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

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)

I thought these lot were such staunch democrats too. the party policy should reflect the membership... but you won’t resign your seat to seek a fresh mandate ? 🤭

it's almost like they're i dunno naked careerists in hock to corporate interests or something

It has been a great privilege and honour to serve my constituents for 27 years, I intend to continue to represent them as a member of the new Independent Group of Members of Parliament

Cheers, Mike, that's big of you.

Carswell and Reckless both resigned and got re-elected, yeah.

Angela Smith's the only one of the seven in a marginal.

they can’t fight a by election because they don’t stand for anything.

Is it true that they don't stand for anything? Other than opposing Brexit, it's more likely they're keeping quiet about what they stand for because they know it will be unpopular.

Carswell and Reckless both resigned and got re-elected, yeah.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 18 February 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is not quite what's happening here.

'Soubz' has gone quiet, but I'm sure will hear from her by the end of the day.

yeah sorry you’re right matt- they stand for a politics that’s in retreat.

If the thing about them not being legally a political party, so they don’t need to name their donors, is true, it’s hilarious.

Blairism. That's what they stand for. Judging by what they've put out so far.

They’re giving a whole bunch of reasons for leaving and if it had been me, I wouldn’t have put in “Corbyn hates the left” and “the machine left have taken over” in with an actual issue of principle like opposing anti Semitism in the party. Makes some of these look...opportunistic and insincere.

Angela Smith, attempting to discuss race, just referred to “being black or a funny kind of tin...from the BME community” before giving up her attempt at speaking conceptually. I think she was going to say tinge. The woman’s a fuckwit. #laboursplit #PoliticsLive

— Tim Brannigan (@tim_brannigan) February 18, 2019

ya you can dive and it still be a penalty

― ||||||||, Monday, 18 February 2019 12:13 (forty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3

“lord sugar has challenged the apprentices to launch a new political party” pic.twitter.com/dgZP7AJhoY

— edit (@multiplebears) February 18, 2019

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thoughtviper.com%2Fimages%2Fnew%2Frepo.jpeg&f=1

fs at that angela smith thing. not even half a day old this group...

Ah Angela Smith...not that long since she was standing g up in the House asking the PM if EU citizens would continue to receive benefits after Brexit.

dunno why we're surprised that the mp for penistone would act like a dick tbh

Deservedly getting rinsed.

I'm pretty confused about the timing. six weeks before the Brexit deadline?

these guys are skilled political operators, i'm sure their reasoning is evidence-based and sound, just like their policies

(*policy details tbc something something subs fill this in later thx)

will Angela Smith be talking about half-caste or those coloured West Indian folk there? Lol even committed racists don't even use that kind of speak any more.

Didn't Smith recently lose a VONC in her constituency and cry wolf abt hard lefties going after her?

do they fancy themselves kingmakers in a hung parliament?

oh so they are lib dems

I think they fancy themselves staying in Parliament as long as possible without having to put any of their newly formulated policies to any of the poor sods who elected them in the first place.. when they were members of a party they are (allegedly) now planning to sabotage at the next General Elction.

great stuff

They can't even spell principals, er, principles.

Yes, legit can't see any of them being in Parliament post-election. They can target as many marginals as they want. A few will probably go down the D-Mili route of heading to consultancy work in the UK, the rest will disappear with a sense that they left on their own terms without the indignity of getting shunted.

In the US, even.

Do you get Loss Of Office payments if you are deselected?

do they fancy themselves kingmakers in a hung parliament?

I'm pretty confused about the timing. six weeks before the Brexit deadline?

Chuka's argument for not resigning their seats and standing in by-elections was that it's the wrong time to be having elections. Seriously. He's all about stability.

Out of interest, are The Independent Group signed up to the IHRA definition and examples yet, like Corbyn's Labour party are?

— Daniel Grigg (@Daniel_Grigg) February 18, 2019

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzsUZxFXQAALH44.jpg

Time for the politics of aspiration. Mr & Mrs John Lewis shopper do not want to be spooked by talk of extreme poverty or climate catastrophe.

Going on and on about the extinction of all life on earth is exactly the sort of negative, non-aspirational thinking we want to avoid.

— Simon Hedges (@Orwell_Fan) February 18, 2019

Rebel Labour MPs considered asking Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson to lead the new movement, reports @chrisdeerin. https://t.co/nPI1Mfm4Rw

— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) February 18, 2019

it just keeps getting better