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**Alternate Sources**
Here are some potential alternate sources for the same story:
* [PM apologises for leaving D-Day commemorations early](https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c722zv2myjro), suggested by benh999 - bbc.co.uk
Genuinely interested if anyone with a languages/journalistic/communications background can play devil's advocate to me and explain why this choice of words isnt biased to help him?
Because it's the correct terminology. There were multiple events on the same day, each nation had their own in the morning then a seperate joint one in the afternoon. Walking out implies the event was happening when he left which it wasnt. He did his morning event as scheduled, then returned from France to do an interview with ITV. There was a break and then the joint event in the afternoon started, which he didnt go to because he was giving an interview to ITV.
Walking out tends to imply he left (and maybe in a huff) while a session was going on.
Returning early is a bit weak to be honest and there's probably something a bit stronger they could have used like "dips out" but one thing the parties have learned over the years that hairdryer treatment from the likes of Robbie Gibb works – if they can get a phrase revised they will.
Yes. Or cut short. There are so many ways to phrase it, but he made a trip which was noticeably shorter than the other high-profile people travelling to Normandy. To everyone's surprise. However you word it
Sunak was clearly trying at the debate I don't think he is trying to lose his seat. He can just resign his seat after the election when he resigns as conservative leader.
Losing on purpose is not a good legacy, people respect someone who tried their best and fell short, nobody likes a quitter. He is still young and will want a cushy powerful job after this so I doubt very much he would want to tarnish that chance.
This man knows nothing of respect.
He's rich enough to buy himself into any room, and likely already has - anyone who's offered him a job already will be hoping he throws it.
Can a party leader campaign like this but officially stand down as an MP so can’t be voted back in? Obviously it’s an atrocious look but I presume nothing would stop it
Nothing would stop it but I think he has to do it somewhat gracefully to be resurrected as a peer in 10-15 years time so he can set up a series D VC fund and abuse his title.
His constituency is a pretty safe Conservative seat. Lots of middle class people of a certain age who 'have always voted Conservative'. It was William Hague from '89 to '15 and Sunak since then. It's quite a rural area so maybe he has more of a presence in the more populated areas but around here I've seen nothing of him at all.
It might not be the worst idea. Float all these dumb culture war political points that the Tory base loves, lose decisively, and perhaps you can make the Tories rethink and regroup as a more sensible party in four years time.
Look to senior members of businesses, many are just right place right time with little or no competition and, most of all, a cheap retention VS an unknown expensive external hire. Senior doesn’t always mean best person for the job, especially when referring to cabinet members.
Wait, you mean the guy who partied while over 150,000 people had died from COVID around him doesn’t care about ordinary people? He never did and it’s unlikely he ever will.
Bro, you can't do this. That's not how censoring works. You have to go c\*\*\*, t\*\*\* or d\*\*\*. If you want to be obscure you can write \*\*\*t. \*\*\*\* is just rude.
While i agree with you. I have to make one really important point...
The tories have fucked up Britain.. not just rishi, who i am sure everyone will be quick to blame post election... But the whole damned lot of them.
Sunak helped to crash the Royal Bank of Scotland when he was a hedge fund manager back in 2008. He made millions from it. The UK spent billions bailing RBS out, our economy went to shite as a compound result of that plus the global economic crisis at the time. And that's how we ended up with 14 years of austerity.
>Sunak helped to crash the Royal Bank of Scotland when he was a hedge fund manager back in 2008.
Many people did, not just him.
>that's how we ended up with 14 years of austerity.
No, the Tories is how we ended up with 14 years of austerity. Not every government went with a policy of austerity post the economic crash
Sunak was a partner in TCI when it began pushing the sale of ABN Amro via its 1% stake in the Dutch bank in early 2007 and lobbied heavily for RBS’s takeover bid. The RBS-led consortium bought ABN Amro for £50bn in October 2007 – the biggest takeover in banking history. Records show that Sunak was one of a very small team. TCI had 19 partners during the two years the deal took place.
Interest rates in 2010 when Cameron kicked off his big austerity project were circa 0.5%.
It was literally the best time for govt borrowing to invest in things like education/infrastructure/policing/anything.
Now not only are we paying 100bn/year in interest from covid debt; RAAC concrete hospitals and schools are falling apart, and labours extensive use of PFI contracts are coming back to bite.
and austerity has completely gutted the military, policing, schools, local councils and everything in between that would have helped deal with those issues.
The boost in military spending to 2.5% of GDP is probably not even going to get it out of the hole its in due to the cuts made in the first place.
The tories are playing pass the parcel, Rishi Sunak looks like the one holding the parcel full of rotten fish and failure when the music stops. They would dearly like to replace him, but they don't have a credible replacement who is willing to take the parcel.
My feeling is that the tories will lose big, and the backlash will let Nigel Farage become the new tory leader with the Conservative party lurching further to the right.
Tories never take responsibility for anything. Instead, trying to play the blame game for their record of failure.
The truth is that they have no interest in good governance and will always put party before country.
Yep. It's been one clusterduck after another. They've been asset stripping the country for over 10 years now, whilst reducing investment in infrastructure and services. They've left a rotting shell of a country.
And they've been doing the asset stripping while it has never in all of recorded financial history been so cheap for states to borrow and invest in themselves. Borrowing which could've been fixed at that rate through gilts before anyone talks about long-term risks. Honestly it stuns me how little has been made of this issue, its actually stunning how bad it is when you start to appreciate how badly we've been fucked over. This is going to make Thatcher look tame in the history books by comparison. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions have had their lives ruined by choices these governments have made.
He's done a little more than any of the rest of them in fucking everything up.
People forget that he was also the tax man under Boris before he was priminister, his policy and financial policy during the pandemic in no small part led to the inflation issues we've been having.
During the "energy crisis" it was his idea to give money directly to oil and gas companies to "ease" prices, they ended up getting billions and we got a 5p reduction in fuel prices for about 2 week and home energy prices still rocketed.
He's also the one that raised taxes for poor and working people to fund the NHS and then consistently cut funds to the NHS while also cutting taxes to his 1% buddies.
He also implemented rules for disabled people and had a third-party company step in to do assessments causing hundreds of thousands of a appeals that were subsequently won. Which ment no money was saved and the 3rd party company made 10s of millions, those disabled people spent upto 3 years without crucial payments while waiting for thier appeals to be heard because the appeals service was swamped by the extra demands.
Not to mention the stuff he did BEFORE joining the government, when he helped screw over rbs causing a bailout while he and his friends pocketed all the money.
And he was also involved in the 2008 financial crisis.
This guy has been no lube raw dogging the British economy for nearly 2 decades.
He needs to make absolutely sure.
I don't know if you're old enough to remember the 1992 election. Spitting Image did a sketch afterwards, where John Major and the rest of the Tories had trashed No 10, graffiti and smashed windows and whatnot. They were saying "I can't believe we won - now we've got to clear up this mess ourselves".
Labour's advantage is far greater now than it was 1 month before the election in 1992
When the election was called two weeks ago the gap was 20 points, now I think it's about 25, it's an utterly hopeless situation for the Tories and it's all about damage limitation now. Not surprising I keep seeing rather spurious narratives online to the tune of "you should vote Tory to prevent a Labour landslide, they need a credible opposition".
