By-Election Bingo

[rockhopper penguin 2,265]

Leadsom to pull out rumours getting stronger. Corbyn to challenge May (OK I made that up but come on anything is possible these days).

[Deathray 2,940]

Leadsom to pull out rumours getting stronger. Corbyn to challenge May (OK I made that up but come on anything is possible these days).

 

So what happens now. Does May become PM? If so I find it highly coincidental this is happening the day the Labour leader is challenged. Are the tories going to try and call an election while Labour has no leader?

[msc 18,046]

May as PM before end of the week, I guess. So the Tory party coup done and dusted within days, and the Labour party coup is now in its third week of trying to ask Corbyn nicely to step down. What a shambles.

[Deathray 2,940]

May as PM before end of the week, I guess. So the Tory party coup done and dusted within days, and the Labour party coup is now in its third week of trying to ask Corbyn nicely to step down. What a shambles.

 

The thing is the Corbyn coup could go on over several years if they keep standing wet blankets like Angela Eagle.

[msc 18,046]

 

May as PM before end of the week, I guess. So the Tory party coup done and dusted within days, and the Labour party coup is now in its third week of trying to ask Corbyn nicely to step down. What a shambles.

 

The thing is the Corbyn coup could go on over several years if they keep standing wet blankets like Angela Eagle.

 

 

Maybe its a long game to make Corbyn look a strong leader in comparison to the rest of his party. I mean, its either that or they are all entirely inept...

[Deathray 2,940]

 

 

May as PM before end of the week, I guess. So the Tory party coup done and dusted within days, and the Labour party coup is now in its third week of trying to ask Corbyn nicely to step down. What a shambles.

 

The thing is the Corbyn coup could go on over several years if they keep standing wet blankets like Angela Eagle.

 

 

Maybe its a long game to make Corbyn look a strong leader in comparison to the rest of his party. I mean, its either that or they are all entirely inept...

 

 

My guess is they'll throw Eagle in while the £3 members like myself can still vote, figure out we're so disgusted with the party we're not going to renew and then stand someone they actually want like Dan Jarvis, Owen Smith, Hilary Benn or Jo Cox's corpse.

[msc 18,046]

Well, the question now is "Does Corbyn get on the ballot?" Because I could see the PLP trying to prevent that, and coronate Eagle.

[Deathray 2,940]

Well, the question now is "Does Corbyn get on the ballot?" Because I could see the PLP trying to prevent that, and coronate Eagle.

 

Only potential challengers need to seek nominations.

[msc 18,046]

 

Well, the question now is "Does Corbyn get on the ballot?" Because I could see the PLP trying to prevent that, and coronate Eagle.

 

Only potential challengers need to seek nominations.

 

 

That's certainly how I'd interpret the rules as put forward to the public.

[RoverAndOut 4,082]

 

 

Well, the question now is "Does Corbyn get on the ballot?" Because I could see the PLP trying to prevent that, and coronate Eagle.

 

Only potential challengers need to seek nominations.

 

 

That's certainly how I'd interpret the rules as put forward to the public.

 

 

As he said on Andrew Marr last weekend, when Neil Kinnock was challenged by Tony Benn for the Labour leadership in 1988, he had to get the requisite number of nominations as well as Benn. Of course, back then Benn was the outsider and Kinnock was supported by the majority of his party. This time, roles are reversed. Put simply, if Corbyn needs nominating to get on the ballot, it won't happen, unless there are enough guilty consciences to feel they need to do this properly and make it a straight fight. And it is absolutely no coincidence that the Tories have got their shit together: Prime Minister May appoints her cabinet and begins governing, while the Labour party don't even have a leader, let alone a shadow cabinet. Guessing Leadsom's going to be prominent in that cabinet too, has to have been given something for standing down.

[msc 18,046]

Yes, although no one, including Kinnock, can really recall if he actually needed the nominations or just got them to be a grandstanding idiot.

 

I think Labour, if they can, will go without Corbyn on the ballot. In the words of the late Donald Dewar, that'll be interesting.

[YoungWillz 19,918]

I watched May's speech this morning. Wouldn't have been out of place coming out of Corbyn. She condemned the current state of the UK (housing, chief execs pay, lack of collection of taxes, etc etc). Hang on, you've been part of creating that for 6 years?

 

So it all sounded very positive until she also mentioned talking to "ordinary people". Why didn't she say "people across the country"? She might as well have said "little people", "hoi polloi" or dareIsay "plebs". And yes, she actually talked of "bringing rich and poor people" together. That's the Tory problem. You can be anything you want in a free market economy, as long as you know your place.

 

Anyway, I think this has all been an almighty show stitch-up. There's been a stop Gove element in the party. So the Brexiteers in large part vote for Leadsom, on the basis she won't hack it and do what she's done. After all, May was first out of the blocks to say no general election - thus keeping Tory jobs for Tory MPS and delaying Article 50 keeping Tory jobs for Tory MEPs.

 

May gets a coronation, she's essentially a remainer and it's politics as usual, and the hang with the referendum vote. Establishment says the people who voted to leave didn't say what kind of leave they wanted. So eventually we're likely to get staying in the single market, with temporary opt outs on free movement (as was on offer to Cameron) and out of the political side altogether. "We must look after the people who didn't vote to leave" - yep, the hang with you "ordinary people".

