“Cat (not dead!) on table” – will this strategy backfire?
Well, we did wonder if and when the Tories were going to plonk a dead cat on the election table. Now we know: they did. Yesterday we heard that four MEPs of TBP had left, calling for voters to vote Tory and for Nigel Farage to ‘swallow his pride and pull out of the campaign’, with the customary plea that Nigel Farage ‘has won nearly everything’ and should be content with Johnson’s BRINO.
It is astounding that these four, together with the commentariat in the MSM, apparently believe that we voters are still so ‘traditional’ that we tug our forelocks and obey their command because they’re MEPs.
Apparently it’s not even all over yet as the DT ‘has learned’ that four more MEPs of TBP might jump ship (paywalled link). One wonders if it occurs to those alleged wobblers that it’s their shenanigans which might hand Corbyn the victory. Back to what happened yesterday: we were alerted to this defection shortly before 10am in The Express where we find this statement from a TBP spokesman:
“We also note that one of the MEPs is the sister of a Cabinet Minister, another has a partner who works in the office of the same Cabinet Minister and yet another is a personal friend of both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. In the case of John Longworth, who was for years the firmest advocate of WTO withdrawal that we have ever met, he underwent a metamorphosis into being a supporter of the new EU treaty following two days of meetings in London. We hope that Mr Longworth is well rewarded for his actions.” (link)
Ouch. But don’t worry – they still retain their wonderful jobs as MEPs! Their letter to Nigel Farage is here – and in addition to their press conference (here) John Longworth penned an article for the DT (paywalled link). Here’s a quote from their letter:
“As we have tried to suggest to you over the past few months, we believe the Brexit Party has taken a wrong turn and is itself putting Brexit in jeopardy. We believe the current Brexit Party strategy risks the UK remaining in the European Union and this is not something we feel able to support.” (link)
Why and how TBP has ‘taken a wrong turn’ – that they do not explain, and why should they when the ‘wrong turn’ was Nigel Farage not supporting Johnson flat out!
Let me provide you with another clue that this defection was well-planned in advance. See this gleeful little report in order-order, about TBP’s ‘Head of Digital Strategy’ having left a couple of weeks ago:
“[TBP’s] Head of Digital Strategy and deputy Head of Digital quit two weeks into the election. Given their lack of air time, digital ads were crucial to their success… Ed Jankowski, who joined the party in April, left a fortnight into the election due to frustration at the party’s ideological – not data-driven – kamikaze campaign. The Brexit Party currently has no active Facebook ads just a week before the general election…”
One wonders where Mr Jankowski has ended up – did he have some offers from Tory head honchos he couldn’t refuse? Are we seeing the dark hand of a certain Mr Cummings in all this? So – to Mr Longworth. He has the gall to write:
“Thank goodness for the EU elections which, via the Brexit Party, were instrumental in seeing a change of leadership of the country and a new Withdrawal Agreement, one which is in fact Brexit. Given the right outcome of the negotiations on future arrangements, as set out in the Political Declaration, we can have, as the PM says, a “great deal”. Hurrah!” (paywalled link)
Oh dearie me! He has obviously not spoken with his fellow MEP Mr Ben Habib, whose articles on the fallacies of this PD we have published. Perhaps he was soft-soaped by Mr Martin Howe QC who found lots to criticise in Johnson’s BRINO but ended up, just like Mr Longworth, declaring it was ‘the best and only deal’ to be had.
Given the Remain shenanigans in the previous Parliament, bound to be repeated because so many of those Remain Tories and Labour MPs will come back thanks to TBP’s withdrawing from all Tory seats and their warfare against TBP generally and Nigel Farage particularly, this shows that Mr Longworth and the ‘Gang of Four’ must be dangerously naive. He does let the cat out of the bag, showing that this is about giving the Tories the victory:
“I realise for some it will require holding of noses, but this election is a defining moment for the future of our country and in my view, it is so important as to put country above party.” (paywalled link)
Why should we hold our noses when we might listen to Farage who said yesterday that this election has turned into one of ‘not to vote’ for? There’s more: in a GE where Nigel’s Party looks to make major gains, be it UKIP, be it TBP, he and his Party are always told to ‘put country before party’ – the others, mostly the Tories, never ever would do so in their wildest dreams, nor have they ever.
