Westminstenders: The Non-Pact Pact

[RedToothBrush]

The Brexit Party and the Conservatives have agreed a trumpian pact to no deal. Led by the ERG.

They don't want you to know its a pact because the Conservatives still want One Nation Conservatives types to believe they are still One Nation Conservatives, simply because they say they are. They are not.

The Brexit Party won't stand any candidates in a Conservative held seat. But don't be surprised if there isn't more Non-Pact tactical stepping aside. This of course won't be a Pact. Cos the Brexit Party say its not. And the Conservative Party say its not.

The Liberal Democrats, Plaid and the Greens are in an electoral pact. They say they are in an electoral pact and have published a list.

Meanwhile the Labour Party isn't in a Pact. But there is still talk that in key seats that someone (either the LDs or Labour) should stand aside to try and deseat key Conservatives. This won't happen because the Lib Dems and Labour are not in a pact. And when they say they are not in a pact they aren't.

If after an election we have a hung parliament then either the Conservatives or Labour who are not in a pact and say they will never be in a pact, will try and woo someone to a kingmaker and be in government with them, probably on a supply and demand basis rather than coalition. They'll deny this but we kind of know how this goes...

The more I think about the more I'm incensed. How dare Jo Swinson declare that the Labour Party is not a remain Party. Who does she think she is? Expecting Labour supporters, who are vastly remain, to vote LibDem?

Thank goodness I'm not in a marginal seat where I'd have to vote for LibDem to keep out the Tories - though is there really a difference?

Corbyn is deliberately misrepresenting what Nicola said: she has explicitly said that she would not support Johnson. In fact, the answer was, "In a word, no".

So if the SNP ends up winning the majority of the seats in Scotland (again) and Labour with the SNP/PC/Greens (and even possibly the LibDems but that depends on Swinson ) has more seats than the Conservatives then the choice is his.

Otherwise, I suspect that we'll end up back at the polls in the New Year - and the consequent No Deal Brexit would be on Corbyn

I know at least 10 LibDem supporters in my constituency who voted Leave.

The arrogance of Jo Swinson to say that.

Laura Kunessberg has just voiced over a BBC main news segment on Labour, saying, '... there was confusion', - just because she asked a fucking question that was immediately answered by John McDonnell.

Ffs Laura K, you and your batted-away questions are not the fucking news, you melt.

Your job is to fucking report the news, analyse it, and move on. You don't get to work for the BBC and position yourself as the centre of your own fucking career escalation as news unless you tell the truth about your 'access' pact with Johnson.

Sorry, but dear god ...

NEW: @NicolaSturgeon tells @BBCNews that if Jeremy Corbyn won’t allow #indyref2 on her timescale (ie next year): “I won’t help him in power, to get into power, to stay in power”

Well this is a turn-up for the books. I may have to start saying nice things about Nicola Sturgeon, yes, Nicola Sturgeon!

I'm not deluded about likelihood of Tory majority and how the rest of the country apparently feel about Johnson, that posters here are not very representative.

I don't think Johnson's campaign is going well but that probably won't mean anything in the end. I haven't forgotten the referendum morning or morning after Trump elected.

But, until the votes are counted what else is there to have but a smidgen of hope 🤷🏻‍♀️

I expect noone will offer Corbyn C & S to do anything more than hold a PV and pass any "house-keeping" bills required to keep the govt ticking over
e.g. if HMRC actually need continued permission for certain taxes, as some have claimed !

Noone is going to support him in any of his more socialist policies, whether that be on schools or taxation or renationalisation

They would support non-controversial ones that have a wide consensus in the HoC & the public
e.g. divorce, DV law, fire regs

That's what is so infuriating about Clegg joining an austerity govt
If they had just provided C & S, they would have been able to block anything they didn't like
e.g. like the DUP, until the Tories lost too many MPs

So will/can Farage stand his candidates back up again if he's not happy with the Tories' manifesto?

