Westminstenders: From Uxbridge to...?

[RedToothBrush]

Speaker Bercow is gone.

Speculation that Johnson is parachuting into Rutland.

Rumours that the Brexit Party won't contest the election.

A new speaker to be elected on Monday.

Parliament to dissolve next week.

Brexit? Oh we've forgotten that until Friday 13th...

I can remember politics back to the late 1960s

The fanatacism & nihilism of this Tory party incarnation, as compared to any previous ones is staggering.

Polls show the majority of their members - who select the candidates for MP -
would prefer the breakup of the UK, of the Tory party too, rather than not have Brexit

This is the very opposite of "Conservative"

It's not a revival of Thatcherism either
It is a nihilistic English Nationalism which has taken over a Conservative party
and is why so many Tory elder statesmen and younger MPs are now repelled by it.

After transition, BJ - who is motivated by Borisism, not political ideology - will either go for the minimum EU FTA as outlined in the WA or No Deal,
either of which would mean a US FTA and the Bonfire of Rights the ERG want.

It would also mean the decimation of mass manufacturing and farming, as the Brexiters' own economist Prof Minford has stated (and regards as acceptable collateral damage)

the little Tory invasion

If you think this is an invasion, just wait till you see what we do to the polling booths!

Angela Rayner 🌈
@AngelaRayner
·
2m
Can you even imagine the hysteria that would be now if this was a staff member for Jeremy Corbyn. The level of scrutiny for the conservative government, it’s activities and known associates is very concerning.
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Tom Harper
@TomJHarper
· 7h
Full story: Dominic Cummings, chief adviser to the prime minister, facing questions over his past activities in Russia after whistleblower came forward to raise “serious concerns” over time he spent there in 1990s thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-asks-about-dominic-cummings-years-working-in-russia-vl6d0w62z
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Exclusive: Ex-Russian arms tycoon quietly wields influence in British PM race

mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1UE1WO

And for you this is a sensible "way out"?

Of course it’s not ‘sensible’

It is however, what’s very likely going to happen if the Tories win the GE as, like you say, there’s pretty much no chance of an FTA is going to be agreed in time

John Major is the British Jimmy Carter: A poor PM in difficult times who turned into an elder statesmen.

Just a reminder that the closing date for postal vote applications is 25th November 2019.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/711954/Apply-to-vote-by-post-England-Scotland-and-Wales__1_.pdf

The fanatacism & nihilism of this Tory party incarnation, as compared to any previous ones is staggering.

We are a similar age and I think the same.

Quite honestly at this point I'd take a sane and competent Tory government. But this one is a combination of batshit and befuddled, in a way that seems unprecedented to me.

CendrillonSings
"at the time"
Does that mean 1992 or 1997? And you prefer Labour now? Odd, because Blair is the antithesis of the current leader, and even Kinnock fought a desperate battle within Labour to try to shift it away from the "1983" types that are now back in charge of the party.

I assume that was directed to me? (Is there an easy way to see what post someone is replying to? I am fairly new here and can't find information on that point.)

"At the time" referred to the occasion of my voting; you are assuming dates which may or may not have the slightest relevance. You are also making some fairly hefty assumptions about my preference at present; it could better be summed up as "I do not find I can trust someone who doesn't seem to know how many children he has" (as my brother beautifully put it) and the MP in the constituency I am voting in this time is a weasel I also wouldn't trust -- as far as I could fling him, on a bad day, with the wind against me, uphill.

You might say that I would vote Labour this time (if Liberal Democrat does not in the end look like a better bet in this constituency) not because I prefer them particularly, but because I would vote for a blue-based baboon if it knocked a little off the Con-placency of people I find utterly odious.

It is however, what’s very likely going to happen if the Tories win the GE as, like you say, there’s pretty much no chance of an FTA is going to be agreed in time

So you are saying that a vote for the Tories is a vote for no deal? But you nevertheless support this as the best outcome for the U.K.?

