What is going on in the Conservative party?  They’ve gone and kicked out Mel Stride who is the last decent politician in an indecent party. Stride who Guy Opperman was pension minister to , throughout his time as SOS to the DWP.

Stride – a west country man like David Penhaligon.  I liked David though he died in 1986 and thought of Stride as the man Penhaligon could have been.

That they are running at 20% in the polls doesn’t suggest that they have the support to be an opposition party. That job is being done by the Reform Party who have Andrew Griffiths as their puppet shadow chancellor.

He’s not gone to Reform I hear you ask?

I’m sorry but while some Reform figures had seen Griffith as a potential defector because of his right wing views, he has stayed loyal to the Tory party.

The only thing that Kemi Badenoch can do to win back her supporters who’ve deserted is to give us a Reform style Chancellor. Griffith is a former senior executive at Sky and former chair of Just Eat. He received about £17mn as part of Sky’s acquisition by Comcast. Griffiths got a Farage style bung and has a cushy seat with a 12,000 majority in Arundel, so no worries for him then.

Griffiths would be (almost) the worst Chancellor’

Oh – I’m sorry, he’s the second worst Chancellor  you could ever have from one of our two historically major parties .The worst is no longer with the Conservatives but he lives in their memory like an ill-kept toilet

Andrew Griffiths was Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s biggest fan. Kwarteng was sacked as Chancellor by Truss on 14 October after 38 days in post. This made him the second shortest-serving Chancellor, I’d be happy to see his shame being shared by Griffith.

Eat your heart out Richard Tice, the Conservatives already one of you and there’s not much you can do about it.

As a junior Treasury minister under Truss, he repeatedly defended the ill-fated 2022 “mini” Budget, blaming the ensuing market turmoil on global factors.

Griffith helped deliver the Truss mini-Budget that sent mortgages soaring and the economy into turmoil.

There is no way he should have been allowed to be considered for  a job at the Treasury again – ever.

I am sorry for my Tory friends.

I have members of my family who have conservative views, I have Tom McPhail who’s a Conservative champion.  I feel deeply sorry for them having to defend having Andrew Griffiths as economic spokesperson.

I could just about understand how Tom tolerated the pandering Helen Whately who should put Tom McPhail in the House of Lords so she can have him as her shadow pensions minister. Tom can lend her some respectability as the shadow secretary of state for the Department of Work and Pensions.

But no one can lend our shadow chief finance officer for this country such respect. Unlike DWP’s welfare office , where decisions are all passed to the Treasury, the buck stops at Number 11 – not that Andrew Griffiths has much chance of getting there.

I can live with Whately in her current seat as moaner in chief at pensions and welfare. But Griffiths is another matter – his promotion is a sign of a party in economic despair, that thinks we have forgotten of October 2022.

Anyone who thinks Griffiths  a worthy opposition to the present Chancellor , needs some help.