The Westministenders Hunger Games continues. Boris still trying not to be outmanoevered.

[RedToothBrush]

Clearly Boris didn't get the memo, on when to quit the power games, even after Gove schooled him in the dark arts of the Tory Leadership....

So the Tory Smackdown rolls on whilst Corbyn STILL clings on. UKIP has now entered the race to make a challenge for who can make the biggest leadership contest shambles.

In The Blue Corner
May strikes fear into the hearts of EU citizens as she counts her bargaining chips.
Gove strikes fear into the hearts of humans, with his Martian twitch.
Loathsom strikes fear in the hearts of Britains by talking about babies brains.
Crabb strikes fear into the hearts of Torys by suggesting a plan that Corbyn might like. (and that beard doesn't help).
And Fox.
Well he just turned up.

Johnson is still waiting in the wings to stab Gove. He'd quite fancy a seat at the cabinet table too.
Osborne has gone quite again and we wait with baited breathe to see if he is the 'Charlie off Casualty' of the Tory Party (y'know whatever happens he somehow survives like a cockroach).

In The Red Corner
Corbyn apologies. So we know he's getting a bit desperate.
Will the Unions figure out something else to do other than sit with their head in hands.
Angela Eagle is still doing jellyfish impressions and hasn't found that backbone.
We STILL don't know who the fuck Owen Smith is?
Will Bliar's chicken's finally come home to roost?
The Cult of Momentum, rumbles on. We aren't quite sure who they actually vote for, but they seem to like their Dear Leader.
When will this country next have an opposition party?

Its kinda getting boring guys, we need some action now. End the Chicken Coup! The Tories are definitely out doing in the high drama stakes.

In the Purple Corner
Farage has gone! Hurrah. We hope only that he stays under that rock.
(Don't count on it. They'll wheel him out when they need publicity)
Will Leadsom be elected leader? Oh sorry, wrong party. I was getting confused for a second there.
Will they throw the cuckoo Carswell out? [:)]
Will they be able to find a less offensive leader than Farage who can unite them in their common goal of errrr..... yeah. That.
How long before one of their candidates has to apologise for something?

And I suppose I should ask, when will a50 be triggered....? And by whom?

All these questions and more.
Sense of humour compulsory. No experience necessary though

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/2670552-Has-Boris-been-outmanoeuvred?pg=1 Previous thread 1

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/2672388-Has-Boris-been-outmanoevered-Will-someone-please-tell-me-who-is-in-charge Previous thread 2

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/a2673982-Have-Boris-and-Jeremy-been-stabbed-in-the-back-Please-can-we-have-some-leaders Previous thread 3

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/2675432-Boris-outmaneovered-Et-tu-Gove-Corbyn-The-Westministenders-Hunger-Games-Continues? Previous thread 4

The next PM will largely determine whether Brexit means EEA (= Free Trade & EU Immigration) or WTO (worst option for UK manufacturing & economy) or even whether it is cancelled, if the deal / economic outlook is too bleak. It is NOT democratic for the PM deciding this to be determined only by 150,000 Tory members who - like member of all parties - are far more extreme than their average voter.

Could not agree more with this. Appalling that it now seems universally agreed there will be no early general election.

Malcolm Rifkind has responded to the Ken Clark video and his comments in it:

"My comments speak for themselves and appear to be shared by quite a high proportion of the human race"

Genius response.

The right thing to do for the country as PM in the name of democracy and public interest above self interest would be to let the dust settle and either call a GE early or another referendum of some kind between two /three clear options sometime late next year imho.

It won't happen.

Bradford MP Naz Shah re admitted to Labour Party with conditions
Where to start with this one....
maybe the condition is she MUST take a shadow cabinet position without resigning?

Haha... Reading this reminded me that I was curious why Suzanne Evans was suspended from UKIP, which I have just googled to find it was termed as 'disloyalty to the party'. This is making me wonder if Corbyn should just suspend all his insurgents, which would make them ineligible to run in leadership contests.

Wondering if I would make a good dictator now.

You mean like Stephen Crabb

In theory, yes, but in reality is anyone going to remember who he is by the end of next week? The Conservative Party at least have options, no matter how distasteful/bonkers they are.

Aaron Ramsey for Home Secretary - yes, and Steve Jones for Foreign Secretary, he's got experience, he's been presenting the F1 on Channel 4 this year, that involves a lot of travel!

at Rifkind. "...human race" no less, not just the voting UK.

A GE would be an excellent and thoughtful response. If it did happen, I worry there would not be long enough for us all to get an understanding of the various WTO-Apocalypse/EEA+/U-turn etc options. Early next year might be long enough, and we're pretty attentive now. I think Scotland had 2 years to chew through the issues, and even that was a panicked rush at the end.

