Westministenders: Oh No Not Another One. Thread that is.

[RedToothBrush]

In this edition of Westministers we play a game of ‘Where are they now?’

In June 2016 our screens were subjected to the sight of a number of particularly vocal MPs who participated in debates and stood on soap boxes to talk about the referendum.

The most noticeable of these for Leave were perhaps Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, Gisela Stuart, Nigel Farage, Priti Patel and Kate Hoey. For Remain it was David Cameron, George Osborne, Jeremy Corbyn, Ruth Davidson, Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon, Nick Clegg and Tim Farron.

It is starting to seem that anyone involved in campaigning either for or against Brexit in June 2016 has faced an epic battle for survival. Just how long can they last before being defeated or conceding defeat.

David Cameron’s scalp was the first to go, as he swanned off leaving everyone to clear up his mess.

Boris Johnson, who was keen to stamp his mark and pitch for the leadership by stitching up Cameron, got stitched up by Michael Gove who also lost his own bid for leadership as a result.

Johnson, of course, still lives to fight another day by getting a nice job as Theresa’s whipping boy. He’s occasionally let out by himself, but its Michael Fallon who does the ‘Grown Up Business’. He was said to be one of the last to support an early election. I can’t think why that might be.

Poor old Gove is now confined to a straight-jacket, the back benches where he’s been told to think about what he’s done like a naughty school child and a column in the Times

Andrea Leadsom was sent to a field of cows never to be seen again except to pop up for the odd cameo line shouting about ‘Jam’.

Queen Theresa also dealt with the other Conservative Leader Leave Candidate Mr Liam Fox, by shipping him off to every dodgy corner of the global to get pampered by state hostility.

Stephen Crabb simply crawled back under his rock.

The announcement of the General Election seems to be like the major soap incident episode where half the cast get killed off by a totally unrealistic disaster because their acting contracts weren’t being renewed.

The quitters and abdicators who now have legged it at the sight of a General Election are Gisela ‘Champion of the Brexit Bus’ Stuart and Nigel ‘Too chicken to be defeated for an eighth time and risk losing my nice EU pension’ Farage. George Osborne took the advice of his school teachers and had another career to fall back on when he didn’t become successful in his first choice.

Its rather starting to look like the curse of being a leading Brexiteer is to be made to disappear off the face of the earth or fuck off when the going gets tough. Have you seen Priti Patel lately? Does she even still exist? And Chris Grayling? He was convinced he was going to get chancellor when he supported May in her bid for the leadership.
Instead he got packed off transport and disappeared off the face of the earth much to the annoyance of everyone caught up in the rail strikes.

The only one who is remotely visible seems to be David Davis and is like May’s pet poodle who just tries to please his owner.

It’s almost like the only one still standing or hasn’t been banished is Kate Hoey. And the Lib Dems are trying to work on that one and make her sink beneath the waves, on board her Alan Partridge Titanic once and for all.

Conversely the visible Remainers seem to be – on the face of it - fairing rather better at the moment.

Sadiq Khan is hugely popular and actually does his job rather than fannying about on zip wires. Ruth Davidson is also well respected and apparently has saved Priti Patel’s job from abolition. If the rumours are to be believed bored with scrapping with Nicola, she might be lining herself up for ‘Big Things’ in Westminister. Cameron’s one time love interest, Nick Clegg hasn’t shaken the tarnish of the coalition but he is enjoying a new reputation as the Brexit Soothsayer and some people actually know who Tim Farron is now, which is progress. Nicola Sturgeon is of course riding high and seems to be a permanent thorn in Theresa’s side.

Jeremy ‘I’m a Remainer, honest comrades’ Corbyn is the one who seems to be something of a walking disaster area yet is also thriving with it like a zombie who just keeps going regardless of what you throw at him.

And then of course there is Queen Theresa. The Remainer. Who has crushed everyone in her party. Not just the saboteurs. Even her supposed ally Hammond and BBF Rudd have been thrown under the bus at her wimb when its suited May personally.

