Fair enough - I will send some soldiers to parliament to put an end to their prattling while we are at it. Can't trust the wetched voters or their wretched representatives. Much better WE make the decisions, eh?
Better our elected representatives make the decisions we elected them to do. They can explain to the masses why they are not doing what we might want come election time. Some issues are too emotive to be left to rational decision making by the proletariat.
You are a Roman Senator of the Boni faction and I claim my 5 secterces.
"Jeremy Corbyn promised to make Labour leaders face mandatory elections every year to avoid the party struggling with a 'personality' leader.
He said it would "bring back democracy into the Labour Party and the Labour movement."
But the embattled Labour leader seems to have radically changed his mind since he unexpectedly became leader of the party last September."
Right now i think jeremy would love to face an election, but others are trying to prevent him from doing so.
The requirement for a sufficient number of nominations is of itself part of the election. Corbyn dismisses the PLP as their having no particular legitimacy outside of simply being part of the Labour movement as a whole - yet if so, why are nominations from them, and only from them - given a special place in the process? Precisely because they do in fact have a special place.
From the Collins review, which was the template for Miliband's rules reforms:
"in recognition of the fact that the leader of the Labour Party has a special duty to head the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster, MPs will retain the responsibility of deciding the final shortlist of candidates that will be put to the ballot. MEPs, who previously had a share of the MPs’ section of the college, will be able to publish supporting nominations but these will not count towards the formal nominating process. To ensure that all candidates who are put to the ballot command a substantial body of support in the PLP, the threshold for nominations to secure a position on the shortlist should be raised from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent of House of Commons members of the PLP. "
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
The Establishment won because the challenger was a delusional lightweight.
The better candidate won because the challenger was a "delusional lightweight".
Of course, May was clearly the only sane choice. But less than three weeks after a vote that was supposed to have rocked the Establishment to its core it is very much in charge with minimal damage done. Not that it was ever going to be otherwise.
"For all its acrimony, the open debate between the wings of the party shows that the party wants to keep the door open in future for Conservative supporters of either camp. In addition, if Cameron’s successor is a prominent Leave supporter, many Conservative defectors to UKIP in 2015 and since could return in significant numbers. Do not bet against a general election before 2020 under a new Conservative leader."
Cameron's successor is not a prominent Leave supporter, but a PM who becomes a prominent Leave implementer will do just as much or more to attract back UKIP defectors.
Conservative polling is also bound to improve with May's accession. Apart from the usual short term boost to a new leader, there could be a longer term effect, not because Cameron has lost his long-time approval rating but more because the deeply unpopular Osborne will surely go now.
What weakened the right in this party's election was the starting point of their candidates. Most were outside the cabinet and had not built alliances in advance. Add in Gove's political stupidity and the right wing inevitably lost this election .
The right may well have won -- we do not really know where Theresa May stands on anything, but she is probably to the right of Boris and her "one nation" speech could have been authored by Michael Gove.
Conhome are a good judge on these matters and they tag her as a Joe Chamberlain type.
Con Home are about as accurate as their voodoo polls.
Con home are a useful resource for a stream of some Conservative thinking (on a wing where thinking at all is far too rare).....but yes, their polls are rarely helpful....
Who is up for another hour of Trainspotting Live tonight, complete with Peter Snow and his Pinometer (I kid you not)
"Oh, look at that!" declaimed the veteran newsman as a rickety freight train rumbled past. "A class sixty-sixty,” he hooted. It was a rust bucket on wheels – but Snow's eagerness knew no limits. Later, his head would almost pop off when a viewer reported seeing a “flying banana” measurement engine near Cambridge. To describe his enthusiasm as infectious would be an overstatement. It was certainly striking.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
"Jeremy Corbyn promised to make Labour leaders face mandatory elections every year to avoid the party struggling with a 'personality' leader.
He said it would "bring back democracy into the Labour Party and the Labour movement."
But the embattled Labour leader seems to have radically changed his mind since he unexpectedly became leader of the party last September."
Right now i think jeremy would love to face an election, but others are trying to prevent him from doing so.
The requirement for a sufficient number of nominations is of itself part of the election. Corbyn dismisses the PLP as their having no particular legitimacy outside of simply being part of the Labour movement as a whole - yet if so, why are nominations from them, and only from them - given a special place in the process? Precisely because they do in fact have a special place.
From the Collins review, which was the template for Miliband's rules reforms:
"in recognition of the fact that the leader of the Labour Party has a special duty to head the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster, MPs will retain the responsibility of deciding the final shortlist of candidates that will be put to the ballot. MEPs, who previously had a share of the MPs’ section of the college, will be able to publish supporting nominations but these will not count towards the formal nominating process. To ensure that all candidates who are put to the ballot command a substantial body of support in the PLP, the threshold for nominations to secure a position on the shortlist should be raised from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent of House of Commons members of the PLP. "
Is that in their rules now then or merely a proposal?
Who is up for another hour of Trainspotting Live tonight, complete with Peter Snow and his Pinometer (I kid you not)
"Oh, look at that!" declaimed the veteran newsman as a rickety freight train rumbled past. "A class sixty-sixty,” he hooted. It was a rust bucket on wheels – but Snow's eagerness knew no limits. Later, his head would almost pop off when a viewer reported seeing a “flying banana” measurement engine near Cambridge. To describe his enthusiasm as infectious would be an overstatement. It was certainly striking.
