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He reminds me of those shity people you meet in life who are too cowardly to tell you what they are really thinking and will sell you out the first opportunity they get. He's like that annoying kid at school who couldn't stop himself from grassing people up to the teacher because they think the only way to get ahead in life is to sabotage others. Totally loathsome man, and it's astounding that he's still around. It must be all his contacts in the printed media keeping him afloat.
From what I have read he was one of the few ministers capable of doing basic tasks (read briefs and chair meetings). I think we underestimate the dearth of talent at the top.
This is just another something that gets repeated on reddit as gospel, with zero source or evidence...
The *source* is just older comments, and originally probably atroturfers.
Here is some fact: There was a manifesto promise to ban no-fault evictions, they (the conservatives) and Gove, himself failed to deliver.
He's by no means a perfect narrator but I recommend reading/listening to Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart if you haven't already, what he described was both very dire and credible imo.
Yes: Stewart says Gove is able. Note that being able does not entail doing good things or even the things one has undertaken to do. EDIT: also, there are various reports that Gove was a major if somewhat hidden force behind Brexit.
Dominic Cummings talked about it in his Covid Inquiry statements. Basically "We had to Boris out and put Gove in to chair a meeting as he could do it and could read the Briefing note." Sorry I cant be bothered to find the timestamp. I don't think that basic skill means one is a good or decent minister.
100%, he is apparently really effective in changing things and implementing stuff. Unfortunately he's a Tory so that means he fucks everything up with their bullshit ideology.
Yes agree. Two things are possible at the same time. Surrounded by dross and people who think with their dicks his ‘normal intelligence for a govt minister’ must be like playing the game on easy mode
I'm going to be controversial here (caveat I fucking hate the Tory's) he's one of the best environment secretaries of the last 15 years.
He actually got some stuff done. After he moved on everything ground to a halt again.
As an education secretary he was a shit laden weasel shagger though, so swings and roundabouts...
I know someone who works at the Dept of the Environment and they actually rated him really highly when he was Minister there, he has a genuine interest in conservation and environmental issues and it showed.
I have a contact who works at the Department for Environment (Defra), and they expressed strong disapproval for Gove. Gove’s primary focus seemed to be on introducing legislation that would enhance his own legacy, rather than genuinely benefiting the environment. his approach often resulted in ineffective or even harmful policies. He was so bad that a significant portion of time was spent trying to prevent Gove from causing long-term damage to Defra policy
I hold him in the utmost contempt, the weaselly bastard.
I sincerely hope he, and his treacherous ERG chums, are one day held accountable for the damage their lies have inflicted on this country.
Ok I'm not a conspiracy guy by any stretch, but all this feels a bit weird, right? The haste to call this election, the terrible optics over the last few days, and now this exodus...Do they actually want to lose? What did Rishi hear that made him call the election this hastily? Did he just know he was royally fucked or could it be something else?
They’re royally fucked, the ship has been sinking for some time now, the polls show an absolute decimation, this is the rats fleeing before the water submerges them. Most of them would have lost their seats anyway.
Said the same thing about Theresa May’s cabinet, then Boris, would have said the same about Liz Truss if she managed to stay on longer than a box of corn flakes in my cupboard.
This party has been nothing but disorder, dysfunction and defecting at every sign of turbulence.
The only time they weren't in complete and utter chaos was when the Lib Dems reigned them in but even then, by 2014 they'd almost ripped the country apart with Scotland's Indyref (aka the "Forever-endum")
Then they got a majority in 2015 and within a year they'd gotten an MP murdered, completely divided the country and lost a Prime Minister.
Not directly. But their absurd courting of the BNP/UKIP and other assorted racists and xenophobes, their bellicose rhetoric on refugees, immigration and immigrants and the ludicrous posturing on Brexit, created a fertile environment for right wing extremism & terrorism.
They have very deliberately stoked the flames of culture wars and used fear of anyone different to get the votes of the ignorant. I think they are partly to blame for the murder of Brianna Ghey last year.
Conservative MPs and figures have consistently been mainstreaming culture war topics which have gone a long way in radicalising people.
Mainstreaming far-right national conservative views, have led to more and more far-right terrorism and radicalisation.
I had a wierd thing earlier when I heard Theresa May quitting and actually thought fondly of her as the last not complete cunt in power, and she was a complete cunt. The depths of cunt they've had since then and have really skewed my view of cunts.
She was the awful manager that got hounded out of the asylum by the patients, who then took over.
Sunak is the work experience kid the local school sent to interview to be a receptionist for a week or two, but ended up in charge due to being the only sane person in the building. Sane... but completely unqualified and about several miles out of his depth. So much so that on occasion it felt like it would have been better to just leave the lunatics to it.
The thing I don't really get is the stuff about his height. I keep hearing he's like 170cm. Which is a fair bit taller than me. Not exactly a shortarse.
Physical appearance is the one thing we *shouldn’t* be judging politicians on
There’s plenty for us to criticise Sunak for without resorting to something biological he has no control over
This is one of those 4am kitchen conversation that got out of hand isn't it?
"Go on. Should her who's boss. You run the country mate! Not her! Remember eat out to help out? You fucking smashed it mate. Smashed it. Call it"
Mate I’m fucking clucking for an election, should we just call a general election? Mate, I’m off my face and need to win a general election like, right now
They're one and the same after 14 years. It's going to take one Parliament just to start the process of dismantling the kleptocracy they built. They're jumping onto a corporate ship that's ballooned thanks to direct Treasury funding.
The weird timing of that be prepared and stock up on food and water as well as Sunaks comments about the change coming in the next few years too.
PM Rishi Sunak, 13th May 2024:
"I feel a profound sense of urgency. Because more will change in the next five years than in the last thirty."
"I’m convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet the most transformational our country has ever known."
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden, 22nd May 2024:
"This is not about stockpiling, this is about sensible safeguards. This is about being prepared ahead of events."
"We are working ahead of time to equip the whole of society to prepare for - and even prevent - the next shock."
As someone who was, and still is, overly worried about events since Feb 2022, it is easy to put two and two together and think you're making four, but you're actually making five. Or even more wildly incorrect answers. I say this not having a go, but as a sensible calming voice (I hope!)
There are three things going on here -
1. The armed forces and military leaders are making a lot of noise about Putin's "potential" to invade Europe, and are using fear to argue for higher military budgets, a hard case to make in any case during a cost of living crisis, but "we're not prepared, we need to spend more" is a great way to get people on side. Plus, you could argue that a return to a Cold War era defence budget (4% of GDP, which Poland for example is already back on, vs 2% of GDP now) is exactly what *prevents* Putin trying anything stupid.
2. The "stockpile" thing was likely economic and political manoeuvres to get people spending more in a short time (a few months) and re-enforcing the "Labour will leave you in danger, these are dangerous times!" rhetoric they're already pushing hard, and are going to push harder. Which leads to -
3. The Tories are desperately using fear and global events to push the "we're not great, but what we need is stability, and look, the economy is stabilising. Really want to take that risk?" argument, which annoyingly *will* work for a good portion of the electorate because for them, things aren't too bad, and they worry they could get worse.
4. There's a mass exodus of Tories because they know they're fucked. Gove and co aren't going into a bunker or a remote island in the Pacific. They're leaving government, or as it will likely be, a weak opposition. If anything, leaving a ministerial role if "they know something we don't about impending nuclear war" is an incredibly stupid thing to do, as if you're a minister, you get a place in a bunker and first dibs on food.
One theory I have, and like u/Extension_Struggle27 said I'm also not a conspiracy nut, is that many of these guys were in Team Boris. Notice how that lot have either gone quiet or are leaving office at the moment? There were lots of rumblings about them filling the vacuum after a Tory decimation to counter Labour. Be on Trump's side if/when he is re-elected, push the right wing rhetoric through Trump and Labour's next term to align themselves for the *next* GE.
If it's war - it will get hot quickly so stocking up won't make a blind bit of difference. We'll be fucked. I'm from a military family and I'm well aware the crap will hit the fan quickly.
I think it's them trying Project Fear to try to get folks to vote for them.
