The Westminster Arms

Emily Thornberry. What can I say?

He certainly has a problem with me

Boris might or might not.

However I've got a problem with her. Lots of people in the country have a problem with her. That doesn't automatically mean we have a "woman problem". It could just be an Emily Problem.

Further to Lisa Nandy, all she needs now to make it on the ballot is a nomination from an affiliate. It's rumoured that Chinese For Labour is thinking of doing the honours.

I suspect that it's journalists' spin that makes it accessible to the people who aren't in the political loop.

I have my fingers crossed for Lisa Nandy. I think she's a fresh face and voice, from outside the metropolitan circus, and while she believed in the EU, she took a very courageous decision to represent her constituents' view when it was unpopular. Even if she isn't as experienced as the PLP's top bananas might wish, I think she'd be a decent interim leader while they sort out the policies they need time to mull over quietly out of the public gaze. I don't dislike Keir Starmer but it's time for Labour to have a female leader, so to have all their talents line up behind a relative unknown would send a message about humility.

Walking, you are right. Spreadsheet Phil brought his exciting accountancy skills to the MoD when he was Defence Secretary and ran down Armed Forces resources. Having made such a success of that, he bagged the chancellorship and applied his forensic mind to other departments with particular regard to those on the Brexit frontline. He hampered the Home Office's preparations when it looked as though we were facing an imminent No Deal and pulled every string he could to convince everyone possible that anything other than BRINO was a Bad Idea.

The strange thing is that when it was politically expedient he started off as a dyed-in-the-wool Eurosceptic.

Funny thing, Damascene conversions.

The reason given as to why Sajid Javid can ease up on the austerity programme now is that borrowing money - at least by governments - has never been so cheap. It may never be so cheap again. By borrowing at ridiculously low rates now, he can support overdue investment in upgrading infrastructure which will save ££££££ in the end.

It's a sort of Spend To Save programme.

I dont understand why they dont televise it and just cut the journalists out.

Got it, thanks time,
I follow guido Fawkes but couldn't make it out.

Ha! That Lobby Bunfight is amazing. 😂

Yes that's the story!

Is it this Copper/Omm

pressgazette.co.uk/guido-fawkes-takes-on-lobby-cartel-with-live-tweets-in-defiance-of-quaint-rules-on-briefings/

Can't work out what's going on with guido and the lobby

The lobby is a sort of 'private' club of journalists that attend government briefings. Well Guido started to live tweet during briefing and all the other journalists were 'offended' & tried to get him kicked out claiming he wasn't a real journalist nor even a member of the lobby. They tried to drag the government rep into it but he essentially said 'nothing to do with me guv' sort it out yourselves.

They weren't able to sort it out and are still arguing about it.

Essentially the privileged few journalists in the lobby are trying to protect their privilege and stop other journalists from having access.

I get the impression it was Hammond who wouldn't spend but I may be wrong
I think that as well. They thought they would eventually get a May deal through and then he would turn on the taps making it look like a Brexit bounce.

Nandy could be a 'quiet' leader, rebuild the damage Corbyn did and prepare the party for a leader who can really take Boris on. Starmer will probably just take on Boris head to head (in some sort of alpha male battle) before rebuilding the party and I think he will come a cropper.

Just watched an interview with Emily Thornberry from this morning where she stated that Boris has a woman problem

'It is an advantage to be a woman leader at this time because I think Boris Johnson has a woman problem, most definitely’
‘He certainly has a problem with me. I think the Labour Party should think about that.'

1. I’m not sure that is the right approach - pick a woman leader coz Boris has a woman problem.
2. ’well he certainly doesn’t like me’ (meaning vote for a woman and preferably me). Whilst I think that’s possibly true of BJ (she is beyond irritating) I think that’s where it ends. Quite a jump to say he doesn’t like me therefore he has a problem with women. I have a huge problem with ET, go figure.

Can't work out what's going on with guido and the lobby.
Can anyone enlighten me?

I think she'd grow into the leadership role pretty well

Yes, that's my thought too, Dusty. I don't agree with everything she says but she speaks sense often enough to warrant listening to. In turn, she gives the clear impression that she is listening too, and that's where she has a massive advantage over some of the others.

I think that if she is elected, she will make a few schoolgirl errors but that's entirely allowable. However, I also think she will learn from her errors pronto, digest, adjust and move forward. That's why she's worth a second look.

Ommmward, yes, only about 4900 Momentum members selected RLB and that was on a purely binary ballot: RLB Yes or RLB No. It seemed an odd way for the membership to proceed. That might be why there was such a low return rate.

🐜 political party. That was an interesting typo.

Really hard for ant political party to create a coherent and attractive platform right now, because there are so many non-intersecting issues.

Be woke, lose lots of votes. Be non-woke, lose another lot.
Buy into environmental crisis, lose loads of votes. Don't buy in, lose lots of votes.
Be Brexity, lose votes. Be anti-brexity, lose another lot.

And that's before you even try to tally any of that lot with what to do with an aging population and all the stuff that political parties used to differentiate themselves with.

“Gawd, I hope they keep the deficit low. National debt on a huge scale is really scary.”

Agreed, as ever, balance is the key!

Ommm, I get the impression it was Hammond who wouldn't spend but I may be wrong.
I don't think Boris cares about the deficit and Javid wants to keep his job.
But I think it is great news that they are starting to spend.

I just hope they spend on infrastructure in the north including the transpennine rail link.

Presumably it was pretty hard to get agreement to spend money with minority government as well? Or doesn't it work like that? (Well, parliament has to vote yes to a budget, doesn't it, so I suppose that will have influenced the timidity over spending).

Gawd, I hope they keep the deficit low. National debt on a huge scale is really scary.

I agree Hospitality, I don’t think she is PM material either, but I’m not sure that’s what they need RN anyway, they could really do with a good moderate caretaker, a unifying force, that will allow breathing space for a new approach to develop. Well, that’s my opinion anyway! 😂

Large G&T please LL and one for yourself.

I read the JP webchat Walking It didn't go down well did it? She can't have been buoyed by that reception.

The thing I like about LN is her more measured approach. She doesn't appear to have the angry gene. Not sure she's prime minister material, but then I said the same about Bojo.

“Or is the deficit no longer terrifyingly high?”

This, apparently. That was the argument made anyway, that austerity has had the desired effect, and money has now been recouped, along with cheaper borrowing capacity. Just for clarity, that’s not my opinion specifically, just the argument that has been given over recent months.

Maybe only a few have voted for RLB so far. But are Momentum like every one else and wont be bothered getting involved until the actual decisive vote at the end?

i don't really understand why the taps can be turned on now when they couldn't be a year or two ago
We got mired in Brexit completely and almost nothing could be done until that was sorted. I think Boris has broken the deadlock and we can now move forward on all fronts.