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#the second clownfall of 2022
Is Liz really out!? Is this a new record?!
She's really out and yes it is, she didn't even make it halfway to the previous shortest serving PM's term
Some things that outlasted Liz Truss's premiership:
Her one-term tenure as president of the Oxford University Lib Dems
The leadership contest that got her elected as PM
A lettuce
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sushigal007 · 2 years
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THE LETTUCE WINS!!!
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brasskingfisher · 2 years
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IT'S HAPPENED! IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED!!!!
*happy dance*
@becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys
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A source of great joy to me this weekend has been watching Boris Johnson's fucking transparent-as-oxygen game of Schrödinger's contestant because my god, this man's ego
Like he cancelled his holiday, came home early on Saturday, and he was ready, Tumblrs, he was ready, little blue boxing gloves on, sweatband in place around his little ham ears, Carrie Antoinette mopping his brow... He was here and prepared to FIGHT Rishi Sunak. He was going to WIN. This was his chance to unite the Tories, to be vindicated and exonerated, to get back to his ugly flat in number 10 that he had decorated like a colonial officer's room in the British Raj, and everyone was going to pat his wig and honk his dick and it was all going to be great. All he needed was a hundred supporters! He could beat his mean former Grand Vizier! It was going to be beautiful.
...Except people did hate him when he left, didn't they? They said very mean things about his face and also his brain. When he was packing up he even found custard in his clown shoes, Tumblrs, and he's pretty sure it was Michael Gove that put it there because he smirked at the squelching. So wouldn't it be awful - wouldn't it be HORRIFYING - if he tried to compete...and LOST.
:O :O :O
Solution - campaign without ever actually telling anyone you're campaigning. If you win, huzzah! You're so popular! If you lose, it's fine, you were never actually competing. Schrödinger's contestant. A perfect plan. The only thing that would undermine it is if you then very obviously and visibly start canvassing and competing.
Lol.
The highlights included:
Getting back into the country yesterday and immediately claiming that he already had over 100 votes, because hey, lying always worked before
He did not
He had 54
Calling Penny Mordaunt today and begging her to drop out so he can have her votes
Penny Mordaunt telling him to fuck his own clown nose
Penny Mordaunt telling him her supporters will switch to Sunak anyway if she drops out
Penny Mordaunt telling him some of his own supporters have already switched to her
Claiming tonight (Sunday) as the Monday deadline approaches that he has 102
102 is the exact number you'd claim because 100 or 101 would sound too unbelievable
Realising he is definitely not going to win because he does not, in fact, have 102, or even 100
Announcing 15 minutes ago that he isn't competing anyway so really when you think about it he hasn't lost
He should have stayed on holiday
Anyway people keep asking me but I'm telling you, it'll be Sunak
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sushigal007 · 2 years
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My partner just pointed out that Liz Truss is the first Prime Minster since Anthony Eden who has never had an episode of Doctor Who premier during their tenure.
OH MY GOD INCREDIBLE
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Is there any chance we could have a round up of the Circus? I am so lost on how the dominoes fell over the last 40 days
Okay this is not comprehensive, because (a) my husband the politics nerd is currently on his way to a gig in west Wales somewhere and so cannot chime in and also (b) all our political journalist friends are understandably quite busy right now doing political journaling, but I seem to have an influx of new followers who are also very confused and don't understand what's going on, so I shall try.
Alright so what we're seeing here is the Second Clownfall of 2022, the hotly anticipated sequel to the Adventures of Big Dog the Clown. However it revolves around the character of Liz Truss, and will use some terminology, so
Previous Reading
Important Terminology - Required Reading
What is a Whip?
How do Whips work?
Shadow Cabinet
Front Benchers, Back Benchers and the Cabinet
What do we need to call an early General Election?
The Adventures of Big Dog the Clown - Suggested Reading
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Elanor's Guide to Liz Truss - Suggested Reading
Character-based prequel
...okay I think that's everything. On with the show!
The Premiership of Liz Truss (2022-2022)
Week One
We begin our tale on September 5th, 2022. Coincidentally, that was also the date that I personally started my new job. Let's see which of us does better!
The Daily Mail is delighted, and runs a headline proclaiming "Cometh the hour, cometh the woman". Tory rag in a frock coat the Financial Times runs an op-ed:
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So the results ARE IN! She will definitely fuck us up! But that's a good thing for vague reasons! Blitz spirit everyone. Tally ho, pip pip, shoot a servant and have sex with a wall, hey what. Good old Blighty.
