Whip lash!

[Silent Hunter]

Siobhain McDonagh sacked as assisant whip.

This row is not pining for the fjords, that's for sure.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

My initial reaction was something along the lines of "don't feed the wolves" and to think that McDonagh must be an incredibly stupid individual for pulling a stunt as inevitably unproductive as this (throughout this post I'm ignoring the wider issue here, btw). Further inspection shows that she probably didn't intend for this to be a stunt, but someone chose to leak. So misguided ("don't feed the wolves" still applies), but not incredibly stupid.
The descriptions of her as being an "ultra-loyalist", though, are bullshit; she was one of only a handful of Labour M.P's not on the hard left to refuse to sign Brown's nomination papers last year.

Probably the last I say on this story, because, frankly...

[afleitch]

She's been 'Wolfganged' which is shame. But I hope this doesn't begin a chain of events. We need Gordon. He is the Tories best asset.

[Associate Justice PiT]

She's been 'Wolfganged' which is shame. But I hope this doesn't begin a chain of events. We need Gordon. He is the Tories best asset.

     I'm sure he would appreciate being called that.

[Silent Hunter]

Joan Ryan has been sacked as Vice-Chair of the PLP, for the same thing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This whole thing just looks pathetic. I want to be angry, you know. But I somehow can't manage it (probably because I can't quite help but think that some do actually mean well). I suspect we'll see a bit more of this folly over the next few days.

Guess tomorrow is another Sunday without a newspaper for me then

[Silent Hunter]

Eight MPs are calling for a leadership contest now.

[afleitch]

This could snowball.

At least it will make conference season interesting

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This could snowball.

Unlikely given those names (though I'm sure that some names have held back for now in order to try to create a fake snowball). Was most amused to see the news lumping together Marxists like McDonnell with righties like Mactaggart.

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Impossible. Conference season is never interesting (the 11th Commandment, I'm sure).

[afleitch]

BBC says minister to resign. Still confusion over whether ballot papers will be provided. Looks like this will keep bubbling.

If it escalates Brown has to a 'back me or sack me' move. Otherwise seeds will be sown that will still have a presence in the party long after the increasingly likely defeat in 2009/10.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

David Cairns (a junior minister in the Scottish office and MP for the Greenock area) has resigned. Not a surprise; he's an old friend of McDonagh's (I think he used to work for her or something) and she was the one that piloted the bill that made it legal for him (a former Catholic priest) to run for Parliament a while back.

Edit: Cairns has apparently claimed that he's not part of a plot, that he resigned largely because he was upset at the way McDonagh et al were treated. Or something like that.