Westminstenders: Christmas Cold, Campaigning, Canvassing and Cancelled Carols

[RedToothBrush]

It looks like a December General Election is on.

The EU have officially extended A50 until 31st January. We have to name an EU Commissioner though.

All that seems left to do is decide between the 9th and 12th December.

The difference between the two is about whether there is any possibility that the WAB can be passed before Parliament dissolves.

A pre-brexit GE is thought to favour the LDs at the expense of Labour and the Conservatives. What the Brexit Party decide to do and where they decide to stand will also be crucial.

Yelling insults at Remainers gets you just as far as yelling insults at Leavers.
Nowhere

All these Conservatives standing down - presumably to be replaced with frothy Brexiteer right wingers.

I'm worried about what the Conservative Party will be😞

OMFG - you really are lost in your own little world aren't you?

Also aggressive. Not sure what you hope to achieve?

Dmitry Grozoubinski@DmitryOpines

Every election in every western democracy it's the same story.

Conservatives promise to generate funds by "slashing waste" and growth by "eliminating job killing regulations."

Then they get into power, double the deficit and cut environmental regulations people actually like.

There's a media narrative that government funds are finite and impossible to sensibly generate,
but there's a mountain of unspecified regulation holding business back that can be slashed with no side effects or trade-offs.

The media is very good at demanding progressives explain in detail how they'd fund their election promises.

It needs to become equally good at demanding conservatives explain in detail the regulations they'll cut in promising to "kick-start the innovation economy."

< atm, I'd like to hear how the Tories plan to fund their spending plans, especially while their Brexit shrinks the economy.
Maybe Trump wants to buy a chunk of Scotland, now he knows Greenland isn't for sale ?
I'm sure the Tories wouldn't sell off the Home Counties though >

@thecatfromjapan - yes, and people will vote blindly for them, believe if the a voting for a party that exists in name only....

Out Bercow gave a nice tribute to Ken.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-political-party/id595312938?i=1000451352788

This is a good listen.

I suppose Ken has given up his chances of becoming Lord Ken now. Shame as he’d be excellent in the lords.

If one looks at posts like cat's above I think it's a pretty fair assessment about how we're not in the slightest bit deluded. But crack on with jumping up and down as the voice of rationality Bear

I don't think any of are "lost in our world"
We're trying to defend what remains of it from a viciously hard right Tory party

So that e.g. the disabled don't have to fight & beg for the miserable benefits that are allowed after tax cuts for the better off and after Trident & co are paid first

So that teachers don't have to spend so much of their own money feeding hungry pupils

I wish that world didn't exist in the UK.

Alan Duncan went today not sure if he was mentioned earlier.

Another Tory adult leaving
I remember when he became the first openly gay Tory Cabinet Minister:
a week of media spluttering, then suddenly it didn't matter much in politics, or business

Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn

Alan Duncan was the first openly gay Tory MP.

First elected in 1992, did 20 years on the front bench, including 7 shadow cabinet jobs and 7 years as a DFID and FCO minister.

A lot of cumulative Tory green bench experience is disappearing.

< that last bit is really important for general competence & wisdom in the Tory Parliamentary Party after the GE >

I wish I had an email address for KC, to pass on my best wishes on his retirement. Despite the fact that he is a Tory, he was one of the good ones.

Email address is publicly available for all MPs. I guess they'll forward emails?

www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/mr-kenneth-clarke/366

[email protected]

I wonder if all these half decent Tories leaving is good news for those of us who want to see that shower out.

I think there are a lot of positive messages for change that need to come out in this election.

Austerity has had a massive impact on people.

The issues are - the NHS, social care, education, decent school funding, childcare costs, housing, access to GPs, inequality, ensuring everyone has a decent chance in life....

These are the issues that the Tories can be challenged on - and these are the issues that can get people out to vote.

Last time, it was all about the magic money tree. The Conservatives seem to have found it....but have they found a heart after years of austerity, the effects of which we can see around us.

Remember the poster "Labour isn't working". We need a simple message for positive change.

I agree with Bearbehind that we have to be careful to be positive (although a "Project Fear" approach can be effective, viz the Better Together "Project Fear" campaign during the Indyref ).

Cummings' Leave campaign was effective because of its simplistic lies such as "Take Back Control". BJ has continued the persistent lying with his repeated mantra of a positive sounding "Get Brexit Done" when he knows full well that even with "The Deal", it is just the start of the process - which most definitely won't have got anywhere near closure by July, when we need to ask for an extension, which if we don't do means we crash out at the end of December

But just complaining about them won't convince the soft Leavers - they'll just double down in their convictions (the backfire effect).

We need to try to find common positive messages. Even if it's just spreading the memes about "What did the EU ever do for us?"

There's no point even starting to try to convince the ERG (Spartan) types. They actively want the very things that we fear, as they will personally benefit from them.

Telegraph lead tomorrow has that story about the Farage Company maybe rescuing BJ:

The Brexit Party is considering withdrawing hundreds of general election candidates in what would be a major boost to Boris Johnson’s hopes of a majority

To basilpots and lonelyplanetmum.

Thanks to both of you.

Will be whisking an email off tomorrow.

I don't understand most of Bear's comments though. It seems to be "you don't like everything about Labour and the LibDems. You should vote Conservative!" Or "everyone else in the country is voting Conservative and they will get a stonking great majority. Everyone else hates Labour. So vote Tory in December!" And yet we're apparently the ones spectacularly missing the point.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime - the other thing you can do from your home (without walking ) in advance of the actual Election Day is telephone canvassing.

It can be as simple as asking whether they need a lift to the polling station

You can contact your local anti-Tory Party and they'll come up with suggestions

.

PMK

Did anyone else notice the proliferation of "One Nation" prefix coming from Boris earlier?

I hadn't - but if he is indeed trying to claim the prefix, that is an absolute betrayal of everything that true "One Nation Conservatives" stood for . I use the past tense, as I think their more paternalistic , civic duty, "Conservative" approach is now history

NB: I'm not a Conservative and never will be but I have come across in the past Conservatives who still had a sense of civic duty.

< that last bit is really important for general competence & wisdom in the Tory Parliamentary Party after the GE >

Setting aside differences on policy, the really scary thing is the almost complete absence of basic competence on the Tory front bench.

When Sajid Javid counts as a cabinet "heavyweight" (and he is, in comparison to Raab, Patel, Truss) then you are in serious trouble.

To reassure the nervous / suspicious:

Matthew Holehouse@mattholehouse

"Exit day" in UK law is deferred to Jan 31 2020.

Statutory instrument made at 2.06pm today.