You really, really could not make this shit up. The Conservative Party has lost another leader and the nation has lost another Prime Minister.
To lose one Prime Minister may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.
So, congratulations then Liz Truss. In the space of her brief tenure, she managed to tank the economy, precipitate the fall of the pound to near parity with the dollar and blow a £65 billion hole in the national debt resulting in a surge in interest rates and an intervention by the Bank of England to prevent pension funds being gutted. She managed all this in a mere 46 days, almost two weeks of which were lost to business because of the death of the Queen. Just imagine what she could have achieved if she’d managed to stay in power a bit longer! Her legacy is secure – she will always be remembered as the answer to a pub quiz question: which Prime Minister was in office for the shortest period of time. Move aside George Canning who served as PM for 119 days before dying in office. Lightweight!
So, another Conservative Party leadership election in which the 120,000 members of the Party get to choose the next Prime Minister. Well, that worked well this last time – they selected an incompetent half wit who wreaked havoc and chaos in the brief period she was in office.
Not surprisingly, the Conservative members of Parliament are hoping to be able to settle on one “unity” candidate, thus avoiding the need to refer the election to members who clearly are not capable of getting the right answer. Great idea but the party is so splintered that that seems unlikely. Especially so, and you really, really, really could not make this up, as a not insignificant number of Conservative MPs are backing the return of Boris the Clown! Including a number of MPs who voted a mere couple of months ago to boot him out of office.
As for the prospect of holding a General Election to let the electorate decide? Since when did turkeys decide to vote for Christmas?
Still, I can think of one person who might be persuaded to serve in the interests of the nation.
We had a terrific couple of days with our good friends Dave & Sue and Sue & Stuart this week. We went down to the Walton’s home near Cirencester and enjoyed a number of splendid walks in the glorious countryside. Thursday afternoon we shuffled into Cheltenham for the matinee performance of The Lavender Hill Mob at the Everyman Theatre. The Guardian didn’t think it was up to much but we thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not going to win any awards, I shouldn’t imagine but it was good, light-hearted fun.
Finally, how about a short clip demonstrating what great progress Julieta is making on learning how to communicate:
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg