I always try to read a good cross-section of the Sunday papers on the day much to the irritation of my wife who often has other plans for me. If I don’t get to finish them I usually try to take in the balance on a Monday morning. As I write this on an unnaturally early train from Kent to Westminster there is little point finishing off the Sunday catch-up; political events have proven themselves so fast moving.
Whatever is written one hour is out of date the next. With Boris Johnson withdrawing from the race this takes another turn. Can it seriously be just four days ago that Liz Truss gave her resignation as the shortest ever serving Prime Minister? And so it is that whatever I write in my regular update will bound to be out of date and be mere history later in the week and most probably within the day.
The reason I’m on the move so early is that I have the opportunity to meet, with a very small caucus, the remaining candidates, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, one of whom will be the PM by either the end of the week, and in the case of Rishi, the former Chancellor, possibly by the end of the day. There could be a third option – that a last minute candidate emerges. Unlikely, but anything is possible in this yet to be written drama.
Although outside of my direct control, I can only offer my apologies to my Constituents that the Westminster bubble is putting the country through this. Perhaps something sensible can emerge – that the role of PM should never again be the quasi-Presidential one that it has become over recent decades mainly due to powerful and dominant figures such as Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson holding the post but also because of 24/7 media who quite naturally turn to the figurehead as their primary focus; it makes great theatre. This is actually quite unnatural, there is no constitutional position of PM.
It is a fairly recent addition to the history of our nation with Robert Walpole recognised as the first in 1721. Our system elects Members of Parliament as the primary building blocks of Westminster democracy. Any Party with enough of those blocks are in a position to select a leader who will request of the Monarch to form a government. The British constitution is really that simple.
If my Party has any chance of winning the next general election we need to show the public that we can navigate effectively through the cost of living crisis and higher interest rates which are not uniquely British phenomenons but are being similarly seen internationally. We need to liberate our economy through what are known abstractly as ‘supply-side reforms’ which really means shaking up the layers of bureaucratic sloth which hold our lives, businesses and opportunities back just a surely as excessive tax rates. We need to present sensible policies that appeal to the majority. Saving taxpayers money which harms nobody by simply encouraging people back into work and off of benefits would seem to me an easy, reasonable and good place to start saving £billions.
We need to deliver real Brexit dividends, deliver a sensible long-term energy policy and show up Labour’s plans, whenever they emerge, as ruinous, wasteful and ridiculous. More than anything else I’d like to take the full-on 24/7 politics out of your lives and return to a period of calm where you get on with work, aspirations and normal things. Politicians can then lay the framework of the country’s success calmly and professionally.
In South Thanet I want to see the secured Levelling Up Fund money bringing new projects out of the ground in the soonest possible time. I want Manston to be given the opportunity as a kickstarter for local growth. I want excellent infrastructure, good local governance and a growing economy. It’s what I have dedicated myself to these past 7 years.
Before you can “deliver real Brexit dividends”, you’ll need to find some.
And since, according to you, Labour’s plans haven’t yet emerged, how on Earth can you know them to be “as ruinous, wasteful and ridiculous”?
That’s exactly what I was thinking Andrew. I’d be fascinated to hear of a real Brexit dividend. I’ve asked and asked but no Brexiteer has ever given me a real answer.
This is exactly what I have been thinking Sarah, I cannot think of one advantage of leaving the EU but I can think of many disadvantages! Just seen reported tens of thousands of ex pats who had moved to mostly Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, etc are coming back to the UK as they no longer have access to free medical care, and can’t get health insurance for existing medical problems! Also, they are having to re-take driving tests as their EU driving licence is no longer valid!
Kent is often turned into a giant lorry park! There is a massive labour shortage because hundreds of thousands of EU citizens now need a visa to work here, which they have to pay for, whilst crops rot on the fields, and trees! Many EU citizens worked in the Social Care industry, but no longer, meaning thousands of mostly elderly people are bed blocking in hospitals, because Care Homes can’t accept them any more due to staff shortages! And must not forget the thousands of migrants crossing the channel in unseaworthy boats, because they can no longer be returned to the first EU country they entered when we were in the EU. BMW are ceasing production of the electric Mini, and moving it abroad putting 3,000 workers out of work, and they are not the only ones because of the increasing paper work now needed to export/import! I could go on but am depressing myself, but just to say Doncaster airport is closing making 800 people redundant, due to lack of demand, so what chance Manston then, Duurh!
