:tories: Tories in trouble?

No sarcasm intended - you’ll know when I’m doing sarcasm.

Exactly this.

I like to think of all states as transient. Better to say someone is being a cunt or has been a cunt than say they’re a permacunt. The problem with the Tories is that most of their leadership seem to be of the latter variety.

Hmm. Only the Daily Mail, mind, but it appears as if the EU referendum is tearing the Conservatives apart. A number of Tory MPs are furious with the PM over the Brexit scaremongering.

A vote of no confidence is being talked about. Requires 50 MPs to trigger it with the 1922 committee. The last time this was debated in Parliament, there were 89 rebels.

Oops.

Bunch of delicate little flowers. Meanwhile, Leave have been told off for lying (again) about Turkey.

Funny, stuff kicking about social media with former quotes from Fox (how is he a prominent figure again, FYI?), IDS & Boris all supporting Turkey joining the EU. Surely none of these three have nothing to gain from opportunistically jumping on this?

It’s ok when we fearmonger, or lie. Just as long as no one else does it.

Roll on the 24th June

Originally posted by @CB-Saint

Roll on the 24th June

Amen.

I am primarily interested in the trouble it’ll cause the Tories, KRG.

Even so, I think you’re being harsh. Not all of those 89 rebels are playing the scaremonger game, and you’ve got to imagine that the subject has come up time and time again during internal Conservative party debate. Perhaps they feel that the PM has betrayed assurances he gave in the past.

Originally posted by @pap

I am primarily interested in the trouble it’ll cause the Tories, KRG.

That’s the one good thing about this, imo. It’s hard to see the party not descending into turmoil whichever way the vote goes.

Likewise, can see UKIP have some internal or external strife. What happens to a single issue party when they get their way? Or if the vote is to stay, can Farage survive again?

Even so, I think you’re being harsh. Not all of those 89 rebels are playing the scaremonger game, and you’ve got to imagine that the subject has come up time and time again during internal Conservative party debate. Perhaps they feel that the PM has betrayed assurances he gave in the past.

Meh, I’m just sick of hearing Leave cry about scaremongering when they are equally as culpable. I’ve never denied Remain have done it and I’m not a fan of that either. But it does nark me off somewhat.

I do think it is inherently easier for Leave to not have to resort to it. Similar to the Scotland vote, it strikes me as being naturally more inclined to go a similar way.

It’s much easier to say “Everything will be great if we leave” (suspending any relevant facts for a minute) than it is to say “No, we are better off now. We’ll be worse off if we go”.

Ultimately, that is what the two sides are claiming. One is inherently more ‘negative’ than the other. But still that side lies through it’s teeth, dismisses any possibility that anything negative may happen or simply plays the “Well what does this person know/what right do they have to comment?”.

But nah, I stand by it. It’s apparenty the way of right-wingers now. We can say or do what we want, but those opposed to us cannot be afforded the same. That is all I see here.

It’s as if the standard template for running a campaign in modern Britain has become get your chosen media partner to peddle more plausible lies than your opponent and hope you harvest more thickos than they do.

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An interesting report commissioned by Salford City Council. Looks at the effects of sanctions in the city.

As part of their research, they discovered that almost two thirds of foodbank referrals came from those sanctioned. It’s also fuelling suicide and crime.

Gideon Osborne: “Oh that’s fine, Mr Google. You just pay us a fraction of what you owe and that’ll be fine”

The French: “We, 'ow you say, raid you motherfuckers”.

http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/24/googles-paris-hq-just-got-raided-fraud-investigation/

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We are obviously too soft by the standards of our European friends.

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Jeremy Corbyn has been hinting that there might be a snap general election. Some Tories are now saying that it is inevitable. Loss of trust in the PM.

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Keep an eye on the papers. I think the PM is in serious trouble.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/the_papers

The results aren’t in yet, but the whole EU referendum is looking like an epic miscalculation from Cameron. He promised the referendum to stop voters from deserting to UKIP. It is an understandable political move, and who knows, maybe it worked.

What he fails to appreciate is that those people didn’t vote Conservative for a referendum. They were thinking one step further. They were voting to get the country out of the EU, and believed that Cameron’s promised referendum was a means to achieving it.

Given Cameron’s behaviour since, it is fairly clear that he saw the referendum as an end to the matter.

Perhaps it will be. Perhaps we’ll vote to Remain by the fifteen or so points it’ll take to finally put the issue to bed, and Cameron will be vindicated.

A Brexit will kill him. A close vote to Remain may be even worse for the party. If the issue is decided on the margins, Cameron’s approach will be in for massive criticism from his own ranks, who’ll believe that they’ve been betrayed by their leader with some justification.

Well, 68 pages in and the Tories are still in trouble.

The election fraud story appears to be gathering pace. Shame it wasn’t actually mentioned before the recent elections, but you can’t have everything. Some of the allegations are going to be fucking explosive if ever proven.

