[Politics] Tory meltdown finally arrived [was: incoming]...

[drew]

This bit is the only thing that matters and why he shouldn’t be in office still, but let’s not forget Labour voted these rules through, voted to give the gov unchecked power and would have kept lock down longer and harder.

And probably many more would have survived!

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Is Starmer being accused of, or been found to, breaking the Ministerial Code? As I understand it, that is the basis for the call to resign, i.e. misleading/lying. That's the nuance I don't think is being picked up.

If so, he either potentially should, or should resign, the same as for Johnson.

This.

Does breaking the Ministerial Code ( in this case lying to Parliament ) even apply to Starmer ?

I have no doubt if Starmer is convicted ( and I think he'll take any fixed penalty fine to court unlike Johnson ) he'll resign.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

The Conservatives have lost 482 seats now.

Wow - last I heard on the radio they were discussing 300 and saying "not that bad".

 

[Hugo Rune]

This.

Does breaking the Ministerial Code ( in this case lying to Parliament ) even apply to Starmer ?

I have no doubt if Starmer is convicted ( and I think he'll take any fixed penalty fine to court unlike Johnson ) he'll resign.

Indeed. He may be painfully dull but he is a man of honour and integrity. I’d call for his head when the penalty fine comes but he’d already be gone.

The context is clear though. The PM got away with his ‘garden party’ resplendent with plenty of alcohol and food because he argued that this particular incident was not a party but a work event. Based on this, it would be surprising if another police force came to a different conclusion about another work event.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Wow - last I heard on the radio they were discussing 300 and saying "not that bad".

Johnson is still spouting stuff about a ‘mixed night’ and ‘substantial gains in some areas’. It was a disaster for almost 500 Tory councillors and the party in general, an utter catastrophe.

Anyone believing a word that comes out of his toxic and morally polluted cake-hole needs to give their head a wobble.

 

[vegster]

You've missed the nuance somewhat.

Starmer was calling for Johnson to resign, as evidenced in that tweet amongst other sources, at the point the investigation was announced.

Johnson had not been found guilty at that time. That he subsequently was is irrelevant to my point. Starmer called for Johsnon to resign merely because he was being investigated.

Starmer is being investigated. Why hasn't he resigned?

I think you will find that Starmer tried to get Johnson to accept that to receive a fine or be found guilty of an offence would be a breach of the Ministerial Code and therefore, a resignation issue...." let's leave that there for now "

Anyway, if found to have committed an offence he will resign which puts Johnson in a very dim light.

 

[nicko31]

Wow - last I heard on the radio they were discussing 300 and saying "not that bad".

Prior to the election even the DM put more than 350 as a disaster and their scale only went up to 400

 

[WATFORD zero]

"Criminal investigation" were Starmer's words.

The Met, via Dame Cressida Dick, did not use the word criminal:

"As a result, firstly, of the information provided by the Cabinet Office inquiry team, and, secondly, my own officers’ assessment, I can confirm that the Met is now investigating a number of events that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years in relation to potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations.”

Not massively dissimilar to what Durham Police had to say today:

“Following the receipt of significant new information over recent days, Durham Constabulary has reviewed that position and now, following the conclusion of the pre-election period, we can confirm that an investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations relating to this gathering is now being conducted.”

I suspect, technically, both are/were criminal investigations, but I can see people don't like Starmer's hypocrisy exposed in this way so I'll leave you all to it.

Straight to the crux of the Nation's ongoing various economic crises, International law breaking, ongoing investigations, upcoming investigations, criminal acts and resulting Tory meltdown thread. Starmer's integrity

 

[usernamed]

It is interesting to see the disparity between how our media treat the Conservatives and the Labour Party, but I remember some interesting adjustments taking place immediately prior to Blair’s election.

All the while those who own the media believe that the Conservatives can be kept in power by sustained media pressure, the trial by media will continue. When it becomes clear to those who own the newspapers that voters had had enough of the Tories despite their best efforts, there will be a subtle shift in tone and people in Keir’s team will be invited for drinks.

I remember either Blair or Campbell (possibly both) visiting Murdoch prior to the 1997 elections, where clearly some form of deal was being done, and similar may have happened with the owners of the Mail and the Express. Anyway, suddenly the Conservatives were getting negative headlines where due, and the Labour gang was getting something akin to equal treatment.

If a Labour government had lost almost 500 seats, the headline would be along the lines of “Bloodbath!” and every editor in Fleet Street would argue that the Labour PM’s position was untenable.

Here we get “Bullish Boris Back on Track” in the Express, an article on Keir Starmer in the Sun, no mention on The Telegraph front page, other than Sinn Fein being Ireland’s largest party, Keir again in the Mail. Only the FT, the i, the Guardian and the Times (grudgingly) have this on the front page, but the Times article under the headline is in a “mixed picture” vein.

If you want to know what’s going on in the world, don’t bother picking up a newspaper, they’ll tell you what their owner thinks, not what’s actually happening. And they wonder why their circulation keeps shrinking.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Talking of breaking the law. they just don't care in Hartlepool.

[tweet]1522636003353284609[/tweet]

 

[TomandJerry]

It is interesting to see the disparity between how our media treat the Conservatives and the Labour Party, but I remember some interesting adjustments taking place immediately prior to Blair’s election.

