Westminstenders: From Uxbridge to...? Part deux GE 2019 special.

[placemats]

New thread.

General election 12th December 2019. Results out on Friday 13th. Unlucky day for some.

So this election is unusual in that it will focus primarily on Brexit and referendums with domestic issues tagged alongside, for some parties.

A PM needs to command a majority in the Commons, but does not have to be there to command it. Last PM not an MP was Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, in 1902, suceeded by his nephew AJ Balfour from where the expression comes, Bob's Your Uncle.

So Lord Farage could indeed preside from the red benches.

All these centrist MPs not going for re-election, do not forget they will soon be on the non exec gravy train. I would imagine spreadsheet Phil already has some very lucrative offers that helped him make up his mind. There was pull as well as push going on.....

MockersthefeMANist

Why are Mims Davies’ kids in Sussex? Eastleigh (last time I looked) is in Hampshire. So if her kids are in Sussex and her days are spent in London and her weekends are spent in Hampshire ...

Why are Mims Davies’ kids in Sussex?

Maybe she left them in the pub, like Cameron?

Or maybe she never bothered to move when she won her highly marginal seat because she was waiting for something more handy for local schools where they don't count the Tory vote but weigh it to save time.

Dh has also consistently asserted that Brexit wouldn't happen - ever since 24 June 2016.

Re the Conservatives "letter" aimed at the Scots - there's nothing in that that bothers me . The SNP are making Indyref2 a key plank of its election campaign this time around (alongside Scotland not being dragged out of the EU against her will). Even if people don't want to leave the UK, they can always vote No in the Indyref2.

Ironically, the SNP didn't lead with talk about Indyref2 in the 2015 and 2017 campaigns (to the frustration of some of its supporters) - it was the Conservatives who kept on making a big deal of it.

So it's up to the Scots which way they choose to vote. And then it is still up to them which way to vote in an Indyref2.

mockers hmmm - makes you wonder (a) how much time she spent in Eastleigh or (b) how much time she spent with her kids or (c) did the kids get dragged down to Eastleigh every weekend?

All the moderates stepping down. Remind me again why would anyone want to be an MP? Especially these days?

Business Insider reporting that the Johnson wing of the Conservative Party received just under £500K from Russian sources close to Putin between Nov 2019 and last month.

That's a lot of dodgy security risk donations.

Sorry, I meant to post the link:

https://amp.businessinsider.com/boris-johnsons-conservatives-receive-surge-in-cash-from-russians-2019-11?utmSource=twitter&utmContent=referral&utmTerm=topbar&referrer=twitter&r=US&IR=T&twitterr_impression=true

Normally with a hung Parliament the Queen calls for the leader of the biggest party to have first dibs at trying to form a Government, but what would happen if the Tories got the biggest number of seats, but Johnson lost his, so the party was leaderless?

BXP join the Grenfell discussion - I doubt if he'll apologise

Arron Banks@Arron_banks

You don’t need to be educated at Eton , to know that it’s smart to leave a burning building

Interesting question. Who knows?!

Balance of Power
@BalancePowerUK
BREAKING

Lady Sylvia Hermon (IND, North Down) will not be standing in the forthcoming General Election. She has represented her constituency since 2001.

Oh, that's a real shame
And she was my choice as GNU PM last time !

Stephen Walker@StepWalkTV

Lady Hermon to stand down as North Down MP.

Snap !

If a governing party calls an early election and fails to gain seats, it is by no means a given that their leader, whoever it might be, would be sent for first.

Oh fuck . Lady Hermon is a real loss Hadn't SinnFein said that they weren't going to run against her? Or was that the SDLP?

Sinn Féin did, SDLP too iirc
One of them would presumably stand now - they have time before 14 Nov

BUT .... looks like a DUP gain now

Dh has also consistently asserted that Brexit wouldn't happen - ever since 24 June 2016.

I thought for a long time that it wouldn't (or it would get watered down to a Norway+ Brexit that no one would notice).

But for at least the last two years my working assumption has been that it will happen.

Lady Hermon standing down is a disaster for democracy in NI. Most people in NI will have no effective representation at all. She represented both her own constituents, and the people of NI.

Is £500k a lot of money to donate to an election campaign? How does that compare?

Lady Hermon was a voice of calm and reason for all of NI, in contrast to the frothing from the DUP.

The reason that the local Catholic Primary School has one of the lowest percentages of pupils on free school meals and BAME in the country at 1% when the inclusive school next door has 10% is fairly obvious. Evidence of baptism before six months is required to have a chance of a place, not the norm in former communist countries for instance (another group massive underrepresented compared to the inclusive school next door), and a pretty good way to exclude those pupils coming from chaotic households. It is middle class cultural capital on steroids, and the Headmaster of the new secondary school is going into the school offering those parents a private school education in a state school Catholic friends have watched the character of the school change as the pressure on school places increased. The Church of England diocese in London is advising schools not to select on the basis of church attendance because it leads to the schools becoming the preserve of the middle classes but the roads around the local C of E church get jammed with all the 4 by 4s of families with 3-5 year olds packing out the pews when in all likelihood if there was not the prospect of a church school place it would be almost empty. That was the experience of a nearby vicar who was also on the receiving end of some serious indignant abuse from middle class parents when he did away with the requirement for church attendance.

I would have no problem with faith schools if they were inclusive and offered a faith education to everyone family who wanted it, not just those who have the resources to meet the selection criteria. It is not as if they put windows on men's souls in any case.

As Mayor Boris was a powerful enabler of a boys' secondary faith school that was established in west London. I doubt he quite appreciated the headmaster is a Christian Evangelical misogynist creationist...

The Libdem magic money tree -- www.libdems.org.uk/plan?utm_campaign=plan_launch_2&utm_medium=email&utm_source=libdems

Free childcare from 9 months? Be interested to see the bones of that proposal....