I was therefore not surprised to find this ‘advice’ in the DM. They’re a few days early this time round – in 2015 they published their ‘advice on the Tuesday before polling day. The headline says it all: “How you can stop Brexit Party killing off Brexit: The 19 seats where Farage’s party could hand victory to Labour”. Why they don’t tell voters not to vote Tory where TBP could stop Labour – we can have a good guess …!
Call me a cynical old so-and-so, call me a conspiracist if you wish, but isn’t it remarkable how this defection was timed to perfection. It was well known that Nigel Farage would face Andrew Neil that same evening, in one of Neil’s famous, merciless interviews. However, as all who watched the two lock horns saw, the aim of making the defection the main subject backfired.
The unanimous verdict of friends and colleagues – many of whom are not Nigel fanboys – who watched this interview was not just that Nigel Farage won, but that Andrew Neil was outclassed, struggling to get any sort of ‘hit’ on Farage. Andrew Neil attracted their final ire for cutting short the interview and then ‘empty-chairing’ Johnson (here). The BBC couldn’t have made their partisanship any more obvious.
The sketch writers had a field day, from Littlejohn in the DM (here), Quentin Letts in The Times who penned the title “Kamikaze quartet fly off Nigel Farage’s message” (link, paywalled), to Mr Deacon in the paywalled DT – the least said about that the better. You can read the comments under that piece of work without having to pay.
The prize for schoolboy nastiness goes to Mr Martin in RemainCentral. It’s worth quoting some of it because nothing demonstrates better that and how the MSM have understood nothing. Under the title “Pipe down Nigel, you need the Tories to win” (link, paywalled), we read:
“The godfather of Brexit can claim his place in history but only if he resists the urge to undermine Boris Johnson. Ironically, the person who seems least capable of grasping that Farage has all but won is narcissistic Nigel himself. With Britain’s departure dependent on Boris Johnson getting a working majority by unifying the Leave vote, it was obvious Farage should never have chosen to fight 275 seats in this general election.” (link, paywalled)
Ahem. Didn’t TBP already stand down their candidates in all Tory seats, Remain-held or not? Wasn’t that sufficient for the Tories? Did they think they could get all Leave voters, even in the Red ‘heartland’? Really? More:
“Farage is probably right that the Conservative Party should have agreed some form of pact with him months ago. An arrangement in 20 seats or so where the Conservatives have never won would have made sense in this election, giving non-Tory voters a chance to unseat Labour MPs in the party’s traditional heartlands. […] Once [Johnson] had decided not to form any kind of deal with Farage […] it meant Brexiteers subsuming all other concerns and ego-trips beneath the priority of securing a Tory majority. Consumed by self-obsession, Farage missed this central point.” (my emphasis) (link, paywalled)
No more needs to be said! All must submit to the mighty Johnson because: BRINO! It’s odd, isn’t it, that there’s only one politician who has a ‘monstrous ego’, and that only he can ‘wreck Brexit’. All the other leaders, females and males alike, are of course nothing but humble servants of the Nation. They only try to wreck TBP and especially Nigel Farage out of the goodness of their hearts and because they are concerned about Brexit. Yeah right.
There is one more point to make. This attack against Nigel Farage, cloaked in the honeyd words of the Gang of Four’ and the ensuing gleeful reports in the MSM is the Tory Party’s insurance policy should there be a hung parliament or worse, should Red get into No 10.
Their ‘excuse’ will be that it was all the fault of TBP who should never have dared to stand anywhere. We voters are of course still the mindless sheep who need only to decide between Red and Blue. Anyone who dares disturb this set-up must be squashed.
