Westminstenders: Long live liberalism

[RedToothBrush]

Talk of its demise are premature.

(Sorry up to eyeballs this weekend)

Pfeffel and hunt are MPs - surely they need to declare these donations - members interests etc?

As regards the Brexit party standing or not.... One of their aims (apart from power, obviously) is to drive the Tory Party to be come a mirror image of themselves. If they stand and they DO divide the Brexit vote, the Torys will shift even further to the right in fear of not being right-wing enough at a general election... Thus (from Brexiters mind), mission accomplished...

Afaik, the MP Interests Register is where the Guardian is obtaining their basic info

Of course, if anything is forgotten / overlooked in the chaos surrounding BJ, he'd be massively embrassed as PM
So I presume his minders are taking care of required documentation

Would anything embarrass BJ?

BTW in OxfordWest and Abingdon at the last GE the LibDems had a 9500 majority to overturn. It was achieved by throwing everything at it - volunteers coming up from places like Winchester to help out, and the Greens standing down their candidate. So it's possible.

It’s more than possible, it should be very likely.... by-elections traditionally often have huge swings far greater than what is needed.

Indeed, given the number of things in their favour, it would be pretty disastrous if they didn’t!... and to “Remain” in general. The bookies agree giving them odds of 1/5.

If they do win, the key things to look for are:

a) who comes second? Will be a good measure of Leavers’ mood.

b) which one of the Remain vote or Leave vote is higher, contrasting this to the 2016 referendum result (which was a narrow Leave victory I believe). Of course, you have Labour fighting this which will make such a calculation more complex, but I expect them to get comprehensively squeezed into a very low vote indeed.

I would spoil my ballot paper tbh; I can't see that from a remain point of view there is much between them policy wise. Johnson is probably a better bet if you have to pick one, in the hope that when reality bites him in the bum, he takes his project down with him. Hunt would get the May accusations of 'he was a secret remained, if only we had a brexiteer doing the job'.

They are both off the scale of dystopian disbelief.

I think those able to vote need to assess who has the greatest chance of leading to another GE or another ref. (Although these options are also nerve wracking they are the only choice.) So we want whichever PM that will bring the 'boil' to a head asap so it can be lanced.

I can hardly bring myself to say it but surely Johnson provides the greatest chance of a GE? His ego is bigger and will lead to an arrogant belief he can win a GE?

Hunt might just about rise to the task of PM, although it's a big thing to ask, so less likely to reward us with a GE/Confidence vote.

Difficult.

Just that 'there are too many parts of the country where English is not spoken as a first language". Not so many, but isn't it wonderful to hear and see the endangered indigenous languages of Gaeilge, Gaidhlig and Cymraeg aren't completely killed off despite attempts by the attempts of subsequent migrants to what is now the UK. Is that what Johnson is up to now? Finish the job.
Languages aren't zero sum. They are riches. They should be encouraging people to be speaking as many languages as possible. People could be equally fluent in a few. If it is done early enough, they find it even easier to learn more languages.

The level of inspiration has hit rock bottom.

The choice of the next PM is down to members of the party. Thoughts and preferences of everyone else is irrelevant. The country will have to take what it gets. It has so easy to wreck the shop.

John Major was crystal on the Brexit cheerleaders talk of trade deals. How Theresa May went to India. Said on Monday she wanted a trade deal. Said on Wednesday that she didn't want any Indian Visas to the UK. That was the end of the trade deal talks.

{People could be equally fluent in a few. If it is done early enough, they find it even easier to learn more languages.}

Learning another language is reputedly a way to help stave off dementia, forcing the brain to work harder and make new connections.

Caught Dead Ringers today - loved the Boris as Willy Wonka. Worth a listen for light relief Dead Ringers

Looks like some members of the Tory party have been deemed more equal than others as they get more than one vote!. Would love to know if it the Hunt supporters or the BJ ones though What a fix.

Some get more than one vote. Going backwards, innit?

I don't know if it matters whether it is Hunt or Johnson. Both seem to be leading to the same place. Maybe in a slightly different way, but the same place.

Thanks. I think I will have to vote for BJ then as that is most likely to lead to a GE. Can’t believe I’m going to do that! Then I shall cancel my membership immediately.

Wouldn't necessarily cancel membership immediately, if (when?) bh gets i could imagine chaos followed by a 1922 enforced resignation and a 2nd tory selection process - anything to avoid a GE.

I imagine that Tories are far more worried about the LDs now than Lab.

I go back to a very early prediction that they may be hoping the LD's get in with an Autumn GE then revoke. I think this would be an unwise move however as Cameron famously didn't expect the LD to not be in a coalition with him once before...

All the tories have in the way of hope atm is that they don't have to get the blame for the aftermath of Brexit. Best thing would be for someone else to call it off and be vilified for eternity; see previous example of LD's Free University stunt pulled by them.

Boris wants to "radiate love" to leavers, apparently.

Excuse me.

I just have to go and have a dettol shower.

The thought of the execrable BJ wanting to radiate love makes me feel very very unwell.

Rotten boroughs spring to mind wrt the funding of Johnson and Hunt alike.

Piss up in a brewery springs to mind.
Buffy you obviously aren’t a real MNetter. Didn’t you mean a zoflora shower?

dettol shower ... Dettol is highly poisonous to cats. (Random information which may be of use to Westminstenders

...,Possibly already widely known, but I only found out recently and so thought it was worth posting a warning given the number of cats on here!