Westministenders: The Zombie PM

[RedToothBrush]

Back from the dead, May carries on whilst the vultures circle.

She had tried to out smart her rivals by running of to the palace to tell the queen she could form a government before they could act.

Definitely she stood and pretended nothing had changed. Except everything had. The wrath of her party was unleashed and there was open revolt. She has been summoned to appear before men in grey suits tomorrow at 5pm to hear their verdict.

How do she decide to make amends and reach out to moderate Tories? By sleeping with the DUP. And appointing Gove to her Cabinet.

How long will this last? How long can it last?

David Cameron and the Russian diplomat link to Vladimir Putin spies

What did we say?
Putin's on the skids too.

If............this election had gone the way we had predicted, would a bill of rights with ECHR embedded have helped?

Thank goodness we don't, at present, have to test it.

The fake mandate of the advisory referendum could have been mitigated with a sensible written constitution. The constitutional law challenges, and the upset caused to the country and this election could have been prevented. We shouldn't have had to depend on brave Gina Miller defending the constitution alongside Maugham.

The constitution and judiciary is all the US resistance has now to defend themselves against Trump. All we had was the judiciary and that looked precarious when they were attacked.

I disagree, red and arborea, having seen the fragility of British constitution in action this year, and right now with DUP deal, I think we do need a written constitution with ECHR embedded. (is one of the reasons we don't the fact that we are subjects rather than citizens, time to sort that one out too.)

Besides there is a Tory leadership election. He will do literally anything to get himself into Remainers good books to get them to support him before he double crosses them.

Can embed EHCR into our Constitution without need for written constitution?

In theory it already is. That's one of the reasons it's so difficult to get out of presently.

Brexit marks rewriting of our Constitution hence why it's on the cards.

We could just have a written constitution and decide to rewrite that.

That's the entire point, we are looking at huge constitutional change with Brexit not just rewriting a few laws.

It's a fundamental part of EU membership. Hence embedded.

Ed Davey
Gove dishonest on green record: as Chief Whip he even stopped climate change minister Amber Rudd going to key UN talks @BBCr4today

Gerard @ GroverXV
Mr Davey, you could have correctly and legitimately ended that tweet after the second word....

paulbernal.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/the-return-of-mr-gove/
The Return of Mr Gove (featuring Little Miss May-Bot)
Based on some books by Roger Hargreaves

Oh this is delightful.

Philip Olterman @ PhilipOlterman
Number of Britons who became German citizens leapt 361 percent in 2016

It seems that the knives are being sharpened for Gove. It's not very charitable of me, but I do enjoy a Tory bloodletting. It was overdue - Cameron walked away and deprived them of their sport.

www.ft.com/content/c9ee16d2-4f8a-11e7-bfb8-997009366969
'I can’t negotiate with myself’: Michel Barnier puts pressure on UK
Transcript of the EU chief Brexit negotiator’s interview with the FT and other media

Red just heard Professor Spicer on R4 confirming May is Indeed a Zombie!

(Times paywall) The Stop Boris, Get Ruth campaign has begun
< imo - but it's almost impossible for many reasons >[[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/the-stop-boris-get-ruth-campaign-has-begun-msmm6mv8d

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/the-stop-boris-get-ruth-campaign-has-begun-msmm6mv8d]]

Theresa May is a zombie prime minister, sustained only by her MPs’ fears of an electoral apocalypse.

In office but not in power, her authority has been annihilated along with her parliamentary majority.

The balance in the Tory party has been utterly reversed, with the control freak now at the mercy of her cabinet.

This living dead leader limps on, clutching at the hands of the homophobic, anti-abortion creationists in the Democratic Unionist Party. < exactly >

Her Queen’s Speech has been delayed and her manifesto pledges must be pruned.

Meanwhile the political flesh-eating monsters who are her potential successors
— Boris Johnson and David Davis —
declare their loyalty while waiting to pounce.

Conservative MPs are biding their time but they have no doubt where this will end.

“We’ve got to get her through the next few weeks because if there’s another election we’ll all be out on our ears — but she can’t stay,”
says one influential former cabinet minister
“It’s a question of when to turn off the life support machine.”

What a contrast with Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader who has presided over an extraordinary resurrection in her party’s fortunes north of the border.

A natural extrovert, Ms Davidson also behaves as if she actually enjoys speaking to voters rather than trying to avoid them at every opportunity like Mrs May.

She relishes media performances instead of seeing every encounter as an endurance test

As the Conservative Party braces itself wearily for another leadership contest,
a “Stop Boris” campaign is already under way.

“Boris is disgracing himself and has almost no support in the Commons,”
one minister told me yesterday.

“He is reviled in Europe and ridiculed in British politics.
He’s become a negative on the doorstep and amongst Conservative activists because he’s not a serious person.
If he stands he’ll be destroyed.”
< still the betting fav - expect many lost bets here ? >

There are many Conservatives desperate to get Ms Davidson down to Westminster
— either as chairwoman of the party, with a seat in the Lords,

Norman Smith @ BBCnormans
Don't reopen debate over Brexit - IDS warning to ministers and "minority" of Tory MPs

Or what? You'll do what? You enormous undemocratic Muppet.

