JonnyF

You do realize that the right wing conservative party was elected by a massive majority by the General Public? The 'general public' generally see these Woke issues as ridiculous, backwards and annoying, but an extreme leftist vocal minority likes to give the impression that their view is the commonly held view. Social media platforms like Twitter that pander to the leftists and remove opposing views reinforce this mistaken view. That's why these extreme Lefties always seem so shocked when they lose the 'real life' votes like Brexit and the last few General Elections ????. Their deluded world crumbles and so they take to platforms like this to tell everyone again that they are correct, and that most people agree with them. Case in point.

Glad you agree.

Indeed, and around the world. Covid and the war in Ukraine have been terrible for economies everywhere.

I see poverty all the time here in Thailand as well. Many people lost their businesses due to Covid. I don't believe there was a Thexit? Or did I miss it?

Just to reiterate how great our system is. Go Truss!

I don't believe that was an option on the ballot paper. Same as there was no option for Wearing 2 left shoes or illegally drinking Mojito's on the train. So the answer to all 3 options is Nobody.

Of course it's relevant. That's why we put such a great system in place.

This is the way it is done in the UK in the event of the PM resigning. We're not the USA. We don't vote for a President - we elect a party based on the number of MP's that win their seats. In the event of the PM resigning the party in power retains power (since we didn't vote for Boris as President) and the members of that party choose a new leader. It's a great system. Maybe you guys could convert?

Yeah, nothing to do with Covid19 lockdowns and the economy subsequently obliterated. It woz Brexit guv ????.

Not really - when you consider Covid19 and the War in Ukraine. What were you expecting after over 2 years of economic devastation? Free Candy for everyone?

Conservatives generally favour low taxation. Truss more than Sunak in this case. A free market economy with low tax and minimal government interference. Marvellous. Labour on the other hand would tax everyone more. They always do. Then spend it on frivolous projects that make their politicians feel all warm inside. They try to justify it by telling everyone how much they taxed those bad rich people and corporations, thus ensuring investment into the country goes down and the economy tanks. Except Blair of course, he ditched the virtue signalling and simply spent it on the illegal war with Bush ????.

Who is taxed most? You need specific names? Professions? Let's take a simple tradesman from Northumberland (since you're talking about counties now), a good honest chap named Albert. Let's say he earns 100 pounds. He has 75 pounds left after income tax. He spends 20 pounds on 2 packs of cigarettes (another 16 pounds in tax) and 55 pounds on half a tank of petrol for his car petrol (about 17 pounds of tax). How much of that 100 pounds went to the taxman? 58 for the taxman and 42 for the tradesman. 58 pounds is 'most' of 100 pounds. Under Labour it would probably be more like 65/35 with their crazy tax/spend other people's money policies. So you see, it is not only those evil rich people (evil Tories no doubt) that pay a lot of tax. It is the man in the street as well. So yes, I support lower tax for honest hard working people and if that's means less money to benefit scroungers and illegal immigrants then excuse me if I don't shed too many tears.

The point is that all parties have different opinions within that party. Claiming it is a conservative thing is inaccurate. Sunak and Truss have different approaches to certain issues, yes. If they all thought the same on every issue it would be like one of your lefty Twitter echo chambers which wouldn't be a great form of Democracy.

In most countries that would be the government, I'm surprised you didn't know... The extent to which salaries are taxed varies greatly between governments, but broadly speaking left wingers support high taxation and big government whereas right winger tend to support low taxation and smaller state interference. Any other basic questions?

Different countries, different culture, different demographics, different everything pretty much. We're talking about UK politics here. The clue is in the title.

Of course the opposition is perfectly aligned on every issue. Starmer is currently out shopping for 2 left shoes to align with Dianne's 'get dressed blind' policy ????. It's normal to have differences of opinion within a party. Healthy even.

If you lower taxes and provide incentives to work hard, people wouldn't be so reliant on government pensions and 'other benefits' in retirement. What's the incentive to work hard when you're taxed most of your salary and the tax is given to the spongers living next door and the illegal immigrants fresh off the boat? Stupid policies to make lefties feel good about themselves while the country goes down the toilet.

For me it was more about spending a great deal of time at Uni (and beyond) in the presence of left wing, sneering, social justice warriors, and realizing fairly quickly that most of them were hypocritical characters masking their vindictiveness and spitefulness with the pretense of caring about others. In my early 20's I also saw a lot of the same characters abusing the welfare state. People perfectly capable of working but instead sitting around all day smoking weed and pontificating about the evil Tories while counting the days to their next dole cheque. A few years watching this while working my <deleted> off to pay off my student debt and forge a career for myself, then the penny starts to drop about the realities of the welfare state. Hopefully whoever wins this contest goes back to true Conservative values and helps those genuinely in need while offering strong incentives for the abusers of the system to get back to work (and by incentives, I mean cutting off their benefits pronto). Sunak's tax and spend policies, plus his abused furlough scheme lead me to believe Truss is more in line with my beliefs.

I never knew you paid so much attention to the opinion of Dominic Cummings. Don't worry about the opposition, they still have Starmer.

So, Truss and Sunak remaining. Truss was always my second choice behind Kemi so obviously I'm hoping she wins ahead of Sunak. Politically I like Truss' views on things like her economic libertarian views, anti woke stance, smaller state, less regulations etc. She also did a good job securing trade deals post Brexit. Her ability to do so despite being a Remainer shows a mature stance and a willingness to accept the will of the people, a lesson that many on this forum could learn from. Like me, she also flirted with Labour and the Lib dems in her youth before waking up to smell the coffee and moving to the Conservatives. This shows a level of intelligence and a willingness to change and admit your mistakes. Sunak's tax and spend stance on the other hand is not what I'm looking for. I don't think he'd be a great election winner either so we'd have to rely on Starmer staying at the top of Labour to secure yet another victory. If Starmer left and they got someone likeable, someone with a personality who knew what a woman is, we could have a battle on our hands at the next General Election. Unfortunately, I predict Sunak will win. If he does, I can only hope he makes Truss or Kemi his deputy PM and that Starmer retains his position (and keeps Abbott, Rayner, Nandy, Lammy et.al alongside him to complete the image of incompetence).

I think it will end up like alcohol. There will be shops selling cheap weed just like you can buy Lao Khao. For people who want something a bit more refined there will be shops selling high quality stuff for people who are prepared to pay, same as you can get decent Whisky if you want to stump up the cash. For me, it's worth buying the decent stuff. I paid about 1600 for 3.5 grammes a couple of weeks ago and I still have more than half left (I'm not a heavy/daily smoker). So let's say 300 Baht a week. For that price, it's not really worth me buying low grade stuff. Sure I will try some out of curiosity, but if it's noticably lower quality then I think it's worth it to buy the decent stuff (same as I don't drink Lao Khao to save a few Baht).

Depends how many licences you have. I have two, one for motorcycles and one for cars ????.

Shame to see Kemi out of the race. Would have liked to see her win. Looks more and more like Rishi. I'm hoping for Truss now. But all 3 are infinitely better than Starmer.

Wow, so you have to get caught drunk driving 4 times (assuming you can't pay off the cop that caught you, otherwise more than 4) before you lose your licence. Sounds like these 12 points are going to be pretty hard to lose but I'm sure drivers will be doing their best up and down the country ????.

Well I for one am shocked that Big Joke was involved. He seems like such a nice, honest, upstanding fellow.