(That's my best impression of Tories I'm good at their accents I hope you like it)
Truss does an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, and fellow guest and comedian Joe Lycett wildly and effusively applauds her every word. Even Liz realises no one would sincerely applaud her. Bafflingly, the entire right wing press and every member of the Tory party freak out about this, because they don't understand the function of a satirist and don't know how to defend against it. It is extremely funny. Joe Lycett announces he's a right-wing comedian now, and begins a new extended career bit effusively and sarcastically praising right wing politicians. They all cry extensively and call him mean.
SO, it's been a long hard leadership campaign! But she made it. For years, Tories have been blighted by the curse of the PM/Chancellor relationship, backstabbing and cheating and lying about each other to try and get power. But not our Liz, oh no; her Chancellor is Maths Mate and BFF Kwasi Kwarteng, an insipid and poisonous gnome known for three (3) things:
He once wrote a stupid book with Liz Truss about his stupid opinions on how he thinks economics work and everyone laughed at him and stuffed him in a locker
On the night of the Brexit vote he was overheard by a journalist gleefully saying “Who cares if sterling crashes? It will come back up again“ which are of course the words of a man who knows all about economics and how they work
This fucking bullshit back in July:
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But hey IT'S OKAY! Everything is fine! Because Liz and Kwasi are BFFs who certainly never had an affair and are marching in lockstep and have each other's backs and both love maths more than their own children if they had any! Maths Friends!
Multiple resignations immediately follow.
Among them is Ben Elliot, the Tory Party chair, which is a pretty big deal from a man who just lived through the Johnson years; also, shockingly, Priti Patel, the deportation-happy Home Secretary, decides that even as an animatronic goblin she cannot support this nonsense.
It's not a resignation per se, but at ten to seven in the evening it's announced that Andrew Bridgen, the Troy MP for Leicestershire North West, has been evicted from his home and ordered to pay £800,000 in legal costs, and a possible £244,000 in rent arrears. Also described as "dishonest" by a judge.
This is not directly relevant to Liz Truss but look, it was a staggeringly weird day and this was basically the topper.
Anyway.
Liz goes to the Palace and is duly sworn in by the Queen, who promptly keels over and dies the very next day. Parliament is instantly shut down for mandatory mourning. As omens go, this one was not subtle.
This triggers the circulation of some very awkward footage of Young Truss talking about how she thinks the Monarchy should be abolished for being a gross relic of horrifying social stratification. However you must understand that it's not awkward because anyone thinks she murdered the Queen. It's because Liz Truss's attempts at public speaking are like sitting through a children's Christmas play when you're the only person in the audience and they can all see your face so you have to look encouraging for four hours when inside you are shrivelling into something approximating an apricot pit travelling to the core of Jupiter.
Take a look at her acceptance speech and wither.
Anyway we're now several MPs and a queen down so she's got to get on replacing those so she can focus on her real love: the much-anticipated mini-budget that she is preparing with Kwasi to save the UK from the harrowing quagmire of crippling poverty that Big Dog managed to drive us into (all while pretending it wasn't Big Dog who did it.)
Fortunately, she does not need to replace the queen! Monarchies take care of themselves, which many people would argue is very much the problem, of course. They had a proper reunion with Meghan From Suits and Meghan From Suits' husband, both of whom were banned from visiting Balmoral, and also the Nonce flew in, who was allowed to visit Balmoral. Such heartwarming scenes.
But the Cabinet, that's another matter. That's something Liz DOES have to do, and it's important she gets it right, Tumblrs, because you see, every time a Cabinet minister is replaced it's expensive and a hassle and it weakens a government by making them look all crumbly, like a packet of biscuits that's been rammed against a wall and now someone is opening it and everyone is bracing for Crumbs.
So, step forward to the Cabinet soulless ghoul Suella Braverman, the new Home Secretary. She immediately distinguishes herself by trying to legalise torture.
And then, naturally,
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YEAH THAT'S RIGHT IT'S TICK TOCK TERF O'CLOCK also FUCK the sovereignty of the Scottish Parliament amirite ladies lol Girl Power uwu
Not that she can actually do anything at this point, of course. As I say: Enforced Mourning is in process, which means Parliament is shut down for ten days. No work, no speeches, no appearances, no announcements, just taxpayer's money going on legal fees to see if she can interfere with another nation's elected government in order to strip away the human rights of queer people.
