Westminstenders: The Rebellion

[RedToothBrush]

This week is the start of another big week. Touted (again) as high noon. However the end of February marks a watershed in many ways. Parliament simply can not kick the can further. Its last stand time.

Three Cabinet ministers are openly saying back Cooper-Boles. They are joined by other ministers and intend to vote for it regardless of the government position. And will break protocol by refusing to resign to do so. This leaves May with the option of accepting it or sacking them.

The breaking of collective responsibility would be a bit deal. But May can not easily sack them. She simply has so little power left.

These ministers are backed by up to 100 moderates too. And with the emergence of the TIGGERS the mood has changed with others emboldened in their rebellion and arguably more likely to go.

Meanwhile Corbyn is losing even more authority. In what looks like a last ditch attempt to retain remain support in the face of the TIGGERS whilst also leaving to the point where it is realistic, noises are being made that Labour are about to back a People's Vote. It sounds symbolic rather than meaningful in anyway.

The antisemitic row, however, seems to be engulfing the party even further with MPs seen as Jewish, or not loyal Corbynites subject to intense amounts of abuse for being diplomatic or sympathetic in the face of resignations. The spectacle of Labour infighting has been laid bare in a very public way and it doesn't look healthy and is swallowing all column inches over and above any policy regarding either austerity or Brexit.

What this means for votes this week is important. The power of the whip on both sides of the house is completely fractured. MPs are more likely to vote with conscience than party lines than previously.

Where this leads us is now wide open.

An extension now looks all but inevitable. But for how long, at what price and for what ends ultimately in terms of a deal or no deal.

This noise seems very much at odds with other voices.

The Government itself, however, still seems to be planning to get WA legislation through parliament at the last minute at the end of March. (This would also involve May using measures which break parliamentary constitutional arrangements). And prominent leavers are suggesting that an extention will just kill Brexit off completely.

A GE is also very much looming. The TIGGERS emergence is such a threat that both parties will now possibly want it sooner rather than later (for slightly differing reasons). They will not want them to become established or prepared for an election. But calling an election now closes parliament and enables no deal by default. A GE after an extension or Brexit is a different prospect too.

Things are likely to get very busy this week. Time to brace once again.

Missbel If May was saying Brexit must happen because it would give those magic WTO economic opportunities,
then I agree that would be ignorant & stupid - or just lying for political benefit.

I can actually understand the pov of those who say that the referendum vote must be respected.

I disagree with it, because of the narrowness of the result, the psyops tricks & funny money from Leave and the massive consequences for decades

However, I suspect if May thought Revoke were in the interest of the Tory party, she would Revoke asap

• her motivation is entirely about what is good for her party, i.e. immoral, not stupid.

About 70% of Tory voters are Leavers, with about 90% among party members
and of course the ERG MPs are willing to risk destroying the party in order to get their No Deal financial / political payday

The Remain MPs are far more concerned about the party - pale refelctions of May, I suspect
Even Grieve said he would quit the party whip, but not party membership

• and he would do so AFTER No Deal, not before, so any pressure he can apply is less effective than the immediate threat from the ERG

I suppose I just found it extraordinary that there was not even a nod in the direction acknowledging the lack of a majority in the H of C for her deal - that's the hole in the ladder that she's refusing to see.

{I can actually understand the pov of those who say that the referendum vote must be respected.
I disagree with it, because of the narrowness of the result, the psyops tricks & funny money from Leave and the massive consequences for decades }

And that is a significant problem.
If it weren't for the triggering of A50 and a deadline then a 5 year period of unraveling the lies and mess would get nearer to the truth of what actually went on and why. Deliberate delaying of inquiries and investigations of cover ups until after the UK has exited will make it all moot, as it is now really, because there is no way that even if all the money and lies had 'Mr X' fingerprints all over them, the damage is already done.
The triggering of A50 so that it was shortly before the EU Parliament has a changeover was presumably strategic to force the issue and prevent too much scrutiny.

The bottom line is the Tories are now the party of Brexit, only they haven't the balls to own it. The days of the magic trick of telling each other they are anti-Europe and the electorate the opposite are long gone.

A little music for a chilled Sunday lunchtime.

Missbel She sees that the HoC voted down her WA massively before,
but imo she - and most Tory MPs - think the best outcome for her party, in descending order, is

1. her WA
2. No Deal
3. PV and / or revoke

We've seen with Labour how a party's membership can constrain the actions of the majority of MPs who might want something different

Also, until the HoC actually vote in favour of something specific, she has insufficient pressure to change tack

In fact they did: to renegotiate the backstop which she is trying to do even though she must realise it's hopeless

Let's hope they get another chance to vote - in time for it to be meaningful - and this time choose a PV
Even then, she could probably still run down the clock and return her WA to the HoC shortly before Brexit Day.

It would depend on how narrow the votes

I agree BCF. I wonder if we did crash out with ND, whether the Tory party would survive. I suspect that May is calculating that most of those who say they could not countenance ND wouldn't cross the floor of the House - and sadly, I suspect she may be right. I shall get back to panting my vegetable seeds.

prettybird - so sorry about your gorgeous girl.

