UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[Torrain]

Labour currently leads among Telegraph readers*

Allister Heath in shambles.

In all seriousness though - will be interesting to see whether they start to act as a lagging factor, and bend away from the Tories.

I'm always struck by that 2001 consensus where they basically all endorsed Labour, even the Express! Only the Telegraph and Mail seemed willing to stick with Hague (and given who might be in line to buy the Telegraph, that hardly seems likely to change).

And of course, there was this act of political contortion by the Sun in 2015:

[EastAnglianLefty]

I'm a little sceptical of those figures, but if they're accurate then the main thing it suggests is that a lot of readers go nowhere near the opinion pages.

[Pericles]

I'm a little sceptical of those figures, but if they're accurate then the main thing it suggests is that a lot of readers go nowhere near the opinion pages.

I think that media influence is more effective when it comes to how they frame regular news stories and which stuff they choose to highlight. Why would I vote one way just because some stuffy commentator says so?

[CumbrianLefty]

There is an argument that the right wing press is now most influential through a broadcast media that often pushes their lines close to verbatim (sometimes, without even consciously realising it)

[AustralianSwingVoter]

https://twitter.com/danhollandnews/status/1709908649177461048
Network North is already being rolled back.

Whoever wrote the document also -
confused Southhampton with Littlehampton for the A259 (so northern)
commits to fixing potholes specifically in the south of england
accidentally promised a bristol metro, which was deleted within 24 hours
main commitment for scotland is "Reducing congestion for the communities of Ashington, Felton, Alnwick, and Amble"

oh and 85% of the promised projects have already been announced and budgeted.

oh and theyve leaked that hs2 probably won't reach euston, even though they've demolished all the buildings to make space for it.

[YL]

"Mhairi Black threatened to quit SNP on eve of by-election in 'ultimatum' over staffer"

or so says holyrood.com

[Torrain]

"Mhairi Black threatened to quit SNP on eve of by-election in 'ultimatum' over staffer"

or so says holyrood.com

Huh - now that's a story. To be fair, she publicly threatened to leave the SNP if Kate Forbes won the leadership, so she does have form for this sort of thing.

Wild to threaten to leave the party the day before the Rutherglen byelection though - that's the sort of scheming I'd expect from a Gove-type.

Pretty contrary to her public image if she's trying to force her party into putting forward a candidate who's failed vetting for her own Westminster seat. Party sources using words like "blackmail" and "stitch-up" seems pretty eyebrow-raising. After all that rhetoric about Westminster being old-fashioned and toxic - and Tories undermining the rules for their own benefit. And yet, when it comes to the rules in her own party...

The Holyrood Magazine does fairly good reporting, I skim it occasionally.  Mandy Rhodes, their editor, has become a tad controversial since wading into the self-ID wars, but other than her columns, their record is pretty non-partisan. (The story is being shared/discussed by prominent Scottish journalists at LBC, the Herald, etc, so it seems to pass the sniff test).

[Blair]

I'm a little sceptical of those figures, but if they're accurate then the main thing it suggests is that a lot of readers go nowhere near the opinion pages.

Yeah as I've said before I knew a lot of people who use to buy the Telegraph for the previously very good sports coverage & the crossword- you would get the odd 'oh I read something very weird about the National Trust' or something similar.

My grandparents were life-long socialists but had a Times subscription as they wanted to be seen as proper.

[Blair]

"Mhairi Black threatened to quit SNP on eve of by-election in 'ultimatum' over staffer"

or so says holyrood.com

It's never good when things start getting all THIGMOO for a party.

[CumbrianLefty]

Seb Payne has failed in another selection attempt - anybody keeping count?

[Torrain]

Seb Payne has failed in another selection attempt - anybody keeping count?

I assume this was hypothetical, but I’m bored, and vaguely curious, so here goes. So far, it's about four. Feels like more, but that's all I could verify:

• Bridlington and the Wolds
• Bromsgrove
• Selby
• Waveney Valley

He's currently being beaten in numerical selection attempts by Aphra Brandreth:

• Chester South and Eddisbury
• Dorking and Horley
• Farnham and Bordon
• Henley
• Reigate
• Weald of Kent
• Windsor

Still think the "desperation to be an MP award" goes to a young John Bercow, after he rented a helicoptor to fly to two selections in one night.

[Torrain]

Genuinely uncomfortable stuff from Scottish Greens MSPs over the weekend, endorsing the Hamas attacks:
https://twitter.com/Ross_Greer/status/1710696509459603666
https://twitter.com/MaggieChapman/status/1711061209737265260
Greer has recently been afforded fortnightly meetings with the Minister for Independence to shape strategy, on behalf of his party. Chapman is Deputy Convener of the Scottish Parliament's Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. These are not just oddball backbenchers.

This isn’t out of character though. It’s been Scottish Green policy to remove Hamas from the list of terrorist organisations since their 2015 conference. They held the vote for that motion on Shabbat too, which just feels grubby.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

On the Bridlington constituency, it turns out that not one but two Conservative incumbents are seeking selection there: Richard Holden and Stuart Andrew. Shouldn't there at least be a limit on chicken-runners per constituency?

