Brexit and not very united kingdom politics II

[Crazedwraith]

It's weird to me calling people Johnsonite when BoJo apparently had no firm positions or ideology at all. Just wanting to be in power for the sake of being in power by all accounts.

[Lost Soal]

It would appear that a Continuity-Bojo faction is emerging, with Rishi Sunak as its primary enemy. Tom Tugendhat has been held up as the 'integrity' candidate, but I don't fancy his chances. One other worth watching in this case is Kemi Badenoch, who presents herself as a true-blue anti-woke black woman, and Bojo loyalist.

Oh joy. Anti woke. All our problems are over because she opposes something I guarantee she couldn't define if her life depended on it.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

It's weird to me calling people Johnsonite when BoJo apparently had no firm positions or ideology at all. Just wanting to be in power for the sake of being in power by all accounts.

Indeed. Nevertheless, they present themselves as protecting and continuing his legacy. It's probably not in their interest to define said legacy too specifically. From what I can figure out, it involves Brexit, low taxes, culture war, or the opposite of whatever Rishi Sunak happens to be offering right now.

Oh joy. Anti woke. All our problems are over because she opposes something I guarantee she couldn't define if her life depended on it.

They're pretty much all anti-woke to varying degrees.

As things currently stand, Rishi Sunak seems to be most popular with MPs, while Penny Mordaunt is most popular with members. Either way, the schedule is for the candidates to be whittled down to two by Thursday.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

And just when you thought this was getting boring.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... op-of-blog

Labour accuses No 10 of 'flagrant abuse of power' after it refuses to allow no confidence debate in government tomorrow

Downing Street is refusing to allow time for a no confidence vote tomorrow, HuffPost reports.

According to Erskine May, the bible for parliamentary procedure, the government is meant to find time for a debate on a no confidence motion tabled by the official opposition without delay. It says:

From time to time the opposition has put down a motion on the paper expressing lack of confidence in the government or otherwise criticising its general conduct. By established convention, the government always accedes to the demand from the leader of the opposition to allot a day for the discussion of a motion tabled by the official opposition which, in the government’s view, would have the effect of testing the confidence of the House. In allotting a day for this purpose, the government is entitled to have regard to the exigencies of its own business, but a reasonably early day is invariably found.

This convention is founded on the recognised position of the opposition as a potential government, which guarantees the legitimacy of such an interruption of the normal course of business. For its part, the government has everything to gain by meeting such a direct challenge to its authority at the earliest possible moment.

A Labour spokesperson said:

This clapped-out government is running scared and refusing to allow time to debate Labour’s vote of no confidence motion. This is totally unprecedented. Yet again the Tories are changing the rules to protect their own dodgy mates. All the Tory leadership candidates should denounce this flagrant abuse of power to protect a discredited prime minister.

I really don't know why Bojo is bothering with this. Unless there's something we don't know, I can't see him losing such a vote.

[Bedlam]

Certainly an interesting split of gender and race in the Tory leadership election. Of the 8 runners half of them are female and half of them arn't white.

After the first round 4 out of 6 are female and 3 out of 6 are non white.

Certainly not what you would expect from the Conservatives.

[Crazedwraith]

I mean the only female prime ministers we've had were both Tory.

Tory don't care so long as you buy into their idealogy and are rich. Being rich makes you one of the good ones.

[Lost Soal]

Certainly an interesting split of gender and race in the Tory leadership election. Of the 8 runners half of them are female and half of them arn't white.

After the first round 4 out of 6 are female and 3 out of 6 are non white.

Certainly not what you would expect from the Conservatives.

A non-white female PM!

Woke bullshit.

[Zaune]

One of those non-white female candidates unironically used the phrase "cultural Marxism" at one point, so don't get too smug about how we're doing one thing better than the Americans.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Funny you should mention her.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... ics-latest

Braverman out of contest as Sunak maintains lead - second ballot results
Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, is announcing the results now.

