UK General Discussion II

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Brooks Newmark has resigned as Civil Society minister because of a sex scandal. Apparently you can read all about it in the Sunday Mirror.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Dannie Abse has died

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Ah but that's normal for Labour. Bit strange that we haven't managed to have a pointless factional civil war this parliament (but credit to certain people for trying to start one), mind.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No point making deals with a minor party. Green support will likely ebb away towards the election and if it doesn't, the grace of God means that Green support to be concentrated in exactly the places where it does Labour the least harm. Not many Greens in Lab/Con marginals...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Survation is trash. By-election bumps might be seen from the more reputable firms o/c, but ask the LibDems for how long those typically last.

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No one knows really; they've been comfortably out of that sort of range for so long. In 1979 they took eleven seats with 13.8% of the vote, which might be an indication.

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This doesn't really feel like a surprise.

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I actually think that, over the course of the last month, Ed has become damaged goods.

People like you thought that anyway.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The other is a more general enthusiasm problem; Labour just aren't making much of a case to vote for them.

This is correct. Part of the problem is that there are a lot of senior Party figures who aren't familiar with opposition and how to do it effectively (Miliband is not perfect on this front, but is considerably better than - alas - the majority of the Shadow Cabinet). On the other hand, at least Labour hasn't plunged itself into a civil war, which it often does in opposition and which it certainly would have had the other Miliband been elected leader. I would also point out that while Labour isn't doing much better than drifting, the government isn't exactly doing well either; one reason for the continual media sniping at Miliband and at Labour is frustrated bemusement that - contrary to expectation - the Tories have not yet recovered a secure poll lead.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Really? Media coverage of him has never been anything other than extraordinary negative.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Joel Barnett (aka Baron Barnett) has died aged 91. He was the Labour MP for Heywood & Royton between 1964 (when he narrowly gained the seat off the Tories) until the constituency was abolished in 1983 and served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury between 1974 and 1979. He will be remembered as the architect of the Barnett Formula, although he always pointed out that it was supposed to be a temporary solution and in his later years he supported scrapping it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

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To an extent that depends what you mean by ousted. If we're just talking of a hypothetical in which Miliband resigns for whatever reason then, of course, he could go at any moment. The process to elect a successor would take quite a while though (as an outgrowth of trade unionism Labour is nothing if not rules obsessed), probably several months. If we're talking a challenge then things take longer; the challenger must first collect enough signatures in order to get onto the ballot, and the bar is deliberately high.* Either way it's not like the old days when the Leader was elected at a meeting of the PLP. Media coverage of internal Labour issues often fails to reflect this (lending it a slightly surreal air at times), because very few political journalists have any serious working knowledge of Labour Party culture or the way that it operates...

_{*There's a historical reason for this: Tony Benn challenged Neil Kinnock for the leadership in 1988 on openly factional grounds and was overwhelmingly defeated. He then pledged that he would keep on doing so until he won (which by this point would have been on the first of never). The rules were changed to stop him in particular and to stop any candidate without a large, provable, and open base in the PLP from pulling the same trick.}

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My own view, no matter what exactly is going on, is that factionalism is essentially a chronic disease.

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(I understood the Conservative one, but I failed to research on Labour).

This makes you qualified to be a lobby journalist. Congratulations! You can start work on Monday.

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It's not so much escalation as an attempt to keep the story running. It's seriously weak stuff though; almost surprisingly so.

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Warren Clarke died the other day; he was (as literally all British posters know) a great character actor - mostly but not entirely telly - with one hell of a range. One of his best performances was in Red Riding in which he was genuinely terrifying; a world away from the rather more avuncular roles he was best known for.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It was a pretty lousy comeback tbh, but then that's exactly what you would expect from a pretty lousy company. Like all reasonable people I hope that Mike Ashley comes to an extremely sticky end as soon as possible.

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Well there's a thread on the international board. But counting is taking forever and a day. Reckless is going to win, but the exact margin is not certain. There will be endless media guff about it for at least a week.

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Truly we live in a postmodern world.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30157507

Interesting.

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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/27/pleb-andrew-mitchell-loses-libel-case

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[Filuwaúrdjan]

Put it like this, the expenses shot has clearly been taken immediately after a division (just as the tellers are announcing the results). MPs show up in force for votes and for debates prior to important votes,* but are less likely to for more routine debates/questions (unless they have a strong interest in the subject at hand). For early stages of legislation (when things often go through on the nod) and particularly for private member bills/EDMs the chamber is often close to empty because there's not much point being there. Most of their actual work at Westminster (if they're backbenchers) occurs in the committees, which are (of course) held elsewhere.

_{*And for PMQs.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Your naivety is touching.