This Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy

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Not as far as I can tell. Actually the best historical example I can think of is Peter Shore, but he was Labour.

Good point - although Shore was a lot more leftwing on economic issues than Bonkers is today. Hitchens is actually probably the British political figure whose ideology is closest to mine, except he is non-interventionist in foreign policy I think.

Hitchens doesn't talk about economics much but insofar as I've heard him do so he moans about deindustrialisation and "wage slavery" which suggests he is fairly left-leaning.

He calls himself a social democrat.

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The two previous situations of this:

IDS had about five public letter writers when the 25 necessary were in.

May had about 25 when the necessary 48 was reached.

Split the difference and that's a ratio of about 3 1/2-1 private to public letters, which could suggest that there are around 40 letters in on the basis of the current public number.

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Big day for the Chancellor today. He’s announcing the government support package to deal with the cost-of-living strain, and giving a Downing Street press conference at 5pm.

Obviously these are fairly standard parts of his remit - but given that he’s talking to the press for an extended period, right before the 6 O’Clock news, you have to imagine he’ll have a carefully worded response on the Boris situation. It’ll probably make the headlines either way.

 

He more or less rebuffed Johnson on the Saville remarks.

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https://twitter.com/christopherhope/status/1489735930822934538?s=20&t=Ohmo-0...

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40 or so would be in line with a 3-1 ratio of private to public letters. Which, as I noted, is roughly in line with the ratio when you average out those seen during the IDS and May leadership challenges. Maybe that's the thinking of the above quoted source too.

Here's another thing we don't know about the process - if the 54th reached Brady tonight or tomorrow, would he announce it or at least inform Johnson immediately, or would he wait until Monday? This is important as announcing it on a Friday or at the beginning of the weekend would effectively make it a days long campaign. The vote against May was announced and concluded during the same day (although there was some speculation that she had been informed prior to then, on the basis of her body language at some appearance or other).

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https://twitter.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1489707173596831752?s=20&t=xOV19p...

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Not my original quip, but Boris Johnson would be the third Prime Minister in a row to be brought down by Boris Johnson.

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Johnson is appointing MPs (Guto Harri and Steve Barclay) as his staff replacements, which seems odd.

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It feels a bit like the end of May's premiership when she kept having to replace resigning government people with unknowns.

One of whom was........Steve Barclay.

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Johnson is appointing MPs (Guto Harri and Steve Barclay) as his staff replacements, which seems odd.

Ahem, when did Guto Harri ever become an MP??

Mixed up with Guto Bebb (who also isn't an MP, at least not now) it seems.

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This is the first picture of this 'Harry Newman' character (a mate of Carrie Johnson) that I've ever seen.



He rather puts aside the rule about politics being showbusiness for ugly people, I must say  And he's now working for Michael Gove.

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I remember reading one had 300 books on the Kennedy family and had even named his son after one of the brothers.

Which is ironic as the Kennedy’s are hated by Conservatives of a a certain age (my grandmother to this day insists Kennedy Snr was a ‘fascist’)

How could one possibly read 300 books about one single family is a mystery to me.

Far more than 300 have been written about a single day in the life of a single member of the family, so in terms of options it can easily be done.

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I'm wondering if there are any good books to learn about the conservative parties recent history ? preferably from someone which isn't written from an obviously partisan lense

The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron by Tim Bale is a reasonably good summary of the period 1990-2010, although it was written and thus breaks off even before the coalition so it’s now a little dated (as is Bale’s boostering for the political dead end of ‘modernisation’, but that’s another story). I’ve not really read a lot of books about the politics of the last decade - the books in the Nuffield Elections Series about the elections of the last decade are good but very pricey unless you have free access to Springer Link. I enjoyed reading Tim Shipman’s accounts of the EU referendum and the first year of the May ministry but I believe that others on here have their doubts about those books and about Shipman. The inevitable problem really with any account of ‘recent’ politics is that it ages faster than a Mummy exposed to the elements, so they usually end up looking a little silly even a year or two down the line.

