U.K. Politics: Nadine Dorries resigns her post as MP - or does she?

[Artoo]

So she’s saying she doesn’t have it in her anymore, but has also mentioned that using the next election as a de facto referendum was firmly her idea - it wasn’t explicitly said, but it sounded to me like the party might not actually be on board with that.

[SholasBoy]

Bye hun

[Wayne]

Really sad to see Sturgeon go - to lose both her and Drakeford in the same election cycle will result in seismic changes in Scottish and Welsh politics respectively.

I didn’t agree with all of Sturgeon’s politics - her stance on Scotland’s independence is something I’ll never agree with - but she is principled, has integrity and is a really fine leader.

[jordi_89]

F*** this. Why do all these leaders always leave when the people need them the most. I wanted to see an independent Scotland, but without her, I don't know if people are gonna vote for it. Because, as sad as it sounds, people need a leader they trust (or one that appears strong enough so they "respect" them) to guide them through big changes like this.

[Wayne]

F*** this. Why do all these leaders always leave when the people need them the most. I wanted to see an independent Scotland, but without her, I don't know if people are gonna vote for it. Because, as sad as it sounds, people need a leader they trust (or one that appears strong enough so they "respect" them) to guide them through big changes like this.

I think that this does more for Scotland's bid for independence than it would, had she stayed around - she was becoming increasingly divisive among SNP supporters due to her polarising policies at home (most recently, the gender self-identification debate). The SNP is essentially a single issue party, elected to govern and so once she started to split her electorate, she knew she had to go.

What should concern the electorate in favour of the SNP is that there really isn't anyone who can replace her - after Salmond, it was her...and she hasn't done a very good job of building other politicians to replace her. She is or was the SNP to millions.

[jordi_89]

I think that this does more for Scotland's bid for independence than it would, had she stayed around - she was becoming increasingly divisive among SNP supporters due to her polarising policies at home (most recently, the gender self-identification debate). The SNP is essentially a single issue party, elected to govern and so once she started to split her electorate, she knew she had to go.

What should concern the electorate in favour of the SNP is that there really isn't anyone who can replace her - after Salmond, it was her...and she hasn't done a very good job of building other politicians to replace her. She is or was the SNP to millions.

Exactly. She's the most visible face of the independence cause tbh. We've had this issue in Catalonia as well. When the useless but popular ones went on exile or were jailed (for 3 years lol), we were left with the useless but unpopular ones. So new we've been on this stalemate for 5 years, with no light at the end of the tunnel. Hope the same thing doesn't happen to Scotland.
Tbh I think it's stupid that gender self-identification is such a big issue, but oh well. We're still living in the early 21st century. I don't think everyone (or a big majority) in the West will have evolved (emotionally / mentally) enough to fully comprehend and accept everything about the LGBT (specially the T) community until the 2050s.

[Artoo]

I don’t think it was the gender issue itself that forced her hand, I think it was more the political games Sturgeon was playing. The road to independence has to be won through the electorate, not through legal loopholes and forcing Westminster to exercise powers that it really shouldn’t have to.

Scotland is still part of the UK and no devolved government should be looking to start a political civil war (however tepid) for the sole purpose of break king away: if the electorate wants independence the Scottish government should not be manipulating events to sway them.

That's what I think anyway. We can take Sturgeon at face value and accept she’s had enough, but I suspect there’s more at play.

The next general election is going to be an interesting one though - the four largest parties from the 2019 election will all have new leaders.

[Artoo]

What should concern the electorate in favour of the SNP is that there really isn't anyone who can replace her

Finally, something all parties have in common

[jordi_89]

I take back what I said. I saw a headline from a UK news outlet saying that the new Scottish PM is a woman "more dangerous than Sturgeon". So if they English hate her guts and start attacking her non-stop, that's probably gonna rile up the SNP base and mobilize them (hopefully).

[greek_boy]

Really sad to see Sturgeon go - to lose both her and Drakeford in the same election cycle will result in seismic changes in Scottish and Welsh politics respectively.

I didn’t agree with all of Sturgeon’s politics - her stance on Scotland’s independence is something I’ll never agree with - but she is principled, has integrity and is a really fine leader.

well said!

But I still did not understand why she left... was there a scandal about her ready to come out? or did she decide to leave now because her popularity was decreasing in polls and she was losing support for independence?

[Wayne]

Lots of coverage in the last few days over the Northern Ireland Protocol. In a nutshell, Sunak is sensibly trying to negotiate a solution to the issue of trade within Ireland but is facing fights on all sides - from hardline Brexiters within his own party, unions within Ireland and those who negotiate on behalf of the EU. The President of the EU Commission is visiting the UK tomorrow to get the deal over the line.