All the while those who own the media believe that the Conservatives can be kept in power by sustained media pressure, the trial by media will continue. When it becomes clear to those who own the newspapers that voters had had enough of the Tories despite their best efforts, there will be a subtle shift in tone and people in Keir’s team will be invited for drinks.

I remember either Blair or Campbell (possibly both) visiting Murdoch prior to the 1997 elections, where clearly some form of deal was being done, and similar may have happened with the owners of the Mail and the Express. Anyway, suddenly the Conservatives were getting negative headlines where due, and the Labour gang was getting something akin to equal treatment.

If a Labour government had lost almost 500 seats, the headline would be along the lines of “Bloodbath!” and every editor in Fleet Street would argue that the Labour PM’s position was untenable.

Here we get “Bullish Boris Back on Track” in the Express, an article on Keir Starmer in the Sun, no mention on The Telegraph front page, other than Sinn Fein being Ireland’s largest party, Keir again in the Mail. Only the FT, the i, the Guardian and the Times (grudgingly) have this on the front page, but the Times article under the headline is in a “mixed picture” vein.

If you want to know what’s going on in the world, don’t bother picking up a newspaper, they’ll tell you what their owner thinks, not what’s actually happening. And they wonder why their circulation keeps shrinking.

The majority of my news reading is done on the Guardian and the BBC.

I would read the FT but it sits behind a paywall I believe!

Never read the I though

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Gwylan]

Talking of breaking the law. they just don't care in Hartlepool.

[tweet]1522636003353284609[/tweet]

They can beat that in Indiana - some bloke's just been elected as the Republican candidate for a school board even though he's in chokey after admitting killing his wife with a flower pot

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/indiana-republican-wins-primary-jail-1349119/

How on earth can someone go into a voting booth and think "That wife murderer ... that's the fella for me. He's the role model for those schoolkids to look up to"?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

If you want to know what’s going on in the world, don’t bother picking up a newspaper, they’ll tell you what their owner thinks, not what’s actually happening. And they wonder why their circulation keeps shrinking.

They don’t even tell you what their owners actually think. They tell you want their owners want YOU to think.

 

[usernamed]

Talking of breaking the law. they just don't care in Hartlepool.

[tweet]1522636003353284609[/tweet]

The modern Conservative Party is a broad church. It welcomes violent criminals too.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

They can beat that in Indiana - some bloke's just been elected as the Republican candidate for a school board even though he's in chokey after admitting killing his wife with a flower pot

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/indiana-republican-wins-primary-jail-1349119/

How on earth can someone go into a voting booth and think "That wife murderer ... that's the fella for me. He's the role model for those schoolkids to look up to"?

The most disquieting thing about that story, for me, is not even that this guy remains (for now) on the school board ballot. It is that there is even such a thing as a ‘Republican candidate’ for a school board. Why on earth are school board appointments party political? Very strange idea.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

It appears this is the 'significant new evidence' that MP Richard Holden has given to the police. Yes, really, a typo. Read the thread.

https://twitter.com/mikeysmith/status/1522685102710575108

 

[Bodian]

The majority of my news reading is done on the Guardian and the BBC.

I would read the FT but it sits behind a paywall I believe!

Never read the I though

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

But even the BBC are sort of playing down the losses. It's almost 1 in 4 Tory Councillors got voted out - that's immense, whichever other party picked up the seats.

 

[aolstudios]

But even the BBC are sort of playing down the losses. It's almost 1 in 4 Tory Councillors got voted out - that's immense, whichever other party picked up the seats.

The BBC are absolutely craven with this govt.
I stick to sky news now as way more independent

 

[e77]

Being a mutual friend of [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] and [MENTION=2223]e77[/MENTION] I've met a few of the local labour people (as a Lib Dem member) and they're all decent people. It will be interesting to see how they change Worthing and also how the Adur & Worthing relationship develops across the divide.

I think the sea change in Worthing has been down to a few factors. The demographic profile of Worthing has changed with people moving from London and Brighton to bring up families, meaning the Conservatives can't rely on the retired vote anymore. The local Labour Party had increased membership under Corbyn - this is not to repeat arguments about him, just stating a statistical fact - so we had a large pool of people to draw Councillors and activists from.

Locally the Conservatives leaned towards large vanity projects that didn't need doing such as Brooklands, Montague Place and Portland Road when they could have taken the money and spent a bit improving local parks and public spaces. Portland Road has become quasi-pedestrianised but has pavements so isn't great for wheelchair users and they had to put temporary ramps up.

People never believe this but the only party leader who gets constantly mentioned on the doorstep is Boris Johnson, especially since Partygate. The change in fortunes for Labour started under Corbyn and has continued under Starmer so I think people are more focussed on local issues.

Finally in the last 12 months the local Conservatives have hit the self destruct button. One of their Councillors was an entryist from a Fascist group and they tried playing the man instead of the ball this campaign with some quite shocking, and false, attacks on Labour and it's supporters.

We actually made inroads in wards we would never have considered a possibility such as Salvington. This could only be the start of something.

 

[WATFORD zero]

With the Sinn Féin results coming in, it's somewhat ironic that the leader of the Conservative and Unionist party has managed to do more to create a United Ireland in the last 2 and a bit years, than any other individual in the last 100

The word incompetent just seems completely inadequate