Ne'er get thee stitched til Booris be ditched: UK General Election 2019

If we actually get a five year gap between elections ever again that might be sufficient time for the focus and spread of desperate deranged dying print media front pages to finally stop. To just be replaced by screenshots of tweets and homepages I guess but still.

I don't even think "Labour can't be trusted on the economy" will work, it's been nearly a decade since they've been in charge of it.

I thought this campaign would be relentlessly positive "we will create Jerusalem with Brexit" plus tax cuts plus an aspirational "you can be a billionaire" too. That might still happen but so far it's Stalin + Grenfell victims have only themselves to blame.

from graun's live blog:

The PM’s audience with the Queen is little more than a pointless photo opportunity.

In the past prime ministers who wanted to hold a general election had to ask the Queen to dissolve parliament, and so a trip to Buckingham Palace was always part of the election ritual.

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act means that the timing of an election is no longer in the gift of the Queen. This election is happening because, in order to get round the FTPA, parliament passed legislation, the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019.

But since the passing of the FTPA prime ministers have continued to insist on driving up the Mall to the palace at the start of an election, as if they believe that voters won’t believe it’s a real election unless they have seen the Queen somehow sanction it.

Javid apparently furious that Mark Sedwill is refusing to provide costings for Labour's policies.

"Although the manifestos aren’t published yet, Chancellor Sajid Javid’s recent spending round suggests government spending could be 41.3 percent of GDP by 2023, while Labour’s stated plans could take it to 43.3"

According to the Resolution Foundation, who I admit I've never heard of - but if it's that close, Labour would be well advised to ask people what they would rather be getting for their money.

As I understand it the Tories would actually be borrowing more, since they wouldn't raise taxes. Which would give Labour's plans a 'better' report card from the IFS. So...... bring it on?

It’s being reported that Priti Patel is going to be the face of the election campaign and might stand in for Johnson if there is an all-party leaders’ debate, adding weight to the theory that they want to lose.

shhhhhhh don’t tell them she is bad and hated and can’t think on her feet and irredeemably smug

The problem with the last Tory campaign was rigid adherence to the same messages long after people had started mocking them for it. The problem this time is more likely to be a lack of message discipline, there are too many fuckwits in high-profile positions who can't be relied upon not to just start shooting their mouths off.

And JC is taking it in all in.

The Tories say the victims of Grenfell didn’t have common sense.

I’ll tell you what’s common sense:

Don’t put flammable cladding on people’s homes.

Don’t close fire stations and don't cut fire fighters.

And don’t ignore residents when they tell you their home is a death trap.

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 6, 2019

OK, now can we make a general assumption that Johnson's campaign is doing less well than May's campaign was doing at this point?

I'm guessing you mean Cairns, but with the way the past few days have gone, it could be almost anything

with the caveat that panicky ppl will arrive screeching into yr menchies to claim that it's all deliberately bad bcz "dead cat bounce" and noting that it seems to be bad is "playing into their hands" the tory campaign has so far been counterintuitive enough in its approach that even i am unprepared to challops for it at the moment

like one of those accidents where fireworks display set off everything simultaneously, except with dead cats

hard to believe that this government composed entirely of the dregs of the swivel-eyed free-market mutants elected at the last time of asking could be rolling out a campaign of non-stop incompetence but here we are

How do we know for certain that the election campaign is underway? Because I’m on a battle bus - the Lib Dem bus, which has a huge picture of the party leader on the side and the slogan, “Jo Swinson’s Lib Dems”. It’s all quite presidential.

jo you're posting cringe pal

hnnnnnggghhhhhh

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d71445200abad139f3008655291b48af3cd99d53/0_91_3500_2100/master/3500.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=e6ed2e562e52f7a813f62e5cc5ec35af

Cleggmania revisited.

wheel placement makes it look like she's a transformer

Eastleigh (ex-)MP Mims Davies switching to contest Mid-Sussex. Is that the first Tory switching?

Swinson's tardis that will bring us back to austerity's golden age 2015, is all fucked up - it actually looks smaller from the inside.

this is like the supremes rebranding as diana ross & the supremes or something, like a sure sign that the centrists centre cannot hold

It's passing through "The Four Seasons featuring Franki Valley" territory..

(ps - I know)

I wonder if the Lib Dems membership have decided to go with Jo Swineston as their biggest electoral asset or if somehow she's just decided she is because of her own vanity and hubris?

😎

there must be some discontent about her style of leadership in that party, but they don't even have to try to keep it quiet cos nobody actually cares!

I remember this with David Cameron's Conservatives a decade or so ago but that was different as Cameron was self-evidently much more popular than his own party whereas Swinson appears to have massively overestimated her own electoral appeal.

Ex Labour MPs Chris Williamson, Stephen Hepburn and Roger Godsiff are dropped as candidates in the general election, by the NEC I understand.

— Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen) November 6, 2019

Cleggmania revisited.

Except nobody likes Jo Swinson.

(xps) This is all a bit baffling, Not Tim Farron is really her claim to fame after all.

A good start but so many more that could be culled.

😎

cullin' stink

Some bit on the BBC news just now about online voting. That would be sweeeeeet, we'd either never have another Tory government or the Prime Minister would be somebody off Love Island.

😎

Lesser spotted Lembit Opik there pic.twitter.com/DPUm2031xK

— Loki Belmont (@Lokinash06) November 4, 2019

They look like very cheeky girls.

😎

My only worry is that when you're at the bottom the only way is up.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/06/alun-cairns-welsh-secretary-resigns-from-cabinet-over-trial-allegations

it’ll go lower

V good news from the NEC.

Asked this before, but does anyone actually know any Lib Dems? There's one guy I suspect but hes more of a 'strong women Jess Phillips 4 PM' kind of guy, though hes prime target for it

There's been a few on ILX over the years.

I remember someone on the 2010 edition of this thread arguing in favour of the coalition but I don't they if they stuck around very long.

I've met a couple in the past, but the 2019 incarnation is a more elusive breed.

I know a couple of people who were (pre-2010) very pro LD, to the point of being doorstepping activists, because they were soooo angry abt the iraq war and nu-lab home office illberalism, since (under c.kennedy) the LDs had a p strong game against both, at least verbally. they were suspicious of the cleggies and the orange-book turn but felt the body of the party would act as a brake on the worst impulses. they were incandescently angry abt the coalition and have been fairly robustly pro-corbyn since this became an option.

I would guess that maybe 60% or more of my school peers are currently Lib Dems

...so in summary, if you want to meet Lib Dems, hang out with urbanite poshos

I mean I don't hang out with them unless I'm playing cricket with them, don't @ moi

I think the only LD I know I know is the local high profile pothole pointer and he's

Well, he's not cool

😎

But this is a decade ago, and incarnations later. Where are they all?

And the growing ranks of 'politically homeless', the Linekers. If theLib Dems aren't picking these guys up it's not good for them. Can only presume it's DCI Swinson herself

There's quite a lot of LD sentiment on the decidedly not-posh football forum I frequent too. Generally all adults-in-room types who love reason and science. I think they're a loud minority

The Linekers, exactly