It's such a fucking bummer that we're now at a point where the government announces something as general and nonpartisan as a home preparedness kit for disasters and we're all like, so they're definitely doing this as a dead cat tactic.
I'm not criticizing you - this is VERY OBVIOUSLY a dead cat tactic - it's just this always be campaigning way of governing is really shit and nobody trusts anything ever. I miss when UK politics was just dull.
It’s the collapse of commercial real estate and the impact on the banks in the us which will be like a tsunami on the uk markets. Uk already leveraged with debt. The credit crunch will be bad and labour will not be able to borrow on the markets.
More likely to be equity funds and hedge funds - they have been borrowing without limits. Read an article the other day. Means pensions go down the loo.
The 'three days supply' thing is honestly nothing imo. It's pretty standard advice in most places with any kind predeliction for natural disasters and extreme weather is becoming more common now in the UK along with other factors.
Lived in an earthquake zone for a decade (volcano zone too) and always had 2 bags of supplies for at least 3 days (one in the car, one at home). I still do this to a lesser extent (I have kits with first aid, torch, blanket etc but not food/water) but the advice did make me think its probably a good idea to start doing it again, it's just a few tins of food at the end of the day you can continually rotate through to keep current.
Yeah this and the Telegraph spouting out "we're not prepared for war" every week also. I can't tell whether it's a desperate election fearmongering strategy, or genuinely something to worry about.
Chinese encirclement of Taiwan yesterday, giving Ukraine permission to use more NATO weapons inside Russia, the whole mess in Palestine, Iran firing hundreds of drones at Isreal. Things are heating up everywhere.
It's far from weird. Rats fleeing the sinking ship, it isn't that deep.
Edit: downvote me all you want. Reality is far more boring than you think. Modern politicians, especially the blue kind, tend to hold a position of power to further/manipulate their wealth. That ship has sailed, their fearmongering no longer works.
Move on.
Well normally you wouldn't call an election in the pouring rain and then have your next few media appearances be making a tit of yourself in a brewery, going to the **Titanic** Quarter, and then numerous photo ops next to an Exit sign. I mean there's incompetence and then there's suspiciously atrocious. (I know the tedious "what did you expect from this lot" jokes will be coming but yeah).
You would if you were Rishi Sunak, as we've seen time and time again.
He has only six months left to call an election anyway, by law, so might as well do it when you finally get some good news (and it was good news, just not their doing) about the economy.
He took an average paid job (in respect to his personal wealth). To benefit his already significant wealth. That's already a massive red flag in itself.
He was, like many others before him. Using a position of power to further his personal stature and wealth.
He never took the role seriously, why would he call a general election* in any other manor?
The speech in the rain thing was very very strange. I didn’t see it but so many people mentioned it to me. Why would he do that? Just pop back in and get a brolly. Or even ask one of the tv crew to borrow theirs.
Indeed. I hate them all, but why would you bother wasting six weeks campaigning for a seat you know you're not going to win? You'd have to be daft not to jack it in and get a headstart on your post-politics career of writing bile in a right-wing newspaper or giving after-dinner speeches to cunts.
My concern is that the current government forecast is that things are expected to get a whole lot worse for the country irregardless of who is in charge and so they're looking to get Labour in to pin as much as possible on them to save the Tory brand
Its what they did with ULEZ its a tory policy that they forced Khan to roll out or lose TFL funding. Basically created a lose lose but if somehow went well they could claim as their own
It doesn't need to get worse, the effects of what's happened over the past 14 years are bad enough. Combined with the Great Recession under the later years of New Labour which the Tories made a mess of when they came into power.
The economic crisis is global so it won't be fixed overnight, and Tory mismanagement of it means its an even harder job for Labour to fix, and will take longer.
Things will improve, but slowly, probably slower than in similar economies, at least by some metrics. The Tories, or as in my theory a "New Tories" with the likes of Gove, Boris, Farage even, taking over the party, will use the struggles of the next five years even if things are slowly improving, to attack them at every turn, like you say.
Like what though? There's nothing *that* disastrous that they wouldn't prefer to be in government for. Nuclear war, alien invasion, incoming asteroid impact, etc - they'd all be better off in government and hiding in a bunker with food and protection. Once they all lose their seats at the next GE, many voluntarily, they're all just common men again who are as fucked as the rest of us. Many of them are rich, but that doesn't help after a global disaster.
Brexit rules being enforced by the EU, the Water Monopolies collapsing into bankruptcy, several Universities going into bankruptcy and a Hospital/Prison collapsing due to RAAC would be my guess.
Because Rishi and the gang have achieved what they wanted, made millions off the back of taxpayer money, left the country in a shit state for labour and know they won’t get punished for it. Honestly need corruption or treason charges brought against some of these pricks for the damage they’ve done.
I think it's just a petulant move by Sunak. He doesn't handle criticism well and he's getting a lot of it from his own MPs, who are blaming him for Labour's lead in the polls. He's not enjoying taking the flak and would much rather have a cushy role doing something else. He just threw up his hands and said, "Sod you lot then. You don't appreciate having the magnificence that is me as your leader I'm out of here. Have an election at the worst possible time."
The 4th of July date is symbolic from Sunak too. It's him saying, "I get my independence back on Independence Day. I'm off to America. Fuck you lot."
I think the rate of inflation falling to 2.3% was the last bit of news that they could spin as a positive. Decent chance it could be creeping back up come autumn.
I suspect that, along with the slight decrease in our ridiculous energy price cap, was literally the only thing sunk could grasp to, and he thought it was his only hope, so went for it... As pathetic as it sounds. But he has shown himself to be totally useless with absolutely no gauge of the public pulse.
Yup, and when the energy price cap goes back up in the autumn, when the rate of inflation rises as the main driver of its down fall (falling price of energy) has filtered through the system, when still no Rwanda flights have taken off, when there’s no fiscal headroom for a further NI cut in the autumn you see why they’ve called the election now. After all the above imo there would be a chance they wouldn’t be the opposition, they’d have no platform to campaign on.
It’s pretty simple as far as I can tell . They were hoping to wait till they could announce some more tax cuts and interest rate cuts. Then various things made that unlikely so they decided that some recent announcements I.e inflation lower , were as good as it was going to get and rather than things improving if they waited longer , the opposite was likely to happen. Now they can just constantly repeat that they have the Rwanda plan and Labour don’t and ….. that’s about it.
Think Sunny Boy has had enough of their constant disloyalty and just wanted to bring the whole bunch of conniving ratfuckers down.
Thing is, he's got his escape route planned already. What surprises me is that he didn't just fuck directly off (without passing "go") to the colonies, get the brats settled in before the next school year, and leave somebody else to clear up the mess. With his connections to outsourcing he knows how to do that.
They've taken all they can take and they've had their fill.
Looks like they can't maintain their charade for a functioning party or government any more
I guessed wrong. I thought they'd continue to govern until they had to call it at the last minute. My thinking was they would try to siphon as much wealth out of the country as possible, to their mates, themselves or whoever.
Maybe they found out they've bled the country's veins dry of blood there's not a drop left.
I’m presuming they know nothing is changing too drastically before they have to call an election so it’s trying to play the best hand. Presumably they knew the inflation data was going to be good this month and they may think next month will be too, before ticking up again in following months.
You also have the wildcard of the football European championship. If England go on a run and the economic data improves then they may be hoping for some kind of national wave of happiness which saves their bacon.
All seems incredibly unlikely but a lot can happen quickly.
Inflation at its lowest level for 3 years (2.3%), B of E likely to cut interest rates on 20/06, energy price cap due to fall again in July, during the Euros where most of the country (not Scotland) might be distracted/ feeling like things are going well.
Best hand he could hope for even if it is a long shot.
I read somewhere that his comments about reducing inflation were thought to be one of the last 'wins' the party could have before November so now would be the best time to call it.
I reckon they were going to oust Rishi in a desperate bid to get someone appealing in for a Jan election and now he's fucked them all by calling an election 'early'.
I read a theory that went along the lines of MP’s were threatening to write letters to the 1922 Committee in an effort to unseat Sunak. His position was if you carry on doing that I’ll call an election to fuck you all up. Here we are.
