Camilla Tominey is nearly hysterical in The Telegraph this morning (HERE) writing breathlessly about how bad the Tories are going to do in the European elections (if we get to them) or in a general election (assuming Theresa May is having suicidal thoughts). The voters are apparently set to 'punish' the Conservative party for NOT delivering Brexit. Oddly, they are supposed to be in danger of losing 48 seats, while Labour, also guilty of not delivering Brexit, is set to gain 61 seats! Not sure how that works.
And in what I can only describe as a real bonus, Ian Duncan Smith stands to lose his seat (oh happy day) along with Andrea Jenkyns. If that happens I will be down at The Wheatsheaf to celebrate in style immediately. It would be the irony of ironies if IDS is ousted. He has spent his entire life trying to get us out of the EU. He was working on Brexit before he knew what it was and now he is within spitting distance of his goal and he loses his job - how ungrateful, how fantastic.
I also like the way the sub-editor writes under the main picture, "...even prominent Brexiteers [..] are at serious risk...". Did they think Brexiteers are immune from losing their seats then?
The Liberal Demcrats, surely the most pro EU party we have is also set to gain seats.
The entire drift of her article is given to believing the issue is wholly connected to NOT delivering Brexit. Andrew Hawkins, chairman of ComRes is quoted saying: “The dilemma for Brexit-supporting Conservative voters is that by abandoning the Tory Party they risk enhancing the electoral prospects of left-wing and Remain candidates.”
From this Ms Tominey assumes ALL Conservative voters who abandon the party are leave voters and are accidentally enhancing left wing and remain candidates. She doesn't entertain the idea that Brexit-hating Conservative voters might be shifting their votes deliberately in order to stop Brexit happening, or at least make it as soft as possible. All her focus is on this kind of stuff:-
"A third Tory MP based in the Midlands told The Telegraph a number of constituents had returned their polling cards to the local council in protest, while others had sent letters saying they would be boycotting the ballot box until Brexit had been delivered.
"'On the doorstep all I’m hearing is what’s the point of voting? I voted leave and no one listened to me. I tried to argue that in not voting they were playing in to the hands of very people trying to undermine democracy but some people were too angry to listen. Disgusted voters have been sending their polling cards back and others have been ringing up the elections officer asking: 'What’s the point?'”
And:
"John Strafford, chairman of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy said: 'I'm getting reports from all over the place saying it’s absolutely dire. I reckon 90 per cent of Tories will vote for the Brexit Party at the Euros and the evidence I’m getting is that they are stopping canvassing for the locals.'”
My guess is that the Tories are only really listening to the angry leave voters, the ones sending back their polling cards. Angry remain voters like me who won't ever be supporting the Conservatives again but don't make a fuss about it are ignored. The loss of their support is also costing a few votes. Plus those who just think the government's handling of Brexit has been totally shambolic.
The unnamed Midlands based Tory MP who 'tried to argue.....' with these angry people on the doorstep is finding what remainers found out in 2016, the average leave voter is not really a rational thinker. Having been brainwashed by The Telegraph, The Sun and The Daily Mail for thirty years to believe that the EU was at the root of all our ills they cannot understand any of the myriad problems thrown up by Brexit or what the delay is all about.
I refer you to this extremely prescient article (HERE) from June 2017 on the Politico website where a senior Tory is quoted:
"We are tethered to the mast of Brexit and when it goes wrong we're screwed. They all know it. All Labour have to do is hedge their bets. When the public realise they have been sold a pup they will turn on the party".
I refer you to this extremely prescient article (HERE) from June 2017 on the Politico website where a senior Tory is quoted:
"We are tethered to the mast of Brexit and when it goes wrong we're screwed. They all know it. All Labour have to do is hedge their bets. When the public realise they have been sold a pup they will turn on the party".
Now back to that other Brexit disaster area known as Aaron Banks and Leave.eu. They were both in the news last week, something I posted about yesterday (HERE). I see Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour party, has now called for an inquiry into their activities during the referendum and bizarrely, according to The Guardian HERE, Banks and his mate Andy Wigmore have said they would support it! This is either ridiculously foolhardy or the action of innocent men anxious to prove they have done nothing wrong.
Personally, I think it's the former.
I still have difficulty in believing Banks, a complete non-entity before Brexit, should have spent so much time and effort on leaving the EU not to mention £8 million quid. He is not a poor man but he's not that wealthy either. Far richer men, and just as anti-EU, wouldn't have risked £8 million on a gamble they could easily have lost.
Why would a small time insurance company owner commit so much to getting us out of the EU? It does not make sense to me.
The National Crime Agency announced on November 1st last year they intended to open an investigation into where Banks' got the money for the campaign from (HERE). I would have thought an innocent man would be able to show here his money was made in about ten minutes. The NCA have been investigating for over five months. What is the problem? Presumably, Banks has an army of accountants any of whom would be easily capable of showing where every penny came from. Yet the investigation is still ongoing.
Banks and Liz Bilney, the other person named in the NCA investigation, insisted at the time they were innocent but clearly have not been able to furnish investigators with convincing proof of the source of £8 million after five months!
The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine. Let us hope they do.