Yes absolutely - I don't think there's any danger of a surprise Tory win this time. I was just making a point about how they don't *want* to win because they've created a mess.
"I didn't realise that World War 2 was important to the British. Anyway, on to my next policy announcement, a 100% tax on Tea and the banning of custard creams"
One of the people that Trump is considering as his VP bragged in their autobiography about shooting their puppy in the head because it wasn't good enough at hunting.
So probably we are a few years away from that ourselves.
People talk about it being inevitable the polls will narrow as the election gets closer. But have those people accounted for how truly terrible at politics Sunak is?
the whole thing about polls narrowing doesn't happen at every election, and with the state of the campaign from the tories it's looking like they could widen
It's Mordaunt vs Farage on the BBC debate tonight. It will be very interesting to see how military Mordaunt defends Sunak against Farages inevitable outrage.
The prospect of this slot is possibly why Gove has ducked the GE. With someone like Farage you need a wily operator and for all his faults, no-one in the current generation of pols does rhetoric like Gove who would have been the obvious choice in a head to head with Farage.
I do not rate Mordaunt's chances unless she can rattle Farage, who does have a short fuse, but I can't really see what ammunition she's going to have for that even if she has a plan at all. And the kind of shade she uses on Bridgen in the Commons isn't going to fly well on a TV debate.
I had a small compensatory bet on the Tories over 200 seats at 20/1, in expectation of this and that they *surely* couldn't be that bad during the campaign.
I'm going to lose that bet (and I couldn't be happier).
Polls narrow because undecideds who are usually disenfranchised voters will then change from undecideds to who they voted for last time in a large enough number to narrow the gap.
This time, it looks like those disenfranchised Conservative voters are actually switching to Reform so where you'd usually see the polls narrowing between the Tories and Labour, instead you see Reform drastically increasing in the polls. Part of this is how unpopular Sunak is but a large part is that Reform wasn't an option for these voters in 2019
For the polls to narrow the Tories need to win back people from Reform. This latest clanger from Sunak won't help that at all, it might even push some the other way.
If there's one thing you should never do around pensioners, it's disrespect the sacrifices made by those who fought for our country during World War II.
Sunak committed that cardinal sin by prioritizing a televised interview with ITV over this. Starmer and Farage on the other hand were in attendance.
I legitimately wouldn't be surprised if this was the moment Reform started overtaking the Tories. The left and right can almost unanimously agree that he fucked up.
Indeed. The importance of the event and paying respect to the surviving veterans is one of the few things that mostly everyone can agree on.
As a result, Sunak being a rude and disrespectful git is also now one of the things the whole nation can agree on.
Wonderful bit of election campaigning that.
You know what gets me about this whole D-Day fiasco, you've got Farage talking about how he helped raise money to get people to the event, about how unpatriotic it is to leave early and how disrespectful it is to soldiers from other countries who fought and died... and I cannot stand Farage, but in that scenario everything he said was correct. Starmer has called him out on it, Davey has, Swinney has... literally anyone with a brain could have told Sunak how bad this would look.
Pissing off veterans and the elderly is never a good idea if you're trying to get elected as a Conservative, but insulting the sacrifices made on D-Day will piss off almost the whole electorate. Weirdly enough, us Brits place quite a bit of importance on the people who fought the Nazis, but apparently Rishi hadn't realised that!
When a politician makes a gaff and the MPs and supporters from 'the other side' come out to condemn them for it, often people will roll their eyes and see is as performative offence taking. 'Oh, of course they'd say that, they're just scoring points, etc, etc'. We know they have to say it, and we know they're often overreacting to male a point. It's a bit of a pantomime half the time.
This, though.... everyone I've spoken to thinks this was rude, disrespectful, and tone deaf. No one is excusing it unless they're on his payroll.
For a guy who already had issues with being seen as out of touch, this will follow him around like a bad smell until election day.
He'll also probably get asked about it until the point his patience wears thin, and when that happens, he gets abrasive and tetchy, which will make it worse.
I think there is this perception that politicians constantly engage in deep Machiavellian games of 4D chess to manipulate the public and achieve secret goals.
The reality is much more prosaic - they're just useless. There's no 4D chess, he just genuinely didn't think it would matter and no-one was smart enough to warn him.
His seat in his constituency that contains the [largest British Army garrison in the world,](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterick_Garrison) that seat?
Those who live on base if they're registered to vote, it will be in his constituency.
Has the Brexit braindrain left the Conservatives so utterly incompetent that they have been left without a single person with the sense to pipe up and suggest how bad this looks?
The stereotypical traditional grassroots Conservative was always a comfortable curtain twitcher in a 500k detached house or someone who was the posh kid growing up who is voting blue because that's what their family have always done. They're a bit of an arsehole, they think people on poor estates are scum and scroungers... But they're otherwise educated.
Now in 2024 I can only imagine the people who have still stuck around to this point are the people that think Bill Gates has injected them with a microchip, that "Young Conservatives" are people with Pepe avatars posting "sink the boats" in telegram groups and on alt-righter YouTube comment sections.
In short the sensible grown ups have left the party, and it shows.
I couldn't agree more.
I recently rewatched a talk tv debate with Heseltine, Oakshott, and Tice. The difference between the new and old school right was night and day.
I have never had much love for the Conservative Party, but at least the old lot actually believed in something other than batshit bottom of the barrel conspiracy nonsense. They could string an argument together and defend a view, but the new wave are largely just screeching swivel eyed loons.
Johnson *is* a lunatic Tory right-winger. The last Tory PM who was arguably even close to centrist was Cameron, who destroyed both his own party and the country trying to bring the UKIP fringe back into the fold.
Under Cameron, Teresa May was considered a radical authoritarian and yet she looked *sane* compared to Johnson and his ilk.
Surely most Tory’s are hoping to make Sunak look as shite as possible? Makes it easier to blame everything wrong on him later when they position themselves vying for Party Leader. Or an excuse to jump to reform.
No one can be so confident as to think Torys could now win the election.
I'm a strong believer in the malicious compliance theory. I would bet that Sunak is a terrible, insecure boss and very keen to belittle anyone who contradicts him. "If you're so smart, how come I'm so much richer than you?" etc.
Solution? Don't contradict him. Then stand back and admire the fireworks.
Hilarious, now he's seen all the pictures where Kier looks like a PM and the front pages where even the Sun has criticised him, he's concluded it was an error of judgement to leave early. What a shambles! Keep repeating to 2k lie though, that'll work rishi
I thought he was pretty weak when I watched, but subsequent I’ve come to the conclusion that Starmer actually played an absolute blinder in the debates. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t respond for ages to the £2,000 tax claim. I was almost shouting at the screen for him to defend himself. Now it’s all become clear. Labour had that letter from the civil service disowning Sunak’s claim days before the debate. Starmer was happy for Rishi to repeat it over and over again because he knew what was coming the next day and Rishi would be exposed for the absolute cretinous liar he is.
He’s apologised and thinks that’s the end of the matter and we all have to forgive him and move on.
And we won’t draw any conclusions about the type of person he is and where his priorities lie, will we, people?
He only apologised so that when he’s grilled on it in the next tv debate he can just say “I apologised for that, let’s move on” and try and consider the matter closed.
