ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Our MPs have a 12 day break and they all looked demob happy yesterday including the PM but after a few days the plotting will start with most wondering what the best PM for their career would be. We know that a further vote of no confidence is off the agenda but 10,000 signatures from party members demanding she goes would do the trick.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
the erg and there friends are having a meeting in the tower of London over the weekend, some one is getting the chop for certain.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The 31st October is intended as a fail safe/fall back date in case of us not agreeing the withdrawal deal. The PM still expects us to leave next month but it appears that everyone else involved sees it as a 6 month extension. DHB said a while back that they were fully prepared for the 29th March yet now they welcome the date being put back.
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/brexit-delay-will-help-port-202596/howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,839
A politician armed with a poll result is about as clean as a Trabant P50, and less reliable. And an overwhelming 50% in my house agree with me.
Jan Higgins likes this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
All systems go now that he has a bus to write something on.
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,839
No votes for sartorial elegance. Never more than three colours for complete fashion eye-happiness, and yet here we have Oxford, Cambridge, black and er... dun. Still, as Tony Benn said, it's the ideas rather than the man that matters, and I see the arrow is pointing in the right direction over a blue rinse.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
revoking article 50 would be a better idea, its better than no deal. or the crap one we got now,
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,680
Thought BR went long ago, so why is he campaigning to leave British Rail.
Seriously, "changing politics for good"; whose good Nige? Your pocket's no doubt...
Oh and what is this bull he is spouting about challenging the elite - he is a fully paid up member of the elite; public school boy, LME trader, MEP who maxed out his allowances etc, every year and has made it clear he fully expects his MEPs pension, German wife. hobnobbing with Trump etc.
ray hutstone likes this
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Interesting to see the latest opinion polls asking the question how would people vote in a general election/european election. Labour came out tops with a lowly 24/25% Tories a few points behind leaving Brexit/UKIP neck and neck a few points back. A lot can change before either happens but the eurosceptics seem to be cancelling each other out and that doesn't include "Our Nation" or "For Britain".
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Telegraph - maybe Brian will get his own way.
EU leaders are pinning their hopes on a surge in support for British europhile parties in May’s European elections to convince the government to cancel Brexit. Senior sources in Brussels have revealed that a number of the heads of state and government of the EU-27 said as much in Wednesday’s summit talks over the Brexit extension. Such hopes were dismissed as "starry-eyed dreaming" by David Campbell-Bannerman, the Tory MEP for the East of England and former deputy leader of Ukip. "Having reversed every one of the 48 referendums that went against further EU integration, the EU thinks they can do it again to Britain but they have met their match,” said Mr Campbell-Bannerman, who has been in the European Parliament since 2011 but will not stand in the upcoming elections. “Alongside a third of non British MEPs who will be Eurosceptic after this election, there will be some very angry British Brexiteers winning seats and seeking to gum up the EU's workings,” he said. “Expect fireworks”.
During a seven hour meeting in Brussels, the EU-27 leaders argued over the risks and opportunities of forcing Britain to run May’s elections. The EU-27 has insisted that if the House of Commons did not ratify the withdrawal agreement before May 22, the UK must hold elections to prevent legal challenges against the new European Parliament. A senior EU official said: “Some of the heads were saying this may be one of the most pro-European demonstrations Europe-wide in the elections.”
Greece’s Alexis Tsipras is understood to have pushed that view. Other socialist leaders, such as Malta’s Joseph Muscat and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez are believed to have supported him. EU sources suggested their support was more about bolstering socialist seats in the new European Parliament. Left wing leaders expect Labour to make big gains in the European elections, which will strengthen their hand when dividing up EU top jobs. “Everyone understands that, as they say in the UK, a week is a long time in politics, especially in the UK at the moment. Now they have given them 29 weeks,” the senior EU official said. “29 weeks is a very long time in UK politics and things might happen.”
Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said he would like Britain to cancel Brexit after the summit. But during the summit talks, he told the leaders it was impossible to predict British politics at the moment.
