Westminstenders: One Pepperoni Pizza Please. And a Milkshake To Go.

[RedToothBrush]

On the Eve of the EU Elections that we never met to happen, and we don't know what the next hour next mind day might bring.

Farage is enjoying the theatre of milkshakes. It means he gets attention and gets to play the victim. And avoid talking about his dodgy friends and even dodgier financing. The Brexit Party are polling so highly its possible he could be PM. And boy does he know it. The temptation is there and its too much to resist.

May has refused to resign so far tonight after a day of asking her to. The 1922 Committee refused to change the rules to help oust her - possibly because they don't want the next PM to be beset with challenges to the leadership at the drop of a hat. Graham Brady is seeing her on Friday... The ERG are not happy bunnies.

May is still apparently planning to plough on with the WAB with a referendum possibly attached. Though this remains to be seen.

Meanwhile Leadsom has just quit the Cabinet. She was one of the Brexit 'Pizza Club'. Rumours are this might be the Cabinet withdrawing support for her. Though Gove has said he doesn't intend to resign (tonight at least).

Rumour is that May's senior staff have abandoned her to let her make the decision to go. And rumours are that when Leadsom rang May to tell her she was leaving cabinet, May didn't tell her senior staff. This comes two weeks after rumours where that Phillip May was at the point of telling her it was time to resign. The rumours of course may be just that, rumours but it's hard to see how or why anyone would tell her to carry on now.

And so tomorrow. Who would vote for this utter shower of shit? Even if you were the most loyal of Tories?

The thing tomorrow is to get the remain vote out. It doesn't matter ultimately what people vote for. Every vote cast for remain keeps the Brexit Party popular vote down. Even if it doesn't win seats. And that is psychologically important.

Tomorrow make sure EVERYONE you know who is anti brexit party votes. More so if they are a Remainer voting for a Remain party, but also if they are solid Labour or the rarest of things, a true blue.

It MATTERS. Narratives will be set.

If you are not sure if you are registered to vote, please TRY ANYWAY. The worst case is you are turned away and have lost 20 mins of your life. But you might also be able to vote and that might change the course of events.

Talk to people tomorrow. Remind them. Make sure it's about preventing a hard right foothold. Apathy will destroy our futures. Being fed up of politicians so refusing to vote is actively shooting yourself in the face.

Who am I voting for?

Still no idea. But I will vote.

I've just remembered those people who did a cheerleadery march through Westminster shouting 'Leadsom for PM' or some such guff. All those cringe inducing stunts await us again. Bleurgh.

European Elections in Torridge - Electorate 53,056 Papers verified 21,064 Turnout 39.7%. Results will be announced following a count on Sunday 26th May which is timed to allow for the completion of elections in other European Countries.

Coquillage you know me so well-I'm embarrassingly empathetic!

..her crying at the end sounded like wail of enraged self-pity.

Yes. The tenor and emphasis wasn't on this country or the fact she loves this country. It was all about the " I" .
"This country that I** love."

(At least she didn't flippantly hum like Cameron though.)

As much as I don't like her, it does feel like the grown ups have left the building.

Only may could make 'love' sound like a threat.

God the guy i work with really annoys me. Saying we should haven't cut ties and left. Why do we have to give the EU money to leave? They just want to us to pay them to keep them afloat. It's GREAT Britain, we should tell them to pay us and be a part of GB.

George Osborne must be holding a champagne reception.

Wales

If she had just listened to the chancellor (Osborne?) who effectively said leaving will be exceedingly expensive, take years to accomplish and may well involve the loss of several million jobs, and then ask if the UK really wants to do this, and by the by, what about the possible border in Ireland, it could all have been prevented.
It is one thing for the fuckwits who 'read' the DM not to understand the actual implications of leaving the EU but for May and the cabinet to think it is as simple as switching off a light is beyond comprehension.
It is obvious there would be 'casualties'. The government has departments running through 'what if' scenarios. Churchill was told that Dunkirk might see only 30,000 troops returning, and thought that was 'decent odds'. The fact that over 300,000 returned was near miraculous of course.

I can't believe it's the end of May. Get ready for the hurricanes in the next few months.

How DARE she mention Grenfell???

[[https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n11/andrew-ohagan/the-tower Andrew O'Hagan's very long LRB article on Grenfell (it occupied pretty much the whole issue) is instructive here.