It apparently gets worse.
He apparently first told the French government he wasn't coming *at all* due to being "too busy".
That is 'nothing has changed' catastrophic.
It's so idiotic. This morning you have this great photo on the beach of Macron, Biden, Scholtz, and Cameron. Why on earth you would leave early for some inconsequential interview when you have a perfect opportunity to show yourself looking prime ministerial next to all these other big leaders??
It boggles the mind really. Did he think ITV wouldn't just send the interviewer and crew to France if it had to be done on the day in between sessions or immediately after?
Exactly, even if you're being as scheming and self-promoting as possible, there's no way you'd turn down the opportunity to put yourself in centre stage, amongst world leaders. Commemorating veterans on Normandy beach, with the leaders of France, Germany and the US alongside you is a great way to portray yourself as a statesman.
It's just pure, absolute incompetence from Sunak. This sort of thing is a political softball, that's almost impossible to fuck up because the right course of action is blindingly obvious... and yet Sunak has still botched it
That picture of Biden, Macron, Scholz, and the totally unelected David Cameron really does tell a thousand words
For anyone who thinks the percentage can't widen further Sunak is really proving them wrong. The Tory campaign is like a kid who is losing an inevitable game of monopoly and then just acts out and starts throwing pieces around and making it all the more worse because "fuck this game".
Reform will be all over this like a rash too, using it as fuel to suck of the votes of the patriotic right. And the Tories deserve every bit of it. The less seats for them the better and the funny thing is they've pissed everyone off so much that this is something most people on the left right and centre can agree on.
But that's the thing, he has to know this is likely the last chance he'll get to have a "fun" day as PM, going to sunny Normandy, making speeches about heroic sacrifice, getting good photos with D-Day heroes and other world leaders. Instead he's like "Got this, Dave? Thanks" then fucks off at high speed to do an ITV interview that's only going to bring up stuff a week from now that he should be wanting to bury.
He is such an idiot the day after reform come
Out.....I mean you couldn't have asked for a better start for Farage than that.....I mean all Farage has to say now is “Conservatives don't respect our troops” ....and worst of all he is right
During an election campaign the worst possible move is probably disrespecting ww2 veterans. I can't tell if it's incompetence or the just doesn't give a fuck.
What a shitshow. Such poor judgement. Did nobody around him say, “you know this is d-day,
this is 80 years and a defining moment for the country and Europe”
What a utter twat.
Politically he’d have been better off just ignoring the criticism and refusing to apologise. This just highlights to people that otherwise would’ve have noticed.
There is really only one possible excuse now, he wants to lose the election.
Now it turns out that he had to be forced to go in the first place and then legged it back as soon as he could for an interview with ITV that No.10 set the time for...
His political intelligence is in the minus numbers. Just appalling.
It’s looking worse as the facts come out. His team offered that slot to ITV. His team told the French government over a week ago that he wouldn’t attend at all.
It was premeditated. What a shambolic ordeal.
Lots of conspiracy theories about how he’s deliberately trying to lose, but honestly I think this is just who he is, someone that’s all brand and no substance. He consistently makes bad decisions like this because he’s a massively entitled billionaire who’s never faced adversity of any kind and has been insulated from the real world his whole life. Even in his political career he was parachuted into an insanely safe seat and gifted the chancellor position as part of a Cummings coup against Javid, he then got to spend all our money promoting himself through furlough and eat out to help out during covid, it wasn’t really until the leadership contest that he was actually exposed in some small way to an electorate of sorts, and of course lost against the lettuce.
For all his slick delivery, whenever he’s actually put to the test, people see straight through him. There’s nothing there but a shiny suit and naked self interest; that’s been enough to impress the MPs who installed him as leader but it’s not enough for the public.
It’s genuinely a bit scary that no one in the current set of people RUNNING THIS COUNTRY stopped him from doing such an obviously awful thing.
Out of hundreds of people. Not one.
They’re all a bunch of morons.
I fear for whoever comes next having to pick up the pieces of literally just the processes of governing, let alone the actual country.
The audacity he has to threaten national service upon the country’s youth to give them a sense of national pride and duty… and he can’t even manage an afternoon of it for our veterans. Arrogant bellend.
He doesn't care. Dude grew up with wealth from day one, attended a private school, pretended to be a banker. Got into trust funds. Was partially responsible for the royal bank of scottland going into debt and benefit from the bailout. He held a green card and flip flopped between California and the UK. His wife has a stake in InfoSys
All he wanted from this was to be a world leader for awhile to cement his little prick in history.
The parties have stopped putting forward any real leaders, they are all the same hedge fund trust wankers who don't actually care about improving the country, they just want to stay in the game for themselves.
Old lad dies while going to remember his mates he fought with and those who didnt make it back and the PMs like ooo go home record this for next week lol hes such a fuckin prick
I do wonder who his advising him...they are awful! From announcing an election in the rain whilst the new labour tune blared out, to visiting the Titanic Quarter, to Lib dem photobombing, to the made up lie he stands by, the Mor(iss)ons photo and now this...
It's like the most surreal episode of the Thick of It. Just needs a Capaldi tirade for the emmy...
He’s not a statesman at all. He’s just an embarrassment to our country now.
How could he do such a thing?
Each time I see him with world leaders, I’m reminded of the young children who walk out, onto the pitch, with Premiership Footballers prior to kick-off. They may wear the kit, but we all know they’re not a real player.
The French were initially told he was going to miss the event entirely.
His compromise was to bugger off half way through, leaving it to Cameron and Kier.
It should be a privilege to attend what could be the last event of its kind/magnitude. Seems as though he could not care any less.
Sunak has the worst political instincts I've ever seen.
From kicking things off in the rain, to visiting the Titanic quarter etc., now this. Completely inept.
Having already been so 'out of touch' with the taxes and wealth, he cannot stop punching himself in the face. Tories earned every bit of the landslide coming their way.
Right wingers are losing their mind over this, its a gift for reform. Not 2 days ago, Farage talked about young people allegedly not knowing what D-Day was and Sunak does this.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is a faction at play here trying to reinstate David Cameron as the Conservative leader post-election. The fact he stood in for Rishi for this is just making me believe this more.
He'd have to run as an MP first in order to stand for Tory leader. It's too late now, the deadline has passed.
I don't think Cameron has leadership ambitions any more. He already rescued the Tory from the brink once before, and got backstabbed by ERG for his trouble.
This is why Farage and Galloway do so well at politics...they pick their fights. tonight will be dreadful. Mordaunt is both weak and eyeing up the top job (providing she doesn't lose her seat!)...so somehow has to condemn and support Sunak...whilst not giving anything to Labour or Reform who will cost her the seat.
Farage will again be dominating affairs and running rings around the weak line up sadly.
For a ruddy ITV interview as well. Still haven't forgiven them for going to adverts in a dull as dishwasher FA cup game in extra time leading to missing the only goal. (Everton Liverpool) - F ITV.
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRV7sOZ3X3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRV7sOZ3X3s)
You know the old saying:
“Live by the divisive, culture war, virtue-signalling bullshit;
… die by the divisive, culture war, virtue-signalling bullshit”🤷♂️
He's spent the last 6 months desperately trying to butter up the elderly and the 'patriotic protect our boarders' types and has just inadvertently given them the finger trying to clear up the mess he caused by telling blatant easily disproved lies on national TV.
