The Westministenders Hunger Games continues. Hunting for the Opposition.

[RedToothBrush]

THE BREXIT FALLOUT OUT CONTINUES - THREAD EIGHT!

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Each of the parties seem to have a taken a very different style to their leadership contests.

The Tory party have been well documented as doing in the classic style of Hamlet. After the entire Conservative Party have spent two weeks stabbing each in the back and front, May steps forward to take the crown for herself.

But what about the others?

The UKIP leadership contest seems to be in comedy style of Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights. In a strange turn of events, that no one predicted and seem quite absurd, they seem to be changing their rules so their new leader must have been a member for 5 years. The punchline is this rules just about everyone out, apart from Neil Hamilton and Steven Woolfe. As BigChocFrenzy points out, we are expecting Arron Banks to hand out the brown envelopes. We are just waiting for the poorly thought out, and badly booked racist band to turn up and make everyone cringe in horror and distract everyone from UKIP's candidates and their manifestos in the process.

Meanwhile Labour Party decide to do what they thought was Star Wars Panto. After spending a week going “She’s Standing”, “Oh No She’s Not” Angela Eagle is declared the Empire Strikes Back candidate by Diane Abbot. Well if she’s the rebel leader, then who is Darth Vader and the Emperor?

Unfortunately, you’d be forgiven for thinking the performance is starting to look more and more like a re-enactment of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, by the minute:

A battle of wills between two forces locked together in a room with ultimately different and opposing self-interests. This is only resolved when the new leader to the dynamic who sought to upset the institution, and give the others their freedom, is lobotomised and subsequently killed in an act of mercy. His murderer manages to escape the prison to the cheers of those still stuck inside.

The Greens of course are a foreign language film, no one has heard of and no one is really that interested in watching.

The Lib Dems are merely sat in the audience. With Tim Farron heckling.

But where is Gandalf?

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At least some sanity has returned and we now have some leaders. May can now get stuck into the job of handing the nightmare that is Brexit whilst making herself at home at Number 10. Rumours are circulating that it’s been left a bit of a pigsty.

We will follow May, on her new adventures to foreign lands to persuade Merkel and Juncker to hand over a mythical unicorn to the UK. Meanwhile will we continue our own hunt for the opposition, whilst we all consult our dictionaries for the meaning of the word ‘Brexit’ in bafflement in the wake of ‘Brexit means Brexit’.

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Sense of humour compulsory. No experience necessary though

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/2682358-The-Westministenders-Media-Baron-Hunger-Games-continues-Is-it-about-to-all-implode?pg=1 Previous thread 7

unicorns yes it was him. Crossing the floor isn't terribly rare, Churchill did it twice, but such large numbers is unprecedented.

If it happens, I think the labour party as it is now will roll on until 2020 with infighting among those left as to who can be the most 'committed' to their leader, gradually killing off anyone who isn't quite dedicated enough, and will probably get wiped out.

I keep wondering how much of his support would disappear if there was a public demonstration of his (invisible) policies and executive skills in action. Though, frankly, we're never going to get a chance to see that

There would be an explanation, cat. It would be Alistair Campbell manipulating it, or the fault of the BBC.

Floisme - it isn't unheard of for an MP to defect to another party. When they do that, their constituents might be annoyed but there is no further vote about it.

It may now be forgotten but David Cameron's predecessor in Witney, Shaun Woodward, did exactly that, by defecting to 'New Labour'. Nor did he risk a bye-election.

Stay safe, showme
I hope yours is just an exceptional one-off disfunctional CLP; otherwise, Labour is ceasing to be a fully democratic party.
Democracy is not just the freedom to vote, but the freedom to have open discussions without intimidation.

Democracy is not just the freedom to vote, but the freedom to have open discussions without intimidation.

This.

Just read Marina. #whateveryoudotoJeremyyoudotome made me laugh out loud and splutter coffee everywhere.

I wonder if the plan is for OS to step into the ring, so AE can step out, citing the threats and violence. Perhaps she was the "shot across the bow" to get things moving?

Thanks Bigchoc

I refuse to be bullied. Currently requesting a guarantee for my safety and right to view my opinions as a non Corbyn supporter whilst attending a Momentum meeting. Thus far they won't give me one. I have a right to express my views at momentum meetings.

I say that only because it seemed she was waiting for instruction on when to actually challenge at just the right time.

I guess if they all moved up the lib dems their constituents and not the Labour Party would have to choose whether they wanted to keep a lib dem MP or change to a 'labour' MP put up by momentum to the extent that they can find people to stand.

The Lib Dem will probably have candidates lined up in many places. They were gearing up for an early GE in case it did happen. A mass defection would require massive restricting of the party.

In my local council it is split mostly between labour and lib dems. They do not get on most of the time, though some are better than others. Some of the Labour councillors were distraught last night.

One said that his CLP had doubled since last May but none of the new supporters were anything but arm chair supporters.

Whilst everyone is looking at the MPs this is no restricted to the MPs. I can see decisions to defect potentially being made lower down the chain too.

I personally feel that online campaigning is worthwhile and undervalued by the three main parties BUT you need to also have people at meetings to discuss policies and local issues. Local issues are dull. Its much more fun to talk about the tyranny of time than what you need to do to tackle the dog shit problem or how you help someone with their housing issue isn't it?

