The fall of the Tory party

BBC reports…

Two years ago, Mr Anderson backed a failed bid to let constituents trigger a by-election when their MP changes parties.

I am shocked, I tell you...

Or suck it up and force peoples' hands by making driving the least convenient option (or even less convenient).

When the LTN near me was introduced one of the stated aims was to make driving more inconvenient for residents (hence a lack of resident exemption).

I hope that their biggest funder being a brazen racist will compel them to return the £10m he's given them in the past year.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/11/biggest-tory-donor-looking-diane-abbott-hate-all-black-women

Lol don’t be daft, they’re already trying to pretend what he said wasn’t racist. The only value from the whole thing is that it tells anyone thinking of being a high-value Tory donor that their past indiscretions will be picked over and put on display.

@CarolineRussell The Conservative Party should return the £10 million,
apologise and condemn Hester’s threatening racism directed not only
against Diane Abbott but to all Black women.

Anything less leaves our politics in a very frightening place.

https://twitter.com/CarolineRussell/status/1767483935141908741

Keir Starmer has said that comments about Diane Abbott by the Conservative party’s biggest donor were “abhorrent,” as the Labour leader urged the Conservatives to return £10m given to it by the businessman.

The Labour leader also attacked a minister who declined to go further than calling Frank Hester’s comments “absolutely unacceptable” when asked about them in interviews this morning.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/mar/12/minister-calls-tory-donor-frank-hesters-diane-abbott-comments-completely-unacceptable-but-refuses-to-go-further-uk-politics-live

Lord Marland reckons Hester can't be racist cos he holidays in Jamaica:

https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1767506546622111777d

I can't wait for absolutely none of this to happen and there to be zero consequences.

Would be awkward if the PM had just given a speech outside no. 10 about racism being bad, but I don't think he did so it's fine.

Bad Enoch's trendin:

A reminder that the Government's equalities minister is a Black woman.
I can't wait to hear Kemi Badenoch condemn Frank Hester's disgusting
racist rant about Diane Abbott and call for him to be dropped as a
Conservative Party donor.

https://twitter.com/lorrainemking/status/1767454798960283830

If he'd given them £10k, they'd have sent him back the cheque and sayonara. But for £10m they'll defend him burning a cross in Abbott's living room.

Shami Chakrabarti

Having heard the interviews of the ministers, I’m just completely
horrified that they wouldn’t they wouldn’t call this for what it is.
And I think if you don’t call it at that level, you’re somehow
licensing it.

If they say that this gentleman didn’t make the remarks that I’m
reading right now in the Guardian in quote marks, if he didn’t make
those remarks, then that can be said.

But if he did make those remarks, that is proper, misogynistic, race
hate speech. And that should not be tolerated anywhere, and not in the
highest echelons of the British Conservative party, and not from
someone who’s brought himself £10m’s worth of influence in our
country, and in government.

She appealed to Sunak to “put his own house in order” if he wants to
show he is serious about tackling extremism. She said: I say to the
prime minister, our first non white prime minister, please, please do
something about this. You stood last week on the steps of Downing
Street and you said you wanted to tackle extremism. We’ve got
[Michael] Gove who’s going to put out some new, broad definition of
extremism. There’s lots of there’s lots of divisive politics being
played here.

And yet they won’t call out what’s happening in their own in their own
policy at the highest echelons …

This kind of comment made by a very, very significant major donor to
the party of government is terrifying. This is not where I thought our
wonderful country would be nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st
century.

Mr Sunak needs to put his own house in order before he starts
lecturing anybody else, whether protesters or anybody else, about
extremism.

She said that the level of abuse Abbott has suffered is “phenomonal”.
As evidence, she cited an Amnesty International report from 2017
saying Abbott experience more online abuse than anyone else in
parliament. She said that she was very anxious on behalf of her
friend. Asked how Abbott was responding to the controversy,
Chakrabarti replied: She’s anxious and she’s upset but, as she always
does, she’s putting a brave face on and trying not to worry her
friends. But I have to say my heart is pounding, and I’m really upset
and anxious on her behalf.

@mrjamesob The Hester story is a test of journalism even more than it
is of the Tory party. If the issue is allowed to fade away after days
of shameful stonewalling & obfuscation by ministers, something truly
disgusting will have moved into the heart of our government.

Of course £10million is a shit load of money that they'll be desperate to keep. But also there are a lot of swivel-eyed nut job Tories for whom Diane Abbot is representative of everything they think is "wrong with this country." I don't reckon they'll dare back down on this one for fear of a mass exodus to Reform UK

I mean they could also quite easily say that was a racism and he doesn't deserve the money back so we're keeping it and he has been blacklisted by the conservative party.

But obviously "it was bad words, I'm sure he regrets it"

Sunak could have an easy way out, if he calls a May GE and then cites a refusal by the party to acknowledge the obvious racism as his reason to subsequently quit and ride off into the Californian sunset.

He won't. But it would be carnage to watch.

But they only want to be condemning really, really, really explicit racism. They can't afford to condem the kind of racism that you might get from Terry at the golf club after a few too many Peronis.

Move along. This case is closed. Hesker's issued a clarification:

“For me, racism is a hatred and a fear of the other. For me, it is exactly the same as homophobia - it’s not limited to the colour of your skin, it is not limited to religion, it can just be the country next door. It can be northerners and southerners, which we have here.

I can confirm that this is an accurate reflection of my view that hatred of others based on race, religion, gender, sexuality or geography is odious and disgusting and that racism - in particular - is a poison that has no place in public life."

My hatred of Hesker is not based on race, religion, gender, sexuality or geography so I'm not sure if I'm odious or disgusting

Anyone else wondering why firms benefitting from winning any Government contract, central or local, is allowed to make any political donations to political parties or individual politicians, or 'think' tanks?

However many contracts Hester's company have won, they were clearly at least £10m overpriced.

Nope
Never

No10 admits racism is racist shocker…

It does conveniently gloss over the associated misogyny though.

Where you seeing that?