Rishi Sunak - 101 (up 13)

Penny Mordaunt - 83 (up 16)

Liz Truss - 64 (up 14)

Kemi Badenoch - 49 (up 9)

Tom Tugendhat - 32 (down 5)

Suella Braverman - 27 (down 5)

That means Braverman is out.

Looks like it's coming down to Sunak vs Mordaunt.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I'm just surprised that Jeremy Hunt was eliminated as early as he was.

[Crazedwraith]

Everyone knows what Jeremy Hunt is rhyming slang for.

I was happy Grant Shapps didn't make the cut since he's memetically awful at everything.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Brexit: Boris Johnson suggests Keir Starmer and ‘deep state’ plotting to take UK back into EU

PM uses conspiracy theorists’ phrase, as he claims Labour leader will overturn Brexit at ‘drop of a hat’

Adam Forrest

Keir Starmer says Boris Johnson has been ‘forced out in disgrace’

Boris Johnson used one of his final speeches in the Commons to suggest Sir Keir Starmer was plotting with the “deep state” take Britain back into the EU.

The prime minister used the phrase beloved by paranoid conspiracy theorists, as he repeatedly claimed the Labour leader wanted to undo Brexit.

“We got Brexit done, and the rejoiners and revengers were left plotting and planning and biding their time,” Mr Johnson said, before suggesting his legacy was under threat.

He said: “Some people will say as I leave office that this is the end of Brexit … and the leader of the opposition and the deep state will prevail in its plot to haul us back into alignment with the EU as a prelude to our eventual return.”

Challenging Tory MPs to uphold his hard Brexit deal, Mr Johnson added: “We on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won’t we?”

Last month Sir Keir vowed not to take the UK back into the EU single market or customs union, or restore freedom of movement, as he set out his plan to “make Brexit work”.

Mr Johnson pointed to Starmer’s record voting against Brexit deals, claiming he had tried to “overturn the will of the people” – and would attempt to overturn Brexit again if he became PM.

The outgoing PM said: “Be in no doubt, if he were ever to come to power with his hopeless coalition of Liberal Democrats and Scottish nationalists, he would try to do so again at the drop of a hat.”

Sir Keir fired back by accusing Mr Johnson of indulging in sheer fantasy when it came to his legacy. “The delusion is never-ending – what a relief for the country that they finally got round to sacking him,” he said.

The Labour leader added: “He’s been forced out in disgrace, judged by his colleagues and peers to be unworthy of his position and unfit for office.”

Mr Johnson won cheers from Tory MPs when boasting of his party’s 2019 election victory over Labour, claiming they had “sent the great blue ferret so far up their left trouser leg they couldn’t move”.

He also added he believes Tory MPs will prove Sir Keir “totally wrong” over the prospect of a Labour election triumph, adding they will send the opposition leader “into orbit”.

MPs will stage a vote of confidence in the government on Monday evening at around 10pm, amid renewed calls from the opposition for Mr Johnson to step down immediately and hand over to a caretaker.

Labour former minister Dame Margaret Hodge said: “This debate is essential to call a halt to the dangerous Trumpian assault on everything we value in our British democracy.”

But Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh said he “wholly regrets the departure of this prime minister and I remain completely loyal to him to the very end ... And I think we will ask ourselves, what have we done?”

“Where is any sense of kindness? Or magnanimity? Why do we need to throw these insults around?” he added about Sir Keir’s condemnation. The loyalist said it was not as if Mr Johnson was “the worst sort of mass murderer and criminal in political history”.

All he needs now is an orange face and an over-long tie.

My inner conspiracy-theorist reckons this is part of a broader ploy to regain power. My inner boring git reckons he's just talking BS as usual.

As for the leadership contest, Tugendhat is now out, leaving Sunak (115), Mordaunt (82), Truss (71), and Badenoch (58); with another vote some time today.

[Gandalf]

When this whole thing started, I put a few on Sunak at $5 odds. Not the worst bet ever it seems.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

And...Badenoch is out. Scores from The Guardian.