I really, sincerely hope Sunak succeeds - he's facing massive potential pushback from certain factions within his own party (such as the ERG, those who support Boris) so he'll probably need the support of Labour to get anything through Parliament.

Northern Ireland Protocol: Rishi Sunak to meet Ursula von der Leyen for talks

Rishi Sunak is to hold face-to-face talks with the European Commision president in a bid to finalise a Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

The PM and Ursula von der Leyen said they will meet in the UK on Monday discuss the "complex challenges" of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The UK wants to change the protocol, which sees some goods checked when entering from the rest of the UK.

Dominic Raab earlier said Britain and the EU were "on the cusp" of a deal.

Rishi Sunak and Ms von der Leyen said they had "agreed to continue their work in person towards shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland".

A deal has been expected for days, with recent talks focusing on its presentation and delivery.

Both Tory and Labour MPs have been told by their respective whips to come to Parliament on Monday.

The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed under former PM Boris Johnson as part of the process of the UK leaving the European Union.

It sees Northern Ireland continue to follow some EU laws so that goods can flow freely over the border to the Republic of Ireland without checks.

Instead, goods arriving from England, Scotland and Wales are checked when they arrive at Northern Irish ports.

Critics, including Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), feel this undermines the nation's position within the rest of the UK as well as impacting trade.

The DUP has complained about what it calls a "democratic deficit" with Northern Ireland being subject to EU rules while not having a say on them.

Deputy Prime Minister Mr Raab earlier told the BBC the government had "made great progress" in its talks with the EU.

He said the EU had "moved" on some issues, saying: "If there are any new rules that would apply in relation to Northern Ireland, it must be right that there is a Northern Irish democratic check on that."

He said one approach could be an "intelligence-based" rather than "tick box" approach for goods "which effectively means, they look at what is happening in the Republic with goods that go to Northern Ireland in case there's a risk of them going into the wider single market - and if we can achieve that, it will be a massive win."

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said he had been in contact with Ms von der Leyen on Sunday and "very much" welcomed her meeting with Mr Sunak.

He tweeted: "We should acknowledge the level of engagement between the UK Gov, the European Commission and the NI parties in recent months."

His deputy, Micheal Martin, said "very significant progress" had been made, adding "a great effort" had been made to resolve issues.

"I would hope it can be brought to a conclusion, but that's a matter for the UK and EU negotiating teams to call," he said.

The government has not confirmed if MPs would get a vote on any deal, but said they would be able to "express" their view.

Mr Sunak has been under pressure from some Conservative MPs over the role of EU law and the European Court of Justice in settling trade disputes.

Mark Francois, who heads the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, earlier said EU law needed to be "expunged" from Northern Ireland, bringing it in line with England, Scotland and Wales.

He told Sky News on Sunday that he had yet to see the detail of the deal and it would be "incredibly unwise" to bring in any new deal without giving MPs a vote.

"If they've got a deal they're proud of, show us the text. Let us run it by our lawyers. Let us fully understand what it means. Then, at that point, we might be ready to vote on it."

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has previously said: "The objective in London and Brussels should be to get this right rather than rushed. The wrong deal will not restore power sharing but will deepen division for future generations."

But former Prime Minister John Major urged Conservative and DUP MPs to not let concerns over the European Court of Justice get in the way of easing trade and restoring the devolved government in Northern Ireland.

He told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: "Their involvement would be tiny... occasional involvement of the ECJ really ought not to stop an agreement being made.

"They talk of democracy. Democracy is thrown away when that [Northern Ireland] Assembly is not sitting. We need them back."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64778848

[greek_boy]

Backing Sunak: Labour and the Lib Dems have again vowed to get behind the government over its deal. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said her party would not "play politics" over the issue, and Sir Ed Davey said the Lib Dems would "do the responsible thing".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-64779415

[Thriller]

I mean it makes sense, but yeah… Brexit eh. Sunlit uplands indeed.

[Rihab]

Sounds like that deal would make it easier to smuggle cheap sh*t from Britain / America / China into the EU via NI. But in Uschi we trust.

[greek_boy]

a Tory PM that at least got something done! i hope this is a new chapter for the UK-EU relations, if the deal is approved and it works well in NI, then I can see Sunak's poll rates improving.

[jordi_89]

So if NI decides to rejoin Ireland in the future, they're gonna have to change the protocols again, right?

