From Boris the Lion King to Theresa May's P45 - my malarial week at the Tory conference

[Denzil_DC]

The Guardian's Marina Hyde is at it again:

By the end of the Conservative party conference, Theresa May had suffered so many painful betrayals and humiliations that she should have ditched her speech and dropped

" target="_blank">a 60-minute visual album on Tidal instead. A lot of people wouldn’t have begrudged her the chance to stalk along the street in a yellow dress, baseball-batting a few cars.

That, clearly, would have been a show of strength a million miles beyond the prime minister: currently third among equals, dropping down the rankings fast, and agonisingly handed a P45 by a bottom-tier comedian during her own coughed-out conference speech. Even bits of the set were trying to escape. She had already spent four days in Manchester having to suck up all manner of indignities, while Boris Johnson’s address concluded “Let the lion roar!” Thanks, Uncle Scar! But you probably want to wipe Mufasa’s blood off your chin before you get the party faithful to sing along to The Circle of Life.

I lost count of things that were obviously being said for a dare. “We were pleased with the way it went,” judged May’s spokesman of her speech. “I witnessed a great speech from a prime minister at the top of her game,” declared Michael Gove. “That is their cosmic role in life,” explained James Cleverly about Labour, “to screw things up, so we can come and fix them.” Has he been watching the past two years on tape delay? The Tories are like something out of Cowboy Builders: they tell you that you need a new boiler, and by the time they’re done, you’ve got no roof, a sinkhole and euro parity. For the love of God, guys, please stop fixing things.

...

But before we go on: the science bit. Last year, the Tories were bedding in for a good 15 years of uninterrupted rule; this year, they were coming to terms with the fact that the bed had been shat. “We had an election that nobody expected to take place,” said party chairman Patrick McLoughlin. The snap election had caught the Tories off guard, May explained to the House magazine, recalling that moment a highly emotional Withnail accosts a farmer and explains: “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake!” The Tories seemed to have called an election by mistake.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/04/boris-lion-king-to-theresa-may-p45-malarial-week-tory-conference

[nitpicker]

1. BBC update

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-41506740

Theresa May: Tories rally round PM after speech woes

32 minutes ago

From the section UK Politics

James Cleverly said he was "proud" of the PM for contending with a persistent cough and a prankster. John Redwood said MPs backed her "strong message". The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said that while many MPs wanted her to stay as leader, there were "emerging plots". These involved Tory MPs trying to get support to approach Mrs May privately and persuade her to stand aside.

This group will only act if they feel they have the numbers to do so "quickly and cleanly", our political editor ((Laura Kuenssberg))said, adding: "It is just not clear at the moment where the numbers really lie."
(snip)

However, the aftermath of the speech was dominated by the prime minister's struggle in delivering it and questions about what it meant for her future. A nagging cough and croaky voice forced the PM to stop on more than one occasion but she sought to make light of her troubles, cracking a joke when Chancellor Philip Hammond handed her a cough sweet.

A succession of cabinet ministers, including Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt, praised the speech afterwards. A No 10 source confirmed it had received calls from colleagues "offering support" to the prime minister and declared "resignation is not an issue" for Mrs May.

Politics is certainly cruel, and clearly the prime minister was the victim of some appallingly bad luck. A former minister told me that after the election and Grenfell it would only have taken one more event to trigger her exit and this "was the event". In normal political times, it is probably the case that what one minister described as a "tragedy" would have led to a prime minister being forced out or quitting. But these aren't normal times. Allies of Theresa May say Wednesday's events have shown her resilience and determination in spades, demonstrating exactly why she deserves to stay in the job.
(snip)

[T_i_B]

2. It seems to be Grant Shapps who is currently leading the anti-May faction

Which is a major problem for the MP's who want Theresa May out given Grant Sharps dodgy reputation and terrible record as housing minister!

[Denzil_DC]

3. Ah, yes. Shapps.

That Tory bullying scandal and all the revolting revelations about the Tory battlebus tour have never been fully resolved, AFAIK, have they?

Grant Shapps resigns over bullying scandal: 'the buck should stop with me'

Grant Shapps, a former Tory chairman, has resigned from the government in disgrace in the wake of revelations that he had been warned about bullying in the party before the death of one of its young activists.

He was forced to quit as a minister for international development after the father of 21-year-old Elliott Johnson claimed his son would still be alive if Shapps and Andrew Feldman, the current Tory chair, had behaved responsibly when made aware of the behaviour of one its senior organisers.

The two men were co-chairs of the Conservative party at the time that the young Tory activist was allegedly being targeted by Mark Clarke, who ran the party’s RoadTrip initiative, responsible for ferrying activists around the country during the general election campaign.

In an exchange of letters with the prime minister, Shapps continued to maintain his innocence in the affair but tendered his resignation on the grounds that “responsibility should rest somewhere”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/nov/28/grant-shapps-resigns-over-bullying-scandal

With the spotlight on him again, Sky News felt driven to describe is career as "chequered":

http://news.sky.com/story/grant-shapps-who-is-tory-mp-leading-plot-against-theresa-may-11069236

Shocking.

[T_i_B]

4. It could have been "Michael Brown" you know!

[Denzil_DC]

5. "Michael Brown"? Sorry, that one must have passed me by. Do tell? n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. I think T_i_B means "Michael Green":

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/15/grant-shapps-admits-he-had-second-job-as-millioniare-web-marketer-while-mp

[T_i_B]

7. It's been a while.....

....since we last heard from Grant Shapps and his many alter egos!

[Denzil_DC]

8. Oh, yeah.

Nowhere near long enough, though.

Still, a con man and a sponsor of bullies - definitely Tory prime ministerial material.

And thanks, Muriel.