Rishi Sunak - 118 (up 3)

Penny Mordaunt - 92 (up 10)

Liz Truss - 86 (up 15)

Kemi Badenoch - 59 (up 1)

Last ballot is tomorrow. Sunak still up front, and Mordaunt in second ahead, but Truss got the biggest gain. Too close to call at this point.

[Crazedwraith]

And on the other side...

[url=

Labour's left and right wings both treated the issue of anti-Semitism as a "factional weapon" when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, a report says.

Martin Forde QC's inquiry finds general "toxicity" existed between Mr Corbyn's office and staff at party HQ.

And he says the opposing groups used the issue of anti-Semitism as a weapon during their arguments, rather than confront the issue.

Complaints procedures have improved since but more work is needed, he adds.

Mr Forde's inquiry began in April 2020 after an 860-page dossier - dated March 2020 - was leaked.

It contained private WhatsApp messages and claimed some Labour workers had not wanted Mr Corbyn, on the party's left, to win the 2017 general election and had hindered efforts to tackle anti-Semitism.

The dossier found "no evidence" of anti-Semitism being handled differently from other complaints and blamed "factional opposition" towards Mr Corbyn.

But Mr Forde's report says factionalism was "endemic" within Labour and the issue of anti-Semitism was weaponised by both sides, not just the party's right.

"The evidence clearly demonstrated that a vociferous faction in the party sees any issues regarding anti-Semitism as exaggerated by the right to embarrass the left," it says.

"It was of course also true that some opponents of Jeremy Corbyn saw the issue of anti-Semitism as a means of attacking him.

"Thus, rather than confront the paramount need to deal with the profoundly serious issue of anti-Semitism in the party, both factions treated it as a factional weapon."

'Steps in right direction'
The report also says Labour's disciplinary process was "not fit for purpose" and "potentially prone to factional interference".

However, it adds that "many aspects of the party's recent reforms of disciplinary procedures" are a positive, and changes have been "generally steps in the right direction", although further work is needed.

The report also criticises a "culture of intellectual smugness which exists at the extremes of the political spectrum" of Labour opinion.

Responding to the findings, a Labour spokesperson said: "The Forde report details a party that was out of control.

"Keir Starmer is now in control and has made real progress in ridding the party of the destructive factionalism and unacceptable culture that did so much damage previously and contributed to our [general election] defeat in 2019."

But, in a statement, Mr Corbyn said that many in Labour had found it "hard to come to terms" with his "overwhelming" election as leader in 2015.

"In any party there are groups and factions, but the resistance we were faced with went far beyond that," he added.

Mr Corbyn also said the Forde report showed Labour needed to "decide what it is for".

"Are we a democratic socialist party, run by members and affiliated unions, that aims for a fundamental transfer of wealth and power from the few to the many?" he asked. "Or are we something else?"

Hilary Schan, co-chair of the Momentum Group, which supports Mr Corbyn, said the report showed that "right-wing Labour staff members worked to undermine the party's general election chances and its own complaints system, including on anti-Semitism".

"Disgracefully, while tens of thousands of Labour members were pounding the streets to kick the Tories out in favour of a socialist Labour government, these right-wing factional operators were wreaking havoc on the party from within," she added.

In October 2020, a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission's found Labour to have been responsible for "unlawful" acts of harassment and discrimination during Mr Corbyn's four-and a-half years as party leader.

Its investigation identified serious failings in leadership and an inadequate process of handling anti-Semitism complaints.

Mr Corbyn said the scale of anti-Semitism within Labour had been "dramatically overstated" by his opponents and that he had always been "determined to eliminate all forms of racism".

He was suspended from the party and was readmitted a month later.

But Mr Corbyn was not readmitted to Labour's parliamentary party and continues to sit in the House of Commons as an independent MP.

independent has
even more damning stuff from the ford report

Anti-Corbyn Labour officials secretly diverted 2017 election resources to candidates hostile to the leadership and away from "winnable seats", a party inquiry has found.
The long-awaited Forde Report, which has been seen in full by The Independent ahead of its publication, says senior staff hostile to Jeremy Corbyn set up a parallel operation to "covertly divert money and personnel" to their favoured candidates.