Andrea did the right thing. She could perhaps have pulled out earlier - those around her who were trying to rubbish The TImes article about motherhood did her no favours at all. They had clearly invested all their Brexit hopes in her - and so were willing to overlook what was politically unforgivable to the wider electorate. But Andrea was not the torch-bearer they desperately wanted.
An inexperienced - but I think fundamentally decent - candidate surrounded by manipulative incompetents - I hope IDS enjoys his long spell on the back benches.....
The only way a right wing candidate can avoid this is to make sure there is an even more right wing candidate as catnip for the nutters. And even then, as the exhaustive ballots eliminate their rivals they probably end up with the loonies in their camp before they get to the members.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
May depresses me. A humourless and charmless battleaxe with no ideas of her own who has risen without trace or talent. She prospers by doing very little other than survive.
She does have the advantage of both her internal party and external enemies vanish from the field of play. Perhaps she is a witch after all.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
We had a big inquiry to show what should be done. What's the point of having such inquiries if people just go off and 'chose' their favourite based on f/all evidence?
Heck, I think Boris Island's the long-term solution. I had given up on that as we need the infrastructure in place quickly, bit I guess now all options are open, I should evangelise for it once more.
Hah, yeah I was probably being a little too bombastic. We should commit to enacting the findings of the review (although did they ever consider doing both, I wonder)
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Dave a good operator ?
He didnt do anything much
Only became leader, held the position for eleven years, won two GE's to become PM, held a coalition together, won two referenda, etc, etc.
More than that - (I, and I suspect many others) will not be demanding more votes, the EU (but without the EU), etc. Though I personally think there should be a referendum on whatever deal gets done.... I wonder how many full bore Euronationalists there are?
Be careful what you wish for - you've had the Brexit referendum. Assume the May government puts the EU exit 'deal' to another referendum and it gets defeated. What do you do now? The EU aren't going to renegotiate. The deal you get is the only one in town. Accept it and move on.
The primary reason I want a referendum on such a deal is so that everyone "Accepts it and moves on". X decades of "betrayal" blah blah blah would be quite boring.
I'll not see another referendum in the next 20 years because the people can't be trusted to vote the right way even when the consequences are spelt out to them. You would have the same problem as we had with this one if you only offered a Yes/No vote on whatever outcome was on offer. If you gave, say, four alternatives and one gets 30%, two 25% and the last 20% you will have solved nothing other than upset 70% rather than 48%.
"I'll not see another referendum in the next 20 years because the people can't be trusted to vote the right way even when the consequences are spelt out to them"
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
May depresses me. A humourless and charmless battleaxe with no ideas of her own who has risen without trace or talent. She prospers by doing very little other than survive.
She does have the advantage of both her internal party and external enemies vanish from the field of play. Perhaps she is a witch after all.
Yes but I think this is what people want; a period of boredom and hopefully efficiency from our political world.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Dave a good operator ?
He didn't do anything much
Only became leader, held the position for eleven years, won two GE's to become PM, held a coalition together, won two referenda, etc, etc.
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Dave a good operator ?
He didn't do anything much
Only became leader, held the position for eleven years, won two GE's to become PM, held a coalition together, won two referenda, etc, etc.
Nope, not much of anything.
And then bet the farm and lost...
Indeed. But that doesn't mean he didn't do anything much before that.
If you take a political career ending with a failure as a sign of a poor politician, there are few good ones. Not even Thatcher or Blair, who hardly went on his own terms.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Dave a good operator ?
He didnt do anything much
Only became leader, held the position for eleven years, won two GE's to become PM, held a coalition together, won two referenda, etc, etc.
Nope, not much of anything.
And yet a compete abject failure. A victim not of events, but of his own ego. Shakespeare could not have written it better.
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
We had a big inquiry to show what should be done. What's the point of having such inquiries if people just go off and 'chose' their favourite based on f/all evidence?
Heck, I think Boris Island's the long-term solution. I had given up on that as we need the infrastructure in place quickly, bit I guess now all options are open, I should evangelise for it once more.
Hah, yeah I was probably being a little too bombastic. We should commit to enacting the findings of the review (although did they ever consider doing both, I wonder)
This article is also spot on about Boris. The country was at peak uncertainty the morning after the shock referendum result, and the look on Boris's face said it all. So he disappeared for several days and was seen at the weekend larking about with his cricketing chums. Had he instead made a big speech at the weekend with evidence that he had thought about the situation he had led us all into, to set out what we should do next, he would have become PM.
Now it seems that in the face of the intense smear campaign run by supporters of Theresa May, she concluded that the price of winning would be too high.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
May depresses me. A humourless and charmless battleaxe with no ideas of her own who has risen without trace or talent. She prospers by doing very little other than survive.
She does have the advantage of both her internal party and external enemies vanish from the field of play. Perhaps she is a witch after all.
As always in these situations, it's time to resort to anagrams. Theresa May leader returns - a leery headmaster
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
Many of which were destroyed after a few days in a storm ...
Dry land is simpler, perhaps cheaper, and more flexible in use. The major disadvantage is settlement, but a few jacks in the buildings' foundations fix that.
Now it seems that in the face of the intense smear campaign run by supporters of Theresa May, she concluded that the price of winning would be too high.
