Shropshire. Surely the place envisaged by Del Amitri when they wrote the song “Nothing Ever Happens”
But no, the by-election result there last night — turning a 23,000 Con lead into a 6,000 Lib Dem one — was the big story this morning.
So, is it just a vote against Owen Paterson’s greed and enttitlement, or a wider message to Boris and co and the first brick in the Yellow Wall?
Hey, I’m down here! (note to historians: we’re overloaded with sticky threads at the moment)…
The sooner we see the back of Cocktavius and his gaggle of venal carpet bagging globalist pig trough shagnasties the better.
Prime Minister Priti Patel? Liz Truss? Rishi Sunak?
Dear God
Or Gove
Just as bad
Gove, a cross between a smurf and a minor Wallace and Gromit character.
Patel is the one I dislike the most – she’s a nasty piece of work
Started her political career in the Referendum Party. Tells you a lot.
Spot on Spider
I saw this in updates and thought that the legendary Bad News drummer had joined the ranks.
“Loada bollecks!”
Ullo Spider!
I want more Vim in my cans.
It says “sausages!”
I was going baddadda
It may be too much to read a national picture from a by-election, and one brought about by sleaze allegations regarding the previous incumbent (who, let us not forget, Conservative HQ did their utmost to defend, to the extent of whipping the party in Parliament, until they sensed the national mood and chuck him under a bus instead, and pretended that black was white all along).
It is also of course a mini-referendum on Johnson, who has outlived his usefulness as the man whose boosterish enthusiasm and refusal to let the facts get in the way of it won them a large majority. I’d be happy to see the back of the awful man, even though I’m more in sympathy with some of his politics than those of recent Conservative leaders, but he is a symptom of a deeper malaise. At the moment he looks like a broken man, but it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if he just ignored it all and bludgeoned his way on, even if the 1922 committee strongly urge him to consider his options.
I’m sure there are residents of Pentonville whose politics I sympathise with but I wouldn’t want them to be prime minister either!
There isn’t a path out this for the Conservatives that doesn’t involve dumping him – the question is when they think it’s time to cut their losses.
If he “bludgeons his way on“, (which wouldn’t surprise me), then it will just lead to greater chaos and corruption – he has been consistent to his character flaws of indolence, will-this-do-ism and mendacity throughout his career.
Although he has been shielded by a sympathetic media from the public seeing the full extent of his venality, there must come a point when enough people experience direct suffering as a consequence of his actions that voter turn off reaches a critical stage.
This thread has already run into some voter apathy 😀
Means nothing. Conservatives take it back at next election in all probability
This does seem pretty likely. It was a low turnout: 46% is at least 10k votes missing, assuming higher than 60% for a general election. That’s a lot of votes staying home this time, ample to produce a (much-reduced) Tory majority next time.
Doesn’t make it any less welcome, though
Well, maybe but they lost 23,142 of their voters between 2019 and 2021 – that’s a whisker shy of 2/3 of them. Even though the turn out was more than 20% down on the GE it still suggests that not many people beyond a hard core of supporters felt enthused to vote for them.
The real story of a lot of elections – 1997 and 2001 spring to mind – is not so much people switching as people staying at home. Incumbency only saves you if most of the people who turned out to vote last time do so again. Both main parties are reaping the harvest of taking a substantial proportion of their voters for granted.
That said, the Blue Wall in England is going nowhere, ever.
Both.
Probably will be forced to make some symbolic changes at number 10, which might improve matters for him, if he brings in someone, anyone, with a bit of knowledge and experience.
A scan of the news, ‘one more strike and he’s out’ is prominent. I also just read that if the percentage swing of this by-election was repeated in a GE, then Tories would have only 3 seats. Clearly that isn’t going to happen, and this shows me that this is a huge and significant vote of no confidence from the public.
He’ll be waffling bollocks from under his hideous haircut for some months yet, I feel.
This month has been terrible for him but I don’t feel the kill shot has yet been made. We’re going into a period of national holiday and the news cycle will slow down. With him off the telly for a while the momentum will falter.
He will fuck up again on return of course but this current ire around him will have dissipated to a degree. It needs to pick up speed again for the coup de grace on this appalling vile Wooster.
