So the Limp Dims have overturned a 20,000-vote majority for Zac Goldsmith. Not terribly surprising, really, considering the impetuousness and rash irresponsibility of the man. He had a comfortable level of support in the London mayoral election. Then, he not only snatched defeat form the jaws of victory but positively rammed it down Khan’s throat. Then, in a most febrile of atmospheres — and in what was until 2010 a marginal Limp Dim seat — he resigned from the Conservative Party and forced a by-election. Good riddance. The Delightful Mrs May may hardly be delighted by the loss of a seat, but he’s been a tremendous thorn in HM’s Government’s side for some time.
Boadicea's Chariot 
So why didn’t a Tory big-hitter contest the seat? Because it would have become a Bremainer playground during the run-up. As it stands the Cleggover crowd can play with themselves – which they will find very satisfying.
Janus: The tacit understanding was that, should Goldsmith be returned to Parliament, he’d continue to support the present government. UKIP and the Conservatives didn’t send a candidate to give him the best possible chance to hold his seat. Obviously,this wasn’t enough. That said, the Cleggover Crowd can do what they please with themselves — reclaiming a traditionally Limp Dim seat after an MP’s spectacular implosion is hardly a great feat.
I’m just waiting for some LibDim to shout that this is a second Orpington and they should all go home and prepare to govern. Instead all they’ve got is Verhofstadt opening his mouth and emitting hot air as usual. I trust Ms Olney will not give up her day job. She’ll probably need it again after the next General Election.
She is an accountant. Hm.
Sheona: Oh, well if Verhodstadt says it then it’s all sorted and we know what to do! I had to laugh when I heard Olney’s first post-by-election interview. She crumbed within a matter of minutes and PR had to terminate the interview. Were it not so risible it would be tragic.
Never struck me that Zac Goldsmith was a credible candidate for being an MP in the first place, or mayor.
Always seemed to have the air of a dilettante about him, playing at it. No loss at all.
Sheona you are more than likely right about the extent of her tenure!
CO: Goldsmith lacks shrewdness, pragmatism and a survival instinct. He was the recipient of much goodwill in his political career and had the capacity to become a great statesman. However, he rashly threw it all away twice and now he has nothing.
I have nothing but contempt for Goldsmith and hope he is one of the last Cameronistas to be weeded out. He seems to have treated both the constituency and the constituents of Richmond (not that they don’t deserve it) as a passing dalliance, a plaything to fend off the ennui in his life. Good riddance to a man who has come unstuck having apparently nurtured an enormous ego and self regard at the expense of the country’s wider interests at a time when a united front is vital to face down the Vehodstadts and Junkers of this world, not to mention our very own fifth columnists festering in the London bubble.
As it is, he has given Tim, Nick, Vince, Ming et al. the unexpected opportunity to get up on their hind legs on the news feeds proclaiming a new dawn for the Liberal Democrats (a misnomer if ever there was one) and their five MPs as if it made a difference. Further to that, these political has-beens are now claiming, on the back of one freak by election result, a mandate to vote against invoking Article 50 and even to demand a second referendum on EU membership.
Tell you what. Applying the recent standards of the illiberal left, let the UK majority declare that the good people of Richmond have been deceived by the lies and distortions of the Remainiac Tendency and that the result is therefore null and void as the voters were clearly too thick to understand the wider picture. The electorate instead will be sent away to vote again as many times as necessary until the ‘correct’ result is achieved.
OZ
Oh, I forgot to mention two other little things,
1) On 23rd June, Richmond was the constituency with the seventh highest ‘remain’ vote in the country and
2) Labour lost its deposit last night.
OZ
One more little gem before bedtime
with the fragrant Julia Hartley Brewer putting the hoof into Ms. Olney earlier today.
OZ
Oz: Richmond Park is like Östermalm. It’s a rich ghetto, a place so removed from the reality of much of the country that its norms are simply irrelevant. That which it holds dear, the EU, political correctness, etc. are only tenable because the residents that constantly espouse these so-called virtues rarely, if ever, have to actually deal with the consequences. They have their Polish plumbers and house cleaners, Hungarian gardeners and Italian coffee shop owners — but they don’t have Romanian gypsies, Bulgarian gangsters or Czech drug dealers making a mess of their streets. Let’s not even start on Lebanese, ex-Yugolslav and Russian Mafiosi roaming around the EU courtesy of German and Swedish passports! (Dirty secret: A number of Russian Mafiosi were able to obtain German passports because,until about 15 years ago, ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe and the former USSR were entitled to German passports no matter how far removed from Germany there actual lineage was. The Swedes and Germans gave asylum status and even passports to all sorts of Balkan dregs)
And talking of freedom of movement, the cherished mantra of the Federalists, it turns out that the Huns are on the brink of imposing motorway charges on non-Hun-registered vehicles moving ‘freely’ in Hunland. The Dutch and Austrians are objecting. Freedom is obviously a moveable feast.
