[Abernathy]

Quite a sharp take on, well, everything really, from Stewart Lee (though I disagree with his simplistic characterisation of Starmer as now "pro-brexit").

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... 44amHUhkZI

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Graham Brady has announced he will not stand at the next election.

FMB

[mattomac]

Just two more leadership elections for him to preside over.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Brady is publishing some diaries apparently. If I were a Tory MP, I’d not be very thrilled with this.

[Yug]

I had a thought. If Ricky continues with his project to become Fargle's mini me, and the rest of the Party continue as they are, it becomes a possibility that the Greens could return more MPs than the Tories at the next GE. Highly improbable, but possible.

This thought cheered me up no end.

[Yug]

Hello hello hello. What's going on here then?

A former Tory minister who tried to sell off England’s forests has been appointed to the board of Natural England, leading Labour to accuse the government of “cronyism”.

Dame Caroline Spelman has been given a senior role with the government’s nature watchdog and will set its strategy and policy, as well as overseeing the use of public money...

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment ... ne-spelman

...Questions have been raised over the appropriateness of the appointment, as the former environment secretary previously had to apologise for trying to privatise England’s woodland.

Her plans to change the ownership of 258,000 hectares (637,000 acres) of state-owned woodland in 2011 were widely criticised at the time and caused a Tory revolt. She had to take part in a humiliating climbdown in front of fellow MPs...

They do seem to keep finding very square pegs to put in round holes, don't they.

[Oboogie]

Was it Caroline Spelman who also wanted to privatise all the beaches in England and Wales? If so she'd better get a shift on, they won't be worth anything once they're all covered in sewage.

[Abernathy]

Few of the many other things that the Tories have done to ruin or destroy all the things that were good about the UK have made me as angry as the outrages in relation to the near-censorship of David Attenborough and the suspension of Gary Lineker - which is really saying something. They have effectively hamstrung the finest state broadcaster in the world in the name of their own twisted, obscene political ideology. They will not, and must not, be forgiven for this. Labour is going to have *such* work to do even to begin to remedy the long list of wanton damage left by the Tories when we’re back in government.

It quite literally cannot come soon enough.

[Oboogie]

Few of the many other things that the Tories have done to ruin or destroy all the things that were good about the UK have made me as angry as the outrages in relation to the near-censorship of David Attenborough and the suspension of Gary Lineker - which is really saying something. They have effectively hamstrung the finest state broadcaster in the world in the name of their own twisted, obscene political ideology. They will not, and must not, be forgiven for this. Labour is going to have *such* work to do even to begin to remedy the long list of wanton damage left by the Tories when we’re back in government.

It quite literally cannot come soon enough.

And yet social media is full of useful idiots giving the Tories a free pass and blaming the BBC.

[Yug]

Well, the Tories are getting all of the right people on-side

European far-right leaders have praised Rishi Sunak’s illegal immigration bill, after a senior EU official repeated her doubts about the legality of the plans.

“Bravo,” wrote the Alternative für Deutschland party on social media. “Way to go! The current [British] government plans now to deny asylum to illegal immigrants and fly them out to Rwanda,” the party wrote on Facebook, saying Germany should follow this approach. “When will we finally have it?”


Éric Zemmour, the French far-right commentator, who came fourth in the race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron last year, also praised Sunak’s new policy. “The message is clear,” he wrote on Twitter. “Congratulations to the British prime minister who, unlike Macron’s government, has chosen to protect his people against submersion by migrants,” said Zemmour, a proponent of the “great replacement theory” that Muslim immigrants are replacing native Europeans.

Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini retweeted a tweet by Sunak that had been translated into Italian and set out the government’s messaging on the bill, including the line, “if you arrive illegally in the UK, you can’t claim asylum”. Salvini, who is Italy’s deputy prime minister and heads the far-right League party, described the policy as “harsh, but fair”...

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ation-bill

I rather think this vindicates Mr Lineker's choice of words.

[mattomac]

Don’t need echoes when you have literal fascists of today backing you. Maybe she can get an endorsement from Mussolini’s family.

Second week in a row however that the blowhards on the backbenchers have somehow scuppered Sunak’s big day.

