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Brexit

The Westministenders / Media Baron Hunger Games continues. Is it about to all implode?

982 replies

RedToothBrush · 10/07/2016 18:51

THE BREXIT FALLOUT OUT CONTINUES - THREAD SEVEN!

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The Story So Far – Blue Corner
Johnson & Gove stabbed Cameron & Osborne. They then won a big vote about something or other. I forget the details. I’m not sure it matters anymore.

Johnson got then stabbed by Gove. Johnson joined Leadsom. Gove got stung by his mate Boles who was trying stab Leadsom, and he ended up getting stabbed by just about everyone.

Where We Are Now – Blue Corner
Out of the ashes of the mess that the posh boys made, emerged two unexpected contenders to become the Torchbearer for the Tories.

#Team May
The Home Secretary, and the former figure of hate, is now looking like she might be the choice of sanity and the one who might just be able to save us from ourselves. She is the choice of the left and centre. The left and centre now being anyone who thinks ‘The 1950s were very nice, but actually we’d prefer not to go back there. A return to the 1970s is far enough, thanks’.

She is supported by just about the entire mainstream media (which in itself is quite an achievement – The Sun and The Guardian being united in editorial opinion) and the majority of Conservative MPs. We don’t know this, but she quite possibly unites the Labour Party on the subject too.

#Team Leadsom
The Junior minister made good, and has outmanoeuvred all her superiors in the cabinet to throw her hat in the ring. The trouble is that she’s either somewhat naïve, a bit of an arsehole or a scheming liar. And that’s the charitable version.

She is emerging as the Sarah Palin of the UK, and has some dubious looking Tea Party links. In the era of post fact politics Project Fear is now Project Smear. Of course this makes her Mrs Umbridge, the poor apple pie lover, bullied by the political elite and media establishment, rather than a fruit cake.

BUT
Underestimate her appeal at your peril. She has a big field of unicorns somewhere that we’ve not been able to track down on googlemaps so far, and she is preparing to unleash them.

She is the choice of the Right. She is supported by much of the depths of twitter, Louise Mensch, UKIP, Arron Banks, BNP and Britain First.

Oh and that tax return? Hmm

Our future fate is to be decided by 150,000 Conservative Members (two thirds of whom are men and roughly 50% of whom are over sixty).

How we look back at David Cameron’s tweet on the 4th May 2015 with such fondness:
Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband.

Send me the link for the petition to ‘Come Back Dave, all is forgiven’. We have at least six weeks of this particular shower of shit to look forward to, before the next one hits.

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The Story So Far – Purple Corner
Many years ago, Nigel Farage founded the idea and started his one man campaign for the UK to leave the EU. (Except he didn’t. It was someone else’s idea. He just took over and took the credit for it). He became the poster boy for the Leave campaign, despite not being affiliated with it. He stood and claimed victory, without a shot fired.

As he said to the European Parliament with impeccable manners and good grace, ‘We aren’t laughing now’. To be fair to him, we weren’t. We were all shouting ‘FUCK OFF’ instead. After securing his £7000 pay rise as an MEP, he decided enough was enough, and it was time to ‘get his life back’ (he got sacked) and look for a career as a contestant on reality TV shows.

I hear Help I’m a Celeb have offered half a million for his services.

Where We Are Now – Purple Corner
Quicker than you can say, ‘Oh Thank God(win) for that’, we are already are starting to miss ‘Our Nige’, the cheeky chappy from next door. Instead the options are looking bleak, as candidates start to crawl out from under their rocks. The spectre of Arron Banks and his call to arms for ‘freedom’ lurks in the shadow.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mr Banks so far in this story, he’s one of UKIP’s biggest donors. He and his mate Andy Wigmore run an offshore insurance company out of Gibraltar. Banks, was head honcho of Leave.eu and one of his other mates, hypnotist Paul McKenna, gave advice on how to influence people with propaganda. Banks and Wigmore have some connections with Belize. Bank’s ex-wife was accused of being one of the KGB’s best agents. They are now divorced and she has a harassment order out on him. He does not like the ‘Uk elite’ and takes it personality.
Sounds like just the kind of guy, you’d love to move in as a neighbour.

This is the very definition of shit.

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The Story So Far – Red Corner
Once upon a time, there was a man named Blair. He waved a lot of flags said ‘Cool Britannia’ and smiled a lot. But Tony turned out to not be such a good ‘un. He didn’t play by the rules and got caught out. Blair was made to appear on national television to defend himself. He cried, and told us how he couldn’t sleep at night, but actually he did do the right thing and everyone is still wrong and we are all picking on him.

Does he need to go away and think about it for a while? Say, in a locked room for several years?

Where We Are Now – Red Corner
The WMD that Bliar lost in Iraq finally turned up in Labour HQ on 24th June. However, no one has been prepared to let off a controlled explosion yet. Apparently there is something of an aversion to Big Red Buttons (otherwise know to us simple folks as ‘Agreeing on Something’ and ‘Making Decisions’) within the party.

