Westminstenders: Silly Season

[RedToothBrush]

It's that time of year again when politicians seem to completely lose their marbles in order to impress the faithful. And it is beginning to feel like conference season is increasingly an exercise in religious ferver to the party rather than considering what's in the best interests of the whole country.

Labour have got off to a good start before their conference opens, by almost starting complete melt down.

The Tories have promised to break from convention and try and over shadow the others, so that's something to look forward to.

And early this week we have the supreme Court ruling which could, regardless of which direction it swings, have massive ramifications for our democracy.

Big week ahead.

Although seeing someone else get into a verbal scrap with Bear is also funny. Making a bit of a habit of that aren't you, Bear.

Like I said, shit like this only widens the divide.

And we’re on the same bloody side

My cat will go and sort those pesky mice out as soon as he has finished identifying as a cube

I'm with squid4 on this, I'm not sure the Labour party's agreed position on Brexit is wholly bad.
They are fighting over everything, attacking each other all the time
which is always a car crash

Are they fighting and attacking, or are they discussing and attempting to come up with a compromise that will enable different sectors of society to keep talking? Obviously until the attempts to kick Tom Watson actually get anywhere - those attempts are disturbing I know.

Do you remember not long ago that the Tory party kicked out 21 of its senior members? And now I'm receiving emails saying that a group has written to the Council of Europe asking them to investigate the UK for breaches of human rights and refusal to uphold the principle of rule of law. If that's the alternative, many might be happy to support Labour. neweuropeans.net/article/2962/orderorder-european-wide-campaign-launched-safeguard-democracy-uk

I agree (again! ) with LouiseCollins28 about John Smith

The tragic loss of John Smith in 1994 deprives us of any real world evidence that this centrism was the only route to success (I suspect not) but we’ll never know now.

I still remember the shock I felt when I found out he'd died

We'll never know what a Labour Party under Smith would've been like Would he have been successful without having to sell Labour's soul as Blair did ? in my alternate universe dreams, he would have done

I remember reading an article that said that Smith and Major came from very similar backgrounds - and that it was purely the fact that Smith had been brought up in Scotland and Major in England that lead to one being Labour and the other Conservative, with the implication that if the locations had been reversed, then so would the parties.

Where I disagree with Louise normal service resumed is the idea that Those working class voters have also been Labour voters “forever” if you know what I mean, before Tony Blair, before Iraq, before “New Labour” was a thing and there are still plenty of them As a Scot, she should know that those "forever Labour voters" aren't necessarily forever

According to UKSCBlog, the Justices in attendance for the hand-down tomorrow will be: Lady Hale, Lord Reed, Lord Wilson, Lord Hodge, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lady Arden and Lord Kitchin.

PMK.
I think labour party is the only party actually trying to unite the people rather than divide the people.

(The UK refusal to join a France-Germany plan to reinvigorate multilateralism is significant in this regard too)

queenofthorn That looks an amazing soft play setup for your feline overlord to enjoy

Telegraph.

Story that catches my eye here is the one titled
Commons seat loses all its bank branches.

It states that a South Yorkshire constituency now has no bank branches in it at all. I can't find a link to an article about the story so I don't know which constituency it is.

Otherwise the front pages are pretty dull tonight.

I can understand Lab position, let's renegotiate a deal and then put it to the Willy of the People again vs Just Leave. But I think it is asking for an enormous leap of faith, which people just won't go for - and the inhouse wrangling going on is not going to help at all.

Back to the 'we are all doomed' scenario.

"Do you remember not long ago that the Tory party kicked out 21 of its senior members"

I suspect the reason why the Tories get away more with their internal fights - in fact their internal civil war atm -
is that they are so ruthless about getting rid of their own people who are no longer wanted,

whereas Labour keep arguing endlessly & noisily, but rarely go effectively for the kill

Didn't say it was working motheroffourdragons

Pretty us Scots are a different breed 🤣🤣🤣🤣 and not poisoned by the tabloids.

Well, I hope you guys are right about Labour's position.

I'm not so sure. I think it's going to lose us a lot of votes, and in FPTP, that may well mean Conservatives winning seats.

I really, really hope I'm wrong.

Appealing to Leave voters won't work. Firstly, Labour Leave is unlikely to vote elsewhere if they haven't already. It's Remain Labour that are mobile: moving to LDs or Green.

Secondly, there's a motion on Freedom of Movement tomorrow. It commits us to unlimited, non-reciprocal, EU immigration.

Now, I love that. It's a great thing - and it's a clear impediment to any plans for a dreadful, nativist Lexit. It removes all sorts of red lines determining any negotiations with the EU.

But is it seriously going to appeal to Leavers? I suspect not.

And I wonder about Lansmann's calls for Momentum members to 'vote with their conscience'. We know he's loyal. So what polling has he seen that prompted that?

Anyway. The position is what it is. It has virtues. I'm worried that we're past the point where it will appeal in the doorstep. But ... I'll campaign for it. Because a Conservative No Deal win doesn't bear thinking about.

Red perhaps look at this older article I just stumbled across then instead. And again, it harks back to a time when politics was something a bit more than just soundbite crap. You should be able to expect people in those kind of high positions to be better than the average!

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/18/douglas-hurd-warned-major-of-dangers-of-uk-isolation-papers-reveal

Well, I hope you guys are right about Labour's position.

At this point I might simply start hoping that that list of signatories to the France-German multilateral push isn't the beginning of a list of allies in World War III - with the UK on an opposing evil side.

A lot of Labour supporters on Twitter saying this is the final straw...

anyone seen this? bloody marvellous!
www.independent.co.uk/voices/boris-johnson-hospital-labour-activist-nhs-whipps-cross-london-a9112361.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Ecet3wE5sAfZgMHrlDaO1LN8BPHFmcMvs7qYjRLfq6AeKAsrgXYv3ZJc#Echobox=1568962184

Imo there are Far too many older white men in positions of power. I'm not sure about Jo Swinson, but f**k I'd risk her over Johnson and Corbyn tonight.

yolo Yes we have x