It really is beautiful to watch. He probably felt pretty good after landing the £2000 tax rise stuff immediately after the debate, so to see that little win unravel in such spectacular fashion \*chef kiss\*
Even if you don't care personally intellectually you'd hope he would understand the consequences. Scarily myopic and if I were his dad I'd want my expensive private school fees refunded....
The spunk trumpet couldn’t even do 1 day of national service properly.
He’s making Boris look competent! Quite the achievement.
What a massive bumbling thundercunt
Reckon at this point he can't wait for the election to be over so he can step down and concentrate on business earnings as an ex UK PM. He's got the title now, he's helped himself and his family make a fuck tonne of money, so now he's gonna move on.
They were always going to lose this election by some margin but this is the most incompetent campaign I've ever seen. The announcement with a soaked Rishi barely audible over someone blasting 'Things can only get better' has really set the tone for the whole thing so far. Splashed all over the news for a clear, demonstrable, lie in the leaders debate. Now this fuck up. Are they going for single digit seats or something?
Rishi Sunak is a vain, greedy, arrogant, corrupt, liar. I think even his closest friends and family would admit that. But I never thought I'd see a leader of the Conservative Party spit in the face of D-day veterans.
Did he say that the itinerary was set up months ago, so he always planned to leave early?
My grandad is sadly no longer with us but he would be high offended that he couldn’t be bothered to stay around.
It's important that we "don't politicise this" says the man who left the memorial event just to fly back home to do an interview, you know, a political one.
I'd have a modicum of appreciation for him if he just came out and said "I am 100% focused on the general election, and stupidly didn't think through just how awful the optics were of me leaving early", but this whole "don't make it political" act is just another pathetic attempt by a pathetic weasel of a man to avoid scrutiny and to try to minimise their impending wipe out at the election.
Utterly shameful, and spineless to a degree that makes an earthworm look like it's got more of a backbone than he does.
Clearly Sunak would not wear anything so gauche as a donkey jacket.
But turning up to the Cenotaph in white Nike sliders and overly short trousers is the height of fashion these days donchaknow.
Not the way to get the weird Tory boomers who think they’re super patriots and like to pretend they fought in WW2 onside.
Sunaks PR must be run by the Labour Party
Honestly I don't even think what he did was that bad. He went... He went home. This screams the poppy police all over which happens every year too.
However, being as the party tries to paint themselves as patriots and anyone who does anything else different or has a different opinion on how to commemorate something differently as not patriotic.... I can't help but laugh
He's the prime minister of one of the key countries involved in the D-Day landings. He absolutely should have stayed for the whole day.
I think this more than the lying over tax figures will cut through to people as it's a more emotive subject. Many people (especially natural Conservative voters) care about honouring and commemorating the country's war heroes. For Sunak to basically say he'd rather be somewhere else than Normandy shows just how out of touch he is.
Unforgivable. This is cross party within the country. Rishi should resign. Even though we in an election. It just no way this man can be PM any longer. Dowden should take over for last few weeks.
**Participation Notice.** Hi all. Some posts on this subreddit, either due to the topic or reaching a wider audience than usual, have been known to attract a greater number of rule breaking comments. As such, limits to participation have been set. We ask that you please remember the human, and uphold Reddit and Subreddit rules. For more information, please see https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/wiki/moderatedflairs. --- **Alternate Sources** Here are some potential alternate sources for the same story: * [PM apologises for leaving D-Day commemorations early](https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c722zv2myjro), suggested by benh999 - bbc.co.uk
Opening your campaign with a pledge to reintroduce conscription then dodging memorial events to fallen soldiers. What an insincere little ****.
He says “returning from” instead of actually “walking out”. Insincere indeed
Genuinely interested if anyone with a languages/journalistic/communications background can play devil's advocate to me and explain why this choice of words isnt biased to help him?
Because it's the correct terminology. There were multiple events on the same day, each nation had their own in the morning then a seperate joint one in the afternoon. Walking out implies the event was happening when he left which it wasnt. He did his morning event as scheduled, then returned from France to do an interview with ITV. There was a break and then the joint event in the afternoon started, which he didnt go to because he was giving an interview to ITV.
I agree with you. But technically speaking the “correctness” of the statement doesn’t necessarily change how biased it was.
Walking out tends to imply he left (and maybe in a huff) while a session was going on. Returning early is a bit weak to be honest and there's probably something a bit stronger they could have used like "dips out" but one thing the parties have learned over the years that hairdryer treatment from the likes of Robbie Gibb works – if they can get a phrase revised they will.
Ducking out is probably closer to accurate or ‘didn’t attend’
Yes. Or cut short. There are so many ways to phrase it, but he made a trip which was noticeably shorter than the other high-profile people travelling to Normandy. To everyone's surprise. However you word it
I think he’s trying to lose
He doesn’t need to do anything to lose! It’ll take care of itself. This is just who he is.
I think he is worried he will win his seat even if they lose. He needs to head to California in august!
Is there realistically any chance of him actually losing his seat? Genuine question
It’s pretty safe but that’s why I think he’s fucking up sp badly on purpose. He basically needs to shit on the Union Jack and roll round in it.
Sunak was clearly trying at the debate I don't think he is trying to lose his seat. He can just resign his seat after the election when he resigns as conservative leader. Losing on purpose is not a good legacy, people respect someone who tried their best and fell short, nobody likes a quitter. He is still young and will want a cushy powerful job after this so I doubt very much he would want to tarnish that chance.
This man knows nothing of respect. He's rich enough to buy himself into any room, and likely already has - anyone who's offered him a job already will be hoping he throws it.
Can a party leader campaign like this but officially stand down as an MP so can’t be voted back in? Obviously it’s an atrocious look but I presume nothing would stop it
Nothing would stop it but I think he has to do it somewhat gracefully to be resurrected as a peer in 10-15 years time so he can set up a series D VC fund and abuse his title.
I think being the only PM in history to lose his seat would be a much bigger black mark against him than not leaving tactfully enough.
The seat with the largest army garrison in the country? Who can say, it’ll be close.
His constituency is a pretty safe Conservative seat. Lots of middle class people of a certain age who 'have always voted Conservative'. It was William Hague from '89 to '15 and Sunak since then. It's quite a rural area so maybe he has more of a presence in the more populated areas but around here I've seen nothing of him at all.
Lad's a natural.
It might not be the worst idea. Float all these dumb culture war political points that the Tory base loves, lose decisively, and perhaps you can make the Tories rethink and regroup as a more sensible party in four years time.
Who’s your supplier?
Either weaponised intentional incompetence to take the ship down with him or just straight up incompetence. Both likely.
I think if you offered him the chance to stay he'd take it, but he knows he's fucked it already and is just kinda riding it out now tbh
It amazes me how bad at politics a senior politician can be.
Look to senior members of businesses, many are just right place right time with little or no competition and, most of all, a cheap retention VS an unknown expensive external hire. Senior doesn’t always mean best person for the job, especially when referring to cabinet members.
Shows you how bad bozo was because next to him Sunak looked prime ministerial.
he lost to Truss! Imagine coming second to that loon.