Corbyn, the champion of Momentum, has been carrying on as if nothing is happening, there is no problem and its everyone else is wrong, insisting that since he had a mandate from the people 10 months ago and it’s all still honky dory. He’s doing his job just fine and leading is well, a bit of an inconvenience to his rally schedule.

The Unions seem to have declared war on Tom Watson. His name has been added to the ever growing list of ‘traitors’.

Across the country action has been taken against these ‘traitors’. Normally this behaviour would be classed as ‘thuggery’ and ‘intimidation’. In post-fact Britain though, this is now acceptable, if it’s from the Left. Violence against Labour members is only disgusting if it is carried out by the right, you see.

Apparently, as the Momentum chief says, ‘winning’ is only a ‘small bit’ of democracy that matters to ‘political elites who want to keep power themselves’.

Obviously political gains that help and protect the interests of the working classes and poor are surplus to requirements. I guess their ultimate aim is to win no Labour seats at all then. Good stuff. We are headed in the right direction for that one.

Angela Eagle left her doorstep, and went on the telly after a week of refusing to make a decision to say ‘Ok I’m going to stand to remove a man who refuses to make decisions’. Apparently she is doing this to ‘Heal Labour’.

Someone break it to her, that if Labour gets its legs blown off by Corbynite, the chances of them healing, are somewhat remote.

To make matter worse, Corbyn disagrees with how you get on the ballot paper, and might not be it at this rate. Or it might end up in court. Like article 50.

Owen Smith is the other pretender to the Crown of Roses. We know who he is now. He’s err… He’s still welsh!

What do we reckon the chances of Labour surviving as one party are? Zero to none? This is more like wading through shit than a shower of it.

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The Story So Far – Yellow Corner
Tumbleweed

Where We Are Now – Yellow Corner
Everyone’s been praying for a ruddy miracle to end this torture and give the country an opposition party. Finally, Tim Farron, has awoken, removed his splinters from his arse, got off the fence in response to this. Amid growing rumblings of a complete political realignment and fleeing Labour and Conservative MPs, he says:

‘Hey folks, this political turmoil looks fun, can we join in too?!’

FACEPALM

No shit left to share.

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The consensus of opinion is that we might be a tiny teeny bit screwed.
Did someone mention the EU? EU? Oh fuck that, we’ve just about forgotten all that now!
Bigger fish to fry.
British ones of course.

We need really do need Gandalf to come save us from this madness.

Sense of humour compulsory. No experience necessary though

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www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/2680148-The-Westministenders-Media-Baron-Hunger-Games-continues-Who-is-trying-to-outmanoeuvre-who?pg=1 Previous thread 6

The Westministenders / Media Baron Hunger Games continues. Is it about to all implode?
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18
RedToothBrush · 12/07/2016 08:58

Red Whilst I understand - you could say exactly the same about UKIP (shudder)

Maybe we still need them both though. Ironically.

OP posts:
Showmethewaytogohome · 12/07/2016 09:00

If nothing else Labour party needs to sort out it's social media strategy and fast. Boots on the streets aren't the only thing that converts to votes. Look at how well UKIP (shudder) did at getting is message across online over Leave

Showmethewaytogohome · 12/07/2016 09:03

Red Yes tis the way of a democracy. But JC can't make the whole of the party take a sharp left by force - so he should set up another party. Socialist Labour party only has 300 members - maybe they could splinter to there. I would feel very robbed if he tried to take the Labour name

TheBathroomSink · 12/07/2016 09:04

Interesting profile on TM here suggesting she may not be as risk-averse as some think - it seems to be an update of one first written in 2014.

flippinada · 12/07/2016 09:07

Thanks for those links Red. Off out today (school hols up here in Scotland) but will be coming back to them. Also going to listen to the groupthink programme Showme linked to.

I agree that Labour need to sort out their social media strategy pronto.

I was thinking about Jo Cox this morning too. I read somewhere yesterday buried in amongst the unfolding political drama that her funeral is this week. The Labour Party needs more MPs like her.

Chalalala · 12/07/2016 09:09

I doubt they'd be after power, but they might be similar to UKIP...

If what Corbyn is after is an ideologically pure opposition party providing radical alternatives but no prospects of election, that's very laudable.

But then he should start his own socialist party, because the country does need a mainstream electable opposition party asap. Starting a new mainstream party from scratch while Corbyn keeps the Labour brands would be a long, difficult process, and it would give the Tories years to do what they want with the country.

Peregrina · 12/07/2016 09:09

I wondered if, after a period of negotiation TM came up with the argument that it's either leave the EU or split the UK, and put that to the vote, which way would it go? I.e. do you value a United Kingdom more than disliking the EU?

flippinada · 12/07/2016 09:11

"Whichever way this turns out it will be good for JC. If the challengers win, he gets to go back to his spiritual home on the back benches and snark at his party. It may even be that he's now being puppeted by momentum and would quite like to step back."