[CumbrianLefty]

This isn’t out of character though. It’s been Scottish Green policy to remove Hamas from the list of terrorist organisations since their 2015 conference. They held the vote for that motion on Shabbat too, which just feels grubby.

I would have been interested to see the "justification" for that even before this weekend tbh.

[afleitch]

https://twitter.com/conor_matchett/status/1711371485326012609

[Wiswylfen]

Went to a fringe event on focus groups in marginals earlier today. The two constituencies they’d gone to were Darlington and Guildford. For some reason they decided to, in both, recruit 2019 Conservative and Labour voters. No, I’ve no idea either (beyond ‘a lot of people who work in politics and adjacent fields are deeply stupid’).

[Torrain]

So, remember Lisa Cameron, the socially conservative SNP MP, who alleged bullying by her party colleagues? She’s defected to the Conservatives.

Her reselection looked doomed, but I didn’t expect this to be the outcome. Timing clearly coordinated too - given this comes mere days before SNP party conference.

It does make it a tad harder for the SNP to denounce Labour as *Red Tories* if one of their own MPs has felt politically close enough to bridge that gap.

Story was initially reported in the Mail, so was skeptical but it’s now been confirmed by John Lamont, one of the Scottish Tory MPs from the Borders.

Edit for trivia: East Kilbride last voted for a Tory candidate in 1955, as part of the larger Lanark constituency. This predates the merger of the Conservatives with the Unionist Party of Scotland, which formally won the seat.

[YL]

I imagine many people in the SNP will think that it shows they were right to try to deselect her.

Is she now a Unionist?

BTW she is the first MP to join the Tories from another party since Reg Prentice in 1977.

[Torrain]

Honestly, I have no idea how this is going to work - it probably won’t. There’ll be 9 years of comms from her decrying Conservative cuts and policy, using some pretty hyperbolic language at times. There’s Brexit to get over, before you even consider Scottish independence.

Worth considering though - this is the fourth defection away from the SNP in this parliament, following Angus MacNeil leaving the party, and the two who joined Alba.

That being said, I think Matchett has the situation nailed - it’s calculated anti-SNP sabotage:
https://twitter.com/conor_matchett/status/1712385559815999829

[Coldstream]

Her statement doesn’t explicitly say she’s become a unionist either, just says that the debate is divisive and not a priority. Which adds another level of bizarre to the whole thing.

[YL]

Honestly, I have no idea how this is going to work - it probably won’t. There’ll be 9 years of comms from her decrying Conservative cuts and policy, using some pretty hyperbolic language at times. There’s Brexit to get over, before you even consider Scottish independence.

I have to imagine this is going to be an 12 month career now, because the local Tory association is going to be very leery of her, and she would face an incredibly hostile electorate.

Worth considering though - this is the fourth defection away from the SNP in this parliament, following Angus MacNeil leaving the party, and the two who joined Alba.

If it’s an attempt to save her career, you’d have to imagine she’ll be looking for a new seat, though are there any plausible Tory prospects in Scotland which don’t have candidates in place?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ah, the sort of openly shameless defection one associates more with local government.

[icc]

Honestly, I have no idea how this is going to work - it probably won’t. There’ll be 9 years of comms from her decrying Conservative cuts and policy, using some pretty hyperbolic language at times. There’s Brexit to get over, before you even consider Scottish independence.

I have to imagine this is going to be an 12 month career now, because the local Tory association is going to be very leery of her, and she would face an incredibly hostile electorate.

Worth considering though - this is the fourth defection away from the SNP in this parliament, following Angus MacNeil leaving the party, and the two who joined Alba.

If it’s an attempt to save her career, you’d have to imagine she’ll be looking for a new seat, though are there any plausible Tory prospects in Scotland which don’t have candidates in place?

And I can't imagine there'd be many Conservative Associations jumping at the chance to have her.

[Torrain]

If it’s an attempt to save her career, you’d have to imagine she’ll be looking for a new seat, though are there any plausible Tory prospects in Scotland which don’t have candidates in place?

Can’t see them parachuting her over to Aberdeenshire - there are only 3-4 seats under the new boundaries that are winnable, and those all seem to have candidate (even Douglas Ross has a successor picked). Would have to be one of the Ayrshire seats. But those are going to be tough enough as it is. 2026 is shaping up to be a rough election for the Scottish Tories too - there’s not going to be spare list seats at Holyrood to go around.

I think the defection is a nice excuse for her not to follow through on her by-election threat (which she’s now officially walked back), before she goes back to the NHS, which she’s talked about for a while.

[Blair]

"Mhairi Black threatened to quit SNP on eve of by-election in 'ultimatum' over staffer"

or so says holyrood.com

It's never good when things start getting all THIGMOO for a party.

I believe this happened in the 1970s with Labour! Dick Traverne I want to say?