General UK politics VIII - The Last Tory

[Ethan Thane Athen]

I live in farming country and am friendly with a number of local farmers. They will moan about this like they moan about everything. Constantly saying they make no money, x latest change will ruin them, everyone is leaving the industry because it's not viable etc all whilst splashing around more disposable income than I could manage from my relatively well paid job, taking multiple foreign holidays per year etc etc.

They moaned about the EU and voted for Brexit and now moan about Brexit. It's very hard to work through what actually causes damage to the industry* because absolutely everything is treated as disastrous to them....

*I do think the supermarkets take the piss.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Well the good news is if your farm can't make money, it isn't worth millions.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Nigel is doing his duty by being in the USA with Trump since Sunday rather than at work in the UK apparently.

He is the UK's only bridge to the Trump administration.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Nigel is doing his duty by being in the USA with Trump since Sunday rather than at work in the UK apparently.

He is the UK's only bridge to the Trump administration.

He's working harder than any other MP, tirelessly building bridges for his constituents in Clacton. And he'll make Frinton pay for it.

 

[Andy_Ross]

New Shadow Cabinet

Chancellor Mel Stride
FCDO Priti Patel
Home Chris Philp
CDL Alex Burghart
Defence James Cartlidge
Justice Robert Jenrick
Education Laura Trott
Health Ed Argar
Housing Kevin Hollinrake
Defra Victoria Atkins
Biz & Trade Andrew Griffith
Net Zero & Equalities Claire Coutinho
DWP Helen Whately
Transport Gareth Bacon
DCMS Stuart Andrew
Science & Tech Alan Mak
Scotland Andrew Bowie
Wales Mims Davies
Chief Whip Rebecca Harris
Commons leader Jesse Norman
Lords leader Lord True
Tory chairs Nigel Huddleston & Lord Johnson
Chief sec Richard Fuller

 

[P.J. Denyer]

New Shadow Cabinet

Chancellor Mel Stride
FCDO Priti Patel
Home Chris Philp
CDL Alex Burghart
Defence James Cartlidge
Justice Robert Jenrick
Education Laura Trott
Health Ed Argar
Housing Kevin Hollinrake
Defra Victoria Atkins
Biz & Trade Andrew Griffith
Net Zero & Equalities Claire Coutinho
DWP Helen Whately
Transport Gareth Bacon
DCMS Stuart Andrew
Science & Tech Alan Mak
Scotland Andrew Bowie
Wales Mims Davies
Chief Whip Rebecca Harris
Commons leader Jesse Norman
Lords leader Lord True
Tory chairs Nigel Huddleston & Lord Johnson
Chief sec Richard Fuller

To be fair to BadEnoch, she had to draw on a 'talent pool' of the same size & quality as one that a puppy might leave on your carpet.

 

[Vixen]

Tenth generation farming family here. When we inherited farmland*, it also came with cash, so there was zero problem paying the tax, which everybody pays here (it is structured rather like UK income tax: you don't pay anything if you inherit less than €20K IIRC, with various stepped thresholds up to >€1m). It is rather like paying VAT on goods or having PAYE deducted from your payslip: it happens to everybody so no-one has a hissy fit when charged VAT on shopping or tax taken off salaries, likewise it's an honour to be a landowner and pay the death duty taxes accordingly, like everybody else. This is why I call BS on Clarkson and Dyson claiming great distress to their offspring caused by Rachel Reeves, current Chancellor of the Exchequer, in her recent budget with IHT now applicable in the former Agricultural and Business Relief Acts, albeit heavily discounted and only the enormously wealthy get to pay it.

The big problem of farming families dying out is that nobody wants to be a farmer's wife. Why get up at 4:00am on a frosty morning, when you can sit in a warm office drinking tea, without a care or worry? So a large percentage of farms are being run by lonely old bachelors who inherited and their being the last of their family in farming when they die. They do seem well off though, with the latest shiny new tractors from England, in particular, and ranging farm houses.

*(We don't actually do any farming these days, we rent our fields to a neighbouring farm for a nominal rent just so the fields aren't left fallow; currently being used as grazing for another neighbour's horses. There are no farming assets apart from the barn, still in excellent condition, and some museum pieces of equipment that belonged to my grandparents, such as a rusty old plough which was once pulled by a horse).

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

New Shadow Cabinet

Chancellor Mel Stride
FCDO Priti Patel
Home Chris Philp
CDL Alex Burghart
Defence James Cartlidge
Justice Robert Jenrick
Education Laura Trott
Health Ed Argar
Housing Kevin Hollinrake
Defra Victoria Atkins
Biz & Trade Andrew Griffith
Net Zero & Equalities Claire Coutinho
DWP Helen Whately
Transport Gareth Bacon
DCMS Stuart Andrew
Science & Tech Alan Mak
Scotland Andrew Bowie
Wales Mims Davies
Chief Whip Rebecca Harris
Commons leader Jesse Norman
Lords leader Lord True
Tory chairs Nigel Huddleston & Lord Johnson
Chief sec Richard Fuller

A shadow cabinet of none of the talents.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

To be fair to BadEnoch, she had to draw on a 'talent pool' of the same size & quality as one that a puppy might leave on your carpet.

In that case she should have appointed herself to everything.

 

[jimbob]

When James Cleverly is bright enough to see that his ambitions are better furthered from outside the Front Benches, Badenoch has problems

 

[Andy_Ross]

Apparently if Trump wins Starmer's position will be untenable and the government will have to resign and call an election..

Don't ask me why.

 

[Darat]

When James Cleverly is bright enough to see that his ambitions are better furthered from outside the Front Benches, Badenoch has problems

It's a poisoned chalice.

 

[Andy_Ross]

The government is to ditch plans to ban smoking in the gardens of pubs and restaurants in England.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he didn't want to cause further harm to the hospitality industry, adding that "people don't want to see their high streets going down the pan".

Reform are of course hailing it as a great victory for Nigel and the party, and a humiliating climbdown for the government.

 

[Andy_Ross]

RS Archer
@archer_rs

Farage has refuted suggestions he is not open to meet his constituents, details of where and when are available on display in a cellar at his Brussels house in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying, Beware of the Leopard.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Chris Philp

The man who did not know that Rwanda and the Congo were different countries.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

In that case she should have appointed herself to everything.

she's about as talented as something else a puppy might leave on your carpet.

 

[jimbob]

It's a poisoned chalice.

Indeed it is, and if he does want to become the next leader (in the loosest possible sense) he doesn't want to be on record as defending any more "◊◊◊◊◊◊◊" policies than he already did in Cabinet.

 

[3point14]

Apparently if Trump wins Starmer's position will be untenable and the government will have to resign and call an election..

Don't ask me why.

I realise that the world catches a cold if the US sneezes. I'm pretty sure that that the UK doesn't have to get dysentery just because the US ◊◊◊◊◊ its pants.

 

[Mojo]

Chris Philp

The man who did not know that Rwanda and the Congo were different countries.

I'm amazed that he hasn't been made shadow Foreign Secretary.

 

[Andy_Ross]

While Nigel Farage is busy serving his Clacton constituents in America, his effigy is being burned by the good people of Lewes.