113 days ago, the Tories installed big countdown clocks in CCHQ and Downing Street displaying how many days until Brexit. Rather awkwardly, however, Brexit is now no longer 1 day away, but 93 days away thanks to the latest extension. This is second-hand news…
CCHQ are now fretting over how to address the situation which is sure to rile derision on social media and are considering abandoning the Brexit countdown all together and switching to an election countdown. Meanwhile, Guido hears a whiteboard in the Downing Street Press Office that used to contain a written-on countdown has been erased all-together and replaced with a smiley face. A very forced smile Guido presumes…
CLOCK UPDATE: Day 4, CCHQ clock still claims the UK is leaving the EU in 13 hours…
The big point of discussion on the Twittersphere today has been over CCHQ’s recent graphic output, with their new choice of garish colours and elaborate fonts. Less so eye-catching, more so eye-watering…
The new memes are being thought up by the party’s new digital gurus Topham & Guerin, brought in by campaign director Isaac Levido off the back of the Australian Tories’ election victory; in which they used deliberately mockable memes and graphics to get people talking. CCHQ’s deliberately less corporate-looking, more light-hearted approach under Boris is getting flack on Twitter. In response to the mockery the party just put out this comic sans font graphic:
Another sign, if one were needed, that the Tory election campaign machine is going to be very different this time round…
UPDATE: CCHQ clearly whipping MPs to spread their new viral graphics…
The Tories have finally and definitively closed the door on any return Amber Rudd may have been hoping for, by opening candidate selections in her seat of Hastings and Rye. Before her expulsion she was in two minds about hopping to a safer seat for the next election anyway…
Ahead of an inevitable election, the Tories have also opened selections in
- Meriden – retiring Caroline Spelman’s seat
- Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner – retiring Nick Hurd’s seat
- Sevenoaks – retiring Sir Michael Fallon’s seat
Seats with an average majority of 18,365. Ripe pickings for prospective careerists, though you need to get your application in by this Friday…
Tory Chairman James Cleverly has messaged Tory MPs to outline how Conservative Party Conference will work now that prorogation is over and a short recess has been rejected. Presumably, so MPs can argue about calling each other turkeys some more…
His message concedes “it will not be possible for most colleagues to travel to Manchester” before promising CCHQ will try to facilitate “getting as many of us there as possible, even if only for a short period.” CCHQ will be determining which events are “of priority” and, for the MPs it approves, will be reimbursing travel from Monday-Wednesday.
Read the full message below:
Following Boris’s PMQs’ joke that Corbyn is a chlorinated chicken for u-turning on wanting an election, CCHQ has got creative today by sending journalists buckets and buckets of ‘JFC’ (Jeremy’s Frightened and Chicken).
In an accompanying letter to members of the Lobby, CCHQ wrote:
FOWL PLAY.
Move over Colonel. Jeremy Corbyn’s the new biggest chicken in town. He’s been saying he wants an election for nearly two years – but now he’s running scared from one.
Jeremy Corbyn and Labour don’t respect public votes, and their Surrender Bill means more dither and delay on Brexit. When it comes to Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn’s winging it.
The choice is clear. Does Boris Johnson lead negotiations with the EU on 17th October? Or does Jeremy Corbyn do eggsactly what Brussels says, meaning a bad deal for Britain, more uncertainty, and more delay?
People need the chance to make that choice, so we can move on as a country. Jeremy Corbyn needs to pluck up the courage to back an election.
Whilst members of the Lobby have derided the move as a PR cluck up, it’s certainly got everyone talking…
Philip Hammond, the former Chancellor turned leading advocate of what Downing Street are terming “the Surrender Bill”, took to the airwaves this morning to whine about the possibility of being deselected for the mere misdemeanour of siding against the Government in an effective confidence vote. He made it clear that he thinks he is undeselectable…
“I don’t believe they [have the power to stop me standing], and there would be the fight of a lifetime if they tried to.”
“A legal fight if necessary?”
“Possibly.”
Unfortunately for Phil there are plenty of precedents in his party for senior MPs to be deselected by the central party. in 2005, Michael Howard controversially deselected former Deputy Party Chairman Howard Flight for harming the Tories’ electoral prospects. Hammond clearly doesn’t know the party rules as well as he thinks he does. Adrian Hilton took the party to court in a not dissimilar case and lost. The Conservative Party rules are very clear; the central party has the final say…
Since I’m the expert on this (empirically and [with the only copy of a High Court judgment] legally): if a local assoc acquiesces to CCHQ (cf Howard Flight, 2005), the candidate is sacked. If an assoc resists, the candidate is still sacked and so is the association (cf me, 2005). https://t.co/PCjOXTkzCv
— Adrian Hilton (@Adrian_Hilton) September 3, 2019
If Hammond is one of a dozen or so Tories who vote to neuter their Government and put a Marxist in Downing Street, the rules are clear. They’re out…
UPDATE: Runnymede and Weybridge is selecting a new candidate.