[Wayne]

Based on everything I’ve seen, Sunak has achieved good things with this deal (haven’t read the legal text, just relying on media coverage to reach that conclusion) - securing concessions and resetting our relationship with the EU. Their morning, Sunak is in NI to sell the deal to the DUP, if he can get the power sharing arrangement back in place in NI, he will probably also be able to reset the relationship we have with the USA.

Credit where it’s due, this is a major win for Sunak. Politico have a tremendous article covering the last 6 months and how things have played out over that time to get us where we are now: https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-e...ervatives/amp/

[Wayne]

The next big thing for the U.K. is that there’s a budget in a couple of weeks; the U.K. economy is performing better than most expected and we might avoid a technical recession altogether this year.

With the EPG costing significantly less than forecasted, borrowing is also less - meaning Sunak has money to play with. Some commentators are calling for tax cuts but I hope he uses the money to either extend the EPG to get us through to July and/or uses the money to make a one off public sector payment that helps with the striking issues.

[Thriller]

It’s definitely too early for tax cuts. Public sector funding would be very timely.

[Wayne]

Is anyone following the WhatsApp photos saga? If not, in a nutshell:

• Hancock commissioned a journalist called Isabel Oakeshott to ghost write his Pandemic Diaries book, as part of this, Isabel signed an NDA essentially forbidding her from sharing any details relating to the process with the media.
• Recently, she has released over 100,000 WhatsApp messages via the Telegraph - a publication she doesn't work for or isn't directly affiliated with - that essentially the inner workings of the UK government during the pandemic, these messages were made in groups that had figures like Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty, Patrick Vallance, Matt Hancock Dominic Cummings, Simon Case etc in them, all contributing to the discussions.
• To describe the messages as damaging would be an understatement - you can see the senior political figures laughing and joking about lockdown, mocking how the "Eat out to Help Out" scheme was spreading the virus and most significantly, it has led to new allegations that Johnson, Hancock et al had misled parliament (as these messages undermine previous public statements on things like "Partygate").
• The two big issues here are subsequently the message content (and all that follows) and increasingly negative criticism of Oakeshott who essentially breached a fundamental rule in journalism - she outed her source. There are allegations that this will undermine the profession and set it back years, making it less and less likely that people will confide in journalists.
• Oakeshott has form for doing things like this and is a known - and prolific - anti-lockdown lobbyist. Criticism is that she not only violated the NDA terms but also journalism 101 and she did this to push her own political agenda, not in the public interest as she would have you believe.
• There's also allegations that Matt Hancock could face a legitimate court battle over GDPR for sharing these messages with Oakeshott in the first place, without seeking consent from those involved. It's all very sad, ironic and frustrating.

[Artoo]

I don’t feel sorry for a single one of them.

[greek_boy]

you can't make it up hahahahahah he's promoting the benefits of the EU single market, he's also a Brexiteer!!!!
He's a joke but at least he's not as embarrassing and stupid as BoJo and the female version of him.

Scotland wants to have a chat.... they did NOT vote for Brexit!

[Wayne]

I don’t feel sorry for a single one of them.

I feel sorry for me, and for the rest of the UK - just when I thought we'd returned to semi-serious politics, the dregs of the past are dug up.

That said, this is likely to prove the end of Boris Johnson - so I'll take the small wins.

[Artoo]

It was nice not to have to think about politics for a minute. These released messages are just further fuel on a fire I’m waiting to burn out. I just feel like I’m riding the cost of living crisis out and waiting for Labour to win the next election.

Rishi has been pointless so far but I appreciate the relative quiet. I know there was a bit of noise about the NI Brexit agreement, but it just seemed like fools congratulating themselves on getting something done that should have been sorted five years ago.

I feel Boris was done the moment he didn’t run in the leadership contest - if he has the numbers, he’d have run. His party has moved on and so has the country.

These messages reveal nothing new, not really. We already knew there was nobody competent in government and that the Conservatives always look down on the British public and treat us like fools.

A global crisis gave the government the opportunity to actually restore faith and respect in British politics for a generation, if handled right. They did not rise to the occasion and have damaged the country significantly.

I would feel sorry for us but that gets us nowhere. So like I said, I just feel like I’m riding it out. They don’t have the stomach nor competence to do what is needed to fix the cost of living crisis. We’ll see what happens in the budget - but it won’t be anything good.

[Artoo]

On the cost of living side, a first class stamp will now cost £1.10, which is utter madness. I was in Sainsbury’s earlier today - £1 for a pint of milk and £1.80 for a tin of Heinz beans.

Yet the Tories MPs think we’re a lazy nation that don’t work (including the previous PM), despite paying more tax than the government anticipated in January. Yet no wonder at those supermarket prices - nobody can afford not to work.