UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[Coldstream]

Lineker may be the British equivalent of #resistance liberals in the US, and his politics are superficial & sophomoric…

But the BBC have behaved shamefully here; the corporation that used the world service to broadcast messages of defiance against the Nazis, that’s been banned in Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe etc is cowering in the face of the bruised egos of the Tory government. It’s pathetic, disgraceful and heads need to roll starting with Sharpe & Bruce.

Football-gate means that some have likely missed just how disgraceful her Thursday night comments actually were - Johnson Snr is a multiple domestic abuser, this has been LEGALLY CONFIRMED.

She actually has some sinecure on an anti-DV charity as well FFS.

Is it true her husband is a Tory party donor?

She has previously been criticised for going too hard against fathers 4 justice back in 2004 by bringing up domestic violence out of context, ignoring the rights and wrongs of that then, the fact she went from that to dismissing it in 20 years is indicative of how far down the Tory rabbit hole she’s fallen.

[Conservatopia]

Match of the Day viewership up more than 23%.

This is such a farce, even Ianucci would shy away from trying these kinds of story lines at this point.
This show jumped the shark with the "Matt Hancock" character arc and now the writers are just going through the motions with weirder and weirder storylines.

[CumbrianLefty]

We all know why it was up - rubbernecking. Let's not pretend otherwise, eh - despite what some Tory MPs who don't actually know what a football is might say.

[Torie]

Does the opinion of the DUP have any prospect to affect the contours of the deal Sunak cut with the EU?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-14/dup-seeks-changes-to-uk-eu-windsor-deal-on-n-ireland-trade-after-brexit

[CumbrianLefty]

They will surely need allies in the Tory party, and most seem to have decided to stay quiet for now.

[Torrain]

Date and time set for Johnson's testimony to the Privileges Committee - 14.00 on Wed 22nd March.

Perhaps also worth noting - the Committee have blocked out a four-hour long slot for oral evidence that afternoon, so while they might not use all of that time, it could be quite a stretch.

[Torrain]

Beware the Ides of March. Men at some time are masters of their fates. But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Interesting choice of date for budget day, but maybe appropriate for a party who spends so much time playing Brutus and Caesar.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Will there be any "stop the boats!" sort of items in the budget?

[Torrain]

Will there be any "stop the boats!" sort of items in the budget?

Wasn’t mentioned once, that I caught. Money for the deal with France has already been promised - today’s mostly about taxation, energy and investment.

First Tory backbencher to get a chance to speak was Priti Patel, who immediately asked for Hunt to kill the corporation tax hike and decrease it instead. This has been the big sticking point for the Government backbenches, so will be interesting to see if this continues through the day…

[CumbrianLefty]

The childcare announcement will get many headlines, and is good as far as it goes. Already claims it isn't *quite* as generous as it seems if you examine the small print, though.

[oldtimer]

The childcare announcement will get many headlines, and is good as far as it goes. Already claims it isn't *quite* as generous as it seems if you examine the small print, though.

Budgets tend to be financial fiction publications to fill newspaper columns.

Most times they are just a formality of a vote of confidence to the government that no one should pay attention too.

[CumbrianLefty]

I know that some Budget measures routinely get leaked beforehand - but were there any actual shock items in this one at all? Amused that some Tories accused Starmer of having a "pre-prepared" speech yesterday - of course it was, he knew almost everything that was going to be in it!

[Silent Hunter]

I know that some Budget measures routinely get leaked beforehand - but were there any actual shock items in this one at all? Amused that some Tories accused Starmer of having a "pre-prepared" speech yesterday - of course it was, he knew almost everything that was going to be in it!

Remember when a Chancellor resigned for revealing stuff to a journalist ahead of time?

[Torrain]

Steve Brine, Chair of the Commons Health Committee, is under investigation by the Standards Committee for breaches of the same lobbying rules that brought down Owen Paterson.

Messages from Hancock’s phone, as released by the Telegraph show he was trying to lobby Michael Gove (then a Cabinet Office minister) to hire NHS staff from Remedium, a recruitment firm paying him £1,600 per month.

Under the current guidance, you can’t advocate for someone who’s paid you cash in the past six months. Brine seems to admit he broke that rule, but seems to be saying that it’s ok, because he was working in the national interest and trying to help the NSH during the pandemic.

Edit: it doesn’t yet look like things will get bad enough for this to matter. But Brine’s majority over the Lib Dems is 985 votes. If he leaves Parliament early, his seat is basically a write-off.

[Torrain]

Quite a moment to see Peter Murrell forced out as SNP CEO - after NEC threatened a vote of no confidence if he didn’t stand down by the end of the day. Losing the CEO and Comms Chief in less than 24 hours - after both were implicated in a lie to the press…

And none of this would have happened if Forbes and Regan hadn’t made a fuss about the party revealing its membership numbers! It’s only because we have those numbers that the comms lie in February was revealed.