Unicorns yes, that had occurred to me too. I guess it's possible he doesn't even want to be leader and is being 'encouraged' to stay on?

If that was really the case though, I suspect he'd have been off by now.

Showmethewaytogohome · 12/07/2016 09:12

Chala Agreed - I think the 'rebel's' are carrying out investigations about who would own the name. As JC wouldn't allow a broad church under his watch I can't see why he should be able to take it. Maybe it will be called Momentum?

noblegiraffe · 12/07/2016 09:13

Kids are taught at school to critically evaluate sources/not just accept Wikipedia etc.

Chalalala · 12/07/2016 09:22

I think the 'rebel's' are carrying out investigations about who would own the name.

I've seen this too but apparently it's a real legal mess and very unclear who would get to keep the name... Confused

I agree it'd be unfair for JC to get to keep it if his intention is not to build a broad mainstream electable party (or if he continues to not take his responsibilities as leader of the opposition seriously). But I don't think "fair" has much to do with it.

if the PLP split and started their own party/joined another party, they would immediately become the Official Opposition, not Labour.

merrymouse · 12/07/2016 09:24

I don't think JC cares as much about being party leader as his followers. However, if he feels he has a point of principle he'll stick to it.

Also, so far he seems to have managed to ignore the boring admin parts of being party leader and, partly because of the leadership challenge, there have been alot of rallies, and those are fun if you like that kind of thing.

However, I wonder if his general propensity to do his own thing will in the end lead to frustration and a split within momentum?

merrymouse · 12/07/2016 09:30

I've seen this too but apparently it's a real legal mess and very unclear who would get to keep the name...

In the end, I think it could be the labour party's tolerance for faffing about that finally pulls them apart.

At this rate 2020 is looking like a tight deadline for them to get through this leadership election, never mind winning a General Election. (Although maybe they could ask for a postponement if enough of them are on holiday and somebody has a dentist's appointment?)

derxa · 12/07/2016 09:31

Nicky Morgan very cheerful going into No 10. Angry

Showmethewaytogohome · 12/07/2016 09:31

Merry - well I've joined on the basis that Momentum shouldn't be about one person. It isn't sustainable. Or healthy

Showmethewaytogohome · 12/07/2016 09:33

Derxa - Maybe it's champers and sandwiches this morning - avoiding the packing boxes ofcourse

RedToothBrush · 12/07/2016 09:51

Speaking of the echo chamber has anyone got any good follows that they can recommend for that reason.

I've tried to build up a reasonable cross section of left to right (within reason) as well as a few none British based English language ones but if anyone has got any they'd recommend I'd be interested.

Its not always easy to post a more balance range of opinions on here, but I do try and make an conscious effort to read myself if possible (the trouble I'm finding is often paywalls and the guardian does a lot more than most of its competitors at present)

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RedToothBrush · 12/07/2016 09:56

Ruth Davidson is at the cabinet meeting.

She's not in the cabinet.

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derxa · 12/07/2016 09:58

Ruth Davidson is at the cabinet meeting Very interesting. maybe she's just there to say bye to Dave.

Unicornsarelovely · 12/07/2016 10:06

I'm not in Twitter so can't recommend people, but I think one of the huge values of these threads is the collection of viewpoints from across the spectrum and the sources linked to. You're doing a fantastic job red! Thank you.

RedToothBrush · 12/07/2016 10:07

Apparently she was in London today for something anyway, but it would be a good idea to have an MSP in the cabinet under the circumstance and Ruth Davidson has won a lot of national support. She could be a real key for the future of the whole union. It just begs the question, what about NI and Wales? Maybe a key role on the Brexit Team beckons?

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BestIsWest · 12/07/2016 10:25

I agree that the balance of this thread is great. Thank you Red. You should be doing this professionally.

TheBathroomSink · 12/07/2016 10:29

Mark Carney and co are answering complaints that the BoE was not neutral in the referendum debate. Their fairly robust response thus far has been 'no', and 'lots of the things we warned of have exactly happened'.

Is asked if he had discussions with the Chancellor about public statements? He says not. There are public minutes for financial stability meetings with the Chancellor which are publicly available, but he does have private conversations too.

TheBathroomSink · 12/07/2016 10:34

The committee is taking quite seriously the idea that the Bank were not giving independent opinion and were working for the Chancellor, asking if they can have access to records of private conversations, Carney is pushing back, chair of committee not giving in. Carney says he will allow access if confidentiality can be assured as there may be commercial sensitivities.

Bit of a clash of wills here.

Carney reiterates his comments as chair of FPC and the FSR are based on analysis, debate and assessment, they have an obligation to make the assessments, they cannot avoid an issue if it may be controversial, the debate can be did they make the right assessment not were they right to make any assessment.

TheBathroomSink · 12/07/2016 10:36

Is asked what is his explanation for complaint from two former Chancellors and two former Tory leaders?

MC: I think that's for them to explain, but things are different now, we try to avoid crises.

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