It’s brought unemployment down considerably.
Further to my post above, in my newspaper yesterday was a piece that said “Mark Carney, for 7 years Head of the Bank of England in an interview about the consequences of Brexit, in 2016 the British economy was 90% the size of Germany’s now its less than 70% and falling”. Nuff said!
How about gettng a better bus service??????????
We have at least got the 37 revived by Regent Coaches to look forward to but nothing as yet for the 33 or the 9.
Regent Coaches starts their new service on December 5th. Good news for some but we still wait for news of any Luther routes restarting.
Don’t worry about us worry about your own job which I hope you will be out of at the next general election as indeed looking back you are very lucky to have managed to get the job in the first place you cannot pretend to us the voters that the rest of your disgusting Chaotic disorganised unethical bickering Conservatives are all those things yet pretend they are nothing to do with you. No more than Dutch elm disease only affects some leaves on a tree and one one leaf stays unaffected. If you had any decency you would speak out and tell your cronies we should have a general election.
Hi Bill, i didn’t realise you liked the Conservative Government so much!!
U are useless- U all need kicking out right now.
Of course you want manston ( I wonder why ? )
Just like your party you are a joke. We should have a general election now, your party isnt fit for purpose.
It now looks like the person who lost to truss is now going to be primer minister. Think about that he wasnt good enough to beat truss. So now the Tories go for the runner up to truss. He must be really bad to lose to truss. So that’s have him now lol.
In all my 70 years I have never know our government to be such a mess
Mr Mackinlay as a member of the ERG, I’m sure you’d be interested in the following thread I noticed on Twitter. It makes for an interesting read.
Jim Grace @mac_puck
Maybe the collapse of Truss’s voodoo budget is even more important than people realise?
“But it is huge!”, you cry, “biggest story since the fall of Boris!”
Yup – I think it may be bigger than that. Way bigger. Here is what I am thinking…
The Brexit train had many passengers; Boris to further his career, Putin to weaken EU, UK and West; Odey & hedgies for plunder; racists, xenophobes and arsenists for obvious reasons.
But driving the Brexit train was the IEA and its political wing, the ERG.
Their destination was a Libertarian utopia; a Britain of small government, low tax, zero regulation, trickledown economics, Singapore on Thames, and above it all a cognitive elite of “sovereign individuals”, like gods in Leer jets.
It was a 50 year journey for the IEA. They had to infiltrate the Tory party and drive out the Ted Heath corporatists and the one nation MP’s and gentleman farmers. They had to invade the BBC and corrupt it from within.
Likewise, they had to colonize the MSM – previously respectable newspapers, like the Telegraph, were turned into comics – and use them to whip up populism and violence.
They had to attack and weaken every UK institution; judges, civil service, BBC, the Queen, regulators.
Businesses were threatened and intimidated into silence, broadcasters were gagged, truth suppressed, lies sprayed around like a loose fire hose. International reputation trashed. Post war rules-based order abandoned. Peace in NI threatened. Scottish union tattered.
At last Britannia could be unchained; massive tax cuts to the rich, vast transfers of wealth to Shell, BP etc, a bonfire of the regulations, charter cities!
This was the prize the IEA had worked for! The end that justified the means. And then it turned to sh1t in 5 minutes.
And even the morons in the ERG must realise they have blown it now. They will never, ever, get this chance again. The Tory party will be slaughtered at the next GE and, anyway, we have seen how the markets react to “Reagonomics without the world’s reserve currency”
As they stand here, on the scorched earth of 2020’s Britain – among the devastation THEY wrought – the ERG have just seen the reason for it all vanish before their eyes, Napoleon gazing upon Moscow in flames.
You and your party are a disgrace, general election is needed.
You and your party are both full of lies and are only interested in how you can all line your pockets at the expense of the public.
Brexit has been a disaster except for those connected with hedge funds that shorted the £ and made millions at the same time as promoting how good brexit would be. Like Crispin Odey fro example, who donated £870,000 to brexit campaing groups and them made £220 million, yes £220 MILLION by shorting the pound when it collapsed after the vote.
