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

I'm interested in the influence of the press in this. I've been reading across all papers since the referendum. All the press are pro May, increasingly so. During the referendum the Leave campaign at least had the support of dacre and Murdoch. However clearly there are very few media owners and establishment that want to see Leadsom win.

I wonder how much influence arron bank's style propaganda can have over the membership. I would imagine for a lot of them their main news source will be papers and Tv news rather than internet discussions (so below the line DM comments not necessarily representative) and telegraph and dm are clearly pro May.

Yes the hardline fox hunter types will be mollified by those comments.

Just musing really. I'm not sure I can remember a time when both left and right wing press were in such agreement over a party leader

Red Exactly. Lawyers do this in the courtroom all the time - bring out the damaging stuff first, put your own spin on it. BEFORE the other side can use it. Reduces the overall damage.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mps-attack-andrea-leadsom-over-vile-and-insulting-comments-on-may-s-childlessness-a7128311.html

Ian Birrell
‏@ianbirrell
'I'm not a feminist because I'm not anti-men' - another quote by the woeful Andrea Leadsom in her Times interview

Yes, doinitfine All those years of the English busy criticising NI for bigotry, nationalism, religious dogma - too busy to check the cockroaches biding their time to do it even better in England.

After that pathetic 'march' the other day I'm not convinced that Loathsome and her team are the master strategists that people here imagine they are. "Hopelessly out of her depth" is more the phrase that comes to mind.

David Schneider ‏@davidschneider 11h11 hours ago
Leadsom’s right. The following prove being a parent makes you a better leader:
Kim Jong Il
Genghis Khan
Himmler
Stalin
Pol Pot
Darth Vader

I think, hope, in the naive interpretation. Felt like saying 'welcome to the real world Ms Leadsom, journalists want an angle and will find it regardless of your wishes. That's a free press for you'. Her lack of experience showing up immediately - not the same as 'our MP speaks' pieces for the local press who need a relationship with her. As you say Red, it brings into horrifically sharp focus how fast she would be eaten alive by the experienced political operators of Europe. The thought of sending her in to a negotiation this important is just cruel. I know she wants a vote on hunting but does she want to be the fox cub?

I am finding Crabb much more attractive since the sexting story. Give us a bell Steve.

Just place marking as I have nothing to add but thanks for the thread

Ooh yes GingerIvy.

Feels like a Mumsnet campaign - 'being a mum means nothing on its own'

I think the important question here is "was it deliberate or simple stupidity?" An important distinction.

Crabb? I think it makes him look like a sleazy git. I think anyone with his name should have avoided any type of sex scandal.

Andy Wigmore @andywigmore
I've got a little list of Tory MPs who never will be missed and @Anna_Soubry is one of them - next GE your out

Anna Soubry MP @Anna_Soubry
Today's @thetimes interview shows #AndreaLeadsom is not PM material. She should do us all a favour including herself and step aside....

Andy Wigmore ‏@andywigmore
@sarahwollaston @andrealeadsom you are defiantly on our list #ge2020

Sarah Wollaston MP ‏@sarahwollaston
@andrealeadsom has repeatedly shown that she lacks judgement & is not the right person to lead the nation. She should now withdraw

Apparently the UKIP plan is to not stand candidates against pro-Leave conservatives or anyone who does their bidding....

Who is Andrew Wigmore?

Andrew Wigmore is part of the Leave.eu team

Hon. Andrew Wigmore, JP(S) serves as the Director General of the British Belize Business Council and Managing Director of The Wigmore Media Group, a media and communications business based in London and Belize. Hon. Wigmore is a Trade & Investment Minister Council to Belize High Commission London, a Diplomatic position promoting trade and investment into Belize. Mr. Wigmore holds a number of Directorships in healthcare and insurance companies and sits on the Regulation Consultative Group at the Ministry of Justice. He was made a Senior Justice of the Peace in 2012 by the Belize Government and awarded the Meritorious Service Award in 2013. He is the Ambassador for the Belize Olympic & Commonwealth Games Association and represented Belize at London 2102 Olympics and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in the role of attache and as a competitor [shooting]. He serves as a Director of Southern Rock Insurance Company Limited. (Arron Bank's Gibraltar Based Company)

www.independent.co.uk/voices/andrea-leadsom-theresa-may-conservative-leadership-constest-women-playing-gender-card-a7126781.html

I am clinging to the hope that she cannot keep the fluffy facade in place and still look 'competent' - competent being relative, of course. I think that her lack of experience will likely lead to some sort or statement which she just cannot spin her way out of.

In 'things Andrea still hasn't done' watch: published her tax return, distanced herself from BritainFirst, actually produced a unicorn.

As a last resort, is there room for the 48% in Wales, Scotland and Ireland? Can we just leave England?

(I know Wales voted to leave EU, but that seems to have been a misunderstanding, and they do seem to have a better football team).

I'm going to predict here that this was a big big mistake by AL. That independent article I just posted really toasts her about playing the gender card. I think she's miscalculated on this one.

And I think this will alienate a fair number of women.

'I'm not a feminist because I'm not anti-men'

Oh no she didn't

(In this scenario Ireland becomes united in some unspecified positive way as a Celtic league is formed around the edges. It's an inclusive Celtic league that acknowledges that Celtic is a pretty non specific term)

www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2012/belize Belize sounds a lovely country.

She's also getting slams because her blog/diary includes quotes about the nanny taking her child places while she works.

Don't know why @andrealeadsom crowing so much about bringing up kids. She had a nanny to do that for her:

Belize is the top playground for illegal bookies operating out of the US. Fun fact.

And I think this will alienate a fair number of women. The only problem with that is that I suspect the Conservative party membership skews male.

Like merrymouse I am also considering Wales as an option. It's really not that far from where I am now. I don't much fancy Scotland because I am still a weedy Southerner at heart and I don't like snow!

Chalala oh yes she did.

So let's count up here... AL apparently is not keen on...

• childless people
• same sex marriages
• feminists

What else? She's slowly whittling away at the public. If they get forced into a GE, she'd be a HUGE liability. The members must surely have to take that into account.

TheBathroomSink: we don't get much snow in the Central Belt (this year we had only one fall of any significance - about 4" - in Glasgow and last year only had a couple of smears of snow).

Remember we've got the Gulf Stream up here, plus on the West Coast, the benefit of a maritime climate. There are places on the West Coast that have palm trees!

Glossing over the extra rain that we get

The cooking roasts stuff is just blather. You cannot be PM, particularly at a time like this, and simultaneously have the time to do all the wife work that people associate with 'being a mum' - or even the smaller amount of 'husband work' associated with 'being a dad'.

I love Marina Hyde in the Guardian. I think she's been reading this thread - 'Unicorns for all'.

'I’m not sure if the official psephological study confirming this is out yet, but the referendum result was the exact equivalent of series seven of Simon Cowell’s apocalypse-beckoning karaoke show, in which Essex decorator Matt Cardle beat One Direction. One Direction!'