Thought I'd start a new thread as this is going to be a major talking point this year...have not made up my mind yet...(unlike bucksfizz)....but thinking of voting for an exit as Europe is not doing Britain any good at all it seems....

Cliff Richard is suing the BBC and police for £1m.

Artıcle 50.

Feelıng ıt wıll be kıcked ınto the long grass.

That's the plan!

Cliff Richard ,, so he should , i think that unless charged we should not have known about his arrest .
A lot of people will look at him now thinking no smoke without fire and if he is innocent (there we go even i'm guilty of thinking the same) it has tarnished his reputation .

Also the police statement said there is insufficient evidence to proceed ,which is very different to saying he is definitely not guilty.

If GE 2020 comes down to Leadsom v Corbyn remember only one of them is a mother

What a smorgasbord of talent Labour are going to serve up for me to pick from. Spoilt for choice and where to cast my vote? Such weighty decisions.

The same could be said of the Tory (Future neo-con party).

Have a gentle read of :

I feel my British passport has become a badge of shame
Ed Vulliamy


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/09/after-brexit-british-passport-badge-of-shame-ed-vulliamy

or/and

The Iraq disaster helps explain why Britain is in this dark place
Andrew Rawnsley

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/10/tony-blair-chilcot-iraq-inquiry-legacy-labour-party

Let's be quite clear about this. Angela Eagle is not Jeremy Corbyn. So that is a start. ie. She is a potential fresh leader.

While Jeremy Corbyn made clear on Marr that he has no intention of stepping down, Angela Eagle has done the rounds on Peston and Sunday Politics declaring that she will run for leader if Corbyn refuses to go.

So with a fresh leadership election on the horizon, it’s now on Eagle to make the case for her candidacy. In an interview with Andrew Neil on Sunday Politics, Eagle argued that Corbyn’s position was untenable now he had lost the confidence of the majority of the PLP — stating that he couldn’t ‘lead behind a closed door’. She also argued that Labour’s electoral performance under Corbyn was not up to par, and that they should strive for better results.

However, although Eagle says she is the candidate who can ‘heal Labour’, she floundered when it came to making the positive case for her leadership bid. Eagle struggled to explain why it should be her who replaces Corbyn. When asked what policies set her apart from the Labour leader, she dodged the question:

AE: I am on the Left. Any party which I lead will be an anti-austerity party.
AN: I understand, that’s Corbyn’s position too. What I’m asking is: what are the key policy differences?
AE: I think that I want to lead a strong united opposition. Jeremy was asked three times in that interview if he could win a General Election, he didn’t say yes.

While Eagle complained that Corbyn avoided the electability question three times on Marr, she herself avoided Andrew Neil’s policy questions three times in the interview.

If Eagle wants to win over the membership, she will need to go deeper than pointing out that she is not Jeremy Corbyn. While some Labour members may simply want him out, the majority will need to be won over by her vision for the party — and that includes new policies.

Labour would not be electable under Eagle either. I would expect that she would be a caretaker leader and another election would occur closer to 2020.The leader might be more centrist and more electable.

This is why Corbyn has to go

Momentum chief: winning elections is for political elites https://t.co/QWdErgMcSG pic.twitter.com/xwMy9d1X7J

— Steerpike (@MrSteerpike) 10 July 2016

At one time it didn't matter who ran for Labour, all you had to do was stick
a rosette on a donkey/monkey/parrot, and they'd win in Labour heartlands.

I suggest they find a suitable shop mannequin, or errect a scarecrow outside
Labour HQ.

But hopefully, those Labour supporter's of yore have come to their senses and
realize that Labour are no longer the representatives of the working man/woman.

Which going by the referendum results in Labours heatlands, it would suggest they
have...

Theresa May vows to put Conservatives 'at service' of working people

The home secretary will vow to put her party "at the service" of working people.
Theresa May will promise to put workers on the boards of major firms and curb excess corporate pay, as she starts her campaign to be Tory leader and PM.
The home secretary will vow to put the Conservative Party "at the service" of working people.

She will also stress: "Brexit means Brexit and we're going to make a success of it."
Party members will choose between Mrs May and energy minister Andrea Leadsom in a nationwide leadership vote.

Setting out plans to change the way big businesses are governed, Mrs May said consumers and workers should have places on their boards.
She also committed to making shareholder votes on corporate pay binding, rather than merely advisory, insisting that support for enterprise does not mean "anything goes" in the City.

'Privileged few'
Outlining her plans to reform corporate governance, she hit out at the way non-executive directors who are supposed to provide oversight of the way firms are run often come from the same "narrow social and professional circles" as the executive team and "the scrutiny they provide is just not good enough".
She said: "So if I'm prime minister, we're going to change that system - and we're going to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but workers as well."
She also promised to strengthen "say on pay" rules, giving shareholders more influence over how much executives are paid.........

bbc news

I have seen a rumour that Leadsom is pulling out at noon. She is scheduled to make a statement at noon, so who knows.

She's gone according to the tele.

i've just had a BBC news to flash to that effect
confess i am sorry that she is doing so, but she says she is getting too much abuse

i'm afraid it rather goes with the job ..... DC will tell you! ..... so if she thinks this is too tough, perhaps it's as well that she does pull out

Andrea Leadsom
She just withdrawn from the race

There is still the possibility that another candidate might be found under the rules.

Gove and Boris have both said they won't attempt to be candidates and support Theresa May.

The knives are back on the sheaths for the Tory Party ............

...... but maybe we will needed them soon for the Labour Party

i would certainly rather a proper contested election and it's a shame leadsom found she hadn't the stomach for it ....... confess it's not a job i would want in a million years