Until now, most of the scandal has centred around the Battle Bus, deployed to marginals (which have spending limits) using the national budget (which does not). The Conservatives have been arguing that it is a national resource. Those opposed believe it to be a violation of local election spending.

There have been a couple of interesting stories in the last couple of days which suggest it is even worse. We’ll start with the superficially trivial first.

Councillor Wallace said: “On April 10th the Conservative Party’s Battle Bus visited Sandwich, in South Thanet, with a number of activists on board. During the day they distributed leaflets, campaigned in the town centre and held a meeting at the Phoenix Centre youth club.

“After the meeting a member of staff at the Phoenix Centre spoke to one of the activists and asked her why she had travelled from London to campaign in Sandwich for the Conservative Party.

“The activist replied that she wasn’t a supporter of the Conservative Party but was actually unemployed and was recruited in her local job centre in London to campaign for the Party.

“She was paid to travel on the bus, hand out leaflets and take part in the campaign while wearing a blue rosette.

It is bad enough that the money wasn’t declared in election spending. What it actually means is worse. If true, it means that the Conservatives don’t have enough activists to run their campaigns, and have to pay people money to pretend to be Tories.

It’s potentially even worse than that, though.

A whistleblower who worked for a telephone research agency hired by the Conservative party in the run-up to the 2015 general election has made several serious allegations. They have told The Canary they were instructed to deny links to the Conservatives when conducting telephone surveys of voters. They have said the questions they were instructed to ask were misleading, pushing answers in favour of the Conservative party. And, while the calls they made targeted voters in specific, marginal constituencies, The Canary has found evidence that the expenses were declared as national party spending – and some do not appear to have been declared at all.

If true, this evidence suggests that the Conservatives may have broken the law on election expenses, and a law that prohibits paying canvassers to support a candidate’s election may also have been breached.

We have also discovered that a separate polling company worked on “local campaigns” in key seats for the Conservatives, but that spending was also declared nationally rather than locally – again, potentially in breach of election expenses laws.

http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/31/whistleblower-exposes-major-new-allegation-tory-election-fraud-scandal-exclusive/

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Keep your sandals on!

Those laws were probably broken accidentally so I see no reason why Rupert Murdoch would want us to know.

He’ll show us shiny stiff instead to distract us and all will be well again.

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Originally posted by @pap

Well, 68 pages in and the Tories are still in trouble.

The election fraud story appears to be gathering pace. Shame it wasn’t actually mentioned before the recent elections, but you can’t have everything. Some of the allegations are going to be fucking explosive if ever proven.

Until now, most of the scandal has centred around the Battle Bus, deployed to marginals (which have spending limits) using the national budget (which does not). The Conservatives have been arguing that it is a national resource. Those opposed believe it to be a violation of local election spending.

There have been a couple of interesting stories in the last couple of days which suggest it is even worse. We’ll start with the superficially trivial first.

Councillor Wallace said: “On April 10th the Conservative Party’s Battle Bus visited Sandwich, in South Thanet, with a number of activists on board. During the day they distributed leaflets, campaigned in the town centre and held a meeting at the Phoenix Centre youth club.

“After the meeting a member of staff at the Phoenix Centre spoke to one of the activists and asked her why she had travelled from London to campaign in Sandwich for the Conservative Party.

“The activist replied that she wasn’t a supporter of the Conservative Party but was actually unemployed and was recruited in her local job centre in London to campaign for the Party.

“She was paid to travel on the bus, hand out leaflets and take part in the campaign while wearing a blue rosette.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-paid-unemployed-woman-pose-8076351

It is bad enough that the money wasn’t declared in election spending. What it actually means is worse. If true, it means that the Conservatives don’t have enough activists to run their campaigns, and have to pay people money to pretend to be Tories.

It’s potentially even worse than that, though.

A whistleblower who worked for a telephone research agency hired by the Conservative party in the run-up to the 2015 general election has made several serious allegations. They have told The Canary they were instructed to deny links to the Conservatives when conducting telephone surveys of voters. They have said the questions they were instructed to ask were misleading, pushing answers in favour of the Conservative party. And, while the calls they made targeted voters in specific, marginal constituencies, The Canary has found evidence that the expenses were declared as national party spending – and some do not appear to have been declared at all.

If true, this evidence suggests that the Conservatives may have broken the law on election expenses, and a law that prohibits paying canvassers to support a candidate’s election may also have been breached.

We have also discovered that a separate polling company worked on “local campaigns” in key seats for the Conservatives, but that spending was also declared nationally rather than locally – again, potentially in breach of election expenses laws.

http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/31/whistleblower-exposes-major-new-allegation-tory-election-fraud-scandal-exclusive/

I think the reason that this hasn’t been a bigger story is that it isn’t really a big story.

The average man on the street probably couldn’t give a shit. Those who voted Conservative probably couldn’t give a shit. Sorry to say it Pap, but only those who hate the Conservatives will actually be interested in this.

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