EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Yeah, alright. :)

May after leaving Parliament:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/sep/03/commons-showdown-looms-in-battle-over-no-deal-brexit-live?page=with:block-5d6eeb6e8f08dc69e1515947#block-5d6eeb6e8f08dc69e1515947

So everyone assumes the government will ‘call an election’. How? What if a newly emboldened parliament refuses to allow it to do so? What if they force the government to remain in post until after Halloween, and force them to seek a long extension?

Then, once that’s done, Boris gets his election. But with a substantial delay in place in which there is scope for the next government to negotiate with the EU, he cannot easily run his election campaign calling for a no-deal exit, and therefore Farage will run his candidates against Tories. Doesn’t look good for him.

Just watching some of this. Great line from Corbyn when addressing Tory rebels:

'Standing by your principles doesn't always damage your future prospects.'

Labour, if in coalition with the SNP and the LD's, would have a majority of 5 as of now.

My concern is that whoever Cambridge Analytica have now become will do an even stronger job of manipulating people with targeted ads and actually the Brexiteers will won an election.

The Leader of the House is now an independent MP. LoH has been a Tory or Labour member since some Ulster Unionist around when my mum was born.

Right Honourable Kenneth Fucking Clarke: Conservative and Unionist Party 1970-2019, Independent 2019-.

Holy shit.

People's Front of Torya?

Clarke's not the Leader of the House--that's Rees-Mogg. Clarke's the Father of the House (oldest MP).

Clarke and Grieve were pouring some exquisite scorn on Rees-Mogg earlier. Grieve was earnest and outraged, Clarke paternalistic, high-handed, ostensibly jolly, but very sarcastic and cutting.

Oops. Daddy issues.

Johnson's so rubbish--again. He must still be used to being able to get away with murder at Mayoral Questions at City Hall--the Mayor of London's almost completely unaccountable, and he could just waffle on and mislead to his heart's content. Here, having as his first reaction a petulant and, frankly, completely nonsensical rant disrespectful of the vote he's just lost (his first-ever vote as PM) was about the most stupid thing he could have done. He could have gained so much if he'd just play-acted a bit and pretended to show humility. Needless to say, he was immediately picked up on it by Corbyn and Blackford, and now everybody's praising Corbyn for his statement, which it has to be said was impressively terse and to the point (which is not often the case in Corbyn speeches).

I think the dispersal of seats and the fact that Brexiteers would have to choose between the Tories and Brexit Party means this would be unlikely.

Opposition parties who tried to stop an election would tend to look weak or scared and would be unlikely to do so.

However, Labour's demand this time, that they won't back an election until No Deal has been ruled out, is likely to stop the election being called until the House says so.

Father of the house is longest service not oldest MP I believe. (Or is that what you meant?)

Indeed. I don’t think this was the plan, for Boris.

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Ah, true, that seems to be the case for Clarke. It seems to have been clear as mud in the past, though:

The Father of the House is a title that is bestowed on the senior member of the House of Commons who has the longest continuous service. If two or more members have the same length of current uninterrupted service, then whoever was sworn in earliest, as listed in Hansard, is named as Father of the House. Traditionally, however, the qualification used for the Father of the House are not entirely clear and may have included the oldest member, the member with the longest aggregate service, or the member who entered the House longest ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_of_the_House#House_of_Commons

The current Father of the House of Commons is Kenneth Clarke, Independent MP for Rushcliffe, who began his continuous service at the 1970 general election. Dennis Skinner, Labour MP for Bolsover, also began continuous service at the 1970 general election, but was sworn in after Clarke.

I’m not entirely unconvinced that the Lib Dems won’t emerge as the new centre-right of British politics, with the Tories a marginalised rump of loonies screaming from the sidelines, the new UKIP basically.

‘Alexander Waugh’?
‘West Somerset’?!?

Edit: “He is the grandson of Evelyn Waugh, the eldest son of Auberon Waugh, and the brother of Daisy Waugh.”

There's some cracking JRM memes out there ATM not sure they're really for the meme thread though

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They have to agree to an election or we crash out on Halloween with no deal. They’re already said they’ll ignore the legislation or I am sure they’ll find some arcane mechanism to get around it.

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Time is ripe for a vote of no confidence now surely, to secure a coalition of labour, PC, LD and SNP rather than a GE.

Hammond was re-selected by his constituency last night too meaning another front of "blue on blue" as Tory HQ would have to dissolve local party if they persist

Ken Clarke would make an even better caretaker PM now that he's an independent.

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