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What pisses me off is that interviewers aren't asking Sunak about Braverman's comments. They could so easily say "you removed the whip from 30p Lee for saying this, but Braverman said this...what's the difference?"
the word isn’t (just) appear, it’s PRESENT. They do both, they interview each other. It’s the ultimate scumbag echo chamber.
And paid quite handsomely too - £100,000 a year for 1hr (well 50 minutes) a week in Lee Andersons case. Tory MP's don't just have a platform on GB News, it's a way of shovelling quite a lot of money into their pockets.
Endemol once sent me a reasonably famous persons contract by mistake once, for a slot on a primetime C4 show - they were't being paid £2k an hour for their time. I think its safe to say theres a large portion of that £100k thats a gift rather than a wage, its not like theres been a bidding war for his talents..
Its looking increasingly like being actively and openly Islamophobic is now part of their electoral strategy.
Initially its just assuming that Rishi is too weak to slap down Truss and Braverman, then you listen to what he actually says and its now clear he sees some kind of electoral advantage to all this
From their constant polling at 20% and Reform at 10% it looks like they're banking (probably correctly) that this percentage of the countries electorate are racist and right wing and just generally pretty unpleasant.
The Tory strategy is now to try and appeal exclusively to these people to woo Reform voters back, even if that means completely abandoning the centre ground. You could say they did that years ago, but this is unchartered territory even for them. Less dog-whistle racist, more foghorn
If thats the case then surely the few sane members of the Tory party left can't sit by while the parties rhetoric starts to become indistinguishable from the far right nutjobs of the EDL and Britain First?
Genuine question, how many Muslims actually vote Tory?
Less than 10% from memory, possibly nearer 5%
It's a low enough number for the Tories to not care about the Muslim vote, hence our dear leader staying silent
As usual, Baroness Warsi is one of the few sane Tories left and calling out the lunatics.
Genuine question, how many Muslims actually vote Tory?
i'm guessing significantly less than the number of racist/xenophobes the current rhetoric appeals to.
The Tory strategy is now to try and appeal exclusively to these people to woo Reform voters back, even if that means completely abandoning the centre ground.
Genuine question, how many Muslims actually vote Tory?
Less than 10% from memory, possibly nearer 5%
It's not so much the percentage of the population as the number of seats where it makes any difference. We don't have PR it's where muslim voters are rather than how many there are that matters to them
I don't think 'abandoning the centre ground' is part of the plan so much as trying to find ways to hold both wings together through these weird lily-livered tactics. I first noticed with May that whenever something requires either an apology or condemnation you don't do it until the clamour is so great that you have to. So you make the apology that was demanded by one wing and you signal to the the other wing that you didn't really mean it. There are people who like the idea that 'well you can't say that can you' and that there are layers of sinister woke 'them' in places of power other than 'the government' who don't let you do things or say things.
So - the' belated insincere apology' seems to be that tool - thats the glue thats stopping the tory party from fracturing apparently
Not really surprised at Lee Anderson's comments. It merely highlights the racism in the tory party that some people try to deny exists. also, it highlights a point I made a few months ago, about how the term 'Islamist' is so offensive, as it conflates Islam with extremism, when the reality is that such extremism is followed by an absolutely tiny minority worldwide.
It’s not so much the percentage of the population as the number of seats where it makes any difference. We don’t have PR it’s where muslim voters are rather than how many there are that matters to them
Us Muslims tend not to vote for right-wing politics, as they don't align very nicely with Islam itself, and our wide cultural ideals. Muslims can be very socially conservative of course, but in the UK, Muslim people have traditionally been demonised by the tories, so we're not so keen on voting for them. The tories do however enjoy a proportionally far larger support from Jewish people, particularly those from the more Orthodox communities, as tory values align far more with the very socially conservative and even insular/exclusive ideologies within religious Jewish culture. What is interesting though, is that there is far more in common between Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism than either 'side' would care to admit. Strict religious doctrine, social and cultural repression, and the subjugation of women. As a Muslim, I find few cultural symbols more offensive than the niqab; I do not believe any woman possessed of control over her own free will, would choose to wear such a restrictive, dehumanising and socially restrictive garment. Therefore I think it vital that people of all faiths and cultures should be seeking to find things that unite, not divide us. British politics right now is largely about division and subdivision of people into smaller and more manageable groups. I'm now thinking that the key to destroying the far right isn't in demonising the entire tory party, but in seeking voices from within that are much more moderate; the John Major types, of which there must be some left. Many traditional tory voters aren't racist extremist nutters, and many must be horrified to see what's happened to their party. Don't get me wrong, I've always held a special hatred of the tories, but right now is a time to find allies and to encourage solidarity, not to perpetuate and deepen division. Some might argue that this is Starmer's plan, but that would be too generous to suggest he actually has one. If a broadly liberal 'centrism' is the current most pragmatic answer, then he's already strayed far too right of that point.
