Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
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The European union - the one issue that has split the conservative party so many times, Cost a good few leaders their poition as well. It alomst ripped the conservative party in half, on more than one occasion.
and all of a sudden, We have Brexit causing a united Conservative party, getting behind its leaders.
(of course a crippled opposition aided the conservatives in the Local Election, and will again in the GE i suspect)
though its just interesting at how now the desision to leave has been made, the leavers happy, the remainers accepting means the very issue that has been the conservative nemesis is acttually the one that has brought the party together again.
Note its not a conservative vote - Its a "Vote for me and My team and I will sit at that negotiating table"
its very clever campaigning
Basically the Leave side of the Conservative party is happy because they're going to get at least most of what they want - I don't buy into the popular idea that Theresa May is aiming for a so-called "hard Brexit" but there is no doubt whatsoever that we are going to leave the EU - while the great majority of those who voted Remain have accepted the verdict of the electorate.
Meanwhile the Lib/Dems are positioning themselves as the voice of the 48% - quite possibly a position to recover from 9 MPs to something in the mid-twenties but certainly not a platform to win - and Labour is all over the shop.
The "Do you want me or Corbyn negotiating Brexit" is, as you say, clever politics but it's clever because it reflects the views of the electorate.
It's possible that this is even more true in West Cumbria than it is in the rest of the country but the one thing that Conservative activists (in public) and Labour ones (usually but not always in private) all agree on is that it is difficult to understate how utterly toxic Jeremy Corbyn is on the doorstep.