Westministenders: The One Where We Finally Get A Leadership Challenge?

[RedToothBrush]

Tick tick tick.

What do we think?

Yes? No?

Another week of wtf-ing at British politics.

Re Peter Bone, We already have cheap clothes, but it’s really not clear why Brexit would lead to cheaper food - unless he is talking about lowering standards. Did he explain?

I'd vote for Yvette.

Yvette actually reads complex documents and understands them.

I can think of surprisingly few MPs whom I see this quality in.

If any MP who displayed this skill stood at the next election, that quite possibly would win my vote. Regardless of which party they stood for.

To be blunt about it, I'm just looking for someone displaying a minimum level of competency rather than pure bullshit politicking.

Tbh, if i could vite in general elections, i have no idea who I would vote for.

Not the conservatives and their austerity measures that have brought so much hardship and poverty whilstfilling the pockets of the richest.
Not labour either.
LD are just ... well not there.
The greens are one of the party I’m happiest with bar the fact they are too nowhere near able to get into power And I have an issue with the transpeople attitude.

Time for a big clean up in the political scene tbh.

But then I feel this was the same in France which explains too the reason why Macron was elected. People couldn’t stand any of the usual parties/politicians anymore.

TBF i was thinking last night that a leadership challenge on the Labour party might actually depose Corbyn this time round, given the party's strong support for both remain and a people's vote and Corbyn's obvious reluctance on both parts.

I also heard a while ago on the radio that a lot of the membership who joined and re -voted in Corbyn didn't renew their membership at the end of the year so there are potentially less Corbyn voters than might be thought. But given how the NEC elections went I'm not so sure about that.

And then you have all the ones who think Corbyns playing a long game and will suddenly pop up and reverse brexit, having let it destroy the Tories first. Whereas i think it's obvious he wants brexit to happen, although still with the Tory destruction.

You see I couldn’t bring myself to vote let’s say for a Conservative candidate who is showing ability is reading complex stuff/does their homework etc...

Because the reality is that they might do that but when it comes to voting, they will still follow the PM/party leader.

Kevin Schofield@polhomeeditor
Tory MP Simon Clarke, who submitted a letter of no confidence in Theresa May, then withdrew it and then submitted it again, says "this is the day we stand at the bar of history". If the 48 letters aren't hit today, the ERG are going to look very, very silly.

You put your letter in
Your letter out
In, out, in, out
You shake it all about
You do the Hokey Cokey and you turn around
That's what it's all about...

Oh The Tory Party Leadership Challenge
Oh The Tory Party Leadership Challenge
Knees bent, arms stretched, rah rah rah!

I too would like Yvette Cooper. When you see her on the select committee she's always up on the details and is obviously prepared. When May was being questioned on the WA the other day, she was pretty much the only one who asked a specific question about a specific detail on security. If everybody asked specific questions things would be scrutinised properly.

Let's face it, if she was leader she would have read and been up on the WA, unlike papa Corbyn.

I just wish May would be honest.

“No, it’s not what you want, but this is the best deal available based on what you voted for”.

I know why she isn’t saying that, but it’s as though I have a £100k to buy a house and the estate agents are squabbling about whether I should buy the house with the billiards room or the flat with the helicopter pad.

If everybody asked specific questions things would be scrutinised properly.

Wouldn't they just.

Instead we have the likes of Nadine Dorries and Jared O'Mara in Westminster and Nigel Farage in Brussels.

Imagine a world where being able to read or understand a problem was valued. Just imagine!

Did he explain?

Well, I wouldn't say he 'explained' exactly - he blustered something about tariffs, nice low tariffs, making everything cheaper. Super. Can't wait.

Of course, he means 'standards'. We know that, he knows we know that. But still the farce continues.

I agree completely, boatyard - this pathetic fucking about, threatening letters, moaning about letters, threatening more resignations... it's all a game to them. Not a single one of the Brexiteer MPs has anything approaching a backbone, none of them has the courage of their convictions (not that I agree with what they're threatening!), they're all just self-absorbed careerists with an eye for what they believe is the main chance.

I really loathe them all. I am so embarrassed to be English, to be 'represented' on the world stage by this shower of fuckwits.

The problem with politics and things like PMQs at the moment is that no one is doing it to hold the government to account. Both TM and JC are performing for the cameras, making sure there are clips that look good and can be uploaded to YouTube. It's devalued the debate. People like the ERG are the same. Look at Boris and JRM the other day. It's all about the views and the soundbites.

