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

www.econlib.org/library/Enc/CreativeDestruction.html
Well this seems to be a good short summary of "creative destruction and Joseph Schumpeter.

Personally, I don't think this idea is shared by AL, all the right of the tory party, UKIP et al but certainly it is an ideology that many subscribe to.

The argument is often that things need to be aggressively destroyed to be rebuilt from scratch, rather than through more gentle evolution of the system.

Bloody autocorrect! I know it's Schumpeter, my stupid tablet doesn't.

Thank you for the answers. Now I feel even more sick. Honestly didn't think anybody wanted those things. Time to stop being naive

LOL too much F1 chat in your past?

Now it's all ecomonics and political intrigue.

I believe Michael Gove is a fan of creative destruction.

Today has made me realise how fucking smart and on the ball Theresa May was to have done that DM interview.

True. At the time it struck me as over-cautious kowtowing to misogynistic right-wingers, but actually it wasn't. It was necessary. How sad.

From Twitter "UKIP deputy leader and NW MEP Paul Nuttall has announced he will not be standing for the party leadership"

Instinct is to feel a wave of relief but now I'm worried they've someone even nastier planned. Or they're testing the reaction.

It was Cameron who said Gove's governmental philosophy was creative desctruction... he's a radical conservative ideologist, which is a seriously scary combination!

Watching GB F1 qualies now, as it happens. Daughter is a bit of a petrol head. Also, poor old Michael Schumacher.

Sorry, off topic.

That makes me VERY uneasy Swedish.

Do you think they will deliberately fold?

She couldn't have foreseen this Leadsom gaffe

I think I differ on that one. Leadsom had somewhat painted herself into a corner in saying 'as a Mum' as a badge of honour and a particular asset to her skill set during the referendum.

Any questioning on those grounds, given May's circumstances was going to be a difficult question to answer without looking bad.

As it was she did answer it in a way that was even worse than the position she had put herself in, by making a direct comparison with May.

I think May so far is on the ball. She's done lots of smiling to camera for starters which is a bit of a departure from her normal tough image. Photos have been thatcheresque and stateswoman like - MUCH more than Leadsom who is also trying to cast herself into the role.

The fairplay pledge.

What else is on that 'list'?

Human rights and education will be up soon I bet.
As will 'sidekicks'. She needs an anti-Boris.

If Banks thinks he can pull the strings of the Conservative Party, I suspect he'd stop funding Ukip in a heartbeat.

LOL too much F1 chat in your past?

Big fan. Its Silverstone weekend.

Do you think they will deliberately fold?

Don't know. I follow someone who follows (and retweets) them so will keep watching.

Paul Nuttall has a masters in history - am curious about what period he studied

Ashley Fox @Ashleyfoxmep
If the Conservative Party had a single register of members,rather than several hundred, we could hold the leadership election within 3 weeks

Snort

So 21st Century.

Paul Nuttall has a masters in history - am curious about what period he studied

It was British history, of course - according to Wikipedia, the Edwardian period.

www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/a-marrow-victory?utm_term=.ynJrYN1zy#.xjLLnM1Yz
I Cooked Jeremy Corbyn’s Marrow Recipe And Had Some Thoughts About The Labour Party

Somehow this makes more sense than half the stuff I've read in the last fortnight.

Why is it that AE looks like a woman waiting for her own execution?

Why is it that AE looks like a woman waiting for her own execution?

Because she's going to lose, and her constituency party are quite likely to deselect her.

@prettybird your quote Everyone has an equal stake in the future of our country" says Andrea reminds me so much of Animal Farm (where the corollary is of course, that some are more equal than others).

The whole motherhood shtick though both angers and depresses me: as Caitlin Moran has memorably pointed out it's the hugest sexist bullshit:

“I have a rule of thumb that allows me to judge, when times is pressing and one needs to make a snap judgment, whether or not some sexist bullshit is afoot. Obviously, it’s not 100% infallible but by and large it definitely points you in the right direction and it's asking this question; are the men doing it? Are the men worrying about this as well? Is this taking up the men’s time? Are the men told not to do this, as it's letting the side down? Are the men having to write bloody books about this exasperating retarded, time-wasting, bullshit? Is this making Jeremy Clarkson feel insecure?

Almost always the answer is no. The boys are not being told they have to be a certain way, they are just getting on with stuff.”

Not to mention: "No one has ever claimed for a moment that childless men have missed out on a vital aspect of their existence, and were the poorer, and crippled by it"

Meant to say, I have absolutely no idea whether Jeremy Corbyn, Andy Burnham, Michael Gove or Nigel Farage have children, and nor do I bloody care. Likewise the question of whether or not Angela Eagle, Yvette Cooper, Nicky Morgan or anyone else have reproduced is neither any of my damn business nor relevant to their ability to do their job well.

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05125/SN05125.pdf

Membership of UK Political Parties 2015 House of Commons Library.

Membership of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties is disproportionately high among men, the retired and those with professional or managerial status, compared to the electorate as a whole, according to Paul Whiteley’s 2008 study. Supporters aged 55 plus are disproportionately represented among UKIP (57%) and the Conservatives (44%), according to Ford and Goodwin’s Revolt on the Right (2014).

4.2 Social composition of party memberships Party membership Paul Whiteley’s January 2008 study examined the social characteristics of party members. Compared to the electorate in general, members of the three main political parties were more likely to be male, retired, hold either professional or managerial occupational status and to earn over £40,000. Surveying the social background of party members is difficult as they comprise such a small percentage of the UK’s population. This renders traditional means of surveying ineffective. An alternative method is to survey a vast number of electors via the internet and filter out those electors surveyed who also belong to a political party. Whitely used this option in his 2008 study; it is not flawless, but does offer an informed estimate. 27.7% of party members described themselves as retired, compared to 18.9% of electors. Members of a political party were less likely to be in full time work than the wider electorate (55% of party members were in full time work, compared to 59.2% of the electorate). Members of a political party were, however, also less likely to be unemployed or disabled.

The largest disparity between the social make up of party members and electors is for gender. While 50.1% of electors were male, 67.2% of party members were.

I can't find details of the breakdown of the Conservative party membership in more detail in isolation. I suspect there is an even bigger tilt towards men than this suggests.

I was going to try to give myself a weekend break from referendum stuff but I keep having to check in on this thread. The more I read about Loathsome, the more worried I get, particularly around employment rights and maternity pay. That was part of UKIP's policies in the last GE (which lots of people, even the ones that voted for them, didn't even know about). Thatcher did absolutely nothing for women, if anything, she made their lives worse. It was ok for her, she married a very wealthy man so there were no problems paying for nannies etc. AL strikes me as someone who uses the woman/mother card when it helps her case but also wants to be seen as 'one of the lads'. It really doesn't bode well. My 16 yr old DS1 is very political and very angry that he couldn't vote when 16 and 17 year olds could vote in the Scottish Referendum when the vast majority would have voted to stay. My instinct is to tell him that it's all a load of shit but I'n really glad he cares so much.

@Conorpope has just tweeted a post from Owen Smith. I wouldn't rule out Owen Smith standing.

I am about to go out or I'd copy it here.

Conor Pope ‏@Conorpope 17m17 minutes ago
Owen Smith: "I remain committed to doing anything necessary to prevent a split and unite the party."