Most of the decent and rational Parliamentarians are now in a place which normally you’d say shouldn’t exist in a modern democracy.

Lord Anderson of Ipswich (Crossbench), "We are in the end game now"

"The benefits of the Rwanda bill remain to be seen"

"It's costs will be measured not only in money but in principles debased"

"Disregard for our international committmments"

"Avoiding statutory protections… pic.twitter.com/mElBd5sJGn

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) April 22, 2024

The legislation does not stand up to any kind of scrutiny. It declares as safe – in perpetuity – a country which only a few decades ago was in the grip of a genocide, and has no mechanism for reversing that verdict should circumstances change.

As a nation, we are deservedly a laughing stock, and it’s still possible that a quasi-dictatorship like Rwanda will demonstrate more respect for international law and human rights by pulling the plug.

It would make me dance for joy if Rwanda now declared themselves ‘out’ and the policy got shit-canned as a result. Utter humiliation for the horrible people that propose stuff like this or back it.

But the last 8 years have taught me that nice, reasonable things rarely happen since UK politics caught the populism bug.

I’m deeply cynical about the future direction of the UK now this genie has been out of the bottle for so long.

Just imagine how much easier easier and cheaper, safer and legal it would be if we are still in the Dublin Accord

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9031/

Whilst the HoL is ridiculously flawed as a concept, it does still do a better job at challenging poor legislation than it’s elected opposite.

Yes, a large majority of UK voters are selfish, vindictive and often unable to rationally analyse what’s actually going on.

Should read:

Yes, a loud minority of UK voters are selfish, unable to rationally analyse what’s actually going on, and have been fortunate to never have needed assistance from the state so cannot empathise with those who do.

Ian Dunt is always worth a read and today’s appraisal is absolutely on the money

Rwanda: A day of shame A national obscenity and an affront to our better nature.

Particularly his denunciation of this nonsense and of Sunak….

What is there to feel better about this morning? Not much, although there is I suppose one small measure of satisfaction. Rwanda will not work. It will not stop the boats. It will not have the capacity to lighten the burden of asylum processing. It was only ever supposed to be one of Boris Johnson’s half-arsed wheezes, a clever little culture war trick to sound hard and hateful without any functional element to deliver it. Now, hopeless moral vacuity that he is, Sunak has pinned all his hopes to this plan. His entire election platform rests on this pisspoor little piece of moral brutalism, this theatrical act of cruelty. And as it fails, he will too.

Small assurances. Tiny. But they’re all we have, on a bleak and shameful morning.

Why are they dying on this hill?

5 people died in the Channel today and still they are crossing.

The threat of about a 0.06% chance of getting sent to Rwanda is not going to do a thing.

They claim they have an airline, let’s wait and see.

Some Tory nobber claiming that Kigali is safer than London today. I’ve been. If that’s the case why does every business, office space, apartment block, hotel, etc. have 8 foot high steel security fences with spikes?

Why do the private security guards outside banks carry pump action shotguns?

and have been fortunate to never have needed assistance from the state so cannot empathise with those who do.

Imagine if they could empathise with the kind of desperation that leads another human to put themselves and their young children onto a fragile bit of rubber and cast off across one of the most dangerous shipping lanes in the world..Most of them wouldn’t be prepared to walk to their local supermarket.

Some Tory nobber claiming that Kigali is safer than London today.

That’s just another shitty election talking point for them. Two birds with one stone.

 Kigali is safer than London today

Why didn’t the interviewer challenge that: “you’ve been in power for 14 years, why have you allowed London to become less safe?”

That is easy, it is all Sadiq Khan’s fault.

Ahh… looking for a positive view of this ridiculous policy for, er, balance… the BBC have turned to a right wing Australian politician.

Oh… he’s been given a role by our government… great.

Lord Anderson of Ipswich (Crossbench),

Rather bizarrely I used to MTB with him about 10-15 years ago (before he was made a lord), nice bloke and likes his bikes 🙂

I wonder what his username is?

Jivehoney?

Just watch PMQ’s.

Rayner certainly didn’t let the current scrutiny cower her!👍

Yep, quite refreshing – calling the PM a pint sized loser is pretty good (not there with tory scum though)

She probably puts as many people off her (particularly certain men) as those that like her though.

with intellectual titans like this in government its astonishing that the country is in such a mess

https://twitter.com/StephSpyro/status/1783585417243107626?t=-sypkrKvjznTn3OFbHuCGg&s=19

Remember when the Northern Ireland minister said she was genuinely surprised to discover that people in NI voted along sectarian lines?

Or when Brexit Minister Dominic Raab confessed that he hadn’t realised that living on an island we were so dependent on our ports?

A whole different world of stupid.

Its been like one long episode of The Thick Of It for ten years now

That QT clip above. K-rist.

I suppose Philip just had a world map dodging that while region as “here be dragons.”

Still, “all politicians are the same”, aren’t they?🙃

Wes Streeting’s face!

