Westminstenders: Long live liberalism

[RedToothBrush]

Talk of its demise are premature.

(Sorry up to eyeballs this weekend)

So has Hunt a history of sitting somewhere else where he saw off the LibDems or is he talking about a council election?

Neil ferguson in the Sunday Times believes Brexit is essentially a waste of time as internal pressures will result in the EU breaking up anyway, and the federalism of the original project cannot survive in the world as it is now. Whether you agree or disagree, it is incredible that London won't remain a major international city (and most of it is not owned by the Chinese) and that close ties based on history and similarities of law and government with the US will not remain. To say people won't have food is just scaremongering, but that does appear to be largely what these threads are about.

To say people won't have food is just scaremongering, but that does appear to be largely what these threads are about

Huh? Please define 'these threads'. You clearly haven't been reading closely enough if that's what you really think.

Lizzar - I think you will find that we have a substantially longer shared history with continental Europe and Scandinavia than we do with the USA, however much you would like to kid yourself that we have a 'shared history'. We don't in many respects.

As for similarities of law - only in part. Government - do tell me about our Senators, Congressmen and President. Oh and also explain our Federal structure.

But true BeLeavers having won but actually backing the wrong side are desperate to see the EU fall apart. Weren't the Netherlands and France going to be next to want to exit? But even their noisy right wing have decided to shut up about that for now. The UK is much more likely to break apart first.

A lot of the world is 'owned' by the Chinese. Even a significant amount in the USA, where if the Chinese decided enough was enough, and wanted to recall their investments Trump, or his minders would crap themselves.
I think elements of Chinese funding are present in about a third of the EU.
They have also provided vast loans and are building huge infrastructure projects all around the South China sea.

Neil ferguson in the Sunday Times is a fantasist if he can't see what is going on around him.

Scots Law (which is not the sane as English Law, for those who are not aware ) has more in common with Dutch Law

Next?

As for Jeremy Hunt’s constituency of SW Surrey,
If the EU election were repeated at a GE, it would
have gone LD!

commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2019_European_Parliament_election_in_the_United_Kingdom_estimated_results_by_Westminster_constituency.svg#mw-jump-to-license

Just watched the news.

We've lost our minds as a nation haven't we.

I might just stay making IKEA flat pack furniture for the rest of my life.

I'm intrigued by Jeremy Hunt's claim that he "saw off" the LibDems.

There was controversy in both the 2015 and 2017 elections.

In 2015, the people who had apparently signed the LibDem candidate's papers claimed they had been forged and not signed by them at all. The candidate was suspended and no alternative was put forward.
This meant no LibDem at all running against JH in the 2015 election.

I find it strange, with all the support for the LibDems in SW Surrey, that their candidate should have needed to forge signatures - even more curious that he should have chosen to forge those of two people who would retract their support for him.

In 2017, there was a progressive alliance candidate standing as support for the NHS: she was a doctor and she was attempting to unseat JH because he was the Health Secretary at the time. The idea was that Labour and the LibDems would not put a candidate against her and the local parties were in favour of this.
Labour HQ never actually said they'd agree to this, despite the local party reps promoting the NHS candidate at first. Three of the local party were expelled for campaigning for a non-Labour candidate.

This seemed to put the LibDems in a tail spin and they then retracted support and fielded their candidate. Opposition to JH was in chaos with the vote split three ways and no obvious candidate to vote for. JH naturally romped home.

JH says he "saw off" the LibDems... I wonder how he did that.

I love that invitation at the bottom of Johnson's letter; to tell Boris what we think! How tempting is that?

The address is, apparently:-

TELLBORIS.co.uk

lizzar
At the moment all I can hear is the sound of fireworks for the 4th of July and if one more person asks what we do in the UK to celebrate the day!
Anyway very basic assumptions like the right to healthcare which is taken for granted in the UK is considered active socialism of the strongest kind here by many people.
Yet the amount of personal details their tax forms require would be considered highly intrusive if asked by hmrc.
Their legal system and civil service are politicized. It is also a very federal system.
It is meant to have a strong separation of church and state but in reality has the opposite whereas the UK is profoundly atheist despite having an established church woven into government.
Don't let a common language fool you into believing we are that similar.

