The British Politics Thread - The Bear and Badger

RedDave2

At this point is there anyone with a chance against Johnson or is he more or less the new pm?

Genuinely stunning that Donald trump and Boris Johnson are going to be world leaders.

Matt_82

Scottish Government need permission from UK government. Sajid Javis is not a fan.

https://twitter.com/sajidjavid/status/1133712135517822976

Roujin

RedDave2 wrote:

At this point is there anyone with a chance against Johnson or is he more or less the new pm?

Genuinely stunning that Donald trump and Boris Johnson are going to be world leaders.

Bannon about to get paid.

LivDiv

Yeah only The Gov (possibly Parliament) can call an indyref as it stands.
It went to the Lords last time who said "dunno mate, ask the courts but we think it's probably just the Gov".
It never went to the courts as Cameron allowed it anyway.

dynamiteReady

Am I right in thinking that the Conservative party have actually gone as far as to smear the reputations of the few people who asked challenging questions to the leadership candidates?

SpaceGazelle

I wanna see Gove Vs Johnson now, just because they hate each other so much.

RamSteelwood

There's a new movement which I think is going to tip the balance in favour of Gove...

https://twitter.com/girls4gove

LivDiv

Boris 157
Hunt 59
Gove 61
SaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaJ 34
Spoiled paper 2

Javid out. Gove overtakes Hunt, just.
Boris has 50% of total available votes.

The final MP ballot is later today I believe.

equinox_code

Wasn’t it not so long ago that Boris was quite unpopular within his own party? What changed?

Diluted Dante

equinox_code wrote:

Wasn’t it not so long ago that Boris was quite unpopular within his own party? What changed?

They're pretty certain they are fucked, and think hes the only option to win an election.

One MP who voted for him told a journo they thought he'd be a bad PM and do nothing for Brexit but he would win an election.

RedDave2

It's the Trump effect. The party doesn't like the candidate but they feel he has the best chance in an election. Who cares if the candidate will become bigger than the party and twist its principles (although, granted, we are talking tory and republican) it's all about winning.

Kazuo

They will be doing absolutely everything to ensure we don't get a general election any time soon, regardless of who takes charge.

Yossarian

I’m not so sure, I think if the next leader sees anything like a bounce in popularity after taking over, they’ll probably go for it. They’ve seen the difficulty in trying to move forward with Brexit with a tiny majority.

monkey

If they can get a weak sauce concession out of the EU on the backstop, and do a deal with the Brexit party, guaranteeing Farage a clear run to get a seat in Parliament. That might be enough to make him risk an election. It’s not sustainable to be a minority government for another three years.

Diluted Dante

So assuming Johnson wins the members, he'll be the next PM. Which has got me thinking about what the strategy against him should be.

I think Labour have an opportunity that they didn't previously have. Corbyn can be presented as a serious politician with serious proposals about serious issues. Cameron might have like theater, but he was undoubtedly a politician. May was probably the worst performing PM ever at the dispatch box, but she was usually well briefed and could pull out facts and figures.

Johnson however is an utter buffoon. He ignores or pays little attention to briefings, leading to constant errors. Labour should question him on the nitty gritty constantly. He'll never be prepared, and he'll absolutely hate it.

When possible, they should avoid Brexit. Schools, the NHS, policing are places they can nail the bastard. Also, be forensic. DON't ask and move on. Always ask at least one follow up question, if not more. Sometimes devote all six questions to the same topic if it's something you can really turn the knife on. Speak the the SNP when interests cross paths, and try to team up with questions. Brief the Nu Awkward Squad on why this is happening so they don't moan about the lack of Brexity questions.

I reckon it might only take a couple of weeks before there is a reasonable possibility of a no confidence vote going through.

Yossarian

I’m not sure that being forensic and asking follow up questions are really in Corbyn’s wheelhouse, sadly.

monkey

I predict Johnson ignores the questions, comes out with some pre-cooked put downs and Corbyn will lack the wherewithal to do much about it.

Diluted Dante

Of course they are. He's done it before, and it's usually resulted in May reaching for weaksauce shit like blaming the last Labour Government that Corbyn wasn't part of and routinely voted against because she didn't have an answer.

He doesn't think these up on the spot, they are all pre-written.

Yossarian

Diluted Dante wrote:

He's done it before

I must have blinked.

Diluted Dante

Yossarian wrote:

Diluted Dante wrote:

He's done it before

I must have blinked.

Well for one, he asked David Cameron 6 times whether or not changes to tax credits would make anyone poorer.

I mean I get you don't like Corbyn, but it's not hard to find this stuff out. Anyone who regularly watches PMQ's should know it's something he's done, and he's generally been praised for it and judged as coming out of the encounter on top.

Yossarian

I don’t watch PMQs as I’m at work, I do generally read the summaries which don’t give the impression that this is something he does very often.

Unlikely

I cannot watch PMQs as it makes me utterly despise the state of humanity. I can just about tolerate a live blog so thank you Andrew Sparrow.

Armitage_Shankburn

Yossarian wrote:

I don’t watch PMQs as I’m at work, I do generally read the summaries which don’t give the impression that this is something he does very often.

This made me lol

monkey

Hunt through.
Shenanigans!

acemuzzy

Two votes in it

Armitage_Shankburn

PM Johnson...

acemuzzy

Did you know Hunt was an entrepreneur?

Armitage_Shankburn

His destiny.

davyK

Brexiteer vs Remainer.

A foregone conclusion then.

monkey

Hunt is probably the worse person from a Labour perspective. Appears nice, a blank slate to the wider public, sold a business he started for big bucks which apparently means he’s going to be great at international treaty negotiations, slippery as fuck. Still, the Tories could never win a majority with him. Still, it won’t matter as he’s got no chance.

Howdy, Stranger!

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