Gness...."Surely he wouldn't have resigned at this point if Brexit disagreements were the reason"
No. I don't believe he has. His opposition to the EU has been known for a long time, in exactly the same way other Tories and Cabinet members have, and they have not seen it necessary to resign. Dave has given permission for his Ministers to oppose him on his issue.
Anyway, as far as I am concerned, he has gone and won't be missed.
This is more about positioning for after Brexit and after Cameron and Osborne.
It is obvious that IDS will be one of the leaders of the the brexitters, and if leaving the EU means a change of Conservative leadership, then if not King, IDS will be Kingmaker. Instead of a dead end job at Work and Pensions, he can expext a plum job, Home Secretary, Home Secretary, Chancellor.
I'd have thought people of a left wing persuasion, of all people, would want to take what he said at face value.
ie. He wanted to take people out of the poverty trap but Gidiot was only interested in kicking them to balance the books and ideological reasons. (ie. the focus groups told him it went down well with tory voters, which I don't think it did)
Gromit...As far as Dave is concerned, you may be right. Whatever the result of the Referendum, Dave will go....sooner rather than later if the decision is to leave. After all, Dave has already made his position clear on that point.
But with Osborne, its not quite so clear. This resignation is not in the same league as Geoffrey Howe. When he resigned, very publicly, in November
in 1990, Thatcher herself was gone three weeks later.
I doubt that IDS's going has severely holed Osborne below the waterline enough.
His Budget is now in tatters, and its mainly due to his incompetence in not predicting, yet again, his own Party's unhappiness with his strategy. If he can't now make these savage cuts in spending on the disabled, he has a large hole in his calculations, and no idea how to fill the gap.
Hmmm.....I meant it puts off folk who want to crawl out of the shrubbery now and again to discuss the OP without contributions getting lost in the bickering, Baldric..☺
Gness ....ignore the bickering as best you can....I try to all the time. Its always the usual suspects. Carry on making your debating points and don't be put off !
For once I agree with you Mickey, it should have been Osborne that went.
The sooner Gideon and Dave go the better. They are the ones tearing to party apart and are out of touch with core Tory members.
I doubt IDS has left over the EU, that will be the Pro EU scaremongering, spinning and outright lying again. Dave and his pro EU mates have form on that.
I try, Mikey....I would love to learn from the opinions and views of others.... and that does occasionally happen.....but often it's hard to get past the page of name calling and one line snipes...x