*planting

Very sorry about your lovely cat, prettybird

Is there no way that Parliament can force votes to take place? Because TM's behaviour in all this is utterly scandalous, to put it mildly. Can they have the Cooper-Boles vote even if the 'meaningful' vote isn't happening?

That woman is scaring me, quite frankly.

Prettybird :(

I can't even go to Church on a Sunday morning without Brexit developments.
I'd kind of hoped as I was walking up to Mass that at least hopefully May would be similarly busy and so there would be no news.
/sigh.

Prettybird.

Prettybird So sorry about PrettyCat 💐

Prettybird

So sorry Prettybird. What a beautiful girl she was.

prettybird 💐

Is there no way that Parliament can force votes to take place?

If there is, we've yet to see it.

Just to note, the current situation - a dead and grid locked parliament, HoC and government is something we have been assured over all our lives could never happen in the UK, as we sniggered at foreign news of governments collapsing in chaos.

Ah, our betters would go but in Britain, we have strong government, you see. None of this continental rubbish ...

Thank you.

As an aside: vets bills are one way to make you realise how valuable the NHS is. "End of life" care is not cheap : a couple of urine tests (one detailed), a blood test, a laxative (because we thought she was constipated as she was straining in hindsight she was just exhausted ), some renal food and a 10 day course of antibiotics (of which she only had 1.5 days) and whoops there's £300 gone Who knew a detailed urine test was so expensive?

twitter.com/i/status/1097933092315119616

The person making the "self-hating Jew" accusation was the right-wing polemicist Tom Bower who has been desperately hawking his lame hatchet job on Jeremy Corbyn to anyone who will listen (the bizarre gibberish that Jeremy Corbyn is a depraved "dangerous hero" because he likes baked beans and no frills camping holidays in the British countryside!).

In fact Bower has had his anti-Corbyn polemic serialised in the notoriously anti-Semetic Daily Mail propaganda rag that glorified Hitler, propagandised for the British Union of Fascists, and demanded Britain turn away Jewish refugee children from Nazi Germany.

So here we have a right-wing Corbyn critic publicly using an anti-Semitic trope to personally attack a Jewish person on live television, and virtually nobody in the mainstream media even batted an eyelid about it.

Just imagine if it had been a Corbyn ally publicly lambasting a Jewish person as 'the wrong kind of Jew' on national television. How do you think the mainstream media would have reacted to that?

Mass indifference, or wall-to-wall vitriolic condemnation?

So why does this extraordinary disparity exist when it comes to anti-Semitic abuse?

If literally anyone out of the 500,000+ members of the Labour Party says anything vaguely anti-Semitic and Jeremy Corbyn is held personally responsible by the Westminster establishment class and mainstream media hacks alike.

But a right-wing anti-Corbyn polemicist outright abuses a Jewish person on national television, and none of them even give the slightest shit!

The glaringly obvious conclusion is that anti-Semitism is just a disposable tool to people who are enveloped in the anti-Corbyn cult mentality.

If someone on the left says anything that can be interpreted as anti-Semitism then the defenders of the neoliberal orthodoxy will use the issue to attack Corbyn personally. But if someone who belongs to their anti-Corbyn in-group uses an anti-Semitic trope to bully and abuse a Jewish person on live TV, they immediately forget about the issue of anti-Jewish bigotry altogether.

And this disparity is vitally important because anyone who condemns anti-Semitism amongst their political foes, but ignores or condones it amongst their political allies is guilty of cheapening and debasing the fight against anti-Jewish bigotry.

This isn't just disgustingly hypocritical behaviour, it's also dangerous, because it risks creating the public perception that anti-Semitism isn't actually a real issue with appalling real life consequences, but just some kind of abstract political weapon to be used selectively in order to discredit people on the left.

Anyone who has actual legitimate concerns about anti-Jewish bigotry must surely be left wondering how on earth nobody on the panel thought to call out this display of bigoted anti-Jewish bullying in the moment, and with even bigger questions about how the mainstream media just ignored the fuck out of an extraordinary display of anti-Semitism on live TV simply because highlighting an anti-Corbyn polemicist spewing anti-Semitism would completely contradict the objectives of their underlying anti-Corbyn/protect the neoliberal status quo agenda.

C&P from AAV

I agree with a lot that say Corbyn hasnt adequately addressed all of the anti semitism accusations but IMO its being weaponised.

When it comes to the TIGGERS I do worry because we dont know who is bank rolling them?

What are their policies other than being anti Brexit? I wonder if conservative TIGS will just return after the Brexit shit show is done and I wonder if the Labour TIGS are just doing this to get rid of Corbyn so that they can take the party back to a centrist/neo-liberal direction

Lol just my 10p worth (I know noone gives a shit because I'm the only resident vocal Corbyn fan but meh)

prettybird I'm so sorry to hear about your cat - I remember you posted about sitting with her, a few days ago. I know what that's like

@DoctorTwo - my husband know the industry he works in well - he seems to be in sales- so won't have anything to do with investment decisions, and also although very well paid, won't get the huge bonuses that those who make the decisions do......unlike Rhys-Moggs as a partner (?) in a fund business.

Guardian reporting TM has postponed the meaningful,vote...