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.

I think they just come on here for therapy

Well, duh - can you imagine what a good therapist would have charged for the last three years?

Well you'll be waiting for a long time on the NHS Cendrillon

After Thorpe's acquittal, he emerged triumphant on the steps of the Old Bailey and took questions. BBC Man asked, 'Mr Thorpe, are you a homosexual?'

Not only Thorpe but all his entourage rounded on BBC man, How dare you ask that question, those are not the rules of the game.

That was 1979. In 1983 in Southwark, openly gay Peter Tacthell stood for Labour, much to the annoyance of retiring MP Bob Mellish who referred to him as 'an effing pooftah,' and did nothing to help when he lost to Simon Hughes who rode a wave of homophobic campaigning from the Libs, which was ironic.

I don’t know at the moment. I’ll definitely be voting for whoever’s most likely to make a dent in my Tory MP’s majority.

The polls are completely meaningless now, just as they were two years ago, and it’s all much more volatile than it was then.

Mockers you do love a bit of history.

Just read a bit about Thorpe. Definitely a character.

Jeremy Thorpe was never openly gay. However, he did admit to being bisexual, albeit off the record.

Is Boris really running off to Rutland? I looked at the 2017 results for Uxbridge and it seemed to me that unless Labour gave the Libdem candidate a free run there was absolutely no chance of Boris losing. A 5000odd majority but not many other votes aside from Tory and Labour.

Not that someone's sexuality has anything to do with how good they are at being a politician.

That matters not anymore. Shirley.

For people of a certain age (blushes) Rutland just evokes "Rutland Weekend Television" which spawned the prefab four of "The Rutles". The Rutles having a massive hit with their chart topping album "All you need is cash".

(Sometimes, just sometimes, you wonder whether there is a God, and you realise that if there is (which there isn't) they must have a sense of humour.)

The songwriter for "The Rutles" was of course, Neil Innes (of Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band fame with the late lamented Viv Stanshall) who later went on to create 2 series of "The Innes Book of Records" which (possibly due to copyright reasons ?) has never been repeated on TV since first showings in the late 70s/early 80s.

Innes himself came to despise "The Rutles" after losing composing credits when the Beatles publishers came a knocking. This was despite John Lennon helping Innes swerve some key Beatles riffs to avoid such a situation.

If there are any inaccuracies there, I apologise, but I was flying solo without Google. DM loved RWT, despite being less into Python.

And of course. for any 11 year old schoolboy, there was the "Rutland Weekend Television Book"

A Very English Scandal by John Preston, open which the tv drama was based, is a great, eye opening read!

For those who know it, Rutland is the 'secret cotswolds,' but don't tell anyone.

It is home to two very minor and idiosyncratic independent schools, Oakham and Uppingham, to England's only Ospreys, and to Ruddles Brewery. (Hic)

His visit to our nearest city went well.

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Ian Sollom 🔶
@IanSollom
Appears Boris Johnson has been booed out of Addenbrookes Hospital on a visit to Cambridge today.

Cambs has second biggest overspend in England, our residents are being put at risk by this Government's underfunding, with chronic understaffing hitting care hard.
#NotGoodEnough

Aside: I think my dad has all episodes of Innes Book of Records on video tape. You can see bits on YouTube.

Cambridge is very Remainey. Other end of the county is Brexity, esp Peterborough where the Pakistanis wish the Portuguese would go back where they came from, etc.

It would be hilarious if Johnson lost his seat in Uxbridge.

It would be hilarious if Johnson lost his seat in Uxbridge it would but as I said above, having looked at the figures from 2017 I don't think it stacks up. And Labour and Libdems would have to work together to have any chance at all.

It looks like it would take Labour/LibDem/Greens + to work together in Uxbridge. According to 2017. However, it would be uncomfortably tight for Johnson I would suggest.

Interesting to see what the Brexit Party decide to do there.

I think my dad has all episodes of Innes Book of Records on video tape. You can see bits on YouTube.

Pretty certain they feature on a Radio Times cover "back in the day".

I'd go to school the next day to from friends who just had no idea. Like a lot of stuff I watched. . Mike Harding. Jasper Carrott, Max Boyce. And then there's the wireless ... the BBC adaptation of Asimovs "Foundation Trilogy" as it was. Which was a bit over my head, but did get me into his "Robots" books in middle school. Which I read before I discovered Jennings

Interesting to see what Nigel Farage the Brexit Party decide decides to do there.

Just for accuracy.

DGR we used to watch Innes Book of Records as a family. At the end of the broadcast my dad would say "that was good. Shall we watch it again?" And we'd watch his recording!

Didn't talk about it to friends at school. They already thought I was enough of a weirdo

Reminiscing about the Thorpe scandal - ah I remember it well.
"Bunnies can & will go to France" becoming an instantly famous phrase.

A talented politician, but fortunately an incompetent would-be murderer, at a time when being gay was a career-killer for a politician and socially shocking.

Also, the dreadful behavious of the Telegraph that is probably what made the jury acquit Thorpe:

the newspaper offered chief prosecution witness Peter Bessell, a former Liberal MP, a hefty payment for his story - but double the amount if Thorpe was convicted

Incredibly irresponsible behaviour by the media, even by today's standards
and was brilliantly used by his defence lawyer, the infamous George Carman QC, in the case that really made his name

It's all very well giving politicians a pass on their private lives - really it should be the norm.

However there is something deeply deeply distasteful and unpleasant about men (and this time I am specific in using the gendered pronoun) that were more than happy to sit in a government that was busy enforcing oppressive and draconian laws against other men, whilst at the same time enjoying the cloak of protection of government.

Even now, thanks to Operation Spanner, peoples private lives are not their own.

The judge's summing up brought it home to me - and many other students at the time - how the upper class Establishment will protect each other so effectively
and how difficult it is to convict one of them.

I was actually quite sympathetic to him, but was still shocked he got off

I seem to remember that Peter Cook did a fantastic piece of satire as the judge summing up the Thorpe trial at Secret Policeman's Ball.

Tactical voting website criticised for 'bogus' advice

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/30/tactical-voting-could-deliver-remain-victory-in-election-study