If there is a snap GE, it looks like Labour are fucked. Apparently they spent £5million on the Referendum campaign (where???how??) while the Conservative party spent nothing, as it was officially neutral!

According to this 310 major donors have left the party’s “thousand club” this year. 86% of those leaving cited the leadership as the main reason.

Crap, I forgot about the parties. How long do you think they'll need to be credibly ready? 5 years?

But what about all those new members, who will be charged another £3 to vote in a Labour Leadership battle (saw article on how they might have to pay again, which I'm sure will go down well).

Meeting between Corbyn and McCluskey concludes
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Meeting between Len MCCluskey and Jeremy Corbyn lasted half an hour reports @BBCVickiYoung
3:33 PM - 5 Jul 2016

I think credibly is one of those words we're redefining at the moment, isn't it? We're probably going to have to say that if a party has a leader who isn't afraid of having a finger pointed at them, then they are good to go? I suspect aiming for anything higher than that, like policies or a proposed Cabinet, would just lead to disappointment. Or possibly everything being done by the Welsh national football team.

I think it's really awful how many times I have had to read/hear suspicion cast on a candidaite because his mum was a single mother.

So posh Tories are fine, but we can write off any conservative from a modest background.

What weird forelock tugging, prejudiced bullshit.

Judge him on his politics, not his background.

I was assuming that the 'thousand club' thing meant they were donors giving over £1000 in a year, so if they lose 300 of them, they need at least 100000 £3 members to replace the funds they're losing. That seems somewhat hopeful. Plus the big donors tend to give year on year, while I would suspect these new members will be easily distracted to shiny new causes.

I hope whoever is doing the maths there is not in line for a Treasury job.

Ken Clarke's office have been urging him strongly to complain about his comments being broadcast. His response: nah, its what I think anyway

flippinada I was all keen on Dan Jarvis ... but the fact that he was a soldier would be kryptonite to most Labour supporters. Whoever they even are nowadays.

MrsLupo that Facebook post is great.
a man turning up to save children from a house fire even though he smells of petrol and nobody's sure where he was an hour ago

Latest from Paul Mason, dissecting the referendum result and its aftermath and expanding his ideas about 'Progrexit'. Great article but rather depressing.

mondediplo.com/2016/07/03greece

Or yearly leadership contests to raise money.

Pay per view, Tory style but in an hour.

Stephen Crabb, voting record, since other than his vote against same sex marriage (which he claimed was "because of concern over "the narrow issue of protection of religious freedoms".) he is a bit of an unknown.

hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?memberId=1554&type=Divisions&page=1

I'm always suspicious of conservatives with difficult background. It often makes them less compassionate, with the idea that "if I could do it then no excuses, anybody can".
100% with you. That's exactly what I thought about Gove and his adoption story.

Former senior diplomat and crossbencher Lord Kerr of Kinlochard tells peers invoking Article 50 is "nothing to do with anybody in Brussels" and that personally he is "inclined to think there should be a vote in Parliament".

He says leaving the EU is a "serious mistake" and the UK's "influence will be diminished", but "we are where we are" and it would be foolish to try to avoid it.

He adds that advice from some EU quarters that we cannot begin negotiations until Article 50 is activated is "errant nonsense".

Which is interesting considering Theresa May has just said this to the Evening Standard:
In the European negotiations I have been involved in, you often have preliminary talks before you actually reach the formal position. This will be a point of discussion ...

I would hope that we would see that everybody recognises it is not just for the UK’s benefit but actually for the benefit of the EU that we have sensible discussions that are undertaken in a good spirit of willingness to get a deal that is right for us but also a sensible deal for the EU.

If one more person says "we are where we are" I think I'm going to start screaming and I may not be able to stop.

Particularly as there seems to be very little clarity about where exactly it is that we are.

"Labour leadership turning into Relate counselling session"

HuffPost's Paul Waugh on Labour meetings - Lem McCluskey met Watson, then met Corbyn. Watson and Corbyn did not meet.

Len McCluskey even.

It was used so regularly in my industry (in its proper use as "we are in a fucking embarrassment of a shitstorm which is not of my making") a few years ago that I'm immune to it, but agree with your sentiments.

Did I misunderstand that someone will be CULLED from the Tory leadership race today? Is this how this works? It's quite exciting in a terrible terrible way. I feel a plebian thrill at the prospect and I'm not sure that's good.

Yep, whoever gets the fewest votes (Liam Fox) is out. They do it all over again on Thursday, losing the bottom one again, then if the third placed one doesn't drop out voluntarily, they get chopped next Tuesday.

Sadly not actual culling though. Just metaphorically.