[Abernathy]

How did I miss that Prime Ministers, including Truss, get to have fucking custom-built personalised lecterns costing thousands of pounds of public money ?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2 ... ayers-4175

Liz Truss Jenga-style podium cost taxpayers £4,175

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I'd do that for £50, based on a Hillman Imp.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Actual leader of the Welsh Conservatives here. The media of course only made a fuss after his mates went absolute apeshit. And why should the media be any different to the Government, who clearly think Lineker is the big issue.

[Abernathy]

I wonder whether there is any truth in the rumour that I've read tonight that Priti Patel (yes, that Priti Patel), is due to stage an "explosive" intervention at the second reading of Braverman's Illegal Immigration Bill tomorrow afternoon.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Reported in the Guardian:

Revealed: child refugees will be detained or deported under small boats plan
Senior Tories condemn ‘sickening’ plans which would allow unaccompanied minors to be held, in U-turn on past legislation
Michael Savage and Toby Helm
Sat 11 Mar 2023 19.07 GMT

Rishi Sunak’s plan to reduce small boat crossings will effectively reverse a ban on child detention implemented under David Cameron and open the door to an expansion of the practice, the Observer understands.

With a potential Tory rebellion already brewing over the proposals, it has emerged that the Illegal Migration bill will allow the detention of families with children and even allows the deportation of unaccompanied children if it is deemed to be safe in their country of origin.

The former home secretary Priti Patel is considering a potentially explosive intervention in the Commons on Monday over the bill. Patel, herself regarded as on the right and a hardliner on immigration while in charge at the Home Office, is one of several Tory MPs who are known to have serious concerns and are seeking reassurances or changes to the bill this weekend.

Several senior Tories are particularly worried about changes to the way children will be treated when arriving in the UK, and the way in which the new bill comes close to breaching international law. One former minister told the Observer the changes to rules on children “make me sick just to mention” and would have to be modified.

[Yug]

The Archbishop of York weighs in

The government’s new asylum and migration law “amounts to cruelty without purpose” and is “immoral and inept”, the Archbishop of York has said in a powerful intervention over plans unveiled last week...

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... op-of-york

Cottrell, England’s second most senior cleric, told the Observer: “The proposals of the Illegal Migration Bill … are clearly unworkable, but will restrict access to support for many legitimate refugees and victims of modern slavery, without even the dignity of having their case heard.”

The government has promised to end the passage of small boats carrying refugees across the Channel, saying all adults will be detained for 28 days and asylum claims will be deemed “inadmissible” whatever the individual’s circumstances. They will be removed either to their own country or a “safe third country”, such as Rwanda, if that is not possible.

Cottrell said: “Nobody wants to see people risking their lives in the dangerous channel crossings but I urge the government to consider alternatives that do not unfairly penalise some of the world’s most vulnerable and which better reflect the UK’s history of compassion and moral leadership.”

The right approach to the challenge of people fleeing war and persecution was to provide safe routes, he said.

The bill ‘proposes we lock up families, children and other refugees simply for asking for protection … and makes a mockery of our international commitments’

While the storm rages around this Bill which probably won't get enacted anyway, I can't help wondering what the Tories are really up to behind the scenes. This, and the fortuitous Lineker row, seem to be created specifically to hide something. I just wonder what?

Unless, of course, the senior Tories really are that stupid, which is a distinct possibility.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Tory plan = wedge and whistle.

[Bones McCoy]

Today's subject is "not learning from your mistakes".
They launched a culture war against Marcus Rashford, and lost.
They launched a culture war against taking the knee, and lost.
They've driven their tanks across the border hunting Lineker - singing "what could possibly go wrong".

[davidjay]

Today's subject is "not learning from your mistakes".
They launched a culture war against Marcus Rashford, and lost.
They launched a culture war against taking the knee, and lost.
They've driven their tanks across the border hunting Lineker - singing "what could possibly go wrong".

I'd like to think so, but with Rashford they were opposing feeding children while taking the knee was a fairly ambiguous opponent. This one is a lot easier to frame as "You either support us or you support terrorist peedo scrounger illegals." I hope it's soon forgotten but it seems to me that while they usually give the impression that they don't know what they're doing, this time they know exactly what they're doing.