UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Jonathan Gullis next, possibly? He is sailing close to the wind rather a lot.

The realization that it's going to be hard to hang on has all sorts of interesting effects on MPs sometimes doesn't it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Back in 2011 one of Farage’s aides accused Bridgen of sexual assault. It never went anywhere (iirc they were actually retracted) but I’ve always heard theres bad blood between those two ever since. This would explain why they’ve never worked/campaigned together that closely despite being in more or less total alignment.

Yes, he was actually arrested for rape, though charges were not pressed in the end.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

He was what used to be called a 'libertarian socialist' as a young man, and as he aged and moderated (as people do) the fundamental way of thinking remained, but turned into something close to an unironic belief in Vox Populi, Vox Dei and the idea of the State as a servant of the Public. That's the constant and consistent thread.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It does need to be emphasized that, with things as they are, 'I want public services to work again ' is a big offer as far as most of the electorate are concerned, even if it comes across to most people who follow politics intensely as incredibly labour_party.txt.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is a rather dry and technical matter but does need pointing out in order to avoid misconceptions: there was no vote on the implementation of the Section 35 order, which is purely a matter for the Secretary of State. The vote was a symbolic one - '...this House has considered the decision...' - that always follows an Emergency Debate under Standing Order 24.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As is a certain ex-Labour MP not voting (yes I know about pairing, but still)

Pairing isn't possible as he's not a member of a parliamentary party. Not that it matters as it wasn't a meaningful vote.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

People have dug up an intervention during the Scotland Act debate back in 1998 from Michael Ancram of all people, who pointed out the dictatorial 'governor general' nature of that clause, rather than have the issue deferred to the court or to Parliament.

Ah, yes, I did see that. Well, I suppose he knew the instincts of his own party well enough.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The 1974-79 Parliament saw an MP essentially die because he died surgery until it was too late so he wouldn't miss votes. Filuwaúrdjan will probably remember who.

Sir Alfred Broughton (Batley & Morley). He was, in the end, too ill to make it for the final No Confidence vote in 1979 (he was prepared to come, but Callaghan decided it would be immoral) and died five days later. The government fell by a single vote. Before becoming an MP he was a doctor.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

FPN issued lmao.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Christ that Sunday Times Story.

It seems quite bad, doesn't it. Not great!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1617088357204647936

[Filuwaúrdjan]

He's James Fox's son, but in terms of both acting ability and political views he has much more in common with his uncle Edward. Not looks though. Lost out on all counts: sad!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This all happened in the runup to the 1997 election as well. Anyway, it is worth observing that at no point after the ousting of Mrs Thatcher were the Tories more than 10pts behind in a single poll. Usually the polls were very tight, and the Tories would tend to lead in at least one each month. 1992 was not what folk memory insists it was.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If the... er... country business... ever leads to a divorce, then the surname given would be Mountbatten-Windsor as well, as per (oh dear) established convention.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No, I do not wish to hear the opinions of Jeremy Corbyn on the war in Ukraine, no I do not wish to hear the opinions of Liz Truss on the economy, and, frankly, I'm not sure what the justification is for any sort of media attention on either.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It doesn't matter as he doesn't, but there are certain... er... biographical inconsistencies in Anderson's various accounts of his life to date. Not the Full George Santos, I should add, but a few things that logically result in a 'hmm'.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is it normal for resignation honors to take this long?

Nothing about resignation honours is normal, which is one of the problems with them. But usually the gap is about a month.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Interesting comment on how out of touch that particular paper's rather strident and, frankly, quite extreme stance on that issue (set of issues?) is.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

An extraordinarily talented politician, though an incompetent administrator (in a low-key sort of way like David Cameron rather than in an utterly catastrophic manner like Johnson or Truss). It is an interesting comment on how true the former is (was?) that the latter never caught up with her; she had a remarkable talent for keeping the plates spinning.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Brown might not have been massively personally popular in Scotland by 2010, but he understood the Scottish electorate in the same way that Sir Mr Tony understood the electorate of the North East of England or how Cameron understood the electorate of the Home Counties, and knew how to press its buttons. Much the same can be said of Sturgeon, of course, which is one reason why she was such a formidable political operator. Now, this was not actually true of Salmond, even at his peak: he was fundamentally a demagogue who got lucky, which is also why his appeal has withered away to dust so dramatically.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Note that the SNP believe in washing their dirty linen in private and technically (!) ban doing so in public. Their members are also good at following the rules and the implications of them. They have as distinctive a culture as Labour does, and if things like e.g. Forbes membership of the Wee Free's become an issue, it's possible that we will never actually know that they did.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've got a question on this : aren't scottish labour at least something like distinctively Scottish...

Scottish Labour are extremely Scottish and always were, but they are so in an old-fashioned way that they have not been particularly effective at expressing coherently in recent years. They may find it easier with Starmer (who, though extremely English, is at least a translatable and understandable figure in a Scottish context) as the wider, national leader than they did when Corbyn (who is not) held the same post, but fundamentally they have to do most of the running themselves.

Also does Anas Sawar directly take orders from London?

No. There's a degree of co-ordination and, of course, the rules set by the National Executive apply to Party members across the United Kingdom, but he has as much of a free hand as Mark Drakeford does. The thing about Lamont's deeply stupid 'branch office' remark wasn't that it was true (the irony is that Scottish Labour would often have been in a better position between 2007 and 2015 if it was), but that that precise charge had been made by the SNP for years, and to have it then echoed by the incumbent Scottish Labour leader as she quit... well, it's fairly obvious to see why that had such a catastrophic impact on the party's credibility.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Though the suspicion remains that Wendy Alexander had to, fatefully, end her brief tenure as Scottish leader because the then PM declined to give her his public support. And some have inevitably drawn the conclusion that was because he wanted somebody more "controllable" in her place.

I do wonder whether we'll ever find out quite what happened there, but, of course, if those particular suspicions are true the critical point would be that the PM in question was a Scottish Labour figure himself.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Weak.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Betty Boothroyd, the first female Speaker of the House of Commons, has died. She was ninety three and had looked frail for a few years, though was still active because a certain sort of person never quite retires entirely.