Behind that ‘argument’ I discern the fear of the establishment, not of losing a seat or two, but of the stated aim of TBP and Nigel Farage to work at changing the political system which has given us a HoL with more ‘lords’ than MPs, with postal voting that is open to fraud, and with a FPTP system that does need to be overhauled. Changing constituency boundaries, talked about since 2010, would be a good start.
Keeping their bums on the green benches – that’s what this is about. Brexit? Have BRINO, and God forbid that TBP and Nigel Farage disturb their cosy set-up!
KBO!
Photo by ilandil
The predictable pre election turncoatery. NTAT especially those in turquoise temporarily. In sunny Athens ATM escaping all the crap and have seen lots of Hellenistic flags but not a single Starry Spincter. Kudos. Will be back in time to vote or spoil.
Well folks I’ve already said how much I like and respect Nigel Farage’s integrity. I’ve already said Boris’s WA does NOT commit us to all the things we know the EU want to grab and hold on to. It is Article 50 folks that has been the demon all along.
Now let’s all agree on the TWO essentials for this election. KEEP CORBYN OUT.
WELCOME Brexit/Ukip MPs that make it.
Nigel’s biggest mistake was standing down in ALL seats won by the Conservatives in 2017. He should only have stood down in seats won by pro Leave MPs, as a pro Remain Tor MPy is every bit as bad for Brexit as a pro Remain Labour MP.
Possibly he made the grand gesture in the hope of some quid-pro-quo from the Tories, such as standing down their candidates in Labour seats they can never win. This would have been the sensible, nation before party option but I think this was blocked by Tory grandees as they fear a centre right alternative far more than they fear Labour.
What this means in my case is I’ll go to the polling station & spoil my ballot by writing in Brexit Party with a ticked box, as I’ve had it with the Tories.
Very well said Mike. The cowardly UNconservatives and their neo-marxist media acolytes are terrified of Farage and TBP because they are upsetting the cosy duopoly cartel. So the more people who do like you and write NOTA ” Brexit Party” on the ballot paper the better. Because of Farage’s gesture, large swathes of the country now have not a single candidate standing who isn’t either Remain or in favour of Johnson’s associate EU membership. When we think that 406 constituencies voted Leave, what does this tell us about thevappalling chasm between people and Parliament?
Nigel Farage admitted in ‘that’ interview that ‘changing the face of politics’ had not yet been completed. But he pointed out, quite rightly that forming a new Party and getting massive support in the EU election HAD certainly had an effect on how politics are now viewed. He seemed to be claiming that he’d helped ‘get rid of May’. That is probably going too far. Maybe Brexit Party had some effect on Tories electing their strongest Brexiteer available as leader.
It was widely accepted that Nigel and UKIP were a large part of the pressure on Cameron’s Tories to call the Referendum (and I believe to get a sensible question on the paper).
He HAS done a lot of what he wanted to do all along. All who watched the mess of the ‘hung’ parliament are surely now wondering how ‘politics’ needs changing. Good luck to him. I don’t agree with everything he says but I do agree with those who are still saying he has integrity.
The character abuse and denigration of Nigel is getting feverish. You notice that no one, absolutely no one, political or media, ever refutes what he says; no one says go to this or that para of the agreement and you will see he is wrong. Because they can’t and he isn’t.
In these days, when everyone pays lip service to ‘openness and transparency,’ has no one noticed that the WA has been ruthlessly suppressed?
‘The man in the street’ is never asked what they think they know about its effect on our fishing or our military, or any other major heading. They wouldn’t know any more than the interviewer would know. The media do not give us the kind of line-by-line interpretation of which they are usually so fond.
TV newspaper reviews have dropped all pretence at impartiality and are now a Remain propaganda fest. Yet last night, by accident I have to say, I caught one saying that the reason Boris will not face Andrew Neil is that he and the Tories are sh*t scared that Neil would quiz him forensically on aspects of the WA, drawing that shadowy document into the limelight, and that is the last thing they want. And yet these people still can’t, or wilfully won’t, see what’s staring them in the face. Having explained what the Tories were scared of, she never moved on to the obvious question of WHY that scared them. But the rabidly pro-Remain Daily Mail is now rabidly pro-Boris, so it is pretty obvious for those who wish to see.
