[The Rationalist]

i should point out that my have views evolved over time!!

[bluebellnutter]

I'm obviously not a Tory (at least to anyone except our resident Corbyn army) but it has been amazing that the party which always ultimately stood for pragmatism and a strong economy (at least in theory) basically completely flipping itself almost overnight into a nativist, borderline racist party which doesn't care if it trashes the economy to achieve it's ends. I wonder what Harold Macmillan would have made of it?

[spoonman]

I see Jacob Rees-Mogg is over 'ere speaking at a DUP fundraising dinner. He's not the first Tory to have done this very recently, Gove & Johnson have also spoken at DUP events within the last year or so.

Which begs the question - are they getting prior permission from their party to speak at a fundraiser of a political party that they are in electoral competition with, regardless of the confidence & supply deal currently in Westminster? Because whilst election results in NI have shown the Tories to be as popular as a shit sandwich, I'm sure they would love to pull across similar party figureheads for their own ends and needs. Certainly worth checking the motives for the likes of Rees-Mogg as to what loyalty he has to the Conservative party across the UK.

[Watchman]

Excommunication for a start

[youngian]

Certainly worth checking the motives for the likes of Rees-Mogg as to what loyalty he has to the Conservative party across the UK.

Party whips have no control over the likes of Mogg. Farage and Johnson have also been over to Belfast to schmooze with the DUP. They're putting out the feelers work for the Enoch Powell option. Johnson's Uxbridge seat is looking shaky and no one in the Tory high ranks owes him any favours. Farage would just be happy to stand for a party with a tribal following that would elect a donkey with the right rosette.

[Boiler]

[spoonman]

Party whips have no control over the likes of Mogg. Farage and Johnson have also been over to Belfast to schmooze with the DUP.

True about the whip, but that only applies to votes in Westminster IIRC? Still, there's local elections in NI in May where I'm sure the NI Conservatives will be fielding some candidates for council seats, and it must at least annoy them that an MP from their own party makes an appearance at a rival's party fundraiser where the monies raised from it will go towards fighting against Tories!

Imagine if back in 2015 prior to the General election the likes of Nadine Dorries or Peter Bone made an appearance and spoke at a fundraising dinner for UKIP - before they'd get to sleep for the night Tory central office would be suspending their party membership and remove the whip from them pending further action I'm sure.

[davidjay]

I can also imagine the storm if a pre-devolution Labour MP helped the SNP.

[Messianic Trees]

No10 prepares D-Day Election: Tories pencil in June 6 for polling day after delaying Article 50 and securing a Brexit deal in April.... as they triple spending on social media ads hoping they will go viral
A new poll shows Tories opened a seven-point lead over Labour in last 14 days
Tory HQ has begun booking printing plants and hiked digital advertising funds
A snap poll would allow Mrs May to ‘renew her public mandate’ for her Brexit

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... April.html



Paragraph 19:

A Downing Street spokesman denied there were any plans to hold a General Election.

[Big Arnold]

Well that last snap election went so well, didn’t it? Brexit delayed. Gammons up in arms. Tories still fighting like ferrets in a sack. No guarantee that MPs will call a general election. I don't see it.

[Fozzy]

Calling a "snap election" is hardly within May's control, is it?

[Abernathy]

Calling a "snap election" is hardly within May's control, is it?

Well, it really is, inasmuch as she has already done it in 2017 by meeting the provisions of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, and because Corbyn bangs on about it so bloody much he could hardly fail to go along with it.

But what makes me think the story is a load of cobblers are two things : a: In order to survive the confidence motion lobbed at her by the ERG types in December, May has already had to promise the nutjobs on her backbench that she would not be leading the party at the next election, so they'd need to switch leaders first, which seems very unlikely, and b: Signalling an election for June 6 at the start of February is hardly a "snap" election, is it?

On the other hand, the mere fact that there is some speculation about this suggests that if it might be being considered, then it's because the possibility of losing to Corbyn is, even after the fright of 2017, still completely (and correctly, in my view), absolutely inconceivable to them. The very particular circumstances of June 2017 that allowed Corbyn and his Momentum Cult to claim yet another defeat as "victory" will never again prevail.

[Big Arnold]

It's a matter for Parliament not the PM since the FT act.

[Abernathy]

It's a matter for Parliament not the PM since the FT act.

Yes but only in so far as parliament can theoretically refuse to grant the two thirds majority required to support a motion that "there shall be an early general election". In practice, a PM moving such a motion with a whipped parliamentary party and an opposition that never stops going on about how it wants an election more than life itself, couldn't fail to secure the necessary support.

[Daley Mayle]

Brenda from Bristol will have the final say.