Please see Styx thread on the Registered Shipmates consultation for the main discussion forums - your views are important, continues until April 4th.

Is there any point to the ERG now?

HugalHugal Shipmate
Sunak’s solution to the Northern Ireland agreement problem was voted through. Some ERG members voted for it. The bonfire of EU regulations seems to have been thrown into the long grass. The ERG seem to be fading slowly into irrelevance. With an election round the corner, is there any point to this group of self centred, impractical group any more?

Comments

  • chrisstileschrisstiles Hell Host
    edited March 2023
    Hugal wrote: »
    Sunak’s solution to the Northern Ireland agreement problem was voted through. Some ERG members voted for it. The bonfire of EU regulations seems to have been thrown into the long grass. The ERG seem to be fading slowly into irrelevance. With an election round the corner, is there any point to this group of self centred, impractical group any more?

    The group came first and is somewhat independent of the signifier, they are basically a mix of the reactionary/libertarian right of the Conservative Party. There's a nearly 1/1 overlap with the Covid Research Group and the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, and all three are or have been led by Steve Baker at some point.

    I assume when he tires of parliamentary politics he'll end up in some opaquely funded think tank like Carswell.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    Why is this in hell - @Hugal why do you start almost all your threads in Hell ?
  • Alan Cresswell Alan Cresswell Admin, 8th Day Host
    I'm tempted to ask if there was ever any point to the ERG.
  • Why is this in hell - @Hugal why do you start almost all your threads in Hell ?

    To be fair, any thread doing justice to the ERG must certainly belong in Hell. I'm thinking mostly 8th (fraud) circle, with a good chunk of 9th (treachery) and a dash of 4th (greed).
  • Why is this in hell - @Hugal why do you start almost all your threads in Hell ?

    To be fair, any thread doing justice to the ERG must certainly belong in Hell. I'm thinking mostly 8th (fraud) circle, with a good chunk of 9th (treachery) and a dash of 4th (greed).

    Quite so.

    Hopefully, they will soon become entirely negligible and irrelevant.
  • Right wingers are always inventing new think tanks, policy units, and finding new sources of income. So, these things morph into something else.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    I put it in Hell because the ERG can cause a lot of interesting words and phrases and opinions. If it gets moved it gets moved but the ERG make my blood boil.
  • TelfordTelford Shipmate
    Hugal wrote: »
    Sunak’s solution to the Northern Ireland agreement problem was voted through. Some ERG members voted for it. The bonfire of EU regulations seems to have been thrown into the long grass. The ERG seem to be fading slowly into irrelevance. With an election round the corner, is there any point to this group of self centred, impractical group any more?

    The group came first and is somewhat independent of the signifier, they are basically a mix of the reactionary/libertarian right of the Conservative Party. There's a nearly 1/1 overlap with the Covid Research Group and the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, and all three are or have been led by Steve Baker at some point.

    I assume when he tires of parliamentary politics he'll end up in some opaquely funded think tank like Carswell.

    Steve Baker has lost interest in the ERG since he got his ministerial car.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    Yep and he is throwing people off the ERG WhatsApp. They are a diverse group and only really had Brexit to keep them together. They never really had an idea what to do after Brexit. This is what you get when your group is more concerned about their bloody ideology and has no real practical ideas.
  • Nothing about this shower of spivs we have in government is about anything other than making their rich supporters richer. The number of other people they manage to con into supporting them is ridiculous
  • Hmm. I thought the spivs' main aim was to make themselves wealthier...although they all seem to forget that there are no pockets in a Shroud.
  • CaissaCaissa Shipmate
    What is ERG?
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Caissa wrote: »
    What is ERG?

    European Research Group. A right-wing think-tank in the UK.
  • stetson wrote: »
    Caissa wrote: »
    What is ERG?

    European Research Group. A right-wing think-tank in the UK.

    I think "think tank" is over-egging the pudding. It's something akin to a group like the "freedom caucus" in the US congress.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    They are made up Conservative MPs who are as mentioned right wing
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    Isn't the ERG one of a bunch of overlapping right-wing groups that share office premises in Tufton Street?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited March 2023
    Eirenist wrote: »
    Isn't the ERG one of a bunch of overlapping right-wing groups that share office premises in Tufton Street?

    Closely linked, if not. Tufton Street's denizens include:

    Taxpayers' Alliance
    LBG Alliance (transphobic hate group, basically)
    Migration Watch UK (guess what they're about)

    Some very unpleasant people there, often with links to incredibly unpleasant people.
  • Alan29Alan29 Shipmate
    Their point is to make most other people feel their intellectual superiors.
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    Isn't the ERG one of a bunch of overlapping right-wing groups that share office premises in Tufton Street?

    No, they are comprised of a bunch of MPs on the right wing of the Tory Party, their staff often move to or are former Tufton Streeters though.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    @KarlLB
    LBG Alliance

    Lemme guess. A self-proclaimed gay-rights group dedicated to denouncing and battling the trans menace. Sorta like the last era's Gays Against Pride Extremism.

    (Though my impression of GAPE is that they were focused on standing against the more easily sensationalized aspects of gay and lesbian culture, eg. g-stringed cowboys at the parades, rather than trans folks in particular.)
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    stetson wrote: »
    @KarlLB
    LBG Alliance

    Lemme guess. A self-proclaimed gay-rights group dedicated to denouncing and battling the trans menace. Sorta like the last era's Gays Against Pride Extremism.

    (Though my impression of GAPE is that they were focused on standing against the more easily sensationalized aspects of gay and lesbian culture, eg. g-stringed cowboys at the parades, rather than trans folks in particular.)

    lol GAPE

    But yes basically, and also upwards of 80% of their membership are straight.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Pomona wrote: »
    lol GAPE

    Yeah, there's alot you can do with that. Gapes in their logic, just for starters.
  • Pomona wrote: »
    stetson wrote: »
    @KarlLB
    LBG Alliance

    Lemme guess. A self-proclaimed gay-rights group dedicated to denouncing and battling the trans menace. Sorta like the last era's Gays Against Pride Extremism.

    (Though my impression of GAPE is that they were focused on standing against the more easily sensationalized aspects of gay and lesbian culture, eg. g-stringed cowboys at the parades, rather than trans folks in particular.)

    lol GAPE

    But yes basically, and also upwards of 80% of their membership are straight.

    And at least one of the prominent gay ones is a celibate evangelical.
Sign In or Register to comment.