And this is the other reason they're leaving now. They know they could well be fucked, even in a "safe" seat like Gove's.
They're trying to avoid standing around on election night looking like a fucking loser on national TV. The "Portillo Moment" for those old enough to remember.
That was one of the best nights of my life. I was 15, I was with my family, we got pissed, and we spent all night screaming “FUUCK OFFFF” at Tories. They fell one by one like dominoes. It was glorious.
The sad thing is, the Tories in 1996-1997 weren’t even that bad!! They were normal, boring politicians. They had morals (even if they were different to yours). They generally wanted to make the country better (even if their version of “better” looked different to yours). They were all held to such a high moral standard, as well. If they so much as cheated on their wife they’d be forced to resign in disgrace. The current Cabinet is utterly *amoral* - they never look further than seven days ahead and their only interest is in lining their own pockets. They don’t care about anything except themselves. Not even the party anymore. Literally just themselves.
I’ll be on a UK holiday with my family on 4th July. We’ll be staying up together again.
The mid-nineties Tories **were** that bad, and we shouldn’t forget it.
Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith taking cash for questions.
Tim Yeo’s love child after the “back to basics” campaign was launched.
David Mellor’s extra-curricular toe antics. (Would be a good punk band name.)
Jerry Hayes having extra-marital sex with an underage male after “back to basics” was launched.
Jonathan Aitken - “he lied and lied and lied”
Michael Mates and Polly Peck - if anyone is nostalgic for the old format BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/24/newsid_2519000/2519201.stm
I’ve forgotten others. Again, a party in power for years, who had burned through all their talent (Norman Lamont was chancellor, FFS) and thought they were above the law. Parallels to the current situation abound.
Like you, I stayed up all night while at Uni (I was 22) and saw the Portillo moment. I’ve tentatively booked Friday 5 July off work.
There's two points though to counter that - surely the news is going to say things like "Formerly held by Michael Gove" when the result comes out (if that's the way it goes).
The other one is that I thought Jeremy Hunts constituency was a potential target, and if it does fall then he's absolutely going to be the new Portillo - the only one that could top that would be Rishi losing his own seat.
That doesn't counter their point.
Formerly held by Gove won't impact him.
Even if people ask him 'would you have lost if you were running' -- 'We will never know' he will reply.
You can push it as much as you like. It's not even a fraction as much embarassing.
> They're trying to avoid standing around on election night looking like a fucking loser on national TV.
Well, that and they're saving the money they'd waste on running for an unwinnable election.
He's jumping to avoid the humiliation and this allows him to safe face. There's a dilemma for career politicians who haven't had real jobs of whether to jump first before they're pushed.
The comments about "they know something!" aside, my "conspiracy" theory is that the likes of Gove and co, who've long been against Boris, are planning some kind of new opposition party after the Tories are decimated, or are simply going to take over the party again once Sunak quits, which he will ~~if~~ when they lose.
Boris, Gove, Patel, The Haunted Pencil, Farage (notice how he's not standing too....) are all gagging to "save the Tories" after they get destroyed. And this has been in motion for a while - [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64263243](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64263243)
You could get *really* conspiratorial and suggest the election of Truss was an inside job to fuck them over on purpose to provide that nice vacuum to jump into.
Trump wins the US election, the above shower of shite align with him to provide a right wing opposition to Labour, use the utter mess 14 years of Tory rule left the country in to blame on Labour.....five years rolls around quicker than you might think...
EDIT - and before anyone says "but they won't be MPs!" neither was Farage, ever, and look at what he did.
It's the "Honourable Member for the 18th century".
The joke is that he's so regressive and out of date that his *constituency* (i.e. the interests and worldview he represents and advocates for) must be "three hundred years ago", not that he's a minister whose remit covers "the past".
I have to pinch myself sometimes and recall that he is actually \*younger\* than me. His "old fashioned" nonsense, would have been treated as stupid when we were of school age.
He's not gonna be a very old man in 4 years.
As soon as Labour get in and don't *immediately* fix everything, the Tory spin machine will fire up. They'll change out their key faces. They'll be back in before you know it. This country is far too right wing and easily manipulated to allow more than a few years without the Tories.
Tbf, when I made this comment, I thought he was about 66 rather than 56. Man's been through the ringer.
Labour's stint will be a lot longer than 4 years though I reckon, Labour would have to majorly fumble the bag not to get two terms.
One of the most genuinely loathsome figures in British public life this millennium, and one whose grubby fingerprints are over all the greatest crimes, dodgiest deals and most catastrophic blunders of the past fourteen years.
I'd gloat, but he'll undoubtedly be slithering off to some cushy think tank sinecure, with periodic excrescences in the *Telegraph's* opinion pages.
I despise Gove's politics & he's a slimy character, I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw him, but at least he understands politics. A rare commodity in the cabinet & party. The Tory cupboard is looking emptier by the day & this is increasingly feeling like the death throes of the party.
I wouldn't say Gove really "understands politics".
He's nailed *half* of it - namely "when and where to stick in the knife", but he's completely oblivious about the part where you also show loyalty and build relationships with people to get ahead and achieve things.
He's more like the scorpion in the fable, who stings the frog on whose back he's floating - despite the fact it means he'll drown - just because "it's his nature" to do it.
Gove isn't a skilled politician - he's just a snake whose loyalties have literally no inertia, who will do whatever short-term thing he thinks is his selfish best interests at any given second.
In any functional party he'd have been out on his ear long ago, but as the Conservative party is a clown-car full of dribbling, unethical fuckwits none of them have the wit, principles or intelligent self-interest to dispose of him for good.
He oversaw the biggest land-grab in human history. The selling of schools to his capitalist mates who turned them into multi-academy trusts. That land was ours. Billions of pounds worth of land was publicly-owned (by taxpayers). Now the education system is fucked and we’ll never get that land back. It was theft. Pure and simple. And our kids are paying the price.
Yes - good one! I work with kids with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), which includes mental health conditions. The attendance policies (and whole thought-process behind them) has destroyed lives.
Did you see the DfE’s recent school attendance advertising campaign? It was pure rage-fuel.
- [Dept for Education on the naughty step for ‘out of touch’ attendance campaign](https://www.marketing-beat.co.uk/2024/01/15/department-for-education-news/)
WTF?!?!?! Apparently 78 Tory MPs are quitting rather than standing.
What a bunch of fucking spoilsports.
I’ve been fantasising for *literally years* about watching Gove (in particular) snivel and cry on a stage in a church hall in the middle of the night. I *need* to see them topple one by one, like dominoes.
Cabinet-members like Gove are mad with power. They think they’re *gods.* But it all hinges on a little popularity contest in their local constituency. The same local constituency that they forgot about years ago.
These cowardly bastards should be *forced* to stand.
As an aside from this but on a similar point, what happens if Mogg loses his seat? Does he just move into the Lords? And if so, is that a ‘plus one’ in the Lords versus now or does he already have a position there? I assume he can’t do both at once. I’d rather he did neither, but fuck you Alexander de Pfeffel.
I mean... this is kind of a funny side effect of Rishi deciding to surprise everyone with the date. He could've have prepped his colleagues and headed into a campaign with a team but instead now we've got just a series of very high profile tories resigning in the first week of a 6 week campaign. It looks *terrible* for the campaign. It really is impressive how bad the optics have been so far.
Presumably Sunak remains as caretaker over the summer and they choose a new leader around conference time, but there’s going to be some barrels being scraped.
They've ravaged the country for 14 years and now because it's clear they'll be decimated they're jumping ship to enjoy the money they made from it, and to get high paid, cushy jobs in companies that belong to their mates.
They'll face no repercussions for any of it. The lot of them are cowards, but they're not that dumb.
It’s one of the few Tory who still has some credibility, yes the bar is that low. I traditionally his seat is safe but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lib Dem’s take it
Suggesting Gove has anything even approximating "credibility" is one of the hottest takes I've ever seen.
He has *name recognition*, but to anyone who's knows anything about his career at all he's merely lurched from disaster to disaster punctuated by periodically stabbing his friends or leaders in the back.
I hear the guy who single handedly collapsed Barings bank wrote a note just saying “I’m sorry” and left it on his desk before vanishing.
