Westminstenders: The only way forward is up.

[placemats]

A new thread as the other one is getting full. I'm enjoying the post election discussion. Every view is listened to and welcomed.

Brexit is happening, but what kind of Brexit will it be?

New leaderships for both Labour and the LibDems.

Most importantly, will Britain be Great in 2024?

Jess Phillips MP@jessphillips
Hmmmm.....

Yes, they need to be challenged with the facts - all the time. If there are really strong performances in the Commons, on TV and radio, at every opportunity, some of it will filter down. BJ needs to be shown up as lying. Again and again.
All those millions of time when Tory politicians got away with lying when interviewed. Nobody seemed to be able to contradict what they said, with the facts. People on this thread were so much better at doing that, fgs.

Steven Swinford@steven_swinford
BREAKING

Nicky Morgan is elevated to the Lords and becomes the new Culture Secretary

It is the first time a peer has been appointed to a Cabinet role since Lord Adonis and Lord Mandelson under Labour

I'm told Nicky Morgan will serve as Culture Secretary until post-Brexit reshuffle - it's a temporary role

The Government managed to turn her peerage round in a single day

She had already handed in her pass, key to her ministerial box, her phone etc & was planning leaving do

Nicky Morgan may not be formally elevated to the Lords as a peer until January

This Thursday is reserved for the state opening of Parliament so she can't be formally introduced then

The House of Lords is due to return on January 7, most likely appointment will take place then

Red That is hilarious! Just about sums up the attitude of the media towards female politicians.

I agree we need a strong opposition but I fear they will just do a lot of infighting and let the tories go wild. It happens after a big loss.
I'm a bit depressed , so sorry to sound defeated. I hope I'm wrong though!

Just it may not have an effect straightaway but Labour need to get as smart as the Tories re media.

They may not ever have the support of the mainstream media but they need to get their message across in different ways.

The80s i don't think you're wrong

From 25th November

Arj Singh @singharj
Outgoing MP Nicky Morgan tells @syalrajeev she has not been offered any job or had discussions with Downing Street about a peerage after the election.
Her visibility in the Tory campaign has raised eyebrows

Today

Nicky Morgan @nickymorgan01
Well it turns out that leaving the Cabinet is harder than leaving the EU! Am delighted to continue as @DCMS Secretary of State as the PM focuses on delivering our mandate in the vital first weeks of this new Government

Remember former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith...

... Welllllll.....

Robert Peston@peston
Sorry I am WRONG. Mandelson was in cabinet as a lord not that long ago. But @ZacGoldsmith also going to lords and will attend cabinet in his green job. So the lords are suddenly back in government in number.

I suppose I'm an old gimmer whose seen all this before! A big loss affects everything in politics (and in life. )
They need to regroup quickly.

The80s
Over the next few weeks the Tories are going to systematically weaken good governance
if Labour abdicate their duties to act as the Opposition and challenge every single step
they will never be forgiven by moderates

They need to stop navel gazing and get an interim leader in place before parliament opens

Re Starmer, I'm curious about Leeds University.

When he went there, in the mid-80s, (i.e. pre-1992), would Leeds have been considered an elite university?
What pre-1992 university wouldn't?

Sorry to derail, but as a Scot who began studying in the early 90s, I have trouble decoding the English university landscape of the mid-80s.

I tend to agree that his calm and forensic brain would be just what the Opposition needs to undercut BJs bluster and stammering, although I appreciate that Labour will be looking beyond that. Also, he seems a safe pair of hands compared to Corbyn, and many colleagues here in France have been surprised at his silence in the lead up to the GE.

I note that Thornberry is suing over claims she said voters were stupid.

@JustAnotherPoster00

I'm giggling like mad myself, and your post made me LOL too!

Best keep it sane and lighthearted now and then. But believe me I will not be laughing if someone other than our Comrade's acolyte is installed.

Fun times.

Oh My Lord RTB !! What paper is that???

Leeds is a red brick uni. And was pre 1992.

^A red brick university (or redbrick university) was originally one of the nine civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England in the 19th century. But with the 1960s proliferation of universities and the reclassification of polytechnics in the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, all British universities founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in major cities are now sometimes so called. Six of the original redbrick institutions, or their predecessor institutes, gained university status before World War I and were initially established as civic science or engineering colleges. Eight of the nine original institutions are members of the Russell Group (which receives two-thirds of all research grant funding in the United Kingdom).

The term red brick or redbrick was first coined by Edgar Allison Peers, a professor of Spanish at the University of Liverpool, to describe the civic universities, while using the pseudonym "Bruce Truscot" in his 1943 book Redbrick University. Although Peers used red brick in the title of the original book, he used redbrick adjectivally in the text and in the title of the 1945 sequel. He is said to have later regretted his use of red brick in the title.

I meant to say "if our Comrade's acolyte is installed"

Christmas brain. Again.

When he went there, in the mid-80s, (i.e. pre-1992), would Leeds have been considered an elite university?

I think it would have been classed in the tier below the big London unis and Bristol/Durham etc (depending on the subject too). But still as a "good university".

I went to university in 1982 and at the time even for the best students from "ordinary" schools, it wasn't easy to access the top tier universities. There wasn't much outreach towards students from more disadvantaged backgrounds and what there was, was very ineffective (I did an immersion weekend at an Oxford college and then turned down the place I was offered, partly because I was so horrified by the students - this was one of the less "posh" colleges but it was still very much Johnson and Cameron-era Oxford).

Plus in my experience students from less wealthy backgrounds were less likely to choose very distant universities because of the cost of travel etc. I don't think I ever took a mainline train until I was in work - on a student grant hitching was the only way you could afford to get around.

When he went there, in the mid-80s, (i.e. pre-1992), would Leeds have been considered an elite university?

No. It was a university over a poly and it sifted out your UCCA application if you hadn't put it joint first. But a perfectly attainable university if you got the grades. Just realising I applied to do Law there at a similar time.

When Keir Starmer went to University only 5% of youngsters did
and the numbers from state schools were tiny
to get a 1st meant he was among the top 10% of their students
(grade inflation had not kicked in then)
so basically he is VERY VERY bright
and travelled a VERY long way to go to Uni

Pmk

He did go to grammar school, though.

Leeds was and is rammed full of kids from London

His mum has been ill for a lot of his life.

www.hamhigh.co.uk/seasonal/election/sir-keir-starmer-my-mum-s-health-battles-have-inspired-me-1-4011167

Piggy
In the 70's the arms race of tutoring for grammar schools had not started as they were in the middle of being abolished and private school was much more affordable for the middle classes

Bottom line is the Opposition absolutely NEED a heavy hitter who has brains to challenge the charlatan at leader's questions. ASAP.

Some might think why bother? But the reality is, the charlatan needs to be checked thoroughly at every turn. Doesn't matter that Labour won't have a hope of being in power anytime soon, the important thing is to keep them in check and challenge them robustly at every turn.

KS for me, but with the Comrade Corbyn approach it won't happen I don't think. Maybe KS doesn't want it either who knows.

But we are in for the long haul of a D Cummins, sorry Tory Government for at least five years, and if unchallenged, ten or more.

Merry Christmas.