The General Election now sets a new scene and opportunity for new characters to emerge. Now the rats have left the ship or been put in their place.

Will May set course to the left or to the right or simply plow on like a bull in a china shop?

Anyway I’m now looking forward to the shocking soap opera moment where your favourite hero or villain gets killed off in a twist you didn’t see coming. Role on June 8th. If only to get pass the upcoming horror of the next six weeks.

Home office now trying to deter EU citizens from applying for PR according to the FT.

Presumably they are deluged with applications, and perhaps they are also becoming aware of the damaging impact of constant press coverage of refusals for people in the UK for decades, or for children who have never lived anywhere else.

app.ft.com/content/cc37d1dc-28fa-11e7-9ec8-168383da43b7?sectionid=home

Later, however, Mr Obama gave some advice that may have hit home for downtrodden members of the Democratic Party.

“If you’re going to try something hard, there are going to be times when you screw up and you don’t succeed” Mr Obama told his young co-panellists. “And I think that the most important thing – and this is a little bit of a cliche, but sometimes cliches are true – is to learn from these failures, and have a sense of resilience.”

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barack-obama-new-job-politics-first-remarks-donald-trump-president-a7700251.html

Heggarty, you can always join a political party and offer your services. If there's not much to be done in your area, you might be able to help with marginal seats elsewhere.

uk.businessinsider.com/people-are-furious-at-the-daily-mails-marine-le-pen-front-page-2017-4

‘A fascist supporting open sewer’: People are furious at the Daily Mail’s Marine Le Pen front page

@robinince
Like Dr Strangelove no longer able to hold down his saluting arm, the Daily Mail can no longer hold in its true feelings.

Home office now trying to deter EU citizens from applying for PR according to the FT.

I sincerely hope that they ignore the 'advice' and continue to deluge the Home Office. They have had no guarantees - they need to look after their own interests.

It might be like the Passport Office meltdown of a couple of years back. It might force the minister in charge to do something. If I remember correctly the Minister in charge of that sorry saga was Theresa May.

A little extra bill before we can even get started with negotiations.

HMRC can't cope. This is the sort of things which happens when you cut Civil Service departments to the bone. At the same time, I am sure that the lack of continued co-operation is due to lack of political will from the top, with an attitude of "we're leaving the EU, so we will walk away from this debt." Just not bothering to think that they could be cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

This is the sort of things which happens when you cut Civil Service departments to the bone.

Hadn't civil service already been slashed?

Workers are voting with their feet in civil service, health service and education.

Although they want to emulate Bannon's take down of public service in US; British social control/ service needs state services.

On a personal note the only bank in my town is closing
It's HSBC
I assume it will move its London HQ too after brexit
Soooo many EU countries must look so good to huge corporations right now....

There has been a pay freeze in the civil service for the last 7 years, together with 1000s of redundancies. At the same time (perhaps to remove the need for some of those redundancies), Frances Maude introduced a new punitive 'performance management' programme, so that any pay increase only goes to the best 'performers' and those with low scores get sacked.

The government also went to war with civil service trade unions. Eg it unilaterally removed civil servants' right to deduct their union dues through check off and even contested a high court case on this - which they lost - incurring £90,000 of taxpayer funded legal costs (not including the cost of judicial resources).

It is one of those bizarre ironies that such a litigious government, with such a poor relationship with its civil service, should be in charge of the largest and most complex constitutional challenge since who knows when.

“Mr Nuttall! Tim Farron says you’re ‘chicken’, Mr Nuttall. Are you chicken, Mr Nuttall?”

Smiling tensely, Mr Nuttall hastened out of the room."
Big Choc the written summary of Nuttal's press meeting is very, very funny. Having a bit of a difficult week and that really made me laugh out loud. Thanks

Badders. Same thing happening here. Last bank going. They justified it saying that people could still access their money through the post office which was just round the corner.