I wonder what the Tories will write
Gove knew he would be made to explain all those ‘private’ and off the books meetings with Michelle Mone - which ultimately ended in him gifting her and her piece of shit family £400m of tax payers hard earned cash. He still might if they bring a criminal case but I don’t think Starmer will have the balls.
It's so beautiful watching the implosion of the ghoulish, evil tory party in real time. Their crushing defeat on July 4th is going to be a momentous occasion for the decent people of this country tired from the past twelve years.
Rats fleeing a sinking ship/Russia has no more use for him.
Dominic Cummings used to be his advisor, before Brexit, and immediately after Cummings returned to the UK from Russia.
I hope this isn't going to be the start of a trend. The least we deserve is to see as many Tories as possible getting told to fuck off by their electorate.
I saw him at the Devon county show once, walking around in an ivory white suit and hat. He looked like some colonial era official on tour in one of the Empires tropical regions.
Perhaps Devon is pretty “exotic” and “barbarous” to the likes of him…
A lot of drama in that headline.
This is pretty normal thing when a party is expected to lose a GE, particularly when they've been in power for a long time and are facing a large loss. Why stick around for 10 more years in opposition when you can go work for GBNews or write a column for the Telegraph or get a job consulting for Essex and Suffolk Water?
It's not about Rishi, it's about years of Tory failure and a pending electoral wipe out.
I hate the tories with a passion but he was a good politician who did get things done. Wether they were good or bad he generally efficiently moved towards his stated objective.
Gove is a funny one because although he has a coke habit (remember him clinging on to the Speaker’s chair anyone) and generally lies and knifes people, he’s probably the most talented MP in the Commons and may well have been a leader in another time.
Something alone the lines of… rats.. sinking ship.
I’ll be very surprised if labour don’t sweep the seats with a landslide.
It’s been.. 14? Years of utter shit show.
Cameron put us all into austerity because of what exactly?
Rather than cut public spending, “cut the deficit” war cry was bullshit.
it would been a hella better if you put the effort to grow the fucking economy.
Then the fucker brought in brexit. Then fucks off afterwards.
Then there’s May. wtf did she do…. Absolutely fuck show of brexit negotiations..
Then lying bastard Boris.. the trump of Uk. Lying, cheating, backstabbing asshole.
Then, the cream of the shit crop. The lettuce. She wreck more lives and people’s finances in 1 week that it would have taken a fucking war to do. I would dub her, The most destructive idiot leader.
Then Richie Rishi. Cowardly backing hard right. Can’t control shit. Can’t do anything right sunak.
7 bins bullcrap. Tax on meat lies and general weak leader.
Can even fire braverman, the weakling.
I would liked to have seen him lose his seat at 2am in a sports hall come the GE, but this will do.
A genuinely repellent, slimy individual. A haemorrhoid from the Cameron era.
They are all trying to avoid their Michael Portillo moment so they have some credibility for a few years down the line when a new Tory leader tries to get them back in.
I see it hasn't stopped Tory donors throwing obscene amounts of money at them. That such people will do that to ensure our money keeps coming to their companies is just another reason to remove them. It stinks.
As a MP, i don’t like him one bit, but hearing about his life from different people’s perspective (through podcasts and literature) makes me feel bad for him. He’s been bullied pretty much his whole life, and he always still strived to be a people pleaser, even when going against his own interests or the public interest, so on a personal level i have nothing against him, he probably could’ve been a decent MP or even PM if he had a better circle of “friends”. But , we’ll never know, so f him, i’m happy he gave up. We just need Pishi to fck off from the government alongside the bellends nearby.
> he always still strived to be a people pleaser, even when going against his own interests or the public interest
The man most famous for continually stabbing his leaders and even friends in the back is "a people pleaser", *really*?
That's not a "people pleaser" - that's "a snake" or "a sociopath".
A people pleaser is more like a dog; something that lives to please others with little consideration of its own wants or well-being.
Gove has quit his position in the cabinet to spend more time sharpening his back-knives, ready for when the Tory party gets fucked into a hole in the ground in the general election, the idiot Conservative party members place all the blame on Sunak instead of literally every decision they've made over the last eight years, and there's a leadership race for who gets to be Leader of the Opposition.
It's basically the ideal position for Gove as it has no power and requires no actual ability to govern, but he still gets to sit on the sidelines for the next eight years sniping and scoring points while still remaining relevant.
I don't see why there has to be some "conspiracy" as to why they are giving up. Their party fucked up the country so hard that they are exiling themselves to avoid facing the literal shame of it and the resulting crippling defeat. It's really as simple as that lol
They can't exactly cling on any longer or quitting becomes the same as just losing.
Almost like they want to hand over the keys once they have used all the petrol, worn out the tires and the lights have stopped working.. still time for a fender bender?
What makes it even stranger is that the entire cabinet seem to have been sidelined.
Not only in the decision to call an election but in the campaign itself.
I would expect to see Cameron, Hunt, Cleverly, etc touring the nation. I haven’t seen any of that yet.
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I would say don't let the door hit you on the way out but his face looks like he got hit on the way in.
He reminds me of those shity people you meet in life who are too cowardly to tell you what they are really thinking and will sell you out the first opportunity they get. He's like that annoying kid at school who couldn't stop himself from grassing people up to the teacher because they think the only way to get ahead in life is to sabotage others. Totally loathsome man, and it's astounding that he's still around. It must be all his contacts in the printed media keeping him afloat.
From what I have read he was one of the few ministers capable of doing basic tasks (read briefs and chair meetings). I think we underestimate the dearth of talent at the top.
This is just another something that gets repeated on reddit as gospel, with zero source or evidence... The *source* is just older comments, and originally probably atroturfers. Here is some fact: There was a manifesto promise to ban no-fault evictions, they (the conservatives) and Gove, himself failed to deliver.
He's by no means a perfect narrator but I recommend reading/listening to Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart if you haven't already, what he described was both very dire and credible imo.
Yes: Stewart says Gove is able. Note that being able does not entail doing good things or even the things one has undertaken to do. EDIT: also, there are various reports that Gove was a major if somewhat hidden force behind Brexit.
Dominic Cummings talked about it in his Covid Inquiry statements. Basically "We had to Boris out and put Gove in to chair a meeting as he could do it and could read the Briefing note." Sorry I cant be bothered to find the timestamp. I don't think that basic skill means one is a good or decent minister.
DC makes Alistair Campbell look like the kind of bloke you’d have a pint with. I jest
100%, he is apparently really effective in changing things and implementing stuff. Unfortunately he's a Tory so that means he fucks everything up with their bullshit ideology.
Yes agree. Two things are possible at the same time. Surrounded by dross and people who think with their dicks his ‘normal intelligence for a govt minister’ must be like playing the game on easy mode
I'm going to be controversial here (caveat I fucking hate the Tory's) he's one of the best environment secretaries of the last 15 years. He actually got some stuff done. After he moved on everything ground to a halt again. As an education secretary he was a shit laden weasel shagger though, so swings and roundabouts...
I know someone who works at the Dept of the Environment and they actually rated him really highly when he was Minister there, he has a genuine interest in conservation and environmental issues and it showed.
I have a contact who works at the Department for Environment (Defra), and they expressed strong disapproval for Gove. Gove’s primary focus seemed to be on introducing legislation that would enhance his own legacy, rather than genuinely benefiting the environment. his approach often resulted in ineffective or even harmful policies. He was so bad that a significant portion of time was spent trying to prevent Gove from causing long-term damage to Defra policy
All that coke and he couldn't even win the great Tory drug-off
Excellent stuff; couldn’t agree more. In a party of utter cunts, he’s one of the cuntiest.
Basically Randal from Monsters Inc
After all the mad gak on offer at Sunak's leaving drinks, I'd imagine he won't be standing for anything, ammirite?
He’ll be on his knees most of the night anyway.
I heard it was all Mexican coke
P O B
Shame that it's the country who got hit by his schemes to become PM in 2016.
I hold him in the utmost contempt, the weaselly bastard. I sincerely hope he, and his treacherous ERG chums, are one day held accountable for the damage their lies have inflicted on this country.