Apparently, the 1922 committee currently has nowhere near the 54 letters needed for someone to mount a leadership challenge. There’s also no one who seems especially keen on becoming PM/party leader at this time (and who can blame them?)
Given that he’s incapable of change, I think Bojo will bluster it out until the May council elections when – if nothing else – at least the weather will be brighter and people may be more forgiving.
It’s also worth noting that despite their bigging themselves up as the logical choice for voters pissed off with the Tories, Labour’s share of the vote also experienced a precipitous drop last night.
This must have come as a real kick in the teeth for Starmer who’s actually begun to look very competent when facing Bojo across the despatch box during each Wednesday’s PMQs
The very fact that the 1922 committee is being talked about is significant in itself, though, what?
Not really, no. Every time a Tory leader looks a little wobbly, up they pop
When Theresa was PM yer man with the teeth was never off the telly.
Even the left wing commentators are saying this was tactical voting by Labour supporters, so it probably won’t reflect on Starmer. It’s a big ask to get 23,000 people in a staunchly Conservative seat to go straight from Con to Lab.
He’s always looked competent. PMQs is fkin meaningless outside the Westminster bubble though.
You know which leader of the opposition bested the PM week after week at PMQs, according to all commentators? William Hague – who gave the Tories the worst election result in their history.
It’s a protest vote. As an ex member of the LibDems (abandoned when Clegg went Tory, tuition fees etc etc) they still don’t look that credible to me. Ed Davey got the job pretty much by default and they really miss an inspiring interesting leader ala Ashdown or Kennedy.
It’ll go back Tory next time I bet
On the question of Boris I’m still not convinced they’ll dump him. The party stuff will blow over, Omnicron will be done by spring and not be as bad as before from a death’s perspective (and there’s not much he could have done about it anyway)
As Labour are so inept the polls will drift back up and I would bet he’s still in charge next time
If Labour had a Blair or a Cameron or even a David Milliband it would be a different story
They should be getting on the phone to Manchester ASAP. Starmer’s got no chance.
My first thought. Yer man with the eyelashes and the Peaky Blinders hairstyle.
That’s the one!
Scott Tracy?
We’ve already mentioned David Miliband, who does actually work for International Rescue.
Any alternative that the party of the rapacious can throw up will be as disgusting as the esurient gormandizer that leads them at this time.
Esurient Gormandizer. TMFTL.
@Baron-Harkonen
Bloody hell, it’s Will Self!
We live in evil times. The Reservoir Toffs scum are taking the piss, and pissing on people’s graves whilst they’re at it.
Johnson will go nowhere of his own accord – these people don’t claw their way up this very greasy pole to then vountarily throw it away that soon. And I think he’ll be given time in the Spring to see if things improve – not least because no one will want the job right now. But I would be surprised to see him lead the Tories into the next election.
Labour’s problem is that the more that Johnson is seen as the problem rather than the Tories as a whole, the more likely that Sunak or whoever can come in with a clean slate and exploit the overall tendency of voters to trust the Conservatives more than anyone else (despite all the evidence before them).
So Labour have to make it about the whole government, not one useless leader. For an object lesson in how to do this, see Lisa Nandy on Question Time last night, absolutely eviscerating the hapless Tory on the panel.
@Blue-Boy
Lisa N is indeed terrific. One of the very few pols who’ve come away from a head-to-head with Brillo with her reputation enhanced.
Unfortunately for Labour, eviscerating the Tories isn’t going to be enough to win them back power. They’re going to need some big ideas and the Tories have stolen all of their clothes
Some really good audience questions I thought. Really poor from the conservative panellist. A very polished and confident performer but people can tell if you’re going through the motions and Lisa Nandy picked up on that quite early on.
Although the audience were good, I am slightly suspicious of how many of them made a point of saying that they would now switch their vote from Conservative to Labour – makes me wonder if that was a pre-agreed thing to say among Labour supporters who also pretended to be floating, undecided voters when they asked their questions.
Laura Kuenssberg spent the last two GE campaigns as I leading her reports, pretty much exclusively as I remember it, with vox pops with former Labour voters who would vote another party ‘because Corbyn’, so swings and roundabouts.
The last few Tories on QT I’ve seen have been pretty execrable. I can’t remember her name, but a middle aged junior minister was on last week, an ex scientist, who was being absolutely mauled over the “Was there a party at No 10” question. Feebly repeating the party line, “all guidelines were followed” was exceptionally painful to watch.
