Westministenders: The Zombie PM

[RedToothBrush]

Back from the dead, May carries on whilst the vultures circle.

She had tried to out smart her rivals by running of to the palace to tell the queen she could form a government before they could act.

Definitely she stood and pretended nothing had changed. Except everything had. The wrath of her party was unleashed and there was open revolt. She has been summoned to appear before men in grey suits tomorrow at 5pm to hear their verdict.

How do she decide to make amends and reach out to moderate Tories? By sleeping with the DUP. And appointing Gove to her Cabinet.

How long will this last? How long can it last?

Agree with bigchoc

It may well have been more evenly split on the 24th of june

But now more and more people who voted remain are accepting but would like to discuss/affect the options

In my very limited experience more people who voted leave are just saying we want to leave...any discussion of a 'soft brexit' (fucking hate that phrase) is being met with 'we voted to leave...we want to leave'

And before anyone has a pop at my comments

A) i do not mean , by any stretch of the imagination, all the people who voted leave or indeed all those who voted remain

B) back the fuck off i am already in a bad mood

It’s a bit like the Bystander Effect. Once one person of a high enough profile starts saying that Hard Brexit is a fucking awful idea others then feel brave enough to jump in in support.

I think it goes to prove just how petrified and intimidated they were by the 'will of the people' crap and the assault on the judiciary around the time of the article 50 stuff.

Murdoch storming off at the exit poll and MPs growing balls are not mutually exclusive events. Its a breaking of the power of the press barons.

It highlights how much all politicians have been out of touch with those who they are supposed to represent and put the party ahead of democracy. That has come back to prove differently and to shatter the preconceptions. The traditional media has had a distorting effect.

There was a survey way back that showed that most people based their Referendum vote on domestic policy - not really about the EU of which they have very little understanding about. That's not just leavers but also remainer and of all education levels.

Many people are concerned about Brexit now because of the knock on effects on those domestic concerns. And that comes first. The two are intertwined with the emphasis often slightly different depending on whether you voted Labour/LD.

The bystander effect has not just been restricted to MPs either too I might note. Journalists have been behaving very differently since Thursday night.

Its a breaking of the power of the press barons.

I heard the newspaper round up on R4 this morning and couldn't help but wonder who the fuck cares anymore. The newspapers have been proved to be increasingly irrelevant and no longer appear to reflect the views of the population.

I have a list of fuckwit meglamanic bastards that I have to outlive so I can piss on their graves/ drink shots of tequila

Murdoch is up there....So far doing OK Roger Alies is crossed out.

The papers are still relevant. Just ask George.

The are influential but they are not all powerful. That I think is the difference.

So far doing OK Roger Alies is crossed out.

Rufus agree re Leavers. Does anyone else listen to Remainiacs? Newish podcast. Someone on there on the last episode (post election) said that Brexiters tend to react with any discussion about Brexit with "I said we're leaving" in an exasperated voice. "But what about this?" "I SAID, WE'RE LEAVING". (I have ruined the delivery a bit, it was lighthearted and meant to be funny).

Journalists have been behaving very differently since Thursday night.

They really have. They've smelt blood and taken advantage of that. About bloody time too.

*It may well have been more evenly split on the 24th of june

But now more and more people who voted remain are accepting but would like to discuss/affect the options*

Agree.

Wrt the wets finally finding some balls, I agree with that too - that is one of the things that has pissed me off beyond belief too (as a Leaver).
I voted Leave, I trusted the politicians from all parties & both sides of the ref to work together for a mutually beneficial outcome.

How naive I was!
The wets were equally as guilty of putting themselves & their own motivations ahead of what's best for the country as the rabid brexiters were.

Being an MP is supposed to be a privilege; that concept has become thoroughly rotten over the last few decades - expenses abuse, abuse of position etc & now bullying or dripping out of responsibility is de rigueur.

The papers are still relevant. Just ask George.

More so the freely distributed

Bigchoc I think you said upthread it's about 100 hard Brexiters in Govt. Is that the ERG / Whatsapp group? I've seen it variously numbered as 60 or 70 members. I'm not sure what it is, but as ever, in any situation in life, the people who shout the loudest, for the longest, and with the most conviction, end up being listened to.

Maybe it's time to listen to the others.

www.itv.com/news/2016-11-19/group-of-60-conservative-mps-calling-for-hard-brexit/

The wets were equally as guilty of putting themselves & their own motivations ahead of what's best for the country as the rabid brexiters were.

