The Westministenders / Media Baron Hunger Games continues. Who is trying to outmanoeuvre who?

[RedToothBrush]

Don't worry we've all lost track.

In the Blue Corner
It started out with Cameron and Osborne trying to win the battle of the Tories, but they got stung in a UK wide vote. Some of us thought it was about the 'EU'. Instead it has turned out it was an internal Tory Bitch fight between some old Oxford and Eton mates, whilst for others a protest vote at being disenfranchised.
Gove and Johnson stabbed Cameron & Osborne in the back to run for Team Leave. Then they won when they didn't expect to. And there was no Plan. Uh Oh. Then it all started to go really wrong.
Cameron quit in disgust. Johnson went all President Churchill, before he also got stabbed by Gove (possibly with the assistance of the dark influence of Osborne).
We now have a Tory Smackdown with the shadowy influence of the Media Barons in the background.

#Team Gove has been doing their best with the knives. This is a mission to stab as many Tory MPs in the back as possible in order to become PM. Sponsored and supported by Murdoch

#Team Leadsom has been selling more unicorns and trying to pretend her CV and tax return are completely transparent. Think positive and the economy will be just fine. She is the homeopathy of politics. Sponsored and supported by Arron Banks, Leave.eu, UKIP and Britain First.

#Team May has been threatening to deport everyone if the EU don't play nice. Sponsored and supported by The Daily Mail's Dacre

In The Purple Corner
Tragically, it appears that not only do UKIP have a Plan A, they also have outwitted everyone by having Plan B. Yes that’s right TWO plans.
Farage has swanned off –sacked—for a life on CBB so they are looking for a new leader.
The potential candidates are all equally loathsome. They include Arron Banks himself, a suspended member of the party and several other people with an uncanny ability to put their foot in their mouths.
If this wasn't horrible enough, Team Leadsom is increasingly starting to look like a UKIP take over bid of the Conservative Party, which might be a neat way of avoiding a leadership battle of their own considering the quality of the candidates on offer.

In short, its a bit like a Bad Dystopian Movie that invokes Godwin, set in 2016 Westminster. Except its real.
In the Red Corner
Meanwhile the WMD has finally gone off in the Labour Camp, as Chilcot has been published. However the Chicken Coup rattles on regardless.

Corbyn is STILL clinging on, putting in a good claim for the Westminster 'Charlie off Casualty' Award. He has however had his Big Moment in the Commons. Which was a bit of a let down really. ...

The Unions have been trying to talk some sense into everyone. Meanwhile everyone else is has given up and are now just praying for a ruddy miracle to end this torture and give the country an opposition party.

Angela Eagle is still outside for the 5th day in a row, going "I will stand. Soon. If he doesn't quit" The BBC now qualify for a discount deal at the local Travel Lodge.

We FINALLY know who the fuck Owen Smith is! He's a Welsh MP and sounds like he's not completely away with the political fairies.

George Galloway appears to be trying to make a late bid to be included on the ballot paper for any leadership election.
Bliar's cried. We didn't. Chilcot took over 2 million words to tell us everything we already knew. As well as the fact that Mi6 like Nicholas Cage a lot.

The Cult of Momentum are still worshiping their Dear Leader by sending death threats to PR companies they suspect of disloyalty. Somehow they still manage not to get the title of the most vile pressure group in the UK.

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

All these questions and more.
Tin foil hats now available upon request

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

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/2678198-The-Westministenders-Hunger-Games-continues-Boris-still-trying-not-to-be-outmanoeuvred Previous thread 5

His comment about the UK Government kissing China's rear end instead of saving the UK's own steel industry is good. No dirt being dished by his former BBC colleagues...

Is Yvette Cooper doing the Theresa May thing? Smith/Eagle presumably holding off because Corbyn will/won't resign. But is she too Blairy?

I think Yvette would need to have a 'Babe, it's not me, it's you' type conversation with Ed if she wants to become party leader!