DH and I are both Labour supporters (traditionally) and DS is in an independent school.

John Major is the British Jimmy Carter: A poor PM in difficult times who turned into an elder statesmen.

Yes ... though I suppose one can ask if he'd have been a better PM if it hadn't been for the "bastards" (for those of a certain age or who know their political history). That's a question historians will seek to answer when they look at this period.

"Make Labour electable"

We have repeatedly said before that Corbyn is the main problem wrt getting rid of this hard right Tory govt:
he has a dodgy past & dodgy friends, which makes him a gift to the Tories.

... although to be fair every Labour leader since at least Harold Wilson in the 1960s has been demonised by the Tory media as the devil incarnate
There were even military / intelligence coup plots against Wilson, which fortunately all petered out

BUT
Corbyn won both Labour leadership elections by a wide margin, much to the disappointment of most of us on here

• but most of us are not Labou members.

Replacing him after that, before the GE, was always a fantasy.
So, being pragmatic, we moved on.
The situation is as it is, not as we wish it to be.

He will probably step down if the Tories win a working majority,
but barring tragedy, there is no feasible way he will be gone before a GE and there never has been since the last leadership election.

No, imo Major was a good PM,
but MrsT left him a real mess, an NHS in criisis and a sleazy party that disguested the country
He did v well to win in 1992

I liked him at the time, thought him a decent bloke.
I respected him both for his work in the NI peace process and for facing down his hard right "bastards" - instead of giving in to them as Cowardly Cameron did

*Mistigri
"John Major is the British Jimmy Carter: A poor PM in difficult times who turned into an elder statesmen."
Yes ... though I suppose one can ask if he'd have been a better PM if it hadn't been for the "bastards" (for those of a certain age or who know their political history). That's a question historians will seek to answer when they look at this period.

I know one person whose job (not political, and I suspect he had voted Labour at that time) meant that he had quite a lot to do with Major as PM, and about things of fairly heft importance. He says Major was undoubtedly the best of the Prime Ministers he had anything to do with. For what that is worth. I didn't know this man at the time, so his opinion had nothing to do with my feeling about Major when I voted for him.

So you are saying that a vote for the Tories is a vote for no deal? But you nevertheless support this as the best outcome for the U.K.?

Where exactly have I said that I support people voting Tory?

What I’ve actually said is that me and many others don’t think there is a viable alternative which means the Tories will likely win by default

JM did himself no favours with "we should condemn more and understand less," Back To Basics and the cones hotline.

(And Edwina Currie shows a certain lack of good judgement and good taste.)

there never has been since the last leadership election.

They massively overplayed their hand there but shows what can happen when you inhabit a bubble entirely of your own making, I try and keep a balance on my twitter between left and right sources to try and alleviate some of that

JM did himself no favours with "we should condemn more and understand less," Back To Basics and the cones hotline.

Before Brexit if you said the words John Major to me in a word association game, my instant reaction would have been "cones hotline" (even before Edwina ).

Before Brexit if you said the words John Major to me in a word association game, my instant reaction would have been

More peas dear?

Mine would have been "winter fuel payments"!

but barring tragedy, there is no feasible way he will be gone before a GE and there never has been since the last leadership election.

So brace yourselves for 5 more years of Tory government then

he has a dodgy past & dodgy friends, which makes him a gift to the Tories.

And yet exactly the same could be said about Cummings and his links to some very dodgy Russians, or to the people who are writing the Tory manifesto and have links to the RCP (supporter of Libyan terrorism and Serbian mass murderers, among other unfashionable causes).

So brace yourselves for 5 more years of Tory government then

Citation needed

What I’ve actually said is that me and many others don’t think there is a viable alternative which means the Tories will likely win by default

Surely that depends on whether most people who don't support the current incarnation of tories but don't feel there is a viable other option go ahead and vote for something they don't support and know is bad anyway ... or if they just don't vote.