It gives them a charming comedic value in many cases. I'm sure there are many books (perhaps even the one you mention) written around 2008 or so talking about how Boris Johnson was a fresh liberal figure who could sweep the youth vote

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His popularity is too high with the membership. May was done for when masses of angry letters came into local associations and MPs. It might be different in two weeks.

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Mark Harper has sent a letter in.

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Two more Tory MPs standing down:

• George Eustace - Environment Secretary under Johnson. Sitting on a 8,700 vote majority (could be risky), and not invited back to cabinet by either Truss or Sunak after his 2 year stint under Johnson. Probably discouraged that there's anywhere left for his career to go.
• Edward Timpson - MP for Eddisbury since 2019, previously MP for Crewe (from a by-election win in 2008, to losing the seat to Labour by 48 votes in 2017), currently sitting on an 18,000 vote majority. Son of noted locksmith (and Timpson brand owner) Sir John Timpson.

ConHome seem to be keeping a running tally of retirements here. We're up to 17 so far.

Timpson's retirement arguably has some symbolic significance given that the Crewe & Nantwich by-election indicated the beginning of the end of the Brown government.

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Beresford will be seventy-eight when the next election rolls round (assuming the parliament lasts a full term) so it's not surprising that he's chosen to retire, especially given how bad the situation is for the party. As for McPartland, he was (as far as I'm aware) the only Tory to vote against the strikes bill earlier this year, so his decision to call it a day is not surprising either.

In other news, "a leading Conservative business figure" (whom nobody has ever heard of and who founded a PR firm, which I'm not sure qualifies him for the title of "leading business figure"), Iain Anderson, has quit the party due to the transgender issue (amongst other reasons), citing the government's decision to block that Scottish gender recognition law and claiming "it's not the party it used to be". Which is... interesting, because apparently he joined the party forty years ago and if that's the case I'm not sure what kind of party he thought he was joining in 1983.

Whilst I have some sympathy, the Iain Anderson thing does have a feel of what often happens when there is a government with a strong whiff of death about it. In 2010 it was a national media headline when a Labour candidate in a completely unwinnable seat (Norfolk North West?) called Gordon Brown the 'worst PM ever' (by which of course he almost certainly meant the worst PM he knew anything about).

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Deputy Chair of the Tory Party.

https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1628472782450294786?s=20

He's obviously going to get a GB News gig after his leaves politics.

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This has nothing to do with any ambitions of his I'm sure.

https://twitter.com/journoontheedge/status/1629150518944714752?s=20

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We have a prominent retirement - Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the 1922 Committee. Full statement here.

Brady was at risk - his Altrincham and Sale West constituency came down to only a 6,100 vote majority over Labour in 2019. While it has remained Conservative since its creation in 1997, good cycles for Labour have seen it won by as little as 2,000 votes in the past.

Also worth noting - his nearby constituency neighbour is fellow retiree William Wragg, with both sitting in marginal parts of Greater Manchester vulnerable to even a small decrease in Tory support.

I saw a comment on Twitter a while ago that Brady is probably only one more bout of Tory leadership turmoil away from being a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing.

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I'm sure we're being too cynical. They just want a change of scenery.

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Fair to say that he hasn't made quite the impact that his two immediate predecessors did.

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Sunak is under investigation over some potential financial irregularity involving his wife. The fun never stops.

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A lot of MPs who have been at least semi-important players at various points over the past three decades or more are either standing down or are more likely than not to no longer be MPs after the next general election. In addition to Cash there is Harman, Corbyn, Abbott, Beckett, Hodge, Bradshaw, Cruddas, Brady, Hancock, Javid, Raab, Blackford, Lucas...Hunt and Shapps are at a big risk if theres any kind of Tory defeat. I'm probably missing some names.

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So the - utterly devastating - BoJo report by MPs recommended a *90 day* suspension. Wow.

He'd have been suspended for three William Henry Harrison presidencies or two Liz Truss premierships.