However, while we all weep over the corpse of Queen Lizzie Two and beat our breasts in grief, the already-beleaguered pound is slowly bleeding out through this inaction. And this, to the Maths Mates, is unacceptable.
Two things get quietly slid into the news cycle.
Thing the First:
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BIG YIKES LADS
Thing the Second:
Fracking ban in England lifted in bid to boost UK gas supply - BBC News
For those who don't know, fracking is an energy extraction process. Water, gas and dust are pumped at high pressure into shale bedrock to crack it open, releasing pockets of natural gas that can then be harvested for fuel. It's environmentally disastrous for multiple reasons, both direct (earthquakes, groundwater pollution, social impacts) and indirect (IT'S STILL A FOSSIL FUEL YOU STUPID CUNTS ARE YOUR SKULLS FUCKING EMPTY). The Welsh and Scottish governments have both banned it outright, a straight-up "Foot down no, petal". England, though, is the Tory paradise, so the ban was less complete.
However, this is still a Huge Deal - the 2019 Tory manifesto was very clear that fracking would only be unbanned IF "the science shows categorically that it can be done safely". In fact, most Tories don't like it either. Their constituents REALLY don't. Also in March Kwasi Kwarteng literally went on record and said it wouldn't lower European gas prices anyway; but not anymore! Now he thinks it's a zippy idea. Just spiffing. Top hole, pip pip (I'm so good at their accents :))
Scientists who have been studying the environmental impacts of fracking produce their report -
And it is quietly buried, so as not to offend the corpse of Lizzie Two.
Here ends the first four days of the Reign of Liz Truss.
Second Week
Anyway, royalists have gone insane and started a REALLY BIG queue to see a box that supposedly contains the rotting cadaver of the old queen. Multiple people have to be hospitalised because they join the Queue and don't take food, water, warm clothes, or essential daily medications with them, even though the Queue is literally days long. Some die. Many take the ashes of their own loved ones so they can wave them at the box for the thirty seconds they get to be in front of it, like a sort of play date for ashes.
Prince Charles, now King Prince Charles, starts swanning about as King, demanding everyone be sad for him and clap him to cheer him up. Someone holds up a sign saying 'Not my King' and gets arrested. This triggers a whole wave of protests and arrests as free speech slides out the window, until the Met Police chief has to step in and explain to the police like they're five-year-olds that they can't do that, actually, and need to cut that shit out.
But we can't wholly blame the police, because the main pressure to clamp down on protestors actually came from...
The government.
Meanwhile the country goes bat shit fucking insane. In order not to offend the fragile sensibilities of royalists, now so brittle they need to be treated with the same delicate touch normally reserved for unstable nitroglycerin, the UK sees supermarkets lowering the volume of self-serve checkout desks, people's funerals cancelled, vital operations and other medical interventions postponed, Centre Parcs cancelling holidays, FOOD BANKS CLOSING, Nintendo Direct cancelling its live stream in Britain (but not cancelling the release of the recording onto You Tube an hour later because as we all know Queen Elizabeth II was a MASSIVE livestream fan and would have been DEVASTATED to miss it but she was very 'meh' about YouTube), cycle racks being closed, and this unhinged shrieking harridan:
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Very normal, lads. Very normal.
Oh and also they cancelled Owain Glyndwr Day so as a Welsh person I am now legally allowed to forcibly ram a daffodil into the urethras of the landed English gentry.
However, the protests grow as the suppression wanes. By the time King Prince Charles comes to Wales, he is met with silent protests, this guy who learned a sentence in Welsh specially for the occasion, and a petition to abolish the Prince of Wales title.
Except government is still shut down, so the petitions are all suspended.
But not to worry! That gives the Maths Mates more time to work on their special mini-budget.
Week Three
More of the same at first, really, but she finally addresses the nation to announce that the Queen was the "rock" on which "modern Britain was built".
Also someone finally spots that the necklace she always wears is a day collar, so that was fun.
BUT THEN
The moment we have all been waiting for, with baited breath.
