General British politics discussion thread

ancapailldorcha · 19-01-2022 2:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499621#Comment_118499621

It's both. Amery was quoting Cromwell when upbraiding Chamberlain.

Loafing Oaf · 19-01-2022 2:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499621#Comment_118499621

It's a long story but Amery was echoing something Cromwell is believed to have said when ejecting the remaining members of the 'Long Parliament'. Davis actually left out what to my ears is the harshest bit "Depart, I say, and let us have done with you."

10000maniacs · 19-01-2022 3:39pm

I don't think anybody picked up on it in PMQ's, but Johnson called Christian Wakeford "The right member for Bury South". 😀

devnull · 19-01-2022 3:43pm

Things look better today for Boris than they did last night.

Tories are now withdrawing their letters of no confidence apparently after Johnson announced a bonfire of almost all COVID restrictions.

No wonder he looks less negative than yesterday.

Strazdas · 19-01-2022 4:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500424#Comment_118500424

Johnson surviving might actually be good news for those who would want the Tories out at the next election. He's still as incompetent and useless as ever and totally unfit to run a country - it will only do more damage to the party long term.

Arghus · 19-01-2022 5:03pm

I think there's a danger of the opposition overdoing it on the party issue.

That isn't to say he shouldn't resign, but clearly he won't.

I'll be surprised if the report gives him no wriggle room, he's clearly banking on it not being an instantaneous death knell.

So he'll probably carry on and blather his way out of it and I wonder is it wise to keep attacking him - not that he doesn't deserve it - but it could have the undesired effect of making the opposition look repetitive and boring in the eyes of electorate.

breezy1985 · 19-01-2022 5:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499216#Comment_118499216

Wow Tory to Labour is a rare one for a sitting MP. I wonder if his red wall constituents are all telling him they are going back to Labour not that Brexit "got done"

Strazdas · 19-01-2022 5:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500944#Comment_118500944

Main problem is that the Tory Party seem terrified of replacing him. The issue of giving him the boot is not stalling because of opposition MPs or the media coverage, but because of Tory MPs themselves - they feel kicking him out will damage them and a new leader is less likely to be a vote winner (otherwise he'd be long gone).

breezy1985 · 19-01-2022 5:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500944#Comment_118500944

Jeysus. "Starmer is an idiot cause he does nothing" "Starmer is an idiot because he goes for the kill"

Arghus · 19-01-2022 5:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500982#Comment_118500982

I guess it all hinges on the outcome of this investigation, if he's left with nowhere to go or not. But he'll probably find some way to fudge and blather his way out of it.

Look at the litany of increasingly lame excuses: There were no parties, I'd be appalled to know of any parties, I wasn't at one, I didn't know it was a party, I didn't know it was against the rules - it's ridiculous, but who is to say there won't be another layer of new and previously unimagined clearly face saving excuses next week to downplay some other new revaluation or the eventual outcome of the investigation.

Let's say if the investigation isn't a resigning matter and there's no leadership heave, then, rightly or wrongly, there will be a limited shelf life on how long the opposition can pursue him on this particular issue. To be clear, I think there's no question that he should go and he's totally unfit for office, but I think he'll ride this one out.

L1011 · 19-01-2022 5:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500972#Comment_118500972

Seems to have only happened three times before, all since 1999. Only one got re-elected and they had to move constituency to do so. Their Tory replacement there was Cameron!

breezy1985 · 19-01-2022 5:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118501079#Comment_118501079

Of course there is a limited shelf life and Labour are not going to go on about it forever but while it's the hot topic it would be stupid not to work him on it

A Dub in Glasgo · 19-01-2022 7:21pm

I would be very disappointed if I was in the Labour party that they accepted Wakeford. I know it looks great and puts the pressure on the Tories but the man is a Tory as evidenced by his voting record. The only reason he jumped ship is to protect that very small majority

breezy1985 · 19-01-2022 8:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118501679#Comment_118501679

There is no guarantee he will be allowed run for Labour next time

Capt'n Midnight · 19-01-2022 8:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118501679#Comment_118501679

20% of the voters there are Jewish. So some of the votes might not follow him to labour.

Also it's one less 1922 letter.

ancapailldorcha · 19-01-2022 8:47pm

Serious posts only please. Dumping memes, quotes and such is not what this forum is for. Thanks.

devnull · 19-01-2022 9:03pm

Talk on Sky that the 1922 committee are looking to change the rules as soon as possible so instead of 15%(54 letters) of Tory MPs trigger a vote of no confidence, it could be changed to a third (120) to trigger the vote.

As part of the above change, they will remove the clause that a vote can only be held once every 12 months. The argument is that apparently it gives the Tory party more flexibility and to make their leaders more accountable.

Itssoeasy · 19-01-2022 9:23pm

@ancapailldorcha Apologies I didn’t mean to post something that wasn’t serious. I felt the quote about not wanting the truth was relevant due to the allegation that boris Johnson lied to parliament. That was my point but if it’s not to the standard of posting then I again apologise.

A Dub in Glasgo · 19-01-2022 9:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502184#Comment_118502184

Also known as the Paterson manoeuvre

devnull · 19-01-2022 11:51pm

I guess the Tories will be happy with the client journalism in the Mail and Express tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1483931548890054665

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1483934203809042433

Wonder who their child could have got Covid off and if it's effecting new-borns that bad then surely that undermines the idea that it's safe to remove all restrictions next week?

maebee · 20-01-2022 12:32am

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10420397/Prime-Ministers-daughter-Romy-Covid-quite-badly-mend-source-says.html

Deflection and sympathy seeking from BoJo.

Strazdas · 20-01-2022 1:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503631#Comment_118503631

Johnson surviving might be good news in my book. He will only succeed in destroying the Tory Party even further in coming months - he is simply not up to the job of running a country.

Peregrinus · 20-01-2022 5:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118501928#Comment_118501928

Jewish voters make up about 10% of the electorate in Bury South, not 20%.

The constituency was held won by Labour at every general election from 1997 until 2019, and it's possible that the defection of Jewish voters from Labour to Tory was one of the factors that led to the Tories taking the seat in 2019. Even without Wakeford's defection, some of those voters might have reverted to Labour once Corbyn was removed and Starmer installed. Wakefield, although not himself Jewish, is co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews, and in the 2019 election he had the support of the outgoing independent MP, who was Jewish, so he presumably has some profile, or at least credibility, with Jewish voters.

But, Jewish or not, I'm not sure that many voters will "follow Wakeford" to Labour; I don't think he has much of a personal following in the constituency. From 2009 he made his entire political career in Pendle, until being parachuted in to Bury South as the Tory candidate in 2019. He won with a majority of just 400, partly on the back of the nationwide swing to the Tories, and partly on the back of a split in the Labour vote. I think this is a constituency which would have been odds-on to return to the Labour fold at the next general election anyway; the question is whether, if Wakefield is nominated as the Labour candidate, that will piss off Labour supporters who regard him as a Tory blow-in who has switched for opportunistic reasons, and whether this will happen on a sufficiently grand scale to prevent Labour from recovering the seat.

L1011 · 20-01-2022 10:43am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503762#Comment_118503762

If he makes it, the next test will be the local elections in 4 months - heavily Labour councils though, but they include all of London which has plush, Tory-but-remain areas that could go Lib Dem for instance.

At the last outing, they did.... OKish in the circumstances, losing "only" 35 councillors but that has been to seen along with UKIP losing 123 too; and Lab + 79 Lib +76. Their losses were all London - outside London they held up taking seats off UKIP