David Cameron quickly announced he would be stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister after a bruising EU referendum.
A majority of voters opted for the UK to leave the European Union but it appears those running the leave campaigns were fairly ignorant of how that could and would work and the implications. David Cameron may have campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU but he misjudged the electorate. Plenty of people had waited years to be allowed a vote on British membership of the EU and no amount of campaigning could have changed their minds. But Cameron is Prime Minister and having called the referendum he should surely have worked out a Plan B? When politicians take the electorate for granted there are often consequences. Ditching his responsibilities in the aftermath of the EU referendum shows a careless disregard for his Prime Ministerial responsibilities. He rushed through the EU referendum when he had until 2020 to fulfil Tory election promises. Will the reason for the rushed referendum become clear later this year? Was it for the personal or career reasons of David Cameron? There could be many other reasons though. Wednesday we will find out who is throwing their name into the would be Conservative leader hat. Those predicted to stand are Boris Johnson, Theresa May, Stephen Crabb, Sajid David and Liam Fox with Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan possibly in the mix. Tories have just 24 hours to declare their leadership intentions. The new leader will be in place by September 9. At time of writing Boris Johnson is leading the field as far as nominations goes. He is reportedly being advised by the Tories favourite PR guru Lynton Crosby. Johnson has indicated that if he wins the Tory leadership race he will not hold an early General Election but rather expect the electorate to simply accept a fait accompli. While the Tory party sort out their own affairs the country is left in limbo. Cameron will not invoke Article 50 which will trigger the UK's exit from the European Union. That will be up to his successor and following his logic his successor must surely be a Tory MP who campaigned for BRexit? David Cameron is determined his political legacy will not be the man who took the UK out the EU but like it or lump it that is what he has done. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36656752
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 Ms Alexander and Mr Corbyn Sunday is going to be a day of political double dealing with the Labour Party taking the heat away from the Tory Party which is split beyond belief. Labour Party leading lights are now in the process of splitting the Labour Party; Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party and he has rightly refused to resign. The Labour coup has been bubbling away since Mr Corbyn was elected September 12, 2015 but they are now using the EU referendum result and campaign as a reason. Labour party backstabbers are looking at legal options to prevent Mr Corbyn being on the ballot paper if a leadership challenge is launched. It will be interesting to see which Labour MPs declare their intent. Hilary Benn was sacked from the shadow cabinet by Mr Corbyn around 1am Sunday and later the same morning Heidi Alexander resigned from her post. In current style Ms Alexander posted her resignation letter, which is shown below, on Twitter;  Someone on Twitter pointed out that Ms Alexander's letter is dated 2015.
More as available. http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/british-political-scene/hilary-benn-sacked-heidi-alexander-resigns-as-uk-politics-gets-nasty  Just when the Tory Party is ripping itself apart in private the Labour Party opts for a very public battle.
After Jeremy Corbyn learned Saturday that Hilary Benn was part of a leadership coup he sacked him over the telephone. Benn was already scheduled to appear on the Andrew Marr show at 9 am Sunday and appear he did. He controlled the interview managing to ignore the question of whether he was part of a coup or not. Saturday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed he was going nowhere but it seems the Parliamentary Labour Party and shadow cabinet have other ideas. They have been looking at legal ways to keep him of the ballot in the event of another Labour leadership challenge. Heidi Alexander was first to quit the shadow cabinet Sunday. She published her resignation letter dated 2015 on Twitter. Since then the usual suspects have been making their self-serving plans plain on Twitter. Here are a few: De Piero to Corbyn: Your refusal to engage with issue of freedom of movement means profound disconnect between you and voters who elected me. That was tweeted by Wes Streeting and followed by Just hearing @GloriaDePiero has now quit shadow cabinet. I'd urge anyone who thinks that our leadership is credible and competent to spend 30 minutes watching this: Jeremy Corbyn The Outsider Vice News. Again from Wes Streeting who is being a busy boy Sunday. He is not getting it all his way though @wesstreeting I'd urge you to resign. You're going against the membership tweeted a Corbyn supporter. Others at it include John McTernan who tweeted "Calling the Parliamentary Conservative Party - this is for you" followed by this tweet from Momentum "Show your support for Jeremy with the 'I'm with Corbyn' twibbon." Another young careerist .