People need to wake up, none of the torries or there friends / donors are interested in your welfare, only how they can profit from you falliong for there lies.
Excuse some of the typo’s, wrote this very quickly as am livid with the state of this government and country because of it.
Im afraid heres one Tory going elsewhere next election.The party has completely lost touch with real people.Not suprising when you get Boris and his cronies running the country.
I thought the idea of leaving the EU gave us back our sovereignty and if this the best we can offer,God help us.
Getting an operation,visiting a dentist,seeing a policeman,applying for a passport,lowly paid jobs only,imigration on the rise,Care system broken,I could go on all day.Couple this with the filthy littered countryside and local roads from out Tory Council.Sorry I dont think Labour could ruin the country anymore.ITS RUINED.
Don’t bet on it. Craig has won 3 times, with an ever-increasing majority. Apart from Canterbury with its large student population, Kent with always be Blue.
Don’t bank on it. There are plenty of people in South Thanet who would vote for a post box if it had a blue rosette stuck on it. Anyone voting Tory is like turkeys voting for Christmas. They never learn.
Graig Mackinlay not endorsing one of the two leaders….typical non committal as usual.I thought life outside EU was going to be better.
My daughter for 14 years had severe tonsillitis only to be refused an operation and given anti biotics which pretty much resulted in 2 weeks off work a year.Whilst she was working in France last year it flared up again.In Hospital within 10 days and removed….couldnt believe how much she had béen neglected.
Good ol brexiteer CM and your vision of a marvellous independent UK.
He probably wanted Boris back, Dorries or Mogg so those using food banks could be flogged with a whip by Lee Anderson, while Peter Bonehead gives a million pounds to a banker or hedge fund. Amazed they didn’t use Kill The Poor by Dead Kennedys as their conference music, rather than M People.
Did someone mention Dorries?! ♥ ♥ ♥
5th or 6th economy in the World.Is that from the bottom.
Just heard Rishi Sunak is the new PM
.He couldnt even beat Liz Truss…this bodes well.
He did beat her,when MPs voted.It was just the 80,000 morons,who voted for that inept,clueless moron.
How many morons in Labour chose Corbyn?
Take back out of control Brexit Brexit Brexit ruin ruin ruin.
General Election Now.
You say you want good infrastructure. Well call me silly but that needs putting in before manston opens.
When is the thanet way and M2 being made into 4 lanes to copy with the extra HGV’s and fuel tankers ?
When is the rail haulage hub being built ?
There is no infrastructure for manston and non planned you know it.
But keep conning your believers.
Why always that picture postcard of CM,there must be other (legal) photos available,
Anyway we ave a new pm, this month its Rishi. Wish him all the best and a happy diwali. Hopefully he will curry up some hot changes. Watch this ( ).
First ever female PM was a Tory in 1979.
First ever Asian PM is a Tory in 2022.
Labour hasn’t even caught up with the 1970’s yet, let alone the 21st Century.
Well the Tories have dragged us back to the 1970’s
Nope – Covid and War in Europe did that. I admit that Truss was useless though.
You are as bad as the Tories, blame everything but themselves. The Tories and Brexit combined are why we are is this terrible state. Covid and the war have made it worse, but are not the catalysts for where we find ourselves.
Brexit was and still is a great idea. It has just been done very half-heartedly.
Brexit was not a great idea, how is making it incredibly hard to trade with your largest trading partner a great idea. Exports to the EU, the UK’s largest trading partner have collapsed post brexit.
The deal that has been done with the EU, is the same as a pub barring all there best customers and only letting the people in for a drink that come once a year at Christmas. Great way to trade if you want to kill your business!
Everyone got screwed from brexit, unless you were shorting the pound.
It certainly brought the unemployment rate down.
I don’t know why you carry on with your attempts to defend the indefensible. You sound like a “Flat Earth Society” supporter trying to present evidence.
By almost any metric you choose, the Tories have brought a decade of disaster to most people in the UK.
I’m really, really hoping that you challenge me to give some facts to support my assertion….
No. Because what you think is of no significance to me whatsoever.
A brilliant reply.
“I can’t think of a suitable repost, but rather than simply keep quiet, I’ll pretend that the interlocutor is of ‘no significance’.”
