Quote of the day 24th November 2014

"There is literally nothing Miliband can’t mess up.

"Having abdicated almost completely in a seat that they held until 2010, the compensation was meant to be that Labour got to sit back and watch all the negative headlines hurt the Conservatives. Instead, Emily Thornberry managed to drag the focus back on to her own party’s problems by

  a) unwisely tweeting an apparently surprised or judgemental picture of a house with England flags hanging out of the window,

 b) issuing perhaps the world’s clumsiest apology (including an unbelievable claim that she had never seen anything like it before), and
 
 c) in so doing panicking her leader into sacking her.

"To be honest, Thornberry could have survived the farce – she was a notoriously smug lefty before the tweet and she remained so after – but Miliband’s desperation saw him make her jump before she was pushed. On Monday he was beaten by a popstar. Yesterday he was defeated by a house. The Labour leader should spend the weekend nervous of going up against kerbs, squirrels or light breezes in case he comes a cropper."

(Mark Wallace on Conservative Home)

Comments

Jim said…
I think that quote of the day should be All of this from Owen Patterson
5:09 pm
Jim said…
Patterson presents a very clear choice to the Pubic before a 2017 referendum. The only way for a negotiation to take place is to "legally bind" the EU to negotiate. Article 50 activation just after the GE would do exactly that.

Also it presents a fair choice - in or out of the political union.

If the vote is OUT, then the article 50 negotiations will have already shown what that is

If the vote is IN then we simply join the European Union under article 49 of TEU, following into ever closer union and the Euro.

That is the "fair choice" which is exactly what the conserative party have endlessly stated they want to offer.
6:11 pm
Jim said…
To keep on topic with your quote of the day though, Ed Milliband and Nick Clegg can form a coalition to back the IN campaign.

And Nigel and UKIP can focus on "immigration from the single market" and leave the EU to the grown ups.

Brilliant.
6:37 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
I don't agree with everything Owen Patterson says but I would agree that some of his points are well made and the EU ignores certain of his criticisms at their peril.
9:51 pm
Jim said…
Its really the conservative party itself that need to listen or ignore at peril.

A manifesto pledge to activate article 50 after the GE would vastly improve the odds of a conservative majority. Also it would allow DC to deliver on his renegotiation with out treaty change and the 2017 referendum.

The EU could not ignore it, they would be legally, treaty bound to negotiate a new deal.
10:15 pm
Jim said…
see, basically the conservatives add to the manifest0 a pledge to activate article 50 of TEU, in the event of a conservative majority, immediatly following the 2015 election. That is they announce the intention to leave. this sets in motion a 2 year negotiating period, which the EU legally have to engage. Also by keeping the single market option (efta/eea then it sidesteps silly 3 million jobs arguments) the negotiation is on a post EU UK, and things like how the 4 freedoms of the EEA are implemented in the UK (ie, free movement of workers) following the 2 years negotiation, then low and behold its 2017.

so now we hold the IN/OUT referendum. In the event of an out vote then we take the "new deal".

in the event of an IN vote, we simply rejoin the EU under article 49 of TEU.

there is a clear choice, IN or OUT of the EU.
10:30 pm
Jim said…
You can see from the initial comments from Nick Clegg, and Ed Milliband On the bbc site here just how powerful this strategy is.
Clegg repeats his "3 million jobs" line in a sort of even if its just been side stepped if i repeat it again that should work kind of way

and Milliband repeats his sleepwalking line, he cant see its quite a deliberate tactic, forcing negotiation.

there is nothing final until after the 2017 referendum, when the people will decide IN or OUT, and that will put the issue of our EU membership to bed for a generation.

11:00 pm
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