Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Two Tory ministers have broken precedent to call on Rishi Sunak to increase military spending to at least 2.5 per cent to deter potential threats.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, a foreign office minister, and former leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat, now the security minister, published the article on LinkedIn on Friday.

Hunt when running for leader, before Russia invaded Ukraine, called for 3%. So you can see why they might say this. On the other hand, party discipline?

There's breach of discipline and breach of discipline. This is very much the latter, "fine sentiments, but rein your keen in" variety.

It's 0.5% of GDP, so a pretty major disagreement. See what happens. I wonder if Tugendhat is on manoeuvres, so to speak. He's got an 47 point lead, and Lib Dems second. (Don't think boundaries change). There are worse Tory leadership pitches (in opposition) than "spend a lot more on defence".

Quibbling over a half of one percent could, quite conceivably, be the biggest example of bite-you-on-the-arsery since ‘peace in our time’.

The perilous state in which we find ourselves is being played down by just about every western government and ignored by every mainstream outlet.

Putin in a cul-de-sac and the PRC dictatorship not being able to deliver on its promise of eternal growth? The dynamics don't bear thinking about.

Nobody wants to say the W word, and if things kick off, we're all fucked. Not surprising really.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 12:14 am Nobody wants to say the W word, and if things kick off, we're all fucked. Not surprising really.

What is it good for?

State of this. Chuck in Low Traffic Networks and the World Health Organisation.

There are just SO many reasons why that is the shittiest idea since the last ever shittiest idea (aka Brexit).

I’m guessing they know they’re toast as far a forming the next government, but planning on the nutters voting to leave the ECHR, therefore a stick in Labour’s legal spokes

The Foreign Secretary and Justice Secretary won’t support this, for starters. The Northern Ireland Secretary is a headbanger but surely he couldn’t either. Plus all the MPs standing down or certain to lose can tell the whips to fuck off.

Are Dennis Skinner and Dave Nellist still standing? They could lead the anti ECHR campaign so a future Labour government can nationalise the commanding heights of the economy with zero compensation to the capitalists. Start by placing the Daily Mail under workers control.

You know they're going to come up with a bin fire idea, and you know it'll damage the country even more than they have already. And they call themselves patriots.

Presumably the idea is to make the entire election a referendum on the ECHR, which will make it effectively a rerun of the Brexit referendum, boiled down to the essence of "Do you want a bunch of foreigners who can't pull their weight in world wars telling us what to do?". This will, they hope, unite the thick as pigshits, make the economy and so on non-issues, and get Starmer on the back foot fending off "Lefty lawyer got the paedos off" accusations. Cynical, underhand, and the sort of shit you'd expect from them.

Attention all drug dealers in Surrey and Westminster - bit of brick dust in Govey's weekly delivery please.

Thinking about it, this isn’t going to happen. A referendum on ECHR membership would require primary legislation to set up, and given that Sunak prefers to play his cards close to his chest about the date of the election, this does seem to be simply another bonkers bit of kite-flying.

But he can always chuck it in his manifesto and say that the GE is the referendum. Y'know. Like people used to do.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... mailonline

Want a good laugh? Here you go.

In Mafia parlance they are the 'made men' – mobsters who become fully initiated members of the crime families only after carrying out their first 'hit'.

The term – popularised by Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, the Mafia blockbuster starring Robert De Niro – is starting to be applied to the underbosses of the Tory party as they watch Rishi Sunak sink to near-record lows in the polls.

As this newspaper revealed last year, the anti-Rishi intrigue initially centred on a group of so-called 'pasta plotters' associated with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who drew up a rebel 'grid of s**t' over dishes of ravioli in London's Theatreland.

Now, in the wake of a Budget which lived down to Tory MPs' expectations, the heavy mob are threatening to move in. One Tory MP, allied to the 'made men', says: 'So far the plotting has been pretty amateurish. But that's because the serious players haven't got involved yet.

It gets better.

Lady McAlpine told the MoS: 'The Tory party is rotten at the core. We need new Conservative values, and Boris is the person to deliver that.

'He is the only person with the charisma to lead the party to success. We need Boris back'.

The problem for all the plotters, however – and it is quite a substantial one – is that they cannot agree on a replacement for Mr Sunak if Mr Johnson is not available.

So the party is rotten to the core. It needs "new Conservative values". And the person to deliver them is a guy who has no values whatsoever?

It's Stewart Pearson's house renovation all over again. Change the paint job as much as you like, but the foundations are fundamentally fucked.

Kemi Badenoch, has fallen from favour with a speed which does not surprise her detractors.

Although undoubtedly talented and in touch with the anti-woke values of Conservative Britain, Ms Badenoch is also regarded as impulsive and erratic, with questionable people skills

Given the polling, has Kemi considered that perhaps the problem is that Conservative Britain isn't quite as big as she thinks? Anyway, here's Mad Nad:

A former Cabinet minister told the MoS that Mr Johnson offered the party's only chance to avoid annihilation. They said: 'If Boris came back for the General Election it could save as many as 80 MPs. It would give Conservatives hope, a reason to vote. If we go into an election and Boris is out in the cold, voters will simply stay at home and sit on their hands.

Again, this belief that it's anyone's fault but their own. Their sense of entitlement. The building up of the Boris myth. Fuck them all.

I love the fact that they think they have *anyone* who would come remotely close to fitting the bill of a ‘serious player’

And another stands down.. Only 52. Would presumably have got a decent Shadow post.

Brandon Lewis is the largest recipient of Russian oligarch donations, guess he’d have to downsize if he stayed in parliament.

His lobbying contacts aren’t going to be worth much under Labour, you’d think.