UK General Discussion: 2019. Blackadder goes Brexit.

[Lumine]

Lidington, Gauke, Stewart and Hammond all resigned before Johnson took over.

And it’s a massacre thus far, Boris has already sacked Mordaunt (Defence), Hinds (Education), Fox (Trade), Clark (Business), Brokenshire (Housing) and Bradley (Northern Ireland). Grayling (Transport) resigned, but he wasn’t going to survive the reshuffle anyway.

It’s a purge of the Cabinet.

EDIT: Can we call it Night of the Blond Knives? Saw that on Twitter and found it hilarious.

[Lumine]

Mundell (Scotland), Wright (Culture) and Hunt (Foreign) now sacked as well.

EDIT: And Stride too (Leader of the House).

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Indeed! Confirmed offices for Gove, Truss, Barclay and Ben Wallace as well. Thus far:

Prime Minister: Boris Johnson
Foreign/First Sec of State: Dominic Raab
Chancellor: Sajid Javid
Home: Priti Patel

Cabinet Office / Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Michael Gove
Defence: Ben Wallace
Brexit: Stephen Barclay
Trade: Liz Truss

[Lumine]

Health: Matt Hancock
Environment: Theresa Villiers
Education: Gavin Williamson
Culture: Nicky Morgan
Business: Andrea Leadsom
Housing: Robert Jenrick
DWP: Amber Rudd

[Lumine]

Jacob Rees Mogg is now Leader of the House of Commons.

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The pressure put on the Lib Dems notwithstanding - which is understandable, but still unfair - the whole scenario is still fantasy since the numbers aren't there.

Even if Swinson is pressured into voting for Corbyn despite the fact he's hilariously unfit to be PM, not being able to count on Grieve and "Change UK" means Corbyn would, at best (that is, counting Bebb and Philip Lee), be 9-10 votes short of winning a vote of confidence.  And that's without counting Umunna, Woodock, Austin and several others who have every reason to vote against Corbyn, meaning he'd have to rely on further Conservatives votes to prop him up, which are almost certainly not coming because A. They're certain Corbyn has no place being anywhere near Number 10 or B. Because their careers - the ones who plan to stand again as MP's - would be over the moment they voted for Corbyn.

I get why Corbyn is doing this and kudos to him for finally taking a strategically smart (if rather disingenuous) step, but with the current numbers it's not possible for him to secure the confidence of the House. As others have pointed out, If Johnson loses the VONC no alternative government will be formed because A. Corbyn can't command a majority within 14 days and B. the Labour leadership will block any fantasy unity government. Thus we get an election, which is what Corbyn has wanted all along regardless of the consequences.

Long story short, Swinson eventually relenting and voting for Corbyn is still irrelevant as he can't command a majority without a large group of Tories somehow committing personal political suicide to put a man they despise - and with whom they disagree with on pretty much every issue - as PM.

[Lumine]

What an irresponsible, reckless b*stard. Literally trying to get voted out of office by Parliament so he can have an extra rhetorical argument in a General Election, all while the clock is still ticking, and coincidentally just after the Opposition seemed to be preparing to focus on binding legislation as opposed to a VONC.

Also, Ruth Davidson is resigning as Scottish Conservative leader.

[Lumine]

Boris Johnson is about to make a statement from Downing Street.

There's talk that he's going to announce he'll try to call an election for October 14th if MP's vote for an extension tomorrow (Hilary Benn has also presented the bill rebels intend to use to block a No-Deal Brexit).

[Lumine]

That was downright bizarre.

I get why most of the Cabinet will continue to stand besides him, but the more this insanity goes on the more frustrated I am at the sheer cowardice of people like Hancock or Rudd.

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And now, in the greatest of ironies:

https://twitter.com/iainjwatson/status/1168976706683711494

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Thus Boris becomes head of the minority government with the least amount of seats since... Ramsay MacDonald, I think.

Only 289 Conservative MP's left now, plus 10 of the DUP and the suspended Conservative (Elphicke).

Or to put it another way - even though many of these MP's will vote with the government on plenty of stuff - Boris now has a majority of... -43.

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The issue with the Lords is that the Brexiteer Peers are tabling almost 100 amendments to ensure they slow debate down and the bill does not recieve royal assent before prorogation. Hard to tell whether the Lords can manage to overcome that in time.

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MP's vote against holding a General Election (most abstained, but a two thirds majority is required).

Another defeat for Boris, though Corbyn has promised to support an election once (if) the bill recieves Royal Assent. Some Labour MP may oppose him on that, but there should be a General Election sooner rather than later.

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Prime Minister Ken Clarke is never going to happen, but by the gods he was brilliant today against Boris on the election debate. The man will leave the Commons with a roar.

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Wow. Didn't expect Rudd to actually do something.

The government is going to become more and more powerless in the House.

(It seems she'll also be running again as an independent, though victory is impossible for her)

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Another Grieve motion just passed, ordering a number of prominent government officials and advisers (including invincible masterful strategist Dominic Cummings) to disclose to the House "all correspondence and other communications" since July 23rd regarding the Prorogation, and ordering ministers to publish government documents regarding Operation Yellowhammer (No-Deal preparations) submitted to the Cabinet.

The government is most unwilling to comply despite the motion meaning the Queen will formally make the request, which should be interesting to watch.

[Lumine]

The hell is the Government doing?

Corbyn put a motion regarding the rule of law and whether the Government would abide by the Benn bill, and no one on the frontbench rose to officially respond. Peter Bone (!) is responding for the government because - literally - no minister would.

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He got less votes for an election than he did last time as well.

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I don't want to repeat the "Labour should be 20% ahead in the polls" trope, but the Watson situation is so absurd that (yet again) it defies satire. Perhaps the whole matter will be defused, but I can't believe they'd think this (out of all possible options) is the moment to attempt a purge which will cause huge backlash within the PLP... particularly after witnessing Johnson shooting himself in the foot by erasing his majority.

Do they even want to win the next election? They're making Milliband look like a strategic genius.

[Lumine]

Brilliant flawless mastermind Dominic Cummings triumphs again. Will he ever make any single mistake?

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Johnson was warned repeatedly about his use of language ("surrender", "betrayal", "traitors") given the present context - several MP's have raised the issue of how many death threats they've recieved -, and when an MP asked him to be careful with dangerous terms in light of what happened to Jo Cox.

Johnson's response? "I never heard such humbug in all my life.

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Johnson and Merkel discussed the proposed "deal" in a telephone call and it seems it was an utter disaster.

The Government appears to be pretending to want a deal still, but with the blame game having already started I have to wonder when they will formally announce they'll go with No Deal and whether the Opposition will get its act together to go with a VONC.

[Lumine]

I wonder when Change UK will disband? It was doomed to fail in the first place.

Well, Soubry, Gapes and Leslie are all standing again under the "party", so right after the election? Even with the Lib Dems standing aside for Soubry in Broxtowe I can't see how on earth any of the three would maintain their seats.