PMQs

[Pippedydeadeye]

I’m hopeful. But Labour’s best chance is if they keep Boris for a lot longer.

[Edith Bacon]

I ought to be thinking bigger picture but right now I want to see Johnson humiliated and cowed and broken.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I’d like to see his insides on the outside while he’s still alive, crying.

[lazzbo]

I just can't bear to see his face until December 2024. Urgh.

[sally maclennane]

I just can't bear to see his face until December 2024. Urgh.

Same here, and I'm not convinced that the Tories would lose the next election anyway

[Ella77]

I bet they won’t. I don’t see any way out of any of this.

[Bat Macdui]

I’d like to see his insides on the outside while he’s still alive, crying.

On board with this. Might write to Priti Patel and suggest reintroduction of spread eagle for lying in the House. That's sort out JRM anol.

[Chicky]

Do it Bats

Pleased though I am by todays defection I’m amazed it doesn’t trigger a by-election.

[Morganna]

I know. I would be furious if my MP defected to the Tories, and I realised that my vote had indirectly gone to them.

It's never going to happen with my MP, but I can understand the feelings of people who voted for Wakeford as a Tory and are now getting him as Labour.

[rosy]

I emailed my MP to express my anger and disappointment at all this, and got a holding message back.

The Derbyshire Times contacted all the six Tory MPs in the county and only one (not mine) responded but the one that did (Nigel Mills, Amber Valley, majority around 17k) said he was "unconvinced" of Johnson's explanation. I don't think he can survive this but it will end up being meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[Pippedydeadeye]

Nigel Mills, the “Candy Crush” MP. Hugely reliable authority on appropriate behaviour.

[lazzbo]

It's a topsy turvy world when you agree with David Davis. Still, every new day has the potential to bring with it more evidence of parties. Tory numbers in the polls should be hit. Patience is a virtue.

[Dáire]

I know. I would be furious if my MP defected to the Tories, and I realised that my vote had indirectly gone to them.

It's never going to happen with my MP, but I can understand the feelings of people who voted for Wakeford as a Tory and are now getting him as Labour.

We were Labour for decades, only really swung because the locals' favourite Ivan Lewis went on a big 'Labour are antisemitic' rant after he'd resigned. The majority who voted in Wakeford would have been Labour voters before.

It's an open secret that Labour councils get little funding and we've paid dearly for that, and when asked voters here did say they were voting Tory for the first time in the hope of seeing some improvement to various areas of dereliction and basics towns were lacking - one has had no high school for years. They demolished the old one then just laughed at us. Kids there are bussed almost an hour away.

Getting elected as a Tory meant he was finally granted those funds and the mothballed building projects have finally commenced. He's quite visible and interacts and people locally have been warming to him. Nobody admitted to voting for him, weirdly, and local groups have been pretty anti Tory. But there's been a begrudging approval of the stuff he's been involved in, raising awareness of and crucially has the power to actually get money for. Anyone who voted for him to see those improvements is getting their wish.

He was open that he'd been threatened with the area being stripped of funds if he broke the whip. He abstained on the last one and has now quit. Claims he was always a centrist.

But he should have known that those funds would come with a price, and that he'd have to vote for Conservative things whilst in the party. He can't really claim to be surprised he'd found himself in the party of dumping sewage and cutting universal credit.

I was surprised when the papers said it was against the rules both to withhold funds from opposition councils and to threaten to strip funds to force votes. That such things should be reported to, what's it called, some standards watchdog?

So, yeah, on the one hand certainly saving his own skin. But on the other this has been coming a while. He's been speaking out against them for a bit and broke the whip on the corruption vote, then started making headlines.

[Morganna]

That's interesting Daire. And it ties in with the latest allegations of blackmail against Tories who challenge Johnson.

It now also seems (according to Peston) that the email warning Johnson about the party has been leaked, so maybe the inquiry won't be such a whitewash after all.

[Bat Macdui]

I met Ivan Lewis once, he were a right slimeball. :insightful:

[Morganna]

Just to back up your post, Daire (not that anyone would have disbelieved it!)

https://mobile.twitter.com/BBCNWT/statu ... 9700341770

[Annabella]

I really don’t want Rishi for PM.

Why is that Emma - interested t hear your opinion - tax related or out of touch with regular people?

[Dáire]

Ha, yeah it was convenient that Wakeford admitted the blackmail. I'd just put two and two together - our recent funding, his statements around the whip, his breaking it on the Patterson vote. The blackmail allegations came out then but no one would go on the record, so yesterday was a step up.

Locals in Radcliffe have said the guy volunteers at the food bank, and they thought he seemed pretty genuine. "What's he doing with that lot?"

Unless that was the plan - go blue to get the cash, then red to clean up your voting record and win in a safe red seat. But, nah, he's been in the conservatives a while. The Robin Hood narrative is fun but I think we're all too jaded now even if it were true.

[Pippedydeadeye]

No, the narrative is usually that they want status and power and will go with whichever wind is prevailing.

[Bat Macdui]

I'm a terrible idealist, I'm preferring to think he's an old fashioned Centrist Tory who does actually give a shit* and he turned a blind eye to the fact the Conservatives had become UKIP until he couldn't anymore. I'm not sure I fancy his chances for re selection with his CLP though.

*Remember them? Ken Clarke, Gauke, Rory.....