Mays abusive top staff removed as recriminations grow over poll failure

[sandensea]

Theresa May was forced to sacrifice her two closest advisers – Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy – on Saturday, as Tory recriminations grew over the party’s catastrophic general election performance.

The two aides, who were joint chiefs of staff, have been widely blamed for both strategic and policy failings during the campaign and had become increasingly unpopular among ministers and MPs for their abrasive styles and refusal to listen to advice even from cabinet ministers.

Gavin Barwell, a former minister ousted in the election, was named as their replacement on Saturday night. May said Barwell, who lost his Croydon Central seat on Thursday, would bring “considerable experience” to the job.

The removal of Hill and Timothy from Downing Street is a stark demonstration of May’s weakness in the aftermath of an election that has left the prime minister clinging to power after losing 13 seats, stripped of an outright majority, and lacking the mandate for Brexit that she sought.

She is now deprived of the two people she had trusted most and who were with her during her transition from the Home Office to N° 10.

At: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/10/theresa-may-top-advisers-quit-nick-timothy-fiona-hill-tory-recriminations-grow

[Warpy]

1. Friends there are calling it the MAYDUP government

The Democratic Unionist Party is really bad news, a gaggle of anitabortionist, pro creationist wack jobs who have a far right social agenda that is going to be nothing but trouble for May. Like all religious nutcases, they will not compromise because god.

The description of their MPs sounded like the who's who at the Values Voter Summit.

The DUP is going to make this coalition very, very unstable. Elections are likely to come sooner rather than later.

[sandensea]

2. Perfect.

Gotta love that famed British wit.

[T_i_B]

3. The term being used more often with people I know is....

Conservative and Unionist Negotiating Team.

Can't think why.....

[Warpy]

10. Yeah, that one has been mentioned, also

and by its initials. However, MAYDUP is for the sensitive among us.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Sunday Times: 5 cabinet members urge Boris to stand; Hammond demands soft Brexit

This is all unattributed, and in The Sunday Times (via an Australian Murdoch paper so the firewall won't stop you), though I doubt Murdoch would directly try to place or alter a story there - for that he tends to work through The Sun:

"Boris Johnson has been pressed by five other members of the cabinet to oust Theresa May as prime minister as the Tory party descended into a new civil war.
...
With rivals circling, the prime minister was warned she had three days to save her premiership as senior ministers issued ultimatums in exchange for their support. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, signalled that his backing for May was conditional on her moderating her Brexit stance.

The chancellor used a telephone conversation on Friday to tell the prime minister she should put jobs first in her Brexit negotiations - a coded attack on May’s pledge to put controls on immigration at the top of her list.
...
A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times revealed that voters, by a margin of 48 per cent to 38 per cent, believe the prime minister should resign. For the first time Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has drawn level with May on the question of who would be the best prime minister.
...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/uk-election-2017-five-cabinet-ministers-urge-boris-johnson-to-move-on-theresa-may/news-story/d7346326f590f6110b816ae699711b12

[Denzil_DC]

5. At the moment, I'm wishing some of the Labour shadow cabinet would hold their fire,

STFU and let the Tory disarray play out.

I was livid to hear John McDonnell choose this moment this morning - when there are no more votes to be courted - to reiterate that Labour is committed to leaving the single market because that's the "democratic will".

It's exasperating.

Those were NOT the terms on which the brexit vote was held, and we were assured repeatedly by Leave representatives (including in parliamentary committee) that it wasn't on the cards, so wasn't even worth discussing.

And this while cracks are appearing in the Tory hard line on this very issue. I'm not encouraged, for the first time in days.

[T_i_B]

6. Couldn't agree more

Best thing Labour can do right now is to work quietly for more party unity, which should be a LOT easier after this election.

Banging the "hard Brexit" drum is not going to do any good for Labour on any level. Just let the spotlight fall on the Tory divisions.

[Denzil_DC]

7. I didn't watch it, but Corbyn on Marr

was discussing the options for a soft(er) brexit, including "access" to the single market!

I suppose the nuance is meant to be an EEA/Norway etc. deal of some sort, but they will ALWAYS come up against the same impossible trade-off between freedom of movement to work and submission to EU regulatory institutions versus market access that plagues Tory cake-and-eat-it types.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. It shouldn't be impossible, if there are good negotiators on both sides

There should be some sort of compromise that ought to benefit large groups of people. Take into account the benefits available, whether EU citizens can stay in the country without a job, that sort of thing, and accept that isn't total free movement, and we don't get total access to the EU single market, but with some restrictions. I don't think David Davis is the right guy to be in charge of nuanced negotiating, though.

[Denzil_DC]

9. Well, one side's certainly lacking at the moment! It's a hard circle to square anyway.

One of the first issues the EU wants resolved is the status of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU. That seems a humanitarian approach to me, and shouldn't be dependent on the later stages of negotiation since people who either don't want to stay or won't be able to comply with whatever criteria will need time to make plans to move before whatever deadline is reached, and the longer the better.

Married to a (non-EU) immigrant, I would have extreme objections to the idea that if somebody came here to work, put down roots, entered a relationship with someone, but was unfortunate enough to lose their job, fell ill or decided their family arrangements made more sense if they were the non-employed partner, they'd have to leave.

We're back to the fact that the government has had controls on immigration it's chosen not to implement all along, which is a large part of what got us in this mess.

The sort of people McDonnell's line is geared to pander to either deep down don't want immigration at all, or don't want people coming over here stealing "our" jobs (often jobs they probably wouldn't or couldn't do, of course).