Horrified by the prospect of Suella Braverman's impending dismissal as Home Secretary.

Not because I *like* her but because the trajectory for the past 20 years has been a downward spiral.

So who will they install as Home Secretary next?

Dracula?

Hitler?

Kemi Badenoch?

@cstross It’s like GOP House Speakers since Newt Gingrich, every replacement one is worse than the last one.
@MisuseCase @cstross I think John Boehner was a slight improvement over Dennis Hastert, but generally yes
@cstross
Isn't Boris available?
@cdamian Won't happen under Sunak. And after Sunak, won't happen under Starmer.
@cstross They could make an end-run for Tommy Robinson.
@cstross They will pull Davros out of retirement.
@Illuminatus @cstross Isn’t he too compassionate?
@djryan @cstross Probably too human for the Tory party these days.

@Illuminatus @cstross

What about that Harold Saxon fella?

@danmcd @cstross Too soft on crime for these new Tories. Impeccable musical taste, though.

@cstross At some point one has to ask whether it’s the politicians leading the Home Office to be ever more bigoted and authoritarian or the other way round.

Abolish the Home Office, I reckon. Break it up. Destroy the whole institution and find better ways to deliver its myriad functions.

@m0rpk @cstross I'm all for burning the racist Home Office to the ground.
@Lazarou @m0rpk They'll replace it with something worse. (The Inquisition out of Warhamster 40K?)

@cstross
It's actually easy to fix it. Everywhere in the world, immigration is managed by the ministry for the economy, so even racists need to fight with basic self interest, and they are moderated.

In the UK, though, there's a spiral of paranoia and racism reinforcing each other, because of reinforcing biases because it's the Wrong Mandate.

@Lazarou @m0rpk

@m0rpk @cstross I was musing about this the other day during the Covid inquiry. They were asking Patel about what had been done to help vulnerable people during lockdown and I was sat there thinking "why are they asking her about all this?"

The Home Office has become such a toxic force it took me far too long to remember that part of its job is meant to be protecting people.

@cstross Nooooo. No no no no no.

We must embrace the brief moments of relief. We deserve some respite before...

Oh no. No no no no no.

I think you're right.

*sobs*

@cstross Braverman is already a Bad Enoch (Powell)
@cstross Michael Gove. We're fucked.

@cstross

Remember, the name of the monster was probably Adam, and he might actually be reasonable, what with empathy and kindness and caring. The scientist, on the other hand...seems like he'd fit right in.

@Oggie What are you referring to?
@cstross As in, appointing Frankenstein, for some reason I thought it worked without spelling out his name explicitly, but I guess not so much.
@cstross That is not dead, which may eternal lie,
and with strange eons
one may even become home secretary
@cstross Nah, hell no! They are going straight to the very bottom - Donald Trump. Trump is definitely the worst person available still alive.

@cstross As an American, I have been hesitant to comment about Braverman, but I always wonder. If she is successful in making UK into a country that is for white "English" people, will they ship *her* to Uganda?

I'm thinking of this in the "First they came for the..." sort of way.

@glennsills She has Rich Person privilege.
@cstross Yeah, I think a lot of rich Jews in Vienna felt that way early on.
@cstross I’ll give it a shot. I’m not an MP, and I have no relevant experience, so I should be a good candidate. All it would take is a quick elevation to the Lords and I’ll be ready to go. I’ve been reading Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, so I’m familiar with all the necessary policy tricks. What could possibly go wrong?
@cstross I missed the call. Not sure if I was to be offered Home or Foreign, but as both roles went to men with impeccable records of extraordinary achievement, I’m not bitter. My political ambitions will just have to wait for the next appalling cock-up or terrible policy decision, but rest assured, I’ll be ready to deliver stable and strong government when my country most needs me.
@cstross a prompt engineer and ChatGPT. What could possibly go wrong 😑
@cstross Given those choices, I think we should hear this Dracula fellow out.
@cstross we’ve got a slightly used president you can have…

@cstross my money would be on Jobhopper Grant Shapps.

This Conservative government is so intellectually impoverished he's pretty much the only choice who isn't an absolute headbanger.

@cstross not to mention it'll be the first move towards her being the next prime minister
@faduda @cstross Cameron is back.
@geoglyphentropy @cstross
At least we will be spared chaos with Ed Milliband
@faduda @geoglyphentropy @cstross Literally they have run out of MPs to use as a minister, and we've got him back?!?
@faduda If I were Ed Miliband, I would definitely start a “Rest is Politics”-type podcast called “Chaos, with Ed Miliband”. @geoglyphentropy @cstross
@cstross the concern is less who they install to paper over the time they have left, than the return in a few years time when they have sown the conditions for Labour to fail
@cstross not sure Dracula wants to be associated with Braverman or Badenoch, bad for his image

@cstross

Aren't all those busy, dead, or at least undead?

As an American, I am confused about British prerequisites for office.

To be fair, given Trump, I am also confused about ours. So I say that from a position of humility.

@weekend_editor Well, Jacob Rees-Mogg was a minister for a while, and he’s clearly some sort of Victorian orphanage-keeper brought back from the grave by Tory necromancers, so I really don’t see an issue. @cstross

@rsynnott @cstross

Your theory is tempting.

I wonder if over here we could also explain Trump as a botched summoning by Republican necromancers?

As in: They were looking for a destructive, dominant demon. But they borked a few letters on the summoning pentagram.

So instead of targeted destruction, they got a bull in a China shop (complete with bull exhaust). Instead of dominance, they got the Demon of Bloviation and Boasting.

But what explains the orange color, the hair, and the perpetually annoyed expression on his spouse's face?

@cstross Farage?
@GCogman UTTER NOT THAT NAME! BEGONE FOUL DEMON! OUT FARAGE!
@cstross I hear Henry Kissinger is still available for the job.
@Kyreeth We have plenty of very British nightmares, thank you very much!
@cstross Idi Amin at least had positive feelings towards Scotland. 🤷🏻‍♂️