France’s Emmanuel Macron, Belgium’s Charles Michel and Austria’s Sebastian Kurz were vocally against a longer extension, while other favoured a delay of a year. In the end, a compromise of six months was reached. “Other leaders were saying that we risk ending up with a lot of people not particularly engaged in the European project and with other agendas,” the senior official said. The French President was keen to secure assurances from Mrs May, which were not forthcoming, that Britain would take the European election seriously for perhaps the first time in its history. “We do not want to import Britain's political crisis into the EU," said an Elysee official. "A long extension without serious guarantees would not allow France to agree to it.The default position is that a dysfunctional EU is worse than no deal.”
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
just how I feel at the moment along thousands of others. lol
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,839
Given that for the other Jezza (Hunt, that is) it is an 'absolute priority' to leave the EU before the European elections on 23 May (
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47933511 ) and the closing date for the receipt of nomination papers and 'cleared funds' for said elections is 25 April (
https://www.dover.gov.uk/Council--Democracy/Elections/Notice-Of-Election-for-South-East-European-Parliamentary-Election-23-May-2019.pdf ), will those in pursuance of a sizeable EU pension lose their deposits should somebody make an absolute silk purse out of an absolute sow's ear?
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
bring the euro elections on wgs.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
So all the parties have to put cash up front during the next week whether or not the election goes ahead. Great the Brexit party with their all new funding and not having council elections to contest.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
More than 3,000 people have applied to stand as Change UK candidates at the European parliament elections, overwhelming the fledgling centrist party. MPs from the Independent Group, the force behind the new organisation, are working through applications and will select from a shortlist of 100 this weekend. According to insiders, the enthusiastic response is in marked contrast to a Conservative campaign that is likely to be stripped to the bare minimum of funding. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, yesterday became the latest senior Tory to admit that the elections on May 23 would be “disastrous” for the governing party.
The Conservatives’ poll ratings have collapsed since Theresa May chose to delay Brexit rather than leave without a deal. Her decision to open talks with Labour has further encouraged a full-scale party mutiny. As voters desert the party, local Conservative associations are threatening to boycott the European election campaign. The party has managed to fill its candidate slate, with all but three of its 18 MEPs agreeing to stand again. There is virtually no chance of new candidates getting elected since the incumbents will be handed the highest rankings in the regional list system that is used to elect MEPs. A senior figure conceded that key campaign decisions, including whether to have a manifesto or official launch, had yet to be taken. There have been suggestions that the Tories may restrict their efforts to Freepost mailshots to save cash. “Candidates worried about giving up other work to campaign have been reassured that there won’t be much call on their time in any case,” a well-placed Conservative figure said.
A former Tory MEP who is now an MP said: “Most associations will not have allocated any resources in their budgets for this election. Normally fundraising is geared around such events but that hasn’t been possible. So associations will need central funding in spades but I’m not sure Central Office has it either for the same reasons. Money will have been allocated for Locals [the local elections on May 2]. I suspect this will be a phantom election at best. “I don’t envy the candidates from any party the prospect of taking part in a phoney election. When I stood there was broad indifference and a range of issues. Now there is maximum interest and only one issue. So I can’t fault candidates who don’t have the oomph . . . standing in an election is meant to mean something. It isn’t a placeholder while important people somewhere else dance about.”
The Independent Group was founded in February. Its 11 MPs — eight former Labour members and three former Conservatives — want to vet the background of each potential candidate carefully amid concerns that some with unknown and possibly contentious backgrounds could get through. There is only one full-time staff member, an active chief executive. One source said that there were comparatively limited resources: “We’re not going to be doing deals with people like the Lib Dems. We’re just going to make the argument.” In a statement on the close of applications, the Independent Group said: “We have been overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of applicants.”
Renew, a pro-EU centrist party that was launched in 2017, has announced that it will wind up operations and support Change UK, whose full title is Change UK — The Independent Group, once the Electoral Commission had approved it as a political party.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,655
The continual Brexit waffle from pundits (that is not at all important) on the various news programmes seems to have calmed down, have the troublemakers all gone off for their Easter break?
If so is there any way we can extend their holiday.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I wouldn't get too optimistic Jan, the MPs may be on holiday but the chief protagonists in our main parties are busy pretending to find common ground whilst in reality trying to boost their election chances.
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Troublemakers? Are they the same as John Major's "bastards" and Philip Hammond's "extremists"?
They won't ever go away until they have irreparably damaged both our country's standing and economy and the party they purport to represent.