I did wonder ( flippantly) If TM could write a letter herself, or get a chum to write one for her. Then she could either bring this to a head, deafest the ERG and then have a year's free run at perhaps a closer EEA/EFTA version

Or writing her own letter could precipitate escaping this mess - surely any sane human being ( if she is) must contemplate resigning on a daily basis.

I get Bloomberg's Brexit Bulletin emailed to me:
These little gems stood out:

"The Brexit Betrayal for Curry House Bosses. A restaurant closes each day as falling immigration and a weak pound squeeze the business model. The irony is that a shift from EU free movement to a more global migration system was a pledge of the Brexit campaign that appealed to British Asians, but it’s failed to materialize."

Another group not likely to get the Brexit they wanted.

"Galileo Leaves | Airbus’s Surrey Satellite Technology will move the work it does for Galileo, the EU’s satellite navigation system, to the Continent, according to the Financial Times. The company says it won’t be able to carry out classified tests on the navigation payload after Brexit, though unclassified work can continue in the U.K."

So where is that collaboration with New Zealand that is promised? Anywhere near to being up and running yet?

Meanwhile Raab is still saying that the long term benefits outweigh the short term costs, but since he's only just woken up to the fact that Britain is an island, I don't think we should take too much notice of this.

It's ironic that this is all happening at a time when you can claim compensation for being mis sold a pension or PPI or a mortgage.

The number of people who think JMR/Cameron/Boris knew/know what they are doing just because they have an Etonian accent is staggering.

Bone claimed that food (and clothing) imports would be cheaper because under WTO terms we'd be able to drop the tariffs imposed on developing countries: a straight lie that was not challenged

I was shouting at the TV I do it a lot nowadays that the developing countries are not liable for tariffs (except for arms) - and even South Africa (which doesn't count as one of the poor countries) already has agreement with the EU for a lot of stuff.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45342607

Thanks prettybird, that's a much more accurate account of what he said And as you note, a straight-out lie, unchallenged.

I was born in the seventies and can remember my mum making a lot of mine and my sister's clothes because clothing was a lot more expensive than now. I remember the worries about buying us winter coats. I can't see how clothes can get much cheaper when you can buy t-shirts for a pound or two in Primark.

My mum used to buy our clothes from a catalogue in the seventies and I can buy clothes now for my children that are cheaper that the clothes in the catalogue. For comparison my 1978 paper back edition of Little Town on the Prairie has a cover price of 55p.

(Well OK thinking about it, I could probably download Little House on the Prairie for free, but you know what I mean....)

Another vote for Yvette Cooper.

Re: One sticking point is some want to save their letters for 30th March.
So there is a high chance of no deal with food and medicine shortages, martial law, etc. and some Tory MPs want to be f*cking around with a leadership challenge in the middle of it. 'Fiddling while Rome burns' does not even begin to cover it.

I don’t normally vote Labour, but I would vote for a Labour Party led by Yvette Cooper in a heartbeat. She’s really wonderful!

May is giving a speech this morning about the deal before going to Brussels, radio news just said. What's the point of another speech? I would now take the 'right, I'm getting on with making arrangements now' approach in her shoes.

The cafe at the European Parliament building does good coffee and croissants.

I too would vote for Yvette Cooper, if I could.

If you look at her Wiki entry, she has a wealth of experience in various departments in both Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet.

Plus she seems intelligent, honourable, decent and down-to-earth.

I wonder how many people who joined the Labour Party to vote for Corbyn, are now disillusioned with Labour/JC, but keeping their membership so they can vote in the next leadership election?
Of course if everyone who was fed up with JC left the party, he’d get in again as there’d only be his supporters left...

Monday morning musings...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvette_Cooper

I'm a Labour party member but not a Corbyn supporter. I have struggled with keeping my membership through the anti semitism but I'm staying to vote for Yvette or someone like her in the next contest. I do think that if everyone like me abandons the party it will be left to the far left, and the same for the Tories really with their far right. And then where will we be as a country?

I would support Yvette ina heartbeat.
I hate Corbyn - indulges terrorist supporters, antisemites and women haters. If I thought he had an idea for progress on the Brexit I didn't want but that was in the national interest, I would support it.
But he doesn't. So I don't.