The grand tory 'civil war' thread

[J Ed]

 

[brogdale]

Ah, the integrity...

Former Government minister Sir Alan Duncan decided to join the “In” campaign after he failed in an attempt to join the board of one of the leading Brexit organisations, it has been claimed.

Sir Alan emerged as a surprise pro-European Union campaigner in an article in the Telegraph on Thursday, accusing pro-Brexit colleagues of offering a "fanciful pretence" of Britain's future outside the EU.

However Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign, claimed that Sir Alan earlier this year had asked to join Vote Leave’s board.

 

[J Ed]

Spivs gotta spiv

 

[youngian]

Ah, the integrity...

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Not just the Tories but most of the Brexit leading lights are jockeying for position like ferrets in a sack to place their egos on the top table. Perhaps it tells you something about the psychology of nationalists; it's about me me me while being blind to the big picture consequences.

 

[treelover]

Not sure if (or how) this might fit into the 'civil war' story, but I just had to put this out there...is it possible to think of a more toxic contemporary juxtaposition than Gove, Murdoch and U2. Kinnel.

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Gove, but how Old is Murdoch? ageist but I thought someone like Sinatra would be more for him.

 

[nino_savatte]

Ah, the integrity...

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Stunning.

 

[nino_savatte]

That face says it all. It's not an expression I much care for; it's deeply disturbing.

 

[Idris2002]

Is Osborne still MIA?

 

[brogdale]

Parris in his latest 'Times'* piece trashing Johnson says, amongst other things...

There is a pattern to Boris' life which should be marked out in red warning ink, it's the casual dishonesty, the cruelty, the betrayal...and beneath the betrayal the emptiness of real ambition, the ambition to do anything useful with office once it's attained. We should end our affair with this dangerous charmer.

Ouch!

*can't/won't link for obvious reasons

e2a: Parris also rakes up the old "tank-topped bumboys" quote.

 

[brogdale]

Indy putting out some more choice titbits from the Parris piece...

Somebody has to remind us that it’s not enough for those who seek to govern us simply to be: they have to do. Incompetence is not funny. Policy vacuum is not funny. Administrative sloth is not funny. Breaking promises is not funny. A careless disregard for the truth is not funny. Advising old mates planning to beat somebody up is not funny. Abortions and gagging orders are not funny. Creeping ambition in a jester’s cap is not funny. Vacuity posing as merriment, cynicism posing as savviness, a wink and smile covering for betrayal . . . these things are not funny.

No love lost.

 

[brogdale]

Like the headline, but Urban was way ahead of yer...

 

[brogdale]

Fox's response to Hunt's claim that Brexit would wreck the NHS...



What a bunch of cunts.

 

[DotCommunist]

the NHS is a massive political stick they use and its vile that they do it. Remember camerons 'I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS' election posters? How quick labourites are to remind us that we can't trust the tories with the NHS? playing to that most basic fear of 'what if I can't afford my/my kids treatment?'. The bastards know we know how it works in the US and think 'fuck that'. Using it again to play politics at the same time as trying to fuck it ready for sale

 

[Kaka Tim]

Parris' attack is pretty devastating. Its an articulate, insightful, detailed and highly convincing argument setting out with forensic skill exactly why Boris is an utterly despicable cunt.

 

[brogdale]

Parris' attack is pretty devastating. Its an articulate, insightful, detailed and highly convincing argument setting out with forensic skill exactly why Boris is an utterly despicable cunt.

He's written similar pieces over the last few years; he's never let Johnson's casual homophobia and racism rest.

 

[DotCommunist]

Parris' attack is pretty devastating. Its an articulate, insightful, detailed and highly convincing argument setting out with forensic skill exactly why Boris is an utterly despicable cunt.

anyone got the full text? paywall ennit

 

[brogdale]

anyone got the full text? paywall ennit

Sorry, no.
But here's yer poor man's tory version...

Boris Johnson. Liar, conman – and prime minister? | Nick Cohen

 

[killer b]

Parris' attack is pretty devastating. Its an articulate, insightful, detailed and highly convincing argument setting out with forensic skill exactly why Boris is an utterly despicable cunt.

I predict zero devastation to Johnson's ratings.

 

[DotCommunist]

Sorry, no.
But here's yer poor man's tory version...

Boris Johnson. Liar, conman – and prime minister? | Nick Cohen

not like cohen to manage a whole article without a corbyn slagging bit

 

[Kaka Tim]

I predict zero devastation to Johnson's ratings.

The wider public wont notice - but inside the tory party its clear that there is a significant number who are not fans of Boris - they fucking hate him in fact - and this will give them ammunition and encouragement.

 

[brogdale]

I predict zero devastation to Johnson's ratings.

Maybe, but remember the selectorate is riven.

e2a : snap KT

 

[killer b]

The wider public wont notice - but inside the tory party its clear that there is a significant number who are not fans of Boris - they fucking hate him in fact - and this will give them ammunition and encouragement.

Johnson's unpopularity with the party establishment is part of his attraction.

 

[killer b]

The tories aren't immune from the kind of in-party insurgency that seems to be going round atm. Look what the Labour right's attack on Corbyn did during the Labour leadership election, the republican attacks on Trump did for his popularity - why would this be any different?

 

[brogdale]

The tories aren't immune from the kind of in-party insurgency that seems to be going round atm. Look what the Labour right's attack on Corbyn did during the Labour leadership election, the republican attacks on Trump did for his popularity - why would this be any different?

But the PCP, are the gate-keepers determining the 2 candidates that are presented to the general party selectorate; his standing within the parliamentary party will determine whether or not he's even given the chance to appeal to the broad membership.

 

[killer b]

Do you think this will be news to any of the PCP?

 

[brogdale]

Do you think this will be news to any of the PCP?

No, but his self-interested Brexit gamble will, for many, reinforce what they already knew.

 

[Kaka Tim]

The point is that attacks such as the one by mathew parris indicate just how vicious is the struggle for supremacy within vermin land.
He also neatly summerises johnson's cuntishness for anyone interested in looking just a little bit further than the "loveable buffoon" facade.

 

[Combustible]

There's also the sense that the Tories don't feel as desperate electorally as before the last election, when Johnson was being talked up. At the time many didn't expect an absolute majority in 2015 and the prospect of getting one in 2020 or even beyond seemed much less likely. If it seemed like only he gave them the chance of winning in 2020 they would have been more willing to put aside their dislike for him. Now they've been shown they can win a majority with a more conventional candidate and they also think that Labour under Corbyn is beatable, so its becoming less and less necessary for them to put up with him.

 

[brogdale]

Now they've been shown they can win a majority with a more conventional candidate and they also think that Labour under Corbyn is beatable, so its becoming less and less necessary for them to put up with him.

Certainly quite a few commentators were saying as much in the weekend's papers/journals.

 

[brogdale]

The Conservative civil war over Europe has deepened amid clashes over the government's handling of the NHS and claims that David Cameron is ignoring Eurosceptic ministers.

Vote Leave, the Brexit campaign group led by Michael Gove, said the NHS had "plummeted into financial crisis" under Jeremy Hunt and accused the Health Secretary of "scaremongering" over the risk of leaving the EU.

It came as a senior Government source told the Daily Telegraph that David Cameron now refuses to acknowledge his ministers who backBrexit.

The source said that Mr Cameron refuses to make eye contact with Eurosceptic ministers and ignores them when they pass in corridors. Downing Street denied the accusation.

In a further sign of the growing divisions within the Tory party, a "Downing Street insider" was quoted comparing eurosceptics to Isil over their apparent refusal to negotiate.

Tele​