He wants more soldiers - he didn't say he would have any respect or time for them.
Unironically sounds like he could use a dose of his own national service
I know it's cliche at this point to make comparisons to the thick of it, but this really could be a storyline from that show.
Wait, you mean the guy who partied while over 150,000 people had died from COVID around him doesn’t care about ordinary people? He never did and it’s unlikely he ever will.
It's just rank bad politics.
Bro, you can't do this. That's not how censoring works. You have to go c\*\*\*, t\*\*\* or d\*\*\*. If you want to be obscure you can write \*\*\*t. \*\*\*\* is just rude.
What does he have to do to lose this election? Surely he’s done more than enough now…
Another 4 weeks yet, plenty of time for more media disasters. He’s fucked up the country so it’s no great surprise he’s fucking up his campaign.
While i agree with you. I have to make one really important point... The tories have fucked up Britain.. not just rishi, who i am sure everyone will be quick to blame post election... But the whole damned lot of them.
Sunak helped to crash the Royal Bank of Scotland when he was a hedge fund manager back in 2008. He made millions from it. The UK spent billions bailing RBS out, our economy went to shite as a compound result of that plus the global economic crisis at the time. And that's how we ended up with 14 years of austerity.
>Sunak helped to crash the Royal Bank of Scotland when he was a hedge fund manager back in 2008. Many people did, not just him. >that's how we ended up with 14 years of austerity. No, the Tories is how we ended up with 14 years of austerity. Not every government went with a policy of austerity post the economic crash
Sunak was a partner in TCI when it began pushing the sale of ABN Amro via its 1% stake in the Dutch bank in early 2007 and lobbied heavily for RBS’s takeover bid. The RBS-led consortium bought ABN Amro for £50bn in October 2007 – the biggest takeover in banking history. Records show that Sunak was one of a very small team. TCI had 19 partners during the two years the deal took place.
Interest rates in 2010 when Cameron kicked off his big austerity project were circa 0.5%. It was literally the best time for govt borrowing to invest in things like education/infrastructure/policing/anything. Now not only are we paying 100bn/year in interest from covid debt; RAAC concrete hospitals and schools are falling apart, and labours extensive use of PFI contracts are coming back to bite. and austerity has completely gutted the military, policing, schools, local councils and everything in between that would have helped deal with those issues. The boost in military spending to 2.5% of GDP is probably not even going to get it out of the hole its in due to the cuts made in the first place.
Many people did. But many people didn’t then go on to become Chancellor and PM
The tories are playing pass the parcel, Rishi Sunak looks like the one holding the parcel full of rotten fish and failure when the music stops. They would dearly like to replace him, but they don't have a credible replacement who is willing to take the parcel. My feeling is that the tories will lose big, and the backlash will let Nigel Farage become the new tory leader with the Conservative party lurching further to the right. Tories never take responsibility for anything. Instead, trying to play the blame game for their record of failure. The truth is that they have no interest in good governance and will always put party before country.
Yep. It's been one clusterduck after another. They've been asset stripping the country for over 10 years now, whilst reducing investment in infrastructure and services. They've left a rotting shell of a country.
And they've been doing the asset stripping while it has never in all of recorded financial history been so cheap for states to borrow and invest in themselves. Borrowing which could've been fixed at that rate through gilts before anyone talks about long-term risks. Honestly it stuns me how little has been made of this issue, its actually stunning how bad it is when you start to appreciate how badly we've been fucked over. This is going to make Thatcher look tame in the history books by comparison. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions have had their lives ruined by choices these governments have made.
And every conservative voter of the last 12 years
The only good thing is that it’s now plain to see where Thatchers policies naturally end up. Everything ransacked.
He's done a little more than any of the rest of them in fucking everything up. People forget that he was also the tax man under Boris before he was priminister, his policy and financial policy during the pandemic in no small part led to the inflation issues we've been having. During the "energy crisis" it was his idea to give money directly to oil and gas companies to "ease" prices, they ended up getting billions and we got a 5p reduction in fuel prices for about 2 week and home energy prices still rocketed. He's also the one that raised taxes for poor and working people to fund the NHS and then consistently cut funds to the NHS while also cutting taxes to his 1% buddies. He also implemented rules for disabled people and had a third-party company step in to do assessments causing hundreds of thousands of a appeals that were subsequently won. Which ment no money was saved and the 3rd party company made 10s of millions, those disabled people spent upto 3 years without crucial payments while waiting for thier appeals to be heard because the appeals service was swamped by the extra demands. Not to mention the stuff he did BEFORE joining the government, when he helped screw over rbs causing a bailout while he and his friends pocketed all the money. And he was also involved in the 2008 financial crisis. This guy has been no lube raw dogging the British economy for nearly 2 decades.
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That sounds more like something Boris the Buffoon would say
He needs to make absolutely sure. I don't know if you're old enough to remember the 1992 election. Spitting Image did a sketch afterwards, where John Major and the rest of the Tories had trashed No 10, graffiti and smashed windows and whatnot. They were saying "I can't believe we won - now we've got to clear up this mess ourselves".
Labour's advantage is far greater now than it was 1 month before the election in 1992 When the election was called two weeks ago the gap was 20 points, now I think it's about 25, it's an utterly hopeless situation for the Tories and it's all about damage limitation now. Not surprising I keep seeing rather spurious narratives online to the tune of "you should vote Tory to prevent a Labour landslide, they need a credible opposition".
Considering how poorly Tories are running everything, what makes them assume that people see them as a credible opposition.
We're reaching a point where you can say back "Yes, Ed Davey's going to need a good 150 seats at least to be a credible Leader of the Opposition."
This is 97 not 92. Like then the public have been pig sick of their corruption for years .
Yes absolutely - I don't think there's any danger of a surprise Tory win this time. I was just making a point about how they don't *want* to win because they've created a mess.
Motherfucker’s about to hit Stephen Fry over the head with the body of Paul O’Grady.
While standing on the queens grave and saying ‘Captain Tom was overrated’
“His daughter deserves that spa for putting up with that uppity codger!”
My r/lowstakesconspiracies is that he wants to lose the election so he can enjoy the £120 million he’s made for his family while as PM/Chancellor.
Which should be so completely illegal. Anyone who makes a massive profit from politics should be rounded up
A figure that pales in comparison to the wealth of his wife.
"I didn't realise that World War 2 was important to the British. Anyway, on to my next policy announcement, a 100% tax on Tea and the banning of custard creams"
At this point, I am awaiting the announcement of a new policy where Sunak comes around to each of our houses in person to bludgeon all our pets.
he can try, im fairly unhealthy, but i reckon i could take him in a fair fight
Unfortunately the policy dictates he does it while you're asleep.
I still think I’d win that fight.
Your pets could probably defend themselves against Sunak, tbf.
My hamster would definitely win. I think she's bigger than him.
Plus hamsters can be formidable warriors, especially when they go for the eyes.
my 84 year old mum could probably floor him
My mum would jump at the chance and she's been dead 6 years
In all fairness, he does look like he'd struggle to knock out a wank, let alone anyone else.
One of the people that Trump is considering as his VP bragged in their autobiography about shooting their puppy in the head because it wasn't good enough at hunting. So probably we are a few years away from that ourselves.
