The Tory Campaign Just Keeps Getting Worse

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after the first weekend of the general election it’s already clear this could be the most embarrassing campaign by a government in history now I’m sure you remember the election campaign was launched with a speech in the pouring rain things can only get better blasted in the background but things didn’t get better just after that election announcement sunak visited a brewery in Wales where this totally normal conversation took place is he looking forward to all the football not so much my bag no but that’s cuz you guys aren’t in it get people out you know there’ll be people coming it’ll be good I’m not sure if richy sunak knew before he asked that question that Wales hadn’t qualified for the Euros but in any case it came across as a somewhat awkward exchange um it got more Awkward though because on Friday sunak visited the Titanic District in Belfast making the lives of Journal just a little bit too easy prime minister we are just yards away from where the Titanic was built and designed are you capting a sinking ship going under this election so I if you look at what’s happened over the past few weeks alone you can see that our plan is working you could have chosen anywhere who chose the Titanic District to take a sinking party completely bizarre um later that day there’re supposed to be the most successful party in the western wild is what people often say about the conser ISM we often think it’s know because they’re brutal Cutthroat professional they’re taking a sinking prime minister to the Titanic or the Titanic District later that day so an image of the Prime Minister on the campaign Trail was released it shows sunak on his campaign jet standing underneath an exit sign plenty of Tories haven’t needed an exit sign to see the writings on the wall though leaving Politics as quickly as possible now a total of 79 tour MPS have said they won’t bother contesting their seats that’s the largest number to quit before a general election since the second world war um one of the quitters who took sunak by surprise was Michael Gove he announced his retirement on Friday night just two days earlier the financial times had reported this when rishy sunak told his cabinet after weeks of agonizing that he would hold a surprised July 4th general election he immediately won the effusive support of his housing Minister Michael Gove who dares wins go said on Wednesday afternoon quoting the SAS regiment’s motto you dared and you will win actions of course speak louder than words and goes actions suggest those words might have been just a little bit sarcastic um what’s just as worrying for sunak is this those MPS who are daring enough to stay and fight for their seats don’t seem to be trying particularly hard the Times report a leaked email from cchq has put the blame for sunet campaign misfortunes on conservative MPS themselves um the email was apparently sent by mistake and includes a file containing the unvarnished thoughts of conservative staff on Tor MP’s attitudes to the election here’s what the times writes in Plymouth morview the seat of Johnny Mercer the veterans Minister staff said there was an issue with MP cooperation with cchq and funding issues currently 2K in the bank and they’d offered support the times reported last week that Mera had written a memo over his frustration with rishy sunak domination of campaigning so he’s saying I don’t want Rishi zunac out there talking to people that is not a recipe for me keeping my seat times also report Rebecca po the nature Minister I didn’t know there was one was accused by campaigning staff of spending too much time on ministerial business under the heading for her Taunton and Wellington seat the memo read MP still focusing too much on ministerial business and non-committal on time she will spend in the seat now and during the campaign so they’re saying can you can you can you promise that you will be knocking on doors on these station maybe I got other work to do um does she want to get reelected not clear again they didn’t want this to be public they sent this email out by mistake with all of this details and finally Sarah Affton the MP for rexen was accused of refusing to engage in the note which said quote wants to cancel this week’s campaigning sessions and stop campaign manager from running prescheduled campaigning sessions over the weekend so not only does she not want to take part she doesn’t want anyone else to take part either um avator MP seem to have better things to do than campaign at all cheel Mary Robinson is reported to be on a 7-Day holiday um as is government Minister Steve Baker um now this is good he told the mirror this the Prime Minister told everyone we could go on holiday and then called a snap election so I’ve chosen to do my campaign work in Greece he is a minister this is not just any old MP he’s saying I’m going to do my campaign work from the beach in Greece because I’m a bit annoyed that he called this election anyway of course you probably can’t blame MPS for putting their feet up and those MPS who are making the effort um aren’t doing so well Minister for London Greg Hans um sends his child to the independent Paul’s School very prestigious school um he’s posted in a parents group chat suggesting that St Paul’s like another private school should send out a letter warning parents of Labor’s plans to remove vat exempt status from Independent Schools now he posted an image of the letter from ride boarding school in the group I mean he captioned it has anyone seen St Paul’s do a letter like this now you might expect that that call for intraclass solidarity would go down well among the well-to-do par of St Paul’s students but Greg Hans got a different response one replied with this can we stop assuming everyone is a Tory in this group a return to some more morality less corruption and more social conscience in British politics is not something to oppose necessarily I appreciate this will be widely derided as a comment but I do think this group needs some balance now that wasn’t necessarily widely derided because it got eight thumbs up in this group of very very Posh parents another parent said this could this migrate to another chat there will be people on this chat who despite the very real extra financial burden vat would bring still feel it is hard to defend private schools being vat exempt just as there will be those who think the opposite it is a political discussion and as such this doesn’t feel the place for it so we already know the Tories have have lost the votes of the majority of people under 70 I think I think it’s the majority of people under 70 every age group under 70 is voting for labor they’ve now lost private school parents the parents of people who send their kids to St Pauls this is uh this is a sort of SOS red flashing lights warning for the conservatives if you’ve lost the kids at Britain’s one of Britain’s poshest private schools you’re going to be in trouble um those screenshots of course were then leaked to the times of adding insult to injury and meanwhile sitting Tory MP for tord Lucy Allen who isn’t seeking re-election has decided to go out with a bang declaring this I’m supporting Alan Adams to be T’s next MP if you want to help Alan or donate to his campaign sign up to this website now Allan as you can see from that image is not the Tory candidate he’s the candidate for reform UK Lucy Allen has been suspended from the conservative party um even sunak strongest cheerleaders are also sounding rather desperate so the daily mail this morning bragged Ry suak fights back after his national service plan is ridiculed right so when prime minister fights back after Universal ridicule is the best headline you can hope for you really are screwed Crystal it’s been fairly enjoyable hasn’t it the general election campaign so far I’m so delighted to be here and to just add to that ridicule you know um I I moved here in 2009 and had six months of Gordon Brown before 14 years of Tories so permit me this election cycle just a lot of shod and frea it’s it’s delightful to watch the shambles um with every defection with every resignation with every leak and reveal I honestly there isn’t enough popcorn in the world for me right now I’m I’m having a great time watching it I mean truly that that parents WhatsApp group is just it’s so delicious when when that’s when all you’ve got for your campaign is is WhatsApp groups I you know oh I feel bad for that man so yes obviously I’m having a lovely time watching watching it all I’m so glad that we’re not going to have to hear from Michael Gove anymore what a what a treat for me but obviously it is also tinged with a bit of sadness because you know I don’t feel like my other options are s significantly better right now I I feel sad about what could have been I feel sad for the labor party that once was and uh it’s hard it’s hard knowing that you know we’re trading in one Bunch for what feels right now like a diet version of the Tories and um I wanted more than that I wanted better options uh and that part’s really hard labor currently giving us nothing to be excited about their media appearances you know they’re they’re refusing to commit to anything right now and everything that they have said in in in the last few months has been very disappointing their stance on on Gaza rolling back their commitments on on nationalizing our Industries you know it’s all very very disappointing and um I know it’s not going to be a surprise to anyone listening to hear me say that but um I hope I hope something happens soon to get me a bit excited I’m not sure we’re the target vote I don’t think I mean maybe Labour will sort of pull something out of the hat to try and get us infused but they seem to be sort of interested in another sort of segment of of of Voters I do like that sort of the the tone in that group chat which is we might be Posh but we’re not all evil sort of as St Paul’s parents and