Westminstenders: Pragmatism versus Purity

[RedToothBrush]

There is one question for the HoC in the next week and that's will you persue pragmatism or purity?

May looks as if she is being sidelined after a backbench withdrawal of support, the DUPs withdrawal of support and an omminous silence eminenating from the Cabinet.

Her speech on Thursday where she pitted the people against parliament has been her last mistake. She's now a danger to the country's stability and the safety of MPs.

The priority for the week is to pass the SI to change the UK exit date from 29th March to the EU's new terms.

After that, with May's deal stuffed due to lack of support and a Bercow ruling it looks like we are facing some sort of indicative free vote. This seems to be being supported by ministers in government regardless of leave or remain.

The prospect of a Tory Leader Election contest looms. It remains to seen if that can happen in the next three weeks with so much else at stake. But this is the Tory party.

The penny seems to be finally dropping about the reality of leaving the EU and how we leave the EU. A week before we were due to go. The incompetence of Parliament is laid bare in all its glorious full scale.

I've sent dd to the shop for chocolate. Brexit is not helping my weight at all. Constantly tired and craving chocolate.
I've given up speculating to some extent and just wait for the next news story that actually means something.

And we now have her having a meeting at Chequers with ERG leading figures. Unless she is telling them to effectively to piss off out of the party (she's not) then it's a bloody bad sign

Any chance she is going to lock them in a broom cupboard for a few weeks? Would that even help?
Would anything help?

When do we find out what the house business is for tomorrow?

I feel this "coup" is just another party game. Wasting time, flailing around like headless chickens rather than getting on with the job.
So annoying. Do your fucking job.

I'm leaning to the coup talk was to bash the march off the front page...

HazardGhost
How could you possibly think that?

So, there is talk all over the news about May been pressured to resign and either Pob or David Lidington (who?) taking over temporarily.

Do we think this is actually likely? Will it make any difference?!

I have to say, if I was her-I’d jump at the change to say FINE, then fly off into the sunshine for a month and not ever have to say the word Brexit again!

Then possibly a series of indicative votes, but if these are subject to party whips-I don’t actually see the point?!

What next?!

Steven Swinford@steven_swinford
Chequers this afternoon looks pretty significant:

May, Lidington, Gove, Smith and Barclay on Govt side of table

Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jacob Rees-Mogg, David Davis, Iain Duncan Smith, Damian Green on the other side

Then two Cabinets tomorrow - political & normal

Pippa Crerar @pippacrerar
Looks like something is afoot. You've got to wonder whether this means PM is setting out timetable for her departure

Oh.

Government stand off with the ERG?!

Surely not?!

Still not convinced we aren’t going to no deal exit by accident....

Still not convinced we aren’t going to no deal exit by accident

The double negatives are getting confusing!!

Answered part of my own question with the attached image and this:

"4)A Minister of the Crown must, within the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which the House of Commons decides not to pass the resolution, make a statement setting out how Her Majesty’s Government proposes to proceed in relation to negotiations for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union."

Potentially the SI would be moved as part of that statement?

phpolly I'm not sure I can take too much credit as I'm sure I heard someone else use it but it fits well

HazardGhost - I said that last night on here

Although I'm not sure that with the current state of the Conservative Party, it could be that organised ... so it was just for the Brexiters a "happy" () coincidence

Peston on Tory Party split: www.itv.com/news/2019-03-24/the-failing-coup-against-theresa-may-could-bring-down-the-government/

pretty I think you were on the money! I'm sat here thinking What is this split in the Tory party? Do I really think the soft brexiters and no dealers have beef? and my conclusion is I don't think they actually do. What's advantageous to both is to create feelings of impotence amoungst members of the public who are politically active.

Bastards.

Anyway I am very proud of the march and the petition!

Hi all finally able to post and say thank you to born to be quiet , cosycottage and loneltplanetmum for the meet up at the march yesterday.

Still hoping it will all so some good. But given stressful news this am re coup; chequers meeting ; going to have a day off and concentrate on some therapeutic sewing.

4,960,156 signatures... pace has understandably slowed but 5 mil by end of day possible?

2bees well done for marching so lovely you all managed to meet up and impressive given the size of the crowd 😊

Susie Dent @ susie_dent
Whiffle (1500s): to waver indecisively on an issue, or try to avoid it altogether. Doing so makes you a whiffler; the process is known as whifflery.

As an aside, for those of you filled in the MN questionnaire, how many of you were embarrassed at the number of posts per month that you had to admit you make?

Whiffle sounds like a BoJoism ....

Watching the news it actually sounds like there is no coup.

pretty Thanks for pointing out the MNHQ questionnaire.

Another potential member for hard centre party. I am pragmatic, boring, middle of the road and proud.

I filled in the questionnaire but didn't feel embarrassed exactly about my number of posts - from mnhq's perspective the more the better I suppose as long as we're not too troublesome. I do think I need to spend more time doing stuff away from the internet generally, though.

I'm a volunteer dog walker for an elderly lady and when I arrived today she was I such a flap over the chaos. I told her we just need to focus on the day to day as I didn't want her to worry. I will share my stockpile with her if it all goes to hell, though, as she has no family nearby.

Sample of Tory MPs contacting me....

Faisal Islam@faisalislam
1. “No peaceful transition... whoever takes over 'immediately' becomes PM! - and will have a chance if delivering their type of Brexit .. big stakes.. will be brutal”.

2. A minister: “No interim. The answer to instability is not a temporary leader!”

3. May loyalist Minister: “dark days for PM and party..authority got really knocked last week.
But- change of leader does not solve the problem. fundamental divide between no deal/no extension group and those who now think only free vote indicative votes are the way forward”.

4. Troublesome backbencher: “Off record, i would expect Lidington or Gove to take the reins in the short term.”

5. Brexiter backbencher: “She must boldy go for a no deal on Friday or she'll have to make way for a new PM!”

6. Remainer Tory: “DL can’t be worse than TM. But sands are shifting. Britain beginning to seriously regret Brexit. And which Tories represent that? party has put ourselves on the wrong side of populism. I think they’ll all go for oblivion. Insufficient imagination or judgement”

7. Prominent backbencher: “Looks like David L is the only possible person to step in. But whether he can sort out the mess is another matter.”

8. Centrist 2015 intake: “not looking good for ERG either. The hardest form of Brexit they will likely get is slipping away.... Party board can definitely approve some mind of emergency leadership protocol. Doesn't have to go to to membership, for example.”

9. Former minister: “PM now has 3 choices:
1) Embrace ‘No Deal’
2) Revoke and then Resign
3) Pivot to PV”

10. Brexiter minister. You backing Gove? “Err, no.... We don’t have a system where you can just insert a caretaker. And it seems a media story not a real one”.

I will add to this:
But so far, no agreement on who should be interim, what Brexit policy interim should pursue immediately, nor if it is even possible to have an interim.

One of the above also said there had been some “chatter” about “DD” as interim leader too...