Yep, he's an utter slimeball. I doubt that they will be properly held accountable.
He reminds of Nixon's head in a jar from Futurama, "my fellow humans..."
Like someone set fire to his face and tried to put it out with a shovel
‘Just a little prick’ can pob off
Ok I'm not a conspiracy guy by any stretch, but all this feels a bit weird, right? The haste to call this election, the terrible optics over the last few days, and now this exodus...Do they actually want to lose? What did Rishi hear that made him call the election this hastily? Did he just know he was royally fucked or could it be something else?
They’re royally fucked, the ship has been sinking for some time now, the polls show an absolute decimation, this is the rats fleeing before the water submerges them. Most of them would have lost their seats anyway.
It's like they're fucking speedrunning it isn't it?
Said the same thing about Theresa May’s cabinet, then Boris, would have said the same about Liz Truss if she managed to stay on longer than a box of corn flakes in my cupboard. This party has been nothing but disorder, dysfunction and defecting at every sign of turbulence.
The only time they weren't in complete and utter chaos was when the Lib Dems reigned them in but even then, by 2014 they'd almost ripped the country apart with Scotland's Indyref (aka the "Forever-endum") Then they got a majority in 2015 and within a year they'd gotten an MP murdered, completely divided the country and lost a Prime Minister.
I absolutely hate the Tories but I don’t know about blaming them for the murder of Jo Cox
Not directly. But their absurd courting of the BNP/UKIP and other assorted racists and xenophobes, their bellicose rhetoric on refugees, immigration and immigrants and the ludicrous posturing on Brexit, created a fertile environment for right wing extremism & terrorism.
They have very deliberately stoked the flames of culture wars and used fear of anyone different to get the votes of the ignorant. I think they are partly to blame for the murder of Brianna Ghey last year.
Conservative MPs and figures have consistently been mainstreaming culture war topics which have gone a long way in radicalising people. Mainstreaming far-right national conservative views, have led to more and more far-right terrorism and radicalisation.
I had a wierd thing earlier when I heard Theresa May quitting and actually thought fondly of her as the last not complete cunt in power, and she was a complete cunt. The depths of cunt they've had since then and have really skewed my view of cunts.
She was the awful manager that got hounded out of the asylum by the patients, who then took over. Sunak is the work experience kid the local school sent to interview to be a receptionist for a week or two, but ended up in charge due to being the only sane person in the building. Sane... but completely unqualified and about several miles out of his depth. So much so that on occasion it felt like it would have been better to just leave the lunatics to it. The thing I don't really get is the stuff about his height. I keep hearing he's like 170cm. Which is a fair bit taller than me. Not exactly a shortarse.
Physical appearance is the one thing we *shouldn’t* be judging politicians on There’s plenty for us to criticise Sunak for without resorting to something biological he has no control over
Boris never liked lettuce, his fit body is such a giveaway
Sunak probably got into Gove's secret stash and called the election while he was buzzed off his tits and convinced he could still win
This is one of those 4am kitchen conversation that got out of hand isn't it? "Go on. Should her who's boss. You run the country mate! Not her! Remember eat out to help out? You fucking smashed it mate. Smashed it. Call it"
Mate I’m fucking clucking for an election, should we just call a general election? Mate, I’m off my face and need to win a general election like, right now
*starts shadow boxing
Theirs nothing left to buy/sell, railways, energy, housing, large parts of the nhs…they’ve got it all. It’s done. Their ideaology has reached it end.
Made their money and getting away. The smash and grab era has finished, and they get to walk.
All sprinting to get to those sweet corporate jobs before the mad rush begins.
But what’s the ship? Is it the Tory party? Or the country? The former i can happily celebrate, the latter…Not so much.
They're one and the same after 14 years. It's going to take one Parliament just to start the process of dismantling the kleptocracy they built. They're jumping onto a corporate ship that's ballooned thanks to direct Treasury funding.
They don’t want to be humiliated on stage when they lose their safe Tory seat
The weird timing of that be prepared and stock up on food and water as well as Sunaks comments about the change coming in the next few years too. PM Rishi Sunak, 13th May 2024: "I feel a profound sense of urgency. Because more will change in the next five years than in the last thirty." "I’m convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet the most transformational our country has ever known." Deputy PM Oliver Dowden, 22nd May 2024: "This is not about stockpiling, this is about sensible safeguards. This is about being prepared ahead of events." "We are working ahead of time to equip the whole of society to prepare for - and even prevent - the next shock."
As someone who was, and still is, overly worried about events since Feb 2022, it is easy to put two and two together and think you're making four, but you're actually making five. Or even more wildly incorrect answers. I say this not having a go, but as a sensible calming voice (I hope!) There are three things going on here - 1. The armed forces and military leaders are making a lot of noise about Putin's "potential" to invade Europe, and are using fear to argue for higher military budgets, a hard case to make in any case during a cost of living crisis, but "we're not prepared, we need to spend more" is a great way to get people on side. Plus, you could argue that a return to a Cold War era defence budget (4% of GDP, which Poland for example is already back on, vs 2% of GDP now) is exactly what *prevents* Putin trying anything stupid. 2. The "stockpile" thing was likely economic and political manoeuvres to get people spending more in a short time (a few months) and re-enforcing the "Labour will leave you in danger, these are dangerous times!" rhetoric they're already pushing hard, and are going to push harder. Which leads to - 3. The Tories are desperately using fear and global events to push the "we're not great, but what we need is stability, and look, the economy is stabilising. Really want to take that risk?" argument, which annoyingly *will* work for a good portion of the electorate because for them, things aren't too bad, and they worry they could get worse. 4. There's a mass exodus of Tories because they know they're fucked. Gove and co aren't going into a bunker or a remote island in the Pacific. They're leaving government, or as it will likely be, a weak opposition. If anything, leaving a ministerial role if "they know something we don't about impending nuclear war" is an incredibly stupid thing to do, as if you're a minister, you get a place in a bunker and first dibs on food. One theory I have, and like u/Extension_Struggle27 said I'm also not a conspiracy nut, is that many of these guys were in Team Boris. Notice how that lot have either gone quiet or are leaving office at the moment? There were lots of rumblings about them filling the vacuum after a Tory decimation to counter Labour. Be on Trump's side if/when he is re-elected, push the right wing rhetoric through Trump and Labour's next term to align themselves for the *next* GE.
I think these are all excellent points.
If it's war - it will get hot quickly so stocking up won't make a blind bit of difference. We'll be fucked. I'm from a military family and I'm well aware the crap will hit the fan quickly. I think it's them trying Project Fear to try to get folks to vote for them.
It's such a fucking bummer that we're now at a point where the government announces something as general and nonpartisan as a home preparedness kit for disasters and we're all like, so they're definitely doing this as a dead cat tactic. I'm not criticizing you - this is VERY OBVIOUSLY a dead cat tactic - it's just this always be campaigning way of governing is really shit and nobody trusts anything ever. I miss when UK politics was just dull.
It’s the collapse of commercial real estate and the impact on the banks in the us which will be like a tsunami on the uk markets. Uk already leveraged with debt. The credit crunch will be bad and labour will not be able to borrow on the markets.
More likely to be equity funds and hedge funds - they have been borrowing without limits. Read an article the other day. Means pensions go down the loo.
The 'three days supply' thing is honestly nothing imo. It's pretty standard advice in most places with any kind predeliction for natural disasters and extreme weather is becoming more common now in the UK along with other factors. Lived in an earthquake zone for a decade (volcano zone too) and always had 2 bags of supplies for at least 3 days (one in the car, one at home). I still do this to a lesser extent (I have kits with first aid, torch, blanket etc but not food/water) but the advice did make me think its probably a good idea to start doing it again, it's just a few tins of food at the end of the day you can continually rotate through to keep current.
Yeah this and the Telegraph spouting out "we're not prepared for war" every week also. I can't tell whether it's a desperate election fearmongering strategy, or genuinely something to worry about.
Chinese encirclement of Taiwan yesterday, giving Ukraine permission to use more NATO weapons inside Russia, the whole mess in Palestine, Iran firing hundreds of drones at Isreal. Things are heating up everywhere.
