Angela Eagle launched her campaign to be Labour leader, she said, to bring peace to the Labour Party, just as she voted for war to bring peace to Iraq. If she ever sits next to you on a park bench and says “I’ve come here for some peace and quiet” – RUN.

Eagle claims that she could win a general election – and to be fair she might have a slight chance, as long as she’s allowed to keep all the other parties off the ballot paper. She does have a gift for explaining her ideas, after all. Asked on the Today programme why she voted for the Iraq war, she said “I’m a Northern working class girl who understands the nuances of modern life.”

That put the Chilcot report in its place. It was all very well Sir John writing millions of words about weapons inspectors and UN resolutions, but instead of that waffle he should have asked everyone if they were from the North. Tomorrow she’ll be asked, “Why are you in favour of Trident?” and her answer will be “I’ve been to Manchester and understand the rules of table tennis.”

The majority of Labour MPs say they have to overthrow Corbyn, because he “sits in his office and doesn’t reach out to anyone.” He was cheered by tens of thousands at last week’s gala in Durham, and attracted crowds of several thousand during the first leadership contest, but that doesn’t count as anyone compared to Angela ‘U2’ Eagle, or Owen ‘crash the website as soon as tickets go on sale’ Smith. Neither can they go out of the house without facing hordes of fans screaming “we love the way you abstain on Tory bills to cut welfare” and demanding selfies.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyns-supporters-are-so-dangerous-they-took-over-labour-before-they-were-even-born-a7136711.html

THERESA May today faces growing pressure over Britain’s nuclear deterrent as a new poll suggests waning public support for Trident.

In the first days of Mrs May’s tenure as Prime Minister, Conservative MPs are expected to overwhelmingly support the renewal of Trident in a Commons vote.

A new UK-wide poll for The Herald shows that just 45 per cent of British people are in favour of renewing the project.

Just over a quarter, 27.5 per cent, oppose the move, and almost the same number, 27.9 per cent, say that they don't know.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14614614.Trident_challenge_for_Theresa_May_as_support_for_renewal_falls/

Stepping into the limelight as First Man, Philip May showcased a sexy navy suit with a flourish of pinstripe.

A single fastened button at the waist helped show off his fantastic figure and a pale blue tie brought out the colour of his eyes.

Round glasses perched on his nose accentuated his amazing bone structure – no doubt one of the assets he used to help him to bag his wife.

...

Philip elongated his pins with a pair of black brogues as he accompanied his wife to step over the threshold of their new home – 10 Downing Street.

...

http://metro.co.uk/2016/07/13/theresa-mays-husband-steals-the-show-in-sexy-navy-suit-as-he-starts-new-life-as-first-man-6005294/

The first time I heard the name Boris Johnson was in the early 1990s. I was in graduate school, and one of the ways I made a little money during the summer was by helping shepherd tours of American policy people around Brussels to be lectured by various dignitaries and then writing up reports. One year, my Americans were treated to a performance by a prominent UK member of the Brussels press corps, who was clearly enjoying himself immensely. The larger part of his talk focused on Boris Johnson, who was then the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent. The journalist told of how Johnson clearly was completely at sea in Brussels, and at a loss for what to report on. Other reporters quickly noted that he had a sweet tooth for stories about this or that regulatory horror that Brussels bureaucrats were about to inflict on unsuspecting Britons. They started an informal pool, to see what was the most ridiculously exaggerated story that they could stuff into Boris, which he would then relay as gospel truth to Telegraph readers. The speaker suggested (perhaps exaggerating for effect) that they hadn’t yet been able to find a story so ludicrous that Boris wouldn’t gulp it down.

http://crookedtimber.org/2016/06/28/boris-johnson/

"I HIT bottom. But then I heard somebody tapping from underneath." It’s a Polish saying. But it’s immigrated to Britain. Each time, you think there’s nothing worse they can do. And each time another even grosser blunder arrives to splinter away more of the world’s diminishing respect for the United Kingdom. And here once more comes the English political elite, treating their subjects as credulous peasants, and getting away with it.