*Blatantly not giving a shit about the poor & vulnerable plays very well with the "I'm all right Jack voters"

Laughing about "picininnies" and "Burkha pillar boxes" plays very well with the racists

and the Old Etonian uc bumbling piffle routine wanks those who like to tug a forelock to their betters*

This is rather politically incorrect BCF, but it's so spot on that I am going to quote it here just for the sake of it.

That's what is so infuriating about Clegg joining an austerity govt

Easy to say with hindsight. And I expect a lot of LDs would agree with you.

On the other hand, C&S gives you absolutely zero access to government thinking or the machinery of government, and puts you at serious risk of being completely blindsided (see: the DUP).

What did you think of May's campaign in 2017 RTB?

Lots of people then said a bad campaign wouldn't matter. Repeating strong and stable would work. No one actually cares what's in the manifesto.

But somehow a lot of it fell apart (though not as much as needed, to be sure)

I wonder if we're going to end up with almost exactly the same seat distribution as we had when parliament dissolved. And what will happen then

I remain hopeful that labour will surge, though.
And I remain extremely dubious of polls saying how popular the tories are compared with what real people are actually saying.

What did you think of May's campaign in 2017 RTB?

Lots of people then said a bad campaign wouldn't matter. Repeating strong and stable would work. No one actually cares what's in the manifesto.

But somehow a lot of it fell apart (though not as much as needed, to be sure)

May's campaign was crap because she didn't connect with anyone. She wasn't personable and was robotic.

Whatever you think of Johnson, he's not got that same problem. All the trumpisms ARE connecting with some parts of the population and he has a personal popularity through his celebrity status that May could never emulate.

Thats your issue.

When you look at net approval ratings Johnson is scoring highly with his supporters and scores higher than Corbyn

Corbyn had a high in 2017 but has since disappointed so he will struggle to counter that this time around. Johnson is still somewhat in a honeymoon phase...

And this all matters

And yet Prettybird he's better thought of than May. Is there anyone in the Tory party who can connect with the people and do Q&As?

AutumnCrow - your comment about Laura K reminds me of Nick Robinson's bias approach towards Alex Salmond during the Indyref campaign: he claimed on BBC News that Alex Salmond hadn't answered his question despite him asking it multiple times (including heckling the question after Salmond had tried to move on to other reporters although he didn't mention that ) despite Salmond having patiently given him a long direct reply

And no, it wasn't that Salmond did the "give an answer to a different question" technique (as politicians often do ): Robinson asked about RBS moving its HQ to London and wouldn't that mean that Scotland would lose out on corporation tax, and Salmond answered directly (and at length) pointing out that corporation tax is levied according to where the economic activity takes place, so being HQed in London wouldn't actually change the calculation about the amount of corporation tax that RBS (or any other bank) that was due, as that would be based on the economic activity in Scotland - and which is what they'd done their calculations on. Nick Robinson just didn't like that answer.

Of course, those that watched the whole press conference like geeks like me knew that Robinson was lying in his assertion that Salmond hadn't answered the question (and knew his comment about "despite asking it 5 times" was compounding the lie) - but most people don't question the BBC and believes what it says (at least, they did back then )

I thought it was diabolical squid
Was aghast at how well the tories were - alledgedly- doing

Johnson is getting the 'difficult' North, Scotland and Northern Ireland done with, with the exception of those pesky floods and the promise of even more rain. It's clear he has failed north of the borders.

He's leaving the sunny uplands of the south to the last to go to the polls bathed in a halo of golden promises. Weather permitting of course!

hopefully he can also stay of the booze

It seems the opposite from where I'm standing, May at least had a sort of (apparent) decency and seriousness to her, Johnson is despised. When he meets real people and not the fawning press, at least.

May's approval ratings were a lot higher than Johnson's.

Just a question:
How are Tory remainers intending to vote?

May refused to meet anyone

I think she met a few and had similar reactions to what Johnson is getting now so stopped. Correct me if I'm wrong...