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

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[EmilyDickinson]

So Iraq Enquiry out of the way, Conservative Leadership results not due till 9 September (why so long?), the attention of the media is going to swing back to the ongoing debacle that is the Labour Party isn't it?

[MrsLupo]

lol @ DoinIt. Everyone's come over very humorous suddenly. I think we may all have become a bit hysterical.

Conservative Leadership results not due till 9 September (why so long?)

I reckon Sam Cam told David to make damn sure they could still go to the Olympics. I would.

[TheBathroomSink]

Emily - because nothing political happens in August, mostly. The candidates have got a couple of weeks to set out their stalls/groom their CompetencyUnicorn and get the membership onside, then it goes to the postal vote.

Plus, of course, lots of lovely time for Arron Banks Neuro-Linguistic Unicorns to get out to the shires, and of course time for our lovely opposition party to continue to do.......whatever

[squoosh]

Maybe this Andrea Leadsom horror show will be revealed as one of Jeremy Deller's live art installations.

[RedToothBrush]

Hague, IDS and Cameron were all second in the first round of the MP's ballot before winning

[TheBathroomSink]

MrsLupo - that whole article, I think, sums up why Labour is not connecting with people in their heartland like the Stoke constituencies he mentions, although he's been breathing in Loathsome's unicorn dust if he thinks the Tories will ever get in there, Ukip are far more likely. There were so many words, but it all seems so inward-looking and petty, and vague. There's nothing there that will appeal to someone who's been flirting with Ukip. There's not even anything there that can be easily explained to anyone who hasn't spent the last week talking about how much Gove looks like a cartoon or Loathsome's unicorns. It's all just hot air.

[TheBathroomSink]

Hague, IDS and Cameron were all second in the first round of the MP's ballot before winning

And they didn't even have unicorns.

[DoinItFine]

I'm so grateful this won't happen until September.

The more time it takes, the better.

A nice period of calm would do us all good.

[TheBathroomSink]

Pass the sick bucket:
Nigel FarageVerified account
‏@Nigel_Farage
Congratulations to @andrealeadsom. Important the next Prime Minister is a Brexiteer - she has my backing.

[BoreOfWhabylon]

Another superb summary. Thank you Red

And thanks to all contributors, I am learning so much from these threads.

[UnGoogleable]

Been lurking on the other thread.

Gove is out? I missed that... bloody hell.

Does anyone else imagine it actually like the Hunger Games, where there is the occasional boom of a cannon and defeated candidate's image is projected into the sky above the Houses of Parliament with some regal sounding music?

[squoosh]

Hague, IDS and Cameron were all second in the first round of the MP's ballot before winning

Wasn't Hague the first Tory leader not to become PM, quickly followed by IDS? I think Loathsom may turn out to be just as unattractive to the public as those two come GE time.

But boy, oh boy, how appealing would Hague be as PM right now!

[TheBathroomSink]

But boy, oh boy, how appealing would Hague be as PM right now!

Another contender for 'Sentences we never thought we'd say'

[squoosh]

I'm so grateful this won't happen until September.

The more time it takes, the better.

A nice period of calm would do us all good.

I agree, everything just feels so frantic at the moment. Hopefully the hallucinogenics will be out of the water supply by September.

[squoosh]

Yes, Bathroom, there have been so many of those recently! I'm yearning for the days of Hague and his awkward baseball cap wearing ways. So weird.

[RedToothBrush]

You Gov polling of Tory Membership last time round:
7 – 9 Sep 2005
Davis 53%
Cameron 36%

4 Oct 2005
Davis 27%
Cameron 57%

[MrsLupo]

Wow, just read that the Labour party now has over half a million members, an all time high, including 100,000 who have joined since the referendum. That's full members, not the £3 registered supporters who arouse such suspicion (there are around 200,000 of them as well).

Is this Corbynmania? Brexitphobia? Something else?

[RedToothBrush]

Things to watch on how they are pushed.

1. Experience - easily countered with a good team
   
2. Stability and continuity - do conservatives want revolution or a stable ship?
   Being part of the previous cabinet could be a good or bad thing.
   Leadsom already spinning the 'Fresh' line
   The part of the Leave vote that are Conservatives are less likely to be revolutionaries.
   
3. A Plan - If there is a large number of managerial times in the memberships then business plan rather than unicorns are hopefully the other of the day
   
4. The economy - May supposedly does not have the economic background that Leadsom has. However Leadsom can't be a flake either or she will be caught out.
   (May did work for the BoE at one point though)
   
5. Kippers can't vote. (I wonder if there will be pressure applied by Leave.Eu and more importantly how. Farage wants Loathsom)
   
6. May got both Remainers and Leavers. Leadsom didn't. Unity candidate v Leave Candidate
   
7. May does carry the stateswoman presence. Whilst Leadsom presents well she is doing it in contrast to May. She might have looked better against a man tbh. She has been playing up the fact she is a woman, whilst May doesn't. She just is a person who can get on with the job.
   
8. Your Mum - Leadsom might play to female members on this. But it depends on the split in the grassroots as to whether this is pushed again. It seemed to work in the tv debates
   
9. Age and health. May is older. There have already been questions about this. This normally would count against her versus a younger candidate BUT the Tory party members are older. It may not be as important.
   
10. May doesn't smile. She's less media slick. Contrast against 'Positive' Leadsom. Watch out for lots of pics of Smiling Leadsom next to Scowling May.
    
11. May has endorsement of MPs. Who likes experts?

[merrymouse]

But surely if the 150,000 Conservative party members vote for Andrea, she will be PM, perhaps for the next 4 years. And who is going to oppose her? And we can't even vote for a Euro MP any more.

I'm just not feeling this greater democracy vibe at all.

[RedToothBrush]

13. The Underdog. The British Public love a good underdog. Don't pick on Leadsom if you want to stop this. Stay positive.

[RedToothBrush]

14. Electability. Who could win a general election? Those damn Kippers might influence polls and might have an impact on how people vote.

[enochroot]

I think it shows how desperate people are to have a proper Opposition though I have no idea how the Labour Party is going to pull itself together and achieve this.
And I believe they want the Opposition to oppose Brexit.

Constitutional question:
Can a party leader be drawn from the House of Lords? (I'm old enough to remember Alec Douglas-Home.)

[TheBathroomSink]

merrymouse - this could be Loathsome's problem, if she doesn't get the MPs on side. There can still be an election if there's a vote of no confidence, and Tory MPs are far more cut throat than Labour (who still haven't found their collective spine). If Loathsome gets in and starts fucking about, I think it won't take much for them to go against her.

[MissHooliesCardigan]

Red You really should consider journalism. You're seriously informed but seriously funny.
I'm trying to keep my sense of humour but am actually quite scared now.
I think a Labour/Lib Dem/Green/SNP alliance is the only hope now. I don't know how realistic that is and the U.K. doesn't generally like alliances but desperate times call for desperate measures. All I can see otherwise is a permanent Tory/UKIP government.
'We're Fucked' really does sum it up.

[BestIsWest]

Marking place. Reading these threads I'm beginning to think Media studies should be compulsory at school.