"oh you don't get me I'm the end of the union": lol brexit is how we're all gonna die

“Left wing intellectuals” is it?

Fucking fruit juice drinkers

I like Luciana Berger and the anti-Semitism aspect of this makes me squirm tbh. The rest of them can gtf tho.

RIP Rick Parfitt

They have yet to name a substantial policy they support, and they haven’t ruled out voting with the Tories. This is a masterclass in the vacuous non-politics of the bureaucratic centre. https://t.co/QG17KdsrBc

— Eleanor Penny (@eleanorkpenny) February 18, 2019

forgive my ignorance but what is stopping these ppl joining the lib dems

Lib Dems also want to know!

The #LabourSplit is the clearest sign yet that Labour and also the Tories are broken. Lib Dems stand ready to work to address the issues both parties choose to ignore, starting with stopping the #BrexitChaos
Britain deserves better from this opposition and from this Government

— Tom Brake MP (@thomasbrake) February 18, 2019

Statement and 'statement of values':

Here is The Independent's Group's breakaway statement: pic.twitter.com/BjBXti962r

— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) February 18, 2019

so

is this bad or good

Also obviously there's more 'Independent' MPs than Lib Dems

(also also they're not a party cool cool can Jared O'Mara get some consultancy, so?)

xp it is stupid, but it shows promising signs of being hilarious.

i've tried to read that statement of values a couple of times now and my eyes just keep slipping off the words

We believe that policies are a tool of the hard left and the hard right. we reject both of these ideologies.

— The Independent Group (@The_Indie_Group) February 18, 2019

(in response to Eleanor Penny)

twitter trolls have been playing a great game recently between the turning point uk disaster and this

is this bad or good

If there's anything I've learned from my time on ILX, it's that centrism is always bad, no matter the circumstances.

Ah don't be like that pom, there's loads of great centrist ideas like

I for one am happy that more people will know that Mike Gapes is a person and not a sentence.

aiui from the pre-announcement chatter, they've taken advice from a Washington firm to specifically avoid having any policies. It's absolutely intentional.

Angela Smith thing about the working class being let down by left wing intellectuals sounds like something Tommy Laxley-Rosbif might say - well, they are both Remainers who want a 2nd referendum, er...

They have no policies and no leader, it’s difficult to advocate for the centre when they are deliberately not setting out a stall (apart from standing up for “the west” and cultivating friendly relationships with business).

oh right, so it's like a terrorist cell but without the clear ideological focus of an isis or an al quaeda

*glances wearily at 'number of days since I knew what Tony Blair thought about something' counter*

Yes. I will always feel the party let her down over anti semitism. She also put a lot of work into things like mental health - apart from the water industry, can you name a single thing any of the rest stood or campaigned for apart from opposing Corbyn?

Also, she’s related to Manny Shinwell, who famously crossed the floor to smack a Tory in the face after said Tory heckled him to “go back to Poland”.

― gyac, Monday, 18 February 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agree she didn't get the support - although I would respect her more if she had stood down over this single issue on her own (or others who felt like this) instead of standing around with the likes of Mike Gapes.

is the independent group going to try and utilize the large number of anti-Corbyn/pro-FBPE celebs? It seems like the mk 1 SDP did quite a lot of this kind of thing:

https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Richard-Attenborough-SDP-support-1983-PA-4473484-1024x682.jpg

Shirley Williams with Simon Cadell, Robert Powell, Steve Race, Barry Cryer, Denis Quilley, Sir Richard Attenborough and Bamber Gascoigne

i am giving chuka umunna 8 days to hold free and fair elections in streatham or i will recognise the chair of the CLP as interim MP #Laboursplit

— Gordon Maloney (@gordonmaloney) February 18, 2019

I’m sure Rowling will weigh in at some point.

If all they ever achieve is to persuade Eddie Izzard to quit the Labour Party then they will have done a great thing. Fingers crossed.

'cho chang was trans! also i support chuka umunna in his fight against creeping stalinism in the labour party' xp

Berger is transparently there so that news can say "have left over concerns about Jeremy Corbyn and anti-semitism", but that's how things work, and the Labour Party have passed quite a few off-ramps on this road.

who is gordon maloney? CLP secretary ?

or is he some random doing a venezuela but

It is literally only 2 weeks since Streatham Labour narrowly voted in a particularly vicious fight, to change from a GC model to an AMM model for selecting our MP candidates. So this does seem a bit of a "you can't deselect me, I quit!" move on Chuka's part.

Chuka Umunna also defected from UK garage for "soulful house", when the MCs started to get involved, and that is all you need to know about him imho

— Dan Hancox (@danhancox) February 18, 2019

didn't Chuka once complain about vile w/c scum ruining some club he went to ?

Labour sources saying the seven should fight by-elections but softer words from Corbyn for @lucianaberger who has suffered horrific anti-Semitic abuse: “I'm saddened Luciana has resigned from the Party. I would like to thank her for her campaigning on mental health in particular”

— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) February 18, 2019

Agree she didn't get the support - although I would respect her more if she had stood down over this single issue on her own (or others who felt like this) instead of standing around with the likes of Mike Gapes.

...is what I would say if he didn’t travel to Saudi Arabia on a fully funded fact finding mission not even a year ago.

well that's it you have people leaving because of left-wing intellectuals lol.

It could be perhaps more painful for her - but she should have left and fought a by-election and made AS an issue.

honestly I completely understand why she didn’t, the amount of abuse she gets is completely disgusting.

Gavin Shuker is also anti-abortion rights: for a time he was on the “pro-life” APPG, & he voted to allow dodgy religious groups to access to people seeking abortion in order to provide ‘counselling’ https://t.co/j76w35FzrL pic.twitter.com/TvZTEv2iji

— molly smith (@pastachips) February 18, 2019

member of parliament for the gay cure too iirc

basically was a right wing tory in all but party membership.

it can both be true that berger has been treated appallingly and is a bad local MP who does not represent the CLP (idk the details so correct me if I'm wrong)

ya you can dive and it still be a penalty

TBH I think this is a good thing, better that they honestly split and form a pressure group than continue carping from the sidelines (Berger is I think a special case here).

It does make things more difficult for Labour in the first place because they're drifting further and further behind the Tories in numbers, but things are completely messed up right across the board there.

Do any of these MPs represent Labour-Tory marginals?

Also if no MPs leave the Tory Party then these guys have been played.

xp Angela Smith does.

I guess the only reason they haven't joined Lib-Dems is that the Lib-Dem brand is so toxic following the coalition, but can't imagine there's any huge ideological difference between them.

why align yourself with a toxic brand when you can make a new toxic brand all of your own

I don't think "rebel" Soubz will walk, although their brand of empty posturing + not actually representing anything at all is just perfect for her.

did carswell and reckless resign their seats ?

I’m reminded of my favourite crap MP, the previous member for Islington North.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O%27Halloran_(British_politician)