• Michael
    15.8k
    Another loss, another rebel, but this time Boris doesn’t have balls to kick them out. Could incentivise others to vote against the government.
  • frank
    16k
    It was said that Johnson expected to be stopped. He would come out of it with popularity and therefore power.

    Do you believe that's possible?
  • ssu
    8.7k
    I thought May was the worst PM in living memory...Michael
    As an outsider, I think what is worse is the condition of the whole conservative party.

    Talk about a train wreck planned and executed by the railroad engineers driving the train.
  • Michael
    15.8k
    What the fuck?!

    Government has deliberately allowed Stephen Kinnock’s amendment through. They didn’t provide tellers (to count votes)

    They can force votes to pass by not counting the noes? That's insane.
  • S
    11.7k
    Jeremy Corbyn had a strong showing in PMQ's, I thought.
  • Punshhh
    2.6k
    I woke up in the night spitting cartoons of Johnson's head on a spike and coughing up voodoo dolls of Boris (I am a satirical cartoonist in my spare time). But then the thought that I should keep my head down or some right wing radical might seek me out, came over me, followed by the thought that we may soon be on the streets if this madness continues.

    Apparently Johnson is going to demand an election today, which he overwhelmingly doesn't want. Goading Corbyn to agree to one on 15th of October. Corbyn appears to be teetering on the edge of granting it, while the vast majority of his Labour colleagues are trying to pull him back from it and wait until the extension has actually been granted. This is clearly the right strategy, because if they don't agree to an election until then, Johnson is powerless and sooner or later his sham of a government would be exposed and he would probably break the law.
    Whereas if he grants an election on the 15th, parliament is immediately dissolved, parliament is silent and powerless while the Johnson is let loose to rampage across Whitehall, change the date of the election do whatever he wants.

    The fate of our country rests in Corbyn hands over the next few days, give him strength to hold his nerve.
  • Wayfarer
    22.8k
    What I'm reading is that the House of Lords is going to expedite the passage of the 'no-deal-Brexit-ban' meaning that by law, neither Johnson nor anyone else will be able to leave the EU without an agreement.

    I think Johnson is completely boxed in. Sacking 21 members of his own party is going to blow up in his face. As it is, he's powerless to command an election without super-majority agreement, and no longer has anything near a parliamentary majority on the Floor. I wouldn't be at all surprised (as I said yesterday) if it turns out the Johnson has the shortest tenure of any PM in British history.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/05/brexit-lords-agree-to-push-through-bill-preventing-no-deal-by-end-of-friday

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/05/boris-johnson-is-a-hostage-in-no-10-no-wonder-he-fears-a-long-contest
  • Amity
    5.3k
    Tories are 'Ready' with their dirty tricks election campaign - as are the right-wing newspapers.
    Corbyn bring branded as 'chicken' with his 'surrender bill'. Apparently Johnson is to spew more bile from the lectern in an address to the nation. A pity there is no immediate opportunity for the oppostion to reply.

    No 10 sets outs Boris Johnson's election message to voters

    General elections are all about choices and what Boris Johnson has been been doing this week has been trying to frame the forthcoming election as a choice between someone who will deliver Brexit by 31 October and someone who won’t. CCHQ could not be clearer about this.

    Jeremy Corbyn’s #SurrenderBill means more talk, more delay, more indecision.

    BorisJohnson will deliver Brexit by 31st October so we can get Britain back on the road to a brighter future.

    So why is No 10 pushing this argument? Because voters like to hear it, according to Politico’s Jack Blanchard. Here is an extract from his London Playbook briefing yesterday.

    [A senior government minister} also predicted the opposition parties are playing straight into [Dominic] Cummings’ hands — and that the Tories are now on course to win a snap election. “I’ve seen the numbers from CCHQ, it really is black and white,” they said. “People want it done. They love it when we talk about schools, hospitals and police; they love it when we talk about broadband; they hate it when we talk about Brexit — and these people have just voted to talk more about Brexit. Nobody wants to spend three, six months rowing about Brexit.” To repeat, this may well prove to be the case.

    Guardian Politics Live
  • Wayfarer
    22.8k
    Yes, but if this law is passed, Johnson will not be able to leave with no agreement. It’s all bluff and bluster.
  • Amity
    5.3k
    Deleted by mistake - it was about the Corbyn 'Chicken' front page of the UK Sun and my wish that the opposition would use images to counteract.

