Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Sunak by apparently diligent, but being DPP isn't exactly Easy Street, I shouldn't think.

A Norwegian PM took a few months off from mental exhaustion, the days when this is seen as weakness of character are thankfully drawing to a close.

Youngian wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:48 pm This plonker is the Express’s senior political correspondent giving a take completely irrelevant to what Keir is saying.
It might have been News Agents or a similar podcast commenting on how irrelevant the once all powerful press barons are to this election. It feels good.

He's topped that in a follow up tweet. Not just the absurd example that Starmer wouldn't wake up to answer the phone in a crisis, but the comparison with well-known hard worker, Boris Johnson.

Of course de Piffle answered the phone, it was Vlad telling him personally

Oh man, the Tories have put their foot in it here. Absolute campaign geniuses.

And there it is. With added bigoted twattery.

Have they not actually seen Starmer in the Commons after 6pm? Did they not think it sounded a bit that he might have got up one morning and said he wasnt going to work after 6pm?

Tories: bless their desperate little faces.

Finally facing a disaster that daddy's trust fund cannot disappear.
They know they are facing an absolute pumping for the ages.
They know there's fuck-all they can do about it.

And they're livid, ebsolutelly livid!!

Hypocrisy abounds . Johnson was notoriously barely ever there, whether meeting the publishers of his shite book on Shakespeare, or casually missing the first four or so COBRA meetings with the spectre of Covid-19 looming, or off knobbing that blonde American tart on the sly. But they’ll never acknowledge that, of course.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 7:21 pm Oh man, the Tories have put their foot in it here. Absolute campaign geniuses.

That flat-faced, ginger kid who was doing their socials is now working out her notice?

Also missing the point that Johnson being woken up at 4 in the morning is something that happened to him, not something he chose.

If I check all the doors and windows are locked before going to bed at 11 PM, does that make me hopelessly reckless about home security compared to the guy who stays awake all night cradling his shotgun?

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 8:35 pm
That flat-faced, ginger kid who was doing their socials is now working out her notice?

And wearing silly specs as he does so, no doubt.

As usual this has been taken hugely out of context by the Conservative Party and their media allies.

Starmer wants to have time with his family on a Friday, it is an important time of the week for Jewish people, and he respects that. He has made it clear that if there is a major crisis he would be in the job.

The Conservative Party still pines for Margaret Thatcher who made a virtue of four hours sleep a night. She was still working for example when the Grand Hotel bomb went off at that time. They think that only by working those long hours can you be successful. No.

My work for 28 years was in the rail industry. We were bound by strict working time rules brought in after the Clapham accident where one of the causes was a signal engineer miswiring a signal due to working overtime something like 70 days solid. I want my political leaders to have time away from the job. To be rested, to have time with their families so they make decisions with clear minds, not ones befuddled by a lack of sleep. Even Churchill went to bed each night during WW2.

slilley wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2024 8:56 am Even Churchill went to bed each night during WW2.

Pissed on Champagne, it is said.

Maria Caulfield (she's a nurse you know...) was out on the morning round on Sky today, where she stated baldly that KS was planning to work a 4-day week. She was promptly and effectively challenged and put in her place by Matt Barbet. She then doubled down by stating that KS was looking for 'flexible working'. She also stated that he had no idea of the pressures of the job - glibly eliding the fact that as DPP he was under great pressure and anyway is of above average intelligence. Unlike Caulfield, apparently.

The same lines were also used by others (including Grant Shatts), so this is clearly a CCHQ attack line for today. And it's being called out both for lack of truth and antisemitic dog whistling. Surprising from Shatts who is himself Jewish, and has made much of his piety, so presumably also stops work at sunset on Friday.

I can't find it but there's a lovely clip of the late Robin Cook being interviewed live from a racecourse on Channel 4 Racing while Foreign Secretary. He gives a nice defence of time away from work.

Nowadays, he'd have Tory Twitter on his case. "Hey Putin, want to attack us? Do it while Lingfield races are on!"

According to that reliable historical source, Asterix in Britain, Julius Caesar conquered the mighty Britons by attacking exclusively during hot water breaks (they didn't have tea at that stage) and after 5.00.

Indeed.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2024 12:00 pm According to that reliable historical source, Asterix in Britain, Julius Caesar conquered the mighty Britons by attacking exclusively during hot water breaks (they didn't have tea at that stage) and after 5.00.

You joke, but back when I was an Air Cadet in the sixties I discovered that most of the staff at airbases went home for the weekend. I assume the Russians knew this...

It's a long-standing joke that anyone who wants to invade Britain should do it on Friday afternoon. Preferably on a bank holiday weekend so they have an extra day to consolidate their bridgehead.

And another. Tin-eared, apparently.

In 2013, Starmer was DPP. Coutihno was soaking up the pressure at IDS' think tank.