UK General Discussion Thread: mayy lmao

[Phony Moderate]

Clive Lewis has resigned from the front bench.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Clive Lewis has resigned from the front bench.

Lmfao

[Blair]

Am hearing lots and lots of chatter from Labor friends/twitter that Corbyn could be on his way out either in the Spring or the Summer, and that bids are being put together. Not sure how true it it is but the combination of Brexit+by elections, and the continued struggle of the Corbyn project could make it true

Long-Bailey as the corbynite successor? Doubt she can poll the leadership elections through

her nickname is Rebecca Wrong-Daily for a reason

[rpryor03]

Bercow is being VONCed.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/john-bercow-speaker-no-confidence-motion-tory-mp-donald-trump-james-duddridge-state-visit-a7572226.html

[Blair]

Doesn't shock me, just saddens me.

There's been a large faction of tories who've hated him since he was an MP- he's extremely socially liberal, flirted with defecting to Labour and on top of that since being Speaker has generally made the governments life hard work.

They tried this in '15 but the thing that saved him was actually the Brexiters MPs like Davis and Rees Mogg

[IceAgeComing]

I think that he'll win that vote: most of the opposition parties will probably whip against a vote of no confidence since a lot of his changes have benefitted them; which means that every Tory would have to vote against him and I can't see that happening.  It'd be awful if that happened though; I don't think that the government should use their majority to remove a speaker for making sure that they actually have to defend themselves in front of the House relatively often - yeah sure technically this is for the Trump thing; but they've wanted to do it for years.  The Trump thing was totally the right thing to say but he perhaps could have worded it differently in order to prevent something like this from happening...

[Phony Moderate]

Doesn't shock me, just saddens me.

There's been a large faction of tories who've hated him since he was an MP- he's extremely socially liberal, flirted with defecting to Labour and on top of that since being Speaker has generally made the governments life hard work.

They tried this in '15 but the thing that saved him was actually the Brexiters MPs like Davis and Rees Mogg

It's more than just a "large faction" - apparently he got the support of just three Tory MPs in the 2009 speakership election. Cameron clearly despised him. Bercow's only real friend in the party seems to be Julian Lewis.

[Pandaguineapig]

Could the Tories article 3 whip a vonc?

[Hnv1]

It will be in ill taste if May and her front bench take part in the vote, I expect he can pull a majority with a handful of Tories. Plus what are we going to do without his ties?

[joevsimp]

I would've expected Bercow to be stepping down in a year or two anyway.  I think he will survive this, no speaker has been ousted in over 300 years, although Martin jumped before he was pushed. Even though i don't disagree with him,  i think it would've been better for him too take a leaf from William Lenthall's book: "I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but as the house directs me"

If he does retire before the next election,  i wouldn't be surprised if a Labour moderate with a relatively precarious majority tries to go for it,  and hopefully gets shut down. I think we'll have another conservative. I imagine Rifkind is the type  might've fancied it if he hadn't torpedoed his career

[ag]

If they oust him, I do not think he has many incentives to rejoin the Conservative backbench. Hopefully, he opts for the LD

In any case, once the Conservatives nominate another Speaker from their numbers, they will be down to 328. Ok, there are two UUP and 1 UKIP MPs as well. But we are starting to get into an interesting area

[YL]

If they oust him, I do not think he has many incentives to rejoin the Conservative backbench. Hopefully, he opts for the LD

The normal thing to do would be for him to stand down as an MP and go to the Lords as a crossbencher.  You might hope that the Lib Dems would win the ensuing Buckingham by-election, but I emphasise the word "hope".

It would be kind of hilarious if he decided to stay on as an MP and join an opposition party though.  (The track record of Labour MPs for Buckingham isn't brilliant, mind.)  File under "not going to happen".

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It's usually done so that the Speaker and three Deputy Speakers, none of whom vote, are two MPs from the governing party and two not, so that the choice of Speaker doesn't have a partisan effect.

