British Politics
Been on holiday for a few weeks, surprised to find no general discussion of British politics so though I'd kick one off.
Tory leadership contest is quickly turning into farce. Trump has backed Boris, which should be reason enough for anyone with half a brain to exclude him.
Of the other candidates Rory Stewart looks the best of the outsiders. Surprised to see Cleverly and Javid not further up the betting, but not sure the Tory membership are ready for a brown PM.
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/bri...
Regarding the LD leadership contest, Jo Swinson is miles ahead of any other candidate (and indeed any of the Tory lot). Should be a shoe in.
Finally, it's Groundhog Day in Labour - the more serious the anti-Semitism claims get, the more Corbyn's cronies write their own obituary by blaming it on outlandish conspiracy theories - this week, it's apparently the Jewish Embassy's fault...
The real problem with Abbott sending her son to a private school was the blatant hypocrisy. She had previously criticised other Labour politicians for doing exactly the same (I think Harman?).
I’ve never understood people calling her stupid. Same with people like Truss/Braverman. Whatever else they are, they definitely aren’t stupid.
That's what I said.
Yes Harriet Harman caused a kerfuffle in the 90s(?) by sending her kids to private schools, which is always going to be a problem for Labour politicians when they show little faith in local schools (and it's not even as if they often live in areas with bad schools).
Abbott did say something about not being able to defend her decision to privately educate hers but meh.
The other things about mentalarithmeticgate is how many other cabinet minsters get asked to perform it on live radio?
In the wake of mentalarithmeticgate people conveniently forgot that Abbott went to a comprehensive school and from there into Oxford uni. She very obviously wasn’t stupid.
She went to a grammar school (Harrow County School for Girls, later closed in 1975 when the borough went comprehensive), and then Newnham College, Cambridge.
My main gripe with her is choosing private education for her kid(s).
Despite her privilege level getting her son smoothly into private school, Cambridge and the Foreign Office, he was sacked and indefinitely sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2020 after throwing stones at a member of the public, chasing Diane round the house while armed with a pair of scissors and subsequently attacking nine people including police officers and nurses. He was off his face on crystal meth at the time and was also addicted to cocaine and an habitual GBL 'chemsex' user since 2013, per court records.
The deeply strange Lloyd Russell-Moyle has been suspended and barred from standing due to a complaint about his behaviour eight years ago.
I'm starting to feel bad for Dianne Abbott. I think she's got sort of early onset dementia, or something else that is affecting her thinking processes.
It's fun to make fun of the stupid and ignorant, but not the ill or incapacitated.
I don't think it's dementia, but I do think that at over 70 and with certain issues it's time she retired.
lol keir daily starmer
Sunak’s old teacher at Winchester College has said he will not be voting for his former pupil.
Nick MacKinnon taught maths to the Tory leader when he attended the school in his youth. Now, in an interview with The Mirror, the retired teacher is saying he will be voting for the Labour Party in the next General Election.
Mr MacKinnon told the Mirror: “I remember him only as a boy at the back of class, I recall little about him as a pupil but his achievements at Winchester are not in dispute. He was a good boy, he was head of school and the first non-white head of school in 600 years at that.
“He was a very good boy and I am sorry for the way he has turned out, which was to become wildly opportunistic.”
Ouch.
Farage to make emergency announcement shortly....
Not sure I can take any more given when I watched Question Time last week, it was a Farage/Piers Morgan double hander....
'Emergency' is an odd and somewhat sinister word
Can he be full enough of self-importance for it to just be him standing a a a candidate? or does he have something more in store for us.
Got to send a Tory packing that knocked on my door earlier. Which was nice.
Farage standing in Clacton and taking over as leader of reform
Made a point about standin on as leader for 5 years so no doubt has his eye on the post election fallout. Grim prospect
Clearly didn't rate Trump's chances highly enough to go all in with him after the court verdict there, so hedging his bets here and aiming to take over the Tory party eventually while leaving himself an out.
is he definitely a shoe-in for Clacton?
I hope Lord Buckethead stands in Clacton and gets more votes than Farage.
Time to revisit this.
Not really. We are now in the fortunate position that it doesn't matter what Diane Abbott thinks. Which, given that she once urged victory for the IRA (later claming that this view was no more important or permanent than her hairstyle at the time, because she's massively bourgeois to her fingertips -- Michael Portillo went to the boys' version of her grammar school in Harrow, and acted with her in a joint production of Romeo & Juliet) and given that she once said, 'Many people would argue that Chairman Mao did more good than harm,' is probably just as well.
YouGov poll predicts a Labour majority of 194, with the Tories reduced to 140 seats, their worst result since 1906. Jeremy Hunt, Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt could all be at risk. Labour would be the largest party in Scotland with 34 seats to the SNP's 17 and the Lib Dems' one.
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/4...
https://news.sky.com/story/panic-will-sp...
Big majorities are not necessarily good news, since they tend to give politicians Napoleonic ideas above their station, but it look like we're headed for one.
It's kind of Nigel Farage to volunteer to lose yet another Parliamentary contest (it'll be his eighth), but Reform UK are not at present expected to win any seats. They'll just do damage to the Tories, which is what they want because they hope to replace the Tories as the conservative opposition.
tories 19%
reform 17%