She never expected to be on the ballot, did she? She just wanted to raise her profile and be a heroic near-miss, thus advancing her career prospects. Con leadership challenge was to Leadsom as Brexit was to Boris.
Mike may be disappointed, but personally I slept easier in my bed last night knowing Leadsom was out and no chance of being PM.
It was crystal clear she should go as soon as news of that interview broke. Hopelessly out of her depth. Mike's right, there was a good chance the members would still have voted for her. Disaster for the UK beckoned. We have been saved from even more chaos than we face.
Now it seems that in the face of the intense smear campaign run by supporters of Theresa May, she concluded that the price of winning would be too high.
She never expected to be on the ballot, did she? She just wanted to raise her profile and be a heroic near-miss, thus advancing her career prospects. Con leadership challenge was to Leadsom as Brexit was to Boris.
I think once the loons got hold of her, it was very much out of her hands. When you have Cash, Redwood, IDS, The Moggster attached, it really is only going to end one way (clue: not happily).
"Jeremy Corbyn promised to make Labour leaders face mandatory elections every year to avoid the party struggling with a 'personality' leader.
He said it would "bring back democracy into the Labour Party and the Labour movement."
But the embattled Labour leader seems to have radically changed his mind since he unexpectedly became leader of the party last September."
Another historical day awaits. Today is the day the Labour Party presses the self destruct button by putting Corbyn on the ballot without asking him to find the support of just 50 of his MPs. It will happen. You mark my words. A sad day for any believer in parliamentary democracy.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Dave a good operator ?
He didnt do anything much
Only became leader, held the position for eleven years, won two GE's to become PM, held a coalition together, won two referenda, etc, etc.
Nope, not much of anything.
And yet a compete abject failure. A victim not of events, but of his own ego. Shakespeare could not have written it better.
History will tell if he's been an abject failure. The one-eyed nature of the 'bastards' in his party meant a referendum was inevitable once out of coalition.
Most political careers end in such failure: it was just a referendum rather than a GE or being stabbed in the back by his own chancellor, as happened with Blair.
You have to look at what they did whilst in power. It's too early to pronounce on that for Cameron yet (unless you've already made up your mind), but on the basis of battles fought and won, he did well.
There was a poll out last night showing affiliated union members are now against Corbyn. It was YouGov, wish I could find it. Not that it will make any difference. The Corbynistas are a cult.
SO said 'Thirty-five very stupid Labour MPs effectively destroyed their party by opening it up to the hard left and assorted useful idiots. They must hate themselves. I genuinely feel sorry for them.'
I don't agree with that. Those 35 MPs facillitated Corbyn's participation in the 2015 contest - they did not make it inevitable that he would win. The responsibility for that falls fairly and squarely on Harriet Harman's appaliing response to Osborne's July Budget when as Acting Leader she made the party abstain on his austerity proposals. That alone gave Corbyn the unstoppable momentum that carried him to victory. Frankly I am surprised that she can sleep at night having shown such lack of judgement.
Yes while i'm sure those 35 may regret their choice, Corbyn won because of the failures of the other candidates and of the party in general. The £3ers are a red herring, Corbyn won amongst the membership, the same ones (roughly) that placed Diane Abbott last in 2010. Corbyn was not inevitable once he got on the ballot. The party failed to articulate an alternative.
"Jeremy Corbyn promised to make Labour leaders face mandatory elections every year to avoid the party struggling with a 'personality' leader.
He said it would "bring back democracy into the Labour Party and the Labour movement."
But the embattled Labour leader seems to have radically changed his mind since he unexpectedly became leader of the party last September."
Another historical day awaits. Today is the day the Labour Party presses the self destruct button by putting Corbyn on the ballot without asking him to find the support of just 50 of his MPs. It will happen. You mark my words. A sad day for any believer in parliamentary democracy.
I think @jobabob you were one of those debating this last night on PB. I think the NEC will rule he is off the ballot. They will save the party at the 11th hour. Normal service is about to be resumed.
We'll know by late afternoon, I guess, unless they kick the can down the road somehow (sub-committee to review??)
There was a poll out last night showing affiliated union members are now against Corbyn. It was YouGov, wish I could find it. Not that it will make any difference. The Corbynistas are a cult.
And have enough votes in a public vote to win the election....
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Dave a good operator ?
He didnt do anything much
Only became leader, held the position for eleven years, won two GE's to become PM, held a coalition together, won two referenda, etc, etc.
Nope, not much of anything.
And yet a compete abject failure. A victim not of events, but of his own ego. Shakespeare could not have written it better.
History will tell if he's been an abject failure. The one-eyed nature of the 'bastards' in his party meant a referendum was inevitable once out of coalition.
Most political careers end in such failure: it was just a referendum rather than a GE or being stabbed in the back by his own chancellor, as happened with Blair.
You have to look at what they did whilst in power. It's too early to pronounce on that for Cameron yet (unless you've already made up your mind), but on the basis of battles fought and won, he did well.
Did he... All I see is a lot of (all) awkward questions kicked into the long grass. Heck the vote for Trident is next week after he left and that's been a safe one way bet throughout the decade (Labour's unions want the jobs)...
The reluctant Remainers. People, like myself, who voted remain because (even though we have no love for the political mechanism of the EU), on the balance we thought it would do too much damage to leave.
Not every Remainer is sitting there in a dark room, half way down the second bottle of brandy, the tears rolling off the signed portrait of Junker, with Ode to Joy at 11 on the stereo. In a loop...
