howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The Bishop wrote:#138 Oh dear...when are member's names EVER mentioned in the Houses of Parliament? Furthermore, when are they ever referred to as a name they don't identify with?
Tony Benn ???
Never saw him dressed as a lady.
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
howard mcsweeney1 wrote:Tony Benn ???
Never saw him dressed as a lady.
You might need to explain that one to me.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
You're blustering now Your Grace as you know perfectly well that Ms Thornberry has a title due to her marriage and it goes against her socialist credentials. The late great Tony Benn was similarly treated for being born Viscount something or other.
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
howard mcsweeney1 wrote:You're blustering now Your Grace as you know perfectly well that Ms Thornberry has a title due to her marriage and it goes against her socialist credentials. The late great Tony Benn was similarly treated for being born Viscount something or other.
Which he renounced so that he could sit in the Commons - for the common good. Blustering? As for "going against her socialist credentials", one might see that as "not going against her socialist principles" - why the disingenuous wording? Perhaps you are Lord Howard of Lympne? Am I right?
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Jacob in his natural environment.
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,986
Hacking redefined.
According to 'an anonymous Tory HQ source', accessing a person's website without either their knowledge or permission and then changing said website's content is not 'real hacking'.
(In the same way presumably that, e.g., claiming that someone at Porton Down said something that he didn't say is not 'real lying'.)
Surely this evasive and tricksy enemy of the English language should be dug out and given a safe seat sharpish: he or she is obviously of at least Foreign Secretary material, and could go even higher.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43694295ray hutstone likes this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
Kemi Badenoch should have stuck to the party line under such intense questioning and feigned running through a wheat field instead.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Unauthorised obtaining and/or use of a third party's logon credentials has always been an integral part of hacking, regardless of the type of system accessed.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
How much would you pay to save your pet? Ruth Davidson spent the money she put aside for her wedding on treatment for her cocker spaniel after he was injured by a car. This endeared her to my children, as I suspect it did to many of her social media followers. It’s not just animal lovers who like Ruth; most people do. The Scottish Tory leader seems to get it right in the way that even quite steady, practical ministers like Amber Rudd don’t. On the Windrush fiasco this week she immediately retweeted The Sun’s call to “Let them stay”, while the home secretary floundered. She was the only Tory winner from the last election, with the party adding an astonishing 12 seats in Scotland to help keep Theresa May in power.
Now it seems that Davidson, like various other ambitious politicians, is trying to create a centrist party in Britain. The only difference is that she’s not going to start it from scratch: instead she is quietly taking over the old Conservative Party. The Scottish Tory leader has repeatedly been asked to join new ventures. There are already dozens out there including Legacy, Aspire and Renew, and several yet to be activated by desperate Westminster refugees. Moderate Labourites and Liberal Democrats want her as much as modernising Tories. She has been wooed by an array of lost Cameroons, Blairites and Cleggites, to join their new causes. Instead she has been dining with Tory donors and grandees to discuss a moderate takeover of her own party. Davidson’s brand is based on her decency and loyalty, so she would never force Mrs May out, but she is an excellent planner, as her election results show, and she appears to be putting everything in place so that if needed she could take over.
The Scottish leader can’t recapture the party on her own or backed only by Remainers. It appears she has decided to take Michael Gove as her Brexit ally because they share a socially liberal agenda, while distancing herself from Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson, whom she ridicules mercilessly. The MSP for Edinburgh Central and the environment secretary have become allies, bonding as true Scots over fishing rights post-Brexit. Now they have joined up to launch a youth movement, Onward, which sounds more like a hymn than a party, but is actually a modernising think tank. It aims to find ways of enticing younger voters away from Jeremy Corbyn to the Conservatives. Run by former advisers to David Cameron as well as Mrs May’s former aide Will Tanner, it has the blessing of Downing Street chief of staff Gavin Barwell. Heavyweight MPs such as Tom Tugendhat have signed up, as have party vice-chairmen Kemi Badenoch and Ben Bradley, and the peers Kate Fall and Kate Rock are on the advisory board. It will be launched after the May local elections, when Tory fortunes are likely to dip further. The first policy ideas will cover issues such as housing, job security and the cost of living. The think tank is aimed not just at the millennial generation but at slightly older 30 and 40-somethings from every background and region. Davidson can appeal directly to them: she grew up on a housing estate in Fife, went to a comprehensive and has faced redundancy as well as struggling to buy her first home with her partner, Jen.
