Brexit: No-deal opponents defeat government, Boris Johnson loses in Westminster

We could spend the next several years debating whether to leave the UN

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Hmm. Johnson would be with the blow up the wormhole faction, I think.

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There will always be people posting ridiculous lies on the sides of buses during the campaigns. There will always be some way to look at the results so that they’re not quite legitimate enough. This whole exercise ls just a great example of why not to make executive policy by referendum.

“Parliament decides everything” at least has the benefits of simplicity and accountability. If you don’t like the results you know who to replace, and when, and how.

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So, my original point, that any Labour politician can be demonised, has been refuted by you giving me a list of Labour politicians, along with instructions not to demonise them? My god, Corbyn should have tried that with the Observer.

Here are the two data points that we actually have on that:
2015 election: 30% of the vote
2017 election: 40% of the vote

As you can see, the party is nearer* to a majority than it was when JC took over.

Presumably, though you’re referring to polls of *potential" voters. Obviously I can’t provide any counter-evidence there, except I do have a drawing that I’ve done of Corbyn getting a 200-MP majority and bench pressing the entire shadow cabinet at the same time. It’s got about as much predictive power as those polls.

*Nearer is the opposite of further.

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Not refuted, I just ignored your invitation to change the subject; making the discussion about others is a classic rhetorical dodge. They’re not the issue, Corbyn is. The reality is that he has become a polarizing figure the likes of which the party hasn’t seen since Michael Foot, probably even more so, and anyone who pretends this isn’t the case is living in a bubble.

In 2017 Labour was regularly polling at 40%, close to how they did in the election. Today they are polling at around 25%, despite three years of a weak, highly-ridiculed opposition.

Here is what has happened to Corbyn since the 2017 election:


(red=disapprove, green=approve, amalgamating polling done by Ipsos, BMG, Yougov, Opinium, and Deltapoll)

I appreciate that you don’t like polling; I wouldn’t either if it was so brutal to my idol.

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So, umm, how soon?

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If Parliament doesn’t want a No Deal Brexit they’d better appoint a whole new different government in the next few days. Simply commanding His Nibs to carry out some other policy is not going to work.

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Not sure. That would mean to give Iremorrans home rule.

Both options are acceptable from where I sit - win-win!

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I’ll just leave this here.

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Would he, though? He was a natural-born citizen, but gave that up in 2016. If he naturalised, would he get the natural-born status back?

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He could theoretically get his citizenship back, but for the eligibility he’d have to be resident in the US for fourteen years.

Johnson 2036?

Interestingly, you don’t even have to be British to be PM in the UK. You just need to be a citizen of a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland. *(And have the support of the House of Commons, that’s the tricky bit)

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That’s a great example, but theoretically, if the House of Commons agreed to it, and the Crown accepted, there’s nothing really stopping them from putting a completely non-British person like Rihanna or Justin Bieber.

They’re as eligible, in the broadest theoretical sense.

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But Bonar Law wasn’t a Canadian citizen as we now understand the term: the British Empire had a single common nationality. Like pretty much everyone born anywhere in the British Empire at that time, Bonar Law was a British subject, exactly the same as if he’d been born in the UK: British law made no distinction.

Interestingly, Canadian law did make a distinction, at least after 1910: British subjects born in Canada were classed as “Canadian citizens” and could enter the country at will, while other British subjects needed permission. But Canadian citizenship in the modern sense didn’t exist until 1946.

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I don’t think it would have mattered even if he didn’t have solid UK citizenship. I bet he did, but the important part is that he won his local election.

Now, if a Canadian wins an MP election, and the House of Commons decides to put him forth as leader, and the Crown accepts, then they’re PM.

You don’t have to be a citizen of the UK to win a MP election. I don’t know if that’s ever been practically tested, any more than there’s never been a 19-year-old PM (also theoretically possible).

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Oh, I agree. I just don’t think Bonar Law’s an entirely apt example.

It has. Bryan Gould’s a New Zealander, and was MP for Dagenham for a decade.

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Which is why there is no restriction on Commonwealth citizens now.

Just think, if history had gone slightly differently we could have had a Prime Minister who was French. Mozambique and Rwanda are also odd examples, where they have never been a part of the British Empire but were allowed to join the Commonwealth for other reasons.

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