Maggie Throup, the Vaccines Minister? One of the non-entities pushed into parliament in 2015 thanks to the ‘additional’ Tory funding that the police decided was not worth investigating.
That’s her. Absolute rabbit in headlights.
On your other point, I do wonder what Cressida Dick’s relationship with the core of Johnson’s junta is. It’s obvious there is some sort of shady rannygazoo going on
Whatever happens, let the dodger have a Christmas Party – several, maybe.
And anyone who is invited to such a do – knows what to get him…
A F****** CONDOM MACHINE.
I know a friend of a friend, of a relation, of a daughter, at central office, Fat Boy J. wants to have a knee trembler with, and — spoiler alert — I’ve got a delivery of three of the buggers winging their way to No. 10 right now.
We don’t want any more of these f******s roaming the country in 40 years time.
Do your bit – furnish the 60s-dodging-piece-of-puss with a few more.
That razor-sharp Brexit negotiator Lord Frost has now resigned just before the consequences of Brexit really start to kick in.
This may be the “Geoffrey Howe moment” that brings the PM down -but let’s be under no illusion about the ineptitude of Frost and everyone gathered around the PM. This is sinking ship stuff and Frost and others are hoping they can emerge afterwards unscathed.
The recent silence from the PM’s most senior colleagues has been telling.
Well, no doubt Frost doesn’t want to be accountable to all those people who elected him who…..what’s that you say?
Goodbye, good riddance and p*ss off, to almost quote his namesake.
@Black-Celebration
To borrow Kitty Muggeridge’s withering putdown of Lord Frost’s far more famous namesake “he rose without trace”.
One rather suspects his reputation – such as it is – will head in the opposite direction
Steve Baker DELETES Nadine Dorries.
DOOF-DOOF-DOOF-D-D-D-DOOF
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/19/how-lord-frosts-exit-led-to-a-twitter-frenzy
The government and the PM is a total calamity – I think we can take that as a given. In that context, and allowing for the fact that this is a group of right-wing Tories – Nadine Dorries makes a good point.
Interesting to read that Marcus Fysh thinks “The whole point of Brexit is radical supply side reform” – UK as a low tax, low wage, low skill, low investment Singapore-on-Thames – delightful prospect.
He’s also dead wrong. That’s just not what people voted for, and if they try to push that version of it, the new blue wall won’t be looking quite so wall-y.
I agree it’s not what they voted for – sovereignty, blue passports, fish, and when they admit it, fewer foreigners. But most Brexit voters were red-faced comfortable but easily scared elderly middle class southerners. Many of those in the north stayed away from the voting booths, both in June 2016 and in December 2019.
While they voted for those things, because that’s what the message put about was, I think for those pushing for the referendum in the first place, it was their underlying agenda.
@salwarpe
Labour’s drubbing at the polls just two years ago was nothing to do with Jeremy Corbyn then, S?
Totally to do with Corbyn, sure. He was toxic. I think that’s WHY many didn’t vote. The Labour Party vote dropped by 7.9%. The Conservative vote rose by 1.2%. The Lib Dem vote rose by 4.2%. Johnson won those red wall seats by default, not convincing them to vote for him, I would argue.
“One way in which the Conservatives won in 2019 was in helping to persuade many people not to vote Labour, people who had voted Labour in 2017. Often, they said they could not vote for a party led by Jeremy Corbyn, having done just that only two years earlier.” Danny Dorling.
Dorling’s line was certainly the one relentlessly followed during the campaign’s by Laura Kuenssberg.
Singapore might be a bit light on regulation, but taxation is quite high, isn’t it? 80% or so live in social housing, too.
I’m not sure Mr. Fysh is much better informed about economics than I am. But I sense we’re both throwing around half-digested popular slogans and sayings. I’d heard the SoT phrase used by those Brexiters with a hard-on for Hayek, is all.
I try to follow the likes of Kate Raworth, Mark Blyth, Danny Dorling and David McWilliams, but it’s a steep learning curve, tbh.
I think a lot of tories liked the Lee Kuan Yew era, as it was essentially a one party state, run strictly. Mr Fysh is a particularly stupid MP, as unpleasant in real life as two of his fellow Somerset MPs, Liddell-Grainger and Heappey.