Janus: Quite. The reality is that the Federal Republic is bankrupt. Rather than admit this, the government tries to find ever more innovative ways to squeeze blood out of rocks. As the Hun taxpayer has been squeezed dry they’ll have to look elsewhere. One reason why the German regime has been so keen on covert lending to Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland is that they desperately need the interest payments to stay viable.
Now we learn that the Libdims had to use bribery to win Richmond, with a hefty donation to the Greens to persuade them not to stand. Surely the electoral commission should step in there to investigate.
Sheona: all very interesting. Bribery in Richmond Park and a scam in Sub-Canadian North America. The Greens bribed not to run against the Limp Dims, Trump’s vote count growing and irregularities favouring Democrats being uncovered…
The LibDems are a bunch of crooks.
As for Zac Goldsmith. If his father hadn’t been so wealthy we’d have never heard of him.
Christopher – re you comment a couple above, “The Federal Republic is bankrupt, Rather than admit this, the government tries to find ever more innovative ways to squeeze blood out of rocks.” My adopted government has just started applying legislation to tax any property (business or private) that fronts onto, or has direct access via a driveway to, a national (main) road. These new taxes can be upwards of €1,000 per annum on top of everything else.
But that one pales into insignificance against this next Lulu. The gobmunt has recently enacted legislation so that owners of properties facing south will be charged a surtax on their annual property tax for sunshine (something of which Portugal has rather a lot). If that property also has a ‘nice view’ (a very subjective concept, that) then the surtax is raised further and if the property also has some windows to enjoy the view….., yep, you guessed it, I kid you not.
I particularly admired the ingenuity of Germany’s tax raid on foreign registered vehicles. This was deemed discriminatory so the Hun then decreed that a levy would be applied to all vehicles but that German taxpayers could recoup the cost. Very clever that, but again Portugal is streets ahead of the game. Having had their eye-watering import tax on foreign registered vehicles (it can be upwards of €15,000 per vehicle*) declared illegal (even) in the European Court of Justice, the venal barstewards have announced that a carbon emissions tax on foreign imports will be imposed instead, the net result being an increase in revenue for the Estado compared with the scam it replaces and lots more functionaries to administer it.
Fekkers all.
OZ
*Just for the record, I myself got hit for €12 grand to get Portuguese plates for a UK plated, V8 petrol engined Range Rover for which I was already paying Portuguese road tax, had an annual Portuguese vehicle inspection and had insured with a major Portuguese insurer, all when the vehicle had UK plates. The blatant rort was as illegal then as it is now, but I am not hopeful of a refund. So much for the oft-quoted and much vaunted four fundamental freedoms of movement of goods, capital, services and people. Like I said, Fekkem!
The UK is too honest to be a member any longer.
Jazz: surely you wouldn’t say that Goldsmith is nothing but a more mediocre, if such a thing is possible, British version of Justin Trudeau.
Oz: The Hun regime hasn’t been that depraved, but they’ve found other ways to preserve a semblance of probity while actually gouging people. These so-called reform-based loan packages are designed so that Germany can profit on interest payments. Thus, they can quietly pay-off debts and preparing for unfunded liabilities that are quickly approaching. Naturally, in the past years crisis-ridden countries have gone along with it and their political classes have been happy to pretend to be reform-minded leaders. However, as Italy has shown, people have had it with paying for political follies through their ever ruddier noses. As you know, I was not legally permitted to assume employment beyond part-time basis because the Federal Government and State of Rhineland-Palatinate didn’t acknowledge that I even had O levels. I had to pay 400 euros in fees to receive two letters that said that I actually had a university education. Spain was also really, really ghastly with such things.
Janus: I think the UK, Sweden and Denmark are too honest to be members any longer. The Finns only go along with it because of the counterweight to Russia and they’re the ones with the history — and border — with Russia.