‘the truth is that the people of Sheffield Hallam will now have a lame duck representative for the next four years,’

Which is exactly what they deserve after showing Clegg the door

Clegg’s defeat was the saddest and least deserved result of the 2017 election for me, and he behaved with great dignity.

That said I really like how our electoral system permits, once in a while, the surprising defeat of big beasts in safeish seats by absolute nobodies.

George Brown, Portillo, Thorpe, Clegg.

Labour really need to find a way to force O’Mara to stand down though; the Lib Dems will walk the seat at the next GE if he stays in place for 4 more years doing diddly squat.

Thing is, though, there doesn’t really seem to be any pattern among the people who manage to pull off these upsets. Some become pretty accomplished MPs (Stephen Twigg, Mhairi Black), but some are utter turnips (Jared O’Mara, Andrea Jenkyns).

I think a lot of people would disagree that politics in the 80s wasn’t divisive. I would argue it most certainly was…perhaps more on social than racial grounds, however.

The balloon is a mistake I think…it just looks like we are trying too hard. It’s also a big mistake to think that Trump is desperately insecure underneath it all. No, he really does think he is better than everyone else.

I heard Jenkyns speaking for the first time the other day. She is almost embarrassingly thick. She might even be less qualified than O’Mara, who I’ll be happy to see the back of.

As for Mhairi Black…some of my distant family live in her constituency. She is useless, and doesn’t even bother to turn up to her clinics most of the time. Please don’t confuse being a gobshite who is good at courting the media with actually being a good MP.

You beat me to it….Mhairi Black definitely belongs in the turnip category, probably more so than Andrea Jenkyns.

So many giantkillers end up being turnips because they aren’t expected to win so the party pays less attention to their ability.

Stephen Twigg is a decent guy, as a former NUS president who faced down the more idiotic left which now dominates it, he was hardly likely to be a turnip.

Tony Spellar who defeated Jeremy Thorpe was also a very good MP. His private members bill on re-opening closed rail lines is a lasting influence to this day.

I don’t agree that the people of Hallam deserve Jared because they got rid of Clegg. Putting aside my own views of Clegg no constituent deserves poor representation regardless of who they vote for. That kind of dismissive view of the electorate shouldn’t belong in our democracy

‘I don’t agree that the people of Hallam deserve Jared because they got rid of Clegg.’

Surely if you believe in democracy you can’t believe that

More people voted for Jared then Clegg, therefore he gets the job

It’s like Brexit – the only thing I’m looking forward to about the whole process is seeing those people who voted for it worst off. It’s just sad that those people who didn’t will be worst off too

Politics is all about reaping what you sow

The problem is that, when it all goes wrong, the leave voters will fail to identify the right cause. It will be someone else’s fault. It always is.

But I also believe in the power of recall. If Hallam don’t want OMara they should be able to remove him. Democracy doesnt exist for one day every 5 years

‘The problem is that, when it all goes wrong, the leave voters will fail to identify the right cause.’

But there will be no other explanation that Brexit if we get it full-throttle like most of them want

Art the moment the best they can come up with – and it was a point argued by that utter tosspot Piers Morgan last night – is that a hard, no-deal Brexit won’t be a disaster because all the people who say it will said the same thing about the UK not joining the Euro

Oh, they’ll notice that Brexit is a complete clusterf**k. But it won’t be the fault of leave voters or campaigners. It’ll be the fault of the Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Blair, AC Grayling, Gary Lineker, Jamie Oliver, Lily Allen…

Oh, and George Soros of course. Because that list was missing a racist dogwhistle.

“‘The problem is that, when it all goes wrong, the leave voters will fail to identify the right cause.’

But there will be no other explanation than Brexit if we get it full-throttle like most of them want”

A very interesting point Tim.

My grandma is still with us at the grand old age of 94. Visiting her yesterday for the first time since Christmas (we live 150 miles apart) I was shocked to see how much frailer she looked. Like most people that age, she is taking a whole pharmacy full of medicines every day.

