There is a very extraordinary meme which Blairites keep raising in the Commons debate, that it is “abusive” or “undemocratic” for Labour MPs to face deselection by their members.
In the SNP, there is never any automatic reselection for anybody. You are selected for one term and have to be renominated for another term, where you can be opposed. Indeed deselection happens quite often in the SNP without drawing any comment at all. If the members aren’t happy with your performance, they will get in someone else.
It is remarkable that Labour MPs feel that they should have a job for life, whether the constituency members are happy with your performance or not. If Labour party members decide they do not want an extreme right winger like Stella Creasy or John Mann to represent them, why is it “undemocratic” to get rid of them at the end of the term for which they are elected? Individuals do not own the party, and nobody is stopping them from running as independent candidates or joining the Conservative Party.
This goes to the heart of the Blairite cause. It is apparently not “undemocratic” for them to take legal advice on whether they can keep Jeremy Corbyn’s name off the ballot in a future membership ballot. It is not “undemocratic” to discuss deselecting the Leader, but it is a heinous offence against democracy to consider deselecting an MP. The odious Blairites are the most self-centred, selfish and indeed sociopathic group ever to have a serious presence in the UK parliament.
Good idea that the page length for comments has been reduced from 200 to 100.
Nuclear war in Asia? when?? 4th July 1999???
according to an obit.
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pakistan-was-preparing-to-deploy-nuclear-weapons-against-india-during-kargil-war-1250428
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/world/pakistan-was-to-deploy-nuclear-weapons-against-india-during-kargil-war-1171823.html
http://www.firstpost.com/world/pakistan-wanted-to-deploy-nuclear-missiles-during-kargil-conflict-claims-former-us-official-2531330.html
Tony M, well it was ‘live’ on LBC news radio for London, with the sound of brave jets taking off & landing in the background, and I do happen to believe the courageous reporter of LBC (reporting from the war-zone of Faliraki – sorry Ayia Napa) actually saw ‘full’ Tornado deploying and mostly empty Tornado returning (he didn’t need to count them in and out as there aren’t that many available!)
MPs who abstained
Conservatives:
Adam Holloway (Gravesham)
Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight)
Christopher Chope (Christchurch)
John Redwood (Wokingham)
Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe)
Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes)
Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough)
Labour:
Jo Cox (Batley and Spen)
Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham, Perry Barr)
Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central)
Steve Reed (Croydon North)
Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall)
MPs who did not vote
Conservatives:
John Bercow (Buckingham) – Speaker
Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) – Deputy Speaker
Labour:
Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) – Unable to attend
Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) – Unable to attend
Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley) – Deputy Speaker
Mike Gapes (Ilford South) – Unable to attend
Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire) – Deputy Speaker
Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire) – Unable to attend
Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) – Unable to attend
Sinn Fein:
Francie Molloy (Mid Ulster)
Mickey Brady (Newry and Armagh)
Pat Doherty (West Tyrone)
Paul Maskey (Belfast West)
Syria air strikes: How MPs voted
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34987921
LOL
Hot air windbag deflated in the HoL
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con): My Lords, we have been very clear that we really need to stick to time. I would be grateful for the next speaker.
Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: I will draw my remarks to a close. There is not one citizen—
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: I am sorry, my Lords, but could we move on to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins?
He had had his five minutes. He wasted some of it by crawling up the newly ennobled Lord Hague of Richmond’s fundament, as had some others fulsome in praise of his maiden speech.
Billy Fourteen Pints would like to see some ground forces.
‘Secondly, while military force alone cannot defeat Daesh, it cannot be defeated without military force. That is a very obvious point. When it enslaves women, murders hostages and persecutes minorities, it is not seeking a negotiation. Since our security as the United Kingdom rests on our alliances, and our greatest alliances are with the United States and France, if our security is indivisible from theirs it would be extraordinary and we would need a very compelling reason not to act with them in this crisis.
Thirdly, if we are to take this action, it must be effective. That means that it has to be, sadly, against economic infrastructure that Daesh controls. It should not rule out, as the noble Lord, Lord Dannatt, said, the use of perhaps small specialist ground forces from western nations in the future if that helps to tip the balance on the ground. However, on that basis, I believe that it is in the national interest of the United Kingdom to act with our closest allies in this crisis.’
