Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party.

[sor]

Is Truss one of them? Not sure who else, besides Truss and Hancock, are MPs for this part of the world. And who is the other?

Mind you he's not planning to stand in the election. If he was planning to stand as a Labour candidate I'd be more cynical, but in this case he is perhaps genuine.

A slightly puzzling move though if he's not planning to stay in politics: one might think he'd just resign the Tory whip and represent the constituency as an Independent.

I'd guess this seat won't go Labour (or indeed anyone else besides the Tories) in a million years, so he'd have more chance of retaining the seat if he remained a Tory.

Truss is in Norfolk. The Rt Hon Dr Therese Coffey is the MP for Suffolk Coastal. Tom Hunt is the MP for the bulk of Ipswich.

There's talk that he might become an advisor to Labour but I can't see that being worthwhile to him unless it comes with something else (eg a peerage). It's not as if he's a household name - he's hardly Chris Whitty or JVT

 

[nw1]

Truss is in Norfolk. The Rt Hon Dr Therese Coffey is the MP for Suffolk Coastal. Tom Hunt is the MP for the bulk of Ipswich.

There's talk that he might become an advisor to Labour but I can't see that being worthwhile to him unless it comes with something else (eg a peerage). It's not as if he's a household name - he's hardly Chris Whitty or JVT

Ah ok, Coffey is in Selwyn Gummer's old seat, interesting. No idea who Tom Hunt is, never heard of him!
Whoever he is, Ipswich looks a likely Labour gain as ISTR they gained it in 2017.

 

[takno]

Is Truss one of them? Not sure who else, besides Truss and Hancock, are MPs for this part of the world. And who is the other?


Mind you he's not planning to stand in the election. If he was planning to stand as a Labour candidate I'd be more cynical, but in this case he is perhaps genuine.

A slightly puzzling move though if he's not planning to stay in politics: one might think he'd just resign the Tory whip and represent the constituency as an Independent.

While I don't know it, I'd guess this seat is very rural so it presumably won't go Labour (or indeed anyone else besides the Tories) in a million years. So he'd have probably had more chance of retaining the seat if he remained a Tory.

I think the point he makes about being able to look his NHS colleagues in the face is an important one. Ultimately he's likely to be going to go back into doctoring full-time post-election, and that will be a lot easier as somebody who has publicly spoken out strongly about the current situation.

On the other hand, he probably did sincerely (if incorrectly) believe that Cameron's government cared about the NHS and genuinely tried to protect its funding.

Cameron and Osborne were instrumental in making awful decisions which have left us chronically short of qualified staff in a pathetically-funded NHS. They were just lucky to get out before the NHS faced the kind of major crisis they had destroyed its resilience to, while reserves were still being run down, and while buildings and equipment were in the earlier stages of rotting. If you were in that government, I suspect it was easy to fool yourself that it was all short-term savings to "get the economy back on track", and that at some point somebody would put it all right.

 

[Enthusiast]

Explain?

Here we have an individual who has been elected as an MP, on a generous salary (currently >£86k pa). At the same time, he is moonlighting as a part time doctor for the NHS - an organisation which could probably do with his attention - as a trained doctor - for perhaps a little more than that. This same individual then has the temerity to suggest that the government is not focussed on public services. This critic has two public service posts: one of which it can be reasonably expected of him to devote all his energies (for £86k pa); the other, under who auspices he probably was trained, on which he suggests the government is not focused. If he focused on one or the other, he may have a point. Meanwhile, pots and kettles spring to mind.

...in a pathetically-funded NHS.

Of course you jest. The NHS is awash with money. It consumes half a billion pounds a day. It spends getting on for £3,000 a year for every man, woman and child in the country (the majority of whom make no calls on its services). What it is short of is the organisational ability to spend those sums wisely and efficiently - which is very surprising because it is also awash with administrators (of whom it has almost as many as it has medics).

 

[Busaholic]

There's talk that he might become an advisor to Labour but I can't see that being worthwhile to him unless it comes with something else (eg a peerage). It's not as if he's a household name - he's hardly Chris Whitty or JVT

He's being interviewed by Laura Kuennsberg on BBC TV 9.00 tomorrow, and I'd expect him to be asked some searching questions in return for his five minutes of fame.