“KNOW thy enemy” is good advice, so I watched the debate between Sunak and Truss on Monday evening. How their policies stacked up was difficult to follow as the main focus was engineered by Sunak speaking over and through Liz Truss throughout the whole debate. And they wonder why more women don’t enter politics!!
How Truss kept her cool was a lesson in tolerance – she quietly stuck to the points she was trying to make.
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If Sunak is going to be a PM as he was in the televised debate then Westminster is truly entering a totalitarian era. Obviously women’s views will be dismissed and I would suspect the views of any Cabinet minister who doesn’t do a nodding dog impersonation. Alas, a same old, same old with no mention of the four-nations issue – a welcome in the Cabinet for Boris.
Whether this would be advantageous to Scotland to the same degree as Boris added momentum to independence remains to be seen. Neither, of course, will endorse losing the cash cow that is Scotland but if Sunak should be next PM then Scotland will truly have a massive struggle toward 2023.
Yessers – get your canvassing shoes on now.
Frieda Burns
Stonehaven
ABBI Garton-Crosbie put Monday night’s debate in a nutshell – “Sunak repeatedly interrupting and talking over Truss” – in The National on Tuesday.
Rishi Sunak told how his parents worked all the hours in the day to give their children a better chance in life. Perhaps they should to have spent a little more time at home teaching them the rudiments of good manners – such as respecting the chair in debates and not to continually interrupt and speak over others.
Rishi Sunak was an example of everything that is wrong with the Tory party – he came across as a rude, overbearing, male, entitled to ignore the presenter Sophie Raworth and continually interrupt Liz Truss mid-sentence to express his own opinions.
READ MORE: Liz Truss campaign accuses Rishi Sunak of 'aggressive mansplaining' in BBC debate
He devoted his time to telling Tories why they, and the nation, should not vote for Liz Truss rather than enlightening the viewers on how his policies would benefit everyone in the country. Apparently in an attempt to demonstrate his superiority over the local girl who had made it as far as London, he told how much he had benefitted by working in countries around the world; as a potential prime minister he could have greatly enhanced his position by explaining how much the people of these countries had benefitted from the work he had done while living among them.
Liz Truss had little to offer the nation other than proving that she remains calm and retains her self-control under duress.
Anyone who was expecting to see a presentation worthy of the next prime minister of the country must have been very disappointed.
These debates have so far failed to show why anyone should vote for a party led by either of these candidates at the next General Election.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
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