The report, commissioned by Keir Starmer in the early days of his leadership, found that a "toxic" atmosphere prevailed in Labour HQ, with staff communicating via "Whats App 'echo chambers'", which amplified hostility and "allowed the boundaries of acceptable conduct to become blurred".

The Forde Inquiry was set up to look into allegations detailed in a party dossier leaked in April 2020 which contained transcripts of private Whats App messages from staff suggesting officials worked to politically undermine the party's leadership.

"Members of the SMT Whats App groups were focused on what they saw as protecting the party form Jeremy Corbyn rather than helping him to advance his agenda," the Forde report concluded.

"Though staff did not generally seek to exacerbate LOTO's operational problems, which were seen as self-inflicted, they often passively observed or even welcomed them.

"Some comments do appear to show straightforward attempts to hinder LOTO's work (in their view, for the party's greater good)."

Whats App transcripts included in the original 2020 dossier analysed by the inquiry had suggested that some staffers became despondent as Labour climbed in the polls during the election campaign despite their efforts.

One election night chat log showed that upon seeing exit polls showing Labour had overturned the Tory majority, one senior official said the result was the “opposite to what I had been working towards for the last couple of years”, describing themselves and their allies as “silent and grey-faced” and in need of counselling.

But perhaps the most controversial of the claims in the original dossier was that staff diverted tens of thousands of pounds away from winnable sets and to protect candidates hostile to the leadership.

On this matter, the Forde report concluded: "Some senior HQ staff had the ability to implement resourcing decision covertly.

"A handful of staff in Ergon House created an additional fund for printing costs under the code GEL 001 (spending some £135,000 in total on campaigns supportive of sitting largely anti-Corbyn M Ps and not on campaigns for pro-Corbyn candidates in potential winnable seats).

The report says staff "genuinely considered that a primarily defensive strategy would secure the best result for the party", though it notes that "some had mixed feelings about what the better than anticipated result would mean for the party's future and their own roles".

The Ergon House operation "covertly” diverted money and personnel “without authority" and that whilst "not illegal" was "wrong",' the report concludes.

The report says that in general "a toxic atmosphere" prevailed in the party, stating that "Jeremy Corbyn's election marked the first time that the leader was seen as so out of step with the predominant political view of most of the permanent staff", meaning that "conflict reached a level of intensity not previously seen".

"Among senior HQ staff, communication via Whats App 'echo chambers' amplified the hostility and allowed the boundaries of acceptable conduct to become blurred; this resulted in conduct on the part of some senior staff which was wholly unacceptable," it said.

The inquiry also found "undoubted overt and underlying racism and sexism apparent in some of the content of the Whats App messages between the party's most senior staff" as well as a wider culture of discrimination.

Describing the party as being in "an untenable situation" on discrimination, the inquiry said: "The evidence received pointed to a perception that some protected characteristics were regarded, by the party, more highly than others. Equally, this meant that some were less highly regarded.

"One recurrent theme during the witness interviews was a professed commitment to combatting discrimination towards those with protected characteristics. There was a near universal acceptance of the need for the Party to be a 'broad church.

"However, many of the individuals laying claim to these worthy ambitions had a very strong, even unbending view of what the Party should represent, who it should represent and how it should fight elections effectively. It was concerning to me that many failed to examine their own actions which were demonstrably unlikely to achieve that aim."
[\quote]

[Crazedwraith]

Whoops, I mucked up the coding there and it's too late to edit. Here is the link to the first article on the bbc

[Juubi Karakuchi]

I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised. This Labour infighting is essentially a microcosm of British politics in general. Warring factions so bent on each-other's defeat and destruction that they can't see the big picture; or anything else for that matter. They endlessly squabble for control, but cannot bring themselves to walk away, or let anyone else do so.

[Crazedwraith]

So Sunak and Truss got through to the final two and now we have to hear everything they say for the next six weeks.