[CumbrianLefty]

Steve Brine, Chair of the Commons Health Committee, is under investigation by the Standards Committee for breaches of the same lobbying rules that brought down Owen Paterson.

Messages from Hancock’s phone, as released by the Telegraph show he was trying to lobby Michael Gove (then a Cabinet Office minister) to hire NHS staff from Remedium, a recruitment firm paying him £1,600 per month.

Under the current guidance, you can’t advocate for someone who’s paid you cash in the past six months. Brine seems to admit he broke that rule, but seems to be saying that it’s ok, because he was working in the national interest and trying to help the NSH during the pandemic.

Edit: it doesn’t yet look like things will get bad enough for this to matter. But Brine’s majority over the Lib Dems is 985 votes. If he leaves Parliament early, his seat is basically a write-off.

A reminder that the LibDem majority in the previous Winchester byelection* was 21,556.

(*yes, not a byelection strictly speaking but a re-run after the disputed 1997 GE result)

[Torrain]

The Right of the Conservative Party, and their immediate allies seem determined to be incredibly irresponsible about the investigation into Johnson.

Telegraph has posted a hit-piece on the Privileges Committee (with a title taken straight from an unnamed Johnson loyalist calling it a "McCarthyite show trial"), with bios of each member (including the Tory MPs) that highlight aspects of their career that might make them biased against Johnson.

And Priti Patel has given an interview to GBNews (to air tonight), where she alleges a "culture of collusion" in Westminster, and heavily implies that members of the civil service are involved in some sort of Whitehall plot to take him out.

It just all seems needlessly inflammatory, especially given our recent record of political violence. Accusing MPs of being traitors or conspiring against the government is dangerously close to the language used by Jo Cox's murderer.

And the worst thing its - none of it will make any real change in Johnson's case. I mean, we have the photographs of him with a drink in his hand, we have the quotes from him about Chris Pincher. It's almost all out in the open. All the rhetoric does is keep stirring the pot to make sure the base is frothed up and onside.

[CumbrianLefty]

And of course its not what Sunak needs either.

[EastAnglianLefty]

And the worst thing its - none of it will make any real change in Johnson's case. I mean, we have the photographs of him with a drink in his hand, we have the quotes from him about Chris Pincher. It's almost all out in the open. All the rhetoric does is keep stirring the pot to make sure the base is frothed up and onside.

To the extent it makes any difference, it probably makes things worse for Johnson. Tory grandees do not particularly enjoy having their reputations traduced in the Tory paper of record and are more likely to be pissed off than cowed.

[YL]

The DUP say No (they are the DUP, after all) to Windsor:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/20/dup-ian-paisley-vote-against-northern-ireland-post-brexit-deal

[JimJamUK]

People’s Polling have the Greens on 13%, their best ever result in a Westminster voting intention poll.

I’ll leave it to my learned fellow posters to decide whether this says more about the popularity of the Greens or the accuracy of People’s Polling.

[CumbrianLefty]

Their so often giving the lowest Tory scores *is* amusing tbf, as is the Green figure (though yes it is nonsense of course) just after Badlose went of on *that* splenetic rant about "the elite".

[Torrain]

The DUP say No (they are the DUP, after all) to Windsor:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/20/dup-ian-paisley-vote-against-northern-ireland-post-brexit-deal

I wonder whether that impacts Sunak's plans to hold a vote this Wednesday.

Particularly so because it's slated to be a vote specifically on the statutory instrument approving the Stormont Brake - which Sammy Wilson has now accused the NI Secretary of purposely misleading the DUP about.

And of course, DUP opposition increases the risk that the ERG rebellion will be larger than the 20 MPs the Government have briefed that they were hoping for.

[TheTide]

The Greens at 13% is BS, but it would be interesting to see how it would break down in a general election and how it would compare to UKIP's similar showing in 2015. Presumably inner city student heavy seats would be to the Greens as various coastal seats were to UKIP.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Lineker may be the British equivalent of #resistance liberals in the US, and his politics are superficial & sophomoric…

But the BBC have behaved shamefully here; the corporation that used the world service to broadcast messages of defiance against the Nazis, that’s been banned in Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe etc is cowering in the face of the bruised egos of the Tory government. It’s pathetic, disgraceful and heads need to roll starting with Sharpe & Bruce.

Jeff Stelling of Sky Sports is the best football television presenter of modern times. Lineker is supremely overrated in this respect - IMO former professionals don't tend to make the best pundits, presenters or commentators on their respective sports (the late, great Richie Benaud is a notable exception).

The hypocrisy of many on the right on this is rather stark, however.

Do you guys have color commentators?
The typical American set up is to have a career broadcaster do the play by play and analysis and have a retired athlete do color commentary.