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.

I can't make the link to a video. It shows Theresa May in Clay Cross (the Beast of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner's constituency) saying that she's pleased to come to 'er er this particular town'.

I can't see the people of Clay Cross having any time for that nonsense, and Skinner has represented them well over the years.

I don't know how to link a Twitter post with a tv clip in but there's one at the moment with TM saying "pleased to me to this, er, this this particular town because..." .

x-posts!

But you can see the 'this er, er.....particular town' here
politicalscrapbook.net/2017/04/watch-theresa-may-forgets-where-she-is-in-latest-campaign-clanger/#more-63398

SwedishEdith - I didn't actually watch QT. Like Peregrina I rarely watch it now out of concern for the safety of my TV

Any readers with pre-schoolers ? Here's some Bank Holiday fun, if you get the crayons out ...

Whilst completely taking on swedish point that you can't lift fptp and impose it onto pf stats wise, I do agree with eee in the sense that if a party gets 14% of the vote then they should get 14% of representation, even if I don't like them! This entire clusterfuck has shown that it's time to ditch the childishness fptp promotes and make politicians behave like adults.

Though it so entrenched now I can't see it happening. Unless either brexit totally destroys us which I hope it doesn't in fairness.

However I think there's a slow way to bring it in. If reform of the Lords happens and it becomes fully elected, then do that pr. it'll get people used to it.

Pipe dreams eh?

Loving TM and the 'particular town' thing. Sadly people will still be stupid enough to vote for the Tories though despite blatant disregard

Could they introduce a rule where you don't have to repay your student loan while you work in the profession you trained in

I shared with a Nigerian guy at Uni (1980s). When he graduated and returned to Nigeria, he was expected to work for the government for two years to repay his fees. He called it "National Service".

I have often thought that a UK version of "National Service" could be achieved by requiring people to give 2 years service to the state, to the abilities they demonstrate academically. No student fees or loans. Education totally free (plus maintenance). The catch being you have to work for the state to pay it off. Ideally in a communal situation (a la 1950s National Service) so you get mixed up socially, geographically, and culturally. Might help teach tolerance.

You know all those jobs that need doing that there's never any money for in local authority budgets ?

Imagine David Cameron had actually been serious about "The Big Society" for a minute.

(The above is probably proof you get more authoritarian in your old age ...)

Yet another thing the Brexiters didn't think of...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39741773

"The UK is urgently drawing up new laws that will enable it to continue imposing sanctions on foreign countries after Brexit, the BBC has learned.

Ministers began consulting on the plans last week after officials realised most of the powers to apply sanctions will disappear when the UK leaves the EU."

FFS.

I think you may be onto something LH. I suspect post war social mobility may have been driven by National Service as much as anything else and this would have a similar effect.

I can't imagine the UK will be that keen to sanction any countries after Brexit, we'll be chasing their grubby hard currencies as sterling tanks.

Re FPTP, amazingly creditably the SNP, even though it benefited them and led to the 56 seat landslide (and the other 3 seats now marginals two of which were won arguably illegally), are still in favour of PR.

Having experienced 3 different forms of PR (STV in multi-candidate wards in council elections, a hybrid d'Hondt system which retains constituency linkages in the Holyrood parliament and a pure d'Hondt system in the EU elections which resulted in Scotland's sole elected UKIP representative, the execrable David Coburn), I have come to the conclusion that the hybrid d'Hondt system is the one I think is the best.

It was supposedly designed to ensure that no one party would have overall control worked well then and, like the chamber being semi circular, to encourage the building of consensus.

The elections of 2011 "broke" the system as the SNP gained an overall majority without a majority of the popular vote. That "corrected" in 2016, with the SNP winning more constituency (FPTP) seats and the d'Hondt system List MSPs balancing the popular vote correctly appropriately.

I think you may be onto something LH. I suspect post war social mobility may have been driven by National Service as much as anything else and this would have a similar effect.

I imagine a barracks environment, with ages 18-2x (because you only do the service when you have got as far as you can academically) shuffled up by some random algorithm (the could use DPDs delivery routing program to save money). So people of all classes, creeds and backgrounds clumped into a quasi-military structure (a la scouts ...).

There was a program a while back on one of the "lads channels" called "Bad Lads Army" where they took some troubled youths and made them do a fortnight of what National Service would have been like in the 1950s. Complete with an "You 'orrible little man" Drill Sergeant. It was fascinating how quickly they assumed a company mentality, and actively helped each other to ensure the entire squad did well.

