Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Brexit

Westminstenders: A fully functioning government?

960 replies

RedToothBrush · 10/05/2019 23:50

It's been a month since parliament voting on anything.

The staggering reality of May's premiership is that government has ceased to function. We are stuck not just on Brexit but every other issue, such is the weakness of May's authority.

It begs the question of how long this is tolerable by all sides of the Conservative Civil War?

May being unable to bring anything forward means no deal is probably as inevitable as if a hardliner was PM.

There was talk of May / Corbyn reaching a fudge to get a deal via the backdoor WAB (Withdrawal Agreement Implimentation Bill) as it was politically impossible for them to be seen doing a deal any other way. However news today is that despite pressure from the 1922 Committee to bring it forward, May has slapped just a one line whip on it, meaning it will go precisely no where.

The polling for the European elections is perhaps more favourable to Labour than they might have feared after last weeks local election disaster so the mutual interest for Corbyn to move forward in anyway has already gone. Seeing the Tories be humiliated at the ballot box is too much of a temptation.

The phrase about Shit Creek only gets more apt.

All that is happening is every member of the Tory Party is lining up to take part in a leadership contest. It's harder to think of a Tory who isn't considering standing. It's not just the likes of Johnson, Gove, Rudd and Hunt. It's also the likes of Johnny Mercer and Graham Brady queuing not so patiently.

And its getting harder to argue that May is better as PM than the possibility of a right right candidate, because of the paralysis. Though as Rudd rightly points out, such a PM who wanted to actively have no deal as a policy, would struggle to win a majority in the HoC for that all important Queens Speech vote - every bit as much as May. Unless they were to somehow decide they could abuse the power of the executive and ignore parliament - a feat May has repeatedly attempted but ultimately failed at.

All everything feels, is a massive sense of merely delaying the inevitable.

Remain? Hard to see how under any Tory. A Deal? Hard to see what it might be and how there will be a Parliamentary majority. A PV? Well that still has to get through parliament and needs to be arranged smartish. And might not resolve the Irish border issue if the vote goes 'the wrong way' A General Election? That still seems to be a distinct possibility. But with the seeming resurrection of the LDs that's one the Tories will be desperate to avoid. Not that Corbyn is likely to succeed either. And of course there is now the Spectre of the Turquoise Arrows lurking. The crushing of the purple pound notes feels a hollow and distinct success.

It feels like we are waiting for the political sky to fall in in some sort of never ending Brexit Purgotory.

The cataclysmic event will occur at some point. It has to. But for now, it feels that there is nothing but waiting and waiting to be done.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
39
1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 19:29

{No one voted to be poorer.}
Leavers voted for it. The possibility was talked about by 'Remainers' but Leavers actually cast their votes to make it happen.

woodpigeons · 14/05/2019 19:36

Japan is very good for cyclists.
I don’t know about Tokyo but in the 3 towns I visited, while my son was working there, they had either very wide pavements with half designated for cyclists or wide cycle tracks on the roads. And of course everyone totally respected them.
He used to borrow a bike for me when I went. Once an electric bike. It was rather alarming. After pedalling for a while the motor suddenly cut in with a jump, rather like a horse shying.
I looked at electric bikes here when my mobility decreased. An electric tricycle, which I would have needed, is very expensive and impossible to put in a car. I would have had to ride on the pavement due to eye problems and I think it would have caused all sorts of hassle.
I didn’t find any designed as disability aids.

LonelyTiredandLow · 14/05/2019 19:37

Thought a musical interlude was apt Nigel has to look forward to.

Cailleach1 · 14/05/2019 19:41

This is v. interesting. Sorry if already posted. I think it is like hazing or gaslighting (as I understand them). These dodgy handmaidens create a set up and peddle it as left wing/socialist or free speech or democracy. They are the opposite.

For years, people have speculated about who is behind a shadowy group of well-connected ‘free speech advocates’ spreading far-right ideologies and climate science denial.

The group emerged from a libel trial and bankruptcy of the ‘Living Marxism’ magazine in 2000, has roots in the Trotskyist left, and is now the factory behind a production line of far-right polemic that has infiltrated mainstream media and politics. It currently has its public home on Spiked — a website dedicated to belligerent, populist, anti-environmental, Islamophobic ‘analysis’.

Until now, no one knew who funded the network.

Through a joint investigation with George Monbiot at The Guardian, DeSmog UK can reveal that the group are funded by the Koch brothers — the right-wing libertarian US oil billionaires who have been at the heart of climate change denial in the United States.

www.desmog.co.uk/2018/12/04/spiked-lm-dark-money-koch-brothers

Frankiestein402 · 14/05/2019 19:47

R4 lunchtime call-in today was focused on electric vehicles:
Without exception all callers thought these were 'a joy to drive'
Charging infrastructure cited as a problem - home charge points great but harder for flat owners
Main issue was cost of vehicles, even second hand - two callers quoted value as having increased since purchase
Most cited having to plan journeys/know distances but this didn't seem to be enough of an issue to put them off

(none mentioned the 'smugness' factor that I remember from driving a prius before giving up vehicle after moving to London :) )

Cailleach1 · 14/05/2019 19:48

That was on foot of this person. Loved how she was shown up on QT by John Barnes so simply and honestly and she churned out her spiel and soundbites.

twitter.com/PeterKGeoghegan/status/1127921883784126464

RedToothBrush · 14/05/2019 19:51

Peregina, the thought process at the last GE was 'its between Labour and the Cons, you might pick a side'. From what I can see, whats happening for the Euros is the narrative forming is 'its between the Brexit Party for Leave and the LDs for Remain' though slightly looser and less pronounced in effect.

