Westminster Politics

I expect Green to pick up a few seats. The left have the choice of either voting for Starmer or vote elsewhere and Lib Dems are utterly useless along with people having lost faith with them.

I do think Tories will do better than they're currently polling. But Labour will stride it with complete ease.
 
I don't think Sunak will go before the election. The likes of Hunt and his supporters will want to wait for their coming election catastrophe before taking over at the bottom, they won't send letters in. The right will of course, in the hope that the membership votes one of their own as leader, but among Tory MPs they are a minority, the others are well aware of the danger of that, they won't back a leadership election, yet.
 
711 said:
I don't think Sunak will go before the election. The likes of Hunt and his supporters will want to wait for their coming election catastrophe before taking over at the bottom, they won't send letters in. The right will of course, in the hope that the membership votes one of their own as leader, but among Tory MPs they are a minority, the others are well aware of the danger of that, they won't back a leadership election, yet.
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It would take a Liz Truss type basket case to want the leadership now. So out of the 349 Tory MP's I'd wager about 300 or so are currently scheming for it.
 
Cloud7 said:
Is there any particular reason they chose Rwanda specifically for this scheme?
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Because they're an English speaking ex-colony who were happy to (pretend to?) go along with it in exchange for British taxpayer money.
 
Jippy said:
It was a French colony, but is in the Commonwealth for some reason.
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German colony, then Belgian, but English is one of it's official languages, so maybe there was a strong British commercial presence, just guessing.

I don't think the decision is anything to do with who's colony it was, rather who would take the money.
 
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711 said:
German colony, then Belgian, but English is one of it's official languages, so maybe there was a strong British commercial presence, just guessing.

I don't think the decision is anything to do with who's colony it was, rather who would take the money.
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It seems a weird choice on face of it. There are safer countries that would have taken the money. I wonder though, Tories being Tories, whether they picked it precisely because it is not safe, not really any body's first choice for asylum.
 
Cloud7 said:
Is there any particular reason they chose Rwanda specifically for this scheme?
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A country that, superficially at least, is stable and upholds rule of law, making it, again superficially, palatable to the domestic populace, who can be convinced its safe more than they would be DRC or Somalia for instance. Plus Rwanda was willing and happy to take the money.

Important to note this isn't Rwanda's first rodeo either. They signed a similar scheme with Israel (and had some deportations I believe) as well as Denmark. The EU had one with Niger. Australia had one of course with PNG and Narau.

Of course not to mention the EU's deal with Turkey, which was different but aimed at the same area.
 
711 said:
German colony, then Belgian, but English is one of it's official languages, so maybe there was a strong British commercial presence, just guessing.

I don't think the decision is anything to do with who's colony it was, rather who would take the money.
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Ah, was thinking French cos they actually intervened during the massacre when everyone else did feck all from memory.
But yep absolutely, it was purely about who would take your refugees for cash, which must be very few countries.
 
David Lammy delivered some wonderful speeches in the Commons as a back-bencher in response the Windrush Scandal, during the Brexit chaos with Theresa May brought back her withdrawal agreement etc.. And he seemed to be a very diligent, caring constituency MP.

But as shadow foreign secretary he seems out of his depth, albeit not as much as Lisa Nandy during Starmer's initial shadow cabinet/ Now I'd much prefer to see him as foreign secretary than any Tory alternative, and I'd always prefer a Labour / Labour-led government over a Tory / Tory-led one. But still I don't have a great deal of confidence in him.
 
RedChip said:
It seems a weird choice on face of it. There are safer countries that would have taken the money. I wonder though, Tories being Tories, whether they picked it precisely because it is not safe, not really any body's first choice for asylum.
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I'm not defending the plan in any way whatsoever, but out of respect to Rwanda it is one of the safest countries in Africa, if not the safest. It has a tragic history of course but they have progressed beyond expectation.
 
711 said:
I'm not defending the plan in any way whatsoever, but out of respect to Rwanda it is one of the safest countries in Africa, if not the safest. It has a tragic history of course but they have progressed beyond expectation.
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Have they?

‘Well-camouflaged dictatorship’: Rwandans fear for safety while dirty tricks campaign undermines critics

Kagame’s government targeted journalists who uncovered killings, disappearances and torture linked to the regime

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...hile-dirty-tricks-campaign-undermines-critics
 
FireballXL5 said:
Have they?