 

Business as usual.

[Deathray 2,940]

Could be a bit of a free for all for the with labours crisis. Looking to see what crackpot laws Theresa May pushes it through

[maryportfuncity 10,245]

So, Owen Smith or Corbyn, then?

 

I reckon Smith will do it by a small margin and the party will implode in the aftermath.

 

By-election bingo scores may be generated if anyone is deselected.

 

What do our readers think?

[RoverAndOut 4,082]

If Smith wins, a couple of MPs may defect (Skinner? McDonnell?), most, including plenty of the lefties (Thornberry, Cat Smith types) won't. In fact, there's little to be gained from them leaving the party. They have a larger voice as noisy lefties in the large Labour parliamentary party, than as a little group of hard left independent MPs. Membership may go down quite alot but the parliamentary party will remain in tact and be able to reshape the grassroots party into a centre-ground party. If Corbyn wins, that's when the schism will happen and the party will collapse. 172 MPs said they had no confidence in Corbyn's leadership. They can't suddenly 'discover' confidence because the members like him. He has absolutely no authority. That said, I think the second is more likely. I don't think Smith will do it, though maybe a close vote could support the push to oust him. Maybe if his vote went down substantially from the 60% he got last year (and we're talking 52-48 or 51-49 here, not 55-45) then he may fall on his sword anyway, a bit like when Thatcher won the first round of voting against Heseltine in 1990 but not by a substantial enough margin to beat him outright. That's assuming the team around him (McDonnell, Seumas Milne, Len McCluskey, etc.) allow him to step down (as supposedly they keep saying in private 'if you go, the experiment that the left can succeed in controlling the Labour party will have failed'). It could still be electoral suicide for Labour, whichever way they vote. It's a mess. Personally speaking, on my darkest days, I don't see a time in the near future when anything resembling the centre-left of British politics will be in a position to defeat the centre-right for power. Even less so if Scotland votes to leave. Some say Labour can win in 2020, and I guess it is possible. But a hell of a lot has got to go right for Labour and a hell of a lot has got to go wrong for Theresa in the intervening 3¹/₂ years.

 

Watched Theresa's first PMQs today. Hate to say it, but she was really impressive. Worst of all, unlike Dodgy Dave, she actually answered some (not all) of the questions. Any ideas that she might seem hesitant vanished. How well she copes under pressure we have to wait to see. But it was a positive start from a Tory point of view. And more grim news from a Labour perspective.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Tell you what though, the Labour Party coffers have been boosted by the £25 vote levy (which is what it is) - £4m+ in 48 hours!

[Spade_Cooley 9,209]

Last poll figures I saw said 51% of Labour voters wanted Corbyn to step down before the next election, but 53% wouldn't vote for anyone other than Corbyn in a leadership contest. Presumably there's 2% of people who have him in their work deadpool?

[YoungWillz 19,918]

Truss loses support: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1471137/anna-soubry-becomes-second-senior-conservative-to-refuse-job-under-new-justice-secretary-liz-truss-as-rebellion-grows/

 

 

I'll get my coat.

[maryportfuncity 10,245]

Simon Danczuk - reality television beckons following his de-selection/voting out at the next election

 

https://www.rt.com/uk/354179-danczuk-sex-desk-constituency/

[msc 18,046]

Tory MP Gordon Henderson survives a close encounter with petrol and a bonfire.

 

Reminds me of the following scene after the Glasgow Airport attempted attack in 2007.

 

 

FOX news (or something) journalist: Can you describe what the car looked like?

Glaswegian Guy: Well, you know how when you chuck an aerosol onto a bonfire? It was like that.

[Bibliogryphon 9,075]

OK so I have just checked and nobody has picked Andy Burnham so when he becomes God of All Mancunians next May we are all going to be a bit sheepish.

[maryportfuncity 10,245]

OK so I have just checked and nobody has picked Andy Burnham so when he becomes God of All Mancunians next May we are all going to be a bit sheepish.

 

 

Re the God of all Mancunians; how will he achieve that without also being a drug dealer?

[maryportfuncity 10,245]

Rochdale PR firm enters FTSE premier league by snagging Simon Danzcuk, or summat:

 

http://rochdaleherald.co.uk/breaking-news/rochdale-pr-firms-enters-ftse-250-after-winning-simon-danczuk-crisis-management-contract-2/

[Cat O'Falk 3,290]

Rochdale PR firm enters FTSE premier league by snagging Simon Danzcuk, or summat:

 

http://rochdaleherald.co.uk/breaking-news/rochdale-pr-firms-enters-ftse-250-after-winning-simon-danczuk-crisis-management-contract-2/

It's hard being a cowboy in Rochdale.

[maryportfuncity 10,245]

 

Rochdale PR firm enters FTSE premier league by snagging Simon Danzcuk, or summat:

 

http://rochdaleherald.co.uk/breaking-news/rochdale-pr-firms-enters-ftse-250-after-winning-simon-danczuk-crisis-management-contract-2/

It's hard being a cowboy in Rochdale.

 

 

 

Our man Simon spent time in a Spanish cell after a drunken row with his ex-missus

 

The gift that keeps on giving for the tabloids may be hard pushed to survive this parliamentary term, eh?