@TristramHuntMP: we are in a national crisis and the Labour leader should hold government to account #Murnaghan chose Sky News. Alastair Campbell opts for "A man who could actually be a good Foreign Secretary sacked by someone who could never be Prime Minister." Stella Creasey "Most of us in labour worked our socks off for #Remain vote - to see just how others in positions of influence half hearted about it gutting!" And of course the BBC are as always in the mix "Labour MPs Ian Murray & Lilian Greenwood to quit shadow cabinet, @bbclaurak understands bbc.in/264XBZu." And within no time Murray resigned life on air on BBC Scotland. Again some in the Labour Party top ranks feeding the mainstream media snippets that should be private. Some MPs are being more polite than they often are on Twitter. For it has to be said that those MPs who complain of maltreatment on Twitter are often good at stirring the pot and antagonising. Ian Austin retweeted from an alleged activist "Spent yesterday afternoon talking to lifelong Labour voters in my ward. Not a single one felt Labour can win with current leadership." Check out the Twitter timelines of the usual Bitterite brigade for the latest display of party disloyalty. The country needs political unity at this time and will never forgive those in Labour intent on ripping it apart at such a crucial stage of the game. And the latest news is that "Nicola Sturgeon says MSPs at Holyrood could veto Brexit." The UK is in a terrible mess, politicians are peeing on voters as they play games and the best some in the Labour Party can manage is an internal coup. They are of course guaranteeing the Tories election success in the event of a snap General Election. And as I end this report Stephen Kinnock is talking on the BBC and is obviously up to his neck in the coup. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36633244 http://www.itv.com/news/update/2016-06-26/shadow-scottish-secretary-ian-murray-resigns-reports-claim/  Things have been moving fast in some ways since Friday morning newscasters announced that a majority in the UK had voted to leave the European Union.
It may look as if nothing has really happened but leaving the EU would never be instantly achievable. Overnight Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn sacked his foreign secretary Hilary Benn sending him to the backbenches but plots and coups are crossing the two main political parties. It shows how self-indulgent both the Tories and Labour have become. Here is a round up of recent developments:
They claim a General Election is likely and that he is unable to lead Labour to victory but local election results do not support that view. Perhaps some Labour leading lights prefer the politics of old new Labour abhorred by many voters. As expected the mainstream media blamed Mr Corbyn somehow for the OUT vote though it was a tory-based referendum. Sadly some senior Labour politicians also blame Jeremy. On rolling TV news Sunday Ben Bradshaw did as much though he did say the Labour IN campaign was not overall Corbyn's; after all it was Alan Johnson who ran that campaign. So as the UK stands on the brink of uncertainty the two main political parties are opting for self-indulgent politics. Cameron is ditching his responsibilities and the Tories are in disarray with accusations of election expense fiddling from 2015 still to play out; but in-fighting in the Labour party and attacks on Mr Corbyn are taking the heat from the Tories. Expect this story to be updated throughout Sunday as an Eton Mess becomes something entirely different. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-hilary-benn-sacked-shadow-cabinet-resign-jeremy-corbyn-eu-referendum-a7103916.html
Op-ed: Having watched the European Union in / out referendum until the wee small hours of Friday morning, around 4.30am in fact, sleep has been brief. But even so posting this report around 8.30am much has changed; UK PM David Cameron has announced he is stepping down and will be gone by October. By the time our coverage of results as they came in ended main TV news sources had declared the LEAVE campaign was the winner. Having taken a chance and called an EU referendum Cameron was a political dead man walking as soon as LEAVE took the lead. Fear tactics by Cameron's REMAIN campaign acted as reverse psychology in some cases and failed. Thursday night as results began ro roll in some senior Tory MP's on both sides threw their support behind the Prime Minister but he was doomed. The UK now faces a series of challenges including:
The EU referendum story still has some way to go. Updates as available http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/eileen-kersey/eu-referendum-results-as-they-come-in
Op:ed: It is June 23, 2016 and finally the polls are open and the electorate are voting on whether the future of the UK lies within the European Union or without.
