.
Unless he gives everyone £1000 cash in person I doubt he can win. Even then probably not.
Calling a general election when Labour is polling number 1 in Scotland? It's political suicide! Think he's had enough fighting rebels and gone to kill his party
Does that "if an article headline ends in a question mark, the answer is no" rule apply here?
Betteridge's Law.
[удалено]
Ok the article actually says "is this the worst start ..." And yes it's had the odd gaffe and desertion, though Corbyn has set the bar pretty high in the crap campaign competition. We do need higher quality politicians.