There is video of Owen Smith so he is officially more real than Leadsom's promises.

Cooper I suspect thinks there's an election in the offing, and will let someone else attempt to wield the knife, banking on whoever is in charge having a dismal showing in the GE and she can step into the wreckage. Or the Johnson plan, as I like to think of it.

I wouldn't normally like to comment on the way a woman looks but I think we are getting quite familiar with her style now.

I think she suits purple best.

Just to jump back a couple of pages, I'm a translator for a news agency in Brussels that reports on EU affairs and something came up last week to the effect that we would get a new Commissioner to replace Hill, as we're obviously entitled to have one, but they wouldn't be given a very important portfolio. Commissioner for Flower Arrangements in the Berlaymont, something like that.

Anyway, sorry- as you were!

Regarding Owen Smith having no charisma etc... anyone here remember Thatcher's resignation and John Major taking over?

He seemed to be a charisma free zone/nonentity and look what happened.

Re: Loathsome visiting Scotland, I agree that this is a marvellous idea.

She should be taken for a bracing hike up Ben Nevis, wearing high heels and carrying nothing but her tax return. Let's send Arron Banks up there too.

Edwina happened. And from that day to this none of us have been able to get that image out of our minds.

Oh yes...the delightful Eggwina Currie.

Edwina. Yikes.

I mentioned charisma. Not because I'm that spectacularly worried about it, but the Labour MPs certainly seem to be.

Owen looks and sounds like a normal person. Does that rule him out?

I know Ginger - it just occurred to me that we've had a charisma free zone party leader before in not dissimilar circumstances.

At the time I remember everyone wondering who on earth John Major was, he seemingly came from nowhere.

Frankly, I've not seem much charisma from AE either.

Dear god, I return to the thread after a delic meal out - and it curdles in my tum.
Under the Offences Against The State / Common Decency Act, all references to Eggwina and the grey PM shagging should be stored inside Windscale radioactive waste and buried for 500 years

Graham Jones, former Labour Chief Whip (until the resignation rage) said the only future for the party was Corbyn’s resignation “whether it takes five years, ten years..."

Ok, the PLP Master Plan is to wait until JC dies of old age.
My mum died at 93. Anyone looked up JC's family tree ?

Owen looks and sounds like a normal person. Does that rule him out?

Yes.

No, she's not exactly brimming with charisma either.

And for the record, I apologise unreservedly for bringing JM into the conversation!

BigChoc his parents were 71 and 72 when they died. He's 67. So Graham Jones is probably right about how long they'll have to wait.

I am furiously ignoring all references to JM and EC. If I don't look at it, it isn't really there...

John Major held some big jobs very briefly before becoming PM. I think he was even Foreign Secretary.
He seemed to move up the ranks very stealthily while everyone else was either mired in scandal or in-fighting. It almost seemed like no one noticed him!

Brexit causes resurgence in pro-EU leanings across the continent

For some reason I find this very amusing.

I've seen so many Brexiters arguing that we'll be an example to.Europe.

Looks like they were right!

It is from the Guardian though, and just opinion polls, and the figures open to interpretation.

But STILL.

Fetchez - yes, I can imagine the kinds of portfolio he'll be offered (if any).

Does anyine have any thoughts on insisting on appointing him?

Clearly he won't actually be able to function properly as a commissioner under these conditions, so I'm.guessing this is an attempt to get an experienced diplomat into the heart of Brussels pre-Invocation?

Personally I have had my fill of charismatic leaders.

This material from the Andrea Leadsom campaign popped up on my FB feed (a friend commenting on how horrified they were by it). Just awful.

Is that actually from the "Andrea Leadsom campaign" or from people who claim to be supporting her?

It looks like a trap to me, the kind of thing her opponents will wave about in glee while she says "nothing to do with me, it's smears". Being the "victim of lefty smears" will be potent stuff in getting support from the Tory membership.