May does not come out of it well. Neither does 'The Saj'.

Very well worth reading, although it's novella-length, upsetting, and different groups did take issue with some of his conclusions.

Apologies - meant to do a clicky link to the O'Hagan article

I don't think she misunderstood the referendum, genuinely I don't. I think she understood it extremely well actually.

What she did with that understanding I would have reasons to criticise but I think she "got it" alright.

In order to forge compromise both/all sides have to move. May did move (too late people will say and those people may be right) but she did. Labour proved themselves unwilling to move to back any deal that wasn't "their own", simple as that really. The ERG also lamentably failed to take the deal on offer for reasons that they will have to justify to the electorate at some future point.

Grown ups have left the building- who of these is the most grown up?

Here are my grown up ratings ..actually I need to go out. Here's some of my grown up ratings!

Boris 1/10
Esther McVey: 6/10
Rory Stewart: 5/10
Dominic Raab: 1/10
Jeremy Hunt: 5/10
Matt Hancock: 6/10?
Amber Rudd: 7/10
Michael Gove: 4/10
Sajid Javid:
Liz Truss:
Andrea Leadsom: 2/10
Steve Barclay:
Mark Harper:
Penny Mordaunt:
Steve Baker:
Graham Brady
Priti Patel:
Justine Greening:
James Cleverly:
Kit Malthouse:

Not running:
Nicky Morgan:
Tobias Ellwood:
David Lidington:
David Davis: Said he is backing "clever and brainy" Raab.
Tom Tugendhat:
Victoria Atkins:
Jacob Rees-Mogg:
Johnny Mercer:

I also noticed and was about the self-centred emphasis on "to serve the country I love" (I'd already been complaining to dh about the emphasis on "I" in her statement he said I was being slightly unfair )

But on listening and watching it again, to be fair on her (), I don't think any such emphasis was planned . I think she was losing it (started to lose it when she started to talk about shortly leaving the job and having been the second woman prime minister) and it was all she could do to utter the last few words, with no thought for emPHAsis

Second woman, first shittest.

The turnout of voters for Daventry District was 41.91%, with a total of 26,382 votes cast.

Ballot papers were verified after close of poll and the votes will be counted on Sunday, 26 May from 6pm.

Declaration of Result

The result of the East Midlands European Parliamentary Constituency will be announced after 10pm on Sunday, 26 May, after close of polls across Europe.

britain elects @britain elects
We have turnout figures for 41 authorities so far. Of the 41, 10 have seen a fall compared to 2014.

Am I right in thinking that historically it’s someone not mentioned much at the start that comes through to win?

You’ve taken your eyes off Hunt, who has a track record of forcing through unpopular policies.

So who do Westminsterenders people want as next leader of the Conservative Party? And why?

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EWoVoHjcH_uLaqHP7VyQm7UOl4nMHjA3rQnpF0i4QqU/edit#gid=0

Some one is doing a live spreadsheet with 2019 turnout / 2014 turnout / EU ref vote / increase decrease turnout.

I think the Lincolnshire comparison with local election turnout is also relevant - and missing from this though.

That information is important. It perhaps shows Con to Brexit shift.

Brady recused himself from issuing the statement from CCHQ/1922 Committee about the process for electing a new leader

I also was thinking Leadsom, however if they don't intend to dither and we are actually working to October, I suspect Boris or Gove will be picked. Bojo could just about pull off a U-turn to revoke but I think too many people want the old Tory donors back to revoke and are now backing a No Deal.

So he will have to No Deal, we suffer while he bangs on about "stiff upper lip" and other key war phrases about being stoic, then he will bring WA as "Boris' Brexit Buster" or something self aggrandising to detract everyone from the fact it is the WA and not in fact his own deal.

My prediction for what it is worth.

LouiseCollins "I'm personally much more bothered about their leadership qualities than whether they personally voted Leave or Remain."

Yep, me too.

The most competent of the leading contenders, imo, who reportedly realised the dangers of No Deal once he returned to office, is Gove

I'd always have accepted a soft Brexit compromise that brought the country together

• no triumphalism, no demonising of enemies.

My main priority now is to avoid Farage getting more than a handful of MPs

imo, best to delay a GE long enough for Farage's party to implode into in-fighting & chaos, like UKIP did - the fault there was always with Farage and those around him