I suspect May be the PM many of them want - 'it's done, no point in crying over spilt milk, time to get on with it....'
And when it is done and we continue to prosper they will be mightily glad it was done.
One reason the 48% is nearer the 20% and no chance of a vote ever taking us back in.
The two aren't incompatible. Being outside the EU will be accepted as the new normal. But Brexit from now on will be about damage limitation and minimal change.
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
It always amazes me that people think an airport only needs a flat piece of land for aircraft to use.
Around Heathrow there is a whole network of support industry and ancillary activities and a truly massive workforce; there are several west London boroughs where much of the population essentially supports the airport. The idea you can just close it all down and drop it into some marshland miles from London was for the birds (which would have been the other problem).
Cable up, markets seem to be pricing in no change in interest rates on Thursday rather than the cut which was expected last week. Immediately the economic outlook has changed from negative to stable now that we have solved the immediate political uncertainty.
She never expected to be on the ballot, did she? She just wanted to raise her profile and be a heroic near-miss, thus advancing her career prospects. Con leadership challenge was to Leadsom as Brexit was to Boris.
It's rather worrying that the future of the country is dependent on the career advancing whims of a few politicians.
"Jeremy Corbyn promised to make Labour leaders face mandatory elections every year to avoid the party struggling with a 'personality' leader.
He said it would "bring back democracy into the Labour Party and the Labour movement."
But the embattled Labour leader seems to have radically changed his mind since he unexpectedly became leader of the party last September."
Another historical day awaits. Today is the day the Labour Party presses the self destruct button by putting Corbyn on the ballot without asking him to find the support of just 50 of his MPs. It will happen. You mark my words. A sad day for any believer in parliamentary democracy.
Bob, the only thing the NEC can do is buy some time - say it is going for further legal advice to reconcile the conflicting legal advice it is being shown. And hope they can use the time to have somebody prise Corbyn away from his advisers for a day. And mop up that poison being dripped daily in his ear....
Has there ever been a politician more reviled by his own MPs? "Corbyn" will go into common usage as has another politician - Quisling - as being shorthand for Something. Very. Very. Bad. Indeed.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
May depresses me. A humourless and charmless battleaxe with no ideas of her own who has risen without trace or talent. She prospers by doing very little other than survive.
She does have the advantage of both her internal party and external enemies vanish from the field of play. Perhaps she is a witch after all.
As always in these situations, it's time to resort to anagrams. Theresa May leader returns - a leery headmaster
The democratic deficit, shown up by the referendum, continues to be ignored.
In the 2014 Euro elections, UKIP received 4.4M votes. 17.4M votes were cast for Brexit in June. This was against the strong advice of both the establishment, and all the other political parties, (except the DUP).
On the biggest issue of the day, who is representing these 13M voters at Westminster?
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
It always amazes me that people think an airport only needs a flat piece of land for aircraft to use.
Around Heathrow there is a whole network of support industry and ancillary activities and a truly massive workforce; there are several west London boroughs where much of the population essentially supports the airport. The idea you can just close it all down and drop it into some marshland miles from London was for the birds (which would have been the other problem).
Agreed. That said, putting the new runway at Gatwick is an absolute no brainer to my mind.
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
It always amazes me that people think an airport only needs a flat piece of land for aircraft to use.
Around Heathrow there is a whole network of support industry and ancillary activities and a truly massive workforce; there are several west London boroughs where much of the population essentially supports the airport. The idea you can just close it all down and drop it into some marshland miles from London was for the birds (which would have been the other problem).
Indeed. The Heathrow site is huge. I hope that May just pushes ahead with it anyway. Show some leadership early on.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced operator.
But they sadly picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
Dave a good operator ?
He didnt do anything much
Only became leader, held the position for eleven years, won two GE's to become PM, held a coalition together, won two referenda, etc, etc.
Nope, not much of anything.
And yet a compete abject failure. A victim not of events, but of his own ego. Shakespeare could not have written it better.
History will tell if he's been an abject failure. The one-eyed nature of the 'bastards' in his party meant a referendum was inevitable once out of coalition.
Most political careers end in such failure: it was just a referendum rather than a GE or being stabbed in the back by his own chancellor, as happened with Blair.
You have to look at what they did whilst in power. It's too early to pronounce on that for Cameron yet (unless you've already made up your mind), but on the basis of battles fought and won, he did well.
The referendum was inevitable - the Leave vote/support was continuously growing. I actually blame the Lib Dems... A referendum last parliament would have been remain.
She never expected to be on the ballot, did she? She just wanted to raise her profile and be a heroic near-miss, thus advancing her career prospects. Con leadership challenge was to Leadsom as Brexit was to Boris.
It's rather worrying that the future of the country is dependent on the career advancing whims of a few politicians.
Think the situation the Lib Dems would have been in a few years back if Chris Huhne had won the leadership election over Clegg, only for the court case to have emerged in 2012.
Cable up, markets seem to be pricing in no change in interest rates on Thursday rather than the cut which was expected last week. Immediately the economic outlook has changed from negative to stable now that we have solved the immediate political uncertainty.
She never expected to be on the ballot, did she? She just wanted to raise her profile and be a heroic near-miss, thus advancing her career prospects. Con leadership challenge was to Leadsom as Brexit was to Boris.
It's rather worrying that the future of the country is dependent on the career advancing whims of a few politicians.