Fuckers. All the abuse is coming from people who don't lift a finger to improve things in reality. It will destroy the groups and people who do put themselves out to do that. Do you think UKIP people will step up to the plate and fill that role? Will that fuck. They are made of the same lazy aggressive stuff and they come up with the phrase 'do gooders' as a derogatory term. The 'elites' are often far from that. They are often the people who can be bothered to care and try and make an actual difference rather than just bitch about the entire world.

Sorry. I'm angry.

This explains why so many JC supporters are likely to stick with him:

YouGov found that 77% who joined after JC became leader believe he will win the next GE
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/178403.htmll_
No explanation why they think this.

These new supporters are mostly middle class, not the Left Behind and the poll found only a small % do any of the unglamorous grind of meetings & leafletting, knocking on doors at elections.

So only a very small % who could be engaging in intimidation then - or maybe its mostly people who've been hiding in the Labour woodwork for longer and just come into the open ?

Red - completly agree. And at the local level there is no way many would campaign for a rabid Corbynite. The feckless armchair socialists will be left to their own devices

Red I agree - utterly.
And you're spot on with your observations about councillors, un glamorous work, maligning of 'do-good ers', and the brilliant but pernicious work of the term 'elites'.

Showme

The leadership contest is taking two months for Labour? Good grief. How much can change in two months?!?!

Chris Ship ‏@chrisshipitv
Lots of Labour MPs unimpressed with @OwenSmith_MP. A sample: "ego the size of a planet" "zero judgement" "his massive ego dwarfs everything"

I hope yours is just an exceptional one-off disfunctional CLP; otherwise, Labour is ceasing to be a fully democratic party.
Sadly I think it is not one off dysfunctionality.

A significant minority of the invisible Corbynites apparate for any meeting that touches on Saint Jeremy, though. And they bring their unique debating style with them.

The problem I see is also this:

Angela Eagle was first out of the traps and has argued that it is time that Labour - a party of equality - elected its first female leader.

I have yet to see her actually speak of issues. Only that she is running, and this. I refuse to vote simply to elect the first female leader - I would only vote for a female that I believe can do the job. There's a definite difference there.

@corbynjokes ‏@corbynjokes
Knock knock
I'm sorry Jeremy, you can't come back in yet.

On Tuesday night at a pro-Jeremy Corbyn rally, shadow chancellor John McDonnell was recorded calling "plotters" against the Labour leader f*ing useless.

Asked about it, he tells Today: "It was a stand up comedy event... It was a joke." He adds: "I'm an ordinary bloke. I used some bad language."

But he adds that some parliamentary opponents of Mr Corbyn "were plotting a coup I'm afraid - they were trying to get rid of Jeremy".

He says that any abuse in politics is not about Labour. "There's a political climate, unfortunately, that can be quite hostile."

He calls Jeremy Corbyn "the most caring, compassionate person I've met in politics", adding: "The levels of abuse he's suffered are a disgrace."

Abuse is a disgrace, but I'm going to stand in front of a bunch of people, wind them up, use abusive language myself and then pass it off as comedy, rather than step up to the plate and start taking responsibility for my own actions and how they might affect the actions of others.

And then bitch about how Jeremy is getting abuse.

Okay then.

Sorry, that last wS a reply to BigChoc. Yes, I think the intimidation is from a small minority. A lot of Corbyn fans don't ever see (or know) what the cadre are up to.

It's alarming. It's the politics of dehumanisation, of displacing political disagreement onto the notion of 'plots' and 'cabals', so that actual political debate - discussion of actual differences rather than notional ones - is infinitely deferred.

Oddly enough, the cult of St Jeremy, despite it's talk of grassroots political involvement, seems to empty the public space of significant politically educated discourse.

It's alarming.

While they have the spectre of this (notional) 'Blairite' coup, there is no need for serious discussion of how he (and his gang) are actually going to deliver a better world to the majority of the UK.

Comment on the Guarfian under Marina Hyde's article "if labour don't get elected at the next election it's because the PLP fatally undermined the party's own democratic process and ignored labour members. If they had not done so and if they had instead united behind him from day one, and there was no reason not to given his mandate, then the Labour party would be a major force to be reckoned with now.

The Labour Party will be destroyed and the Overton window will do another massive shift to the right because JC and his cronies don't care. I'm not a labour member (wishy washy lib dem here!) but I'm very angry with them. I want to be able to vote for them, but I can't if they're not competent - it doesn't matter his amazing the policies are, they have to be deliverable both politically and practically.

I read something yesterday that the Brexit vote actually threw Italy into a recession that will last at least a decade. Is this true? And when our decisions as a country have that type of effect on others, is it even reasonable to be backtracking and wavering when this damage has been done - would it not be interpreted by other countries as "you've damaged our economy for nothing" ?

Democracy is not just the freedom to vote, but the freedom to have open discussions without intimidation.

I feel the need to re-post this again.

If anyone is interested, Angela Eagle is doing a speech on Europe at 6.15pm.

This woman's timing is impeccable. She's going to do a speech on a major issue which is defining in terms of what happened and what's going on, in the middle of the 6 o'clock news (so it won't get the live coverage) on a day we are getting a new PM.

slow hand clap

OneArt - exactly

Momentum - if you are listening. You have to guarantee the safety of discussion for all. If not you are finished