Ok, tough-guy de Pfeffel, kick out those rebel Tories and call the general election; I’m sure Farage will lend you some fascists to fill in on short notice.
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It occurred to me today that Jacob Rees-Mogg = Martin Shkreli.
If Jacob were smarter, that’d make him nervous as hell.
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[GIF of that Simpson’s kid taunting “Ha ha!” - you know the one]
Cuz I’m too lazy to actually find the GIF.
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At his mistress’s flat.
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Unelected politician(s) campaigns for “making our own decisions” and “getting back our sovereignty” from unelected Eurocrats in Brussels and then proceeds making no decisions. Asking for a … what is it now … third or fourth extension?
No extension. The electorate shit their bed and wants the Brexit as shown in the Referendum and the 2017 general election. They had more than 3 years to decide what to do. Let’s get over it.
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And, in his tantrums, our PM has effectively thrown out of the party not only the man who was the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer (!) but also the “Father of the House” (traditionally the role that goes to the longest-serving MP in the chamber.) Oh, and someone else who is actually related to Churchill. I mean, you couldn’t make this up if you tried.
Oh yeah, and these MPs didn’t even really rebel against the government - they merely supported a measure that would allow independent time for a non-governmental bill. Whereas several members of the current cabinet actually voted against specific government policy several times and suffered no consequences. Well, unless you count being in the current cabinet a penalty, which it might well be in the not-too-distant future.
(Those of us who get high on arcane parliamentary procedure are genuinely in heaven right now. If only it wasn’t the prospect of a Brexit catastrophe that had triggered it.)
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I agree with your 2nd sentence, but a no-deal Brexit is going to be hard on Europe – especially France and the Netherlands, not to mention Ireland – as well. (Not as hard as it will be on the UK, of course.) That means that as satisfying as it might be at this point to tell the UK to take a hike, the people running the EU will surely choose to be the adults in the room and grant the extension.
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That’s a great tl;dr for this entire Brexit saga.
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Congratulations, Mr. Johnson: You have just been declared the all-time winner of World’s Most Punchable Face.
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Exactly. And it will mean unless they have the whip restored prior to a general election and are readmitted, the Tories will be running brand new, as yet unknown candidates in some seats, with the risk that some popular sitting members might run as independents.
Seriously mind-blowing. Withdrawing the whip should have been a weapon kept holstered unless Johnson was sure of the outcome.
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The 2017 election, if it showed anything, demonstrated the reluctance of the UK electorate to adopt the Tory policy of out-UKIPing-UKIP and going for a hard brexit with red lines abounding. The Tories lost their majority and have lost every by-election since, even in seats they were defending, even in strongly leave voting seat.
As the Father of the House said yesterday - no attempt has been made to appeal to the '“middle”, policy has only been to mollify the extremists - and look where that has got them.
An EEA/EFTA style arrangement is the only way out of here.
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It has been decades since Labour has had a program for government as left-wing as the one proposed by McDonnell—and leaving the EU would give him greater freedom to carry it out were his party to enter government. Yet if Johnson sides with the right of his cabinet, Britain is headed decisively in a libertarian direction. In either scenario, an election that is ostensibly about the date Britain leaves the EU will be taken as a mandate for something far greater in scope. But how much discussion can there be about Britain’s future options during a six-week election campaign in the shadow of a ticking clock? And if radical reforms do follow, will the British public really feel that they have agreed to them when they received so little debate beforehand?
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Whatever happens, we’re not going to be “over it” for a long time.
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So nothing new, then?
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Terry Gillingham said something amusing once :
“The thing a country promotes the most about itself, is the thing it’s least good at. Obviously, with Great Britain, it’s being civilised…”
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That’s true. But, another short extension followed by a no-deal Brexit wouldn’t be any better for the EU than no-deal now. This prolonged period of uncertainty is also extremely damaging. So, there needs to be some hope of a better outcome for the EU to agree to anything.
Probably, they would insist strongly on a second referendum as a condition of any extension? Or… who knows what? Without something, the EU might choose to rip of the bandage at this point, rather than prolong the torture.
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