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

She's sure got some dodgy comms campaign going on here….first the 'march' and now this Just seen Newsnight and Norman Tebbit backing her. urghhhh.

Sorry if anyone already posted these delights about Tory leadership contest:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/08/mps-facing-a-wake-up-call-when-they-find-out-levels-of-support-f/

• A poll published by Leave.EU of 5,000 Tory members on Thursday had
  56 % Loathsome vs 44 % May.

• Steve Bell, the president of the Conservative Party’s National Convention, which represents the party’s voluntary associations, said he was “expecting” Mrs Leadsom to win.

• The 10,000 members who joined in the 4 days after Cameron's resignation will NOT be able to vote - this time.
  Extraordinary numbers for a 150,000 member party and extraordinary timing.
  I suspect they are mostly UKIP trying a takeover, which will be a continuing danger with the low membership of the Tory party. Maybe they will choose May's successor, if she pips Loathsome.

< My iPad keeps correcting "Tory" to "Gory" >

Place marking. Thank you for such an entertaining and informative thread. I'm terrified by what is going on.

I can't help thinking of Delores Umbridge when I read about Andrea Leadsome.

Can we all join the Tory party so we can elect Angela Eagle to the post of leader next time round? I think she'll be about ready to stand for a leadership bid around then.

My friend on Twitter has just pointed out that this is a Trump strategy: It's iterated for one section of the electorate, and then retracted for the rest.

Ah yes. Good old doublespeak
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak

Yeah definitely. Her defence was too OTT and Arron Banks wading in like that too convenient.

Good call.

Oh and she got another article in the Independent for it.

She's going to win, isn't she? Her team are good and its virtually impossible to work against that strategy without it working against you. Plus you can't generate enough momentum by operating a normal clean cut PR strategy in parallel to it.

Still no tax return.

She's going to win, isn't she?

I must say, I'm starting to get the same sinking feeling I began to get the week before the referendum.

I don't understand why so many people are so uncritical of what they read. We are so cynical and sophisticated as consumers in so many other ways, but seem to fall at the first hurdle when any kind of analysis of message is needed.

The transcripttwitter.com/emmatimes2/status/751551212495986688

She was naïve. She walked into a question that was set up to trap her. It's a very sneaky question I'll give her that. But she got caught out and said some very ill advised things.

I have no doubt her intent was not bad from that. However it still does not show her in a good light at all. Plus, she needs to be able to deal with questions set up like that if she's going to be PM.

v. small party membership (150,000) perhaps open to manipulation. Aaron Banks funding. Amateurish stuff (the march) combined with Trump like tactics. Feeling a UKIP conspiracy feeling coming on….

Times headline perfectly fair based on what she has just said here. I didn't see her in the debates, but if she did say 'as a mum' in them a lot, question is perfectly fair as well.

She's going to win isn't she?

Yes I believe she could

I don't think we should underestimate how much support there was for Brexit & how much there will be for Leadsom in rural affluent Cons grass roots

The Tory party need to tighten up their rules, ban donations & any other assistance from supporters of other parties. Not just for the next leadership election, but for the GE and for general party funds.

Otherwise, Banks will eventually buy the Tory Party, just like a business and remake it to his far-right preference, with his choice of chief exec / PM.
He will be pushing for a Tory-UKIP alliance and many rightwing Tories would love that.

The Tories must start a membership drive - but with vetting and not by reducing the £25 sub. They have been too lazy, because of corporate donations, but the Tory Party has become a vulnerable shell.
They have millions of comfortably off middle class voters. A major political party should be at least 300,000 strong, preferably 500,000. Otherwise, infiltration is too easily organised by a determined zillionaire.

Leadsom is 100% going to get it.

How do I know?my Twitter feed is aflame with 'May is the better option' chat. Much like it was re Remain pre referendum, much like it was re Labour will win during the last GE.

My Twitter feed appears to be an echo chamber for the righteous but unsuccessful.

If Leadsom gets PM I will leave the UK before the year is over. She will steer the UK straight off the cliff and I want no part in it.

Alis I have emigrated to Germany, rather than just working there a few years, because of the minimising and victim-blaming - even on Mumsnet- after the sharp rise in open hate crime.
I'm mixed race and Britain, at least England, is no longer a place I want to live.

Paul Bagguley, sociologist based at Leeds Uni nailed it: “There is a kind of celebration going on; it’s a celebratory racism.”
That could only happen if the far right and fascism are becoming mainstream.

wrt Tory Leadership:
Most Tory members are very right wing, socially conservative, still looking back longingly when Britain was white and had an empire where the brown & black people lived.

They see Brexit as their one chance to wind back the clock, to privatise the nhs, to roll back the welfare state, workers' rights and anti-discrimation laws wrt race and orientation, reverse equal marriage, even restore fox hunting and gun ownership (for property owners, not plebs)
Loathsome, if elected, will aim to achieve some of this by 2020, a lot more by 2025 if Labour remain useless.

May does in fact remind me a lot of early Thatcher, but much of the Tory party have gone far beyond the Iron Lady into pure swivel-eye territory.

I think AL is going to get it. The only hope for her not doing so is the length of the campaign in my opinion, that old one about being given enough rope to hang yourself.

Having read the transcript she walked into the Times headline. It was blindingly obvious that her 'as a Mum' was going to come up. She started sensibly for the position she was in then carried on talking and shot herself in the foot. It bodes extremely badly for negotiations with other world leaders.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/08/andrea-leadsom-suggests-she-would-make-better-pm-as-she-has-children

Her comments about children are just idiotic. Does this kind of thing really appeal to Tory party members? Don't they want more substance?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/08/andrea-leadsom-suggests-she-would-make-better-pm-as-she-has-children

I can't believe I'm thinking of it, but in seriously considering joining the Conservative party. At least my vote would counteract one of the UKIP nutters.

Sorry, I know it would be for the next leadership vote.

I think may's response is perfect as is Ruth Davidson. It is the sort of thing which could just act as rope for AL.

My question is this.... would AL have said that if she were running against a male? I suspect not.

Alis who do you follow on twitter? It makes a difference. I have tried to have a mixed cross section of thought. If you want a follow to give a different pov I suggest (not recommend) Louise Mensch. She is retweeting a lot of

Alis who do you follow on twitter? It makes a difference. I have tried to have a mixed cross section of thought. If you want a follow to give a different pov I suggest (not recommend) Louise Mensch. She is retweeting a lot of

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/08/gay-marriage-same-sex-cameron-leadsom

I didn't hear AL dissing same sex marriage, but this won't make her look good.

I note that the Conservative party has refused to shorten the time period to choose the new PM. I find myself wondering if they want to give AL enough rope to hang herself. Over a month? She's already looking quite dodgy and it's not even been a week. Her support may swell initially, but I don't know if she can maintain it.

sorry posted too soon.

She is retweeting a lot of more right wing thing and thought. Some of it is really quite unpleasant. I would unfollow myself but I think it important to get an idea of 'the other side of the fence' thinking.

www.economist.com/news/britain/21701950-areas-lots-migrants-voted-mainly-remain-or-did-they-britains-immigration-paradox?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/britainsimmigrationparadox
Economist point out link between high changes in immigration and a high leave vote.