Will Boris Johnson go the country (as it now is) this autumn? My answer is yes for three reasons.
First, this will distract from preparation for no deal.
Second, if he wins he can blame the country for choosing no deal, and he likes blame shifting.
But if the country has chosen no deal isn’t that what the country should have?
The country has chosen No Deal. The country chose to Leave the EU. The deal bit was added on by Remainers intent on overturning the referendum result, in the expectation that the Evil Empire would make things so difficult as to lead to the whole thing being called off. Wrong, weren’t they?
I’m not sure that they were wrong, years after the referendum we are still in the EU. I’m not going to believe until we have actually left.
Not if it diminishes the likelihood of the Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at Islington Technical College from filling his boots when his grants finish.
The electorate didn’t vote to “Leave with a deal”, that wasn’t on the referendum. In the Vote Leave campaign material (“5 Positive Reasons to Vote Leave”) there is mention of trade deals, but this includes with all countries, not just the EU.
With hindsight the Vote Leave material is somewhat blasé in expecting the EU to negotiate in good faith (which I never considered likely), but as with any political manifesto, it strongly emphasises the pro’s over the con’s. The UK Government propaganda leaflet sent out to all UK highlights was similar in regard to the Remain issues, pushing the positive aspects of Remain.
Quite why we should blame the Leave campaign for EU intransigence over the negotiations is beyond me.
Fixed Parliament Act. Johnson cannot independently just ask the Queen for dissolution can he?
Parliament has to agree a motion so early dissolution can take place.
Corbyn does not seem too keen on a GE right now, nor do some Tory MPs want to face their constituents having lied to them last time.
Fixed-term Act aside, a GE on Thursday, 31st October, would fill the gap between conference season and the big day quite nicely.
Nope. Still too much opportunity for fuckery by the treasonous forces of remain. In cahoots with the EU I could see a one-sided extension being granted and the legalities being ignored just to try and secure some sort of Remoaner win.
Quite how they would achieve this I neither know nor care, but certainly don’t want to give them the opportunity to do so.
I still don’t trust Boris enough not to fuck us over an deliver some warmed over bullshit like Treason May’s WA capitulation before October 31st.
So let’s have a general election, sure, but only after BRExit is delivered and there is absolutely no way that the EU or treasonous remainders can resurrect it.
I don’t like the Fixed Term Parliaments Act for lots of reasons, it was only required because Dave Cameron went into coalition with the LibDems and they were paranoid about being dumped half-way through. It needs to be repealed and the original rules restored.
If a government cannot maintain it’s authority in Parliament then it should fall and all of the jiggery-pokery of the FTP Act doesn’t change that.
“But if the country has chosen no deal isn’t that what the country should have?”
Of course not, the voters are far too stupid to be able to decide anything as important as that. Unless they happen to vote the way the liberal establishment agree with, then of course its a massive democratic mandate than cannot be denied……………..
I mean the leader of a major party has come out and baldly stated she does not agree with democracy, and would not accept the decision of the electorate to leave even if confirmed by a second referendum FFS. They aren’t exactly hiding their views any more, the question is what will we (the electorate) do about it? Vote out the actual fascists in our midst, regardless of their colour rosette, or blindly follow the rosette like donkeys?
Like mr Galt, I wouldn’t trust Boris de Pfeffel Johnson as far as I could throw the fat cvnt. He’s a politician. You know he’s lying. Look! His lips are moving.
And absent this current burst of manic enthusiasm, WTF’s changed? A majority of MPs are agin a clean Leave or Leave at all. A much smaller minority in favour of a no-deal exit. What did change was back at the Euro-elections. Farage’s BP. Tory & Labour Leave voters have somewhere to go in the event of a GE & could decimate the major parties by going there. So the incumbents won’t fancy risking their seats by pushing for one. My money’s on a WA 2.0.Same thing but different wrapping.
“And absent this current burst of manic enthusiasm, WTF’s changed?”
You have someone at the top who is at least making the right noises, and has nailed his flag to the mast of leaving on the 31st come what may. Which makes a huge difference, given the law of the land says we leave on the 31st Oct unless something else happens. So we now have 2 parts of the power nexus on our side – the existing law, and the Executive who have considerable power to make that law come into force. Yes Parliament can still stymie leaving, but its considerably harder now the Executive are set on doing just that. Not only all that but there’s limited time for there to be any election beforehand, so the chances of the current government being voted out before the 31st is rapidly receding.
I still say there will be a negotiated ‘deal’ with the EU, at the last minute when the reality of us being ready to leave without one dawns on them. Which of course is the strategy that should have been employed from day 1: prepare to leave with no deal, and let the other side stew, and do a deal if a good one is offered.
John Galt: technically, the previous rules before the Fixed Term Parliament Act cannot be restored, as we are a Common Law juristiction.