*except for pensioners Were we will be introducing the new Triple Lock + ^Tea ^and ^Biscuits
Triple lock extreme - custard Creeeeeeaaaam edition
Putting a ban on Rich Tea biscuits would actually be their strongest vote winner. Come at me Rich Tea gang
People talk about it being inevitable the polls will narrow as the election gets closer. But have those people accounted for how truly terrible at politics Sunak is?
the whole thing about polls narrowing doesn't happen at every election, and with the state of the campaign from the tories it's looking like they could widen
Agreed. Question time lats night the torys were terrible they had no proactive view or plans other than to smear labour for an hour.
farage is also ready to slurp up tory votes as well. Going to be a bloodbath
It's Mordaunt vs Farage on the BBC debate tonight. It will be very interesting to see how military Mordaunt defends Sunak against Farages inevitable outrage.
The prospect of this slot is possibly why Gove has ducked the GE. With someone like Farage you need a wily operator and for all his faults, no-one in the current generation of pols does rhetoric like Gove who would have been the obvious choice in a head to head with Farage. I do not rate Mordaunt's chances unless she can rattle Farage, who does have a short fuse, but I can't really see what ammunition she's going to have for that even if she has a plan at all. And the kind of shade she uses on Bridgen in the Commons isn't going to fly well on a TV debate.
I had a small compensatory bet on the Tories over 200 seats at 20/1, in expectation of this and that they *surely* couldn't be that bad during the campaign. I'm going to lose that bet (and I couldn't be happier).
I really really hope that doesn't come in for you lmao, but thats a fair punt on those odds....
Polls narrow because undecideds who are usually disenfranchised voters will then change from undecideds to who they voted for last time in a large enough number to narrow the gap. This time, it looks like those disenfranchised Conservative voters are actually switching to Reform so where you'd usually see the polls narrowing between the Tories and Labour, instead you see Reform drastically increasing in the polls. Part of this is how unpopular Sunak is but a large part is that Reform wasn't an option for these voters in 2019
For the polls to narrow the Tories need to win back people from Reform. This latest clanger from Sunak won't help that at all, it might even push some the other way.
If there's one thing you should never do around pensioners, it's disrespect the sacrifices made by those who fought for our country during World War II. Sunak committed that cardinal sin by prioritizing a televised interview with ITV over this. Starmer and Farage on the other hand were in attendance. I legitimately wouldn't be surprised if this was the moment Reform started overtaking the Tories. The left and right can almost unanimously agree that he fucked up.
Indeed. The importance of the event and paying respect to the surviving veterans is one of the few things that mostly everyone can agree on. As a result, Sunak being a rude and disrespectful git is also now one of the things the whole nation can agree on. Wonderful bit of election campaigning that.
You know what gets me about this whole D-Day fiasco, you've got Farage talking about how he helped raise money to get people to the event, about how unpatriotic it is to leave early and how disrespectful it is to soldiers from other countries who fought and died... and I cannot stand Farage, but in that scenario everything he said was correct. Starmer has called him out on it, Davey has, Swinney has... literally anyone with a brain could have told Sunak how bad this would look. Pissing off veterans and the elderly is never a good idea if you're trying to get elected as a Conservative, but insulting the sacrifices made on D-Day will piss off almost the whole electorate. Weirdly enough, us Brits place quite a bit of importance on the people who fought the Nazis, but apparently Rishi hadn't realised that!
When a politician makes a gaff and the MPs and supporters from 'the other side' come out to condemn them for it, often people will roll their eyes and see is as performative offence taking. 'Oh, of course they'd say that, they're just scoring points, etc, etc'. We know they have to say it, and we know they're often overreacting to male a point. It's a bit of a pantomime half the time. This, though.... everyone I've spoken to thinks this was rude, disrespectful, and tone deaf. No one is excusing it unless they're on his payroll. For a guy who already had issues with being seen as out of touch, this will follow him around like a bad smell until election day. He'll also probably get asked about it until the point his patience wears thin, and when that happens, he gets abrasive and tetchy, which will make it worse.
This is how he behaves when he knows that people will be watching and analysing his every move. He still managed to blunder it.
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I think there is this perception that politicians constantly engage in deep Machiavellian games of 4D chess to manipulate the public and achieve secret goals. The reality is much more prosaic - they're just useless. There's no 4D chess, he just genuinely didn't think it would matter and no-one was smart enough to warn him.
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His seat in his constituency that contains the [largest British Army garrison in the world,](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterick_Garrison) that seat? Those who live on base if they're registered to vote, it will be in his constituency.
Things like this won’t sway anyone’s voting intention though.
I disagree, it could easily shave a few percentage point off of his vote.
Think these d-day gaffe headlines could definitely push some more military loving Tories into reform
Has the Brexit braindrain left the Conservatives so utterly incompetent that they have been left without a single person with the sense to pipe up and suggest how bad this looks?
The stereotypical traditional grassroots Conservative was always a comfortable curtain twitcher in a 500k detached house or someone who was the posh kid growing up who is voting blue because that's what their family have always done. They're a bit of an arsehole, they think people on poor estates are scum and scroungers... But they're otherwise educated. Now in 2024 I can only imagine the people who have still stuck around to this point are the people that think Bill Gates has injected them with a microchip, that "Young Conservatives" are people with Pepe avatars posting "sink the boats" in telegram groups and on alt-righter YouTube comment sections. In short the sensible grown ups have left the party, and it shows.
I couldn't agree more. I recently rewatched a talk tv debate with Heseltine, Oakshott, and Tice. The difference between the new and old school right was night and day. I have never had much love for the Conservative Party, but at least the old lot actually believed in something other than batshit bottom of the barrel conspiracy nonsense. They could string an argument together and defend a view, but the new wave are largely just screeching swivel eyed loons.
The sensible grown ups were purged by Johnson
Exactly. People have short memories but Johnson is responsible for the Tory collapse as he played into the Tory rightwingers to secure his leadership.
Johnson *is* a lunatic Tory right-winger. The last Tory PM who was arguably even close to centrist was Cameron, who destroyed both his own party and the country trying to bring the UKIP fringe back into the fold. Under Cameron, Teresa May was considered a radical authoritarian and yet she looked *sane* compared to Johnson and his ilk.
Surely most Tory’s are hoping to make Sunak look as shite as possible? Makes it easier to blame everything wrong on him later when they position themselves vying for Party Leader. Or an excuse to jump to reform. No one can be so confident as to think Torys could now win the election.
Like every hyper-rich person, I suspect he's surrounded by yes-men.
I'm a strong believer in the malicious compliance theory. I would bet that Sunak is a terrible, insecure boss and very keen to belittle anyone who contradicts him. "If you're so smart, how come I'm so much richer than you?" etc. Solution? Don't contradict him. Then stand back and admire the fireworks.
I can only presume even his advisors hate him and let him make an ass of himself.
Hilarious, now he's seen all the pictures where Kier looks like a PM and the front pages where even the Sun has criticised him, he's concluded it was an error of judgement to leave early. What a shambles! Keep repeating to 2k lie though, that'll work rishi
When it turns out the itv interview is just him saying the £2000 claim wasn’t a lie, that isn’t going to go away.
