Just when you think life can’t get any worse, it suddenly does.
There we all were, public and politicos alike, positively howling for the cessation of the madness on 6th May, only to return a hung Parliament. Now we learn that the result not only means that the news media are promising to camp outside an empty House of Commons indefinitely, speculating on what Vince Cable’s tie indicates about the willingness of Tories and Liberals to co-operate on fisheries policy, but worse: that we might be re-running the electoral fun in about 18 months time. Or less.
The papers this Sunday are a pale reflection the kind of limbo-induced ennui that teenagers in Broken Britain must feel whilst whiling away the dead hours before they can get to the park bench and the Diamond White, as they attempt to fill the empty pages between now and, you know, something actually happening. For the sanity of the nation, we can only hope that Cameron and Clegg get their shit on, PDQ.
Putting a brave face on it is Observer commentator Nick Cohen who argues that all this could have a beneficial effect on the political landscape. In the less sanguine manner for which we all love him, the Mail on Sunday’s Peter Hitchens calls Cameron’s Conservatives a “cynical fake” and calls for a split between them and “traditional” Tories. The Sunday Times front page has a useful “… as established earlier in the plot” piece with the new information that chief whip, or former chief whip as we now must call him, Nick Brown has informed the Gord that the Parliamentary Labour Party will not wear a deal with the Liberal Democrats.
As various MPs call for Brown to quit, the News of the World has the gen on the leadership bids that are being planned by David Miliboy and Ed Balls, as soon as the PM decides to shuffle off this political coil. And, of course, now we know who both the candidates are, we’re expecting nothing less than a good, clean fight.
Meanwhile, both the Sunday Mirror and the Observer are reporting trouble up t’mill, as they almost certainly don’t say in the Conservative Party. Lord Ashcroft has apparently been complaining that Cameron’s decision to win the Murdoch endorsement by getting behind the Sky campaign for leaders’ debates, in his view, cost the Tories an overall majority. Other offenders fingered for the Conservatives not ruling Britannia as nature intended are Michael Gove, Oliver Letwin and, inevitably, groovy guru Steve Hilton.
Finally, the first potential expenses scandal of the new Parliament is revealed by the Sunday Times. Go on, you’ll never guess …
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19 Responses to “What we’ve learned from the Sundays”
captain swing
I suggest if you are feeling a little down, you have a decko at the right wing press. The Tories are fighting each other like rats in a sack.
What was to be a mere procession and crowning a few months ago has turned to dust and they are not happy bunnies. Lord Ashcroft is said to be furious with Cameron for doing TV debates and a lack of support over the ‘non-dom’ status row (the latter would have been a sure-fire vote winner)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/08/david-cameron-faces-tory-anger
Cameron & the Cameroons are getting it in the neck and blamed, as traditional Tories and the right wing blows a gasket.
Simon Heffer’s column in the Torygraph is particularly goood for a laugh, the comments section is not sure whether to blame the nutters in UKIP for their defeat or Cameron.
And a new strategy is emerging for the next election; an alliance with UKIP so the Tories and Farage’s tossers in blazers don’t stand against each other. A sure fire winner that one.
Billy Blofeld
“And, of course, now we know who both the candidates are, we’re expecting nothing less than a good, clean fight”
………. errrrr…… Ed Balls?
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Mr. Sensible
I wouldn’t have expected someone like the MP concerned to be caught up in expenses.
Anon E Mouse
What a surprise – more words from Sadie Smith that completely fails to address the only issue in town – why won’t Brown go?
The Labour Party under his leadership descended into an authoritarian run bunch of creeps and thugs in the Downing Street cabal.
There was never anything even remotely “progressive” about Labour with it’s control freak high taxing surveillance driven society and the people have spoken. End of.
Like I have been saying on this blog for months now – IT IS OVER. Labour resoundingly lost the election and with his results Clegg is lucky Cameron is even talking to him at all.
The people in this country did NOT vote for a new electoral system – they voted for the tories with swings not seen since the days of Thatcher and this nonsense about “more progressives didn’t vote blah blah” is just that – nonsense.
Labour never were progressive, if they were they wouldn’t have approved the third runway at Heathrow – they are just a sad bunch of sore losers who are ready to spend years in the political wilderness.
Make no mistake the first act of a Tory/Lib government might be to stop the unions funding Labour with big donations – let’s see how the party pays off it’s £29.5 million overdraft then….