Before the FTPA there was no law specifiying how Parliament could be dissolved before its term ran out, so it devolved to Common Law, which meant that the Crown’s first minister used the Crown’s perogative to do it whenever they liked. When you legislate to change Common Law into Statute Law you irreversibly abolish that Common Law. Revoking the FTPA won’t take us back to the previous rules, as the previous rules was “there ain’t any rules”. The only option now is to revoke the codification of the FTPA by *replacing* it with an alternative codification in a replacement act.
You’d need a Blairist majority to push through an Act that said “Parliament can be dissolved at any time by the Prime Minister”.
@Kevin
+1
Remember the little book Cameron Gov’t sent everyone?
– Project Fear Issue One
If you vote Leave it means we leave the single market, customs union, ECJ…. and there will be an instant recession with job losses, tax rises…and WWIII
Voters: OK, thanks for warning us, we don’t care and want to Leave EU now
@jgh
Not following your logic, why is simply revoking not possible?
Either a positive vote to end parliament – which I think requires a two thirds majority – OR a lost vote of no confidence in the government.
Then there can be an election.
Pcar at 7.26pm, well put, if I may say so.
As to your 7.28pm comment, revocation is possible. It need not even be explicit. Contradictory will suffice. IIRC, and I’m not a consti lawyer, it’s called the doctrine of implied repeal. No parliament, you see, can bind its successors.
jgh’s point, I think, and I think he’s probably right, is that once the gentle custom of the common law is overridden by Parliament, then that same common law can no longer exist in that same, precise way. It’s become parliament’s afternoon snack. Because Parliament is sovereign (notwithstanding constitutional pretzel twisting from Factortame onwards) and can, if it wishes, and it probably should, just for the grins, legislate to ban smoking on the streets of Paris.
PS, Lord Justice Laws in his ingenious judgment in the Thoburn (metric martyr) case, made up something he called ‘constitutional statutes’.
His Ludship’s made-up idea was that some acts of Parliament were more equal than others.
It was all bollocks but, to be fair to him, he had to square an impossible circle.
Andy C,
Either a positive vote to end parliament – which I think requires a two thirds majority – OR a lost vote of no confidence in the government.
Then there can be an election.
AIUI if its a no confidence vote there’s a 14 day period while other’s get the chance to form a government with confidence. This is the basis of the fantasy that a government of national unity can be formed under someone like Keir Starmer to block no deal.
If Boris turns to Jezza and says “I’ll see you at the polls, unless you’re frit?” then Boris can go straight to HMQ to ask for dissolution.
@John Galt
The composition of the new Cabinet
Agree. All the Con MPs who voted against May’s Surrender Treaty every time should now be ministers and Owen Patterson back in cabinet.
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Steve Baker rejects Boris Johnson’s offer of his old ‘powerless’ job as Brexit Minister
Edward & John Galt: Common Law is that law that is not legislated for. Once you legislate something it is no longer not legislated for. You can’t wave a wand and make something not legislated for once it has been legislated for any more than you can make somebody never have eaten an apple.
New cabinet minister Rishi Sunak tells Sophy Ridge preparations are being made for a no-deal Brexit – and Britain has to be prepared to walk away.
Meanwhile “Liberal” “Democrat” – as in GDR, DPRK
The new leader Jo “Look at my baby” Swinson screeches to Sophy Ridge there’s not a big enough majority in this country for Brexit – and we need to put the issue back to the people. Then ignore them if the people vote Leave again.
Hmm, not much point putting the issue back to the people if their decision Will Be Ignored
…
…
Over in La Lab Land
Corbyn says he’s ready to fight Boris at the ballot box
After all that, some Humour
Meat Eater Goes Vegan For Two Weeks and Farmer points out there would be no cows, sheep, animals in fields if we didn’t eat them – vegans want sheep etc to be extinct
Er thanks, jgh.
dont blame Baker at all for holding out. He deserved his own department in Cabinet for his sterling work on Brexit and BoJo got it wrong to try and fob him off.
Murphy is the Pub Bore’s Pub Bore.
Barnier should be put in the stocks.
He demands, as part of a Brexit deal, that control of Gibraltar, not even in the EU, should be handed over to sSpain although 96% of Gibraltarians vote to remain British so his idea is totall contrary to the UN Charter
@jgh July 28, 2019 at 11:36 pm
Apples are not oranges.
What is the Law which states “Laws Can Not Be Revoked/Abolished, only Replaced”?
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@Kevin
+1 Johnson should have offered him a better job (DCMS Sec which he gave to useless Remoaner Nicky Morgan), but Baker shouldn’t have been so petulant.
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@John
Vast majority of EU employees/officials should be in stocks in Molenbeek, Brussels