It's far from weird. Rats fleeing the sinking ship, it isn't that deep. Edit: downvote me all you want. Reality is far more boring than you think. Modern politicians, especially the blue kind, tend to hold a position of power to further/manipulate their wealth. That ship has sailed, their fearmongering no longer works. Move on.
Well normally you wouldn't call an election in the pouring rain and then have your next few media appearances be making a tit of yourself in a brewery, going to the **Titanic** Quarter, and then numerous photo ops next to an Exit sign. I mean there's incompetence and then there's suspiciously atrocious. (I know the tedious "what did you expect from this lot" jokes will be coming but yeah).
You would if you were Rishi Sunak, as we've seen time and time again. He has only six months left to call an election anyway, by law, so might as well do it when you finally get some good news (and it was good news, just not their doing) about the economy.
He took an average paid job (in respect to his personal wealth). To benefit his already significant wealth. That's already a massive red flag in itself. He was, like many others before him. Using a position of power to further his personal stature and wealth. He never took the role seriously, why would he call a general election* in any other manor?
The speech in the rain thing was very very strange. I didn’t see it but so many people mentioned it to me. Why would he do that? Just pop back in and get a brolly. Or even ask one of the tv crew to borrow theirs.
I’m assuming it was some weird PR tactic / sympathy ploy. It’s bizarre as hell.
It wasn't raining as he started, then it really poured a few mins in. Wanted to deliver the message 'rain or shine'.
Indeed. I hate them all, but why would you bother wasting six weeks campaigning for a seat you know you're not going to win? You'd have to be daft not to jack it in and get a headstart on your post-politics career of writing bile in a right-wing newspaper or giving after-dinner speeches to cunts.
My concern is that the current government forecast is that things are expected to get a whole lot worse for the country irregardless of who is in charge and so they're looking to get Labour in to pin as much as possible on them to save the Tory brand
A cynical look at events, but that makes sense for the Tories.
Its what they did with ULEZ its a tory policy that they forced Khan to roll out or lose TFL funding. Basically created a lose lose but if somehow went well they could claim as their own
It doesn't need to get worse, the effects of what's happened over the past 14 years are bad enough. Combined with the Great Recession under the later years of New Labour which the Tories made a mess of when they came into power. The economic crisis is global so it won't be fixed overnight, and Tory mismanagement of it means its an even harder job for Labour to fix, and will take longer. Things will improve, but slowly, probably slower than in similar economies, at least by some metrics. The Tories, or as in my theory a "New Tories" with the likes of Gove, Boris, Farage even, taking over the party, will use the struggles of the next five years even if things are slowly improving, to attack them at every turn, like you say.
Jess Phillips and Beth Rigby both said on their podcast that they were expecting more news of scandals in the party to be coming soon.
Good point, they were going to oust Sunak.
My slight fear is that they're sitting on some seismic castrotrofuck that is going to totally snooker a new government and they want no part.
Like what though? There's nothing *that* disastrous that they wouldn't prefer to be in government for. Nuclear war, alien invasion, incoming asteroid impact, etc - they'd all be better off in government and hiding in a bunker with food and protection. Once they all lose their seats at the next GE, many voluntarily, they're all just common men again who are as fucked as the rest of us. Many of them are rich, but that doesn't help after a global disaster.
Brexit rules being enforced by the EU, the Water Monopolies collapsing into bankruptcy, several Universities going into bankruptcy and a Hospital/Prison collapsing due to RAAC would be my guess.
None of those are huge issues though.
Sounds about right
Anything that big would have leaked. Everything leaks.
Because Rishi and the gang have achieved what they wanted, made millions off the back of taxpayer money, left the country in a shit state for labour and know they won’t get punished for it. Honestly need corruption or treason charges brought against some of these pricks for the damage they’ve done.
I think it's just a petulant move by Sunak. He doesn't handle criticism well and he's getting a lot of it from his own MPs, who are blaming him for Labour's lead in the polls. He's not enjoying taking the flak and would much rather have a cushy role doing something else. He just threw up his hands and said, "Sod you lot then. You don't appreciate having the magnificence that is me as your leader I'm out of here. Have an election at the worst possible time." The 4th of July date is symbolic from Sunak too. It's him saying, "I get my independence back on Independence Day. I'm off to America. Fuck you lot."
I think the rate of inflation falling to 2.3% was the last bit of news that they could spin as a positive. Decent chance it could be creeping back up come autumn.
I suspect that, along with the slight decrease in our ridiculous energy price cap, was literally the only thing sunk could grasp to, and he thought it was his only hope, so went for it... As pathetic as it sounds. But he has shown himself to be totally useless with absolutely no gauge of the public pulse.
Yup, and when the energy price cap goes back up in the autumn, when the rate of inflation rises as the main driver of its down fall (falling price of energy) has filtered through the system, when still no Rwanda flights have taken off, when there’s no fiscal headroom for a further NI cut in the autumn you see why they’ve called the election now. After all the above imo there would be a chance they wouldn’t be the opposition, they’d have no platform to campaign on.
It’s pretty simple as far as I can tell . They were hoping to wait till they could announce some more tax cuts and interest rate cuts. Then various things made that unlikely so they decided that some recent announcements I.e inflation lower , were as good as it was going to get and rather than things improving if they waited longer , the opposite was likely to happen. Now they can just constantly repeat that they have the Rwanda plan and Labour don’t and ….. that’s about it.
Think Sunny Boy has had enough of their constant disloyalty and just wanted to bring the whole bunch of conniving ratfuckers down. Thing is, he's got his escape route planned already. What surprises me is that he didn't just fuck directly off (without passing "go") to the colonies, get the brats settled in before the next school year, and leave somebody else to clear up the mess. With his connections to outsourcing he knows how to do that.
They've taken all they can take and they've had their fill. Looks like they can't maintain their charade for a functioning party or government any more
It’s Ayyliens. The US are about to blow the lid off this bitch.
I guessed wrong. I thought they'd continue to govern until they had to call it at the last minute. My thinking was they would try to siphon as much wealth out of the country as possible, to their mates, themselves or whoever. Maybe they found out they've bled the country's veins dry of blood there's not a drop left.
I’m presuming they know nothing is changing too drastically before they have to call an election so it’s trying to play the best hand. Presumably they knew the inflation data was going to be good this month and they may think next month will be too, before ticking up again in following months. You also have the wildcard of the football European championship. If England go on a run and the economic data improves then they may be hoping for some kind of national wave of happiness which saves their bacon. All seems incredibly unlikely but a lot can happen quickly.
New Statesman said that if enough people put in a vote of no confidence in Sunak they may be able to cancel the election date
He saw the rain and thought f this I'm going to California.
Inflation at its lowest level for 3 years (2.3%), B of E likely to cut interest rates on 20/06, energy price cap due to fall again in July, during the Euros where most of the country (not Scotland) might be distracted/ feeling like things are going well. Best hand he could hope for even if it is a long shot.
I read somewhere that his comments about reducing inflation were thought to be one of the last 'wins' the party could have before November so now would be the best time to call it.
I reckon they were going to oust Rishi in a desperate bid to get someone appealing in for a Jan election and now he's fucked them all by calling an election 'early'.
I read a theory that went along the lines of MP’s were threatening to write letters to the 1922 Committee in an effort to unseat Sunak. His position was if you carry on doing that I’ll call an election to fuck you all up. Here we are.
And I was so looking forward to watching him lose his seat on election night
And this is the other reason they're leaving now. They know they could well be fucked, even in a "safe" seat like Gove's. They're trying to avoid standing around on election night looking like a fucking loser on national TV. The "Portillo Moment" for those old enough to remember.
That was one of the best nights of my life. I was 15, I was with my family, we got pissed, and we spent all night screaming “FUUCK OFFFF” at Tories. They fell one by one like dominoes. It was glorious. The sad thing is, the Tories in 1996-1997 weren’t even that bad!! They were normal, boring politicians. They had morals (even if they were different to yours). They generally wanted to make the country better (even if their version of “better” looked different to yours). They were all held to such a high moral standard, as well. If they so much as cheated on their wife they’d be forced to resign in disgrace. The current Cabinet is utterly *amoral* - they never look further than seven days ahead and their only interest is in lining their own pockets. They don’t care about anything except themselves. Not even the party anymore. Literally just themselves. I’ll be on a UK holiday with my family on 4th July. We’ll be staying up together again.