Just because this current crop of Tories are particularly horrible, don't fall for the trick that they were decent people back in the day.
John Major was part of Thatchers government, which did some terrible things. Section 28 springs to mind but the list is endless.
Anyway.. Lil Rishi is gracing us northern monkeys with his pressence to once again announce alleged investment in our catastophically useless transport network.
Rob Parsons Northern Agenda newsletter is great for keeping up to speed with whats going on in Northern Politics and he's summed it up nicely today...
Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief executive Henri Murison - who probably could have funded a good chunk of HS2 himself if he had a pound for every time he’d commented on Government transport plans - was slightly withering as he gave his verdict on the airwaves this morning.
“I don’t fundamentally understand why on earth the Cabinet is coming (to Yorkshire) to simply announce something that they already told us about and that still is jam tomorrow,” he said. “Most of this money won’t be spent until later in the decade, none of it will be spent before the general election. So I think voters in the North of England will look back at the last 14 years at what hasn’t been delivered and consider that promises of what the Prime Minister might do in the next Parliament are perhaps not the most important.”
Oh I'm well aware of what evils the tories have done over the years. I hate the tories with a passion. I cracked open the champagne when Thatcher died. I would be more than happy to never see another tory government as long as I live. I'd be very content with a broadly left-leaning liberal benign dictatorship to be honest. But the only way to destroy the far right is to get the moderates to denounce them as nutters, and leave them as a squawking minority.
But yes; they all still do vote together as a party though. I am bewildered why Sayeeda Warsi is still in the tory party. She spends all of her time trying to get the rest to not be quite so hateful. At what point would you just think 'sod this for a laugh', and give up and defect?
"I am bewildered why Sayeeda Warsi is still in the tory party"
Me too to an extent - I can only think she is a committed rightwinger
Their voting records often reveal a very different reality to their public personas, Rory Stewart is a prime example of that.
Rory Stewart is a prime example of that.
Which is why he hasn't been a Tory MP since the takeover of the party by Boris Johnson and his motley asssortment of Brexiteer headbangers
I can't think of many other examples other than maybe Dominic Grieve, who Johnson removed the whip from in his clearout of those who weren't completely unhinged.
All 'moderate' voices have been driven out of the Tory party and now its just the swivel-eyed loons that remain
They were not "moderate" voices tho - all those mentioned Warsi, Stewart, Grieve were all happy to support hard right wing policies of concentrating wealth and power in the hands of the wealthy and powerful and in deliberately impoverishing those who are less fortunate.
No tory party member is anything but vile. Just some are more vile than others but every single tory MP and party member supports the decades long impoverishment of the less fortunate even tho this is actually bad for the economy. Its all about spite
There is not a tory I would piss on if they were on fire. I loathe them with every fibre of my being for the blood on their hands
I think MSP's point was that Stewart talks like a 'moderate', but lined up to vote with the swivel-eyed-loons on plenty of issues. Aside from Brexit, all the other sins of the austerity-era Conservatives were quite acceptable.
My MP is the same, seems reasonable on the face of it, but was prepared to be Chief Whip for Theresa May as she tried to force through her terrible version of the Brexit deal, so is either daft enough to believe in that shit, or has a sufficiently-flexible moral compass to make it happen anyway.
MPs frequently vote for stuff they don’t agree with.
Party Politics and all that.