So the projection and the irony accelerate day by day. Projection, which the leftists, with their total lack of self-awareness and lacking substantive argument, have turned into their first resort, has now been adopted by the Tories too, in respect of their attacks on the Brexit Party.
And irony because Nigel is the only person on the political scene for whom the election is demonstrably NOT all about themselves. He spent 20yrs in the wilderness, 25yrs being roundly abused and traduced; he doesn’t resort to ad hom, mis-direction or rote party soundbites in place of a reasoned answer; enjoys a good argument (as did Thatcher), people who know their stuff always do. And for a man who was branded the leader of fruitcakes and loonies it is amazing how many of his pithy phrases have been blatantly stolen for themselves by his accusers: Australian style points system; take back control; to name but two.
But hang on, didn’t the Withdrawal Agreement become perfectly acceptable after Johnson made a little video saying the transition period would last no longer than the end of 2020 and, by then, he’d have negotiated a Super Canada Plus Trade Deal with the EU? Well, at least it became acceptable to Nigel and that’s all that matters.
As for Nigel’s pithy phrases, how about the one when UKIP and Tommy Robinson organised a march in support of Brexit (a cause you’d have though Nigel would be all in favour of) and Nigel ridiculed the participants, saying they’d be a load of drunken louts with tattoos up to their eyebrows? Yes, that’s certainly one that sticks in your mind.
So after all the pantomime of an election it looks like we end up with a house of commons dominated by Remain MPs and a eurosceptic Remain supporting PM. Something is going wrong somewhere!
Matt up north – sorry to disagree Matt – but I think everything is going wrong everywhere – except perhaps in the unflagging perception of Viv.
What a ‘dame’.
She continues to lift my spirit – (a bit like Vera Lynn!) – frankly I don’t need to go to the ‘Oracle’ – I just need to be bolstered from time to time by an article or two from Viv.
By gum! She knows her stuff!
If I hadn’t been married for sixty years, and tipping the scales at 83 – I’d be ‘making a play’ for that girl.
She is such a stalwart – no-nonsense person – and one day I hope she steps back onto the political stage. She is Oscar material among a throng of weak-willed second-rate bit players.
Her material should be read (twice!) by everyone who supports the future independence and success of our great country.
Good luck Viv!
Totally agree. This article especially lifted my spirits. Someone at last who sees things as I do.
It may look all very complicated and full of cut and thrust among ourselves.
But haven’t the EU played a predictably brilliant game.
We have now arrived at the Gordon Brown surrender position where he apparently “so reluctantly” signed the Lisbon treaty which was meant to be substantially different from its predecessor rejected by various European nations including Ireland if I remember correctly.
Obviously I am not of such a pay grade to actually quote chapter and verse, but I would voice my greatest suspicion that much of this oven ready oeuvre producer is the usual cut and paste operation of the notorious Mrs May era,termed if I remember correctly as a surrender document by Boris (he who knows all about humbug)
EU divide and rule reigns OK it’ their established default position!,just as they established a default method of handling Greece and Cyprus situations?
But……..when all’s said and done the main game now is ensuring by any means that Corbyn and his gang get nowhere near Downing Street. Remember the Scottish Nationalists were never meant to get the keys to a Scottish Parliament after Devolution,it is my impression that should Corbyn succeed and get his hands on the goodies, that will be a first step to a regime devoid of any democracy (Dictatorship/Totalitarianism of the Far Left)
It will be interesting to see what the election result will be….for me it would be very ,very interesting if after all these polls predicting a Tory victory were wrong and there is a hung parliament with a Tory party having greatest number of seats but having to rely on a small number of Brexit party MPs to hold the balance of power
”a small number of Brexit party MPs to hold the balance of power. . . . ”
how about none??