On the 23rd September, 2022, the mini-budget finally arrives. The golden egg of Kwasi and Liz, their beloved, beautiful child, the crowning glory, the culmination of their economic beliefs and values. They are so proud of it, so sure of it, that they do not even submit it for the approval of the Office for Budget Responsibility. Why should they? This is the moment Kwarteng can finally show the world that he was right; that this is the way to do economics after all; that he alone in his brilliance and genius has reinvented the field and will lead the country to a new era of riches and prosperity.
And the pound does this:
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Yikes.
Truss goes into hiding for a day and a half, during which time her aids claim all her relatives have died so she won't have to speak to the press, which is obviously a simply fantastic quality in a Prime Minister. Finally, she resurfaces by doing a series of radio interviews for regional stations around the UK, hoping they'll be easier on her, starting with Radio Leeds. The good journalists of Yorkshire eviscerate her and strew her corpse through Adel Woods. It's downhill from there.
Week Four
One poll puts Labour 33 points ahead of the Tories.
It can be a little difficult to translate polls, because the electoral system is complex, so I asked my journalist friends. They cheerfully informed me that, if translated into a General Election, the Tories would have just 3 seats left.
Except! Of course, naturally, that is me reporting naught but the most extreme result, Tumblrs, dancing upon the bones of my enemies as I chant the rites to make the Tory party die faster. If I were to be fair about this - and I am, of course, a journalist of Integrity and Morals - I would actually give the average poll result. And I am wise and fair to all, ancient rites aside, so I shall.
The average poll result is still 19 points ahead.
Tony Blair's landslide Labour victory in 1999 was 12 points.
Rounding off the day, Labour declare that they are backing a change to a proportional representation voting system in place of the UK’s archaic first past the post system. Funny that.
Anyway, that mini-budget is going poorly. Realising unlimited borrowing rather than tax cuts for the rich is maybe Bad Actually, the Maths Mates decide to get the money for their bail-outs some other way. Can you guess, Tumblrs? Can you guess where they decide to get the money from?
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Naturally.
Week Five
In a fascinating little twist, the papers claim Liz banned King Prince Charles from going to the Climate Summit in Egypt. This is interesting for about a billion reasons, not least of which is that the papers seem very angry about this and yet also that it's an unsubstantiated rumour - the phrase "it's understood that _" gets a hell of a workout.
She then does not go herself. Makes sense. They'll probably be mean to her about the fracking.
She then loses the support of the Daily Mail, a paper that five weeks before were ecstatic about her rise to power :( so sad. But why? What made them change their minds?
Well. What else from Truss, but a massive and catastrophic u-turn on the economy?
And she does! The absolute nutter!
Plans to cut the 45p tax rate for those earning upwards of £150,000 were abandoned, as were:
abolishing the planned rise in corporation tax
cutting the basic rate of income tax
the two-year energy bill support plan
scrapping the planned dividend tax hike
VAT-free shopping for international tourists
freezing alcohol duty
easing of IR25 rules for the self-employed
ALL GONE! All gone. The mini-budget is not working so lol jk we'll think of something else, that's how government works, right? The pound promptly implodes further. Of all people, Nadine Dorries is the one to criticise
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WE ARE IN A TOPSY TURVEY UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
The Daily Mail still finds a way to say it's all Michael Gove's fault, though.
Anyway, the 5th October dawns bright and beautiful and YouGov polls rural voters:
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THIS IS HUUUUUUUUUGE, because farmers just will not fucking stop voting Tory, AND YET. Wowsers. Not just popularity. Voting intention. She might as well have personally infected every farm in the South Downs with foot and mouth disease.
Truss realises her popularity is plummeting and she needs a new audience. She tries to appear down with the kids and declares that she's the only PM to have gone to a comprehensive school.
This is not true. Gordon Brown and Theresa May both did. However, it's certainly true that all three of them became PM by ousting a sitting PM, so there's that I guess.
Week Six
At this point I can start putting in PRECISE DATEs just call ME Robert Peston.
13th October
News reporters start speculating that she'll be done by the end of the month as the first rumoured letter of no confidence reaches us. People realise that her competition for shortest serving PM was a guy who died in office of TB at about the four month mark RIP king sorry about your lungs.
(A reminder - normally, if MPs want to oust a party leader, they must send in 54 letters of no confidence. This makes the 1922 Committee - a bunch of back benchers who preside over this shit - hold a vote of no confidence. A leader who loses gives way - this is very rare. A leader who wins is then immune to another such vote for 12 months, but they almost always crumble within a month or two anyway - this is much more common.)
