[Samanfur]

There goes another one:

Conservative Manchester mayoral candidate defects to Reform UK

The Conservative candidate for Mayor of Greater Manchester has defected to Reform UK, accusing his former party of "giving up" on the north of England.

Dan Barker had been selected by the Conservatives in December to challenge current mayor, Labour's Andy Burnham.

Mr Barker follows Lee Anderson, the former Conservative party deputy chair, who defected to Reform UK on 11 March.

Mr Barker said the Tories had abandoned northern areas to focus on "blue wall" seats to avoid "annihilation".

The Conservatives have until 16:00 BST on 5 April to select a new candidate for mayor.

The Conservative party says it will shortly begin a selection process for a new candidate.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Barker said the national Conservative party had failed to provide any support.

He said: "I think, in truth, they've given up on Greater Manchester and the north of England.

"You can see that from inside the party, what they are really doing is trying to protect the blue wall in the South East and the South West because they fear that the Liberal Democrats are going to annihilate them."

In a social media post, Mr Berker called Reform UK "the new home of conservatism," saying the party "represent the ordinary people of this country".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some interesting Blue Wall polling.

Is "visionary" Sir Humphrey speak for mad?

[Andy McDandy]

I saw her talking about a "prayer" on a board. Was it actually a prayer? Can't have been all that long.

Making a wild guess here but was it something Ramadan related and she didn't approve?

[Youngian]

Some interesting Blue Wall polling.

Is "visionary" Sir Humphrey speak for mad?

Impressed by the reasonably high ‘no fucking idea’ vote. Although in reality that’s the correct answer for the majority of people asked a question in every survey ever conducted.

[Youngian]

There goes another one:


Conservative Manchester mayoral candidate defects to Reform UK

"You can see that from inside the party, what they are really doing is trying to protect the blue wall in the South East and the South West because they fear that the Liberal Democrats are going to annihilate them."

In what world are the Tories wooing LD voters? What a prize pillock.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tories have traditionally kept a balanced perspective on the Middle East which Gulf state leaders and the Israelis understood the Realpolitik of and wasn’t controversial. Peter Hitchens and Rory Stewart (if ever there was an FO Arabist) are a couple of names on the right that have asked why this blank cheque for Israel policy has developed.
Nothing too deep I suspect, wacky evangelical politics of their GOP mates seeping through and ‘hey let’s back Israel every time then we can call Labour antisemitic.’

Alicia again, and to his credit, David Cameron pushing back a bit against the black cheque for Israel.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Woman's a cunt.

[Youngian]

Woman's a cunt.

For wanting to provide more water to people that don’t have any?

[Youngian]

Speaking of cunts.

DWP boss and Devon MP Mel Stride says 'mental health culture has gone too far'

The MP for Central Devon recently unveiled plans to get 150,000 back into work. In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Stride said that there has been an increase in people self-diagnosing conditions due to an increased public focus about mental health. https://www.devonlive.com/news/cost-of- ... 179680.amp

[Tubby Isaacs]

Woman's a cunt.

Alicia Kearns?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Woman's a cunt.

Alicia Kearns?

Esther McVey

[Youngian]

That’s a common sense observation.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Never seen this before, from the ITN Archive. It wasn't shown at the time, but was leaked. It's not in the least a "rant" btw.

Nice bit of footage of John Major relaxing with Michael Brunson and being very frank. Then footage of the actual interview that was broadcast. All of it is well-argued and clear, with no obvious slogans being crowbarred in and repeated to death. Brunson trusts Major to answer properly, and gives him time, without any Paxo/Andrew Neil pressing. Though in fairness to Paxo and Neill, if they'd done that with the politicians they interviewed, they'd probably not have got any proper answers.

I sometimes have to remind myself how shit lots of the Major era was with terrible investment and homelessness. But he was an able man.

[Tubby Isaacs]

From John Major to Claire Coutihno.

She's still using "can't say what a woman is". I thought the line was "Starmer flip flops on what a woman is".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Unlike Jeremy Hunt down the road, Coutihno is lucky in that the main opposition parties in her constituency (East Surrey) are fairly evenly split. Lib Dems are second though, which is probably best. Not an obvious Reform area, but who knows?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's an odd place. Labour should be doing a lot better.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've only been there once, to Caterham, which didn't look particularly fancy but population is only 21,000, a bit bigger than the similarly not fancy Tewkesbury. Both East Surrey and Tewkesbury constituencies have very large Tory majorities. I reckon Labour should get more votes in Caterham and Tewkesbury towns, but in terms of the constituency being competitive (even now), you probably need the main town to be a fair bit bigger. Or have a much clearer second place.

If that makes sense.

[Yug]

What do the Tories find so attractive about the idea of an October election?

Hundreds of thousands of students could be left unable to vote if the government calls an October general election, because there may not be enough time to register them, universities and student unions have warned.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, last week hinted at a possible election October date during questioning by a House of Lords select committee. Universities and student unions were already nervous about the idea of an autumn election, when students are settling into new halls or houses and less likely to be focused on applying to joining the electoral register or acquiring photo ID that will be compatible with the government’s new voter rules.

They also say that an October election – potentially just two or three weeks after freshers’ week in many university towns – would not leave local councils enough time to put many thousands of new student addresses on the electoral register.

Paul Greatrix, registrar of the University of Nottingham, told the Observer that if an election was called for mid-October he did not think the data could be processed in time. “You could easily end up with hundreds of thousands of students being disenfranchised and left without a voice,” he said...

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... le-to-vote

Disenfranchising thousands of people who are unlikely to vote Conservative. I knew it'd be something like this.

Cunts.

[Youngian]

Caterham’s a fairly prosperous commuter town, economic Tories who probably have more pressing matters than following culture war wiffle.

[slilley]

East Surrey which takes in Caterham and the surrounding area used to be Geoffrey Howe’s seat in days gone by. It is as Conservative as they come so it would be a seismic shift if it was won by any other party