Plainly not true. Because you replied.
Ditto “Andrew”.
Probably not repeated because Thatcher was terrible for the majority of people in the UK to where eventually we had riots on the streets. They elected the first Albino/professional clown PM & look how that turned out. They elected the first lettuce that just departed following the Albino.
Now they are going to be run by a smarmy guy who brags about diverting money from poor ares to rich ones & who is hated by the far right of the party & most of the party members who chose the charisma & brain-cell free lettuce over him less than six weeks back-going to be the same issues, how about just electing a decent & competent person instead of gimmicks? Oh dear, they don’t have any of those.
Your useless Tories want us back to 1880s. Life was so good then was it not. Keep digging your tory hole bigger for them all to get buried next general election. At least Labour and Liberals have decent and honest leaders. Tories are just ass wipes.
At least they have good manners, a concept that is probably beyond your comprehension.
Curiously Peter, the Tory’s have had 3 female Prime Ministers, and they sacked all 3 of them! The last one couldn’t outstay a lettuce best before date!
Why can’t we comment about the asylum seekers up at manston
Why can’t we comment about the asylum seekers up at manston
Fred or Bert, Because they have Diphtheria that they don’t want us to know about.
But it’s public knowledge that there’s a diphtheria outbreak at Manston.
I imagine that comments are disallowed because some people don’t know how to contribute without being vile with their racist comments.
Manston has been turned into the UK’s first Concentration Camp. The NAZI’s used disease, and overcrowding to kill mostly the Jews in their Concentration Camps, it was Scarlet Fever that killed Ann Frank and her sister in Belson!
It was reported here, the not commenting thing is because people say things that aren’t ‘politically correct’ about non Brits, LBBTQIA, morbidly obese etc & these people or an outraged person on their behalf might take offence, which is not allowed to happen nowadays.
If you don’t think a ‘woman’ with awful looking fake boobs playing the piano on Ben Elton’s live television show with ‘her’ ‘female penis’ isn’t bold & empowering for women everywhere & should be given a knighthood then you are a ‘TERF’ or Transphobe, even if evil white ‘CIS’ patriarchy Jerry Sadowitz got cancelled for flashing at the radical & outlandish Edinburgh Fringe Festival recently.
Gosh! I have lead a sheltered life.
That’s why I admire Rosie Duffield. Young, female, and on the Left – yet she understands biology.
They were trying to cancel her for talking common sense & daring to have her opinion again only yesterday.
The ONLY Labour MP to break the Tory stronghold in Kent should be treated as a hero/heroine by her own party!
Well at least he has said sorry (sort of).I think ‘ruinous, wasteful and ridiculous ‘was what we have just received from a literally here today gone tomorrow PM.
Craig is I am afraid not a serious politician, I mean he could not even get a job in the Truss govt or any other since he was first elected.
Yes, he keeps being voted in, but like Cllrs it all depends on the state of public opinion, rather than any intrinsic worth or support. Very few politicians have a large personal following.David Amess was probably one, and Jeremy Corbyn is another; everyone else are like leaves in the wind, soon blown off the tree.Last time out in 2019, even the dear old beast of Bolsover was defenestrated ( for defenestration see Prague 1618), and he had been in the warp and weft of Labour politics since Kier Hardie was a boy.
I doubt very much that a Labour lead of 39 points is sustainable, but I don’t think an election can be put off till 2024, and all the hard stuff is yet to come.
Let’s check it out:
a) As many strikes as in the winter of discontent.
b) Mortgage rates not at historically high levels, but high enough to give many sleepless nights,to those paying them.
c) Business failures on the rise.
d)A huge energy crisis, which Sunak failed to address adequately when chancellor.
e)An ongoing housing crisis.
f) A looming recession and a possible hiccup or worse in the housing market.
g) Untold damage to pensions because of Trussanomics.
In short we are all going to feel poorer,possibly colder, and if the lights go out, more miserable.
Let’s forget about Manston,that’s a minor issue, because the 5 giants are again wandering the earth, and items a to g should be enough to give Mr Sunak sleepless nights for many months to come, and of course Boris has not gone away, he will be seeking to pull Rishi Sunak down as soon as he can.