[ag]

If they oust him, I do not think he has many incentives to rejoin the Conservative backbench. Hopefully, he opts for the LD

The normal thing to do would be for him to stand down as an MP and go to the Lords as a crossbencher.  You might hope that the Lib Dems would win the ensuing Buckingham by-election, but I emphasise the word "hope".

It would be kind of hilarious if he decided to stay on as an MP and join an opposition party though.  (The track record of Labour MPs for Buckingham isn't brilliant, mind.)  File under "not going to happen".

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It's usually done so that the Speaker and three Deputy Speakers, none of whom vote, are two MPs from the governing party and two not, so that the choice of Speaker doesn't have a partisan effect.

Sure, but the deputy speakers would not change, only the speaker would, and Bercow had been a Tory. So, no matter what happens it would be one Tory less.

There has not been a recent precedent on ousting a speaker: so hard to say what a "normal" thing would be

[MaxQue]

Gerald Kaufman, Father of the House and MP since 1970 (Labour) sadly died.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Brexit: Heseltine vows to rebel in Lords bill debate

[Lumine]

Brexit: Heseltine vows to rebel in Lords bill debate

While I've stopped agreeing with Heseltine and Ken Clarke on European policy some time ago, I'm truly glad they at least are being consistent with their beliefs. While they rose high, it's a shame their careers never reached their full potential.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Kaufman was an interesting (and to be blunt often contradictory) figure. One of the last links to the first Wilson government. But look forward to obits full of a whole range of euphemisms.

[Phony Moderate]

An interesting character for sure. RIP.

Following the 2015 general election, four MPs (Kaufman, Meacher, Skinner and Clarke) were tied for the longest continuous service with all having first been elected in 1970. Two of those have since passed away (Meacher of course being the other).

[parochial boy]

Since the general election, Labour have had 8 by-elections to defend (including 4 deaths), compared to the Conservative's 3.

WTF is going on? Are any Labour MPs actually going to make it through the whole parliament?

[vileplume]

An interesting character for sure. RIP.

Following the 2015 general election, four MPs (Kaufman, Meacher, Skinner and Clarke) were tied for the longest continuous service with all having first been elected in 1970. Two of those have since passed away (Meacher of course being the other).

I think it's Clarke that now takes over as father of the house.

[vileplume]

Since the general election, Labour have had 8 by-elections to defend (including 4 deaths), compared to the Conservative's 3.

WTF is going on? Are any Labour MPs actually going to make it through the whole parliament?

It was widely suspected that Kaufman was very ill he hadn't appeared in Parliament for months.  His last recorded appearance (according to the 'They work for you' website) was on the 27th May 2016.

I don't know for sure but I think the average Labour MP is older than the average Conservative one hence the disproportionate number of by-elections caused by deaths for Labour MPs compared to Tory ones. Perhaps it's also because older Labour MPs would have been more likely to have worked in heavy industry (Skinner was a miner for example) which is often linked to lowering life expectancy.

[Blair]

I remember seeing a state about Labour having a lot of MP's who are between 70-80; I'd heard that Kaufman was ill when a journalist published those stupid 'laziest MP lists' which end up listing who has cancer/who is ill rather than actual activity.

Kaufman was certainly a strange character-IIRC he was one of the more moderate social democrats in the 1980s (I could be wrong) but also had some pretty sketchy views- and claimed tons for velvet curtains or something.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

and claimed tons for velvet curtains or something.

He made a whole bunch of bizarre expenses claims, including for an antique rug, expensive grapefruit bowls and (rofl) an eight thousand quid TV (the latter claim was not approved). He blamed OCD.

[Silent Hunter]

The Conservatives had a lot of their long-servers defeated in the 1997 election, I believe and many of the current party are  2001 or 2005 intake members. So younger. Most of Labour's 1997 intake didn't hold their seats past 2005 and there was of course the mass defeat in Scotland in 2015.

I read Kaufman's How to be a Minister at university. Good book.

[ApatheticAustrian]

did no one mention that the house of lords crushed the existing brexit "bill"....? seems like a good first step.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/01/lords-defeat-government-over-rights-of-eu-citizens-in-uk-brexit-bill