Oakenbeach - I don't think Hunt is likely to lose his seat, because I don't think the EU results will be replicated.

Johnson, however, is a good candidate to lose his seat with a majority of 5,000 ish. The other parties will pile in with activists for a starters and there will be a lot of vote swapping and nose holding going on, with voting for the best candidate to unseat him. It would be the most glorious moment too if he did lose as PM. I wonder what would happen then? Supposing the Tories won minus Johnson or had the largest number of seats without a majority, who would the Queen call to ask if they could form a Government?

Other constituencies that I know like Oxford East are solidly Labour and I think they would be extremely unlikely to go LD as that link suggests. Others like Henley, Witney and Maidenhead are solidly Tory, and again unlikely to go LD, although the LibDems could come a good second in these and cut their majorities down significantly.

Anyone else wonder what BJ means when he says by 31st Oct?

It's due to the flextension, Lonely. We're going to leave (I think) at the start of the calendar month following us agreeing the WA. He's saying he can get a deal through Parliament (or if he doesn't, fuck it and crash out).

amp.ft.com/content/35af6808-9d77-11e9-9c06-a4640c9feebb?__twitter_impression=true
What an Ikea bed tells us about Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan

Is someone at the FT trolling me? Seriously?!

Also

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-politics-48874147?__twitter_impression=true
Boris Johnson: PM tried to restrict ex-minister's access to intelligence

Downing Street attempted to withhold sensitive intelligence from Boris Johnson when he became foreign secretary, the BBC has learned

This caused concern in the intelligence services, since the foreign secretary authorises sensitive operations.

But sources close to Mr Johnson say there was no row about being denied access and he saw everything he needed to see as foreign secretary.

If you are going to do that, why the fuck appoint him to the post in the first place when you know he isn't suitable to the job?!

The BBC story is particularly interesting given The Sun essentially broke the story but their version has a very different take and tone, suggesting it wasn't the PM but the security services who had concerns.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/9440172/boris-johnson-spy-chiefs-secrets-kept/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Spy chiefs kept secrets from Boris Johnson when he was Foreign Secretary over fears he couldn’t be trusted

SECURITY chiefs kept top secrets from Boris Johnson when he was Foreign Secretary over fears he couldn’t be trusted, The Sun has been told.

Intelligence bosses were “anxious” about sharing the most sensitive information with the frontrunner in the race for No10 during his two years in the Cabinet.

www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/plaid-cymru/news/105082/greens-and-plaid-cymru-stand-aside-anti-brexit
Greens and Plaid Cymru stand aside for anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats in key by-election

The Greens and Plaid Cymru will stand aside for the Liberal Democrats in a key by-election that could see the Conservatives’ parliamentary majority cut to just three.

Yet another Trump/BJ similarity.

For a laugh, this:
www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/what-sort-of-no-deal-brexit-idiot-are-you-20190704187133

Conservative MPs ready themselves for
snap autumn election

Can you copy the text of the article, @Peregrina, as it's behind a paywall? TIA!

Best if you google the title - it also brings up other news sources take on an election.

Ah ha! Thank you. 😁

I'm still not convinced. It's all conjecture and uncertainty. I detest uncertainty; it makes me anxious.

The total lack of control is totally shit really.

I knew there was more to this than met the eye Iranian oil tanker story. Looks like we were doing a favour to US

Boris Johnson: PM tried to restrict ex-minister's access to intelligence

I know someone who worked on BJs team when he was Major of London. Apparently his advisers kept loads of information away from Bozo.
He never looked into anything in detail. Would just listen to the skeleton of a proposal / information / idea. He would then make a snap judgement on whether to run with it or bin the idea based on hardly any information.

If he lost his seat I would be ecstatically happy.