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Iain Duncan Smith resigns from Cabinet


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Momentum building towards what? Cameron resigns and chucks the keys to corbyn and ask him to have a go?

 

I'm no Tory (party politics is for stupid people) but I cannot fathom why a minister, particularly one as odious as Ian Duncan smith, resigns over (on the face of it at least) unfair policy and its a queue for a pile on. I don't get why that's something to be attacked with at least as much venom as the original policy. It's likely to lead to a u turn. Big deal, the tories have done more than a learner driver with a nervous disposition.

 

Momentum building towards a proper Tory meltdown. I've always said they aren't fit to run the country and I think they are going to prove it soon enough. With any luck we can get them out of power somehow.

 

Quite honestly although I wasn't a fan of the last coalition, another coalition government might be what we need right now. I don't think I could stomach Corbyn being PM. With the benefit of hindsight we can see that the LibDems actually did manage to temper some of the worst instincts of the Tories. The ESA vote closely followed by the PIP policy change would never have happened under the coalition.

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Momentum building towards a proper Tory meltdown. I've always said they aren't fit to run the country and I think they are going to prove it soon enough. With any luck we can get them out of power somehow.

 

Quite honestly although I wasn't a fan of the last coalition, another coalition government might be what we need right now. I don't think I could stomach Corbyn being PM. With the benefit of hindsight we can see that the LibDems actually did manage to temper some of the worst instincts of the Tories. The ESA vote closely followed by the PIP policy change would never have happened under the coalition.

 

Well find a comfy chair and a lot of good books as there won't be a general election until the first Thursday in May 2020. Thank brown for that one, an awful idea that no government would overturn. Why would they?

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Well find a comfy chair and a lot of good books as there won't be a general election until the first Thursday in May 2020. Thank brown for that one, an awful idea that no government would overturn. Why would they?

 

The coalition introduced fixed term parliaments.

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I stand corrected. How daft was that?

 

Not quite as bad as it seems. It requires a certain percentage of MPs to vote for an early election. A change of leader in the governing party is one scenario where the opposition would be compelled to agree to an early election.

 

So, if this really does fall apart we could see an early election. Everybody should have learned from Brown's mistake in 2007 of not going to the country to validate his leadership. The Tories wouldn't want to fall into that trap.

 

Three months and we shall see.

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Momentum building towards a proper Tory meltdown. I've always said they aren't fit to run the country and I think they are going to prove it soon enough. With any luck we can get them out of power somehow.

 

Quite honestly although I wasn't a fan of the last coalition, another coalition government might be what we need right now. I don't think I could stomach Corbyn being PM. With the benefit of hindsight we can see that the LibDems actually did manage to temper some of the worst instincts of the Tories. The ESA vote closely followed by the PIP policy change would never have happened under the coalition.

 

Maybe a Lib Dem-Labour coalition would work?

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Maybe a Lib Dem-Labour coalition would work?

 

I don't think even the libdems are that daft. Lib/Tory pact in 2020. We all need to calm down a bit. Minister resigns. Backbenchers in a bit of a tizz. That's pretty standard conservative government stuff. it will result in a policy u turn and Rory bremner might need to learn a few more voices.

 

Nothing to see here.

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I'm rather late to the debate, however Laura Kunnesberg of the BBC has presented a compelling analysis of IDS' departure - nothing to do with the uncaring nature of the cuts, but him feeling that he was treated badly:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35849065

 

Huh? The article you linked to suggests no such thing.

 

Well certainly he was under pressure from the treasury to make huge cuts. Although he was apparently reluctant to sign up to the PIP changes, nevertheless as the W&P secretary he carried the can for the public anger over the changes. As the article makes clear:

"...government sources say that the policy on PIPs has been dumped, "into the long grass" making Iain Duncan Smith furious the policy he only reluctantly signed up to has been junked by the party leadership."

 

Apparently there is animosity between him & Osborne - over what I don't know. Though it has been reported that George Osborne has little time for him & questions his 'intellectual ability'. I don't buy this idea that IDS thought the cuts were too cruel, as his own views are well known. Graeme Ellis, the chair of the Conservative Disability Group, was on the radio this morning saying the IDS views disabled people as scroungers; and Nadine Dorries, backbench Tory MP lashed out at IDS:

 

...for claiming to have resigned on a point of principle, just days after begging her to vote for cuts to disability benefits.

The outspoken backbencher took to Twitter just minutes after the former welfare-slasher sensationally quit from his role as Work and Pensions Secretary.

She wrote: “Stunned at IDS resignation letter. I was about to vote against ESA cuts when he sought me out – he personally and angrily begged me not to.

Promised me he was introducing a white paper which guaranteed enhanced and more easily accessible benefits for the seriously disabled".

Edited by Mister M
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