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Thursday 18 January 2024

Brave 30p Lee Ran Away

Yesterday evening, the Rwanda Bill came back before the Commons for the vote which would define the scale of rebellion facing Rishi Sunak. There had been predictions of as many as 80 Tories voting against their own party. But cometh the hour, cometh the act of spineless cowardice: the rebellion mustered a mere eleven votes against. The rebels had run away.


As the BBC reported, “Rishi Sunak has succeeded in getting his key Rwanda bill through the House of Commons after a Tory rebellion failed to materialise … Dozens of Tories thought the bill was flawed and had threatened to rebel but in the end, only 11 voted against it … The bill could have fallen if about 30 Conservatives had voted against it”. What a complete damp squib.

So who actually voted against? “However, in the event, just 11 MPs - including [Robert] Jenrick and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman - voted against it. Other Tory MPs on the list include Miriam Cates, Sir Simon Clarke, Mark Francois and Danny Kruger … Eighteen Conservative MPs did not record a vote”. And who might that number have included?

Who was so bullish about voting against the Bill that he resigned as a party deputy chairman? Ah yes, Lee Anderson, set to lose Ashfield big time when the General Election finally comes along, perhaps being relegated to third place. 30p Lee was going to vote against, but then he did a cowardice.

Here’s part of the excuse note: “Tonight, I was going to vote no. I went into the No Lobby to vote no [nowt gets past him, eh?], because I was, you know, I couldn’t see how I could support the Bill after backing all the amendments”. So what was his problem? “I got into the No Lobby, I spent about two or three minutes with a colleague in there. The Labour lot was all giggling and laughing and taking the mick”. So what? He’s big and hard. No problem.

Except that was all it took to cause brave 30p Lee to turn tail and run away. “I couldn’t do it, in my heart of hearts I could not vote no, so I walked out, and come out, so I’ve abstained. I wanted to vote no, but when I saw that lot in there laughing, there’s no way I could support them above the party that’s given me a political home”. Whips leaned on him, did they?

So, I hope the bill succeeds, you know I’ve got my reservations … it’s upset me, honestly, over the past 24 hours, it’s a difficult thing to do, not to support the Government that’s been really good to me, and good to Ashfield, let’s remember this Government has given Ashfield record amounts, investment”. Was he reminded of that before deciding to bravely run away?


Labour’s Ian Byrne was unimpressed. He was very specific on why he ended up in the No Lobby: “Last night I voted against the Tories' immoral Rwanda Bill … Refugees didn't create the NHS crisis … Refugees didn't create the housing crisis … Refugees didn't create austerity … The Tories did all the above to our communities & now they need a scapegoat”. There was more.

I’ve heard of an MPs mind being changed because of pressure from the whips in this place, but never because of opposition MPs taking the mick … Anderson was yesterday called a senior Tory in reports … Churchill must be spinning in his grave”. He added #GeneralElectionNow to that.

Why he might be able to do so with such confidence was explained by Adam Bienkov of Byline Times. “New [YouGov] poll gives Labour huge 27-point lead … LAB: 47% (+2) … CON: 20% (-2) … LD: 8% (-1) … REF: 12% (+4) … GRN: 7% (-1) … If repeated at the election, Conservatives would lose all but 41 seats. MPs facing the axe include Liz Truss, Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees-Mogg and... Rishi Sunak”. And that’s on new constituency boundaries.

The Tories are facing the loss of more than 330 seats. Even in 1997, they “only” lost 178 seats, and retained 165, taking more than 30% of the popular vote. The YouGov poll looks very much as if the racist vote will go to the so-called Reform Party. That’s how pointless the Rwanda Bill has become.

Lee Anderson is finished, and so is his party. Just rejoice at that news.


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12 comments:

The Toffee said...

New [YouGov] poll gives Labour huge 27-point lead …If repeated at the election, Conservatives would lose all but 41 seats


...And STILL keef smarmer cannot and will not entertain democratic processes for candidate selection within the labour party.

Anonymous said...

If that Byline poll manifests in the election, Quisling "Labour" can have no excuse for:

1. Failing to rid the NHS of profiteering private corporate bloodsuckers, and restoring it to wholly owned and fully funded community ownership.

2. Similarly, all essential utilities services, education and other public services.

3. Failing to establish a fair tax system in which corporations and rich individuals bear a proportionate share of economic responsibility.

4. Failing to establish a democratic written constitution.

5. Failing to establish a truly democratic electoral system and Parliament, including abolition of the unelected House of Lords and unelected Head of State.

6. Failing to remove all US military and "intelligence" bases in Britain.

7. Failing to establish fully accountable independent media free of any foreign ownership.

8. Failing to inform how the international capitalist cartel system works through economic threats and, failing that, inflicted poverty or war.

But, you'll see, the Quislings will lie, cringe and creep as they always do. Treachery never sleeps.

Anonymous said...

Brave Sir tory Lee! He fled the field and ran away
His courage all in disarray
Wouldn't pay his thirty pee
But chose to cut and run and flee
His pants around his running legs
Can't disguise his gutless dregs
Brave Sir tory Lee!

Andy McDonald said...

And a hard boiled egg. Because you might actually get that.

Were all of this to be achieved, with whom would we trade, seek alliances with, and cooperate, after the bulk of the developed world cuts its ties?

Anonymous said...

@18:58.

A perfect illustration of point 8.

And why Roosevelt found it necessary to say "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" in the 1930s. In the knowledge that appeasement only ensured the growth of fascism, then as now.

But government by fear, war and inflicted poverty has been Britain's lot since 1979. Others too.

Which is why Gandhi responded "It would be a good idea" when asked for an opinion of Western "Civilisation" (aka "developed nations").

Not that cringing cowards would ever understand any of that.

Anonymous said...

That'll be the same "developed world" currently inflicting genocidal war on, where else, EastAsia and EurAsia. To add to previous imperial and colonial genocides, mass murders and theft of natural resources. Plus economic and propaganda attacks on its most vulnerable citizens. All to keep its corrupt-to-the-core oligarchy in place.

Yes, there'll always be useful dupes to keep them in fascist place. Recorded history shows the results both previously and now. The warnings are there, only the wilfully ignorant and stupid won't see.

Andy McDonald said...

And tell me, anonymous, how you'd manage without the comforts of the west, not least access to the Internet and reasonable freedom of expression?

Anonymous said...

@19:44.

If you can't see how utterly vacuous that is, there is nothing anybody can say to help you.

Andy McDonald said...

That'd be a "no", then.

Your Trot utopia will never happen. And if it did, you'd likely hate it. You carp from within a system that, for all its many evils and weaknesses, the west built. And you're not just boring, but naive as well.

It pains me to say it, but if that's your dream, why don't you move to North Korea and live it?

Anonymous said...

@13:08.

Nah, there it is, the same old predictable righty paranoid concoction dating back to the forged Zinoviev Letter. The same old McCarthyite-type fisheads that have obstructed human progress since the Enlightenment.

There has never been an advance in human society unopposed by entrenched interests and its dupes. This era is different only in the way the next avoidable World War will be the last even capitalist evil can ignite.

Anonymous said...

This is how your capitalist utopia "works":
m.youtube.com/watch?v=xGfHkdR3tXs&pp=ygUTZm9yIGxvdmUgb2YgY291bnRyeQ

Anonymous said...

Not for the first time the logic of the right baffles me. How did mr McDonald manage to connect the dots between a set of modest, but needed, proposals and 'North Korea' and Trotsky? Although of course, this is common practise in response to what was accepted policy as recently as fifty years ago, as the Overton window has moved so far right, it's still very silly..