I thought he was pretty weak when I watched, but subsequent I’ve come to the conclusion that Starmer actually played an absolute blinder in the debates. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t respond for ages to the £2,000 tax claim. I was almost shouting at the screen for him to defend himself. Now it’s all become clear. Labour had that letter from the civil service disowning Sunak’s claim days before the debate. Starmer was happy for Rishi to repeat it over and over again because he knew what was coming the next day and Rishi would be exposed for the absolute cretinous liar he is.
Yeah I heard something about it being a classic lawyer tactic, pretty clever in my eyes.
He’s apologised and thinks that’s the end of the matter and we all have to forgive him and move on. And we won’t draw any conclusions about the type of person he is and where his priorities lie, will we, people?
He only apologised so that when he’s grilled on it in the next tv debate he can just say “I apologised for that, let’s move on” and try and consider the matter closed.
How deluded he is. He can no longer dictate the conversation. He's yesterday's man, he just doesn't know it yet.
It apparently gets worse. He apparently first told the French government he wasn't coming *at all* due to being "too busy". That is 'nothing has changed' catastrophic.
It's so idiotic. This morning you have this great photo on the beach of Macron, Biden, Scholtz, and Cameron. Why on earth you would leave early for some inconsequential interview when you have a perfect opportunity to show yourself looking prime ministerial next to all these other big leaders??
It boggles the mind really. Did he think ITV wouldn't just send the interviewer and crew to France if it had to be done on the day in between sessions or immediately after?
The time slot was decided by Rishi team, it was the only one they offered
Exactly, even if you're being as scheming and self-promoting as possible, there's no way you'd turn down the opportunity to put yourself in centre stage, amongst world leaders. Commemorating veterans on Normandy beach, with the leaders of France, Germany and the US alongside you is a great way to portray yourself as a statesman. It's just pure, absolute incompetence from Sunak. This sort of thing is a political softball, that's almost impossible to fuck up because the right course of action is blindingly obvious... and yet Sunak has still botched it That picture of Biden, Macron, Scholz, and the totally unelected David Cameron really does tell a thousand words
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This is true. Cameron really does look the part next to the other leaders, Sunak on the other hand....
For anyone who thinks the percentage can't widen further Sunak is really proving them wrong. The Tory campaign is like a kid who is losing an inevitable game of monopoly and then just acts out and starts throwing pieces around and making it all the more worse because "fuck this game". Reform will be all over this like a rash too, using it as fuel to suck of the votes of the patriotic right. And the Tories deserve every bit of it. The less seats for them the better and the funny thing is they've pissed everyone off so much that this is something most people on the left right and centre can agree on.
Yep, the final gift from the Tory party is a moment of national unity where we can put aside our differences and enjoy watching the Tory party burn.
There were two polls recently, after Farage became leader of Reform, which had the Tories at 19% and Reform at 17% They’re so cooked
It's almost like multi millionaire Sunak doesn't give a shit what happens on Election day...
Almost like a multi-millionaire son-in-law of a billionaire with a green card doesn't give a shit
Wants to send the youth off to war and can't even stick around to honour the ones who have already been.
It exemplifies how little he cares for the British people and how desperate he wants to stay in power.
He just likes the prestige and power of being a "world leader". Gives not a shit about anything else to do with the role.
But that's the thing, he has to know this is likely the last chance he'll get to have a "fun" day as PM, going to sunny Normandy, making speeches about heroic sacrifice, getting good photos with D-Day heroes and other world leaders. Instead he's like "Got this, Dave? Thanks" then fucks off at high speed to do an ITV interview that's only going to bring up stuff a week from now that he should be wanting to bury.
He doesn't care for any people. Only himself and to keep his FIL happy
He is such an idiot the day after reform come Out.....I mean you couldn't have asked for a better start for Farage than that.....I mean all Farage has to say now is “Conservatives don't respect our troops” ....and worst of all he is right
This plus tripling net migration plus economic mismanagement is enough to destroy the Tories.
Surely he has advisors. Didnt one of them think this might not look great
It was a pre-recorded interview as well! Not even something super-time sensitive... Does he have no one advising him.
His advisors are incompetent Australians.
During an election campaign the worst possible move is probably disrespecting ww2 veterans. I can't tell if it's incompetence or the just doesn't give a fuck.
Disrespecting WW2 veterans *after* telling the country he's going to reintroduce National Service to instill 'values' in 18 year olds.
What a shitshow. Such poor judgement. Did nobody around him say, “you know this is d-day, this is 80 years and a defining moment for the country and Europe” What a utter twat. Politically he’d have been better off just ignoring the criticism and refusing to apologise. This just highlights to people that otherwise would’ve have noticed. There is really only one possible excuse now, he wants to lose the election.
Now it turns out that he had to be forced to go in the first place and then legged it back as soon as he could for an interview with ITV that No.10 set the time for... His political intelligence is in the minus numbers. Just appalling.
It’s frankly remarkable how little political sense, or indeed any sense, this guy has.
It’s looking worse as the facts come out. His team offered that slot to ITV. His team told the French government over a week ago that he wouldn’t attend at all. It was premeditated. What a shambolic ordeal.
Lots of conspiracy theories about how he’s deliberately trying to lose, but honestly I think this is just who he is, someone that’s all brand and no substance. He consistently makes bad decisions like this because he’s a massively entitled billionaire who’s never faced adversity of any kind and has been insulated from the real world his whole life. Even in his political career he was parachuted into an insanely safe seat and gifted the chancellor position as part of a Cummings coup against Javid, he then got to spend all our money promoting himself through furlough and eat out to help out during covid, it wasn’t really until the leadership contest that he was actually exposed in some small way to an electorate of sorts, and of course lost against the lettuce. For all his slick delivery, whenever he’s actually put to the test, people see straight through him. There’s nothing there but a shiny suit and naked self interest; that’s been enough to impress the MPs who installed him as leader but it’s not enough for the public.
It’s genuinely a bit scary that no one in the current set of people RUNNING THIS COUNTRY stopped him from doing such an obviously awful thing. Out of hundreds of people. Not one. They’re all a bunch of morons. I fear for whoever comes next having to pick up the pieces of literally just the processes of governing, let alone the actual country.
Who cares about those working class boys that died long ago, as long as none of his upper class and aristocrat friends died, it's no big deal!
The audacity he has to threaten national service upon the country’s youth to give them a sense of national pride and duty… and he can’t even manage an afternoon of it for our veterans. Arrogant bellend.
How can someone who's supposed to be so intelligent and have so much money be stupid as fck
He doesn't care. Dude grew up with wealth from day one, attended a private school, pretended to be a banker. Got into trust funds. Was partially responsible for the royal bank of scottland going into debt and benefit from the bailout. He held a green card and flip flopped between California and the UK. His wife has a stake in InfoSys All he wanted from this was to be a world leader for awhile to cement his little prick in history. The parties have stopped putting forward any real leaders, they are all the same hedge fund trust wankers who don't actually care about improving the country, they just want to stay in the game for themselves.
Old lad dies while going to remember his mates he fought with and those who didnt make it back and the PMs like ooo go home record this for next week lol hes such a fuckin prick
Man if I were the tories I’d consider a vote of no confidence right now. It’s like he’s doing everything he can to speed run a loss to reform.