Can something even more humiliating than absurd Brexit and its dishonoured referendum be waiting round the corner for its cue? Surely there’s no further to fall, after Tory ministers threaten to use nearly two million foreigners living in Britain as diplomatic hostages? Just listen for the tapping underneath.

I remember the sound of three mighty London demonstrations against misrule, separated by a tract of 60 years. First memory is the battering of hooves and the screams of women, drowning the chants of "Law, not War". That was the Suez protest in November 1956. That was the end of political virginity for my generation. We had never imagined that a British government could commit criminal, illegal aggression in a secret conspiracy with France and Israel to invade Egypt, overthrow its regime and return the Suez Canal to private shareholders. We did not know, until then, that "our" police could slash batons across the faces of young girls, and drag them across the pavement by the hair.

An innocence died. So did a hank of the nerves which had told the British public to obey orders and – with mild scepticism – to trust those who gave the orders. But the Establishment (which wasn’t yet called that) was surprised and vexed at the fuss.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14609459.Neil_Ascherson__Death_of_the_British_project_____my_life_in_three_demonstrations_of_public_outrage/?ref=twtrec

by John Prescott

On Wednesday we finally saw the Chilcot Report.

It was a damning indictment of how the Blair Government handled the war – and I take my fair share of blame.

As the Deputy Prime Minister in that Government I must express my fullest apology, especially to the families of the 179 men and women who gave their lives in the Iraq War.

Chilcot went into great detail as to what went wrong. But I want to identify certain lessons we must learn to prevent this tragedy being repeated.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-prescott-reveals-guilt-illegal-8387319

Tory and Labour MPs have held informal discussions about establishing a new political party in the event of Andrea Leadsom becoming prime minister and Jeremy Corbyn staying as Labour leader, a cabinet minister has disclosed.

Senior players in the parties have discussed founding a new centrist grouping in the mould of the Social Democratic party (SDP) should the two main parties polarise, according to the minister. Talks should be taken seriously, though they are still at an early stage, according to the source.

“There have been talks between Labour and Tory MPs about a new party,” the minister said. “A number of my colleagues would not feel comfortable in a party led by Andrea Leadsom.”

It is understood that MPs in both parties who campaigned to remain in the European Union believe there is an opportunity to build on the newly founded relationships between centrist MPs in both parties made before the EU referendum.

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/09/labour-tory-mps-talk

The woman selling me the railway ticket at a small Welsh station was in no hurry. She was having a public discussion with the worker next to her. He said: ‘You can’t buy girls pink toys anymore, they have to be grey.’ She replied: ‘It’s the same with the word gollywog...’ They were both within earshot of customers and both wearing the uniform of a major rail company.

During the Brexit campaign you could hear it everywhere, if you bothered to listen. Brief random expressions of racism, brief revolts against political correctness. Coming from a small working-class town myself I knew what they meant: a fake revolt of the underclass was under way — against the values of a socially liberal elite and its lifelong project: membership of the European Union.

In that conversation, and millions like it, nobody had to use the word ‘Europe’. The referendum was just the opportunity to say: we’ve had enough. Enough bleakness, enough ruined high streets, enough minimum-wage jobs, and enough lies and fear-mongering from the political class. On the night, 56% of voters in that solidly Labour Welsh town voted to leave the EU.

The signs were there. In the local elections of May 2016 the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) broke through into the former mining valleys of Wales where politics had been solidly Labour since the party was formed in 1906. In the European Parliament elections of 2014 UKIP had won 26% of the vote across the UK, always concentrated in the same kind of town: small, drab, with a low-wage private sector and just enough inward migration to remind everyone of what economists confirmed: that migration from eastern Europe was suppressing the wages of the lowest paid.

http://mondediplo.com/2016/07/03brexit

MPs will vote on 18 July whether to renew the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system, PM David Cameron has said.

Mr Cameron, who is standing down in September, said the issue should not be left to his successor.

Meanwhile, an internal review of Labour's defence policy will keep open the possibility of retaining Trident, BBC Newsnight understands.

The review is considering the party's stance on Trident, which leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36754911