Is he a bot or merely incapable of thinking for himself?

I thought the five lies ideas were the comfort blanket?

They're clearly a comfort to posters who have objected on this thread to Keunsberg trying to get him to answer the question instead of deflecting in bot mode.

NotSpaghetti - this idea of the 5 ideas is something that Sunak is using but it’s not enough to say and repeat without some explanation as to progress. We need a bit of a comfort blanket. I don’t think that Sunak is very good at carrying voters with him when the going gets tough. There’s some blind fury amongst young families who have been promised jam tomorrow and not a penny for today.

Exactly Maizie

Regarding the bot like repetition of slogans and plugging 5 ideas - it is what has proved to be successful both here in the UK and the USA.

It's on a par with repeating the same lie over and over again, isn't it? Say it repeatedly without deviation and it will stick.

Sunak's contemporary tailoring seems to be impeccable to me. I don't particularly like it - but I'm not a "suits" person however I can see he only wears things that fit!

Regarding the bot like repetition of slogans and plugging 5 ideas - it is what has proved to be successful both here in the UK and the USA.
There were some interesting studies undertaken and they showed that the discipline of always using the same phrases reaps dividends.
At least one study showed that this is why the Democrats and Labour do less well on the whole - because they do less spouting of the sane language because they have less "party discipline".

Apparently there are missives each day/week (can't remember if daily or weekly) from party HQ stressing what yhe topic is to stress on the media if asked for comments. The Conservatives tend to follow this but Labour do not.

He kept repeating the same 5 point mantra (or at least referring to it) His priority, he said, is to get inflation halved by the end of the year. Considering the rate of inflation has increased since he first came up with his 5 point plan, somehow I can't see it happening.

GrannyGravy13

It’s blatantly obvious that the only PM acceptable on here would be a Labour one…

Attacking a man’s clothing choice, I assume you have exceptional fashion sense Varian and you and yours are always impeccably turned out,

So why are people so disappointed with Sunak GrannyGravy? He had an opportunity and he has shown himself not to be up to the challenge. Many people would cetainly rather that he succeed than failed; their lives and livelihoods depend on a successful government.

The extreme National Conservatives (far right), as I think they now like to be caĺled, will keep trying to tell the other 85% of the population that Sunak is being bullied because he is seen as weak. The only thing that will stop that is Sunak himself.

Indeed - as he used to.

If Sunak was only interested in making money he would not be Prime Minister. He would work in finance surely.

Who might they be?

Oh no - I can think of a number of Tories who would make an eminently suitable PM.

Indeed GG. Hence many don’t bother to respond to some of the ridiculous comments.

It’s blatantly obvious that the only PM acceptable on here would be a Labour one…

Attacking a man’s clothing choice, I assume you have exceptional fashion sense Varian and you and yours are always impeccably turned out,

Sunak is a backroom man by nature
A bean counter at best.
Certainly not meant for the lime light.
He is in the wrong job.
Can't take him seriously as the PM of our country.
It's like a bad joke.
Mr Bean could do just as well as Sunak.

I put an apology on here for starting a similar thread about how Ben Elton saw the interview - but it disappeared!

Sorry again. I will leave it on as it has the link there. But I have suggested people come back here to add comments.

varian

I do know that this point is trivial,and probably, irrelevant but I cannot take seriously a middle aged man who dresses like a schoolboy whose mother refuses to buy him a new school uniform although he has grown out of the old one.

His ridiculous skinny trousers, too tight jacket and tiny tie are just awful.. He is not overweight so should not be wearing too tight clothes.

If I were keen to see him re-elected I would take him to M&S and buy him some new clothes in the proper size to makje him look more grown up.

As it is I do not want to see him re-elected (and for good reasons' not trivial ones) so I'm not going to insist he follows my advice, although his ridiculous appearance is a national embarrassment.

Perhaps he’s managing to avoid VAT on children’s clothes!

varian

I do know that this point is trivial,and probably, irrelevant but I cannot take seriously a middle aged man who dresses like a schoolboy whose mother refuses to buy him a new school uniform although he has grown out of the old one.

His ridiculous skinny trousers, too tight jacket and tiny tie are just awful.. He is not overweight so should not be wearing too tight clothes.

If I were keen to see him re-elected I would take him to M&S and buy him some new clothes in the proper size to makje him look more grown up.

As it is I do not want to see him re-elected (and for good reasons' not trivial ones) so I'm not going to insist he follows my advice, although his ridiculous appearance is a national embarrassment.

Now come on, varian I wouldn’t go that far. We’ve just had a PM whose appearance was a national embarrassment, and Sunak is at least a 50% improvement on that, he definitely knows how to comb his hair, and he looks clean.
However Sunak isn’t a natural front man, he gets easily flustered and doesn’t have much of the sense of humour or repartee you need to be a successful interviewee, I’m sure that’s why he reverts to script so frequently.

What was she supposed to do - just let him spout propaganda for the whole interview?

Of course she was, Doodledog. That's what most journalists seem to do and government ministers expect it..

I didn't expect anything very much from Sunak; he is an economist and his main interest in life is making money.

You're doing economists a disservice there, eazybee because making money is not at all what economics is about.

One definition: The social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and with the theory and management of economies or economic systems.

Making money is completely unrelated to economics.

GrannyGravy13

Doodledog

The (Kuenssberg) interview this morning was awful. Sunak just talked over her, not letting her do her job at all. It looks bad when politicians do that - it's so rude, and gives the impression that they can't answer the question but have to stick to their soundbites as per the spin.

Laura Kuenssberg consistently talked over the PM, wouldn’t let him finish his answers because they were not the answers she wanted.

I didn't see it like that at all. She asked a question, he answered a totally different one, and she tried to bring him back on track. He refused to stop talking, even when she was telling him that he wasn't answering. What was she supposed to do - just let him spout propaganda for the whole interview?

I do know that this point is trivial,and probably, irrelevant but I cannot take seriously a middle aged man who dresses like a schoolboy whose mother refuses to buy him a new school uniform although he has grown out of the old one.

His ridiculous skinny trousers, too tight jacket and tiny tie are just awful.. He is not overweight so should not be wearing too tight clothes.

If I were keen to see him re-elected I would take him to M&S and buy him some new clothes in the proper size to makje him look more grown up.

As it is I do not want to see him re-elected (and for good reasons' not trivial ones) so I'm not going to insist he follows my advice, although his ridiculous appearance is a national embarrassment.

He just parroted answers he had learned on LK this morning. Why keep regurgitating the same over and over again. I wished LK could have told him to shut up. I expected more qute frankly.

Neither, he is using a tactic that you surely have noticed other politicians using when they don't want to answer the question they were actually asked. They just repeat their answer to a former question, whether it is relevent or not.

The late king of Jordan had the honesty to admit that when journalists asked him questions he did not find it convenient to anwser he "just started quickly to talk of something else, and no-one ever interrupted me and said, Your Majesty, that wasn't what I asked you."

I imagine most of us are old enough to remember King Hussein deploying this tactic with enormous success.

Doodledog

The (Kuenssberg) interview this morning was awful. Sunak just talked over her, not letting her do her job at all. It looks bad when politicians do that - it's so rude, and gives the impression that they can't answer the question but have to stick to their soundbites as per the spin.

Laura Kuenssberg consistently talked over the PM, wouldn’t let him finish his answers because they were not the answers she wanted.

Sunak was supposedly the stand-out candidate on the in-person hustings for PM.
Surely he can't have been robot-like then?

Maybe the actual job is too much for him and he's relying on advisors.