This is extremely funny, because a newly-elected leader of the party has a 12 month immunity to votes of no confidence, same as people who've won such a vote. Likes charge reblogs cast apparently. MPs are getting desperate.
Pressure mounts. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announces that he is "Not going anywhere."
14th October
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is sacked and blamed for the entire economic mess.
Incredibly, Liz does this without first planning a replacement, so it's several hours before Jeremy Cunt suddenly reappears like the spectre at the fucking feast.
Meanwhile here's Ed Milliband on Twitter
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Seven and a half years he waited to retweet that. Seven and a half long years, look, to have the last laugh.
In the end, he still went too soon.
15th October
Deputy PM and also Health Minister Therese Coffey (side note - have they always doubled up in roles like that? Or are there just not enough of them anymore?) announces that she loves antibiotic resistance and dead kids and also breaking laws:
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16th October
The Sunday Times calls for Extremely Corrupt Former Grand Vizier Rishi Sunak to take over, and then a General Election so that Labour can take the reins.
The SUNDAY TIMES
Calling for LABOUR
The Sunday Mail tries to stir up support for Ben Wallace taking over, because no one has heard of Ben Wallace so he needs the boost, but then accidentally publish their front page with a different man
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In another YouGov poll for the Times, not a single political group, age group, area of the country, gender, or other demographic said that Liz Truss was the right choice for PM
This is the new predicted election graph:
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Yikes
17th October
The projected election results are a Labour victory so complete the opposition would be the SNP. Legend suggests Nicola Sturgeon's cackle on finding out was so powerful she accidentally resurrected a witchfinder.
18th October
Meanwhile in the Senedd, Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies, a sort of humanoid boil dressed in ham, tries to accuse placid and gentle First Minister for Wales Mark Drakeford's Labour of being responsible for long ambulance waiting times.
T'was a mistake.
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19th October
Oh boy.
Well, first of all, Suella Braverman sends an official email from her private email address, and then promptly leaves the Cabinet at cannonball speeds as though she's seen a brown child about to be given citizenship. Was she quietly fired by Jeremy Cunt? Did she do it deliberately to resign? On her way out, she blames the true source of our problems - the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating Wokerati.
Nigella Lawson spends the day tweeting tofu recipes.
Meanwhile, Graham Brady, the Chair of the 1922 Committee, comes to Liz Truss to inform her that he has in fact now received 54 letters of no confidence. Normally, of course, that would be considered enough to trigger a vote in her leadership; but not now.
However, these are unprecedented times. So he changes the threshold - if half of the Tories send him letters, her immunity will be revoked.
But the thing is, Tumblrs, the thing is...
It is all about to kick off in the most spectacular and catastrophic fireworks since Guy Fawkes had a dream.
Because Ed Milliband, once accused of leading the country to chaos and now riding high on the joy of his well-timed Twitter jab of Some Days Ago, wakes this morning and chooses violence.
He has spotted, of course, that no one likes fracking; even the Tories are against it.
He has also spotted that Liz Truss is very stupid.
So he goes into the House of Commons, and he digs a big pit and covers it over with twigs and leaves so it can't be seen, and he bakes a big cake and he places it in the middle of the twigs, and he sets up a net to fall as well and a big stick of ACME dynamite, and he hammers in little signs everywhere saying CAUTION - TRAP, by which I am of course being metaphorical because what he actually does is table a motion to extend the moratorium on fracking. The signs aren't necessary, really. This trap is easy to avoid.
All Liz Truss has to do, you see, is not use a three-line whip on this vote.
The three-line whip, as you'll all recall, is the highest level of coercion. MPs cannot defy a three-line whip. MPs cannot even abstain on a three-line whip. MPs have two choices on a three-line whip: to vote as they're told, or to be removed from the party. You obey or resign. That's all.
For this reason, it's sometimes called a 'confidence vote', as it is effectively a stand-in for one. The vote is not about the issue at hand - this is now a vote of confidence in your leader.
(He's also laid lesser traps. Years back when fracking was first being heavily discussed, Ed was Labour leader and one of the main figures in those discussions. During today, before it all Kicks The Fuck Off, a Tory stands and challenges him on previous statements about fracking, trying to accuse him of hypocrisy.
He was fucking ready for it.)
Graham Brady pops his head back around the door. He's changed his mind - a third of the party is all that's needed now to trigger a vote of no confidence in Liz Truss. And legend says he's only 17 off.