I wonder how women would fare in such a situation ?

Of course the idea that the state can dictate what a free adult can do with their life for two years (or maybe a year ?) is untenable in the current social climate. But I wonder how many people who are struggling to repay the colossal debt they have accrued for the privilege of learning (which in my book is a fundamental human right) would take the choice of working for the state to clear their debt. Bearing in mind while doing so they would be gaining real world experience in their chosen field. My Nigerian friend from Uni studied mechanical engineering, and was in line to work on improving mining equipment used throughout Nigeria.

Oh Marcus Fysh of BlueKip Yeovil has a pact with UKIP now.

The LDs got 31,000 votes there in 2010.

The Conservatives got 24,000 and took the seat in 2015. UKIP got 7,600.

Is that the stench of fear?

Its Paddy Ashdown's former seat too.

Loving TM and the 'particular town' thing. Sadly people will still be stupid enough to vote for the Tories though despite blatant disregard

I would expect hell to freeze over before people there started to vote Tory. Even if they don't like Corbyn, I am pretty sure that Skinner is popular.

Is that the stench of fear?
That or it's just the blue kips, they stink, or the Maybot's dalek fusebox is melting already.
It's funny how close Brexit and the tories are to a recent Dr Who episode.

I wonder how women would fare in such a situation ?

Tens of thousands of them fare perfectly well in the military, so I'm sure they'd muddle through ok in your national-service style idea.

Am I the only one who is shocked the video showing police shooting at suspects inside their home through the window (?). twitter.com/hashtag/willesden?lang=en I worry about terror. I know north London very well. I have lived in Harlsden as student which is rough as hell but I don't think I can remember any incident where cops have shot at people inside a home through the window. I know Willesden is an area with a large Asian community. Was the police trigger happy because of racism? I really don't know and the possibility hadn't occurred to me until I read some of the comments on Twitter. Does this indicate a new harsher policy under May or something?

I wonder how women would fare in such a situation ?

Tens of thousands of them fare perfectly well in the military, so I'm sure they'd muddle through ok in your national-service style idea.

I wasn't suggesting they couldn't fare in such a situation. But enforced barracking, as opposed to elected careers are two different things.

The whole point about "National Service" is that it's compulsory, rather than voluntary, and the UK has nothing previous to compare to for women. I believe the Israeli army has universal conscription ?

The whole point about "National Service" is that it's compulsory, rather than voluntary, and the UK has nothing previous to compare to for women. I believe the Israeli army has universal conscription ?

Women got called up during the last war, and presumably managed. An exception was made for Princess Elizabeth who went home to Windsor Castle each night.

Women got called up during the last war, and presumably managed. An exception was made for Princess Elizabeth who went home to Windsor Castle each night.

Militarily ?

Here's something else that is bothering me.

Especially because the government's own online platform is GOV.UK, I don't understand how a private sector polling organisation can get away with calling itself "YouGov" - especially when it is polling election intentions.

To quote Wikipedia, You Gov "has no known connection with the UK government despite the name. Stephan Shakespeare, the firm's CEO as of 2017, once stood as a Conservative candidate for Colchester; he was also a Conservative Party pollster".

I am surprised that the electoral commission has nothing to say about this, especially as election campaigning by e.g. charities and trade unions is now so tightly controlled, following the 2014 Lobbying Act.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/2914506-Do-you-know-how-much-your-childs-school-budget-will-be-cut-Use-the-link-and-post-the-answer-here

Lots of threads opening up on:
cuts, unhappiness with Brexit, Single market loss affecting ebay. etc etc

School cuts are so obvious, everyone knows how it's affecting their own kids and schools.

It's a very obvious local issue, which could be really useful to labour and lib dems and greens.

^THE Scottish Conservatives have been accused of importing the “dodgy” election tactics that led to criminal investigations into some of their MPs south of the border.

The party is under fire for distributing thousands of anti-independence leaflets in the local elections urging people to “send Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP a message they can’t ignore”.

However, despite being intended to influence how people vote on May 4, the cost does not count towards local spending limits as the material does not name any candidates^.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/15252068.Tories_accused_of__quot_dodgy_quot__election_spending_after_flood_of_leaflets/?ref=mr&lp=3

Still the 'crooked conservatives'.