I had a thought, driving home, that a cliff edge Brexit next March with its food rationing and shortage of medicines would in all likelihood kill her off. See the government’s leaked preparations for such eventualities if you think it couldn’t happen. I found myself hoping that she slips away beforehand, in relative comfort, rather than amid the chaos that could all to easily envelop us.

I thought back also to my grandma, a lifelong Labour voter, being persuaded to vote Leave, partly no doubt by that nice Mr Johnson who was so funny on Have I Got News For You. IMO he’ll have a lot of blood on his hands if we end up with a car crash no-deal Brexit.

From a Brexiter’s point of view, though a soft Brexit will still leave us quite entwined with the EU, it will at least probably be quite durable, and leave open the possibility of further divergence down the road. After a few weeks of chaotic, cliff edge Brexit it’s plausible that a majority of the population will be crawling on their hands and knees begging to be allowed back into the EU.

‘From a Brexiter’s point of view, though a soft Brexit will still leave us quite entwined with the EU, it will at least probably be quite durable, and leave open the possibility of further divergence down the road. After a few weeks of chaotic, cliff edge Brexit it’s plausible that a majority of the population will be crawling on their hands and knees begging to be allowed back into the EU.’

What really bugs me is that how clearly intelligent people can think a No Deal option is good for UK. Surely it’s more likely that they know it will be a disaster but their desire to stick two finger’s up at the EU outweighs their desire to see their country get on in the world and prosper.

I’ve long thought that if we do end up with a No Deal Brexit, it will take just months fpr the country to realise what an awful mistake they’ve made, and the likes of Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg will be widely despised

“What really bugs me is that how clearly intelligent people can think a No Deal option is good for UK. Surely it’s more likely that they know it will be a disaster but their desire to stick two finger’s up at the EU outweighs their desire to see their country get on in the world and prosper.”

I imagine Lord Lawson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson would be holed up at their pads in the south of France during the food riots.

‘I imagine Lord Lawson, Jacob Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson would be holed up at their pads in the south of France during the food riots.’

I doubt you’d find many bookies willing to take that bet on it’s such a dead cert

Side note – George Galloway and the Brexiteers on the far left have played the situation brilliantly, as their reason for supporting Leave is revealed not to be about principled opposition to a cosy capitalist club, but more an exercise in disaster socialism, trashing the country to force the hands of small-l liberals into gritting their teeth and voting for them against the government.

“Side note – George Galloway and the Brexiteers on the far left have played the situation brilliantly”

And the country has been manoeuvred into a situation where the potential impact of their hard left policies has been normalised.

As a great example consider the following:

TORY GOVT – Don’t vote for Corbyn, he’ll make the UK like Venezuela. Venezuela has become so poor that there is food rationing and a severe shortage of medicines.

TORY GOV’T – Just in case our backbenchers force us to leave the EU with no deal, we have made contingency plans to ration food and deal with a severe shortage of medicines.

In the medium to long term this could be absolutely ruinous for the Tory party.

And of course it means that Corbyn, like Cameron before him, would have a powerful “it’s all the previous government’s fault” narrative that would consolidate his hold on power, even as the country slid further into crisis.

I never thought of that

“And of course it means that Corbyn, like Cameron before him, would have a powerful “it’s all the previous government’s fault” narrative that would consolidate his hold on power, even as the country slid further into crisis.”

That is also true.

The Winter Of Discontent mythology was still working wonders for the Tories 13 years later in 1992.

Had the Brexit distraction not happened, the Tories lambasting Labour’s record on the financial crisis would probably have eked out another GE win for them in 2020.

The electorate have both long memories and short memories.

Hemmy: see also, “Look, Labour are talking about how they might cause a run on the pound. Just forget about the run on the pound that occurred as the Brexit vote came in.”

An MP has been taken ill with suspected heat exhaustion and taken to hospital as a precaution.

I’m not saying it is (or isn’t) this MP. As usual, I don’t name the MP until it’s public, so just posting it here.

But it makes it 9 again (who are away ill or on leave).

What an absolutely fascinating update. Thank you so much.