This is presumably the reason for what comes next.
Liz panics. Liz sees she's desperately unpopular. Liz sees that she has to do something to shore up support; and she sees that her important fracking rule, which her party hates her for, is now being challenged by a former Labour leader, and if he wins (which he will) she'll lose all credibility and maybe they'll take her nice office away and tell her she was a Bad Girl.
And so, with the inevitability of gravity on the now-leaden pound sterling, she makes it a three-line whip, and a confidence vote in her government.
INSTANT CHAOS.
There is uproar! There is rage! There is blinding fury! Tory MPs are standing up in the Commons and snarling and pissing and moaning! No one likes fracking except Jacob Rees Mogg! For TWO HOURS they shriek and scream and gnash their teeth, yelling at Liz Truss, demanding to know why this is happening.
(Legend has it chaos-deity Ed Milliband simply leaned back, put his feet up on the chair in front, and made Christian Wakeford hand-feed him grapes and fan him with a palm leaf, but this is unsubstantiated.)
And then, at 6.55, FIVE MINUTES before voting is ready to begin, the Tory Minister for Climate Graham Stewart stands up and declares that everyone should vote how they want because it's not a confidence vote.
Did I say there was chaos before?
Lol. Lmao, even. Rofl, in fact.
Now Tories leap to their feet and basically all scream one long, unending breath of WHAT-DO-YOU-MEAN-IT'S-NOT-A-CONFIDENCE-VOTE-WHAT-THE-FUCK-IS-HAPPENING-IS-IT-OR-IS-IT-NOT-A-CONFIDENCE-VOTE and so Stewart gets up again and says, right to everyone's faces, "It's not for me to say whether it's a confidence vote or not," which is an even faster and more spectacular u-turn than Truss herself could pull off given that he literally just said it wasn't and did so while being a minister.
And then the voting starts. MPs are now milling about like chickens who've sighted the hawk, clamouring to know if they're going to lose their jobs unless they vote for Satan. The Whips - specifically Chief Whip Wendy Morton and Deputy Chief Whip Craig Whittaker - descend upon them like fucking wargs on the hunt. They don't just spit vitriol and blackmail into MPs ears. They fucking bodily drag people into the right voting lobby. MPs are legitimately screaming. Grown men are crying literal tears. Labour's Chris Bryant reports holding multiple Tory MPs as they sob into his shoulder. Multiple MPs report similar scenes.
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And Tories still don't know if this is even a damn confidence vote, or if they should just knock the Chief Whip's teeth out.
And then the Whips, filled with bloodlust and frenzy, suddenly realise that NO ONE IS LISTENING TO US, YOU'RE ALL SUPPOSED TO LISTEN TO US SO WE FEEL POWERFUL -
Cue sudden meeting in a locked room with Liz Truss. For over HALF AN HOUR.
So is it a confidence vote? No one is sure. Deputy PM Therese Coffey thinks so, so in the absence of the Whips she decides physical assault is her job now and is seen by David Linden MP (SNP) physically carrying someone into the voting lobby. Jacob Rees Mogg thinks not and starts yelling "It's not a confidence vote!", to which his colleagues reply, "Fuck off." Meanwhile the Whips have possibly resigned, no one is sure. It is still uncertain if this was a confidence vote.
And Ed Milliband basks in the chaos, playing the fiddle while it all burns around him.
Finally, voting concludes. The Whips reappear to lurk.
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The votes are in - the government wins, and fracking will go ahead. But.
32 MPs abstained.
And one of those is Liz Truss.
Which is WILD??!? What possible benefit could she get from that??? No one knows. Everything is uproar again. Guess who else abstained? Well, riveted reader, here's a list with important names highlighted:
Nigel Adams, Gareth Bacon, Siobhan Baillie, Greg Clark, Sir Geoffrey Cox, Tracey Crouch, David Davis, Dame Caroline Dinenage, Nadine Dorries, Philip Dunne, Mark Fletcher, Vicky Ford, Paul Holmes, Alister Jack, Boris Johnson, Gillian Keegan, Kwasi Kwarteng, Robert Largan, Pauline Latham, Mark Logan, Theresa May, Priti Patel, Mark Pawsey, Angela Richardson, Andrew Rosindell, Bob Seely, Alok Sharma, Chris Skidmore, Henry Smith, Ben Wallace, Sir John Whittingdale, and William Wragg.
