The British Politics Thread - The Bear and Badger

monkey

As glorious as it would be I can’t see Hunt becoming PM. He’s a *spits* ‘Remainer’, he voted for the WA, he’s only offering small impossible promises instead of great whoppers. It probably would be quite good having him v Johnson. Anyone sensible (using that word loosely with Jeremy Hunt here) enough to poke all the holes in Johnson’s Brexit bluster is good news. Whoever does take over you want them as damaged as possible and it’s from the Remain wing where that would be done.

Rory Stewart seems like the only one who can relaunch the Tories with some new PR gimmicks, like David Cameron did. But he doesn’t look to have much of a chance.

LivDiv

I dont think Stewart will get far, doesnt have the backing.

Looks like Hunt has Fox and Rudd as well as Mourdant. Those are about the biggest names outside of ERG and other runners.

I think it will be Hunt vs Bojo.
Then the members will have to decide if they really want hard Brexit with Bojo when it will almost certainly lead to them not being in power.

monkey

It’s Johnsons Unicorn Procession versus the grim reality of May 2.0. But instead of a reanimated Thatcher cadaver, they’ll just have a giant bell end. Neither seem like election winners but Johnson can at least out-Farage Farage which night shore them up a bit.

Armitage_Shankburn

Johnson wins vs a wet like Hunt. He also gets the wet Tory vote vs Raab, i Hope, but I'm not sure. He could collapse at any point, he hasn't said nary a word yet. Smart advisors

LivDiv

@Monkey
I think it is really hard to predict.
It's easy to see the Peterborough result and conclude every Brexit voter has jumped the Tory ship, likewise the MEP vote.

It will be a different matter at a GE. As was being discussed earlier, people often vote for the party and many traditional Tory voters will still vote for them if it means stopping Corbyn.
The moderate Tory remainers though, they wont vote for cavalier Bojo. They will jump to Lib Dem.

acemuzzy

Anyone still thin BoJo not winning, or the Tories not buying no confidence if he does? Like we're doomed on that front, right, unless coke snorting photos manifest from somewhere?

Will he attempt no deal (doomed) or WA (doomed?) or what? Silence is indeed tactical given any actual suggestion gets shot down...

LivDiv

Not related to anything or making any point but
I remembered this earlier.
Remember that was a thing that actually happened!?
Such simple times.

EvilRedEye

Rejecting Ed Miliband turned out to be its own punishment in the end really, didn't it?

LivDiv

Depends on the timescale you look at really.

Things wouldnt be as bad now but there wouldnt be scope for a more left wing future.

Paul the sparky

Hands different sizes, nose too flat, tie too blue. Fuck him.

monkey

Holy fuck his hands.

monkey

I googled Ed Miliband hands to see if it was just a camera angle thing, and it is. Phew.

Still, probably best he didn’t get in. Can’t be too careful.

monkey

This is painful to watch. Inconceivably, Rory Stewart posted this video himself.
https://twitter.com/rorystewartuk/status/1137811697027170309?s=21

acemuzzy

Classic

Paul the sparky

Fucking men.

tigersgogrrr

Men are the worst.

SpaceGazelle

The only way to resolve this is my usual suggestion of Political Hunger Games. Boris would die first and you think Raab and Hunt are going to make the last two but the sheer will of Gove will lock them in a wrestling hold and eat them alive like a mad insect.

LivDiv

Now Dominic, dont turn around I've got a gun.

SpaceGazelle

The only upside of Gove is that he hates Boris with a passion, although I suspect he hates all life with a passion so maybe it's not a personal thing.

LivDiv

This leadership contest really is banal isn't it?
None of these candidates is anything of note, none a worthy opponent in the battle of The Left and The Right.

None of them are offering anything but various dates for Brexit, fitting that a Tory leadership contest has effectively boiled down to a battle of filofaxes.

Another month of this exchange of dates all for it to largely mean nothing when they have to enter the Commons and a General Election race, in which we will have another couple of months of battling calenders.

The when of brexit has managed to totally override the what.

Diluted Dante

There is a void of talent.

In normal times, none of them would have a chance.

Tempy

Amazing stuff on Newsnight according to the BBC, some Johnathon Islay getting interviewed about Dominic Raab and he's talking about some fascinating Panorama documentary where Raab "was demanding things of the EU that even Theresa May wasn't!" which makes Raab sound like the man we want!

What was the actual clip? Well it was Barnier in conversation saying that Raab was demanding if the EU didn't accept the UKs demands in the Chequers white paper then the EU would be to blame for the border issue in Ireland, which ran counter to what Barnier had heard from May or the rest of the Brexit negotiation team. When asked to clarify by Barnier if that was actually his stance, Raab backed down and immediately took it back.

So rather than being banal, I find the whole affair fucking terrifying.

LivDiv

The potential consequences are of course terrifying but the contest itself is banal.
In fact I would say the banal nature of the contest feeds into the fear.

Tempy

Yeah, I get that. I hate how it's a circus and a game to the press to. They are never those effected.

dynamiteReady

Are we going to have a general election immediately after this leadership race?
That's the only thing I care about.

Until anything changes, I'm assuming the worst case, in that this is not a race, and Johnson's placement is just a matter of time.

Yossarian

dynamiteReady wrote:

Are we going to have a general election immediately after this leadership race?

dynamiteReady

Ummm... Yes?...

Yossarian

We don’t have to, but there’s a good possibility we will.

dynamiteReady

I suppose what I was getting at though, again, assuming the worst case, is if Boris Johnson wouldn't just effect a no deal exit from the EU, and then call an election off the back of that.

Yossarian

He might if he was entirely insane and wanted to ensure he was the shortest-serving PM ever.

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