I had just left England when, in 1968, Enoch Powell kicked off an immigration debate with his so-called "Rivers of Blood" speech. I was living in London before then and immigration concerns were rapidly surfacing. The last time I voted before leaving was at a by-election in early 1965 in a 'safe' Labour seat in Leyton and contested by a guy who as a Labour candidate had been beaten in the 1964 General Election won by Labour.

At Smethwick in that 1964 GE the Conservatives ran a successful racist campaign using an extremely racist slogan. In Leyton pamphlets, posters and banners were distributed widely displaying the same slogan. A swing of over 8% gave the Conservative candidate a narrow win.

The slogan- "If you want a N*gger for a neighbour vote Labour." Labour candidate was the late Baron Patrick Gordon-Walker.

Tory MP's have triggered no confidence vote in Mrs May, Merry Christmas, Teresa.
She was only there as a caretaker but, it will be interesting which way the Tories move (probably to the right and a "harder Brexit", assuming that the current arrangements can be modified.

It looks like pandering to Mr Farages wishes, far from preventing a split in the Tories, has utterly destroyed them.
Strong and stable, strong and stable, strong and stable

Seeing the Tory party is such disarray is excellent! Long may it continue!

Back on topic, it really does look like Mrs "strong and stable" May, is determined to hang on to the last, offering to resign before the next General Election.
Part of being a good leader is knowing when your time is up but, nobody seems to have told her.
Hopefully she'll be gone by the morning BUT, the Brexit mess will remain.
Our crdibility on the world stage must be like the value of the pound, at its lowest ever value.

Thread trimmed a little. Play nicely people, no personal insults.

expect may to win the vote tonight.

farce really they wont have enough to oust her.

then back to the eu deal arrangement again before jan 21st!

Of course she'll win the vote, nobody in their right mind would want the job.

Indeed and when you look at the potential replacements Johnson, Gove etc there isn't much competition.

Having said that, she's an awful leader and is paying the price for not choosing a side, which has hacked off much of her own party and the majority of the electorate.
The phrase aboput pleaseing some people all of the time and everyone some of the time springs to mind.

Whatever happened to the Norway ++ deal that seemed to be the idea post rthe referendum result, we seem miles away.

So the three choices, realistically, are still:

No brexit, with a crisis of democratic legitimacy
No deal brexit, with significant economic dislocation
May’s deal which nobody likes

I’m increasingly ‘attracted’ to the third. If we need to unite the country, the opportunity is there to do so in a feeling of disappointment. Just get the misery over and done with. I’m sure Farage and Rees-Mogg will spend their dotages raving about betrayal, but some people want the moon on a stick - that can’t be helped.

At least our leader is chosen by the people.

Should we mention any bloc votes or union influence ?, not to mention sitting on the fence so long that he's got splinters in his piles.

You are unusually myopic on the Corbyn position on this WC; he's playing a blinder here, sitting back and letting the Tories destroy themselves, whilst still focussing on the big issues that the man in the street cares most about - despite the political obsession about Brexit - i.e poverty, the inequities of UC, wealth inequality, the NHS etc etc.

I'm not sure what you want him to do - but he's just been proven right in his decision to delay calling a no confidence vote - because he knew the more swivel-eyed faction of the Tory party were about to do it for him; timing is everything.

My comment was aimed at the xenophobic Brexiteers who criticse Juncker for being unelected & irremovable. Both of which are bololx. Whereas our own dear PM is not elected by the people.

As regards Corbyn, you mistake me for a Labour party member. I belong to a different political party. Having said that, I find it hard to criticise Corbyn for his current approach. The Tories created this shoite storm, not him. Where I think Corbyn is torn, is that, like Tony Benn, he believes passionately about democracy, down to the local level. And he finds that is at odds with a European organisation. What I believe, & my party believes, is that we should be fighting for local decision making on issues such as education, health, social services, local energy, local transport; while the bigger issues such as environment, workers' rights, food quality/production, major transport need large scale approach. One of the biggest things that infuriates me about Brexiteers is that they are happy to hand all decision making to a elite bunch of London-centric, in-bred, hate-filled, Eton Oxbridge 'elite' who don't have the slightest clue or care for the mass of the population.

I keep reading the ramblings of the liberal lunatic fringe over at The Guardian and I really don't know what they expect Corbyn to do, other than sit back and watch the Tories burn. While ever he's in opposition, Brexit isn't his problem to solve. He could change his stance on the matter every day if he wanted, there's nothing he can effectively do about it.

Their obsession is with a People's Vote - which I can empathise with to some extent - but they seem to have created the idea that it's within Corbyn's gift to just snap his fingers and make it happen; which it clearly isn't. And even it were - I'm not sure what it solves - half the electorate will still be pi$$ed off - just the other half.

The vote we need now is a GE - if Labour can get into office, which I think they would in a GE, then some of the things that people seem to think Corbyn should do now in opposition, he will actually be able to do; starting with reversing the crippling austerity years and tackling pressing issues like homelessness, child poverty and the slow death of the health and social care systems.