To be fair, anyone joining the Tory race after Brexit would have expected Boris and May to be the final two. Nailed on. Leadsom could have built on her profile to get a leg-up the Cabinet ladder, maybe get a bit more clout for the things she believes in... She could not have had a realistic expectation of making the final two.
I suspect if you had told her that was going to happen, then given her unsuitability for the top job being cruelly exposed to the world at large, she would not have thrown her hat into the ring...
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
It always amazes me that people think an airport only needs a flat piece of land for aircraft to use.
Around Heathrow there is a whole network of support industry and ancillary activities and a truly massive workforce; there are several west London boroughs where much of the population essentially supports the airport. The idea you can just close it all down and drop it into some marshland miles from London was for the birds (which would have been the other problem).
Agreed. That said, putting the new runway at Gatwick is an absolute no brainer to my mind.
Not at all, it's on the wrong side of London and New York has shown that a dual hub doesn't work for a big city, it needs one megahub and smaller outlying airports.
The democratic deficit, shown up by the referendum, continues to be ignored.
In the 2014 Euro elections, UKIP received 4.4M votes. 17.4M votes were cast for Brexit in June. This was against the strong advice of both the establishment, and all the other political parties, (except the DUP).
On the biggest issue of the day, who is representing these 13M voters at Westminster?
The conhome poll was on the day and self selecting and an earlier poll had May ahead, ICM and yougov had May leading 2 to 1 i.e. the same margin Cameron beat Davis. Essentially Leadsom had a good referendum campaign but she was only a junior minister and should never have been in the final two but a strong third, once she was in the full glare of the media her inexperience came through. It was only the fact Boris and Gove knifed each other left her the last Leave candidate standing. May could yet give her a Cabinet post as Business Secretary or at Work and Pensions after she bowed out with some grace yesterday
"Jeremy Corbyn promised to make Labour leaders face mandatory elections every year to avoid the party struggling with a 'personality' leader.
He said it would "bring back democracy into the Labour Party and the Labour movement."
But the embattled Labour leader seems to have radically changed his mind since he unexpectedly became leader of the party last September."
Another historical day awaits. Today is the day the Labour Party presses the self destruct button by putting Corbyn on the ballot without asking him to find the support of just 50 of his MPs. It will happen. You mark my words. A sad day for any believer in parliamentary democracy.
I think @jobabob you were one of those debating this last night on PB. I think the NEC will rule he is off the ballot. They will save the party at the 11th hour. Normal service is about to be resumed.
We'll know by late afternoon, I guess, unless they kick the can down the road somehow (sub-committee to review??)
If they do they'll be ignoring their own laws, its clear the intent is that challengers need nominations to challenge the leader, which is why there's a different threshold and it refers to challengers. There's no reason why Corbyn would or should need nominations other than it would be helpful right now.
Is it the NECs job to be helpful right now, or enforce the rules?
OT - wishful thinking that politicos with high ambitions will take extra care with their back story before launching Leadership bids in future. This Leadership election also caught out Stephen Crabb.
Most politicians are not very self-aware and are chancers. I'm confident they will continue to keep us entertained as they attempt to ascend the greasy pole.
She never expected to be on the ballot, did she? She just wanted to raise her profile and be a heroic near-miss, thus advancing her career prospects. Con leadership challenge was to Leadsom as Brexit was to Boris.
It's rather worrying that the future of the country is dependent on the career advancing whims of a few politicians.
Twas ever thus - Check out the behaviour of Pericles - looted the Athenian league treasury (converting the league into the Athenian Empire and kicking off the war with Sparta) to rebuild the Acropolis to get himself re-elected...
Yes, the Parthenon is the result of the Ancient Athenian version of Blair...
"Jeremy Corbyn promised to make Labour leaders face mandatory elections every year to avoid the party struggling with a 'personality' leader.
He said it would "bring back democracy into the Labour Party and the Labour movement."
But the embattled Labour leader seems to have radically changed his mind since he unexpectedly became leader of the party last September."
Right now i think jeremy would love to face an election, but others are trying to prevent him from doing so.
The requirement for a sufficient number of nominations is of itself part of the election. Corbyn dismisses the PLP as their having no particular legitimacy outside of simply being part of the Labour movement as a whole - yet if so, why are nominations from them, and only from them - given a special place in the process? Precisely because they do in fact have a special place.
From the Collins review, which was the template for Miliband's rules reforms:
"in recognition of the fact that the leader of the Labour Party has a special duty to head the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster, MPs will retain the responsibility of deciding the final shortlist of candidates that will be put to the ballot. MEPs, who previously had a share of the MPs’ section of the college, will be able to publish supporting nominations but these will not count towards the formal nominating process. To ensure that all candidates who are put to the ballot command a substantial body of support in the PLP, the threshold for nominations to secure a position on the shortlist should be raised from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent of House of Commons members of the PLP. "
Thanks for that - I had completely overlooked Collins' rationale until now. So very clearly, the Labour Party's system for selecting a leader is designed "to ensure that all candidates who are put to the ballot command a substantial body of support in the PLP"
Every time that a Corbyn cultist claims that he can carry on regardless of the fact that almost the entire PLP thinks he should go, on the grounds that the choice of leadership is solely a matter for anyone in the country choosing to make at least a £3 one-off payment, those words should be quoted back at them.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
May depresses me. A humourless and charmless battleaxe with no ideas of her own who has risen without trace or talent. She prospers by doing very little other than survive.