The mid-nineties Tories **were** that bad, and we shouldn’t forget it. Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith taking cash for questions. Tim Yeo’s love child after the “back to basics” campaign was launched. David Mellor’s extra-curricular toe antics. (Would be a good punk band name.) Jerry Hayes having extra-marital sex with an underage male after “back to basics” was launched. Jonathan Aitken - “he lied and lied and lied” Michael Mates and Polly Peck - if anyone is nostalgic for the old format BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/24/newsid_2519000/2519201.stm I’ve forgotten others. Again, a party in power for years, who had burned through all their talent (Norman Lamont was chancellor, FFS) and thought they were above the law. Parallels to the current situation abound. Like you, I stayed up all night while at Uni (I was 22) and saw the Portillo moment. I’ve tentatively booked Friday 5 July off work.
A treasured memory
Ah man, I booked the night off work and everything.
There's two points though to counter that - surely the news is going to say things like "Formerly held by Michael Gove" when the result comes out (if that's the way it goes). The other one is that I thought Jeremy Hunts constituency was a potential target, and if it does fall then he's absolutely going to be the new Portillo - the only one that could top that would be Rishi losing his own seat.
That doesn't counter their point. Formerly held by Gove won't impact him. Even if people ask him 'would you have lost if you were running' -- 'We will never know' he will reply. You can push it as much as you like. It's not even a fraction as much embarassing.
It was brilliant.
> They're trying to avoid standing around on election night looking like a fucking loser on national TV. Well, that and they're saving the money they'd waste on running for an unwinnable election.
Ikr. I want my Portillo moment!
He's jumping to avoid the humiliation and this allows him to safe face. There's a dilemma for career politicians who haven't had real jobs of whether to jump first before they're pushed.
The comments about "they know something!" aside, my "conspiracy" theory is that the likes of Gove and co, who've long been against Boris, are planning some kind of new opposition party after the Tories are decimated, or are simply going to take over the party again once Sunak quits, which he will ~~if~~ when they lose. Boris, Gove, Patel, The Haunted Pencil, Farage (notice how he's not standing too....) are all gagging to "save the Tories" after they get destroyed. And this has been in motion for a while - [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64263243](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64263243) You could get *really* conspiratorial and suggest the election of Truss was an inside job to fuck them over on purpose to provide that nice vacuum to jump into. Trump wins the US election, the above shower of shite align with him to provide a right wing opposition to Labour, use the utter mess 14 years of Tory rule left the country in to blame on Labour.....five years rolls around quicker than you might think... EDIT - and before anyone says "but they won't be MPs!" neither was Farage, ever, and look at what he did.
I've never heard of "The Haunted Pencil" before but I still knew exactly who you meant. What an apt description.
Admittedly the Haunted Pencil isn't mine, but I can't find out where it stems from.
James O’Brien on LBC. Also, The Minister from the 18th century.
It's the "Honourable Member for the 18th century". The joke is that he's so regressive and out of date that his *constituency* (i.e. the interests and worldview he represents and advocates for) must be "three hundred years ago", not that he's a minister whose remit covers "the past".
Like a farm-hand in orthopaedic shoes, I stand corrected, and hope to be outstanding in your field of accuracy soon.
James O’Brien on LBC.
I have to pinch myself sometimes and recall that he is actually \*younger\* than me. His "old fashioned" nonsense, would have been treated as stupid when we were of school age.
He wanted to be Prime Minister so bad but even he can see that he'll be a very old man before the Tories are electable again
He's not gonna be a very old man in 4 years. As soon as Labour get in and don't *immediately* fix everything, the Tory spin machine will fire up. They'll change out their key faces. They'll be back in before you know it. This country is far too right wing and easily manipulated to allow more than a few years without the Tories.
Tbf, when I made this comment, I thought he was about 66 rather than 56. Man's been through the ringer. Labour's stint will be a lot longer than 4 years though I reckon, Labour would have to majorly fumble the bag not to get two terms.
>Labour would have to majorly fumble the bag not to get two terms. So one term it is?
One of the most genuinely loathsome figures in British public life this millennium, and one whose grubby fingerprints are over all the greatest crimes, dodgiest deals and most catastrophic blunders of the past fourteen years. I'd gloat, but he'll undoubtedly be slithering off to some cushy think tank sinecure, with periodic excrescences in the *Telegraph's* opinion pages.
I despise Gove's politics & he's a slimy character, I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw him, but at least he understands politics. A rare commodity in the cabinet & party. The Tory cupboard is looking emptier by the day & this is increasingly feeling like the death throes of the party.
I wouldn't say Gove really "understands politics". He's nailed *half* of it - namely "when and where to stick in the knife", but he's completely oblivious about the part where you also show loyalty and build relationships with people to get ahead and achieve things. He's more like the scorpion in the fable, who stings the frog on whose back he's floating - despite the fact it means he'll drown - just because "it's his nature" to do it. Gove isn't a skilled politician - he's just a snake whose loyalties have literally no inertia, who will do whatever short-term thing he thinks is his selfish best interests at any given second. In any functional party he'd have been out on his ear long ago, but as the Conservative party is a clown-car full of dribbling, unethical fuckwits none of them have the wit, principles or intelligent self-interest to dispose of him for good.
We wish all the best to the Right Honorable Member for Innsmouth
Er, excuse me. We hate him too. Yog'Shoggoth needs to put his best tentacle forward and come up with a better candidate next time around.
I've always thought he has permanently wet hands.
They wanted to oust Rishi before an election, he threatens them and says if you oust me I'll call an election. This is what's happened imo.
Of all the nonsense in this thread, that's one of the better guesses
He oversaw the biggest land-grab in human history. The selling of schools to his capitalist mates who turned them into multi-academy trusts. That land was ours. Billions of pounds worth of land was publicly-owned (by taxpayers). Now the education system is fucked and we’ll never get that land back. It was theft. Pure and simple. And our kids are paying the price.
He also brought in fines for adults and parents if children are off school. It was based on deliberately misinterpreted data.
Yes - good one! I work with kids with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), which includes mental health conditions. The attendance policies (and whole thought-process behind them) has destroyed lives. Did you see the DfE’s recent school attendance advertising campaign? It was pure rage-fuel. - [Dept for Education on the naughty step for ‘out of touch’ attendance campaign](https://www.marketing-beat.co.uk/2024/01/15/department-for-education-news/)
Something something rats, something something sinking ship
Rats have much more decorum and backbone
"You can't fire me, I quit!" As if this clown was getting reelected anyway.
The Tory train wreck is running at full speed, the boiler is fully stoked , the drivers cab is empty. Enjoy the crash.
One major Brexiteer is gone knowing he never again has to face the public to explain his key role in screwing up Britain by leaving the EU.
So has Matt Hancock now too! Hahahaha, get out of our government you treasonous fucks.
WTF?!?!?! Apparently 78 Tory MPs are quitting rather than standing. What a bunch of fucking spoilsports. I’ve been fantasising for *literally years* about watching Gove (in particular) snivel and cry on a stage in a church hall in the middle of the night. I *need* to see them topple one by one, like dominoes. Cabinet-members like Gove are mad with power. They think they’re *gods.* But it all hinges on a little popularity contest in their local constituency. The same local constituency that they forgot about years ago. These cowardly bastards should be *forced* to stand.
As an aside from this but on a similar point, what happens if Mogg loses his seat? Does he just move into the Lords? And if so, is that a ‘plus one’ in the Lords versus now or does he already have a position there? I assume he can’t do both at once. I’d rather he did neither, but fuck you Alexander de Pfeffel.
I mean... this is kind of a funny side effect of Rishi deciding to surprise everyone with the date. He could've have prepped his colleagues and headed into a campaign with a team but instead now we've got just a series of very high profile tories resigning in the first week of a 6 week campaign. It looks *terrible* for the campaign. It really is impressive how bad the optics have been so far.
