[Politics] Tory meltdown finally arrived [was: incoming]...

[Machiavelli]

Young people have not been smoking cigarettes for a fair few years now but how are Tory voters to know?

The annoying bit is that Rishi would have announced this after consultation with tobacco company lobbyists - they’ll be happy with it. Why? Because they own most of the big vaping companies. Rishi has obviously promised them that he’ll go easy on vaping. He shouldn’t though, nicotine addiction in the young is probably more than it’s ever been.

And note they're collectively in the process of a re-brand where their shtick is 'respiratory product services'.

If Rishi really wanted to take the long-term and hard decisions -- that he claims he's doing -- then he'd tackle ultra-processed foods. My hunch is that the smoking manoeuvre is merely a distraction from tackling this.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I try my best to be politically agnostic, but some of the clips from this conference are just off the scale bonkers (Jonathan Pie summed it all up perfectly in a tweet yesterday). So many bizarre things going on and being said.

Penny MorDUNCE takes the top prize though, I think. In a country that is MASSIVELY dividing, with huge numbers of people having a load of resentment towards the government, what we really, desperately, IMMEDIATELY need, is for people to "stand up and fight". Yep, that's the one.

Fack me, what a numpty.

Edit: As for stopping youngsters smoking (many of whom don't anyway – it's all about vaping), that's clearly not going to work, is it? They'll either just get other people to buy fags for them or retailers won't be arsed to check/ask for ID. If anything, being told what they CAN'T do, will mean they are more likely TO do it...

As @Peteinblack said, I agree with the idea, but the only way to really stop it is to ban cigarattes in the first place. Which is never going to happen.

 

[nicko31]

I try my best to be politically agnostic, but some of the clips from this conference are just off the scale bonkers (Jonathan Pie summed it all up perfectly in a tweet yesterday). So many bizarre things going on and being said.

Penny MorDUNCE takes the top prize though, I think. In a country that is MASSIVELY dividing, with huge numbers of people having a load of resentment towards the government, what we really, desperately, IMMEDIATELY need, is for people to "stand up and fight". Yep, that's the one.

Fack me, what a numpty.

Edit: As for stopping youngsters smoking (many of whom don't anyway – it's all about vaping), that's clearly not going to work, is it? They'll either just get other people to buy fags for them or retailers won't be arsed to check/ask for ID. If anything, being told what they CAN'T do, will mean they are more likely TO do it...

As @Peteinblack said, I agree with the idea, but the only way to really stop it is to ban cigarattes in the first place. Which is never going to happen.

Reminds of the Evangelical Christian right in the USA, weird....

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I am no fan of Owen Jones but several people have picked up on this interview and the truest way to post the hideous Lord Pickles opinion is to post the original interview (with explainers) Not only won't he admit he's wrong, but also doubles down on it.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

As an aside, the best thing about the conference is the venue. I've been to a couple of exhibitions at Manchester Central and it's a stunning building.

 

[Stato]

Yet the Tories often warn us that "Labour will take us back to the 1970s."

If it's the 1970s of punk, disco, hip hop, Fawlty Towers, Bagpuss, endless glasses of luminous orange squash, all of those crisps that were in that thread the other day, Brighton getting promoted and actually giving a s**t about other people, then I'm in. Can we give the eighties a miss this time though? I loved the music and the comedy but that was when the people who think that everything in the world has to be boiled down to it's monetary value started taking over.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

I am more interested in the way he points his microphone. Is it some kind of phallic thing? Is he trying to find his brain? Is he filming an "up-nose" video secretly?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

If it's the 1970s of punk, disco, hip hop, Fawlty Towers, Bagpuss, endless glasses of luminous orange squash, all of those crisps that were in that thread the other day, Brighton getting promoted and actually giving a s**t about other people, then I'm in. Can we give the eighties a miss this time though? I loved the music and the comedy but that was when the people who think that everything in the world has to be boiled down to it's monetary value started taking over.

And I wonder which individual did the most to usher that era in?

 

[Baldseagull]

It feels

I try my best to be politically agnostic, but some of the clips from this conference are just off the scale bonkers (Jonathan Pie summed it all up perfectly in a tweet yesterday). So many bizarre things going on and being said.

Penny MorDUNCE takes the top prize though, I think. In a country that is MASSIVELY dividing, with huge numbers of people having a load of resentment towards the government, what we really, desperately, IMMEDIATELY need, is for people to "stand up and fight". Yep, that's the one.

Fack me, what a numpty.

Edit: As for stopping youngsters smoking (many of whom don't anyway – it's all about vaping), that's clearly not going to work, is it? They'll either just get other people to buy fags for them or retailers won't be arsed to check/ask for ID. If anything, being told what they CAN'T do, will mean they are more likely TO do it...

As @Peteinblack said, I agree with the idea, but the only way to really stop it is to ban cigarattes in the first place. Which is never going to happen.

Jonathan Pie said 3 words that succinctly summed up the Tory Conference "Festival of Bullshit."

 

[jcdenton08]

It feels

Jonathan Pie said 3 words that succinctly summed up the Tory Conference "Festival of Bullshit."

No thanks, I don’t want to be a part of your sex festival

 

[Fungus]

I actually agree with eradicating smoking among young people, but can also imagine the Tory outrage if a Labour government proposed this; they'd be allegations of 'a nanny state', curbs on individual liberty, and a Woke health agenda.

Yes, but what about Starmer’s “meat tax”?

 

[BBassic]

I am more interested in the way he points his microphone. Is it some kind of phallic thing? Is he trying to find his brain? Is he filming an "up-nose" video secretly?

Boring answer incoming: it's probably a dynamic microphone with a cardioid polar pattern which has to be a few inches from the mouth of the person speaking to work effectively.

 

[Peteinblack]

Yes, but what about Starmer’s “meat tax”?

Never mind that; I lie awake at night worrying about the seven household-waste bins!

 

[Bakero]

 

[Cordwainer]

Cameron as Sick Boy

 

[Guinness Boy]

“Literally making it up as they go on”

 

[Colonel Mustard]

If you’re going to stand on stage and use rhetoric like “Stand up and fight” you have to absolutely 100% mean it from your heart.
You can’t fake passion and that speech is a perfect example of someone reciting words they neither believe nor have a passion for.

A fair comment if aimed at pretty much any other Tory but I have to say I grudgingly admire Mordaunt. Her put-down of Angela Rayner in the Commons that time was really remarkable. The only time I've seen Ange reduced to submission like that.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

“Literally making it up as they go on”

As somebody pointed out, if Nick Ferrari is laughing at the Tories, they are sunk.
Bognor to ?

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

“Literally making it up as they go on”

Genuinely hilarious! They are indeed totally bonkers

 

[clapham_gull]

Grayling next Tory MP to stand down at next election.

I think that's now 50 if you include the odd one who had the whip withdrawn.

Edited: Has been diagnosed with cancer and has stepped down. Hope his treatment goes well.