All in all a very toxic chalice is being handed to Mr Sunak.
He may pull it off,but I don’t think the public will be patient for much longer.
There comes a time in the events of man and woman, where the old order changes, even when some of the failures of the past have been buried or mitigated, and the public may just want a change, as they did in 2019 in old labour land, now known as the red wall.
Let’s look at it this way, would you prefer to have endless one party govt, with all the incompetence and graft,as in China or Russia, or would you want so pluralism, even if you disagreed with the verdict of the electors.
Democracy is the most inefficient way to run a country, apart from all the alternatives.
You can make it up to us by your party calling a general election.
A tough week for Craig – he doesn’t know who to suck up to.
they have had twelve years to make our lives better , and everything has got worse – so whats going to change now ? nothing – just more rhetoric and belt tightening , how can a multi millionaire understand or even care about the working man , they will soon be holding babies and all that nonsense around election time –
Real world
You forgot to say his wife avoid paying taxes.
We all know what’s going to happen next, tax increases, cut backs, high mortgage rates, big bonuses for the bankers etc . The rich get alot richer and the poor alot poorer.
Sorry but real fact.Exports to EU down 16% from the final year of membership. No deal with USA as promised yet.
Cost of living crisis is also down to Brexit,partly.Staff shortages in food picking industry hace forced prices up and now its the EU who rely on to meet our food requirements. The same theory applies to the hospitality and Care industries.Thirty hospitals promised by Brexiteers before 2030.So far they have only built 1.You get what you deserve.
“Staff shortages in food picking industry”… There are over a million unemployed in the UK, and (unlike care staff and chefs) picking fruit and veg requires no specific training or skills. Clearly people need to be forced to take these jobs – or have their benefits cut.
Correct. US won’t do any deal until we sort out Irelands border issues to the satisfaction of its huge Irish related population. India won’t do a deal because we are threatening to tighten up immigration rules for students and relatives. Oh my word, we are so not “taking back control.” One half of the Tory party realises we need to relax certain immigration rules to help with the chronic skills shortage (and no skills shortage). The other half wants to make it tougher. If these jobs aren’t filled there will be no growth and we will slip further back as an economy
When I wrote to Craig Mackinlay about the need for using a windfall tax and to vote against fracking his reply was that he hopes Liz Truss policies will long continue. It worried me because he is an accountant and her sums did not add up at all!
Sorry for the chaos.Went to the building society the other day and closed through lack of staff.Blow me car cant be serviced on the day its booked in for due to lack of staff.Just booked a boiler service and long waiting list due to lack of staff.Maybe I should ring a firm in the EU to come over and get my jobs done.Thankyou Mr Mackinlay for your visionary views on Brexit.How much money must this country be losing.Bloody inconvenience.
Why was this country relying so much on foreign workers for key services? Perhaps all those locals getting art grants could train for a proper job instead?
As for lack of staff in a Building Society, there are many former Bank workers that could do the job, including here in Thanet.
Wow! What a load of rubbish, the only sensible voice was Peter’s, calling people names is a voice from the gutter and I am surprised that the local press allow it. When the election comes along then vote but don’t moan about democracy. Think before you type and have some respect for others, apologies any typo’s it’s fat finger syndrome.
I do respect others.Im tired of seeing people with toothache unable to get an appointment.People waiting over 2 years for a NHS operation.People like my mother with Dementia unable to get a Care Home.Construction work taking months.Passports taking months and ruining peoples holidays.My daughter had to drive to Peterborough to renew her passport to travel abroad for work.
Perhaps some of Peters million unemployed could perform your next operation or dentistry.Well at least with our Sovereignty back we can run that efficient money making country CM promised.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: scrap all art funding UNLESS it is fully costed with a business plan. That way, perhaps people can start training for real jobs, or at the very least do labouring on building sites, as I did when I left school.
I agree Peter.
Kent was dubbed “THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND ” it’s now more likely to be called ” THE BUILDING SITE OF ENGLAND ”
So much for ” Saving the Planet “
The ERG is funded by tax payers.
The amount of money the tories waste on their friends and wasted projects and people want to unfund the arts.
I despair.
Let’s unfund the ERG and other such drains first. I’m not talking their MP salaries they take considerably more just to be a “group”