UK General Discussion: 2019 and onwards, The End of May

[Coastal Elitist]

Well there's finally a poll with the Conservative party leading.
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-06/polmon-june-27-2019-topline.pdf

Con 26%
Lab 24%
Lib Dem 22%
Brexit 12%

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Keith Vaz has called for the decision that the vote of Keith Vaz was critical to reach to be overturned at once. We have reached unprecedented levels of Keith Vaznness. We have all of us, all of us, lost the Keith Vaz Game.

[CumbrianLefty]

People do know this Williamson "decision" will be re-examined in a few weeks, right?

In the light of that, Vaz's comments maybe become slightly more comprehensible.

Though still no less bleakly hilarious, obviously.......

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sir Kevin Barron is to retire at the next election, whenever it shall be. A former miner (famously attacked by a policeman during the 1984-5 strike) who has held a changing Rother Valley since 1983 and who has moved inch by inch rightwards pretty much every year. He has been a very useful, public spirited parliamentarian who has done a lot of good work in the background over the decades, particularly on public health issues. Recently he led an utterly doomed campaign to try to sort out harassment and bullying issues as regards Commons staff and nearly bankrupted UKIP with a successful claim for libel. Not without his flaws, but he'll be missed. Significant boundary changes in 2010 and the end of mining mean that Rother Valley isn't the stronghold it was; Labour will presumably want to avoid another Gower and should take care with candidate selection.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

On a very unimportant note, I wonder if May is going to move to the House of Has-Beens and Never-Beens after she's out of office, given the four most recent Prime Ministers didn't accept the peerage.

[CumbrianLefty]

Sir Kevin Barron is to retire at the next election, whenever it shall be. A former miner (famously attacked by a policeman during the 1984-5 strike) who has held a changing Rother Valley since 1983 and who has moved inch by inch rightwards pretty much every year. He has been a very useful, public spirited parliamentarian who has done a lot of good work in the background over the decades, particularly on public health issues. Recently he led an utterly doomed campaign to try to sort out harassment and bullying issues as regards Commons staff and nearly bankrupted UKIP with a successful claim for libel. Not without his flaws, but he'll be missed. Significant boundary changes in 2010 and the end of mining mean that Rother Valley isn't the stronghold it was; Labour will presumably want to avoid another Gower and should take care with candidate selection.

To be strictly accurate it was him along with the other two local Labour MPs for Rotherham MBC after the one time UKIP high flyer Jane Collins accused them of knowing about the "grooming" scandals locally and letting them happen - something for which she did not have the slightest actual evidence.

[YL]

Sir Kevin Barron is to retire at the next election, whenever it shall be. A former miner (famously attacked by a policeman during the 1984-5 strike) who has held a changing Rother Valley since 1983 and who has moved inch by inch rightwards pretty much every year. He has been a very useful, public spirited parliamentarian who has done a lot of good work in the background over the decades, particularly on public health issues. Recently he led an utterly doomed campaign to try to sort out harassment and bullying issues as regards Commons staff and nearly bankrupted UKIP with a successful claim for libel. Not without his flaws, but he'll be missed. Significant boundary changes in 2010 and the end of mining mean that Rother Valley isn't the stronghold it was; Labour will presumably want to avoid another Gower and should take care with candidate selection.

These days it's mostly a mix of middling commuter areas (generally not of the intellectual middle class type: the more middle class areas have been some of the strongest areas for UKIP) with distinctly deprived ex-mining communities.

Labour will indeed need to take care with candidate selection.  Presumably having been on Rotherham council circa 2012 will be an automatic disqualification?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

How big is the old Mahroof Hussain crew at this point?

[Frodo]

Time for you Brits to feel our pain: 

Fears grow over Boris Johnson win as Hunt challenge fades

You're about to get your own version of Donald Trump, and this time with a British accent.

[CumbrianLefty]

Though he is part-American, so you don't get away with it that easily

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Another Brexiter Labour standing down, and probably the most infamous at that: Kate Hoey.

[DaWN]

Another Brexiter Labour standing down, and probably the most infamous: Kate Hoey.

Deselection was almost certain and if by some strange miracle for her she was reselected the LDs would have fancied their chances.

In any case, 'good riddance' understates my sentiments

[brucejoel99]

Another Brexiter Labour standing down, and probably the most infamous at that: Kate Hoey.

Good riddance. I'm pleased for her constituents & CLP who deserve an actual Labour MP representing them.

Though I reckon she'll be joining the Brexit Party now?

[Silent Hunter]

Good riddance from me as well - she should have left the party years ago.

[Andrea]

Stephen Pound (Ealing North), Stephen Twigg (Liverpool West Derby), Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) and Teresa Pearce (Erith and Thamesmead) are also retiring.

Pound (71 years old) and Robinson (81) were expected. Even if some MPs of a certain age sometimes fail to understand when it is time to move on.
Twigg is still young (52-53) even if he has been there for a quite long time because he was only 30 when elected in Enfield Southgate.
Pearce is the newest one among the retiring MPs (first elected in 2010) but she is in mid 60s.

[beesley]

Another Brexiter Labour standing down, and probably the most infamous at that: Kate Hoey.

Good riddance. I'm pleased for her constituents & CLP who deserve an actual Labour MP representing them.

Though I reckon she'll be joining the Brexit Party now?

If Kate Hoey isn't 'an actual Labour MP' because of her stance on one issue, then neither was Jeremy Corbyn from 1983-2016. Yes it is the most important issue in a generation, and her constituents were right to push for someone who would better represent their views, but she is still a leftwing person - it's a bit like saying Joe Crowley isn't a Democrat even though his values were largely the same.

