Westminstenders: Local Elections Madness

[RedToothBrush]

This week has gone from banging your head against the wall to wanting to bang your head through it.

Labour have voted to support a 2nd ref as their EU election campaign strategy. Only for Corbyn to ignore it. And a row has broken out.

Change UK seem well on track to make everyone else look professional and to look as 'liberal elite' as humanly possible in a real life reverse paraody of themselves.

The Brexit Party is going from strength to strength with the most wtf candidates imaginable and Farage is happy cos his mate is coming to tea with the Queen.

The Liberal Democrats have decided that anti semitism is OK in an effort to keep Labour seats.

And the Conservatives. Where to start? Probably with the Tory Leadership Election infighting which looks suspiciously as if its now breached national security.

As for Brexit. No one really wants to talk about it. Local elections are next week. May is now apparently supporting the Malthouse Compromise. Be warned, it is difficult to see it as anything but a Trojan Horse for No Deal. Not that everyone has worked this out yet. But until we have the blood bath of the local elections over and done with on Thursday, don't expect much to happen.

Then expect the Tories to lose their minds...

Green - out of that lot.

No question - Green in your case. They have done reasonably well in the EU elections in the past.

Oh, I forgot the lib dems!

Has the deadline for registering to vote for the EU elections passed ?

www.gov.uk/elections-in-the-uk/European-Parliament

7th May is the final day.

I've looked up the advice for your area on the @Edwin Hayward 🦄 🏹 🗡️
@ukdomainnames site

It also recommends voting Green for the Remain party so far, but that may change.

Voting has been a tricky issue here in France for UK citizens, but seems to be being sorted just in time. I got my card today.

That Lamy/IDS exchange is a perfect illustration of the previous discussion on here about the dismal quality of so many UK politicians. There's just no contest.
Equally, I am constantly impressed by Barnier's restraint and unfailing courtesy when he must be so sick of repeating the same basic facts to people who won't listen.

The feeling of limbo is alarming, as though precious time was really, really being wasted. Sturgeon's announcement was cannily timed in that respect; she always manages to look like almost the only prominent figure in the UK political arena with a clear plan and a real grasp of the situation.
Has TMay been seen today, or has she absconded to run through some foreign wheatfields?

I also have Annunziata Rees Mogg so Green or Lib Dem it is unless Labour support a PV.
Reports say that Green have previously done slightly better than Lib Dem but am still undecided.

I just looked on the who can I vote for website. Yorkshire and the Humber have - along with all the usual suspects - the English democrats standing and the Yorkshire party. I'm assuming the English democrats are brexity/ far right? The Yorkshire party don't seem to have a stated opinion on brexit as a concept but dislike TM's deal and her red lines ... which is open to interpretation as to whether they are OK with no deal.

I'm quite pleased to discover that the brexit vote is split 4 definite ways plus I bet most Yorkshire party supporters tend to err on the side of brexity.

Britain Elects - Long Read: The 2019 Local Elections

Comprehensive & detailled analysis of each region and the important local contests

http://britainelects.com/2019/04/28/long-read-the-2019-local-elections/

buffy "One of the change UK candidates voted leave!"

If this was in the ref, what matters is if they acknowledge they made a mistake, or are still a Leaver
If it was as an MP voting for A50, many MPs probably regret that now

afaik, CHUK only has candidates who now support Remain or at least PV - it's their reason for existing !

English Democrats - They are a Leave party, anti immigration and want to put England first.

pretzels English democrats are an English Nationalist party, with several ex-BNP in their leadership, also ex-Kippers
AVOID

metro.co.uk/2017/09/14/here-are-the-far-right-extremist-groups-still-operating-in-the-uk-6926869/

English Democrats sound pretty bad.

@jasjas1973 surely taking back control doesn't need to mean subjugation to the USA - the US will, like China, be acting in their best interests which are not necessarily the interests of the UK. Hybrid/mixed deployments will be in our best defence interests albeit at increased cost. Uniquely in her premiership and possibly her career this is something the maybot has got right.

[GCHQ think risks associated with the use of hauwei kit can be managed - ie its not a threat to us/uk per se but it will impact the NSA who will lose the ability to roam our call logs etc. (in any case if "our" capability couldn't detect unwarranted 'phone home' / incoming then it's not up to much. As for kill switches, well the snipping of undersea cables is much more likely!)]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48097069
Theresa May 'unlikely' to hold another Queen's speech

Theresa May has no plans to preside over another substantive Queen's speech, BBC Newsnight has learnt.

In a sign of how the prime minister believes her days in No 10 are numbered, Mrs May believes the next major Queen's speech should be left to her successor.