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldhansrd/text/151202-0001.htm
Perhaps he knows more than he’s letting on.
BBC Radio 4 Toady Programme has just reported that Pres. Bash. al. Assad is miffed that England didn’t ask for permission from him to do bombing overnight. He mused that all of Engerlands previous bombing attempts on the terrorists had somehow resulted in MORE terrorists?
according to Ms. Liz Ducette
Bizarre war porn all over the corporate media. It’s vaguely 1914, isn’t it? Just weird, urepresentative jingoism, vaguely masked as the war on terror. And if Cameron is a war leader, I’m Winston Churchill.
Well, the oligarch’s want this war. Their reasons escape me, though Oil\The Rapture\Psychopathy\Insane Greed are probably the motives, as per usual. This will all go horribly wrong, it always goes horribly wrong, and nobody will resign, and nobody gets fired. In a few years time, an inquiry, where lessons are learned.
May History forgive us all.
“So, Fred, if you are genuine, perhaps I can ask you why we are going to carry out airstrikes in Syria which will put us directly up against the Russians?”
We aren’t.
Of passing interest that of the seven Tories who voted against Cameron, four have served with (Baron, Royal Fusiliers, commissioned; Davis, TA SAS Artists; Holloborne, TA, eight years) or been closely associated with (Henderson, ACF instructor) the Army. And Andrew Tyrie set up the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, so probably has some knowledge of dirty warfare too.
Another sandal-munching lefty terrorist sympathiser here:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/18/camerons-aims-over-isis-and-assad-in-syria-are-contradictory-says-former-military-chief
It’s to be hoped his advice registered with the PR-crazed Oxetonian, but Cameron’s continuing silence on anything resembling a strategy suggests that his main objective is still to remove Assad, regardless of his pious condemnation of Daesh.
min 2.40 ammo comes from free Syrian army who get it from the Americans
‘If you make a mistake, you get killed’ – First Western journalist granted access to ISIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjrdE5Q92f4&feature=youtu.be
See More
min 2.40 ammo…
Wonder what they fire it from. Doesn’t fit Kalashnikovs…inches or mm?
Rewarding Turkish blackmail is a dangerous game – UKIP Leader Nigel Farage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRhMkXeKJTE
Perhaps from the assault rifles they also buy from the FSA
The scion of an ex Labour MP Glenda Jackson ffs.
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges
He is Smoothface’s favourite columnist. Nuff said. He appears in the Torygraph.
Hierglyph
3 Dec, 2015 – 9:05 am
Bizarre indeed – Yes OIL and MONEY – Britain had to get involved to justify a ‘post-war’ place at a four cornered table with the US in the top seat to select/impose a Western/5eye/NATO shadowing lacky to replace President Assad and proceed to resurrect the Shell gas and Golan oil [details in the link] that Rothschild and Murdoch have a stake in.
To pass go and collect £200 the West must make sure Russia (and Putin) go straight to jail. And the only way that an be seen through is many boots on the ground and strategic deceit.
Thankyou Nafeez Ahmed for adjusting the focal point.
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/western-firms-plan-to-cash-in-on-syria-s-oil-and-gas-frontier-6c5fa4a72a92#.dtzl5wkvs
Didn’t someone once describe the Blairtes as an organised hypocrisy?
They don’t like being called Red Labour… but what else can one think given that root and branch they behave like tories. Their sense of entitlement (to their seat and constituency) is another example of this.
Bert.
I’m trying to work out if the first commenter is an individual, feeling nostalgic over Celtic versus Partick Thistle, or the spooks.
Suppose it makes no difference, really. Everyone’s having a field day.
In the Liberal Democrats, sitting MPs have to be reselected (by a simple majority vote on a straight up-or-down) each parliament also. They aren’t opposed; there’s a straight vote on whether to keep them or not, and then a full open selection if they’re deselected.
There are rules about what happens when there are boundary changes (basically if the new seat is similar enough, you’re treated as the sitting MP for all of it, but there are some complicated cases when there are adjacent MPs).