Second week running we’ve had the Labour rep on QT just looking on in pity and bemusement as the Tory rep makes an absolute arse of himself.

pic.twitter.com/hGwV21jiH9

— Chris Hind (@HindChristopher) April 25, 2024

Chris Plilp is playing a blinder on QT. tonight.

Well, if his brief was to make it look like he’s a statistic-spouting droid, totally devoid of a single shred of compassion, empathy or human decency, defending a clueless multimillionaire who hasn’t got a ****ing clue about the difficulties in real peoples lives

Get back to work you peasants! seems to be the general message

Chris Plilp

Spell it right! It’s Chris Polyp.

I suppose Philip…..

Sadly Philp is one i short of a Philip.

Although you would think that he might cough up the 50 quid to change his name by deed poll and get himself an extra i.

It would do everyone a favour by making it easier to know how to pronounce his name.

Or alternatively get rid of L

How the **** do you pronounce ‘Philp’?

He is my MP btw and despite attending two meetings where he has spoken I still don’t know what sound I am supposed to make.

I love that’s he’s pretending to write, “important person stuff”on his notepad whilst frantically trying to remember if Africa is a country or a continent.

I bet the paper just says, “F***, F***, F***.”

Charles Moore – or should I say Baron Moore of Etchingham – is a proper **** too.

“I went to Rwanda once and it was lovely’

Were you the guest of the British high commissioner in 1954 Charles? 🙄

Chris Philp should be in the cab heading back from the studio by now:

Hopefully he’s on the phone asking the Health Secretary if she could refer Dr Congo to the GMC as a matter of urgency.

The guy from the NHS Confederation is very impressive.

Nice to see Um Bongo trending on Twitter

we’re gonna get this nonsense all the way to October/November

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/26/rishi-sunak-struggling-to-smother-frenzy-of-election-rumours

The guy from the NHS Confederation is very impressive.

Victor Adebowale, Baron Adebowale – His Desert Island Discs was a good listen. Years old now but I still go back from time to time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b016kgtz

I love the fact that the right wing press went into meltdown when Angela Rayner described Rishi as a ‘pint-sized loser’ at PMQ’s, but then she’s subsequently pointed out that she was directly quoting Nadine Dorres 😂

I trust the little fella is enjoying his last week before the local elections, in the wake of which the Tory party will inevitably declare war on itself again.

I hope to god that, even just out of spite, he calls a general election as the letters go in.

California beckons…

I hope to god that, even just out of spite, he calls a general election as the letters go in.

Screaming ‘**** YOU’ at your Parliamentary colleagues is a great way to propel yourself into a month of election campaigning, but I suspect, like all the other rumours, it’s the usual scare tactics to prevent the letters going in in the first place. Would be fun if they ditched him for Mordaunt just so a sitting PM can lose their seat at a GE.

I wonder if Charles’s re-emergence has got anything to do with Rishi wanting to pop in on Monday morning for “a quick chat”?

i think Charlie had heard about Sunak’s campaign against sick note skivers & was worried he’d lose his state benefits 😉

on the subject of which

https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1784256235811770414?t=fT9UXIa-brCik9mcOSmdbg&s=19

A grifter wanting his slice of the privatisation   pie.

I’m not sure it’s that at all. I think he’s just had enough, and unless you’re Churchill, crossing the floor almost always seems to end political careers (he’s also said he’s not seeking re-election).

I think there’s a decent subset of Tory MPs who just want to get the election over with so they can get on with the next part of their lives. Poulter is in the happier position than some of them of having a career outside politics to fall back on.

Chris Philp has had 8 ministerial jobs in 4 years. Home office, justice, culture, treasury, cabinet office, minister for London, housing, home office again, this is his second attempt at it, as they just endlessly shuffled him around trying to find something he knew something about. Now they’ve given up and he’s the Minister For Being Sent On TV This Week To Look Like A Mushroom

He was Paymaster General ffs! For 11 days!

Ratherbeintobago

Poulter has made it clear he wants more privatisation and this is his wsy to get a slice of the kucrative contracts Sweeting is going to dish out.  He is going to be an adviser to labour.

Why has he only found his principles now?  Its grift pure and simple

It would make me dance for joy if Rwanda now declared themselves ‘out’

That would be nice, but the chances are some of those millions have been siphoned off to some Rwandan cabinet ministers personal offshore bank account.

So they won’t be looking to put an end to that gravy train.

Britain isn’t the only country with a government of grifters.

Why has he only found his principles now?

Funny that innit? For 14 years he was happy to be a Tory MP and yet now, just a few months before a general election, he suddenly decides that he isn’t a Tory after all and not only resigns from the party but joins Labour!

I think someone might be thinking of his post Parliamentary career – it’s likely to be a long time before the Tories are back in government – time to rub shoulders with the new political masters.

I’m glad about the defection but only in the sense that it kicks the Tories in the nuts once again. That makes me happy.