UK General Discussion Thread: mayy lmao

[Phony Moderate]

Lord (Cecil) Parkinson, prominent Tory figure during the Thatcher years who served as party chair and in various cabinet posts, has died at 84.

[Phony Moderate]

I literally only just realised that PCC elections are taking place in May, which means I'm probably about the 44th person in the entire country to do so. They should get slightly more than a 12% (or whatever it was last time) turnout at least. Still, it is going to be a pretty jam-packed couple of months electorally: the usual locals, the PPCs, the London Mayoral and Assembly, Scotland, Wales and Norn Iron and then a likely June EU referendum.

[Phony Moderate]

Some deal has been reached in the EU negotiations but it's not much change obviously - just a couple of benefit restrictions and some kind of safeguard for the City of London. Cameron to lead the Remain campaign, Gove and Galloway to campaign to Leave, Boris Johnson undecided.

[Phony Moderate]

Jeremy Clarkson has come out in favour of a Remain vote...

[Phony Moderate]

So it's essentially if all public schools in the US were converted to charters.
[quote]

Cameron would be in the Constitution Party in the US, etc etc.

[Phony Moderate]

Wouldn't, say, a Tory manifesto in 1966 advocating monetarism have been poisonous to the electorate?

[Phony Moderate]

YouGov:

Lab - 34
Con - 33
UKIP - 16
Lib Dems - 6

Let the history books say that a Jeremy Corbyn-led party led in an opinion poll.

[Phony Moderate]

I recall him expressing skepticism over benefit cuts a few years back. Probably not quite the monster we've made him out to be.

[Phony Moderate]

Delayed revenge for the events of late 2003 perhaps?

[Phony Moderate]

Blimey, IDS sounds like Corbyn on Andrew Marr today.

[Phony Moderate]

I've read Tom Watson in the NS yesterday and saw some of his activities lately, I think he's trying to shape a Wilson tech-savvy image and he polls it very well. Would very much like to see him in the mix when the trots gone

Dave Nellist was expelled about thirty years ago IIRC.

[Phony Moderate]

Believe he's said that he'd said down.

[Phony Moderate]

Since when have people been talking up Gove as the likely successor? The last I heard it was all about May and Osborne.

They are both pro-EU which is a toxic position amongst the base under current circumstances.

[Phony Moderate]

She's dead.

[Phony Moderate]

I wonder what level of support it has to go down to to prevent the issue from coming up in Parliament every few years.

[Phony Moderate]

We may think this campaign has been bad, but imagine a death penalty referendum...

[Phony Moderate]

Hilary Benn sacked

An egotist whose political career survived on his surname. Served in both the Blair and Brown governments and has been a permanent member of the Shadow Cabinet since 2010...now he has been shown the door by some bearded IRA/ISIS/Hamas-sympathising loon. All I can say is... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo

[Phony Moderate]

Dan Jarvis is a name to keep in mind.

[Phony Moderate]

You have to say that Dan Jarvis looks incredibly good on paper; in a post-Brexit world most will see the need for STRONG LEADERSHIP and Jarvis is a former Army Major. Also he's not tarnished by any frontbench experience.

[Phony Moderate]

Hard to believe that a Brexit result, at least in the immediate, would cause more chaos among Labour than the Tories... Oh well, hopefully Labour sorts out their issues quickly and leaves time for Tories to jump at each other's throats in the next few months.

You shouldn't be too hopeful. If there is one thing political history shows us, it's that the left is far much more prone to fight among themselves than the center-right is.  

Not in this country - the Tories have couped (or attempted to) far more leaders than Labour. With Labour it rarely goes beyond the handful of whiney backbenchers.

[Phony Moderate]

Hard to believe that a Brexit result, at least in the immediate, would cause more chaos among Labour than the Tories... Oh well, hopefully Labour sorts out their issues quickly and leaves time for Tories to jump at each other's throats in the next few months.

You shouldn't be too hopeful. If there is one thing political history shows us, it's that the left is far much more prone to fight among themselves than the center-right is. 

Not in this country - the Tories have couped (or attempted to) far more leaders than Labour. With Labour it rarely goes beyond the handful of whiney backbenchers.

Oh right, I must have dreamed that whole thing about the Gaitskell-wing fighting the Bevan-wing for more than a decade, or the gang of four breaking away and starting their whole new party, and so on... Yeah Labour has basically never fought internally for long periods of time causing them to loose out on power for several successiv terms.

With the exception of the 90's and the Conservative divide over Europe, Labour has been far more divided and fixated on fighting among themselves than the Tories. Sure the Tories might have had more coups, but after they're done with them they quite quickly unite again. In Labour on the other hand they seen to hold their grudges for decades.

Similarly I expect the Tories to fight for a bit up until Boris is elected, after which he gives Theresa May and a few other remainers senior positions in the cabinet and the party quickly unite and move on with politics as usual, whereas Labour might be headed for a long civil war between their Corbynite left-wing grassroots and their Blairite MP:s.     

Well okay yes, but arguably a lot of Labour's divisions can be blamed on their incompetence at couping. Actually the same can be said of the 1990s/early 00s Tory divisions - when they failed to coup Major, but the divisions effectively ended when IDS was knifed in a quick and brutal fashion.

[Phony Moderate]

By the way, if Corbyn survives today then we might end up seeing a long-held wish of mine - the MP for Bolsover on the front bench. Tbh there won't be many other choices......

[Phony Moderate]

Cameron goes to the Palace at 5PM today.

[Phony Moderate]

Hammond is Chancellor, Boris is Foreign Secretary.

[Phony Moderate]

Amber Rudd is Home Secretary; makes Kevin Rudd look like a true gent from what I've seen of her.