All posts tagged: unpopular

Ex-Tory Chair Lord Patten Shreds Party For Becoming ‘More Right-Wing And More Unpopular’

Ex-Tory Chair Lord Patten Shreds Party For Becoming ‘More Right-Wing And More Unpopular’

Published by Sam

The Conservative’s former chairman has launched a bruising attack on the party for becoming “more right-wing”. In an interview on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Lord Chris Patten, a former cabinet minister, also labelled Brexit the “biggest disaster in British policy making since the Second World War”. ‘I was Chair of the Conservative Party when there was one.’‘They’ve lost the most important attribute: the benefit of the doubt.’ Former Conservative Party Chair Lord Patten tells @AndrewMarr9 the failings of the current government are mostly due to ‘the disaster of Brexit’. pic.twitter.com/BdQY2EEKSI — LBC (@LBC) March 21, 2024 The Conservative grandee, who has also been an EU Commissioner and the last governor of Hong Kong, was asked about the upcoming general election, and whether there was a chance of a repeat of the 1992 vote, when Lord Patten was the Conservative Party chairman and John Major pulled off a victory despite more than a decade of Tory rule. He said voters would not give the current government the “benefit of the doubt”. Lord Patten said: …

Biden campaign memo calls Trump ‘wounded, dangerous and unpopular’ general election candidate

Biden campaign memo calls Trump ‘wounded, dangerous and unpopular’ general election candidate

Published by skeptic

Top Biden campaign officials on Wednesday cited the results of Super Tuesday as evidence former President Trump is a vulnerable general election candidate. “The results of last night’s Super Tuesday contests cemented what we have known for some time now: Donald Trump limps into the general election as a wounded, dangerous and unpopular candidate,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo shared with reporters. “The Republican nominee is cash-strapped, beleaguered by a host of external issues, and is running on an extreme agenda that is already proving to be a significant liability for key voting blocs that are critical to the pathway to 270 electoral votes,” the two wrote. Trump nearly swept the Super Tuesday states, with Nikki Haley winning Vermont. Trump is expected to secure the necessary delegates in the coming weeks to become the presumptive Republican nominee, setting up a rematch with President Biden in November. The former president made no mention of Haley in his victory speech, predicting the GOP would unify around …

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘only have themselves to blame’ as popularity dwindles | Royal | News

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘only have themselves to blame’ as popularity dwindles | Royal | News

Published by skeptic

The folks over at Palace Confidential also discussed Harry’s trip and why it was so brief. Royal editor Richard Eden suggests his friends in the UK don’’t want to see him. Mr Eden says, “He comes, and who wants to meet Harry now? That’s the thing, remember, he’s lost touch with a lot of his old friends. In his memoir, he admitted, after his appalling Oprah Winfrey interview, to tell him, ‘We thought what you did was wrong.’” He adds: “Perhaps, maybe his old friends don’t want to see him, anymore?” “It’s tricky. He’s taken himself away from that. And he makes himself a stranger when he comes.” Source link

Liz Truss Unpopular Before Popular Conservatism Launch Exclusive Poll Shows

Liz Truss Unpopular Before Popular Conservatism Launch Exclusive Poll Shows

Published by skeptic

Liz Truss will launch her new “Popular Conservatism” platform on Tuesday – despite new polling which confirms she remains really unpopular. The former prime minister will be joined at the event in London by other right-wing Tories including former deputy party chairman Lee Anderson and ex-cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg. Nigel Farage, who has been toying with a frontline political comeback and recently expressed admiration for “radical” Truss, is also set to attend, according to The Sunday Times. The “PopCon” movement claims to want to “restore democratic accountability to Britain and deliver popular conservative policies”. But polling by Savanta seen by HuffPost UK shows Truss – who was forced to quit as PM after just 49 days in office – is the least popular politician the firm asks voters about. It showed that 65% of voters have an unfavourable view of her, compared to just 11% who have a favourable view. That gives her a net favourability rating of -54, compared to Rishi Sunak on -27 and Labour leader Keir Starmer on -8. Boris Johnson hit …

Tories Compared To Unpopular Fujitsu Accounting Machine

Tories Compared To Unpopular Fujitsu Accounting Machine

Published by skeptic

A Tory minister was left squirming after being told his party is “about as liked as a Fujitsu accounting machine. The jibe – a reference to the Post Office Horizon IT scandal – by LBC’s Nick Ferrari came as the opinion polls continue to show the Conservatives languishing well behind Labour. The radio presenter asked Treasury minister Gareth Davies: “Why do you suppose the Conservatives are about as liked as a Fujitsu accounting machine?” A clearly-flustered Davies replied: “Well, er, polls come and go as you know.” But Ferrari told him: “They’re only going one way here, Mr Davies, and they’re going consistently down.” The minister said: “Well, look, I’m not naive. Obviously we’d like the polls to look differently than they are today, and I am very confident that they will as we go into a general election. “But what we are focused on is that we stick with our plan for managing the economy.” Ferrari told him: “But it’s not working, is it? This is insanity. If week in, week out, the polls …

