Mailwatch(ed) Forum

He's a cod-faced cunt with table manners. May he languish in podcast purgatory until the end of time.

Thieving bastards till the bitter end.

Tory MPs paid £100,000 of public funds to party’s in-house web designers

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... -designers

More than 120 Conservative MPs, including Jeremy Hunt, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid and Gillian Keegan, paid £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to the Conservatives’ in-house web design services, it can be revealed.

The MPs used the Bluetree website service to design their websites. When billed by Bluetree, they would pay for the sites then claim back the costs from the public purse via expenses, prompting a complaint to parliament’s expenses watchdog about the practice.

snip

Senior transparency campaigners said they were alarmed if MPs were using taxpayer funds that could end up with the Conservative party. Tom Brake, the director of Unlock Democracy, said the money should be repaid if any surveys from the website were used to give MPs information for campaigning.

“The rules are clear. Taxpayers’ money cannot be used by MPs for party political campaign purposes. Yet Bluetree’s promotional material about their websites makes it clear that that is their intended purpose,” Brake said.

I was just wondering what tomorrow’s Tory fuck up/scandal will be.

Pour encourager les autres.

They may well tell CCHQ where to stick their list.

And in a major new development, the watchdog has widened its inquiries to investigate whether people with inside knowledge may have asked a third party to place a bet for them.

Sky News also understands that investigators have written to leading bookmakers asking for details of bets of £20 or more on the election date within days of Rishi Sunak announcing it on 22 May.

Conservativehome finally asks the Mitchell and Webb question

https://conservativehome.com/2024/06/23 ... e-baddies/

The sun will rise on July 5th and we will find out.

Remarkable...

That certainly started the week off well.

If you can spare an hour, the comments under "Are we the baddies" are enlightening.

There are certainly many there who never bought into Brexit, some of whom may be trolls.
Among the "carry on regardless" gang, most sounds like highly committed Faragistes.

It neatly illustrates the battle lines being drawn for the post election struggle.

Odd tactics by the Tory candidate in Colchester.

Talking of political satire....

"It's tough on the ground, but we're all energised by the fact that the central party are pissing about like a bunch of kids", said nobody ever.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cqqqqx2 ... 6050a#post

Conservative Party: 'We can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders'

published at 10:38
10:38 Breaking

Soon after a briefing to the BBC's Henry Zeffman (see our last post), a Conservative Party spokesman has now confirmed two candidates' suspension:

"As a result of ongoing internal enquiries, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams or Laura Saunders as Parliamentary Candidates at the forthcoming General Election.

"We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting, which is rightly independent and ongoing."

I return to Conservativehome.

John Oxley: A long night beckons for the Right – we must swiftly re-learn the tactics of opposition

https://conservativehome.com/2024/06/27 ... pposition/

Sunak urges "No Surrender" in his TV debate.
Meanwhile, party activists are preparing their white flags and contemplating live in opposition (or perhaps worse).

A few sane voices among the comments deal with the problem.
Usual suspect expect to continue the smash, disrupt and divide they deployed in government.

The responsible ones recognise that culture war issues won't keep His Majesty's Opposition ticking.
For example:

Defunding the BBC would be a disaster, most of its programming isn't political.
Its paid for by the young and enjoyed by the old.
Yeah, go ahead defund it, then face the rage of your base (over 70s) when Cash in the Attic, Antiques Roadtrip, Sewing Bee or Gardeners World isn't on.
If the Tory part genuinely had defund the BBC in its manifesto right now, Count Binface would be polling ahead of them never mind Labour or the Reform.

John Oliver goes off at the last 14 years of the Tories for 15 minutes...

This morning, the Conservatives have turned their guns on Reform.

The slogan "A vote for Reform is a Vote for Labour" is all over social media.


In the final week they're looking to save their marginals.

Spoonman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 6:51 pm John Oliver goes off at the last 14 years of the Tories for 15 minutes...

I like his anger. It cannot be said enough. Fuck the Tories.