    That there is now one being used worldwide to show the 'lying Tory' Rees-Mogg gladdens my heart.
  • Amity
    5.3k

    It has passed. Watch this space or the Guardian Politics Live.
    I still have fears...
  • Amity
    5.3k
    Front pages are divided between focusing on Boris Johnson’s multiple defeats and calling Jeremy Corbyn an election ‘chicken’.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/05/pm-cornered-how-the-papers-covered-johnsons-horror-day-in-commons
  • Wayfarer
    22.8k
    bluff and bluster and a busted flush.
  • Wayfarer
    22.8k
    If only the Republicans had stood up to Trump the way the Conservatives stood up to Johnson.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    Here's a happy fantasy: Brexit is delayed, then there is an election. the deal between Tory and Brexit parties collapses, splitting the brexit diehard vote, Lib Dems win big , and and tories lose big. Referendum revokes Brexit. Lib dems and Labour become two main parties. Electoral and constitutional reform ensues in both the UK and the EU. Climate change is halted and reversed, everyone lives happily ever after.
  • Wayfarer
    22.8k
    Don't know 'bout you but from Aus, this Rees-Mogg looks a right twat. I now read his stunt of reclining on the parliamentary benches whilst affecting nonchalance during the tumult is 'going viral'. Serves him right!
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    He is quite deliberately a parody of a victorian toff, just as Johnson is a deliberate parody of a buffoon. Such behaviour has the effect of normalising extremism, and diverting attention and criticism from substance to trivia, and thus allowing the counter of 'PC-gone-mad'.

    Hard to believe, isn't it that this victorian gentleman is intent on making a huge fortune from selling out his own country, whilst protecting his assets in tax havens and foreign investments? He's a clever cruel and ruthless exploiter - if that's what you think a twat is, then he's a twat.

    But don't imagine that pose was anything but deliberate.
  • Michael
    15.8k
    Majority down to -44 after Boris' brother resigns. :lol:
  • NOS4A2
    9.3k
    Still can’t get Brexit through even 3 years later. Remainers like to pay lip-service to democracy while opposing the will of the people at all costs. Let’s see how long they can disguise their authoritarianism beneath their glittering generalities.
  • Michael
    15.8k
    Parliament are trying to ensure we don’t leave without a deal. They’re not trying to cancel leaving.
  • NOS4A2
    9.3k


    Denying a general election on the topic seems to me to avoid the will of the people.
  • Echarmion
    2.7k
    Remainers like to pay lip-service to democracy while opposing the will of the people at all costs.NOS4A2

    Opposing the "will of the people" is part of democracy. That's what opposition parties are for.

    Denying a general election on the topic seems to me to avoid the will of the people.NOS4A2

    If elections represent the will of the people, then the actions of MPs do, too. They are elected.
  • Baden
    16.4k


    A moments background reading would be enough in any case to disabuse anyone of the notion that a no-deal Brexit is the will of the people. Polls consistently show a majority against it and that is all the legislation prevents. Furthermore, it was right-wing Tories and their coalition partners in the DUP that blocked their own PM delivering Brexit just a few months ago.

    (Oh, and the opposition will accept an election when the anti-no-deal legislation goes through. Again, they are the ones protecting the will of the people.)
  • NOS4A2
    9.3k


    Opposing the "will of the people" is part of democracy. That's what opposition parties are for.

    The role of an opposition party is to question the ruling party, not to oppose the will of their own constituents.

    If elections represent the will of the people, then the actions of MPs do, too. They are elected.

    They are elected to represent their constituents, not to represent their own wants and desires.
  • Michael
    15.8k
    Denying a general election on the topic seems to me to avoid the will of the people.NOS4A2

    A General Election isn’t a single issue vote. Parliament (and Government) make decisions about every aspect of British life. Previous polls have shown that Conservative-voting Remainers, for example, would rather leave than have a Labour government (or at least rather than Corbyn as PM) - but they’d still prefer to remain than leave (all other things equal).

    So if your concern is the democratic will of the people on Brexit then a second referendum is more meaningful than an early General Election. It’s clear hypocrisy to say that the people have spoken on Brexit and so a second referendum is not needed (some have even bizarrely said undemocratic) but to then say that an early General Election is needed to ascertain the will of the people on Brexit.
  • Echarmion
    2.7k
    The role of an opposition party is to question the ruling party, not to oppose the will of their own constituents.NOS4A2

    Right, so? I didn't say anything about opposing the will of their constituents.

    They are elected to represent their constituents, not to represent their own wants and desires.NOS4A2

    And? What does that have to do with the topic?

    I know, but it's not like arguing with facts is going to work with @NOS4A2.
  • NOS4A2
    9.3k


    A General Election isn’t a single issue vote. Parliament (and Government) make decisions about every aspect of British life. Previous polls have shown that Conservative-voting Remainers, for example, would rather leave than have a Labour government (or at least rather than Corbyn as PM).

    So if your concern is the democratic will of the people on Brexit then a second referendum is more meaningful than an early General Election. It’s clear hypocrisy to say that the people have spoken on Brexit and so a second referendum is not needed (some have even bizarrely said undemocratic) but to then say that an early General Election is needed to ascertain the will of the people on Brexit.

    I don’t know why people would want a second referendum if the first one hasn’t been implemented, despite the government’s insistence that it would do so. It isn’t hypocrisy but a matter of fact that people voted for Brexit. A second referendum is not meaningful because the first one has yet to be realized.
  • NOS4A2
    9.3k


    Right, so? I didn't say anything about opposing the will of their constituents.

    Opposing the "will of the people" is part of democracy. That's what opposition parties are for.
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