She does have the advantage of both her internal party and external enemies vanish from the field of play. Perhaps she is a witch after all.
But she has that attribute - lucky ! It was not her fault that all her rivals either knifed each other or were demonstrably inept or unqualified.
She just walked over the bodies !
Boris would have beaten her easily. It also tells you about him. Just because Gove knifed him, he didn't need to withdraw.
Boris is like an addict. He needs the fix of being adored,
If you think politics world has gone bonkers....if the media reports are to be believed the next England manager is either Big Sam or Steve Bruce.....
Think Big Sam will do a fine job, tbh
It won't be pretty....Andy Carroll and Defoe upfront nailed on...and unlike the Premier League, Big Sam can't go and import some quality African players.
Question for those in the know - do Constituency Labour Parties have the power to expel members from the Party?
No, they can recommend it but it's a matter for the national party using legally binding procedures. That's why even if there's an obvious case where the member has said he worships Satan and, worse, votes Tory, you get the party saying they are following due process. If you stand against a party candidate, though, you are automatically suspended and likely to be expelled. A grey area is if you sign nomination papers for a rival, since you can claim you were merely assisting the democratic process - a bit like the 35 MPs who nominated Corbyn without necessarily supporting him.
Problems normally arise when they supported another candidate recently. Have they had a genuine change of heart or are they infiltrating? Such cases need to be assessed fairly and individually.
Is that a non Cabinet position? It could mean Heathrow is on the cards....
Yes, that would indicate she's not getting a big enough promotion to block Heathrow. One wonders whether Hammond at Chancellor might block it though. Bloody Dave, Gordon and Tony should have fucking sorted it years ago.
Question for those in the know - do Constituency Labour Parties have the power to expel members from the Party?
No.
Thanks. So Angela Eagle can't have her status as a member of the party stripped away before the members vote. Just wanted to check that wasn't the next exciting instalment of this saga...
Is that a non Cabinet position? It could mean Heathrow is on the cards....
Yes, that would indicate she's not getting a big enough promotion to block Heathrow. One wonders whether Hammond at Chancellor might block it though. Bloody Dave, Gordon and Tony should have fucking sorted it years ago.
Hopefully May just said "like it or lump it, we're building it!"
John Redwood:The first main decision the new government has to take is whether to proceed by means of rapid UK Parliamentary legislation, or whether to go for an early notification under Article 50 with a tight timetable for the negotiations. You could even do both together.
The draft Bill is available. It would take back control by repealing the 1972 Act which is the origin of EU power in the UK. It would put into UK law all outstanding EU requirements, to leave in place the tariff free trade and regulations prior to discussions with the rest of the EU about whether they want any changes to that. It would allow early changes to our borders policy and cancellation of our subscriptions.
Leadsom was an empty vessel into which rightwingers poured their hopes and aspirations.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
May depresses me. A humourless and charmless battleaxe with no ideas of her own who has risen without trace or talent. She prospers by doing very little other than survive.
She does have the advantage of both her internal party and external enemies vanish from the field of play. Perhaps she is a witch after all.
Politicians don't have talent, that is a natural ability to do things such as artists or athletes.
When people describe politicians as talented they mean they agree with them.
Now it seems that in the face of the intense smear campaign run by supporters of Theresa May, she concluded that the price of winning would be too high.
The 'smear campaign' that consisted of i) Clarifying her CV and ii) Reporting what she said?
There is clearly a counter-narrative that May cunningly plotted Leadsom's downfall. Allison Pearson's telegraph article is a good example - she neatly overlooks the fact that it was Leadsom who first raised the children in response to an open question, and argues that she was "lured" onto dangerous ground deliberately by the Times. And on last night's newsnight Iain thingybob even argued that May's recent interview about her childlessness was a deliberate trap for Leadsom, with phase two being her disables interview. Which is taking conspiracy theory a but far IMHO,
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
It always amazes me that people think an airport only needs a flat piece of land for aircraft to use.
Around Heathrow there is a whole network of support industry and ancillary activities and a truly massive workforce; there are several west London boroughs where much of the population essentially supports the airport. The idea you can just close it all down and drop it into some marshland miles from London was for the birds (which would have been the other problem).
Indeed. Yet it has been done: HK International Airport being the most famous example.
Expansion of Heathrow is only a medium-term measure. I predict before runway 3 is complete they'l be looking for a fourth, and that's when it starts getting *really* expensive.
And to compete, we need to look at what other countries are doing. As an example, the new Istanbul airport already being built has three runways, and is planned to have 6. From Wiki, Heathrow has 75 million passengers per annum; Istanbul with be able to cope with 150 million, with expansion possible to 200 million.
This doesn't mean we should get into a pi**ing contest with other countries. But its clear that other countries see a vast increase in passenger numbers (although they are also competing for the hub markets).
Can we afford to be left behind, or is everyone else getting it wrong?
We can only really speculate on Andrea's reasons for dropping out.
Whether or not May is the person for the job, the way the establishment candidate is being crowned should make anyone who cares about living in a democracy very uneasy.
Apart from May's constituency being Maidenhead - has she said anything on this?
Surely she should just get it out of the way ASAP. Say that the government will carry out the findings of the independent review.
Or do something bold like Heathrow and Gatwick.....
