UK General Discussion: 2019. Blackadder goes Brexit.

[Helsinkian]

https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1168809303333097473

[Helsinkian]

If this is true then Labour supporters need to stop deriding Boris as an "unelected Prime Minister"; he wants a chance to be elected but you are refusing it.

https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1168938164314132481

[Helsinkian]

Apparently the newest cunning plan by Cummings is that Johnson will send the letter required by Parliament seeking an extension to the European Council -- but he will also send another letter where he asks the Council to ignore the first letter and not grant an extension. In this way BoJo will follow the letter of the law but can still seek to stop an extension.

If that's not feasible I suppose Boris could privately request Orbán or some other leader to veto the extension without putting anything on paper.

Edit. One Tory MP tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/DKShrewsbury/status/1170439183208472578

[Helsinkian]

Some Tory MP is just now shouting "You're a bully!" to Bercow.

[Helsinkian]

If the opposition rams through a second referendum with the options of "Remain" and "May's Deal" before the election the brexiters could just boycott the referendum. "Remain" would then win with a 99% share and the referendum would have as much legitimacy as the Northern Ireland referendum of 1973 where the unionists won with 99%.

[Helsinkian]

No wonder Corbyn's scared of an election.

https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1172947113677926401

[Helsinkian]

It's like they're trying to lose.

https://twitter.com/BenKentish/status/1175844135582015489

[Helsinkian]

The Labour Conference sides with Corbyn and votes down a motion that would have officially called for Labour to campaign for remaining in the EU in a possible second referendum. Pretty shambolic scenes as the show-of-hand vote seemed to be quite even; the chair nevertheless judged that the motion had lost and refused to have a card vote. An earlier Corbyn-backed motion passed making Labour a "Brexit neutral" party.

Edit. Reminded me of this scene from the 2012 Democratic Convention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8BwqzzqcDs

[Helsinkian]

BoJo asks opposition parties to table a motion of no-confidence. Opposition says "lol no".

[Helsinkian]

#JoSwinsonIsATory trends on Twitter after Lib Dems say that they would not vote for Corbyn to become the PM of a government of national unity.

[Helsinkian]

European Research Group's chair said that if the UK is still in the EU after 1 November and thus has to nominate an EU Commissioner then that Commissioner should be Nigel Farage.

[Helsinkian]

the issue is that you can't just 'repeal the fixed term parliament act' without passing a replacement.  Prior to 2011 the power to dissolve governments or call elections was entirely a prerogative power entirely in the hands of the Crown; and the government therefore handled it.  Once you take an area of law and pass legislation on it parliament is overriding that prerogative power and saying that area is now one that Parliament has interest in: and once you do that constitutionally you can't go back to what happened before since constitutionally its no longer a matter for the Monarch.  What a straight repeal would do is actually make it impossible FOR parliament to dissolve itself since no one would have any powers to do it.

Just give the power to dissolve parliament directly to the PM, and not the Crown, or reduce the majority required for dissolution to a simple majority.

I think it's becoming clear to people that Labour is making up excuses to deny an election because they're afraid they'll lose. Remember when Corbyn said that they would vote for an election once the Benn Act had passed parliament?

[Helsinkian]

The EU has just agreed to an extension until January 31:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-50205603

If there's not an election in December then the EU will be humiliated, since the EU leaders have so often said that an extension needs to serve a specific purpose and not just be an extension for the fun of it.

Corbyn already testing out new excuses:

https://twitter.com/GregHeffer/status/1188467220520853504

If you wanted no-deal to be "completely removed" as an option then why did you vote to invoke article 50 which explicitly includes the possibility of no-deal?

[Helsinkian]

Looks like tomorrow is the day when Labour will be dragged kicking and screaming into an election.

[Helsinkian]

So the left-wingers and liberals want to give the vote not only to 16-year-olds but also to EU nationals living in the UK. So I could move to the UK tomorrow and if there's a general election the day after my arrival I could vote? What's the sense in that? Seemingly it would make the whole institution of citizenship irrelevant: why would people even seek to become nationalized citizens if they can vote regardless?