Kwasi still smarting about that p45, I see.
In any case it then turns out that Liz DID vote, but incompetently, because her voting card didn't read properly, which is actually fair given that she was being screamed at by angry Whips waving Graham Stewart's severed dick and balls around while they demanded power and authority. While she's clearing that up, the press are understandably waiting open-mouthed for comment, but don't worry Liz! Your old pal Jacob Rees Mogg is here to fill in for you!
And thus it is that JRM willingly chooses to go on the live news and calmly confirm to the nation that no one knows if it was a confidence vote or not.
Chaos. Chaos again. Unbridled chaos. The Whips are furious. Everyone is furious. The rebels are now in limbo, unsure if they're now out of a job. Tories are weeping, trying to work out if Rees Mogg WANTS to sink the party. Back bencher Charles Walker MP delivers a frank interview to the press absolutely SHIVERING with rage, like the drummer in a Fleetwood Mac concert. Ex-Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, a bland man known only for the time he himself willingly chose to go on the news and calmly explain that he's a homophobe without provocation, tweets that Liz Truss is a Lib Dem sleeper agent they sent in to destroy the Tories, sparking what is likely to be a whole slew of conspiracy theories by next week. No one knows what is going on. They all decide to sleep on it.
The good folks at Wikipedia ultimately decide to make three separate pages for the UK 2022 government crisis, and to label them with the month "to leave room for another by the end of the year."
Ed Milliband skips all the way home, and treats himself to a bacon sandwich.
20th October
Okay, Liz thinks, the morning after. Okay. Last night was bad. But today will be better.
So first... the vote.
Because there's bad news for Tories who like money and good news for people who like liveable planets - there are problems with the vote. For one, the vote counts are being called into question. Are the results reliable?
For another, the Speaker of the House of Commons calls for an investigation into the reports of, um, assault. So will the result stand?
It's so unclear! And so is that ongoing issue of whether or not the damn thing was a confidence vote. Angry whips say YES, JRM says NO, Downing Street refuses to pick up the phone to the BBC, but does send ITV's Robert Peston a text at 1am to say it was definitely a confidence vote and, unrelatedly, the Whips aren't resigning :)
I think we have found the price paid to keep the Whips.
Meanwhile. Let's see what this has done for Liz's leadership stability!
13 letters of no confidence are confirmed submitted by Sky, 5 of which came in overnight. The 1922 Committee reconvenes the coven to discuss matters. Simultaneously, the One Nation Conservatives reconvene their coven to discuss the same. Presumably there is much "Girl what are YOU doing at the Devil's Sacrament?"-ing and "Same cloak, how embarrassing"-ing. MPs are CLAMOURING for her head. It is VICIOUS. It's like cartoon piranhas in a supervillain's lair; which is highly appropriate, because that's exactly what Tory MPs are.
Graham Brady, head jester of the 1922 Committee, demands to see Liz Truss.
He walks into a room with her, and the doors are closed. Half an hour later, he walks back out of the room.
Ten minutes later, she calls a press conference.
45 days after being appointed, Liz Truss breaks the record, and becomes the shortest-serving British Prime Minister.
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would love for wikipedia if we could fit in a 3rd government crisis into 2022
Listen I know we have little time left but one more crisis in 2022 and we legit equal the Roman Empire's Year of the Four Emperors after all
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Really starting to empathise with Romans who lived through the Year of the Four Emperors
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Hello, as we head in an unprecedented third Tory leadership crisis in the UK (lol), could you pretty please do a round-up of likely candidates? Oooh or even a round-up of candidates if it goes to general election - I know it's so unlikely but a gals gotta dream!
I've started compiling sources for a Rishi Sunak masterpost, because it's definitely going to be him (assuming I get round to it - you're all at the whims of my ADHD-riddled hyperfixating bowl of sweets that I call a brain, soz about that.) But, what's happening this week (I am writing this on Monday the 24th October) is basically Tory Leadership: Speedrun Edition.
Last time it took several months after it was narrowed to the top two. This time, they'll have it done by Friday and then maybe we'll know if fracking is back on the table or not lol.
So it's Rishi Sunak vs Penny Mordaunt. To spare me wasting too many more of my worthless man-hours, I will super-briefly summarise them:
Rishi Sunak
It's going to be him. He was Big Dog's Chancellor and conspicuously absent from Partygate photos, except for Boris' surprise birthday party; almost like, if one were of a suspicious mindset, he had a long term plan to keep his nose clean.