The first time I heard about her was from Tom Strathclyde, then leader of the Lords, before she became Tory Scottish leader. “You will love her,” he said, “she’s a lesbian, vodka-swilling, kick-boxing Sunday school teacher, army and BBC-trained ninja.” He has been her champion ever since. Last month, the new deeply trendy editor of Vogue, Edward Enninful, chose her as his political interview in his diversity issue, predicting she could be the first gay prime minister. She has an extraordinary ability to appeal to both radicals and traditionalists. I’ve never seen her be chippy or exclusive. The Democratic Unionist Party may be against gay marriage but when I interviewed their leader Arlene Foster it was clear the two are good friends. She listens to Tory Scottish lairds worrying about their estates and to the homeless with equal interest and maintains her independence while never sounding disloyal to the leadership.
Her vision, beyond being a pragmatic, optimistic, Remainer Scot, lies in her belief that the country needs to become more socially inclusive and more outward looking. As she says, British politics isn’t a question of left or right any more but open versus closed. If she can capture the centre ground and steer the Tory party away from right-wingers like Mr Rees-Mogg, she will be able to use the party’s infrastructure, name, councillors, history and buildings, giving her the advantage over any new party. Unlike David Miliband, touted as another possible saviour, she isn’t a failed politician: at 39 she is still on the rise. All that remains is to persuade 100,000 moderate centrists, not much more than half her Twitter following, to join the Conservative Party and vote for her as leader. Jeremy Corbyn, after all, enticed 300,000 to sign up to take over Labour. Some senior Tory MPs such as Sir Nicholas Soames may be prepared to give up their seats for her, though she has told donors at various dinners that she is not prepared to discuss coming south until after the 2021 Scottish parliament elections. She is determined to use all her skills to try to beat Nicola Sturgeon and become first minister but the Tories are unlikely to win a majority in Scotland. So this would still give her time to go for No 10 in 2022.
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,877
FWIW my money's still on Rory Stewart and James Cleverly.
"Shall we go, you and I, while we can? Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds"
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The PM says that she will put the idea of leaving the Customs Union to a Commons vote, daring her MPs not to challenge it!!
I think most people expect the move to fail meaning her leadership has lost credibility so CVs from some will be updated.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
artilla the hum looks promicing
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times, she claims not to have leadership ambitions but continually goes against the PM.
Ruth Davidson has made a clear pitch for the centre ground of Scottish politics by laying out her plans to embrace increased public spending and more immigration. In a direct challenge to the prime minister, the Scottish Tory leader said last night that foreign students must be removed from migration calculations. In a keynote policy speech Ms Davidson also signalled a break from Tory instincts by calling on Theresa May to halt tax breaks for middle England and inject more money into the NHS.
The Scottish Conservative leader’s more centrist approach was also revealed in the criticism of her own government’s pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. Ms Davidson believes she needs to move her party to the centre if she is to beat Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP and form a government after the 2021 Scottish elections. However, in doing so she risks angering right-wing colleagues. Her speech at Glasgow University contained multiple references to policy under Westminster’s control and will be seen by some senior Conservatives as an attempt to shift the entire party to the centre, not just the wing under her control in Scotland.
Ms Davidson said that the NHS was reaching a tipping point because of an ageing population and the rising costs of treatment. She acknowledged that she was stepping outside her Scottish remit to take a stand on NHS funding across the country but declared: “The simple choice is this: if we want to continue to adhere to the principles of our NHS, then we need to find extra funding above and beyond the increases of recent years. The UK government has acted to reduce the tax burden on working families. It has honoured its promise to do so. Raising the income tax threshold has reduced taxes for millions of UK workers and has taken thousands out of taxation altogether. “But the UK government has a choice to make and, if that choice is between extra spending on the NHS or introducing further tax breaks, I choose the NHS.” Ms Davidson was equally combative on immigration, not only attacking the Conservative government’s commitment to reduce immigration but also criticising Westminster colleagues for failing to revisit it. The Scottish government wants control over migration because of the nation’s different needs.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Iain Dale writing in the Telegraph.
