Strange to see Dominic Grieve, attorney general, leaving Cameron office at 6pm looking crestfallen
Why do you think he went? I'd have thought he was on the same wavelength as Cameron.
Grieve is in favour of the ECHR, I think the new Tory policy will be to be anti ECHR, and so the new justice and Law Officers team will be proper Euro-sceptics wanting repatriate powers back and enshrine the Supremacy of our laws over European laws.
If so, 'tis a pity. A government that's bound only by its own conscience is a disaster waiting to happen. Even if they are doing it for the finest of motives, it's still making themselves into tinpot gods. If Parliament is supreme...who stops them when they decide to start hurting people for fun?
You are right. We were savages before the ECHR saved us from ourselves. Disembowelling random passers-by for fun. And on Sundays, too! Oh the inhumanity of it all.
So presumably you wouldn't object if there was a piece of paper somewhere that said "Disembowelling passers-by, whether randomly or non-randomly, regardless of motive, is wrong and you cannot do it", and that the government couldn't ignore that piece of paper?...
...but you see where I'm going with this.
Yes I see exactly where you are going with this - in to full scale trolling mode. However, with apologies, I can't be bothered to bite a second time.
Apologies. I wasn't intending to troll. I was trying to express my frustration at the general tendency of any given government to accrue unchecked power to itself, and my disapproval of this specific tendency to remove the European constraints.
Defence seems like a good post to avoid, giving the seeming impossibility of not having at least some multi billion pound white elephant procurement absurdity while there - even if a minister personally is not responsible for some wasteful decision, there's going to be billions poured down the drain somewhere they cannot avoid cropping up on their watch. And that not even including the more serious aspects of the post.
Ah shame, Hague was a massive failure and clearly useless at any job he tried, but at least he wasn't as much of an electoral liability as Gove Osborne or IDS.
You were improving, but you've overdone it again. Try harder.
Hammond and Kerry, the 2 dullest men on the planet, as Foreign Sec and Sec of State, a cunning Cameron/Obama strategy to bore ISIS and the Taliban to sleep!
FU Seems a trouncing for right and left, out go Patterson and Jones, but out go Green and Clarke too, seems women are the main winners, perhaps Cameron sees them as his weak spot
14/07/2014 Single To Win No @ 11/4 To keep position until next election Will William Hague be Foreign Secretary until the next general election? Pending £8.73
Am I right I thinking he is not enamoured with EU?
Like Gove, I think Hammond has stated he would leave the EU as our relationship with the EU currently stands? So again, quite a shocking appointment in some ways.
Hammond and Kerry, the 2 dullest men on the planet, as Foreign Sec and Sec of State, a cunning Cameron/Obama strategy to bore ISIS and the Taliban to sleep!
We should leave the noble Caliph Ibrahim to his own devices. His five year expansion plan for the Caliphate, although it includes Vienna and Spain, doesn't extend to the United Kingdom. Let the next but one government deal with the Islamic State should it expand any further.
I said the other day that the Treasury wanted Hammond out of defence (knew too much and too good at his job) but to make him Foreign Sec is a bit weird. The chap is a bean counter, with all the charisma that goes with it, not really an international negotiator type. Ifear Cameron has lost the plot.
I take it the Lib Dems are not playing tonight ? No particular reason why they should although a BOO at the FO is going to be hard for them to stomach. There is part of the end game of the Coalition being played out here.
Where are all these extra women in Cabinet? Do they just get the little jobs
You probably haven't noticed, but no new positions have been announced. Cameron is doing all the sackings today, and all the hirings tomorrow. (wonder how much money that saves the treasury!)
The ICM poll above showing a Tory lead demonstrates the flaws in OGH's view that the key determinant of the next election will be former 2010 LDs going to Labour. In fact, as Easterross pointed out, most of those 2010 LDs would have voted for Labour in 1992 when they were defeated, they only lent their votes to the LDs because of Iraq and Blair, they were always Labour at heart. What the above poll shows clearly is that it is UKIP voters who will actually determine the election result, and sure enough a 7% fall in the UKIP vote in this poll produces a Tory lead!
I take it the Lib Dems are not playing tonight ? No particular reason why they should although a BOO at the FO is going to be hard for them to stomach. There is part of the end game of the Coalition being played out here.
Huhne to return triumphantly tomorrow as Baron Huhne of Wandsworth and Leyhill?
Let's speculate. There appears to be a cull of the 'liberal' Conservative members of the Government. Nick Clegg has said that the next Lib Dem manifesto will be a defence of liberalism rather than moderating the policies of the other two parties. I think the master strategist ( aka George Osborne) is seeking a break up of the coalition and NC is going along with that. Expect a dramatic announcement soon.
OK, I've been trusting the rumours. I don't suppose Hunt is going anywhere before the election, but a woman in charge of the NHS might project a more sentimental image than Hunt the yuppie.
I take it the Lib Dems are not playing tonight ? No particular reason why they should although a BOO at the FO is going to be hard for them to stomach. There is part of the end game of the Coalition being played out here.
Huhne to return triumphantly tomorrow as Baron Huhne of Wandsworth and Leyhill?
It was reported earlier that the Yellow Peril will be making their changes post-Conference. Though if Cable is forced out (which he really should have been many times by now), that timetable might have to change.
I said the other day that the Treasury wanted Hammond out of defence (knew too much and too good at his job) but to make him Foreign Sec is a bit weird. The chap is a bean counter, with all the charisma that goes with it, not really an international negotiator type. Ifear Cameron has lost the plot.
Not at all.
Safe pair of hands + a nod to the sceptics.
Should they form the next government, Osborne to FS (to negotiate disengagement) and Hammond, the bean counter, to the counting house.
Yes that is very good news, but very sorry to see Hague not only leaving the Foreign Office, but standing down as an MP next year as well. He will be a real loss to the Conservative Party and Westminster.
Let's speculate. There appears to be a cull of the 'liberal' Conservative members of the Government. Nick Clegg has said that the next Lib Dem manifesto will be a defence of liberalism rather than moderating the policies of the other two parties. I think the master strategist ( aka George Osborne) is seeking a break up of the coalition and NC is going along with that. Expect a dramatic announcement soon.
It does have that feel about it doesn't it? At the very least the marriage has got to the point one spouse does not really care what the other thinks anymore.
For Tory candidates without seats yet, tonight is like Christmas over and over again. All the occupants of ultra safe seats announcing tonight they are standing down next year.
Comments
Maybe the idea is that should Con form next government Hammond and Osborne will swap?
Possibly a remake of The Color of Money, with Hague as the cue ball.
Wowsers.
To keep position until next election
Will William Hague be Foreign Secretary until the next general election? Pending £8.73
I'm assuming the Paddy Power Politics teams went home at 6pm today
He pulled Angelina Jolie.
That's better than becoming PM.
I don't suppose Hunt is going anywhere before the election, but a woman in charge of the NHS might project a more sentimental image than Hunt the yuppie.
Safe pair of hands + a nod to the sceptics.
Should they form the next government, Osborne to FS (to negotiate disengagement) and Hammond, the bean counter, to the counting house.
Don't remember the last time that happened!
Great way to bury it as well, under a reshuffle.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28303750