Westminstenders: Long live liberalism

[RedToothBrush]

Talk of its demise are premature.

(Sorry up to eyeballs this weekend)

[NoWordForFluffy]

Hopefully he'll negotiate a more favourable cancellation clause this time. And ferries that actually exist.

You can never have too much wardrobe space!

[BigChocFrenzy]

https://news.sky.com/story/revealed-assault-robbery-and-blackmail-among-crimes-reported-in-parliament-11750181

Crimes reported in parliament have soared by nearly 50% in the last two years, with offences including assault, robbery, blackmail and drug possession
....
They included a sharp rise in threatening letters being received amid fears MPs are being increasingly targeted due to their beliefs on Brexit.
...-
Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, who was the victim of a campaign of online harassment by a man who was later jailed....

"I'm sure this high spike is linked with the Brexit issue which has been very toxic...
"I mean our post bags and emails...
we're constantly being told, you're not following the will of the people, you're being traitors.
< I wonder where the public got such ideas >
....
Earlier this year, more than 50 MPs wrote to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner
to express their "serious concerns" about the "deteriorating public order and security situation" outside parliament.

[BigChocFrenzy]

These 2 Hunt plans are connected:
First sacrifice small businesses & farms, then create a relief fund for the people you have bankrupted 🤦🏻‍♀️

[CrunchyCarrot]

I agree, pretzels - the biggest danger to the Tory party isn't Jeremy Corbyn... it's the Tory party itself!

[DGRossetti]

In keeping with the fuckedupness of the moment, I could be sold on the new Conservative direction, given how much it's pissing off Peter (the wrong one) Hitchens

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7196457/PETER-HITCHENS-Conservative-values-vanishing-cloud-cannabis-smoke.html

(n.b. Peter Hitchens knows fuck all about most things - but especially the things he choses to write about).

And in I-had-to-check-the-date-moment, seems even the Home Office retains the capacity to surprise:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7195925/Home-Office-backs-allow-drug-users-test-drugs-purity-quality-legally.html

Neither directly Brexit stories, but an indication that the tectonic plates of culture and society may be shifting even as we type.

[CrunchyCarrot]

Forgot my manners - thanks for the new thread, Red. Sorry but I did chuckle at The Wrong Drawers.

[1tisILeClerc]

{These 2 Hunt plans are connected:
First sacrifice small businesses & farms, then create a relief fund for the people you have bankrupted }

So is the 6 Billion Hunt has found under his mattress a random figure plucked out of the air, a treasury estimate of how many businesses will go under, or what exactly?
If he says 6 Billion, why did he NOT say 5 or 7 Billion?

[1tisILeClerc]

{The Wrong Drawers. }

Of course RTB, stop battering your DH and call Wallace and Gromit.

[LonelyTiredandLow]

Happy house move Red! Sorry to hear about the flat pack dramas. At least you know you have a veto and are willing to use it if needed

I think Hunt is at least being honest about consequences. I think Tories have realised May trying to keep consequences under the radar to force through her deal didn't work, so now they have to make project fear into reality quick smart to show that the public were "warned" rather than their previous form of 'unicorning-up' the details. What they realise is that we the public won't get a choice before we crash out so they need to look as though this is what we chose 3 years ago. I am thinking Hunt is the true tory party choice, but the kipper/eurosceptic infiltration will mean we get Boris.

[boatyardblues]

“I’m not convinced there is a case for an England-only parliament,” he said. “We have an England-only parliament. It’s Westminster. It’s been there for a long time. I’m not disposed to create another parliament.”

Saw this ^ on p1 of the thread and had to wonder if BJ is trying to throw the leadership election because he doesn’t actually want the job. Or he’s more of an idiot than I thought and we are in even deeper shit than I realised.

[Motheroffourdragons]

boatyard - I'd be surprised if anybody wanted the job atm, so it is highly probable that Bojo is trying to throw it.

The time to be PM, and possibly regain some popularity will be when Brexit has happened and the shit has hit the fan. Somebody becoming PM then can only bring the country back up as it will have hit rock bottom at that point.

[DGRossetti]

I’m not disposed to create another parliament.

I detest language like this ... Gordon Brown managed to annoy me with his "I'm minded ..." quite aside from it's naffness, it's also incredibly megalomaniac - the implication being that only one persons opinion carries any weight.

It's the elliptical language of the spiv, not the inclusive language of a leader. Even Mrs. T. learned to say "we ..." more than "I..." (in fact possibly a bit too much )

[lonelyplanetmum]

now they have to make project fear into reality quick smart to show that the public were "warned" rather than their previous form of 'unicorning-up' the details

I think this is very true.