Yep.

"More so if freely distributed"

I was surprised to learn that Es is Russian owned. Oligarch Evgeny Lebedev owns ES and the Independent.

Lebedev famously attacked his opponent on a TV talk show in Russia a few years back. He also part-own Russia's most critical opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.

However, there are a substantial number of Ultra Brexiters, especially in the Tory party, probably 100 MPs, who would try to bring down any PM and destroy any govt that attempted an EEA / EFTA deal. Ask John Major. And ask Cameron why he was forced to take such a ridiculous gamble.They would go for scorched earth. Some are talking about riots and terrorism if they don't get their Year Zero Brexit.

Theresa May appeased them and offered a scorched earth manifesto. The public rejected that. Let's see the moderate Tories start arguing the case they should have argued a year ago. Ed Vaizey for Wantage summed it up in his acceptance speech - the public have rejected austerity and hard Brexit. I thought as I heard it, 'let's see you act on this.' Let's see them rounding on the Ultra Brexiters, and tell them to shut up - if that is what the public wanted, May would have got her 80 majority. She didn't even hold onto the one she had.

As for riots - Farage promised that thousands would demonstrate in London, when the judges decision was given in the Gina Miller case. A couple of hundred showed. The March for Europe on 25th March numbered 100,000 and this was despite attempts to stop us, by putting out information that the march had been cancelled, and little media publicity.

Yes was it Guy V who said Brexit was a Tory party catfight? We are powerless hostages in it.
I agree woman public servants are keeping the country going.

You don't need a coalition to have chaos. We've had chaos for 2 years. The 5 years before that, when there WAS a coalition, were relatively chaos-free.

Would agree with red that print media remains relevant though no longer dominant . I think certain newspapers could be energised by all this, as has happened in USA as a response to Trump/ fake news/ as real interest in truth or at least reasonable opinion re emerges.

If I were a historian in the future I would, I think, be looking at this situation and analysing the effects it had on :

The shape of brexit ( obviously )

The media - not just in terms of influence but in terms of message . Will this experience lead to more moderate, balanced reporting ( dare I say honest opinion🤔) as opposed to unabashed bias?

The DUP and NI Unionism- will all this scrutiny lead to entrenchment or evolution? The DUP definitely due a little bit of naval gazing.

Exciting times indeed 😁

Evgeny Lebedev is the son of oligarch Alexander Lebedev (who did indeed get in a brawl on Russian TV, although I'm not sure how much of a rarity that is ). Evgeny is considered a bit of a dilettante and, although he leans to the right politically, his main interest is having his picture taken with famous ladeez.

Alexander was funding Novaya Gazeta but I'm not sure how much Evgeny had to do with it. As well as closing down the Independent's print edition, Evgeny also launched London Live TV station that seems to exist on a format of showing programmes from the 1980s and 1990s. According to Private Eye, the only thing he really wants is a knighthood...

You don't need a coalition to have chaos. We've had chaos for 2 years. The 5 years before that, when there WAS a coalition, were relatively chaos-free.

Ain't that the truth.

John Redwood‏*@johnredwood*
Let me remind the BBC that 84% of the population of the UK lives in England & pays their Licence fees. Many of us wish to hear English news.

Where shall we start with this gem?

Sooo many things to counter in just 140 characters its a feat in itself to achieve such a glorious contemptible status.

I might just laugh heartily and think of the Welsh National Anthem.

George Osborne‏ @George_Osborne
Our first edition @EveningStandard has today's 2.9% rise in inflation caused by Brexit devaluation + @tombradby on May & latest on Lions

Jim Pickard‏*@PickardJE*
Surely you could have got:

"I TOLD
YOU SO"

into the headline?

To be fair Jim, George can't run the same headline EVERY day.

I'm still waiting for Redwood to tell us which British family cars are available for purchase. Not the mini, because that's German owned, not Honda, not Nissan.

The man talks some utter drivel - why the citizens of Wokingham tolerate him is beyond me.

The unicorn powered car of course

Currently Redwood is in pretty safe seat www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14001048 but 10% increase to Labour since 2015

But Canterbury.. ..canterbury

Hi allx The talks with DUP are not going to be over today. They are going to push for all they can get. Per head funding in NI is £11,000. In the rest of Britain its £8000. How blooming much more do they want? And will we ever know just how much money they really get?