‘Well-camouflaged dictatorship’: Rwandans fear for safety while dirty tricks campaign undermines critics

Kagame’s government targeted journalists who uncovered killings, disappearances and torture linked to the regime

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...hile-dirty-tricks-campaign-undermines-critics
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I take your point, I had been looking at advice sites for the safety of visitors and Kigali comes out quite well on those, but I suppose political opponents are different. The allegation was that there are safer countries though, and in Africa, sadly, I don't think there will be many.
 
A Tory MP said he quit his ministerial role because he could not afford to pay his mortgage on a salary of £118,300.

Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman resigned as science minister in November.

In a blog post, he said he stood down: "Because my mortgage rises this month from £800pcm to £2,000, which I simply couldn't afford to pay on a ministerial salary."

Downing Street said it had "no plans to change our approach to ministerial pay".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-68133873

What a shame. If only he had a job where he could have made a difference to the country's economy and to the mortgage payments of people.
 
Frosty said:
A Tory MP said he quit his ministerial role because he could not afford to pay his mortgage on a salary of £118,300.

Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman resigned as science minister in November.

In a blog post, he said he stood down: "Because my mortgage rises this month from £800pcm to £2,000, which I simply couldn't afford to pay on a ministerial salary."

Downing Street said it had "no plans to change our approach to ministerial pay".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-68133873

What a shame. If only he had a job where he could have made a difference to the country's economy and to the mortgage payments of people.
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so with a salary of 118,300 can't pay a mortgage of 24,000 yearly. What am I missing?
 
Frosty said:
A Tory MP said he quit his ministerial role because he could not afford to pay his mortgage on a salary of £118,300.

Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman resigned as science minister in November.

In a blog post, he said he stood down: "Because my mortgage rises this month from £800pcm to £2,000, which I simply couldn't afford to pay on a ministerial salary."

Downing Street said it had "no plans to change our approach to ministerial pay".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-68133873

What a shame. If only he had a job where he could have made a difference to the country's economy and to the mortgage payments of people.
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He gets paid £86k for being an MP representing his constituents. How much of his time does he devote to this job - One hour a week? if he can have so much time on his hands that he can do another highly paid job. How these MPs are allowed to have other jobs is beyond ridiculous. Maybe he should stop being a politician altogether.
 
4bars said:
so with a salary of 118,300 can't pay a mortgage of 24,000 yearly. What am I missing?
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Plus whatever his wife is earning, and all down to the policies of the party he represents! These people are so divorced from the reality the rest of us live in, it should a a scandal in its own right, but they've normalised this kind of thing so much it all slides under the radar.
 
decorativeed said:
Plus whatever his wife is earning, and all down to the policies of the party he represents! These people are so divorced from the reality the rest of us live in, it should a a scandal in its own right, but they've normalised this kind of thing so much it all slides under the radar.
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He's a Tory, his wife isn't working
 
Frosty said:
A Tory MP said he quit his ministerial role because he could not afford to pay his mortgage on a salary of £118,300.

Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman resigned as science minister in November.

In a blog post, he said he stood down: "Because my mortgage rises this month from £800pcm to £2,000, which I simply couldn't afford to pay on a ministerial salary."

Downing Street said it had "no plans to change our approach to ministerial pay".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-68133873

What a shame. If only he had a job where he could have made a difference to the country's economy and to the mortgage payments of people.
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It's amusing they think this is about ministerial pay and not how massively they fecked mortgage rates.
 
4bars said:
so with a salary of 118,300 can't pay a mortgage of 24,000 yearly. What am I missing?
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Paul the Wolf said:
He gets paid £86k for being an MP representing his constituents. How much of his time does he devote to this job - One hour a week? if he can have so much time on his hands that he can do another highly paid job. How these MPs are allowed to have other jobs is beyond ridiculous. Maybe he should stop being a politician altogether.
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£86k is a take home of £4800, if your mortgage goes from 16% of your take home to 41% of your take home I can see why you might have to look for more money.

Not that I have sympathy
 
Murder on Zidane's Floor said:
£86k is a take home of £4800, if your mortgage goes from 16% of your take home to 41% of your take home I can see why you might have to look for more money.

Not that I have sympathy
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Yes but therefore he needs to resign as an MP and find a job that will pay him what he wants - as he won't have time to be an MP as well. :wenger:
 
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