Nothing like a bit of infrastructure spending to boost the economy. Both would definitely show that we are open for business, and the option I would prefer.
The best option (IMHO) would be a variation on Boris Island - a variation on concrete oil platform technology. Think a series of tables - flat top, legs with flotation chambers at the bottom. Because they are for shallow water, much lower than an oil platform. Say 350m x 50m and 50m high. Each. Build in various shipyards, float into position. You could build you airport *anywhere*.
When it is done, sell Heathrow for housing. Make money on the deal.
It always amazes me that people think an airport only needs a flat piece of land for aircraft to use.
Around Heathrow there is a whole network of support industry and ancillary activities and a truly massive workforce; there are several west London boroughs where much of the population essentially supports the airport. The idea you can just close it all down and drop it into some marshland miles from London was for the birds (which would have been the other problem).
Agreed. That said, putting the new runway at Gatwick is an absolute no brainer to my mind.
Not at all, it's on the wrong side of London and New York has shown that a dual hub doesn't work for a big city, it needs one megahub and smaller outlying airports.
Rubbish. We need extra runways at LHR, LGW and Stansted.
Question for those in the know - do Constituency Labour Parties have the power to expel members from the Party?
No, they can recommend it but it's a matter for the national party using legally binding procedures. That's why even if there's an obvious case where the member has said he worships Satan and, worse, votes Tory, you get the party saying they are following due process. If you stand against a party candidate, though, you are automatically suspended and likely to be expelled. A grey area is if you sign nomination papers for a rival, since you can claim you were merely assisting the democratic process - a bit like the 35 MPs who nominated Corbyn without necessarily supporting him.
Problems normally arise when they supported another candidate recently. Have they had a genuine change of heart or are they infiltrating? Such cases need to be assessed fairly and individually.
Yes but I think this is what people want; a period of boredom and hopefully efficiency from our political world.
I think that's right (whether they'll get it we shall see). But even addicts like us are showing signs of feeling that this 12-month wild bender needs to press the pause button sometime. I think she'll be very popular for a while, though the underlying problems aren't going anywhere.
I read elsewhere on here that Leadsom needed better media advisors, well if these media advisors are so good they should get themselves elected and run the country.
Indeed. Yet it has been done: HK International Airport being the most famous example.
Expansion of Heathrow is only a medium-term measure. I predict before runway 3 is complete they'l be looking for a fourth, and that's when it starts getting *really* expensive.
And to compete, we need to look at what other countries are doing. As an example, the new Istanbul airport already being built has three runways, and is planned to have 6. From Wiki, Heathrow has 75 million passengers per annum; Istanbul with be able to cope with 150 million, with expansion possible to 200 million.
This doesn't mean we should get into a pi**ing contest with other countries. But its clear that other countries see a vast increase in passenger numbers (although they are also competing for the hub markets).
Can we afford to be left behind, or is everyone else getting it wrong?
Heathrow presented a two runway plan, one of the reasons I think the NW option is being given the go ahead is because that was the plan that allowed for a four runway solution in the future as well as the least disruption to wildlife.
I like the idea of BI as well, but for a variety of reasons it's not going to happen. Hopefully the PM is realistic and gets on with LHR3 at least.
We can only really speculate on Andrea's reasons for dropping out.
Whether or not May is the person for the job, the way the establishment candidate is being crowned should make anyone who cares about living in a democracy very uneasy.
Not all that uneasy about it. After all, we're not in a presidential democracy (much though various PMs have tried to make it so). Saying that, a snap GE would be nice, perhaps once Labour has sorted themselves out.
Comments
From the Collins review, which was the template for Miliband's rules reforms:
"in recognition of the fact that the leader of the Labour Party has a special duty
to head the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster, MPs will retain the responsibility
of deciding the final shortlist of candidates that will be put to the ballot. MEPs, who
previously had a share of the MPs’ section of the college, will be able to publish supporting
nominations but these will not count towards the formal nominating process. To ensure that
all candidates who are put to the ballot command a substantial body of support in the PLP,
the threshold for nominations to secure a position on the shortlist should be raised from
12.5 per cent to 15 per cent of House of Commons members of the PLP. "
http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2016/05/29/guest-slot-polling-analysis-finds-labour-loses-supporters-of-brexit/
"For all its acrimony, the open debate between the wings of the party shows that the party wants to keep the door open in future for Conservative supporters of either camp. In addition, if Cameron’s successor is a prominent Leave supporter, many Conservative defectors to UKIP in 2015 and since could return in significant numbers. Do not bet against a general election before 2020 under a new Conservative leader."
Cameron's successor is not a prominent Leave supporter, but a PM who becomes a prominent Leave implementer will do just as much or more to attract back UKIP defectors.
Conservative polling is also bound to improve with May's accession. Apart from the usual short term boost to a new leader, there could be a longer term effect, not because Cameron has lost his long-time approval rating but more because the deeply unpopular Osborne will surely go now.
Thing is, they got carried away, probably as much to the surprise of Leadsom as anyone else. Which led to unnecessary CV spinning, loose talk about her beliefs, etc, which would never have occurred with a more experienced or capable operator.
Because sadly they picked the wrong candidate. Leadsom herself was simply not up to it. Everyone, whether from past lives, or her current one, said the same thing. Deeply mediocre at best. Now, there's nothing wrong with living your life as a nothing special backbencher. Plenty of them around. But PM takes something more. Leadsom didn't have it. Not wholly her fault, although she was also culpable.
