Rolling Brexit Links/UK politics in the neo-Weimar era

I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Standard office right now.

"What am I? Fucked bacon?!"

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7567532.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Theresa-May.jpg

May giving a foretaste of her contempt for parliament by having a shit on the front bench

Standfirst of Buzzfeed's story: One Standard insider said: “No one can believe it. I feel like I’ve been shot.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/former-chancellor-george-osborne-will-be-the-editor-of-the?utm_term=.rhnGxpGKG#.heaQ25QeQ

if you've held one of the great offices of state i think you should be compelled afterwards to retire to your farm or be shot up to you

https://twitter.com/gordonrayner/status/842703932564606976

"Email to Standard staff explains that Osborne will edit the paper in the morning, then head over to the Commons in the afternoon. REALLY???"

if you've held one of the great offices of state i think you should be compelled afterwards to retire to your farm or be shot up to you

4 days a month at Blackrock, plus the McCain institute gig...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_-8SS1LS_c

lol at all a million "[politician x] to become editor of [_______]" response tweets, not one of them funny

also lol david allen green pedantically explaining that MPs have often been editors before now and citing the spectator in evidence

This is more the GGO's thing I think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoGofvVhKTo

the way david allen green he says "this is the sound of the constitution working" one more time there's an egregious political steamrollering of generally accepted interpretations of how legislature/executive/judiciary works and people are up in arms would try the patience of a saint.

i actually still think DLG is quite useful as someone explaining complex issues of law and its procedures clearly, but his grasp of how politics impinges on this and manipulates it is pitiful

(haha i snarked abt this on twitter two days ago and he retweeted me saying "quite" and then must have reread my tweet and realised i was being snarky, bcz he deleted his)

https://i.imgflip.com/1lkzbk.jpg

Jack-off C**t more like lol

Kind of intrigued by what his game is here, I mean there's clearly more going on then "I fancy editing a newspaper" and I don't think he's really required to make Labour look like a shambles right now. Chipping away at May's authority and/or casting himself as the leader of Tory Remain/Return has to be in his thinking here.

lol at all a million "[politician x] to become editor of [_______]" response tweets, not one of them funny

This amused me:

@Ed_Miliband 30m30 minutes ago

Breaking: I will shortly be announced as editor of Heat magazine....

Fair enough, me too -- but it's funny bcz "bless him, he's still game" plus "if only he'd been this salt two years ago". The actual choice of title is kinda random.

Thought it just about worth noting that Liz Kendall implied UKIP are far-right on This Week and Andrew Neil not only indignantly questioned her on it but appeared to deny there was no far-right political movement in the UK at all. The Express is pearl-clutchingly incredulous at her suggestion and commends Neil for the "SLAP DOWN". Don't like it up 'em.

"In 1993, Osborne intended to pursue a career in journalism. He was shortlisted for but failed to gain a place on The Times trainee scheme

yes, the person who did get the place Osborne applied for was Carole Cadwalladr, I remember her writing a piece in the Observer about it.

if you've held one of the great offices of state i think you should be compelled afterwards to retire to your farm or be shot up to you

― conrad, Friday, March 17, 2017 8:03 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Nashwan I watched that too (I almost always do), thought the same thing.

Also: I know it shouldn't be news that Portillo is unpleasant, but (given his media rehabilitation, etc) I am sometimes surprised by it -- his behaviour last night a prime example, I hope you'll agree.

Kind of intrigued by what his game is here, I mean there's clearly more going on then "I fancy editing a newspaper" and I don't think he's really required to make Labour look like a shambles right now. Chipping away at May's authority and/or casting himself as the leader of Tory Remain/Return has to be in his thinking here.

― Matt DC, Friday, March 17, 2017 12:23 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this - or at least the idea that obviously he has an ulterior political motive - is why I'm just, idk, flabbergasted that a sitting MP is allowed to edit a newspaper

the period we're living through is "oligarchs vs norms who will win?"

also, you know, the crack-up of the union is going to spew out a LOT of residual stuff from how politics was in the 18th (and 17th) century

i don't believe there's laws or rules against it per se -- conflict of interest yes, but that is going to become a battle of interpretations before a committee if osborne digs his heels in, while the sanction of his constituents against an absentee mp is voting the bum out at the next election

if he has his eye on a way back to PM-ship (maybe via the mayorship when that becomes free), i don't think GO has much to lose tbh -- this is yet another flaming car driven into the pile of wreckage from another angle

upside: we could still end with heads on poles

downside: wrong heads

suspect there will be pushback from murdoch, rothermere and the barclays

I would be happy to cheer on Parliament passing an entirely cynical "Fuck George Osborne March 2017" bill proclaiming that you can't edit a paper and sit as an MP.

I am glad that one person has taken up my flaming car metaphor.

There is no way that TM would seek to stop GO being an MP.

The point about GO trying to be Mayor is an angle though. I hadn't thought of it. It fits with the ES. But I think he is too unpopular among many Londoners and I don't see that changing fast enough (or ever) for this to work.

the problem is we don't make flaming cars in britain any more

he looked coked out of his mind when he was on the bbc news earlier talking about this

a+ work conrad

Didn't know the owner of the ES looks like Ant & Dec & the bearded version of Action Man merged into one.

http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/pc/Evgeny+Lebedev+wdMmiW4Se9Xm.jpg

http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/pc/Evgeny+Lebedev+wdMmiW4Se9Xm.jpg

the period we're living through is "oligarchs vs norms who will win?"

s/b "oligarchs vs norms WHICH will win?" as i meant political/social/moral norms not the kinds of norms momus wd sneer at

xp Evgeny "Two Beards" Lebedev © Private Eye

perennial private eye favourite evgeny 'two beards' lebedev

https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/03/02/10/lebedevcr0.jpg

'two beards' jinx

(2 beards)²

He's Elton's beard now.