Looking more & more like a choice between Boris & DD
(no wonder they are clutching at straws of Ruth)

Ye gods, how has a once formidable political machine been reduced to this ?

whereas Republicans are motivated by Nationalism & politics, not religion - some Republicans are atheist and a few even protestant

I don't think that is true, tbh. I think in Ireland a Republican is somebody who comes from a catholic family - they probably don't practice anymore but once a Catholic always a Catholic. It's the same in Glasgow and what team you support

I'm trying to overcome my natural tendencies to turn this into an treatise😂

An Irish republican is a nationalist who supports the unification of Ireland and historically justifies the use of violence to achieve these ends.
Marxist atheism had a significant influence on the republican movement .
Therefore republicans would not describe themselves as exclusively Catholics , religion is not their primary motivation although many would come from a historically catholic background.

Therefore republicans are not simply someone who comes from a catholic home.

Not all nationalists are republicans btw. The SDLP for example.

Most Catholics are nationalists and some are quietly Unionists . I suspect if it came to it this latter group would like a united ireland with the NHS and other benefits , a sort of soft brexit for unification but that's another debate.

Some protestants were nationalists and were exceptional figures in the nationalist movement as opposed to exceptions to be excluded from an analysis.

Not all nationalists are republicans and in the same way not all
Unionists are loyalists .

This final point is of interest to the DUP/CONS negotiations . The DUP party, while is the main Unionist party at the moment , has a membership that does not fully reflect the makeup of the unionist community. It's membership is more likely to be free Presbyterian/orange order than the community as a whole, and that influence is the one to watch during these negotiations.

RedToothBrush

Thank you SO MUCH for the link to the Mr Men Gove book.
It has May'd my day

whereas Republicans are motivated by Nationalism & politics, not religion - some Republicans are atheist and a few even protestant

It's worth reading P. J. O' Rourkes "Holidays in Hell" when he visits both sides of Ireland. He meets with Loyalist and Republicans, and notes there were Catholic Loyalists, and Protestant Republicans.

He summarises his visit (mid 1980s) as noting that both sides - British Army and Sinn Fein/IRA were almost reading off the same script when they said "this is an acceptable level of violence ..."

Sometimes, a foreign eye can be very revealing.

Faisal Islam @ FaisalIslam
Fascinating chat in Downing St with @skydavidblevins - points out the DUP will not allow effective internal-UK border controls, Manifesto:

[Highlights sentences: Strengthen links with four internal component parts of the United Kingdom with no internal border and It is in the interests of all in Northern Ireland that UK-EU negotiations progress well and the trade elements commence as soon as possible. The stronger and more positive the agreements reached especially on trade and customs relationships the better for the particular interests of Northern Ireland.]

..one solution floated to solve conundrum of keeping Common Travel Area/ ending Free Movement. Passports off Belfast-Lon flights. No Chance.

... Arlene Foster will never (never, never?) allow a solution that means passports at Heathrow for passengers from Northern Ireland...

... so how to square that with maintenance of a soft border with the Republic? Free movement of people (and animals too apparently) vital

..so could negotiate bespoke customs cooperation arrangement with differential arrangements for NI, Dover rules of origin for Nissan -Years.

Except they'd also not allow different arrangements for customs union...

Ye gods, how has a once formidable political machine been reduced to this
Is this now the 'I told you so' thread?

enormous undemocratic Muppet

SixInTheBed thanks, that is so helpful. I grew up in Glasgow which has a different history and practice of sectarianism. Oprah Winfrey was shocked at what happens in Britain, I remember her running a good programme about the Holy Cross dispute in 2001.

Gove called Amber Rudd "my friend" in the Telegraph. That must be the end of all her ambitions. Hasn't she suffered enough?

Today's editorial in The Telegraph
Weakened Theresa May should consider a cross-party commission on Brexit
www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2017/06/13/weakened-theresa-may-should-consider-across-party-commission/
I do not have access to the article, but it looks intriguing. Do they really advocate consensus? Or do they mean cross-party hard Brexiters?

Samuel Lowe @ samuelmarclowe
If UK wants a frictionless Irish border, needs to :

- Retain CAP/SPS regs
- Mirror EU agri tariffs
- Likely maintain similar subsidy levels

... that's just for a start. Even then might not be enough.

Isn't it funny when all those 'not my problem' responses from leavers about how to deal with NI in Brexit suddenly become their unavoidable problem.

I'm struggling to see how leaving the customs union and the single market are viable tbh. How long with it take politicians of all stripes to properly work out?

IDS doesn't want to reopen the debate. How does that square with the DUP involvement? The debate has already been opened.

How will the Daily Mail cope?

Is this now the 'I told you so' thread?

No. It was always the 'what glue are they on thread'

'The Sensibles' believe in evidence.
'The Creationists' don't.

A natural consequence of this is called reality and results in this

Is this now the 'I told you so' thread?

No. It was always the 'what glue are they on thread'

'The Sensibles' believe in evidence.
'The Creationists' don't.

A natural consequence of this is called reality and results in this

Is this now the 'I told you so' thread?

No. It was always the 'what glue are they on thread'

'The Sensibles' believe in evidence.
'The Creationists' don't.

A natural consequence of this is called reality and results in this

A N Irish journalist on Woman's Hour has just said that SF are to visit WM and may use their office space. A prelude to taking up their seats as a counterbalance to the DUP?

I thought GA said there wasn't a snowball's chance when asked

Oh this is exciting!