[Boiler]

But she never makes mistakes - she told us so

[Yug]

Labour have done lots of negotiations and we haven't lost Kemi Badenoch yet. Can they try a bit harder please?

[Spoonman]

But she never makes mistakes - she told us so

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is she still banging on about the Chagos Islands? Starmer shut her up very effectively at PMQs by telling her there were security reasons which he'd happily brief her on. Did she take up that offer?

[mattomac]

Another vote of confidence for Kemi. No election for the assembly till 2028, so no immediate need to do this.

Maybe he wants to be their mayoral candidate.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Britain ‘stagnating, while world around us moves on’, Badenoch tells Tory conference

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-growth

[Tubby Isaacs]

Maybe he wants to be their mayoral candidate.

Might do, I suppose. Like Hall, he can run and go on the assembly list. But I think running against "London" is such a big thing for them nationwide (and in terms of international MAGA) they'll choose someone who looks more like a political outsider who can gobshite more loudly. Bloke from Havering who nobody has heard of doesn't really cut it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tories would abolish stamp duty, Badenoch tells party conference

Genius. Stamp Duty is a bad tax, but simply abolishing it is a big handout to people who already own homes. Estate agents will know what the market can bear in terms of total (price + the tax). If you remove the tax, the price just goes up to the same level, with the Treasury not getting anything. In 2024, Stamp Duty brought in over £18bn.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I stand for a society where free speech trumps hurt feelings, where everyone knows what a woman is, where people are judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin

How that's squared with what Jenrick said, God only knows. And indeed how is the first bit squared with Kemi's hardline stance on anti-Semitism?

[soulboy]

Britain ‘stagnating, while world around us moves on’, Badenoch tells Tory conference

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-growth

She is right. Our growth is negligible compared to the rest of the world.

That is the rest of the world that wasn't the "only country to impose economic sanctions on itself" (James O'Brien Shows passim) or that handed its economic policy over to Tufton Street for the shelf life of a lettuce.

[Abernathy]

Charitably, Badenoch faced the rather tricky job of moaning about everything that is still shite thanks to 14 years of her own party’s governmental incompetence and venality, while trying to slam Keir Starmer for not quite making everything lovely and dandy yet and telling people they need to elect her in 4 years and give her another shot at making everything shite again.

I suppose there’s only one way to approach that task - head down, and brass-neck it out. She’s certainly taken that approach, but at the cost of credibility.

[Andy McDandy]

I stand for a society where free speech trumps hurt feelings, where everyone knows what a woman is, where people are judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin

How that's squared with what Jenrick said, God only knows. And indeed how is the first bit squared with Kemi's hardline stance on anti-Semitism?

Problem here is that a) her own side have been just as eager to shut people down when someone says something they disagree with, as anyone else; b) then deliver a definition other than "Woman! WO-man! Jeez, it's a fucking woman!"; and c) translates as "I made it so why can't everyone else stop moaning, and I'm quoting MLK and if you disagree with me you're disrespecting him and nyaaah!".

End of the day, if words didn't have power, we'd have no politicians or journalists.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Nice sighting of Keith Joseph's socialist ratchet.

Badenoch quotes Margaret Thatcher’s ratchet view of socialism.

When Margaret Thatcher was leader of the opposition, she said this: “Every Labour government is prepared to reverse every Tory measure, while Conservative governments accept nearly all socialist measures, the end result is only too plain.”
She was right to fix our country.

This was a rhetorical thing in 1975. Even if it was true then, which it wasn't, it's very obviously not true of Labour governments since 1997, nor indeed Tory Governments since 2010. Not to mention the fact that I'm 53, and I was too young to vote in the last election where Margaret Thatcher stood. This is very online.

[Andy McDandy]

Not to mention that on social issues, complaints and warnings from (largely) the right turned out to be so much dogs eggs.

[Abernathy]

Here is the reaction of Rhianna Pratchett, daughter of the late author Terry Pratchett, to Kemi Badenoch claiming that Pratchett was her favourite author.

‘Dad's books are full of empathy,
common sense, and a healthy suspicion
of the powerful. But at itsheart his work
is also about how systems keep people
poor while pretending it's their own
fault. So I hope Kemi's taking notes as
well as reading the jokes’

[mattomac]

The Conservatives would benefit if they accepted that Margaret Thatcher like every other PM did some things wrong.

I personally think she is responsible for a lot of issues wrong with this country but this sainthood act isn't even plausible to the centre right.

[soulboy]

Tories would abolish stamp duty, Badenoch tells party conference

Genius. Stamp Duty is a bad tax, but simply abolishing it is a big handout to people who already own homes. Estate agents will know what the market can bear in terms of total (price + the tax). If you remove the tax, the price just goes up to the same level, with the Treasury not getting anything. In 2024, Stamp Duty brought in over £18bn.

Unless I am missing something, this doesn't seem like a bad idea if it is as reported

Stamp duty would still apply to additional properties and properties bought by companies, and for purchases by non-UK residents.

Giving people who actually want to live in the home they are buying an advantage over second home owners and BTLers seems good, unless people get wise and just flip the properties after a minimal qualifying period.

Presented like that I am not sure how much of a vote winner it would be amongst the Tory faithful.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tories would abolish stamp duty, Badenoch tells party conference

Genius. Stamp Duty is a bad tax, but simply abolishing it is a big handout to people who already own homes. Estate agents will know what the market can bear in terms of total (price + the tax). If you remove the tax, the price just goes up to the same level, with the Treasury not getting anything. In 2024, Stamp Duty brought in over £18bn.

Unless I am missing something, this doesn't seem like a bad idea if it is as reported

Stamp duty would still apply to additional properties and properties bought by companies, and for purchases by non-UK residents.

Giving people who actually want to live in the home they are buying an advantage over second home owners and BTLers seems good, unless people get wise and just flip the properties after a minimal qualifying period.

Presented like that I am not sure how much of a vote winner it would be amongst the Tory faithful.

Most Tory voters don't own additional properties. It's a bad idea because it's dressed up as lowering the cost of homes, but it won't. It makes people who already own homes richer because they can charge more for it if there's no stamp duty to add on to it.

[soulboy]

Thanks for that, makes sense although, bloody O'Brien again, I am reminded that a house is worth exactly one house so unless you are downsizing you can't cash in your unearned wealth.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's genuinely difficult to find a way that the benefit doesn't just accrue to be people who already own property, I think.