Next Tory Leader.

Watched Andrea Leadsom with Piers Morgan this morning. Very interesting to see more of the off the cuff person instead of the usual evasive practice when responding to a direct question or criticism. I'm wary of Phillip Hammond. He tends to stay very quiet, comes out with a very stinging barb then disappears again.

Andrea Leadsome 22/1

Loathsome Leadsome, tells you a lot about how she is viewed by many. Known for her motherhood remark and other crass statements. Is not necessarily a safe pair of hands, but as an arch-brexiter she will have her supporters.

Philip Hammond 40/1

“SpreadsheetPhil” a remainer, so unlikely to attract the right if the party. Known to have made enemies amongst the brexiter MPs with his stinging remarks.

As a lifelong "Tory" I feel as if I am in "permanent Groundhog Day" when I wake up each morning and TM is still in office!!!!

Not one Tory MP actually wants the leadership at the moment because they know it will be the end of their political career.

Totally Depressing!!

Andrea Leadsom is vile, patronising and condescending in the extreme. Heard part of a chilling interview with Raab when he was talking about a reduction in income tax, have these bloody people learned nothing about how austerity ( which surely follows tax cuts) does not work? How out of touch are they? The NHS is on its knees for lack of investment, ditto schools, prisons, probation, social care and a potential candidate for PM is talking about reducing the pot even further? Unbelievable.

She’s also not very bright - but tbf she is a mother?

The Tories deserve all this leadership issue with May - they had their chance in the vote of no confidence and bottled it. Now they want to change the rules ( which are there for a good reason). Talk about bad losers

MaizieD I agree, boulders and buffers are awful and not cuddly.

I have worked with a few in the 70’s and 80’s, horrid.

I had better not say names but some we can guess. I can’t confirm that any might have the initials DD, MG, IG, BJ, BJ, etc etc.

Just been reading about the ongoing expenses frauds. Some MPs have had their credit cards suspended. What a bunch of hypocritical, deceitful people our MPs are - shameful.
It would be good to wipe the slate clean with both main parties and start with some decent people. I realise of course we don't get hear much about the good guys which is a pity.

sodapop I read that Jeremy Corbyn was one of the MPs who had their official CC cancelled?

377 MPs including 9 cabinet members and Jeremy Corbyn as reported in The Telegraph.

Regardless of what party they belong to this reporting is irresponsible until we know the reason - for example one MP missed the payment deadline. Not very organised but a million miles away from fraud or cheating. Some are multiple offenders and that’s more serious as in repeatedly not being more responsible. Some could be a genuine error - Claire Perry apparently paid for her Amazon Prime - I could easily see this being an error - we need to know more before we get all huffy and puffy . We’re being played by the media as usual.

Jeremy Corbyn misused his twice. Name and shame them don't let them get away with it.

Firecracker some of them had the cards suspended 14 times, The point I’m making is that it is simply not fair to jump in and say this is all about fraud and cheating. Therefore unless we know exactly why the cc was suspended we simply can’t pass judgement. Heaven knows there’s enough to criticise MPs for legitimately but the OTT reaction by some is frankly rather silly. Of course they should all be more careful but it’s a long stretch from being careless to being fraudulent. And why only mention JC?

Yes so Tom Watson, Rebecca Long Bailey Dianne Abbott and Corbyn all multiple offenders and of course Tory MPs too including front bench offenders

You can kind of accept it with poor old Di though as her maths is atrocious but it’s not the best for either side.

Also Chris Grayling, Rory steward and Claire Perry the energy minister used her card to top up her amazon prime account!

Any other job this would be sackable.

I never trust a man with (what I call) a 'floppy mouth'.

Google brings up a long list of offenders, often repeat offenders and what many of them used their cards for.
Disgusting.

Johnny Mercer,- he’s just written toMay concerning the number of servicemen who are being investigated for alleged crimes during active service.

Because of May’s handling of the issue, Mercer will no longer support the government outside of Brexit it.

May’s zombie government is now a minority even with DUP support, yet we totter on because of another ridiculous decision made by Cameron of fixed term parliaments.

Esther McVey - 66/1

She fancies her chances apparently.
Definately on the “nasty” side of the Tory party.
Largely votes against any improvement to the welfare state.
She lied in parliament over Universal Credit.
It has also been reported that McVey forced charities to sign gagging orders to prevent criticisms of McVey in relation to UC

An all round good egg I should say???

David Gauke 100/1

Thinking about standing to counteract the rise of the populist like Johnson.

As someone just said “not sure how that would work”

At this rate the whole of the Tory party will be standing ?

It is an absolute car smash of a party, like watching episodes of a bad soap opera. As for McVey, God help us, she is a bad 'un even by their standards. What I cannot understand is how those few decent ones are still happy to be associated with this party of ....words fail me. I would think they have all had some rather difficult meetings with their local constituency offices over the past week or so about the sacrificed district councillors who have taken the punishment for the faults of central government.

This made me laugh

www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2019/may/09/david-cameron-posh-hot-tub-luxurious

I very much doubt that the ‘cards’ ( being called misuse of)
By politicians is fraudulent, often receipts were not handed in on time and other errors.
They are all too aware of the past misdeeds in ‘accounting frauds’ , for so many to do things on purpose.

The real problem there is that with an average age of 71, living in their cosy shires, they are totally out of touch if the real U.K.
But what is the real UK?

It is so diverse that it cannot be defined in a simplistic manner.
Older people living in the country are just as part of the UK as anyone else.