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Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss; who do you want to be Britain’s next prime minister?

Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss; who would you like to be Britain’s next Prime Minister?

  • Rishi Sunak

    Votes: 9 22.5%

  • Liz Truss

    Votes: 3 7.5%

  • Undecided

    Votes: 8 20.0%

  • They’re both awful

    Votes: 20 50.0%
  • Total voters
    40
Never hated a government more than the current conservative one in my life... And that isn't going to change with a new leader, selected from the current ranks. I remember the poll tax riots, and we're surely not far off...

Next GE will be very interesting. If only Labour had a charismatic, electable, leader. :(

Neither, if that much wasn't obvious already.

F**K 'em... They gave us Brexit, cost of living crisis, fuel crisis and lots more... And now we have a candidate who talks about wanting to scrap the equality act. It's only going to get worse...

Another thing, why does our political system even allow for unelected leaders? It's BS that a leader can perform so badly, break so many rules, and be involved in so many scandals, yet when they step down, one of their underlings can step straight into their position. Absolute nonsense.
 
Just hang in there guys.
Australia went through a similar process of a revolving door of prime ministers, successive conservative governments winning despite them making life harder and seemingly doing things to favour their donors (With Murdoch being their cheer squad) and engaging in culture war BS during the election campaign.

Eventually the public does get fed up and they were tossed out in our election back in May.

I think perhaps the last election was all about Brexit and that took some oxygen away from real problems people were facing, but now with multiple issues on all fronts the tories really do not have a tenable re-election platform.
 
Over 2 months this has dragged on for, 2 months!!! All while a pretty much leader less country gets dragged further and further into recession.

Glad it's finally over tomorrow (today, in the morning, whatever,) if nothing else! I'm praying for early announcements r.e the economy, announcements that reinstall some market faith back into Sterling and a trigger reactive rebound of the GBP. 🤞🤞🤞 As a country, and a net importer, the last thing we need now is for the £ to keep nose diving. And more importantly, as enthusiasts and travellers, it's also the last thing we all need. 🙈😂 For every £1000 we spend in the USA now, we get $200 less than we would have in January... $200 LESS!!!
 
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I have promising news for you @Nicky Borrill; it is said that Liz Truss and her team are heavily considering the idea of freezing energy bills, with “a support package to rival furlough” reportedly being planned: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/truss-team-hold-talks-on-freezing-energy-bills-rlcq2t6c9

Truss’ plan is apparently to create an artificial price cap for consumers and then find alternative ways of reimbursing the energy companies. The plan is likely to equal the £69bn cost of furlough, and Truss has admitted that her total support package could go up to £100bn, but her and her team have apparently determined that something “bold” is the only solution.

This is similar to an idea previously suggested by Labour and previously adopted by many European countries.

It is thought that businesses will receive separate support.

I must say, I would feel a bit better about the whole situation if Truss did adopt Labour’s idea of freezing energy bills. I did notice that she repeatedly refused to rule out freezing energy bills on Laura Kuenssberg’s show yesterday…
 
Matt N said:
I have promising news for you @Nicky Borrill; it is said that Liz Truss and her team are heavily considering the idea of freezing energy bills, with “a support package to rival furlough” reportedly being planned: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/truss-team-hold-talks-on-freezing-energy-bills-rlcq2t6c9

Truss’ plan is apparently to create an artificial price cap for consumers and then find alternative ways of reimbursing the energy companies. The plan is likely to equal the £69bn cost of furlough, and Truss has admitted that her total support package could go up to £100bn, but her and her team have apparently determined that something “bold” is the only solution.

This is similar to an idea previously suggested by Labour and previously adopted by many European countries.

It is thought that businesses will receive separate support.

I must say, I would feel a bit better about the whole situation if Truss did adopt Labour’s idea of freezing energy bills. I did notice that she repeatedly refused to rule out freezing energy bills on Laura Kuenssberg’s show yesterday…
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I read this and it’s great. But, and it’s a big but, what I’ve read so far is only a delaying tactic. It MUST be packaged with serious investment and fast action with regards to our own renewable energy capacity, or we’ll face the same issues magnified further down the line.
 
I hope for the sake of the UK she sorts out the cost of living crisis. I've travelled a lot this year and sure the Ukraine War has made gas more expenisve- but most of the mainland of Europe are more reliant on Russian gas than we are, but they were smart and had good renewables, or backup plans (price caps, reserves, ect). I personally believe the government have too much ties to the energy companies and it is crazy capping the profits and the companies is not at all on the agenda- maybe all the tories are shareholders or something? There must be a reason why Germany and Austria for example are not really that bad right now (both VERY reliant on gas from Russia) but a country with low reliance has a 500000% rise in bills.

On another note i hope Truss brings some damn morality back to the government. Boris was just unproffesional, i'm sure the private meetings could be akin to episodes of The Office. He did not seem to understand being PM is not all about breaking your own rules and cheese and wine parties- or missing COBRA meetings about a virus because you wanted that day out with the fam.

