Under conventions in the the Australian system, the party in Government is expected to propose one of their members as a speaker, which means they effectively lose the votes of that MP (unless there is a tie, its the same as the UK in that sense). There have been a few cases of dodgy tactics where the party in power looked around for an MP they could technically propose as speaker but who would never have voted with them anyway, as a way to keep a vote.
One vote is more important in our smaller lower house as well.
Thanks for the clarification - maths not my strong point this morning, I blame Sauvignon Blanc - mind you it’s also what got me to give up watching election coverage and go to bed!
ETA: it seems Mrs May is confident that she has the extra support over and above her MPs, she’s off to meet Brenda at Buck House at 12.30pm… Liking this tweet:
(for confused non UKians, satirical magazine Private Eye has long referred to The Queen and Prince Philip as ‘Brenda and Phil the Greek’… )
The Democratic Unionists will only support a Conservative government if Northern Ireland is not granted any unique special status that would keep the region halfway inside the EU, the party’s leader at Westminster has confirmed.
Nigel Dodds, who was re-elected in his North Belfast seat, said the DUP would insist there would be no post-Brexit deal that could decouple Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
And the Tory MP for East Yorkshire put out this corker (watch till end, with sound):
But as he plays drums in the cross-party parliamentary rock band MP4 (with Pete Wishart of Big Country and Runrig on keyboards), and in that capacity has backed Fergal Sharkey, David Gray and KT Tunstall, I’m not convinced the “stuffy old duffer who doesn’t understand social media” routine isn’t an act; it’s possible he may have known that this would get a lot more attention than a more professional but blander video.
Corbyn won’t be around in 5 years. But if history repeats, Major governed with Unionist “support”, and being supported by the DUP is not something any sane person would contemplate; they make UKIP look like cuddly Liberals and their demands will be unsupportable. It was the Major government that made way for the enormous Blair majority - but as was said at the time, it wasn’t Blair - who, btw, was demonised by the Sun and the Mail as much as Corbyn till KRM realised he could be left backing a loser, and he hates to lose. The fact is you could have painted a garden gnome red and made it leader and Labour would still have had a big majority.
The question is whether, in opposition, Corbyn can rebuild the Labour Party as a Euronormal social democrat party. When Brexit goes utterly pear shaped - not if - that’s where they need to be. Where they were, in fact, before Blair made his trek to the Right via Kabul and Baghdad.
IIRC when the Queen was younger and still did things like drive around Sandringham in her Minor Traveller, her incognito was Brenda Smith. I’m not sure of the surname, but I do remember, before a visit to the area, being warned to take no notice if we saw a familiar lady in the shops, or a detective might encourage us to leave.
Problem was not that Corbyn was demonised by the likes of Sun or Mail, but that The Guardian run the first actually affirmative text about him only couple of days before elections.
I was very negative on Corbyn and never thought he’d be able to pull off such a result, but credit where it’s due, he ran an effective campaign and his policies seem to have (re)captured a large chunk of the UKIP vote for Labour.
I’m split on whether this is a good or bad thing for Europe, though. Having to rely on DUP votes probably means softening up the UK’s Brexit stance at least on the open border issue, and that may trigger other concessions. On the other hand, there was already so little time to negotiate a follow-up agreement, and now it’s looking doubtful whether May’s government will survive the negotiations. What if there has to be yet another election? The worst case of “no deal” seems to have gotten more likely, too.
On a related note: I’m almost certain that the sole reason that Theresa May hasn’t announced her resignation as PM is that she could not deceide on which tune to hum afterwards.
Since the Guardian became partly Israeli owned it has attacked anyone who is remotely sympathetic to the Palestinians. I suspect that two days before the election they noticed they were losing circulation and panicked.
Edit - The Israeli involvement may have ceased some years ago. I’m going to admit I haven’t been following it since I got disgusted with the Guardian around 2010. http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2015-03-03/hsbc-and-the-sham-of-guardians-scott-trust/
Well, I think this one turned out to be Labour’s Stalingrad moment; Corbyn (and Abbott) withstood the attacks and emerged stronger while the Conservatives were forced into retreat.
Perhaps the next election will be the rerun of Kursk. Weakened Conservatives fighting a Labour party which is more united and scents victory.
And then, in my hopeful fantasy world, we can look forward to Boris committing suicide in his bunker.
It’s a travesty that Lord Buckethead’s manifesto wasn’t published, I shall right that wrong:
MY 2017 MANIFESTO: Strong, not entirely stable, leadership
The abolition of the Lords (except me).
Full facial coverings to be kept legal, especially bucket-related headgear.
No third runway to be built at Heathrow: where we’re going we don’t need runways.
Ceefax to be brought back immediately, with The Oracle and other Teletext services to be rolled out by the next Parliament.
Regeneration of Nicholson’s Shopping Centre, Maidenhead.
Buckethead on Brexit: a referendum should be held about whether there should be a second referendum.
Nuclear weapons: A firm public commitment to build the £100bn renewal of the Trident weapons system, followed by an equally firm private commitment not to build it. They’re secret submarines, no one will ever know. It’s a win win.
Nationalisation of Adele: in order to maximise the efficient use of UK resources, the time is right for great British assets to be brought into public ownership for the common good. This is to be achieved through capital spending.
A moratorium until 2022 on whether Birmingham should be converted into a star base.
Legalisation of the hunting of fox-hunters.
New voting age limit of 16 to be introduced. New voting age limit of 80 to be introduced too.
Katie Hopkins to be banished to the Phantom Zone.
Stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Start buying lasers from Lord Buckethead.
Prospective MPs to live in the seat they wish to represent for at least five years before election, to improve local representation in Parliament.
Free bikes for everyone, to help combat obesity, traffic congestion and bike theft.
I would like to know if he is an actual “LORD” and if not, how he manages to get away with using the title, especially in such a public forum. They do apparently take titles a bit more seriously than we do in “the States”
I used to send things to a guy in Oxfordshire and “as a laff” would preface his name with “LORD”.
The last package was returned to me with a handwritten note stating "no such person at this address"
So I guess I pissed off a stuffy Postal Person.
I watched quite a few of the counts last night, and let me tell you, 249 votes is an excellent result for a “joke” candidate. Buckethead is going places.
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