The Guardian view on a UK citizen army: unpopular and unaffordable | Editorial

The Guardian view on a UK citizen army: unpopular and unaffordable | Editorial

Published by skeptic

Few will dispute that the international situation has darkened and is darkening. Neither Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nor the renewed Middle East conflict will end soon or conclusively. Across the Atlantic, a second Trump presidency is moving closer. As an era of peace ebbs, and with a widening prospect of an era of war, how should nations, including Britain, respond? By being ready to mobilise against Russia, says the head of Britain’s army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders. In a speech on Tuesday, Gen Sanders said that armed citizens still win modern wars, just as in the last century. Britain therefore needed to “train and equip” a new “citizen army” that would be ready to fight a land war against Russia. The current professional army, set to fall to 72,500 by 2025, is too small for that. Even a force of 120,000 would not be capable of fighting an all-out war. In the general’s view, it was not just desirable but essential for Britain to follow Sweden’s example and take “preparatory steps to place our societies …

Poll Reveals Rishi Sunak More Unpopular Than Johnson And Corbyn

Poll Reveals Rishi Sunak More Unpopular Than Johnson And Corbyn

Published by skeptic

The IpsosUK survey showed that only 21% of voters are satisfied with the job the prime minister is doing, compared with 69% who are dissatisfied. That gives the PM a net approval rating of minus 48. Johnson’s rating was minus 45 when he was forced from office in July 2022, while Corbyn’s was minus 44 when he stood down in the wake of Labour’s disastrous 2019 election result. The only glimmer of good news for Sunak is that he is still slightly more popular than Liz Truss, whose approval rating was minus 51 when she resigned in October 2022 after just seven weeks in No.10. Labour leader Keir Starmer’s approval rating, according to the poll, is minus 21. Keiran Pedley of IpsosUK said: “Ratings can go up and down so Rishi Sunak’s should not be seen as set in stone. “However, it may concern the Conservatives that the prime minister’s poll ratings are so low as we head towards a general election.” The poll is further confirmation of how Sunak’s popularity has plummeted since he …

Rishi Sunak Has Managed To Make The Tories As Unpopular As When Liz Truss Was PM

Rishi Sunak Has Managed To Make The Tories As Unpopular As When Liz Truss Was PM

Published by skeptic

The Tories are now as unpopular with the public as they were when Liz Truss was prime minister. A new opinion poll put the party on just 20%, a staggering 27 points behind Labour. The last time their numbers were so low was in October 2022, just before Truss was forced from office after just seven weeks as PM. Just 11 Conservatives voted against the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which the prime minister hopes will finally lead to deportation flights to the east African country taking off. According to the YouGov poll for The Times, support for the Conservatives has dropped by two points from 22% to 20% in the past week, while Labour have gone from 45% to 47%. Worryingly for Sunak, support for the right-wing Reform UK has also gone up from 10% to 12%. Tory MPs had hoped that replacing Truss with Sunak would turn around their political fortunes. But despite a raft of pledges, relaunches and policy announcements since entering No.10, the former chancellor has failed to dent Labour huge poll …

NSS urges government to replace “unpopular” RE

NSS urges government to replace “unpopular” RE

Published by Sam

The National Secular Society has urged the government to replace religious education (RE) with a subject “more suited to 21st century schools”. In a letter to Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan, the NSS said the unwillingness of many schools in England to teach RE “reflects the prevailing public sentiment that RE is out of date, unpopular and lacking a clear purpose”. The letter follows recent lobbying from parliamentarians and members of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales for the government to offer funding for RE teacher training bursaries. It said some children are receiving “either tokenistic RE or none at all”. The NSS said the problems with RE are “more fundamental”, citing recent polls which found RE to be the least popular subject, while over half of British adults do not think it is important for RE to be taught in secondary school. The NSS said that “critical enquiry, religion and belief literacy and fundamental British values” should be promoted in schools. But it said this would be achieved “more effectively …

unpopular judicial reform involves repeal of law set up under British colonial rule in Palestine – here’s what that tells us

unpopular judicial reform involves repeal of law set up under British colonial rule in Palestine – here’s what that tells us

Published by skeptic

Israel’s parliament has voted to significantly shrink the power of the country’s supreme court as part of a long-telegraphed plan that has bitterly divided the country. In a highly controversial vote boycotted by the opposition, the Knesset – or parliament – struck down the “rule of reasonableness” that had previously enabled the supreme court to overrule government decisions. The measure paves the way for Israel’s far-right government to enact more extreme measures and has been met with some of the biggest protests in Israel’s history. While the resulting unrest is being described as a “battle for Israel’s soul”, the law that was struck down actually predates the state of Israel and is rooted in its antecedent: the British Mandate of Palestine (1922-48). Palestine and the mandate system The British army entered Palestine in late 1917 and occupied the whole country the following year. Coming towards the end of the first world war, the British occupation put an end to 400 years of Ottoman rule in Palestine. It also reneged on British promises made during the …