OP posts:
Cailleach1 · 14/05/2019 19:54

Netherlands a dream. Mobility scooters etc. use bicycle paths too. You don't have to do pavement at all. Electric bikes are a dream, but normally go to 25 or 28 km/h There are new electric bikes, Pedelecs, which go to 45km/hr. You have to have a numberplate, insurance and have to wear a helmet. They are classified as mopeds and you drive on the road.

Peregrina · 14/05/2019 19:58

Well as the Guardian said the other day, since the LibDems only have one MEP at the moment (the excellent Catherine Bearder) then any improvement on that is a bonus.

mathanxiety · 14/05/2019 20:01

ContinuityError yes, of course they are..

Very clever and very, very funny.

And they have a cracking song.

DadDadDad · 14/05/2019 20:05

That's what I like to point out when people casually say that the EP elections are PR: in 2014, Conservatives got 19 MEPs, while LD who got more than a quarter of the number of the votes that Tories got nationally only got 1 MEP. (Greens got a similar share of national vote to LD and they got 3 MEPs!)

1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 20:09

Frankiestein402
I am not against electric cars but pointing out that there are a whole raft of issues that need looking at, some of which will need massive injections of cash, like new higher capacity power cabling to properties (areas rather than individual houses specifically) if there is a significant take up. The fact that the UK already imports about 10% of electricity from France suggests that there are issues with basic capacity in the UK already. Solar is no good for charging overnight (obviously), so should employer's car parks be cabled up and have solar panels installed nearby? Saying that, a typical 2 square metre solar panel only generates about 250 Watts of power on a sunny day so needing 8 to boil a kettle.

mathanxiety · 14/05/2019 20:13

In my 4.5 square mile neck of the woods we have bike lanes on the major through routes, and it's as flat as a plate. However, as dreichuplands commented, winters are brutal. Summers are also brutal - hot and humid, and it's not always possible to shower and make yourself presentable for work after sweating your way to the city when it's 33C and approaching 70% humidity. Plus, the ride to work from here means traversing some really, really dangerous neighbourhoods. This is not a problem first thing in the morning but in the evening gangs are up and tooling around in cars, groups are out sitting on stoops and occupying the sidewalks, sometimes spilling out onto the street. Crossfire casualties are a problem if fights break out, and intersections tend to mark the borders between the turf of different gangs.

All the same, I know people who cycle 10-15 miles to work daily. They are very hardy souls. I also know that legions of teens here bike to school daily (school buses only for SN students) - maybe up to a quarter of the 3,500 students at the high school and large numbers at the middle schools too, and that approximately 15% of their bikes are stolen annually. Bike theft and the apparent complete inability of anyone to stop it or find offenders to make an example of is now at the point where there is uproar. The community tries to be green and has spent money on facilitating biking yet problems remain.

woman19 · 14/05/2019 20:39

Has anyone seen this?☮️
imagine

yolofish · 14/05/2019 20:42

Does anyone else feel as if NOTHING is happening?

SacrebleuLondres · 14/05/2019 20:58

@yolofish what's new ?

NoWordForFluffy · 14/05/2019 20:58

Does anyone else feel as if NOTHING is happening?

Yep. With bells on.

Iambuffy · 14/05/2019 21:02

Yep.

woman19 · 14/05/2019 21:06

Lots is happening.

@RemainingKind
People who had Leave Means Leave placards outside the HoP now have Brexit Party printed placards. As the accounting period for EP elections is backdated until January, I assumed LML’s contributions will be counted into BXP’s campaign expenses

and

bylinetimes.com/2019/05/14/brexit-party-donations-an-open-invitation-to-launder-money/

TokyoSushi · 14/05/2019 21:12

Vote w/c 3rd June, is that MV4?

woman19 · 14/05/2019 21:19

Meaningful votes?

Highworth residents plan to petition High Court to re-count bungled ballot

More than 60 people attended a public meeting to learn how to recount election votes after an error which saw
10 Conservative candidates receive more than 3,000 votes each despite only 2,477 people voting

www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/17635267.highworth-residents-plan-to-petition-high-court-to-re-count-bungled-ballot/

Peregrina · 14/05/2019 21:34

That does not look good for their returning officer!

When we were at the count, the votes had been handed in for various town wards, and the returning officer seemed to be taking ages to declare them, so one of the candidates asked why. It was exactly that, totals were being re-verified, otherwise a mistake would have to go to the High Court to be put right. The totals in the boxes had already been verified before the count commenced.

Good to see democracy in action.

woman19 · 14/05/2019 21:37

That's reassuring. Thank you Peregrina

Ellie56 · 14/05/2019 21:57

Who thinks the WA will go through at the 4th attempt? Confused

TalkinPaece · 14/05/2019 21:58

Amusing to hear through work that several newly elected councillors from last week have decided not to take up their posts .....