[Eternal_Freedom]

So something came up in my Facebook memories today, from a period when I sued to share quotes from Yes, Minister a lot when I was first watching it. I present this little gem from their special episode "Party Games:"

Sir Arnold: "So, will the new Prime Minister be our esteemed Chancellor or our illustrious Foreign Secretary?"
Sir Humphrey: "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Who do you think it should be?"
Sir Arnold: "Hmmm...difficult. Like asking which lunatic should run the asylum."

Emphasis added by me. These guys were fucking prophets, I swear.

[Crazedwraith]

It's less prophecy and more nothing ever changes.

[Eternal_Freedom]

That's almost more depressing.

[Iroscato]

That's almost more depressing.

On the bright side, it's always been that depressing!

[Crazedwraith]

Keir Starmer sacks shadow transport minister who backed rail strikes

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has sacked a junior shadow transport minister who joined striking rail workers on a picket line.

Ilford South MP Sam Tarry attended the protest at London's Euston station despite Sir Keir calling on his frontbench MPs to stay away.

Labour said he had been fired for making unauthorised media appearances.

Mr Tarry said he had been "standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with striking workers".

In a statement Labour said it would "always stand up for working people fighting for better pay, terms and conditions at work".

"This isn't about appearing on a picket line. Members of the front bench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.

"As a government in waiting, any breach of collective responsibility is taken extremely seriously and for these reasons Sam Tarry has been removed from the frontbench."

Responding to his dismissal, Mr Tarry - a supporter of the former leader Jeremy Corbyn - thanked Sir Keir for "the last two and a half years" on the front bench, but said it was "a real shame" he had been removed for "joining a picket line".

He said he wanted to be "part of a Labour Party that stands in solidarity with workers in their disputes, wherever that may be in this country",

"Real solidarity means not turning our backs on the people that created and made our party and make us strong on a daily basis," he added, warning Labour would struggle to win back power without providing a "really clear.. economic alternative".

He said he had not been told not to appear on a picket in the past day or so.

Labour 'deluded'
The TSSA rail union - whose picket line Mr Tarry joined - said it was "ashamed" of Labour.

General secretary Manuel Cortes said: "Whatever excuses the Labour Party makes about the reasons for Sam being sacked, the reality is that Sam has shown solidarity with his class and we applaud him for that. The Labour Party needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

"If they think can win the next general election while pushing away seven million trade union members, they are deluded.

"We expect attacks from the Tories, we don't expect attacks from our own party. As a Labour-affiliated union, our union is ashamed of the actions of the Labour Party leadership and the anti-worker anti-union message it is sending out.

"If Keir Starmer doesn't understand the basic concept of solidarity on which our movement has been built then he is not worthy of leading our party."

Train services have been disrupted throughout the day after 40,000 rail workers walked out in protest at pay, pensions and working conditions.

Negotiations between the RMT union - which is not affiliated to Labour - the TSSA and Network Rail have failed to find a solution to the dispute.

'Fair pay deal'
Several Labour MPs have expressed support for the strikes including five junior frontbenchers.

Talking to the BBC this morning, Mr Tarry said he was "here as a shadow transport minister backing transport workers who are on strike" and "backing the travelling public".

Asked if he should be on the picket line he said "any Labour MP, any Labour member, will have absolute solidarity with striking workers."

He argued that under a Labour government in office "this dispute would not be happening" because a "fair pay deal would have been in place".

His appearance at the picket line came despite previous warnings from Sir Keir that frontbench Labour MPs should not join the protests,

Speaking to the Today programme earlier this week, the Labour leader said: "A government doesn't go on picket lines, a government tries to resolve disputes."

Labour has not officially supported the industrial action, but instead focused its attacks on the government which it says should get involve in negotiations.

Real great optics here, Sir Kier.

[His Divine Shadow]

Lol british media is 3rd world.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

And she was making noises about "opportunities provided by Brexit". If there is such a thing- I certainly can't think of any.