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Category: Coalition

A possible Westminster by-election opportunity for the LDs – Brecon where the MP has just pleaded guilty to fraud

A possible Westminster by-election opportunity for the LDs – Brecon where the MP has just pleaded guilty to fraud

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The last two elections in Brecon & Radnor where the MP has just pleaded guilty to parliamentary expenses fraud. This was a seat held by the LDs from 1997 to 2015 pic.twitter.com/dwFTWMEDLh — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 22, 2019 It was held by the LDs from GE1997 to GE2015 This morning the MP for Brecon and Radnor, Christopher Davies, pleaded guilty to parliamentary expenses fraud. He awaits sentence. If he receives a custodial sentence of a year or more than…

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Has the ERG won?

Has the ERG won?

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The sight of long-standing opponents of the EU voting on Tuesday against leaving the EU because May’s Withdrawal Agreement was not “proper Brexit” must have infuriated those MPs who voted for the deal despite not wishing to leave the EU. Ken Clarke, for instance. What a “proper Brexit” is will probably end up being the Schleswig-Holstein question of our time. (“The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who…

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Are we on the point of breakthrough?

Are we on the point of breakthrough?

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This may mean nothing at all but May, Juncker, Barnier, Tim Barrow looked ABSOLUTELY delighted arriving tonight in Strasbourg — Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) March 11, 2019 It’s begun. #Brexit pic.twitter.com/F4PNvxnS3f — Samuel Stolton (@SamuelStolton) March 11, 2019 EU27 source says that May thinks a UK unilateral statement on the backstop will help Cox change his legal advice. The challenge: statement can’t be something EU objects to as it'd be pointless. EU could just have its own unilateral statement saying the…

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Crisis, what crisis?

Crisis, what crisis?

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The 1979 Callaghan Winter of discontent press conference – the basis of the Sun’s famous “Crisis What Crisis” headline A crisis broken down into key elements For lovers of scandals and crises, the last few years have provided rich pickings, a surfeit, even.  Scarcely an institution has been untouched: the NHS – from Morecambe Bay to the Francis Report  on Stafford to Gosport, the police, the charity sector – from Amnesty to Oxfam, newspapers, the BBC, MPs and their expenses, Parliament and…

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The Ladbrokes 3/1 on a deal being agreed looks like a value bet

The Ladbrokes 3/1 on a deal being agreed looks like a value bet

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I’ve just had a small wager at 3/1 with Ladbrokes that a deal that the Commons “meaningful vote” will secure the backing of MPs for the deal.This is what the Indy’s John Rentoul wrote after yesterday’s cabinet meeting: “..the chances of Theresa May getting her Brexit deal through parliament are rising. I think it is now the most likely outcome, with the UK leaving the EU on 29 March or a few weeks later. Partly, this is because it is…

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Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather

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Many Tories seem to think that, however bad their problems, they are as nothing compared to the complaints about bullying and anti-Semitism so widely canvassed by ex-Labour MPs this week. They have yet to be accused of racism by tearful MPs, the polls appear to put them in a small lead and once Brexit is sorted they can get back to doing what they do best, or so the hope appears to be. (Though whether a party which claims to have…

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Labour needs a better response than the TIGers should resign and fight by-elections

Labour needs a better response than the TIGers should resign and fight by-elections

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If LAB had demanded that Jared O'Mara quit his Sheffield Hallam seat then its calls for the seven to resign and have by-elections would carry more weight. — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) February 18, 2019 Can we please stop repeating the lie that it's a "convention" for defecting MPs to trigger a by-election? Since WW2, 69 MPs have switched from 1 party to another (not including party mergers, withdrawals of the whip, & sitting as an Independent). Only 4 triggered by-elections….

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