May, meanwhile, is fulfilling the same function for the mildly-europhile, wettish wing. Projecting onto her the safe pair of hands, not rocking the boat, let's not do anything too EU bonkers candidate.
While she is no way as good an operator as Dave, she is miles ahead of Andrea so we are in with a better chance.
He didnt do anything much
Funnily enough there is a lot of moaning on #trainspotting on twitter from people who tuned in expecting to see Begbie and co
She does have the advantage of both her internal party and external enemies vanish from the field of play. Perhaps she is a witch after all.
On PB?
I've never seen the like...
Nope, not much of anything.
Terrible thing this democracy lark isn't it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_Harbour_Phoenix_Units,_Portland
If you take a political career ending with a failure as a sign of a poor politician, there are few good ones. Not even Thatcher or Blair, who hardly went on his own terms.
Now it seems that in the face of the intense smear campaign run by supporters of Theresa May, she concluded that the price of winning would be too high.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/12/theresa-may-will-drive-tory-members-into-the-arms-of-ukip
The 'smear campaign' that consisted of i) Clarifying her CV and ii) Reporting what she said?
returns - a leery headmaster
Dry land is simpler, perhaps cheaper, and more flexible in use. The major disadvantage is settlement, but a few jacks in the buildings' foundations fix that.
She has already made a start on this site, which is encouraging.
It was crystal clear she should go as soon as news of that interview broke. Hopelessly out of her depth. Mike's right, there was a good chance the members would still have voted for her. Disaster for the UK beckoned. We have been saved from even more chaos than we face.
Most political careers end in such failure: it was just a referendum rather than a GE or being stabbed in the back by his own chancellor, as happened with Blair.
You have to look at what they did whilst in power. It's too early to pronounce on that for Cameron yet (unless you've already made up your mind), but on the basis of battles fought and won, he did well.
We'll know by late afternoon, I guess, unless they kick the can down the road somehow (sub-committee to review??)
As well as the NEC ruling, there's another on whether China's actions in the South China Sea have been illegal:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36767252
Around Heathrow there is a whole network of support industry and ancillary activities and a truly massive workforce; there are several west London boroughs where much of the population essentially supports the airport. The idea you can just close it all down and drop it into some marshland miles from London was for the birds (which would have been the other problem).
If Jez is on he cans his leadership challenge, if Jez is not on then he runs and gets more of the Corbyn support than Eagle.
Has there ever been a politician more reviled by his own MPs? "Corbyn" will go into common usage as has another politician - Quisling - as being shorthand for Something. Very. Very. Bad. Indeed.
Nanny McPhee.
In the 2014 Euro elections, UKIP received 4.4M votes. 17.4M votes were cast for Brexit in June. This was against the strong advice of both the establishment, and all the other political parties, (except the DUP).
On the biggest issue of the day, who is representing these 13M voters at Westminster?
The traitors should expect summary justice from their CLP's, mind.
A lucky escape.
I suspect if you had told her that was going to happen, then given her unsuitability for the top job being cruelly exposed to the world at large, she would not have thrown her hat into the ring...
Is it the NECs job to be helpful right now, or enforce the rules?
Most politicians are not very self-aware and are chancers. I'm confident they will continue to keep us entertained as they attempt to ascend the greasy pole.
Yes, the Parthenon is the result of the Ancient Athenian version of Blair...
Every time that a Corbyn cultist claims that he can carry on regardless of the fact that almost the entire PLP thinks he should go, on the grounds that the choice of leadership is solely a matter for anyone in the country choosing to make at least a £3 one-off payment, those words should be quoted back at them.
She just walked over the bodies !
Boris would have beaten her easily. It also tells you about him. Just because Gove knifed him, he didn't need to withdraw.
Boris is like an addict. He needs the fix of being adored,
Problems normally arise when they supported another candidate recently. Have they had a genuine change of heart or are they infiltrating? Such cases need to be assessed fairly and individually.
The draft Bill is available. It would take back control by repealing the 1972 Act which is the origin of EU power in the UK. It would put into UK law all outstanding EU requirements, to leave in place the tariff free trade and regulations prior to discussions with the rest of the EU about whether they want any changes to that. It would allow early changes to our borders policy and cancellation of our subscriptions.
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2016/07/12/brexit-means-brexit/
When people describe politicians as talented they mean they agree with them.
Expansion of Heathrow is only a medium-term measure. I predict before runway 3 is complete they'l be looking for a fourth, and that's when it starts getting *really* expensive.
And to compete, we need to look at what other countries are doing. As an example, the new Istanbul airport already being built has three runways, and is planned to have 6. From Wiki, Heathrow has 75 million passengers per annum; Istanbul with be able to cope with 150 million, with expansion possible to 200 million.
This doesn't mean we should get into a pi**ing contest with other countries. But its clear that other countries see a vast increase in passenger numbers (although they are also competing for the hub markets).
Can we afford to be left behind, or is everyone else getting it wrong?
Whether or not May is the person for the job, the way the establishment candidate is being crowned should make anyone who cares about living in a democracy very uneasy.
I like the idea of BI as well, but for a variety of reasons it's not going to happen. Hopefully the PM is realistic and gets on with LHR3 at least.
Maybe in past they have been in Cabinet?