An extremely well-respected critic for one of his papers gave yer Rocket Man a panning, and he went running to Lebedev to insist the writer be fired. Lebedev fired the writer. CUNT.

thinking abt this a bit more:

i: i think lebedev is going to get creamed for the decision, by the various mouthpieces of his rival oligarchs: also the FT and the guardian (which already ran a p funny take-down by marina hyde)
ii: however i think we are so far into wtf mode in every respect that this may not deter him in the short run
iii: in the long run it's really hard to see how the standard sustains the issues that arise (quite apart from anything else, it has respected city journalists read by the city on a daily basis -- they don't want compromised fluffwork from a blackrock shill) (it will not be taken seriously by these readers if they imagine into is being massaged) (reputation once lost v hard to regain)
iv: have also read (eg stephen bush) saying it's problematic for GO's return to front-bench politics -- unless he seriously reigns in/steps on the ES's role in political gossip he makes it quite hard to maintain or develop alliances w/other sitting MPs, very much needed to become leader or anyway regain heft
v: not sure this latter will deter GO, who may be in go-for-broke damage-may and imagine he can later magic into existence what's later needed -- also i'm not sure we are in enough of an era where normal assumptions apply
vi: tho i have said for a while i don't think GO was as damaged by brexit as cam, i have never considered him a mightily adept pol
vii: entirely unrelatedly, coke and crystal meth are a hell of a drug combo

Although he was not reappointed as Chancellor after May became PM, there is no particular evidence, that I have seen, that GO is strongly motivated by a desire to do anything to Theresa May.

He is a Conservative and one of his first loyalties will be to the Conservative Party, of which she is currently leader.

Beyond that, he is extremely rich and well connected and perhaps he actually doesn't care much about May or UK politics anymore.

https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/842713111484383233

hello darkness my old friend

There's also the question of how long the Standard realistically has left as something read by a mostly decreasing number of bored commuters, bored LT staff and cabbies. If it makes it to the next GE and/or outlasts May's Premiership Lebedev and the six jobbed hard hatted bellend with barely any journo experience he just had to have might settle for that. Or this is just my hapless wishful thinking as usual (if online only by that point perhaps it simply merges with Leb's other organ to form The Indepentard).

He is a Conservative and one of his first loyalties will be to the Conservative Party, of which she is currently leader.

The Conservative Party has shown an astonishing ability to turn in on I gettself over the last 25 years at least. Europe has obscured a huge faultine running through the party between metropolitan libertarians and rural social conservatives, as well as another between toffs and social climbers. Both latter quadrants are in the ascendancy right now and Osborne is on the wrong side of both divides.

There is no way he spent over a decade as Cameron's right hand man without coveting the top job and he was seen as the heir apparent until IDS deliberately derailed his budget a year ago. He isn't going to be remotely interested in party unity at a time where there's no real threat from the opposition. He's like Blair, doing everything to put his guys back in charge. Unlike Blair he still has the opportunity to put his career back on track.

Basically there is no reason in the world to assume that Osborne will put loyalty towards a the 'wrong' part of the Conservative Party over his own ambitions.

May called Osbourne in to sack him, isn't that fairly unusual? Usually ministers are called in to be hired and those that aren't kept on are told by phone. She clearly called him in in order to humiliate him and It worked since he left by the back door.

Although he was not reappointed as Chancellor after May became PM, there is no particular evidence, that I have seen, that GO is strongly motivated by a desire to do anything to Theresa May.

RONG

What's the evidence, that you have seen?

1: "fiercely loyal to the party = fiercely loyal to the leader" is not remotely the story of the tory party since at least the 70s
2: this by itself doesn't mean everyone is plotting against everyone (or that everyone wants to be leader): obviously it's factional
3: does osborne? i don't know, maybe not
4: is he now a cheerful may footsoldier? i don't know, maybe (for now, as long as she's riding high) (which may not be that long)
5: is he basically retiring from politics to roll around in a big pile of his money ? of course not
6: reason one -- he's staying on as MP even though he has other (probably less tiresome) jobs
7: reason two -- he's about to be editor of a major newspaper, a role that (a) is going to be political every single day, and (b) will mean balancing various competing interests every other day (he can't just roll into a support-may-every-time groove, no such groove will exist)
8: besides the govt is full of other ppl who can't not rankle (hammond and bojo esp.)
9: perhaps pinefox is correct and GO is just a sweet loyal soldier all down the line; HERE'S THE THING, THAT IS *NOT* HOW MAY WILL SEE IT -- she sees someone she just sacked (and chose to publicly humiliate, whatever words were actually said in number 10) setting up a sniper's nest in full view of all… it becomes a thing she can't not have a wary eye on, in a way that just isn't the case with a journeyman journalist as editor (that's just business as usual -- this is not, bcz at any moment, as far as she's concerned" the sweet loyal soldier may seize his chance)
10: … and she will be thinking like this bcz (a) look what she just did to cam, why wouldn't his lieutenants be thinking payback? and (b) "fiercely loyal to the party = fiercely loyal to the leader" is not remotely the story of the tory party since at least the 70s and she knows it better than anyone

tl;dr: TM cannot afford to assume GO will be loyal; that unease will inflame his ambition WHETHER HE CURRENTLY SEES THIS OR NOT

(obviously the likelihood is that he crashes out of the job in just a few months bcz it's hard and he's an idiot)