This Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy

[CumbrianLefty]

Which led to a spectacularly bitter battle with incumbent Michael Cox, of course.

Benn's supporters narrowly failed then, but took their revenge in the following parliament.

[CumbrianLefty]

It maybe started to change noticeably in the 1980s. My former MP won the seat in 1970, never moved from his native County Durham and this wasn't even considered that important - for a while.

But by the time we got to the 1992 GE, the Tories definitely tried to make it an issue.

[CumbrianLefty]

The number of Tory MPs not just defending Raab, but praising him in gushing terms, is revealing.

[CumbrianLefty]

There aren't *that* many of the latter in Scotland, though.

[CumbrianLefty]

Bit weird as the report was pretty clear that he's an incompetent oaf.

A lot of it was in classic civil service speak though, which apart from anything else means it will be too subtle for the average Tory who is naturally inclined to support Raab and his politics.

[CumbrianLefty]

Benton does seem to be in some bother, that would be an interesting by-election.

[CumbrianLefty]

Expulsion from the actual Tory party isn't that common, and certainly a rarity for actual MPs.

[CumbrianLefty]

Solihull is (in)famous for the Greens winning in areas that previously voted BNP.

[CumbrianLefty]

Parliamentary by-elections remain a black spot for them generally, for fairly obvious reasons tbf.

[CumbrianLefty]

Was this misfired Sue Gray stunt Dowden's idea?

Almost impressive speed if so, given how recently he was returned to government.

[CumbrianLefty]

Payne's politics were always almost hilariously obvious, though.

A classic of his remains a visit to Gateshead in the 2017 GE campaign, when everybody he talked to just happened to hate Corbyn - and from this he thought this rock solid Labour seat might actually go Tory. In the event, this failed to happen by a modest 17.3k votes.

[CumbrianLefty]

The success rate of journalists who go into elected politics is somewhat hit and miss.

[CumbrianLefty]

Tory Momentum with knobs on, good luck with that eh.

[CumbrianLefty]

It’s only day 2 of the National Conservative conference, because apparently the Bring Back Boris conference was a completely different event despite its great similarities.

This National Conservative one is much creepier. If this is the future of the Conservative Party then god help us.

Arguably more so, God help them. This is not election winning stuff, and then some - at least the original form of Corbynism did have quite a bit of stuff that was (in itself, at any rate) popular.

And its good for more to be introduced to what a repellent individual Douglas Murray actually is.

Genuinely, one of the most dangerous people alive.

[CumbrianLefty]

My feelings about fascism are mixed at best.

Horrifying.

But also honest.

[CumbrianLefty]

Damian Green's remarks about sewage* aren't terribly helpful all told.

(*and no, in this case that wasn't a reference to his online history)

[CumbrianLefty]

Average age of retiring Labour MPs is around 70. With Tory MPs, its in the 50s.

[CumbrianLefty]

In a competitive national environment Raab's retirement might give the Tories some hope of holding his seat, yes - but that's not really where we are at present.

[CumbrianLefty]

It also depends how interchangeable the various anti-Sunak groupings are. Are those who want Johnson back also willing to work in support of Braverman and vice versa? How about the lingering group of Truss ultras?

All this probably keeps Sunak safe until the GE - even if there *is* a confidence vote late this year it is still very hard to see him not winning it.

Just as well perhaps, as not much else seems to be going for him at the moment.

[CumbrianLefty]

And re my above post, today's PMQs was if anything even more of a blood sport than last week's.

I wonder if the PM leaving the country helped along this recent descent of the Tories into anarchy.

[CumbrianLefty]

Unless Sunak is personally compromised, he isn't stepping down or leaving before the election. I can't even explain a rationale for a challenger beyond desperation to appear in the "List of Prime Ministers" Wikipedia page - if you hate sunak, you simply wait for the grenade to go off, not take it from him and swallow it.

Though if it *does* happen yet again before the next GE, at least the "lucky" recipient will know they aren't likely to go down in the record books as "shortest ever serving PM in the UK" any more.

[CumbrianLefty]

So the - utterly devastating - BoJo report by MPs recommended a *90 day* suspension. Wow.

[CumbrianLefty]

Well at least we now know why he quit as an MP as soon as he was shown its findings.Though this will also inevitably raise questions over Sunak waving through most of his resignation honours list.

[CumbrianLefty]

BoJo describes the report as "rubbish" and "deranged".

And he still has his obedient simps, including on the Tory backbenches.

[CumbrianLefty]

Not much to say about Allan’s career. Brief staff bullying scandal, a lot of talk about her libertarian instincts (which informed her approach to COVID) and one time she posted an edited video of Starmer that implied he had chosen not to prosecute grooming gangs. 

She also doctored an email sent to her, so that it looked like she had received a death threat.