It could be a long night if you are keenly awaiting the result or you may opt to wake up and take it as it comes Friday; if you have work committments you may have little choice. Either way do not expect the unnecessary amount of hyperbole to vanish any time soon. With accusations of fear tactics and the politics of hate most people will simply be glad when voting ends. Healing communities and other politiucal splits will not be easy. The Tory Party may claim they will unite post the EU referendum but that will not be easy. They are a fractured political party which is bad news for the country as they operate a majority government. However with a majority of just 12 the Tories are on the ropes. Michael Gove has hinted that he will resign if BRemain win the day and it will not take many resignations for the government to fall. Chancellor George Osborne has threatened a tough emergency budget if the the people vote for BRexit but to be fair he has more austerity measures on the cards anyways. An IN vote may stay his hand but come the Autumn statement Osborne still has a range of budget cuts to fulfil. At our local polling station, these days a church, staff reported voting had been very brisk this morning. We turned up late morning and there were plenty of other elderly neighbours making their way to the church to vote. But there were young people. One young man had a rather sleepy and grumpy looking young boy nestled to his shoulder; I knew just how the lad felt. It is hot and muggy locally and, although we escaped the flash flooding experienced in parts of southern England Wednesday night, rain is forecast. Wild storms, a mini tornado and torrential rain left parts of southern England under water Thursday morning. One polling station in Kingston [image above] has had to close due to flooding. Polls are open until 10pm. If you leave it until the last minute and others have done the same you could lose out. News channels in the UK will begin coverage of counting around the country from 9.55pm GMT. Related reading: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/michael-gove-says-resign-britain-8252387 http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/eileen-kersey/will-europe-move-the-goalposts-post-uk-membership-referendum http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/british-political-scene/will-osborne-dish-out-cuts-post-election-and-eu-referendum http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/23/uk-weather-storms-light-up-the-skies-as-rain-and-floods-expected/  Jo Cox in the centre November 2015 A message from Jeremy Corbyn on the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.
The whole of the Labour Party and Labour family - and indeed the whole country - will be in shock at the horrific murder of Jo Cox today. Jo Cox had a lifelong record of public service and a deep commitment to humanity. She worked both for Oxfam and the anti-slavery charity, the Freedom Fund, before she was elected last year as MP for Batley and Spen – where she was born and grew up. Jo was dedicated to getting us to live up to our promises to support the developing world and strengthen human rights – and she brought those values and principles with her when she became an MP. Jo Cox died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy, listening to and representing the people she was elected to serve. It is a profoundly important cause for us all. Jo was universally liked at Westminster, not just by her Labour colleagues, but across parliament. In the coming days, there will be questions to answer about how and why she died. But for now all our thoughts are with Jo’s husband Brendan and their two young children. They will grow up without their Mum, but can be immensely proud of what she did, what she achieved and what she stood for. We send them our deepest condolences. We have lost a much loved colleague, a real talent and a dedicated campaigner for social justice and peace. But they have lost a wife and a mother, and our hearts go out to them. Related: http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/eileen-kersey/labour-mp-jo-cox-shot-and-stabbed https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/16/labour-mp-jo-cox-shot-in-west-yorkshire  On June 1, we reported "Ken Livingstone is out of Labour's NEC race 2016 but who will replace him? Well it will not be NEC hopeful Rhea Wolfson following a Constituency Labour Party meeting" we added With accusations that Labour's Jim Murphy had attended a CLP meeting and urged attendees not to vote for Rhea allegations and counter allegations flew around social media. We titled our report "Rhea Wolfson blocked from NEC by old new Labour" Thursday Rhea Wolfson posted a statement on the current state of play and it looks like she is back: STATEMENT FROM RHEA |
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British political scene
The next General Election in the UK may not be scheduled any time soon but the British political landscape is changing. With that in mind this blog will concentrate on the political scene but with a left wing perspective. Opinion pieces and news will bring you the stories that the MSM prefer to ignore. Archives
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