[satnav]

The Tory Party's useful idiot Dan Hodges has come riding to Cleverly's rescue claiming that the Home Secretary said 'It had a shit MP.'

[Abernathy]

The Tory Party's useful idiot Dan Hodges has come riding to Cleverly's rescue claiming that the Home Secretary said 'It had a shit MP.'

Yeah. “It had a shit MP” is all too easily misheard as “It’s a shithole”.

Just like “That horse is banana coloured” sounds just like “Fondle my gussett”.

[kreuzberger]

Granted, Stockton is a town with little going for it and has been scratching its arse for decades - I lived a regrettable year there in the early 80s - but it is a damn sight better than a lot of other places which I visited in the old second division or as a travelling minstrel. Chelmsford, Rochdale, High Wycombe, Sarfend - those are shitholes where the new Chinese pneumonia virus could make a name for itself.

[kreuzberger]

The more I think about this, the more outraged I am. I doubt very much that Dim Jim has ever been within a million miles of the East Riding, as was.

Yes, much of Middlesbrough is a khazi, as are places like Peterlee, but so much of it is genuinely lovely. The Georgian splendour of Egglesham where we used to get our Saturday groceries, Saltburn where I learned to windsurf, Runswick Bay for coffee and cakes on a Sunday before nipping down to Whitby for a chippy. Kinking it up on Roseberry Topping, just for the hell of it.

On reflection, Stockton was actually OK, even if my dreads, circa 1984, were not to the locals' taste. Dim Jim is indeed a cunt.

[Watchman]

The Tory Party's useful idiot Dan Hodges has come riding to Cleverly's rescue claiming that the Home Secretary said 'It had a shit MP.'

If you leave it to someone else to come with that bollox on your behalf, then you’re bang to rights

[satnav]

Snowflake Dan clearly doesn't like being labelled as a useful idiot because he's now blocked me on Twitter. I will wear it as a badge of honour.

[mattomac]

Still requires an apology

[Youngian]

Wasn’t Stockton prominent in the hearts of One Nation Tories (Harold MacMillan’s seat)? The Cleverlys of this world have little idea as to why it’s an alien place now for the Tories.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They've found a defence.

He was calling Alex Cunningham "shithead" or something.

Cleverly did call Labour MP 'shit', but did not use similar term about his constituency, source close to home secretary claims
James Cleverly, the home secretary, has suggested that he was misheard in the Commons yesterday, saying that while he did call a Labour MP “shit”, he did not describe the MP’s constituency as a “shit-hole”.

He will be hoping that his revised explanation ends a row that escalated this afternoon when Ben Houchen, the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, joined Labour MPs in saying Cleverly should apologise for his remarks about Stockton. (See 2.20pm.)

[Watchman]

Christ, this is playground stuff, just man up Cleverly, it’s not a grown-up response

[soulboy]

But Dawn Butler...

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Christ, this is playground stuff, just man up Cleverly, it’s not a grown-up response

TAPS

MAC

[davidjay]

To see how far they've fallen, always ask the question, "What would Thatcher have done?" You wouldn't have seen his arse for dust.

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... orry-farce

John Crace on "Jimmy Dimly". Nice stuff.

Just a fortnight ago James Cleverly was living his best life. Flying around the world by private jet – or, if he had to slum it, business class – in search of photos of himself with world leaders in his capacity as foreign secretary. Keepsakes to boast to the kids about when he was out of a job in a year’s time.

It was the ideal job. Because literally all that was expected of him was to be able to smile and not be rude to anyone.

Jimmy Dimly isn’t the brightest of cabinet ministers – who is? – but even he can work out he’s been chucked a hospital pass.

Rather than admitting he had called his Stockton constituency a “shithole”, he had tried to claim that what he had said was that Cunningham was a “shit MP”.

Not the most convincing of explanations, as Cleverly had first denied he had said anything at all, and his subsequent elucidation bore no resemblance to the audio recording. Put simply, Dimly wasn’t entirely convincing.

[Watchman]

James Cleverly visits the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda before agreeing a new deportation treaty.

World shortage of irony meters following mass explosions

[Spoonman]

I propose that this thread be renamed "James Oxymoron".

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... o-oblivion

John Crace.

James Cleverly? Any prime minister’s useful idiot. Someone who would do or say anything in exchange for the trappings of power. Who doesn’t actually believe in anything. Beyond his own survival. Just give him a shiny toy for his office desk and he’s a happy boy.

Point one, said Dimly. Clear out the dependants of scumbag international students. Point two. Get rid of all foreign care and NHS workers. Fuck them! Point three. Get rid of all other foreign workers in shortage areas. Fruit and vegetable pickers. Go back to wherever you came from. There were no points four and five. They had just been there to sound comprehensive. As if this was thought through. Or maybe Jimmy D just couldn’t remember them. Maybe four and five were just to be more and more beastly to foreigners.

There we had it. Dimly sat down with a huge smirk. Revelling in his own smugness. His intellectual inferiority. Because what he had just done was effectively torch the economy. There would be no one left to fill the vacancies in the NHS and social care sector. Public services that were already on a knife-edge would now implode. Hospitality and agriculture would be dead.

But what the hell? Who cared about the economy so long as halfwits like Lee Anderson were happy. Far better to do that than actually to explain to people that there were serious consequences to delivering the half-arsed ideas they had promised. Crediting voters with intelligence was no way to go. Even better, it wasn’t even as if this lunacy would win them an election. What he was really doing was creating an impossible mess for Labour to inherit. Win, win!

[satnav]

Apparently the ERG under the chairmanship of Mark Francois has set up a 'Star Chamber' to examine the legality of the new Rwanda deal. I'm sorry but any 'Star Chamber' which includes Mark Francois really can't call itself a 'Star Chamber'.

[soulboy]

Might I suggest a shart chamber?

[Bones McCoy]

Hot on the trail of 30p Lee.

We have 40 watt Jim.