On Monday, The Times reported that the prime minister was planning to delay the Queen's speech until the autumn.

But Newsnight understands the prime minister's plans are far more straightforward.

A Whitehall source said: "It is very unlikely Theresa May will preside over a substantive Queen's speech.

"It will be for the next prime minister to set out their substantive agenda for the next phase of policy making."

1. The next Queen's Speech would technically have been due in the Autumn anyway.
2. Mrs May believes the next major Queen's speech should be left to her successor. Note next major not next.
3. "It is very unlikely Theresa May will preside over a substantive Queen's speech. Well we knew this already. If she has a Queens Speech, it will have hardly anything in it, as its the only way she'll pass it.

None story in many respects.

I'm still trying to get the Green party to evict their BNP/UKIP squatter in Dorset ......

Pretzels, the Yorkshire Party is a weird one. It was apparently founded by Diana Wallis & her husband and is in favour of Yorkshire devolution.

What I find really strange is that Diana Wallis used to be a Lib Dem MEP. She was elected in our region in 2004 and 2009 and then resigned in 2012, and set up her own party shortly afterwards. She's now standing as the no 1 Change UK candidate, so I presume is no longer involved either with the Lib Dems or the Yorkshire party.

Absolutely no idea what the back story is there, but it does make me wonder if she keeps falling out with people in different parties and then jumping ship - could be a totally unfair assumption though, but it's a pretty odd history.

Still really wanting to be able to vote Labour in Yorkshire & Humber and return Richard Corbett. He's a really hardworking MEP and obviously pro People's Vote & Remain himself, but I'm not holding out much hope that Corbyn will give up on his endless fudge tomorrow.

The Lib Dem & Greens no 1s both sound okay - both involved in local Sheffield politics - but I think it's highly likely that with 3 parties splitting the pure remain vote, none of them will end up with a candidate. The Lib Dems haven't had one since 2009 election, and Greens never have. Like you am hoping that the brexit vote will be split.

Thanks for posting that useful site littlespaces.

whocanivotefor.co.uk

It seems that all 7 Tory candidates in Eastern region are men. I think that's poor.

If the Lib dems had a MEP seat in Yorkshire/Humber up until 2009 then they are probably the way to go, as Greens have never had one. That's only 2 elections they've not managed a seat in - and one of those would have been part of their collapsed vote due to the coalition. But with Brexit now here and them being a remain party they may see some of that vote share come back.

But let's see what tomorrow brings with Labour's decision.

Also I think tory remainers are more likely to switch to Lib Dem than anything else - and we have 2 tory MEPs. There could be a chance the Lib Dems could take one of their seats.

One of the 2 tory MEPs - Amjad Bashir - was originally elected as UKIP and then defected to the tories later. Maybe he was a tory before he became UKIP - not sure.

So in 2014 there were 3 UKIP MEPs to start with, 2 Labour & only 1 tory. It was a massive change from 2009 when we had 2 tories, 1 Labour, 1 Lib Dem, 1 UKIP & - worst of all - 1 BNP. It does make it all quite unpredictable. I think it will probably be a good result this time if there are no more than 2 Brexit party MEPs - could be more. It's depressing.

So in London I have plus the usual parties and independents, the UK European Union Party!?!? I need to google who in tarnation they are.

Oh dear! That wasn't much clearer.

On Monday, The Times reported that the prime minister was planning to delay the Queen's speech until the autumn.....

A Whitehall source said: "It is very unlikely Theresa May will preside over a substantive Queen's speech.

The next Queen's Speech would technically have been due in the Autumn anyway.

None story in many respects.

Despite these threads I'm not sure if I'm a sufficiently political animal to assess this. I can see TMs handing over to god knows who is no new news.

However the Queen’s Speech being delayed "until Brexit is delivered" as some papers have reported does bother me. As far as I'm aware this government has had unprecedented disregard for due process. Examples include trying to trigger A50 without a Parliamentary vote, trying to pass the WA without a meaningful vote, triggering the. Henry VIII powers to shortcut legislative process.Then Leading cabinet ministers saying we won't honour international agreements anyway. We've had blatant payments to the DUP to secure votes. We've had telling the Queen a government is formed before it actually was.

In this context of all this , delaying the Queen's speech seems a dangerous precedent to me? What's to stop the gov holding Parliament to ransom and delaying it indefinitely. Surely it's not a very big step to disregard other process given what's gone before?

(How many steps are we from someone else - Gove ? declaring themselves life president - like Hastings Banda was previously in Malawi !!)

If she has a Queens Speech, it will have hardly anything in it, as its the only way she'll pass it.

I can hear it now... 'Vote for the WA then all this pain will go away! As will I!'