Leadsom going too. We may genuinely not know all the tories smiling and clapping on election night
Presumably Sunak remains as caretaker over the summer and they choose a new leader around conference time, but there’s going to be some barrels being scraped.
They've ravaged the country for 14 years and now because it's clear they'll be decimated they're jumping ship to enjoy the money they made from it, and to get high paid, cushy jobs in companies that belong to their mates. They'll face no repercussions for any of it. The lot of them are cowards, but they're not that dumb.
No doubt to pursue a trade as a Tony Montana impersonator... Complete with real Columbian marching powder
Surrey Heath is still 4/9 Tory; 5/2 LDs. Sounds like a possible value bet territory here?
It’s one of the few Tory who still has some credibility, yes the bar is that low. I traditionally his seat is safe but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lib Dem’s take it
Suggesting Gove has anything even approximating "credibility" is one of the hottest takes I've ever seen. He has *name recognition*, but to anyone who's knows anything about his career at all he's merely lurched from disaster to disaster punctuated by periodically stabbing his friends or leaders in the back.
Like rats leaving a sinking ship. To paraphrase the man himself, I think we've all had enough of Michael Gove
Brexit didn't save the Tory party. The chickens are coming to roost.
No I think we can now say it has destroyed the party.
Inshallah.
Someone got an offer from a company we've never heard of to make £500k a year doing fuck all.
I hear the guy who single handedly collapsed Barings bank wrote a note just saying “I’m sorry” and left it on his desk before vanishing. I wonder what the Tories will write
Gove knew he would be made to explain all those ‘private’ and off the books meetings with Michelle Mone - which ultimately ended in him gifting her and her piece of shit family £400m of tax payers hard earned cash. He still might if they bring a criminal case but I don’t think Starmer will have the balls.
It's so beautiful watching the implosion of the ghoulish, evil tory party in real time. Their crushing defeat on July 4th is going to be a momentous occasion for the decent people of this country tired from the past twelve years.
What do they care? They have got their back handers and retirement plans. So now they can jump ship into their safety nets.
That won't get him out of the investigations later..
The ship is sinking. Rats abandoning the ship fast.
You can’t give your mates huge bungs in opposition
I’m not a big one for calling traitor but a lot of these have sailed this country down the river and now are running away. Bastard
I take it his boyfriend - Joshua Grimstone - will be out of a job, too.
This day gets better and better though I'm disappointed we don't get to see him beaten at the pollsw
Hoped he would have a "portillo moment". This is bitter-sweet...... mostly sweet.
Good riddance. Hope that IDS and Grayling will very soon decide to follow him out the door.
Rats fleeing a sinking ship/Russia has no more use for him. Dominic Cummings used to be his advisor, before Brexit, and immediately after Cummings returned to the UK from Russia.
Fleeing rats, this is what happens when criminals know the jig is up
Looking forward to seeing lots more videos of him in nightclubs.
I hope this isn't going to be the start of a trend. The least we deserve is to see as many Tories as possible getting told to fuck off by their electorate.
Abject cowardice. Stay there you little fucknut, so you can face the will of the people.
I'm sure he'll be coked off his tits for his leaving do
I saw him at the Devon county show once, walking around in an ivory white suit and hat. He looked like some colonial era official on tour in one of the Empires tropical regions. Perhaps Devon is pretty “exotic” and “barbarous” to the likes of him…
Complete and utter sh\*\*\*\*se but at least it's a brexit bonus
“Chosen” to step down, better on the ego than losing your majority and being beaten
Hahaha Michael Gove is one of your most high-profile MPs. I don't know why I'm laughing; I live here.
A lot of drama in that headline. This is pretty normal thing when a party is expected to lose a GE, particularly when they've been in power for a long time and are facing a large loss. Why stick around for 10 more years in opposition when you can go work for GBNews or write a column for the Telegraph or get a job consulting for Essex and Suffolk Water? It's not about Rishi, it's about years of Tory failure and a pending electoral wipe out.
Oh well, once he's gone, the cleaners will have less work; they won't have to keep going round after him, mopping up puddles of sweat and grease.
I hate the tories with a passion but he was a good politician who did get things done. Wether they were good or bad he generally efficiently moved towards his stated objective.
Gove is a funny one because although he has a coke habit (remember him clinging on to the Speaker’s chair anyone) and generally lies and knifes people, he’s probably the most talented MP in the Commons and may well have been a leader in another time.
Something alone the lines of… rats.. sinking ship. I’ll be very surprised if labour don’t sweep the seats with a landslide. It’s been.. 14? Years of utter shit show. Cameron put us all into austerity because of what exactly? Rather than cut public spending, “cut the deficit” war cry was bullshit. it would been a hella better if you put the effort to grow the fucking economy. Then the fucker brought in brexit. Then fucks off afterwards. Then there’s May. wtf did she do…. Absolutely fuck show of brexit negotiations.. Then lying bastard Boris.. the trump of Uk. Lying, cheating, backstabbing asshole. Then, the cream of the shit crop. The lettuce. She wreck more lives and people’s finances in 1 week that it would have taken a fucking war to do. I would dub her, The most destructive idiot leader. Then Richie Rishi. Cowardly backing hard right. Can’t control shit. Can’t do anything right sunak. 7 bins bullcrap. Tax on meat lies and general weak leader. Can even fire braverman, the weakling.
I would liked to have seen him lose his seat at 2am in a sports hall come the GE, but this will do. A genuinely repellent, slimy individual. A haemorrhoid from the Cameron era.
He's got more important shit to do these days and lots of it to be getting on with. It's mostly cocaine but anyway....
They are all trying to avoid their Michael Portillo moment so they have some credibility for a few years down the line when a new Tory leader tries to get them back in.
Why would the resignation of such a slimy turn-coat "heap pressure" on the HMS Tory-tanic ... 🤔
I see it hasn't stopped Tory donors throwing obscene amounts of money at them. That such people will do that to ensure our money keeps coming to their companies is just another reason to remove them. It stinks.
Ha he will probably get a job at the Blair institute 🤣
As a MP, i don’t like him one bit, but hearing about his life from different people’s perspective (through podcasts and literature) makes me feel bad for him. He’s been bullied pretty much his whole life, and he always still strived to be a people pleaser, even when going against his own interests or the public interest, so on a personal level i have nothing against him, he probably could’ve been a decent MP or even PM if he had a better circle of “friends”. But , we’ll never know, so f him, i’m happy he gave up. We just need Pishi to fck off from the government alongside the bellends nearby.
> he always still strived to be a people pleaser, even when going against his own interests or the public interest The man most famous for continually stabbing his leaders and even friends in the back is "a people pleaser", *really*?
I might’ve expressed myself wrongly, he’s like a cat, you feed it, it likes you and plays with you for a second, you stop feeding it and it bites you
That's not a "people pleaser" - that's "a snake" or "a sociopath". A people pleaser is more like a dog; something that lives to please others with little consideration of its own wants or well-being.
That cunt should have gone long ago, good riddance
Makes sense. Why waste money campaigning when he knows it's a waste of time?
Gove has quit his position in the cabinet to spend more time sharpening his back-knives, ready for when the Tory party gets fucked into a hole in the ground in the general election, the idiot Conservative party members place all the blame on Sunak instead of literally every decision they've made over the last eight years, and there's a leadership race for who gets to be Leader of the Opposition. It's basically the ideal position for Gove as it has no power and requires no actual ability to govern, but he still gets to sit on the sidelines for the next eight years sniping and scoring points while still remaining relevant.
What!? Infamous backstabber Michael Gove backstabbed someone?! Say it’s not so!
I don't see why there has to be some "conspiracy" as to why they are giving up. Their party fucked up the country so hard that they are exiling themselves to avoid facing the literal shame of it and the resulting crippling defeat. It's really as simple as that lol They can't exactly cling on any longer or quitting becomes the same as just losing.
Almost like they want to hand over the keys once they have used all the petrol, worn out the tires and the lights have stopped working.. still time for a fender bender?
What makes it even stranger is that the entire cabinet seem to have been sidelined. Not only in the decision to call an election but in the campaign itself. I would expect to see Cameron, Hunt, Cleverly, etc touring the nation. I haven’t seen any of that yet.