Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
not doable in real terms.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Sunday Telegraph
David Miliband is reportedly poised to return to the UK as speculation mounts that he is being encouraged to lead a new Blairite centre-left party. The former Labour Foreign Secretary currently lives and works in New York, where he runs the International Rescue Committee. However, Labour MPs reportedly believe he is ready to move back to the UK next year. Mr Miliband has held a series of meetings with Tony Blair, the Mail on Sunday reported, with the former prime minister said to be the driving force behind plans for the new centrist party.
Mr Miliband has also met with prominent Labour donors Sir Trevor Chinn and Jonathan Goldstein, according to the newspaper. "David Miliband is the figure who towers above all others as the person who could lead a new centre-left party," a source close to the discussions told the Mail, adding that Mr Blair "talks about little else. other than the need for a new force in British politics". The source told the Mail that the wealthy donors were "convinced by David". "But they differ on whether there is room for a centrist party in today’s political climate. They are intent on waiting for the collapse of the Corbyn project – and then they aim to sweep in."
A source close to Mr Miliband, who admitted in June that he missed Britain, told the Sunday Times he might well return to the UK in 2019 but played down links to any new party. “David has been hankering for a return for some time and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he came back next year but that’s completely separate from any discussions about a new party,” the source told the newspaper.
Speculation about a new centre-left party has been rife for several months. Its launch could come as early as December, after the final vote on the Brexit deal, sources told the Times. Another date reportedly being considered is January 28, the last time a general election could be called before the UK leaves the EU on March 29.
In addition to Mr Miliband, others who have been touted as possible leaders of the party include Labour former frontbencher Chuka Umunna, who denies he is one of the main organisers, and Labour MPs Gavin Shuker and Chris Leslie.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
This is the latest one, a Folkestone and Hythe councillor who switched from UKIP to be Independent has joined it.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
I just wonder how civil the civilised the debate would be if you slightly disagree about there policys.
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
They sound like an off-shoot of Avon Cosmetics.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The other week the Brexit party led by Nigel Farage launched, now we have Brexit Express joining in, and not forgetting UKIP and For Britain all campaigning for the same thing. The vote split if a General election was held this year would be a boost for Labour.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/17/no-deal-brexiters-tory-split-conservative-multimillionaire-donor-new-partyhoward mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Nigel Farage is saying that 100, 000 people signed up to his new party in the first week, I wonder how many of them are also new members of the Tory party.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
Donors plan to desert other political parties and back the Independent Group days after it was created. The band of 11 MPs have already raised tens of thousands of pounds from members of the public, using an online crowdfunder, after forming the group on Monday. In an interview with The Times Chuka Umunna, the MP for Streatham and a former shadow business secretary, said that the group would accept funding from wealthy individuals, adding: “We are not against successful people.”
The group has said that it wants to accept only donations that would meet the legal requirements of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Because it has not yet become a political party it is not obliged to do so. Money from individuals would be declared if accepted, Mr Umunna said. Under the law, political parties have to register donations in excess of £7,500. The Independent Group has said that it will publish accounts every three months, detailing all donations above £500. Mr Umunna said he hoped that the Independent Group would evolve into a fully fledged political party by the end of the year.
Charlie Mullins, the millionaire behind Pimlico Plumbers, the London company he founded in 1979, switched allegiance from the Tories and donated £25,000 to the Liberal Democrats last year as part of his opposition to Brexit. He also had a stall at the party’s conference for his campaign to stop Brexit. He was now intending to abandon the Lib Dems and support the Independent Group, he told The Times, but declined to say how much he was willing to hand over to Mr Umunna and his colleagues. Mr Mullins said that supporting the new group was the best way to achieve another Brexit referendum and he hoped that they could attract more potential defectors, including Justine Greening, the former education secretary. “I think the Independent Group are much like the Liberal Democrats in supporting another referendum. But I feel they could be more successful than the Lib Dems. And I’m going to put my money where the best chance of success is,” he said. “I believe that any money I put in to the Independent Group will be money well spent because I think Theresa May is destroying the economy. This is about our children and grandchildren and the future of this country.”
Mr Mullins added that he was not the only disgruntled former Conservative donor worried about the impact that Brexit would have on business and said he was “sure that others will be donating”. Mr Umunna told The Times: “We’ve already raised tens of thousands of pounds from several thousand small donors, which is extraordinary. Our website crashed, because at one point 700,000 people were trying to visit it at the same time.” Wealthy individuals had also offered large donations, he said.
Mr Umunna’s register of interests shows that he received a £10,000 donation from Farr Vintners, a fine wine wholesaler, at the end of January. A spokesman for the company said that the money was unrelated to the Independent Group and that it had not known that Mr Umunna was about to resign from Labour. The one-off donation was not party political and was designed to pay for a researcher in Mr Umunna’s office to help to campaign against Brexit, he added. A poll commissioned by the think tank Progressive Centre UK, at which Mr Umunna is chairman of the advisory board, found that 41 per cent of those asked said they might vote for a new party. Opinium Research polled 2,001 adults, between February 15 and 18. A spokesman for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, which gave the Lib Dems £301,740 in June, said its board had not discussed the Independent Group.
Brian Dixon likes this
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
One new party seems to have got the hang of holding up bits of cardboard with slogans on.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48021730howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
John Crace is both amusing and to the point.
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,844
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
What a new party again one more for me to be a chairman of
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,481
Vic. That was your finest hour! Savour it.
'If no one went no faster than what I do there'd be a sight less trouble in this world'
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,572
Thankfully people don't just vote for anyone as chair any more
But on the new party it's just another that will split the vote up
Not looking to take power. Just run a in a few seats ..could help to change the result over all though
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Thank you Mr Haddock
Bob Whysman- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,918
Vic Matcham wrote:What a new party again one more for me to be a chairman of
Perhaps only one chair at a time nowadays Vic?
Button and Jan Higgins like this
Do nothing and nothing happens.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,572
Thankfully people not that silly any more
Most seats were not won
No one else bothered to stand
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,900
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse: "Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage will relaunch the group as an anti-lockdown party called Reform UK in an attempt to fight anti-coronavirus measures imposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government."
https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/news/nigel-farage-set-to-relaunch-brexit-party-as-anti-lockdown-party/.
Although, come to think of it, entirely predictable. IDS ought to jump in with both feet, I reckon.
(Not my real name.)