Fysh is everything which is wrong with the modern Tory party incarnate. See also Mogg, except Fysh is so dim he can’t even be in this cabinet of lightweights.
Relax, everyone – Chief Brexit negotiator is now Liz Truss. Brings to mind this :
It’s a disgrace!
There is some idea that she has been given the role to neutralise her leadership challenge.
It’s like a shite soap opera.
Apples and pears, Hubert. Does Britain get the leaders it deserves?
It’s like watching a third rate stand-up waiting for the joke to hit, signalling I’ve made a joke and hoping for applause.
I’m waiting for the Eastenders no 10 outcome on Christmas Day duff duff duff.
The vainglorious vacancy in her eyes and the slack-jawed grin is what disturbs me most. Cocaine seems to be the drug of choice for most of the egomaniacs in the House of Commons. Liz looks like she’s dosed up on Tixylix or Night Nurse.
Night Nurse is too adult, Tixylix or Calpol is about right.
Semi-lionising puff piece by a former Truss aide in The Times today. Points to LT’s laser like focus and determination. Marvels at her capacity to master any situation whilst those around her losing heads. Claims she is second only to Boris Johnson in her political acuity (!) Talks up her bonhomous people skills (dancing to Abba at the Spectator party). In short, ladies and gentlemen, meet your new boss, same as the old boss
Truss aide… well it’s me hernia, y’know…
Thanks for the support! (Boom-tish!)
Seems appropriate……
The anti-Bojo candidate from the last Tory leadership, Jeremy Hunt must. Be fancying his chances come late Spring.
Remainer. No chance. That divide is blood for these people.
Good piece by Clare Foges in this morning’s Times about how the position of PM seems to alternate between “stars” and “stewards”
Thatcher
Major
Blair.
Brown
Cameron
May
Johnson
????
While Foges only went as far back as Thatcher, same principle applies all the way back to the aftermath of WW2
Churchill
Atlee
Churchill
Eden
McMillan
Home
Wilson
Callaghan
She reckons Sunak is a shoo-in. While wouldn’t be surprised if he got it, it’ll be interesting to see whether the “Red Wall” Tories who made up the bulk of last week’s 90-odd rebels can harness and direct their growing influence.
Interesting, although I am note sure Clement Atlee quite fits the pattern – more than a steward surely?
But I agree about Sunak. After the current shitshow, the Tories will be desperate to appoint someone who looks and sounds like a responsible grown-up (not least because, for all his faults, Keir Starmer fits the bill). Whether Sunak actually is one is a moot point, and his naked self promotion will count against him, but he has wide recognition and has cunningly managed to divorce himself from most fo the negative stories of the last 18 months.
Eden doesn’t work as a steward – he certainly saw himself as a star and hubris quickly became nemesis, as it tends to do. Churchill was arguably star first time and steward second. Ditto Wilson (neither of them had much choice about that)
Interesting theory though. In electoral terms the Tories could do with a grown-up in charge. The headbangers are running the show, however, so that won’t happen. It will be somebody thick or weird or both.
The Poundland Teresa May perchance?
The Dancing Cheese.
@Moose-the-Mooche
Interestingly, I completely forgot about Grocer Heath.
Given the comprehensive trampling he got by Thatcher, he probably deserves a category all his own – roadkill maybe
As the Alun Armstrong character said on Our Friends in the North, the answer to Heath’s slogan “Who governs?” was “Not you, bonny lad”
@Blue-Boy
CA wasn’t especially flashy though.
IIRC, he was once rather unfairly dismissed for being “a modest little man with a great deal to be modest about”. The bon mot is often wrongly attributed to Churchill who was actually a very close friend – CA even served as a pallbearer at his funeral.
How Labour could do with someone with his vision or Wilson’s savvy now.
Having neglected and patronized the voters in its heartlands for way too long, the party looks to be fucked with or without Starmer.
Having gone from 59 seats to 1 seat North of the Border, Scotland is already lost to them and I bet they’ll struggle to gain back all of the “Red Wall” seats they lost in 2019 come the next election.
Claims that they are entering into a tacit deal with the Lib Dems to stay out of each other’s way in certain constituencies merely add to suspicions that they are incapable of ever again winning sufficient seats to form a majority on their own.