BETTING
Brexit Party Seats
PaddyPower
0 Seats.- 1/5
1-50….- 7/2
51-100..-100/1
Brexit Party – Total Seats (Under/Over)
BetVictor 12 of Dec, 17:04
Under 0.5.- 2/9
Over 0.5..- 3/1
The bookmakers are no reliable guide to election outcomes. They were hopelessly wrong about the Referendum where they predicted a 4 to 1 on Remain victory..
The Bookmakers only reflect the placing of bets by gamblers and produce their odds in no other way.
Direct Polling within constituencies would be the only way to get a good steer on likely outcomes.
The hypocrisy of this gang of four – I have attended meetings at which they spoke out against the Tories not being trustworthy. They used the many decent people who gave their time and money to campaign for the BXP and get these narcissists elected. No apology to the little folk.
The establishment, a cartel of media and the usual entitled parties who like the first past the post system, continue to crush “changing politics for good”. Those four snakes stood under that banner. They are egregious liars.
Lucy Harris has even sacrificed her own achievement of Leavers for London/Britain. She cannot now call another meeting. There would be too many angry people at it. I would be one of them.
As I will not be in the UK for the election my proxy is already primed and ready to go. Thankfully I have a TBP candidate to vote for and am prepared to ignore the noise and vote for him. It was that or spoil my vote as I simply cannot support the Cons and Boris the Liar.
I found this concise summary of his deal by the Bruges Group:
The Treaty permanently restricts our military independence, demands payment of an unspecified sum, prevents independent arbitration, grants EU officials immunity from UK laws, leaves us with EIB contingent liabilities running into tens if not hundreds of billions and will impose punitive laws on the UK during a transition which is likely to be extended until mid-2022 (just a few months before the next General Election).
The Political Declaration is such that a future FTA with the EU is made unpalatable because it will restrict our foreign policy and military independence as well as policies in trade, tax, fishing, environment, social and employment, competition and state aid. Free movement is replaced with vague notions of “mobility” and “non-discrimination”.
Maybe it will be useful to pass on to any acquaintances taken in by the Lies of Boris…
Jack Thomas. I am absolutely SURE that Boris’s WA DOES NOT permanently restrict our military independence. I have read it and various interpretations of it. If I remember rightly the restriction on militatry independence was to do with military requisitions which are only restricted until the end of the transition period and though that could be extended WE can say no. EU CAN NOT force us to extend. WE CAN ALSO SAY NO to all their required conditions for negotiating a FTA.
WE ARE NOT FORCED to have a FTA. WE ARE NOT FORCED to extend the transition period.
While the WA has not actually got what we want it has got us past the Article 50 first stage without in fact irrevocably losing anything. I believe as soon as it is ratified we can make trade arrangements WTO. Presumably that is so – that is why DUP are against it. So we get something of what we want.
ALL THE REST is still open to NEGOTIATION. We know EU is BLOODY MINDED. Personally I think Boris can be Bloody minded too. And personally I also think, unlike previous Tories, he is able to take his party with him.
“I realise for some it will require holding of noses, ‘ Have I got news for you I and many others have ‘held our noses’ since the ‘Grey Man,’ ‘the man of something of the night, the ‘bald baseball cap man’ , The ‘quiet Man’, The ‘Camera man’, just to help keep the other lot out only to be ignored while they keep their comfortable smug world and gravy train going,
only to be repaid by the ‘May Shambles’ and the latest ‘comedian.’ I’d rather vote for the ‘dead cat’ and probably will, if the voters vote for a hung parliament , I trust they will get exactly what they deserve.
You might like to take a look at this article in ‘The Conservative woman’, where, in addition to what Iw rote above, there’s another interesting aspect mentioned by John Smith, i.e. the repercussions of this in seats where TBP has a very good chance of winning from Labour.
That emphasises my argument, that this is about destroying TBP.
EDIT: in my haste i forgot to post the k
link:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/shame-on-these-meps-for-their-blatant-act-of-sabotage/
So many ignorant posters on there who believe the Boris WA is the leaving that we voted for.
Farage said that leading UKIP was like herding cats. Well, it looks like UKIPs cats were far more loyal and committed to ‘changing the face of politics than his new feline friends, particularly the British blue variety.