I realise your comment wasn't that literal, but one of the things I dislike about Brexit is that the political axis now hinges around a temporary Issue. Politicians hide behind their views on Brexit.

Time for you Brits to feel our pain: 

Fears grow over Boris Johnson win as Hunt challenge fades

You're about to get your own version of Donald Trump, and this time with a British accent.

Say what you like about Boris Johnson, and living here, I would prefer Jeremy Hunt, but this is a pretty shallow take.

[Silent Hunter]

Who saw Panorama? There seems to be a real problem inside Labour's HQ, that's for sure.

[CumbrianLefty]

It was the classic hit job - mix some undeniably true and troubling stuff with unsubstantiated rumour and conjecture. One factually indisputable thing we do know is this - many of the worst allegations (last night's programme included) relate to before the present Gen Sec took over.

And with the present trench warfare - all too many pro-Corbyn people saying "its all a totally invented conspiracy to discredit Jezza" (often with dodgy "Tel Aviv/Israeli embassy" references attached) and those who have always hated him and always wanted him gone coming up with laughable fairly stories of the "prior to Sept 2015 Labour was an unimpeachably anti-racist party for over a century" variety (utterly risible to anyone who knows literally ANYTHING about its past history) - there unfortunately isn't much chance of things getting much better any time soon. Hmmm, maybe everybody on both "sides" should just let Jennie Formby get on with her job? Mad idea, I know

[brucejoel99]

Who saw Panorama? There seems to be a real problem inside Labour's HQ, that's for sure.

Two things stood out for me:

1. The lived experiences of Jewish members, which should be the biggest thing here. The treatment they've faced is shocking & appalling, & they deserve everybody's solidarity & sympathy.

2. There are so many instances of dodgy dealings on anti-Semitism that it's impossible to have any faith in the Labour leadership's ability to handle the issue.

[brucejoel99]

Another Brexiter Labour standing down, and probably the most infamous at that: Kate Hoey.

Good riddance. I'm pleased for her constituents & CLP who deserve an actual Labour MP representing them.

Though I reckon she'll be joining the Brexit Party now?

If Kate Hoey isn't 'an actual Labour MP' because of her stance on one issue, then neither was Jeremy Corbyn from 1983-2016. Yes it is the most important issue in a generation, and her constituents were right to push for someone who would better represent their views, but she is still a leftwing person - it's a bit like saying Joe Crowley isn't a Democrat even though his values were largely the same.

I realise your comment wasn't that literal, but one of the things I dislike about Brexit is that the political axis now hinges around a temporary Issue. Politicians hide behind their views on Brexit.

Oh please, she's a fox-hunting, Farage-supporting, wet-dream-of-Murdoch failure of a Labour MP who deserves to have been drummed out in disgrace instead of being able to take the escape hatch that is retirement.

It's just too bad that the Labour Party didn't get to deselect her themselves.

[Blair]

Another Brexiter Labour standing down, and probably the most infamous at that: Kate Hoey.

Good riddance. I'm pleased for her constituents & CLP who deserve an actual Labour MP representing them.

Though I reckon she'll be joining the Brexit Party now?

If Kate Hoey isn't 'an actual Labour MP' because of her stance on one issue, then neither was Jeremy Corbyn from 1983-2016. Yes it is the most important issue in a generation, and her constituents were right to push for someone who would better represent their views, but she is still a leftwing person - it's a bit like saying Joe Crowley isn't a Democrat even though his values were largely the same.

I realise your comment wasn't that literal, but one of the things I dislike about Brexit is that the political axis now hinges around a temporary Issue. Politicians hide behind their views on Brexit.

Hoey is nothing like Crowley at all.

Crowley was a rather generic liberal from a machine, who was being groomed/preparing to run for the leadership, and thus spend his whole time in D.C, within that bubble.

Hoey is a constituency MP through and through (who's office has a reputation for great constituency service) and has a voting record that's more typical to some of the old culturally conservative Labour MPs (anti-Iraq, anti-tuition fees, anti- EU).

[beesley]

Another Brexiter Labour standing down, and probably the most infamous at that: Kate Hoey.

Good riddance. I'm pleased for her constituents & CLP who deserve an actual Labour MP representing them.

Though I reckon she'll be joining the Brexit Party now?

If Kate Hoey isn't 'an actual Labour MP' because of her stance on one issue, then neither was Jeremy Corbyn from 1983-2016. Yes it is the most important issue in a generation, and her constituents were right to push for someone who would better represent their views, but she is still a leftwing person - it's a bit like saying Joe Crowley isn't a Democrat even though his values were largely the same.

I realise your comment wasn't that literal, but one of the things I dislike about Brexit is that the political axis now hinges around a temporary Issue. Politicians hide behind their views on Brexit.

Hoey is nothing like Crowley at all.

Crowley was a rather generic liberal from a machine, who was being groomed/preparing to run for the leadership, and thus spend his whole time in D.C, within that bubble.

Hoey is a constituency MP through and through (who's office has a reputation for great constituency service) and has a voting record that's more typical to some of the old culturally conservative Labour MPs (anti-Iraq, anti-tuition fees, anti- EU).

That wasn't really the point I was making - I was criticising the people who argued Crowley wasn't a Democrat bc he wasn't AOC. I agree with you on Hoey being a good constituency MP.

[CumbrianLefty]

Indeed, her being good at that part of the job helps explain how she survived as long as she did.

[Silent Hunter]

Probably going to need a new thread for this soon.

[DaWN]

PM Bojo. What on earth did we do wrong as a country? (don't answer that)