The post office that closed last year.

As it turns out this means they are in breach of banking rules because they haven't done a proper assessment on the impact of closure with such a glaring error.

It's possible that it can be opposed for this reason but I'm not holding out much hope.

Ironically local Katie Hopkins is blaming this on the local Labour council. Which says so much...

I worry that such regulations might be relaxed to try and keep banks here. It's the type of thing that is particularly hated by leavers, and only adds to the death of the High Street.

Too few people know how this country works and those who do manipulate it on a grand scale.

From that FT article about the UK trying to put EU citizens off applying for permanent residency

"some EU nationals are still being rejected on the basis that they did not take out comprehensive sickness insurancee^, which is a requirement under freedom of movement rules."

I thought that was being challenged in the courts - because in the UK access to healthcare is based on residency, not on insurance?

I get really annoyed how people always look to blame the Labour party, and I am not normally one of their supporters, so it's not me with an axe to grind.

MOFD - how about the Monster Raving Loony Party? At least they entertain, and I was surprised to see that some of their demands actually made it into law.

Mother please still vote, even if it's to spoil your ballot saying the above.

Remember spoilt ballots have to be read out at a count - where party representatives will be. The number is recorded too. Shows you make the effort to vote, want to vote and are politically engaged in a way that staying home does not.

Short of being polite and sensible in your spoilt ballot, spoil it saying "Mumsnet Westministenders could do better than this shower of shit"

(Bonus prize if you can somehow manage to get it noticed in your local media. Here's a challenge to any local or national journo reading this - how about a story about those spoilt ballots and any messages they might say? I'd be interested it what they say across the country. It might show the level of frustration with politics that exists nationally).

Motheroffourdragons : you vote because it's not just the politicians who will use the percentages who voted for parties to justify their actions but - and importantly - it has an impact on the coverage they receive.

Ofcom allocated the number of Party Political Broadcasts according to the overall percentage share of the vote.

The BBC is supposed to provide balanced coverage and will use the percentage of votes and/or the number of seats won to justify that coverage (although they seem to be a bit selective about that and conveniently forget that in Scotland, where the LibDems continue to get a voice ahead of and often instead of the Greens)

In her time in politics has she done anything that is good for this country ?

Does it count for anything that we were spared Leadsom, Gove or BoJo as PM? I remember feeling quite relieved that she'd stepped forwards last year. This year, no so much...

The BBC is supposed to provide balanced coverage and will use the percentage of votes and/or the number of seats won to justify that coverage

Which is presumably why they are still the UKIP Broadcasting Corporation, despite the party now not having any MPs. They did get quite a high percentage of the vote last time. If their vote reverts back to the Blue KIP Tories, at least we will be spared them on QT every other week, and the Sunday Morning politics programmes.

I suppose i should keep remembering that Gove would have been worse as PM. Johnson would have been a car crash in bumbling and racism with lots of flag waving. And Leadsom wouldn't have lasted this long.

Attagirl, Red. I know its clutching at straws, but we have to maintain some degree of optimism to get through these bleak times.

www.wired.co.uk/article/jimmy-wales-wikitribune
Jimmy Wales goes after fake news with Wikitribune – a crowdfunded site for reporters

Interview with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on his new venture.

Timing interesting, to say the least, given he popped up on the Westministenders radar a couple of days ago.

Btw LDs are now bookies favourite to win Vauxhall.

I agree Peregrina - I was being very slightly tongue in cheek when I said that

It does seem to be very selective in how it applies it/which criteria it uses

I'm particularly aware of it following the Indyref campaign where in the interests of "balance", they would parade one SNP spokesperson, followed by a Labour spokesperson, a Labour spokesperson, a LibDem spokesperson - all Unionists - and only very rarely an Indy supporting Green.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales-to-fight-fake-news-with-new-wikitribune-site?CMP=share_btn_tw
Guardian article on the Wikitribune mentions that a similar model is run and sustainable in the Netherlands.