On Wednesday evening I was travelling home on the 7.10 to Tonbridge when I sent out a rather enigmatic tweet: “I sense the political sands are about to shift. Dramatically.” Because David Davis has been a friend for more than 30 years people naturally concluded it was a reference to him possibly resigning the next day. It wasn’t. Even though the DD crisis was averted, possibly only temporarily, the next few weeks could be very dangerous for Mrs May. She has got next week’s parliamentary votes on the Brexit Bill to negotiate and then faces the possibility of ritual humiliation at the Brussels summit. On Thursday she did what she had to, to keep David Davis pissing inside the tent, but it comes to something when the standard of commentary centred on whether Davis bottled it or he was about to flounce. Few commentators could bring themselves to look at the real issue: the power and influence of an unelected civil servant called Olly Robbins. He is set to become the most controversial Number Ten adviser since Sir Alan Walters was forced out of his role as economic adviser to Margaret Thatcher by the then chancellor Nigel Lawson.
Theresa May is in thrall to Robbins and his partner in crime, the Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood. They have replaced Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill as her Svengalis. It appears to some Tory MPs that Robbins just has to whisper in her ear and she does what he says. Whatever the reality, perception matters. The Customs Union backstop issue is symbolic of a wider malaise to David Davis. I believe he went into the two meetings with the Prime Minister on Thursday morning determined to take back control of Brexit from Robbins and remind the Prime Minister of Norman Fowler’s famous comment on the Alan Walters situation: “Advisers advise, Ministers decide”. Robbins had even taken it upon himself to usurp Davis and speak to Michel Barnier directly. Like Charles Powell and Alastair Campbell before him, he has blurred the lines between adviser and minister. Davis had to address it. Time will tell how successful he was. Tomorrow evening, the PM will be addressing the Conservative Parliamentary Party. She won’t exactly be begging for her future but that’s how it may be interpreted. She simply cannot afford to lose any of the Brexit votes in parliament this week.
Luckily, Jeremy Corbyn has yet again ridden to her aid and refused to put a three line whip on the amendment on the customs union that is most dangerous for the government. Even so, it’s entirely possibly that they will still be defeated on another amendment. It all hangs on whether Messers Morgan, Clarke, Soubry and Grieve really want to be ahis alleged leadership manoeuvrings, but she wasn’t strong enough. What a difference a year makes – for him, at least.
Javid’s main opponent in a leadership contest would be Michael Gove. If you want a leader with a proven track record of getting things done, someone who is brimming with ideas and how to communicate them, and who is clear on what he wants from Brexit, look no further. But his perceived lack of voter friendliness and what he did to Boris Johnson in 2016 will count against him.
Jeremy Hunt is increasingly being mentioned as someone who could unite the party, and has undergone a transformation from Remain supporter to Brexiteer. Penny Mordaunt and Brandon Lewis have both impressed in their new jobs and ought to be mulling whether to dip their toes into the leadership waters, but both will need to define themselves. But however much some think Jacob Rees-Mogg is the answer, you seriously have to question their state of mind. He might well win among Conservative members, but he has to get to that stage first. He knows as well as anyone that he wouldn’t command the support of more than a few dozen MPs. However much I think judgment day may beckon for Theresa May, we’ve been here before and she’s got through similar crises. But one day she won’t.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
JRM in panic mode now after realising he is not the pin up man of the activists anymore, the Home Secretary has usurped him.
https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-jacob-rees-mogg-faces-backlash-after-warning-to-theresa-may-11423576Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
could be the undoing of this government, self inflicted of course.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
The blues must keep hold of power I do not vote anymore but can see they still run the UK better then the reds would do under their leader they have now.
Reginald Barrington likes this
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,986
I think we have been known occasionally to have these things called general elections. Annoying as they must be to one-party-statists, they at least offer a whiff of democracy to us plebs, though personally I'd prefer the full smell.
Jan Higgins likes this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,295
Friday is shaping up to be fantastic. Clearly, no. 10 is keeping the so called plan (whether it currently exists or otherwise) from everyone ahead of Chequers. A smart move, doesn't give time for the likes of Redwood and JRM to bellyache about it publicly.
It'll go one of two ways - a total breakdown of the Government or a miraculous outbreak of unity that confuses everyone.
