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Thursday 23 May 2024

Whingeing In The Rain

The tell-tale signs had been there earlier yesterday, as more than one cabinet minister ducked out of media and other appearances. So when amateur Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stepped out of 10 Downing Street into a torrential downpour - there’s a bad omen if ever one was needed - it was obvious that he was about to do what Denis Healey once called “cut and run”.


Sadly for Sunak, such was his Billy No Mates presence that there was not even someone to hold an umbrella. Nor was his team sensible enough to change the venue to the Downing Street media room. And so it was that the electorate was told that the Tories were out of ideas, and out of time. There would be a General Election on the fourth of July. Independence Day, eh?

That date is also Independence Day in Rwanda. Oh the irony! Such was Sunak’s timing that, together with a Labour commitment to end the farce of deportations to that country, that no deportation flights will happen. Even though Sunak had said they would. Instead, his briefing to the assembled media was turned into a whingefest directed at Keir Starmer.

Not that too many will have remembered that, after someone (wasn’t Steve Bray, was it?) blasted the 1997 New Labour signature anthem “Things Can Only Get Better” from the end of Downing Street. The Guardian’s Pippa Crerar musedInauspicious start to campaign”, while even Laura Kuenssberg had to admit Sunak’s presentation was “not the authority of credibility”.

Meanwhile, after the Tories continued to alienate the media by chucking Sky News out of Downing Street, came Starmer’s response. James Chapman was impressed. “Well that Starmer speech was streets ahead of Sunak's, both in terms of the optics and content, with a compelling change narrative. I suspect Starmer is going to surprise on the upside in a campaign”.

That alienation, as Rachel Cunliffe of the Staggers pointed out, was not trivial: “It's not just journos but MPs, spads, MINISTERS who got the green light from No10 that the summer was safe. That's a lot of ill will to kick off a campaign with. From those on your own side”. Then came a truly wacko intervention by Christopher “No” Hope of GB “News”.


Some furious Conservative MPs are tonight working on a plot to CALL OFF the general election by replacing Rishi Sunak as leader before Parliament is dissolved next Thursday”. But all it tells us is that there are those in the right-leaning media who are prepared to spray their credibility up the wall by recycling anything the Tories tell them. While backing The Blue Team.

Just what that will look like can be seen from this morning’s front pages. The Murdoch Sun brings us the news while avoiding using the photo of Sunak getting drenched outside No 10. Not quite “The Sun backs Blair”, is it? And the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph was also on message.

Obedient pundits were grovelling from the off, with Jeremy Warner declaring “The economic stars are aligned”, and wacko Janet Daley claiming “Starmer will be worrying now”. The Daily Brexit, still called the Express, told its faithful readers “The Prime Minister made a rallying cry for Express readers to get behind him”, and the Mail pontificated “Rishi seizes the initiative”. Like heck he did. Also, the Mail has more inside. Maybe too much more.

Sarah Vine obediently tells “This is about Sunak the man taking control and fighting his case head on”, while deeply unfunny churnalist Richard Littlejohn, live from North Vero Beach in Florida, concludes “Time for Rishi to summon up the blood, go for broke”. Not for nothing did Michael Heseltine decideIt is going to be the most dishonest General Election of my lifetime”.

The Tories are going to get a shellacking. But they might get a worse shellacking later. Hence Sunak deciding he had to turn and face his pursuers, despite teeing off many on his own side. And his media pals will back him to the hilt, despite the UK having been made a laughing stock over the past 14 years of inept and indeed corrupt leadership. That’s who they care about.

Rich people paying the desperate and greedy of the media to support their continued enrichment. This time the voters might just ignore them.


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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

And so the turd polishing begins to the usual tedious accompaniment of lies, hypocrisy and outright malevolence. Far right racist Britain and its corruption in plain sight.

And all far right media tories like Kuentssberg can offer up is "...the authority of credibility..." The kind of utter shite peddled by the Barbie PR Agency in Westminster and Murdoch/Rothermere Nastzis in Loonyland.

All of it swallowed whole by the Micawber Tendency.

Gulliver said...

Much as I'd like to see the Tory party utterly wiped out, I'm really struggling to summon up any enthusiasm whatsoever for the likely winners on July 5th.

And I think it's very telling that, whereas in 1997 the refrain was "things can only get better", the best Starmer can come up with yesterday was simply "Change", which can of course mean things change for the worse but more honestly means a change of management with everything else as you were.

Anonymous said...

Starmer: "Go back to your constituencies and prepare for.....er.....uh......erm.....er.....er...."

Anonymous said...

Sunak: the wally with no brolly...in Drowning Street.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...


Will there be any Tory candidates left to vote for* come election day? Every day another 5 announce that they're 'stepping down'. Shits deserting the drowning rat it seems.

It'll be interesting to see what a collection of nutjobs are chosen to replace them given that the selection committees will be the sort of people who thought Truss was the right kind of chap to lead the party.

It's all so terribly tragic, isn't it?

PS Anyone know what time Rees-Mogg's result will come in?

* Try to resist the obvious, Anoymous in Perpetuum.

Anonymous said...

Davey: tuition fees for educashun, educashun, educashun. Cough up.

Anonymous said...

Much as we've been looking forward to (hopefully) seeing this rancid govt get a major kicking at the polls, I must admit I wasn't looking forward to the run up.

This will be the dirtiest, most lie ridden, racism bedevilled, smear ridden election we've ever seen. I'm not sure my stomach can take it. Even compared to the disgraces that were the 83 - 92 campaigns and the fiasco of 15 & 19, this one's going to be doozy.

I just hope that the uk public though, sees through the bullshit from the Torys and Labour, and vote for other parties where they stand any chance of beating the gruesome twosome.

Mr Larrington said...

And in a fine display of joined-up thinking, Sunk has scheduled his farewell tour for a fortnight before the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace. I wonder whether Sir Keeves is savvy enough to take advantage of this opportunity to schmooze the rest of Europe.

Anonymous said...

The only thing I'm enjoying the prospect of in this Six Week Shitshow is (a) the hope that Corbyn retains his seat to give Labour a bloody nose and (b) watching Victoria Derbyshire shredding politicians (shortly before she gets moved to a late night slot in a faraway BBC local radio station).

Rest of it? At the last GE my Tory MP had 76% of the vote, Labour 13%. No point in my voting.

Anonymous said...

And they're OFF AND RUNNING:

https://images.app.goo.gl/SDcWnsXHMfSGQeDD9