Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Brexit

Westminstenders: On An Election Footing

966 replies

RedToothBrush · 25/07/2019 16:22

Boris Johnson has set out his strategy.

He is challenging remain Tories to put their money where their mouth is, or to shut up.

His majority, soon to be just 1, is fragile but he intends to tough it out.

His Cabinet, is to all intents and purposes an ERG take over of the Tory Party, not unlike the Momentum take over of the Labour Party. And Johnson is looking to purge the party of its liberal wing, whilst pretending that he is liberal to make it acceptable to long term loyal Tories who might still waiver and merely vote for the rosette or like the veneer of respectability.

It has been made clear to Tory MPs that they will have to sign up to a No Deal Strategy should a snap election be called - or face the prospect of deselection. Disloyality will not be tolerated as Hunt's Cabinet backers all found out when they were sacked rather than be allowed to resign as Grayling was.

Instead Johnson reaped his revenge bringing back quitters and disgraced MPs as a deliberate 'fuck you' to moderates and remainers.

His message is clear and made all the clearer by the appointment of Dominic Cummings.

Today the Treasurery opened the piggie bank and told all departments to prepare for no deal. That is what is going to happen.

Parliament can not stop no deal. Johnson will drive it through regardless, even if its technically illegal. The default of no deal makes it an impossible juggernaught to stop without triggering a GE before the 31st October.

Technically speaking there are just 3 parliamentary days left this can be done.

And a GE is no guarentee of stopping no deal anyway. Cummings coming on board spells it out. Its a campaign strategy to reinvigourate the Leave Campaign and make all the promises that were made before. Of course there is no way of implimenting any of these before 31st October, so they just sound nice and people will believe them because they want to believe them. They want to trust and have hope for the future.

Yet with no trade deals and third party status, and crippling gridlock at ports and extra red tape for exporters and importers to deal with, it is inevitable that the economy will take a big hit. And Johnson's promises are expensive. His £39 billion he wants to withhold, is peanuts in the scheme of things and given what he is proposing.

The plan might sound nice, but it doesn't actually add up.

If we want a deal we will STILL have to sign up to conditions that Brussels sets out EVEN IF we no deal.

Meanwhile the US is ready and waiting to fleece us, because we aren't prepared to admit this and are too proud to see that this is a better option than have corporate American feast on the bones of the British economy.

Human Rights and Workers Rights are very much in the cross hairs with this. Health and Safety standards that have been set by London and then imposed on the EU will be burnt.

All the while the EU will be blamed for our own folly.

The worst thing is, people will actually buy it too.

Things are going to get a hell of a lot worse in this country, not because we lack optimism and hope, but because our egos are too big and we have been too idealist rather than recognising very real obstacles and finding ways to overcome than rather than just trying to ignore them. We will find out all those Paragraph Cs in good time the hard way because of the lack of attention to detail.

PFI and outsourcing will look like minor hiccups when the shit hits the fan.

I do hope that the puritians of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats and the Remain Referendum Campaign are happy. This is also their mess. They have spent 3 years naval gazing and still don't understand nor know how to respond. This is where a General Election becomes a very real danger because they are clueless as to how to combat a reunited Leave campaign.

Be careful what you wish for going forward.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
22
BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:44

"Doesn't matter how many Southern Remain seats Boris loses if he garners even a fraction of these votes."

I would normally doubt if the Tories can win many Northern Labour seats

However, if Labour continue to repel both Remain and leave, by unsuccessfully trying to please both,
then they will lose votes to the LDems and more likely Farage than the Tories, if his party stands

that will be the critical issue:
will Farage split the rightwing vote, or will he stand down his party for the next GE ?^

I posted the predicted seats atm with the Faragists standing, where the Tories were 68 seats short of a majority

BJ's promises might con some voters into believing that this time the tories won't screw the poor,
but another hung Parliament still seems a likely result

it is quite possible that Labour could form a minority govt if they can offer the Ldems and SNP enough for confidence & supply

placemats · 27/07/2019 13:44

RE: HS2

Crossrail.

DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 13:47

Nothing would make me use the bus.

Chaque a son gout.

I'm quite happy to use a bus where it works. So far, wherever I have worked, commuting by bus would have taken far longer (think over an hour for a 10 minute drive) and cost more than the car journey (if we take the car is used for other things too).

That said, since age has started taking it's toll, and I'm more to the hospital(s), buses have suddenly made a lot of sense. Firstly because it's an eye thing, so you can't drive after drops. But also because parking isn't guaranteed (and even if you do find a space, it can take over 20 minutes). Plus it's £5 to park anyway.

So all of a sudden, a 2-bus 35 minute (at worse) journey pretty much door to door makes a lot of sense. And it's £3.90. So an instant £1.10 saving anyway.

Being less than a minutes walk from a bus stop has suddenly made our current location invaluable. (And I can walk to our other local hospital in under an hour).

Peregrina · 27/07/2019 13:48

Crossrail has probably gone too far to be stopped, so may as well be completed.

HS2 could be scrapped since not a metre of track has been laid. There is still congestion in the south on the rail lines but I suspect more could be done to improve existing freight lines.

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:48

I would piss myself laughing if BJ becomes the PM with the shortest ever tenure

and lets in a Corbyn govt !

however, BJ will probably choose the next GE date to at least avoid being the answer to Pub quizzes

SwedishEdith · 27/07/2019 13:49

Look, we know why he keeps going on about buses.

Did Boris Johnson Ramble About Model Buses to Manipulate Google's Search Results?

www.gizmodo.co.uk/2019/06/did-boris-johnson-ramble-about-model-buses-to-manipulate-googles-search-results/

prettybird · 27/07/2019 13:51

He might not have a choice Wink

Here's hoping Grin but I'm not holding my breath Wink

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:52

DG With my eyes, I gave up driving in 2010
(doctor didn't bring it up, but agreed it was a good idea when I said)

I can still cycle v easily - it's far less demanding on the eyes
(doctor happy about this)

I do about 150 km per week, but admittedly always the same routes and always on v safe cycle paths

DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 13:52

The main thing I have always been aware of with Leave is the factor that it is a mainly male vote. I have been wondering for some time how they will bring women on side to increase their share.

Why on earth would any self respecting leaver want to do that ? The entire point of leave is to reverse the past century. Once we've left the EU, they ain't gonna stop. Believe you me (like the metric thing) the next thing in their sights is to reverse the terrible mistake that is universal suffrage. Which the more alert and astute might have noticed has already started. You only have to disenfranchise a few for a chain-reaction to happen, and before you know it ... well you can read your history books.

It will take a generation or two, but women will finally be put back in their place. (And the cynic in me thinks that a lot of "trans issues" will be solved when there is a downside to being a woman ....)

placemats · 27/07/2019 13:53

Just to be clear:

The Good Friday Agreement is an international peace treaty.

It is not a 'peace process'.

SwedishEdith · 27/07/2019 13:53

No buses go where I want to go in an acceptable time. I'm already an hour door to door for work - buses take considerably longer (and are horrible).

tobee · 27/07/2019 13:56

Reading through this thread this morning my head is in s spin; thinking about everything.

So, is Johnson winding the clock down for no deal? He's not going for an election before 31st October? But if we no deal and he chooses to/has to hold one after, won't he/Tories be decimated by no deal? Or will he "lipstick on a pig" the withdrawal agreement?

I can't work it out? Confused

Also, jealous of Wood, having been on a canal, my favourite holiday! Smile

placemats · 27/07/2019 13:57

HS2 could be scrapped since not a metre of track has been laid.

Even though 4.1 bn has already been spent.

www.ft.com/content/f403a086-91ab-11e8-b639-7680cedcc421

Crossrail has cost to date 18.4 billion. I was working on Crossrail in the the early 90s.