Yes, let us not forget that a certain Labour leader 3 line whipped his party to [s]execute order 66[/s] envoke article 50.
He could have singlehandedly stopped brexit if he wanted to.
The whip system needs to be changed... party leaders can use it to literally blackmail MPs into voting a certain way...'vote for this or have the whip withdrawn, your choice'.
Looks like 50p is refusing to apologise now & doubling down...
50p? That's inflation for you.
execute order 66
I knew Corbyn was behind that youngling massacre.
Looks like 50p is refusing to apologise now & doubling down…
Theres apaprently a large number of Tory backbenchers (and probably cabinet members) who've privately been in touch with him to offer their support and let him know that they agree with him. I suppose in their world this kind of thing is perfectly reasonable and in no way the insane, racist ramblings of a tinfoil-helmetted, far-right headcase
Theres apaprently a large number of Tory backbenchers (and probably cabinet members) who’ve privately been in touch with him to offer their support and let him know that they agree with him.
LOL the spineless morons.... the same "bold" mob who were all bolshy before the Rwanda vote, ending up a whimpering pack of curs with the tails between their legs.
Now we have paul scully describing (parts of) Tower Hamlets and Sparkbroook as being 'no go areas'.
He's tried to 'clarify'; FFS - if it's what you mean, explain abd justify; if an MP is unable to articulate clearly, say nothing.
When will they ever learn?
Looks like 50p is refusing to apologise now & doubling down…
I just heard on the radio, 50p has said; "if you are right, you should never apologise".
Hmm... right as in wing, or right as in correct? 😀
Think what you like about Warsi‘s politics (I’ve disagreed with her on nearly everything in the past) but she was spot on with her interview on Channel4news right now. Crystal clear. Nothing that anyone should disagree with, Conservative supporter or not. Good on her. If it gets clipped and shared, someone post the interview here please.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/26/nothing-to-see-here-tories-30p-lee-islamophobia
Amusing take on the conundrum currently facing poor Rishi of how to deal with a thick racist.
Here you go Kelvin. Should play from the start of her segment.
Pretty level headed stuff. refreshing that she's willing to openly criticise her own party. I've always thought that if there was any such thing as a decent Tory, it's probably her. I guess, with a seat in the Lords she doesn't need to worry so much about toeing the party line to keep her seat on the gravy train.
She was on the last leg some time ago and they were pretty much asking her why she was a Tory
She’s absolutely bang on, except for one thing.
She hoped islamophobia and outright racism wasn’t now an electoral strategy
It’s pretty obvious by now that that’s exactly what it is. They’re just courting the far right
It wouldn’t surprise me if this was planned. In the same way that Farage could say what Boris and co, as the official (supposedly respectable) leave campaign couldn’t say during the Brexit referendum.
Now 30p Lee is outside the official fold he can act as an outlier and whip up racial division, while Rishi and Co get to shrug and say ‘nothing to do with us guv’. But the winks and nods mean they all know they’re on the same side
She was on the last leg some time ago and they were pretty much asking her why she was a Tory
My lad met her when she gave a speech at his uni - said she was very straight forward and easy to deal with. Even when he was trying to figure out how to approach miking up a middle aged Muslim baroness....
5Live were reading out a selection of texts on the subject as I was driving home tonight - one went along the lines of "I'm not racist, but he's just saying what we all know is true" and you could hear the frustration in the presenters voice.
I see there are senior Tory’s actually now using that old BNP trope that there are no go areas for whites in this country
So I think we’ve now established that this is indeed a deliberate electoral strategy from Sunak, which means if we’re not yet living in Berlin in 1935, then we’re certainly on the road there.
We now like in a country where the party of government are deliberately stirring up racist hatred for electoral advantage. I suppose this was the inevitable destination from 2016
Point of order:
Should we be calling him 30p Lee, or 50p Lee?
I know inflation has been up and down a bit recently, but it's becoming confusing.
Perhaps "-40% Lee", might be a more accurate and scalable nomenclature?
Jess Phillips is absolutely apoplectic on Peston about her constituency being referred to as a no go area due to Islamic extremists.