He is, and I want you to think about all the competition he has for this accolade and then really think about what it means, possibly the single most financially corrupt Tory in the party's history.
The amount of money he openly and blatantly stole and gave to his family and friends during the pandemic is well into the billions. The billions. He is part of the reason the UK was hit so very badly by covid - between him, Boris, Dominic Cummings and Matt Hancock, we had no chance. Rishi took BILLIONS of pounds for covid and gave the contracts to the companies of family and friends, who pocketed the vast majority and then utterly failed to deliver any covid relief resources back. He is literally a billionaire, to my knowledge. He also paid to bail out his wife after she broke some law or other and bankrupted a company (I cannot remember the details of that one offhand mind, so don't quote me there - it'll be in the full post if I write it.)
This man is a hateful gargoyle.
Penny Mordaunt
Possibly the best option, although admittedly that's like saying "Out of all the turds in the turd collection this one is the least offensive in smell."
She's hyper nationalistic to a horrifying and gross degree. However, she isn't a transphobe (or at the very least she is openly Fine With Trans People, which is what we ask for.) This actually makes her enormously unusual for a Tory. In the last leadership round, the main talking points every candidate had to address were
Did they support Boris Johnson
What will they do about the economy
What will they do about the energy crisis
How much do they hate trans people
It's probably the thing that cost her the vote last time, in fact.
She won't get it.
However, if she somehow does, that gives the Tories a very small chance of subsequently winning another GE. Rishi, on the other hand, is a hated man, by both the party and the public. The chance of him reforming them enough to win a GE against Starmer is slim to none (if he even stays in post that long). So, ultimately, if Penny gets it it's better in the short term; if Rishi gets it, it's better in the medium to long term, depending on when the next GE comes.
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To the tune of skyfall: it's a clownfall, tories tumble, cannot stand tall, ooh, it's a clownfall
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I am begging you to change the tag to Clownfall 2: electric boogaloo.
I am in hysterics and the way you summarize things deserves a tag equally as hilarious and poignant.
My deepest condolences to everyone in the uk, but this is ridiculously funny.
I actually considered Clownfall 2: Elected Boogaloo, but she wasn't actually elected.
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I mean I hope you're having fun in Skyrim (do you mod it?) But just to clarify, she didn't vote in the mess SHE created????
I do not! I play it on Switch so don't know how but I am currently having a fantastic time in a war-torn land that is nonetheless more stable than the current Tory party in spite of there being a giant that has turned up in my garden and I can't get him to leave.
So news is coming in thick and fast and it turns out that she DID vote, but incompetently, so her card reader didn't pick it up. This makes a lot more sense, because I was honestly 100% BAFFLED. Like there was literally no benefit to her abstaining whatsoever. Incompetence is much more likely.
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Joking conspiracy theory time: the email thing was a deliberate ploy by Suella Braverman who decided to take one for the team in the hopes that it would trigger a chain of events that would oust Truss.
Oh I genuinely think either she did it deliberately to leave (her resignation letter is Very Illuminating vis a vis her opinion on Liz Truss; I bet she was hoping she'd be allowed to smelt orphans and then Truss said no), OR Jeremy Cunt wanted her gone and seized his chance to make it so. Like all the best conspiracy theories it has a grain of truth to it is what I'm saying
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I'm over here genuinely considering turning on notifications for your blog so that I don't miss a single politic update. Would it destroy my work productivity? Without question. Would it be worth it? Absolutely
Lol, if it helps I tend to do political posting in bursts, so you could always follow the tag instead? "the second clownfall of 2022". That way your productivity will only take a 10% dip. Any more than that is the liability of the Tory party, not me
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So I know Penny Mordaunt is a terrible person because she's a Tory, but how specifically is she terrible
I don't think you've talked about her specifically but she seems to be a frontrunner for PM along with Rishi Sunak and, God help us, Boris Johnson.
Generalised Tory terribleness really. She'd be my damage limitation pick. What ruled her out of contention last time was her lack of transphobia, so you can make of that what you will; that said, if you hear her speak at any point you'll do a bit of sick in your mouth, especially if she starts banging on about patriotism.
Short term, she's the best one. Long term she's worse, because she's got the best chance of rehabbing the Tories into something the public will like by the next GE
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