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

Tomorrow is going to be weird.
Its going to be quiet.

I think.

Bit fat YES here too! Terrific questions from real people. Hurray, faith in British population restored all round.

No, tomorrow is the day the Queen decides to have a go at absolute rule and dissolves parliament.

I know she won't but she could

.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/08/jeremy-corbyn-labour-negotiations-europe-tories-exploit-cheap-labour

Jeremy Corbyn in - does something that might resemble leadership / opposition - shocker

Place marking

The Sun and Times (Murdoch) now support May

In the Times, Philip Collins argues that May’s victory in the vote “was so overwhelming that the contest should be stopped”:

There are 84 Conservative MPs, people actually paid out of public funds to conduct politics, who believe that Andrea Leadsom should be prime minister. Somebody as smart as former leader Michael Howard should be ashamed of himself …

It is, in any case, a democratic outrage that the next prime minister will be chosen by the 0.3% of the electorate who happen to be odd enough to be members of the Conservative party. Can any of them, I wonder, see the irony of their regular sermons about the lack of ‘democracy’ in the EU? Probably not. These are people who have taken hold of the wrong end of the stick in order to beat the country with it. The candidate of their looking-glass world is the wholly ill-prepared Mrs Leadsom.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/07/theresa-may-is-the-best-woman-to-go-toe-to-toe-with-nicola-sturg/
Ruth Davidson's endorsement of May

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/08/vote-leave-watch-hold-brexit-campaigners-to-account-promises
Vote Leave Watch is set up (Shall we save them the hassle and just tell them that every promise made leave made has already been broken?)

www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/chilcot-inquiry-report-iraq-war-rupert-murdoch-connection-a7125786.html
Chilcot and Murdoch - I note the following line:
Michael Gove
In 2003, Gove was assistant editor of The Times, and so keen for military intervention that Tony Blair was almost a peacenik by comparison.

And in News just in:
David Allen Green ‏@DavidAllenGreen

"MInistry of Justice to crackdown on use of knives after Tory leadership contest."

Oh and it appears that the USA might be about to descend into anarchy early without waiting for Trump to be elected. Keep thinking positively folks.

tiggy the shocker bit is merely that he appears to be acting as the leader of the labour party and providing opposition rather than sorting out his own house. For the first time in two weeks.

Really good Corbyn article - first time I think I've seen underinvestment in housing & nhs highlighted.
I really feel this along with school places is fundamental issue.
Immigration is always cited as why these are overstretched but underlying cause is investment

Yes, good article by Corbyn, I enjoyed it.

More of this please.

I'm not against Corbyn as a leader in principle, I just doubt his ability to be an effective opposition voice, for a couple of reasons - his reasonable polite approach, the fact that the media don't like him, his terrible relationship with his MPs. Not all of this is his fault, but it's there nevertheless. So I'm still hoping for a Corbyn-backed compromise leader that can unite the party behind them.

Oh and it appears that the USA might be about to descend into anarchy early without waiting for Trump to be elected. Keep thinking positively folks.

Trying to think positively... British police hasn't been shooting ethnic minorities dead in the street? #glasshalffull

When we think we have problems, the US always generously steps up to show us how much worse things could be.

It is, in any case, a democratic outrage that the next prime minister will be chosen by the 0.3% of the electorate who happen to be odd enough to be members of the Conservative party. Can any of them, I wonder, see the irony of their regular sermons about the lack of ‘democracy’ in the EU? Probably not.

THIS

really shows the vacuity of the "we can always fire them" argument. Pray, how do we "fire" our future unelected Prime Minister between now and 2020?

Hopefully by then my anger at the referendum will have abated and I'll resign myself to applying for British citizenship. Mostly so I can vote against the Tories.

Chalalala only because they aren't armed. We are yet to have a general strike (which we are headed towards) and large scale protests which I think we could also be headed towards. Those glittering memories of the 1970s are coming back think and fast.

But yes, the US is stepping up to show us it could be worse. The trouble is the US also tends to be the model that ring wing conservatives hold up as the example to follow....

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/07/how-andrea-leadsom-can-beat-theresa-may?CMP=twt_gu
Guardian article on how Leadsom can beat May.

It's still dodgy as fuck if a new leader of the Conservative party, voted in by 100,000 people gets to determine the exact timing and manner of our leaving the EU, based on a tight majority in two nations in an advisory referendum.

Yes tiggy, I understand how the system works.

My point is that it is not substantially different from the way Juncker was elected, or from the fact that we can't fire him. "I don't remember voting for him", the Leavers said. Well, bet they won't remember voting for Leadsom/May either.

If any think of a single thing in the last two weeks that hasn't been dodgy as fuck, Doin.
Not one.

The truth is that people vote for a local MP also knowing the direction and vision of the leader of that party. The mandate is for the party manifesto We all complain about not keeping manifesto pledges, but you generally do get something or at least know the general position of the party. A major shift to the right, in the way we are about to get is a fundamentally different kettle of fish.

I'm sure that there are lots of people who are on the 'borderline of parties' who voted one way or another based on what was on the table. There were plenty of criticism over the coalition for not sticking to the manifesto. However the result was a mix of what was in the manifesto for both parties for the most part. (Tuition fees being the real bone of contention - though I suspect that history might be a little more kind about that in a few years). It DID have elements of what both parties did put forward. Perhaps more so than other governments simply because there had to be horsetrading and deals upfront.

If you tear the manifesto you party was elected on completely and start again then you have NOT got a mandate.

A Leave vote is NOT a mandate for what is about to happen.

This is the situation we are now in, where our future resembles nothing at all like what was on the table in the manifesto.

I think we should have had a GE for Brown - he roughly carried on in the same vein as Blair. I think the case for a GE now, is even more compelling. Its nothing like what was on the Tory Manifesto.

The promises that were made by leave had no basis and have already been binned. No one actually knows what a leave vote was even for. It should not be decided by a few individuals in one party. There should be a national debate on this : funnily enough this is called 'calling a GE'...

I turn away for like 5 minutes and the old thread's packed and there's a new one with 197 posts! And Leadsom's now a credible threat, wtf

I fell asleep and missed Galloway, Hislop, This Week and Newsnight, and now I'm being distracted by the British Grand Prix, so frankly, I'll be very happy if it is quiet today, just so I can catch up on what I missed yesterday!!

Michael Fallon (Defence Sec) is supporting May, which is relevant given the commitment of UK troops to Nato duties in Baltic states today:
"Obviously, I’m a supporter of Theresa May because at this point, she has the experience, the track record to take the country forward now. I’m not going to knock her opponent but I’ve worked with Theresa May on security day in and day out.
She’s already a member of the security council. I’ve seen her deal with crisis, I’ve seen her chair COBRA, and she is committed to keeping this country safe."

Someone asked last night where Yvette Cooper was, well she's in the Guardian setting out all the things she doesn't like about Theresa May (in short, she's a Tory) here - is this another sign that the Opposition are starting to do their job? Although I can't see any mention of Loathsome in the piece.