This Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

As attempted justifications for a chicken run go, "my constituents are joyless pricks" has to be an all-timer.
https://twitter.com/WalesOnline/status/1716016356452188566
_{For the record, Wallis has already been searching for an English seat for a while (including an unsuccessful run in Windsor), this is just confirmation that Bridgend has been officially binned.}

I'm surprised Wallis wants to stand again, given the car accident and the gender dysphoria. Strikes me as person not suited for such a public facing role.

[afleitch]

I’m pretty sure if a newly elected Christian leader of SNP had started his career with inviting his extended family into the official residence the first evening in to for a joint prayer, there would have been some reactions.

The difference there was that unlike the Christian, the Muslim didn’t come from a fundamentalist sect and didn’t spend half the campaign talking about how he wants to impose his religious values on the country.

The difference here is that we define White Britons who are as public about their religion as part of fundamentalist sects and we don’t do the same with members of immigrant groups. But the real question is whether this is just Chattering Class who define it this way or whether it also extend to general public.

Humza Yousaf degree of religiosity is honestly not really that relevant, the important part is Scottish voters perception of his actions. A party like SNP likely get a lot of votes, whose views of immigration, minority issues, gender issues, EU etc. are far more in line with UKIP than with SNP.

Except this is not the case. Blair was public about his Catholic faith, yet was not considered fundamentalist.

However, the Wee Frees are definitively not mainstream.

Yes, because Blair was not at all treated as weird for his very public religiosity, it wasn’t like there were stories about him praying with Bush before the Iraq invasions.

The Wee Frees are not a mainstream sect within Presbyterianism never mind Christianity. Islam, particularly how it is expressed in Scotland/Glasgow by both Yousaf and Sarwar, is 'mainstream.'

Also the last SNP leader at Westminster was a member of the same religious denomination as Forbes. So even that wasn't an issue.

The issue was, as has been said by others, was the excitation not of religious devotion, but of specific public policy as it related to personal faith.

[Blair]

I really find it weird how normal chicken running has become for the Tories; it use to broadly only be appropriate for defecting MPs.

I guess the boundary change gives people an excuse & it isn't helped that many stood in seats that they didn't expect to win...

[CumbrianLefty]

It is such an awful look though. No wonder non-Tory parties do their best to discourage it.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

There was a time, well within living memory, when Labour was mostly pro-Israel and the Tories mostly pro-Arab (as it was generally put back then) Of course, the word "mostly" applied in both cases.

Blunt is in many ways a throwback to those times.

Brings to mind one of the most anachronistic Yes Minister episodes, where Jim plots with the Israeli ambassador while the Foreign Office takes a staunch pro-Arab line.

[Coldstream]

There was a time, well within living memory, when Labour was mostly pro-Israel and the Tories mostly pro-Arab (as it was generally put back then) Of course, the word "mostly" applied in both cases.

Blunt is in many ways a throwback to those times.

Brings to mind one of the most anachronistic Yes Minister episodes, where Jim plots with the Israeli ambassador while the Foreign Office takes a staunch pro-Arab line.

The foreign office being pro-Arab is still a commonly held view. Sajid Javid complained about it a lot.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is also - broadly speaking - true. It's just that ~The Conflict~ is more complex than 'Arab vs. Israeli' these days.

[Torrain]

New YouGov numbers on Sunak. Only bright spot is that his reputation for being hardworking is intact. His reputation on the economy, on the other hand...
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1716491431483789782

[Torrain]

John Baron MP is to stand down at the next election. 22 year-long career in the Commons. Notable for being a former soldier who opposed intervention in Iraq, Syria and Libya (even resigning from the IDS frontbench over Iraq). One of the early Eurosceptic rebels (was often listed as one of those most like to follow Carswell and Reckless over to UKIP).

Most importantly - his seat of Basildon & Billericay is the 35th safest Conservative seat in the country. So presumably there’ll be a dash for the local selection. I’m sure Seb Payne has already dropped whatever he’s doing…

Edit: See, this is what I enjoy about this forum - you can post about the retirement a very obscure MP, and get some decent insight into the last three sets of boundaries and results in their seat. Great craic. 

[EastAnglianLefty]

It's a very odd constituency - more than half of it is made up of Basildon, which has a reputation as one of the more right-wing New Towns but is nevertheless extremely swing, and the more Labour-inclined half of the town at that. However, it's balanced out by Billericay, which contributes fewer electors but is one of the most indomitably Conservative places in the country.

[CumbrianLefty]

Labour nearly won the old Billericay off veteran right winger Teresa Gorman back in 1997 - though they were helped then by a breakaway "moderate Tory" candidacy that took a few thousand votes.

As with similar places like Romford, however, this proved a one-off high point - they fought it pretty hard in 2001 as a result but Baron became its new MP quite comfortably, and then made it safe.

(btw the post 1983 Billericay seat is not to be confused with the post-war version - a much bigger affair that included the new town of Basildon and for a while Brentwood also)

[icc]

Labour nearly won the old Billericay off veteran right winger Teresa Gorman back in 1997

And would certainly have won it on both the present boundaries and the future boundaries.

[TheTide]

Apparently this isn't related to previous cases. Also questioned on matters relating to substances and it was Surrey Police who questioned this MP.

https://twitter.com/hoffman_noa/status/1717566267517755804?s=20

[Filuwaúrdjan]

...another one?

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/CrispinBlunt/status/1717585117932142922

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Made some 'curious' remarks about former Wakefield MP Imran Ahmed Khan following Khan's conviction for sexual assault, if you recall. Anyway.

[Torrain]

Whip has been suspended from Blunt, and he’s been asked to stay away from the parliamentary estate.

Appreciate there will be nuances we’re unaware of - but I still don’t understand how Rosindell has been allowed to keep the whip, in contrast to the rest.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Was going to note that you should be careful given British defamation laws etc, but, of course, we can safely conclude that it is reasonable to call Mr Blunt a 'rotter' based on previous comments and known personal conduct, and that doing so does not constitute an obvious comment about his guilt or otherwise with respect to any criminal proceedings.

[Conservatopia]

Yet another gay Tory MP turns out to be an absolute rotter and resigns.

Chris Pincher
Crispin Blunt
Boris Johnson
Imran Ahmed Khan
Andrew Rosindell (Coming soon?)
Scott Benton (Coming soon?)

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Lmao

[TheTide]

If Blunt hadn't named himself then presumably Michael Fabricant would have made another lovely joke about how the Tory benches in the House of Commons were going to be full because no one would have wanted to be guessed as the person in question on the basis of their absence.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Yet another gay Tory MP turns out to be an absolute rotter and resigns.

Really delivering the LGBT representation lacking from the Back to Basics era.

[JimJamUK]

Yet another gay Tory MP turns out to be an absolute rotter and resigns.

Chris Pincher
Crispin Blunt
Boris Johnson
Imran Ahmed Khan
Andrew Rosindell (Coming soon?)
Scott Benton (Coming soon?)

I didn’t know Boris was gay!

[Conservatopia]

Yet another gay Tory MP turns out to be an absolute rotter and resigns.

Chris Pincher
Crispin Blunt
Boris Johnson
Imran Ahmed Khan
Andrew Rosindell (Coming soon?)
Scott Benton (Coming soon?)

I didn’t know Boris was gay!

Talks in a funny voice.
Exaggerated mannerisms.
Secretive private life.
Uses fancy words.
Went to Eton.
Drinks tea.

I mean, all the stereotypes are there, just for all the wrong reasons.

[Zinneke]

What is secretive about Johnson's private life?

Also, you forgot : gets a blowjob in his office from young staffers