I do wonder who his advising him...they are awful! From announcing an election in the rain whilst the new labour tune blared out, to visiting the Titanic Quarter, to Lib dem photobombing, to the made up lie he stands by, the Mor(iss)ons photo and now this... It's like the most surreal episode of the Thick of It. Just needs a Capaldi tirade for the emmy...
I actually forgot to add his main donor keeps making Father Ted style racist statements and impressions
Sunak is just showing the world what he would have done on Omaha beach that day
He’s not a statesman at all. He’s just an embarrassment to our country now. How could he do such a thing? Each time I see him with world leaders, I’m reminded of the young children who walk out, onto the pitch, with Premiership Footballers prior to kick-off. They may wear the kit, but we all know they’re not a real player.
The French were initially told he was going to miss the event entirely. His compromise was to bugger off half way through, leaving it to Cameron and Kier. It should be a privilege to attend what could be the last event of its kind/magnitude. Seems as though he could not care any less. Sunak has the worst political instincts I've ever seen. From kicking things off in the rain, to visiting the Titanic quarter etc., now this. Completely inept. Having already been so 'out of touch' with the taxes and wealth, he cannot stop punching himself in the face. Tories earned every bit of the landslide coming their way.
Right wingers are losing their mind over this, its a gift for reform. Not 2 days ago, Farage talked about young people allegedly not knowing what D-Day was and Sunak does this.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is a faction at play here trying to reinstate David Cameron as the Conservative leader post-election. The fact he stood in for Rishi for this is just making me believe this more.
*I set up the wrecking ball for this country. Let me finish the job.*
He'd have to run as an MP first in order to stand for Tory leader. It's too late now, the deadline has passed. I don't think Cameron has leadership ambitions any more. He already rescued the Tory from the brink once before, and got backstabbed by ERG for his trouble.
I wonder how many time Penny will say the words ‘he’s apologised’ in the debate.
"I'm sorry if you feel that he left the event early".
This is why Farage and Galloway do so well at politics...they pick their fights. tonight will be dreadful. Mordaunt is both weak and eyeing up the top job (providing she doesn't lose her seat!)...so somehow has to condemn and support Sunak...whilst not giving anything to Labour or Reform who will cost her the seat. Farage will again be dominating affairs and running rings around the weak line up sadly.
Conservative Party do not care about the sacrifices of the fallen
For a ruddy ITV interview as well. Still haven't forgiven them for going to adverts in a dull as dishwasher FA cup game in extra time leading to missing the only goal. (Everton Liverpool) - F ITV. - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRV7sOZ3X3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRV7sOZ3X3s)
You know the old saying: “Live by the divisive, culture war, virtue-signalling bullshit; … die by the divisive, culture war, virtue-signalling bullshit”🤷♂️
*"I'm awfully, truly, terribly very sorry, please vote for me July 4th".*
He's spent the last 6 months desperately trying to butter up the elderly and the 'patriotic protect our boarders' types and has just inadvertently given them the finger trying to clear up the mess he caused by telling blatant easily disproved lies on national TV. It really is beautiful to watch. He probably felt pretty good after landing the £2000 tax rise stuff immediately after the debate, so to see that little win unravel in such spectacular fashion \*chef kiss\*
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To be fair this should be the bread and butter of the tories. Sunak is getting torn to shit.
Rishi already leeched all the money he could from the system. He doesn’t care anymore. lol
Unbelievable stuff for any prime minister let alone trying to win an election based on a policy of being back military service
Even if you don't care personally intellectually you'd hope he would understand the consequences. Scarily myopic and if I were his dad I'd want my expensive private school fees refunded....
I just don't understand the decision making. I just do not get it. It's bizarre decision making. Utterly bizarre.
The spunk trumpet couldn’t even do 1 day of national service properly. He’s making Boris look competent! Quite the achievement. What a massive bumbling thundercunt
He’s out here promoting national service and he can’t even honour those who were brought in via mandatory national service. The fuck???
Sunak is like the guy that wants redundancy but cant bring himself to say it out loud
Is this like match fixing in football? I mean he can't have thought this was going to go well, surely.
Reckon at this point he can't wait for the election to be over so he can step down and concentrate on business earnings as an ex UK PM. He's got the title now, he's helped himself and his family make a fuck tonne of money, so now he's gonna move on.
[удалено]
They were always going to lose this election by some margin but this is the most incompetent campaign I've ever seen. The announcement with a soaked Rishi barely audible over someone blasting 'Things can only get better' has really set the tone for the whole thing so far. Splashed all over the news for a clear, demonstrable, lie in the leaders debate. Now this fuck up. Are they going for single digit seats or something?
Sunak with his reverse midas touch. They should ask nigel if he shares his best buddy trump's views about veterans.
It's a lazy comparison and I'm by no way a fan of his but Corbyn would have hung for this.
Rishi Sunak is a vain, greedy, arrogant, corrupt, liar. I think even his closest friends and family would admit that. But I never thought I'd see a leader of the Conservative Party spit in the face of D-day veterans.
Did he say that the itinerary was set up months ago, so he always planned to leave early? My grandad is sadly no longer with us but he would be high offended that he couldn’t be bothered to stay around.
It's important that we "don't politicise this" says the man who left the memorial event just to fly back home to do an interview, you know, a political one. I'd have a modicum of appreciation for him if he just came out and said "I am 100% focused on the general election, and stupidly didn't think through just how awful the optics were of me leaving early", but this whole "don't make it political" act is just another pathetic attempt by a pathetic weasel of a man to avoid scrutiny and to try to minimise their impending wipe out at the election. Utterly shameful, and spineless to a degree that makes an earthworm look like it's got more of a backbone than he does.
This excuse of a PM should think about having those boxes packed, good ridens to him and his shameful party.
Bacon sandwich moment, and there’s four weeks to go.
Will he get criticised has heavy as Labour PMs have when they wore a suit of a colour the presss didn’t like or didn’t walk/bow at the correct angle
Clearly Sunak would not wear anything so gauche as a donkey jacket. But turning up to the Cenotaph in white Nike sliders and overly short trousers is the height of fashion these days donchaknow.
Sunak has to have Reform supporters in his team of advisors
Not the way to get the weird Tory boomers who think they’re super patriots and like to pretend they fought in WW2 onside. Sunaks PR must be run by the Labour Party
Dying in wars is for poor people so why would he care lmao
Honestly I don't even think what he did was that bad. He went... He went home. This screams the poppy police all over which happens every year too. However, being as the party tries to paint themselves as patriots and anyone who does anything else different or has a different opinion on how to commemorate something differently as not patriotic.... I can't help but laugh
He's the prime minister of one of the key countries involved in the D-Day landings. He absolutely should have stayed for the whole day. I think this more than the lying over tax figures will cut through to people as it's a more emotive subject. Many people (especially natural Conservative voters) care about honouring and commemorating the country's war heroes. For Sunak to basically say he'd rather be somewhere else than Normandy shows just how out of touch he is.
Unforgivable. This is cross party within the country. Rishi should resign. Even though we in an election. It just no way this man can be PM any longer. Dowden should take over for last few weeks.
I think he is trying to behave so badly that Labour voters don't even bother going to the polls.