So what did three years of unicorning up achieve (other than a Phoenix Faragist surge) ?

[DGRossetti]

now they have to make project fear into reality quick smart to show that the public were "warned" rather than their previous form of 'unicorning-up' the details

Bear in mind they wanted "project Fear" all along - now they've managed to give the appearance of the public cheering it on ...

[Songsofexperience]

Must be nice to be a business owner and be told your sacrifice will be worth it...

Possibly the most arrogant statement of the last 3 years.
That would give me the rage.

[howabout]

Oakenbach I don't understand your reasoning on Nicky Morgan? She has a 6k majority and in 2017 most of the old LibDem vote looks to have folded into Labour. If it splits out again, as looks likely, she becomes very safe. She also has a 5k ex UKIP cushion.

I do not understand why TM dumped the cross party plan for social care? Iirc it capped contributions at £70k and allowed for an insurance product to cover this.

RTB my DD1 loves flatpack and allen keying so much she is threatening to make a career of it. No help now but rookie mistake to start assembly before double checking all the bits - sometimes my overly pernickety DH has his uses. If you have only assembled the drawers but not the shell can you swap it? Definitely give IKEA a call and see what they suggest - ours is usually really helpful.

[WhatWouldScoobyDoo]

DGR

I detest language like this ... Gordon Brown managed to annoy me with his "I'm minded ..." quite aside from it's naffness, it's also incredibly megalomaniac - the implication being that only one persons opinion carries any weight.

This! I was posed and ready to write this and then scrolled down to find you had already written it!

[BigChocFrenzy]

Yes, we desperately needed a cross-party deal on elderly care

Our demographics / social care resources is one of several ticking bombs, so it's baffling why she'd start it ticking again if Labour & LDems we're still on board with it

Well no, on reflection it isn't - it's a cynical play for votes from the demographic who are largest and vote the most, who vote in their own interests,
to be paid for by the young those still in work,
many who will never be able to afford the homes that they are saving the better off elderly from selling

[WhatWouldScoobyDoo]

... poised and ready. Blooming phone.

[BigChocFrenzy]

It's pompous political prat language

[howabout]

Per BBC website:
"Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt is to outline his plans for a no-deal Brexit later, including a £6bn pledge to the fishing and farming industries and help for small businesses.

Mr Hunt will say farmers and fishermen "face uncertainty" with no deal, and as PM he would "help smooth it over".

He will compare the support to the bail out for banks in the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, plans by his rival, Boris Johnson, to give public sector workers a "fair" pay rise have been revealed."

Slightly different take from pp comments.

Thing was Bigchoc that the cross party social care plan protected TM's Tory voting demographic very well by capping their contribution at an insurable amount. In contrast her plan theoretically exposed them to the full cost of care until they were down to their last £100k. (poor people who don't vote Tory don't have assets much above £100k to start with). Her policy was very progressive but deeply unfair especially wrt her core demographic. It also disincentivised and eroded provision of at home care by exposing income poor asset rich to costs which were previously waved. This in turn further increases pressure on the NHS. Absolutely crazy and almost certainly cost the Tories the 100+ majority which would have delivered Soft Brexit.

It's a bit like all the endemic crazy narrow computer says No thinking which her tenure at the Home Office seems to have so deeply embedded. No surprise it was her HO team which came up with it and failed to stress test it through Cabinet.

[prettybird]

I was commenting to dh that both Trump and BJ are incredibly vague and simplistic in what they say: the big difference is that BJ uses language to obfuscate () - his use of the word exculpate yesterday irrationally annoyed me - and to give himself an aura of being more intelligent and educated than us lower mortals - whereas Trump has forgotten all the long words is just simplistic and superficial.

Good communicators will use simple language to clarify ideas and concepts so that people understand them and can buy into them (or not).

[BigChocFrenzy]

Hunt said he would tell bankrupt small firms and farmers that their sacrifice was worth it, for a No Deal Brexit

People won't thank him for doling out some help - always too little, too late - for bankruptcies he caused !

The Tory party has gone so far beyond farce that I don't know what we call it
"Yes Prime Minister" never got this silly

[BigChocFrenzy]

pretty Wasn't there that "Operation Arse" last year started by Scottish Tories to keep BJ from becoming leader ?

Didn't seem to have much effect, if so,

Was it just another idea that never got off the ground,
or are Scots too small a % of the Tory party to influence it significantly, just there for Ruth's photo ops ?

[FiveAcorns]

PMK. Just voted in the Lib Dem leadership election.