Worst of all, so far as the people running the opposition Conservatives’ campaign seemed to think, the deficit — the measure of the gap between the amount coming into the Treasury and the amount then spent — had exploded as tax revenues from the financial sector collapsed. What the Tories wanted us to think about all this was clear from their campaign slogan: “We can’t go on like this.” It had also been racist. It is possible to be Russian-born and prominent in this country and not a promoter of the Russian state or government. I am one such person and, moreover, I am not my father, whatever dubious allegations you might wish to direct against me via him.” Johnson is understood to have stayed later than most. His late-night presence attests to one of the more unlikely friendships in modern British politics, which culminated over the summer in Johnson’s contentious decision to make Lebedev a member of the House of Lords. Also there was the 86-year-old Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp and proprietor of the Brexit-supporting Sun, as well as the Times and the Sunday Times. Murdoch, who left long before midnight, sat on a sofa, according to one observer, and select people were brought to him. The former leader of the Brexit Party, who is a smoker, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme: “I am a sinner, yes, I get that. But Rishi Sunak is probably the most intelligent prime minister we have had, most decent prime minister too, for many, many years.

a decade of politics Boris Johnson and Evgeny Lebedev: a decade of politics

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice. And Downing St staff told newspapers it was “inconceivable” a party could have happened without Johnson’s approvalTamworth is thought to be safest seat ever lost by a government at a by-election, while the result in Mid Bedfordshire represents the largest Labour mid-term victory over the Tories since 1945. All those things are going just swimmingly, so he’s now been made Chancellor, just in time to hit his devastating peak form Downing Street initially said it would not comment on individual cases, adding that “it is not uncommon” to seek “further information and assurances” over House of Lords appointments. The 1,373 votes it won is greater than Labour's majority, and shows the Conservative Party is losing voters to the right and to the left.

Tory step - Financial Times Spring in the Tory step - Financial Times

If you want a deep dive into a decade of mismanagement, corruption, and putting self/party interest over nation, then this book is for you. In no way to change the topic, the govt launched Operation Red Meat, a dazzlingly successful exercise in limited and specific failure, which I present to you in the following sub-thread. To put this into context, the previous guy was Gavin Williamson, a supernaturally incompetent lurching tower of wrong wearing the teeth of a starved horseLightly amusing when appropriate, darkly scathing throughout- this book uses the scandals, corruptions, and idiocies of the past decade to tear down any existing facade of decency or competence within the tory party. All through their own quotes and verified statistics (see the extensive notes at the end of the book). It is perhaps the British way to laugh and brilliantly satirise the moral and practical weaknesses of our political "masters" rather than - say - take to the streets in protest to overthrow them. We are after all, a nation concerned with propriety and not breaking laws or causing a fuss, unlike the Tories. That may be a failing on our part, but one can always appreciate Jones way with words, for example when he described Theresa May's awkward angular strut onto the stage at her last Conservative conference as leader as being like Vogon poetry in motion. The lost decade was a Tory decade and perhaps the next one will be, too. They broke Britain; do they really mean to mend it? Sir Keir said he is now hoping to win the next general election and stay in Number 10 for at least a decade, after Tory voters were "fed up with the decline and despairing at the party they used to vote for".