Tory sock puppet Mark Harper has been trotted out to defend the indefensible. The way he’s very carefully choosing his words, not actually condemning the latest nonsense, would suggest this is most definitely now an electoral strategy
Tories doing Tory stuff yet again, allowing 30p Lee to scuttle off and spout off about Islamophobia, they’ll see how it polls with their core/racist voters, if it’s favourable then they’ve been given a green light to ramp it up and introduce bans on protesting due to fears of attacks, can’t have all these potential Muslim terrorists rampaging through London shouting free Gaza.
The more I see of this the more angry I get.
Baroness Warsi is spot on - they don't have an answer on the economy, inflation, education, housing, the NHS etc and so they are focusing on racist scapegoating. And there's a significant numberbof people in this country so badly let down by governments that they will latch on to this as they are desperate for any change.
Truly is 1930s Germany. The risks are huge.
She has given the Labour party it's election broadcast material in that interview.
Yep, you have to keep a few people with undesirable traits on your Facebook feed just to keep in touch with is being fed to them.
The latest and greatest image I saw was an ai generated picture of people in burkas and Big Ben with flags on it and oddly big black crows flying around as ai sort of likes to chuck in some freebies.
It honestly didn’t make any sense at all.
There’s just a hatred that needs ‘no truth’ just more mentions of sharia law coming to you etc to stoke it up a little more.
The Tory’s are just capitalising on this, they can’t directly come out but it’s just like the Brexit campaign of letting others make the helpful lies.
I’m glad my parents aren’t on Facebook tbh.
Now we have paul scully describing (parts of) Tower Hamlets and Sparkbroook as being ‘no go areas’.
When Tories describe something as a no-go area, what they mean is "I've never been there"
would suggest this is most definitely now an electoral strategy
TBH it’s all they’ve got left and the whole Brexit leave campaign successfully paved the way.
All the lessons learned from this are going to used.
Facts are irrelevant just make stuff up,feed them what they want to hear.
“Telling it like it is” 🙁
When Tories describe something as a no-go area, what they mean is “I’ve never been there”
Its almost like the last 14 years were a dream and they didn’t the power to sort that sort of thing out.
Theres also probably nowhere to park the jet or helicopter 🙂
Should we be calling him 30p Lee, or 50p Lee?
I prefer LeeAnderthal.
Its almost like the last 14 years were a dream and they didn’t the power to sort that sort of thing out.
But of course. Have you noticed in the last few weeks maybe a month or so, that the media are beginning to effectually treat Starmer and Labour as if they are the administration? The Tories are responding to that by beginning to act like an opposition. This is how it's going to be for the next 5 years or more.
"Jess Phillips is absolutely apoplectic on Peston about her constituency being referred to as a no go area due to Islamic extremists."
I had a drive over to Sparkhill last night to have a wander around - guess how many times I was told I couldn't be there?
I'd it was another country's ruling party I'd just be academically interested in how far they can push cognitive dissonance in maintaining a "broad tent".
It's clear they're using their fringe elements, like 30p Lee, Kemi and Cruella, to try and reshape the Overton window at very short notice in a bid to do something in the GE (whenever that is).
Someone in Tufton St has done some strange estimations and seems to think if they can bootstrap together a coalition of Tory 'moderates' and the home county faithful, who lack the imagination to not vote Tory, with outright racists and bigots, and they'll somehow swing the election... But do they have a possible point? Brexit fever and wild promises delivered Boris a lovely big majority in 2019 from a not too different voting composition.
In the constituencies where they need to fight 'Reform' candidates they'll happily present as racist Tories, in the constituencies where that won't work they'll present as the party of business and 'growth'. Just don't look too hard at their colleagues or at their track record.
The problem the Tories now face whether in government or opposition is that this uneasy coalition of Money loving moderates and good old fashioned hate mongers just cannot work together for any sort of 'common good'. They've turned on the last three PMs and Lil' Rishi is barely managing to keep the current incarnation of the party in any sort of order.
Unfortunately if the last decade has taught me anything it's that the voting public are a variety pack of idiots and you can never be too sure what flavour combinations you're going to get.