I do not like Truss- but i shall see how it plays out. I am currently indifferent, but i wonder in a year i'll seethe with rage like with Boris, or i'll be lukewarm like i was with May.
 
Not entirely sure how we're going to pay triple the amount for our gas at the pub this winter... But that is the difference that is already in effect... We just got our first increased gas bill 20 minutes ago, here are the changes to unit cost.

Keep in mind, we usually use 5 times the amount in winter, last winter's monthly bill was around £1k per month, we simply can't afford to pay triple the amount without tripling our prices... And nobody can afford to pay triple the prices for our products.

Screenshot 2022-09-05 165937.png
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Not entirely sure how we're going to pay triple the amount for our gas at the pub this winter... But that is the difference that is already in effect... We just got our first increased gas bill 20 minutes ago, here are the changes to unit cost.

Keep in mind, we usually use 5 times the amount in winter, last winter's monthly bill was around £1k per month, we simply can't afford to pay triple the amount without tripling our prices... And nobody can afford to pay triple the prices for our products.

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For all you know, Nicky, Truss may well give you a hand. She's said to be going "bigger than expected" to tackle the energy crisis, so I wouldn't be surprised if she unveiled some form of support for businesses as well as consumers.

I hope the winter isn't too hard for you, though.

I'm sure you're far from the only business in this position, as well. I would be very surprised if Truss and her team would just abandon businesses without doing something to help them.
 
Matt N said:
I'm sure you're far from the only business in this position, as well. I would be very surprised if Truss and her team would just abandon businesses without doing something to help them.
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We're not, and that's where the main problem lies. If only our energy bills rose, then we could survive it with a small percentage increase in prices, and clever use of energy (we have 2 powerful traditional wood burners that are not often used, but are looking cheaper to run than central heating right now.) But the problem goes much deeper than that. All of our suppliers, from breweries and food suppliers down to our accountants and so on, will also be affected by this, pushing their prices to us up too.

We also have to think of our people, we can't expect them to live off the same wage and survive, so we must do what we can to help them, and return their loyalty.

It's a big mess with one cause, and sadly I don't see how they can bring more UK sourced energy capacity online quickly enough, so forgive me for being a little apprehensive. We don't want handouts, we want long term solutions as quickly as possible that mean a competitive home sourced green energy market and fair prices.

The only thing I think could be sped up, and keep in mind that I know nothing about this really, so maybe speeding up the process is not possible, is the Rolls Royce SMR project, which is expected to get regulatory approval in 2024 and be up and running by 2029. If this, or any other infrastructure projects, could be 'safely' fast tracked in any way, that would be excellent news.

I see they're keeping some of our coal plants, that were due to be decommissioned by now, operating longer.

Another thing I don't know a lot about, but it does bother me, is why can we not restrict the profits of energy companies to a small percentage for now? Genuine question if anybody knows, as I don't understand why that isn't an option. They're announcing record profits whilst the rest of the economy is in a crisis due to their prices. Does this all come down to the fact that we import so much energy?
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Not entirely sure how we're going to pay triple the amount for our gas at the pub this winter... But that is the difference that is already in effect... We just got our first increased gas bill 20 minutes ago, here are the changes to unit cost.

Keep in mind, we usually use 5 times the amount in winter, last winter's monthly bill was around £1k per month, we simply can't afford to pay triple the amount without tripling our prices... And nobody can afford to pay triple the prices for our products.

View attachment 20080
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^^^ Yeah that is not right. If a country like Germany can navigate through this crisis- 80 million people with a stupid reliance on Russia, why cannot we?
Germany right now is throwing money at insulation, renewable energy, and trying to make the most out of a little. The government know there is a crisis, and they have made steps to ensure people are not paying too much, and that German citzens will have a warm home in the winter, and for many years to come.

What is our government doing? Give out some money until next year when we face the same if not worse crisis.
 
EmmaUK said:
It’s truly awful and I’m genuinely scared. Forgive me whilst I go cower in a corner
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Not entirely sure if this is sarcasm or not... But on the presumption that it isn't sarcasm, you're on holiday, screw it and carry on enjoying yourself... Fly in a few days myself, some much needed time to forget about it all. :)
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Another thing I don't know a lot about, but it does bother me, is why can we not restrict the profits of energy companies to a small percentage for now? Genuine question if anybody knows, as I don't understand why that isn't an option. They're announcing record profits whilst the rest of the economy is in a crisis due to their prices. Does this all come down to the fact that we import so much energy?
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Because if you restrict profits they won't have any money to put back into the economy through higher wages and investment! /s

Only bright spot in the day so far is that Priti Patel has gone, so at least we won't have to see her smug smirk next to headlines about sending "those" people back where they belong.
 
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