UK General Election 8th June: Shake it all about?

[Junkenstein]

For reference this voice to text software is utter shite.

Open to recommendations because it seems like it should be better than this by now.

[Cain]

Well, that was sort of unexpected.  Any word on what forced Leadsom out?

Nothing overt but my money is on the 1922 committee - specifically, whoever it was who dictated her letter of withdrawal


ALSO - do you really find it unexpected? It felt like rain following the sunshine to me - despite the shrill excitement and cum faces of the BBC reporters I've been watching this afternoon.

and Yes I know listening to the Beeb news channel is like reading reply columns, but it is one of my guilty pleasures. If you can't enjoy the news at least you can watch the complex intrigues and manipulations, yanno?

Well, I was asleep until 16:25, so I've not seen any coverage up until I posted that.

However, I did think Leadsom was stupid enough to think she had a chance, and drag the whole thing out.  Looking at some of her supporters within the party, and the defensive way they speak about her, I could see someone of her personality type treating that as The Will Of The People.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Well it's always nice to have anecdotal evidence confirmed. Helps me think I'm not just seeing shit or being more aware of it after the fact.

In other news, Leadsom's quit, because 'tis the season. So it's May.

Ian Hislop was on Question time this week. Very little screen time but the stabs and asides at the other attendees was quite nice. Someone at QT must have owed him a favour to shove him on the same show as Galloway and Falconer. Very impressive "I want to keep my job, regardless" by Falconer with Praise for Blair and Corbyn. The Corbyn line is particularly amusing as he was one of the many who also quit their job recently.

This all looks so horribly familiar.  Sort of like going from 25+ GOP candidates to Donald Trump inside of a month.

[Junkenstein]

It's kind of like that, only with the added fun of them gaining leadership of the country with fuck all mandate and no idea what to do about anything, really.

Considering the opposition is a joke, if you were inclined to do so you could probably push some horrific shit through quickly on the QT. A few people noticed the change in the juniors doctors contract situation in the past few days so there's going to be plenty of planned headline days to bury bad news. 

[Cain]

Well, in a sense at least it is May.  She's horrible, but she's predictably and routinely horrible in the way we've come to expect from Cameron and co.

Leadsom would've been an entirely different, potentially Trump-esque breed of horrible (especially given her comments on Scottish people).  We can survive May.  I'm not sure we could survive a sockpuppet run by 20 different crazy backbenchers.

[Junkenstein]

This is true. That said, there are many different levels that you can call "Survival". I'm not saying that it's all going to turn into a mad-max shithole overnight, but I can see a few quick steps towards dystopia if she gets her shit together quickly enough and there's still no united opposition.

Also, all bets taken on the next person to quit.
Current favourites and given reasons:
The queen (Charlie's got to get a go sometime, right?)
May (no mandate/just for fun)
Smith(To give support to eagle against corbyn)
Eagle(As above, but in reverse)
Corbyn ("ill health....")


I was talking about this shitshow to a few people yesterday. It's actually been pretty fucking hilarious as our political system is currently on the level of somewhere that has a new dictator so frequently people struggle to remember who is apparently in charge. It'd be comical apart from the fact that the longer it goes on the more shitty it has to get to sort it all out. It's a fairly safe bet that who-ever ends up in charge (even if/after an election) will probably need to start some kind of austerity #2 bullshit in order to save up enough cash to cover the costs and immediate upfront expenses of an exit. It will also help set another new normal so when large chunks of funding vanish it's not felt quite as badly.

[Cain]

You know who still hasn't quit?

Nick Clegg 

I don't think May will be PM for long.  I could be wrong here, but I think the Maggie Thatcher comparisons will die off, to be replaced by the Gordon Brown ones (no mandate).

Also, she has said she will be putting Oliver Letwin MP in charge of the Brexit Unit.  Letwin...would not be my first choice.  My father, as a civil servant, has dealt a lot with Letwin, and has an interesting take on him, due to the many hours of interaction with him. As far as he's concerned, Letwin is clearly an extremely smart man, but he mostly uses his impressive intellect to convince himself that whatever he wants to believe is right, and it is very difficult for him to shift gears on an issue once he has made up his mind.  It makes him incredibly exasperating to deal with, as you can throw all the facts in the world at him and while he will concede the facts, he won't budge on the logical conclusion that follows from them unless he's already predisposed to do so.

He also has an impressive history of public gaffes and actually campaigned for Remain.  This could cause some serious tension within the unit.

[Junkenstein]

Shit, I forgot about Clegg. I assumed he had just vanished into the political wilderness. Or up his own arse. Either way, this is the most he's been discussed in months. 

As for May's duration, I suspect the deals being done with the media will help determine that. The Murdoch media is largely for her, as is the Daily hate so that's a decent level of support to kick any platform off from. How closely she follows the respective proprietors whims will probably influence the next few weeks headlines to a significant degree.

[MMIX]

You know who still hasn't quit?

Nick Clegg 

I don't think May will be PM for long.  I could be wrong here, but I think the Maggie Thatcher comparisons will die off, to be replaced by the Gordon Brown ones (no mandate).

Also, she has said she will be putting Oliver Letwin MP in charge of the Brexit Unit.  Letwin...would not be my first choice.  My father, as a civil servant, has dealt a lot with Letwin, and has an interesting take on him, due to the many hours of interaction with him. As far as he's concerned, Letwin is clearly an extremely smart man, but he mostly uses his impressive intellect to convince himself that whatever he wants to believe is right, and it is very difficult for him to shift gears on an issue once he has made up his mind.  It makes him incredibly exasperating to deal with, as you can throw all the facts in the world at him and while he will concede the facts, he won't budge on the logical conclusion that follows from them unless he's already predisposed to do so.

He also has an impressive history of public gaffes and actually campaigned for Remain.  This could cause some serious tension within the unit.

Oliver Wetwind is another one of those "Eton Messes" so that sounds about par for the course

[Cain]

Actually that was wrong about Clegg.  I forgot Tim Farron took over from him.

Which doesn't say much for Farron.  He was a reasonable party President, but as a leader he's pretty lacklustre.  Then again it's hard to do anything with 8 MPs

[MMIX]

Actually that was wrong about Clegg.  I forgot Tim Farron took over from him.

Which doesn't say much for Farron.  He was a reasonable party President, but as a leader he's pretty lacklustre.  Then again it's hard to do anything with 8 MPs

I bet you Jeremy Thorpe and Paddy Pantsdown could find something spectacular and newsworthy to do with 8 MPs 

[Junkenstein]

OK, we were all wrong:

Japanese Emperor Akihito 'wishes to abdicate'

[Cain]

What a quitter.

I do wonder at the timing though.  Shinzo Abe is putting Japan back on a path to full militarization...is this just an abdication, or a protest?  It is the first time this has happened since 1817.

[Junkenstein]

Too early - Osbourne's gone too.

[Junkenstein]

Boris apparently foreign secretary.

This is going to be an astonishing shitshow.