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:57

DG Self ID allows men to keep their privileges,
e.g. entry into men-only clubs, inheriting peerages

So, I would assume that men would retain their right to vote

Or maybe we would all revert to a property qualification

SwedishEdith · 27/07/2019 13:57

Manchester has invested in trams, though. The young people I work with buy houses within walking or cycling distance to work or on the tram route.

DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 13:59

I can still cycle v easily

On pavements ?

Sorry to be a party pooper, but I've grown too fond of life to cycle anywhere near a car. It's just too fucking dangerous. No matter how good a cyclist you are, it only takes a moments inattention, and you're just two kidneys, lungs, a heart and liver and whatever else can be salvaged from the mess.

I refer you to my "if they really meant it" observation. If successive governments were really serious about promoting cycling, they would have done it.

However, I also have to say that they have just completed a massive cycleway along the A38 into Birmingham which is more the ticket. Although since it still mixes cycles and pedestrians, they must have opted for the Mickey Mouse version Sad ....

I also have a sneaking suspicion mobility scooters aren't catered for either. But since we don't really want the disabled out and about too much (if at all) that was probably planned for.

Justaboutdone · 27/07/2019 14:05

DGR no way would I Cycle in B’ham. Hate driving there too. So many diversions etc. Or at least over the last few years. We tend to go to the easiest car park to the route we come in.

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 14:05

tobee He has a window after Brexit before things might get bad enough for voters to accept they were conned

Unless the govt completely wrecks civil service planning, I'd expect only inconveniences the first few weeks, nothing drastic

It could take a few months for the exports crash to send the trade deficit rocketing, or for business bankruptcies and unemployment to spike
Then it takes a while for all this to come into the official figures that are released

Sterling would probably tumble again once No deal is inevitable or actually happens
That would have some effect on prices, but won't make the Tory tribe change their vote

I'd estimate at least 6 months before things get really bad politically for the Tories

If Raab starts a war, BJ could hold onto power for several years

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 14:07

DG We have a brilliant system of cycle paths here, quite separate lanes on the road
I feel pretty safe
Probably the exercise lowers my overall risk of dying

tobee · 27/07/2019 14:09

Thank you BigChoc!

But sadly your information does not fill me with happiness! Sad

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 14:10

Looking at govts since the war, it seems more usually Tories rather than Labour, who leave the finances in a mess
and Labour who have to sort them out

( I refuse to blame Brown for the Global financial crisis)

LonelyTiredandLow · 27/07/2019 14:10

Why on earth would any self respecting leaver want to do that ?

Because, as I note from these threads, women are half of the population and many of them are against Brexit/Leave. If they want to keep on with Brexit being 'will of the people' they do have to make women at least feel slightly listened to or 'helped' to ensure they have some of their votes at a GE. Busses being cheap and quick makes sense as a palm off for enabling women to continue to do the "womens' work" that is unpaid. Sounds good for women but actually keeps them in their place.

LonelyTiredandLow · 27/07/2019 14:12

Buses, on the face of it, seem a-sexual in nature. Unless you have read up on who uses them you wouldn't notice that better bus routes is something that would make women's complicated roles in life easier.

SwedishEdith · 27/07/2019 14:15

I knew I never wanted to go on a cruise. 😮

twitter.com/richardgaisford/status/1155029988791468032

Britannia left Bergen at 1430 on Thursday, the violence occurred 12 hours later after a black-tie evening. It followed an afternoon of ‘patriotic’ partying on deck, with large amounts of alcohol being consumed by many guests.

LonelyTiredandLow · 27/07/2019 14:16

Maybe I am being to suspicious, but a policy 'for women' that flies under the radar of most men as one, keeps women doing social care unpaid while NHS is dissolved and speeds up the process to make it more efficient sounds like a perfect Leaver vote winner to me.

Although I also think he is skewing search results Wink