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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.

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RedToothBrush · 14/05/2019 22:01

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

I think the odds are about the same as us winning Eurovision on Sat...

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NoWordForFluffy · 14/05/2019 22:03

I think the odds are about the same as us winning Eurovision on Sat...

That high?!

NoWordForFluffy · 14/05/2019 22:03

Or is it low? (I'm shit at betting terminology!)

SacrebleuLondres · 14/05/2019 22:03

This isn't the WA. It's the WAB.

The WAB has never been to Parliament.

Bill not treaty.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/withdrawal-agreement-bill

BigChocFrenzy · 14/05/2019 22:05

Sky News Breaking@SkyNewsBreak

A Downing Street spokesman says the Prime Minister will bring back the Brexit withdrawal agreement bill to the House of Commons in the week beginning 3 June

OhYouBadBadKitten · 14/05/2019 22:06

you did mean 'that high' fluffy :)

BigChocFrenzy · 14/05/2019 22:07

Puzzling because they say WAB but "bring back"
No 10 or journalists confused terminology ?

BigChocFrenzy · 14/05/2019 22:08

I use WAIB for the implementation bill, less confusing
WAB is sometimes used instead of WA

RedToothBrush · 14/05/2019 22:12

I think the odds of the WAIB passing are much the same tbh...

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Ellie56 · 14/05/2019 22:19

I think the odds of the WAIB passing are much the same tbh..

Agreed. And then what?

Ellie56 · 14/05/2019 22:20

This is all so tedious...

1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 22:22

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

On the basis that the EU negotiators have said that the WA will be signed eventually (if the UK is leaving) my money is on them being right.
Not sure if the WAIB is the same as the WA (or is it the WA+PD =WAIB?).

RedToothBrush · 14/05/2019 22:24

Laura Kuenssberg @bbclaurak
Labour sources say ‘no chance’ Brexit bill passes in first week June - is PM trying to use terror post EU elex meltdown to get backbenchers to come onside? Or just in the business of eking the authority she has left, day by day

Doing something is theoretically better than nothing, gives May something to say to 22 on Thursday this week but huge and familiar obstacles still staring her in the face

Week will go Trump visit, Vote on Brexit, Peterborough by election, then ???? (Just saying this now, Vote might not go ahead even tho it’s the plan right now to try to or end date on talks with labour) , then tory activists attempt to put more pressure on May ten days later

Hahaha haha!

Perfect week.

facepalms

No chance.

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Icantreachthepretzels · 14/05/2019 22:24

And then what?

That is the question. Downing street are saying that the WAB/ WA/ whatever the hell we're calling it this week MUST be agreed before the summer recess. And if it isn't? ... Dare we speak the R word?

RedToothBrush · 14/05/2019 22:27

WA + PD + WAIB = Brexit.

a) WA (deal)
b) PD (future relationship statement which admits we need a customs union)
c) WAIB (technical detail which says yes custom union is needed to have a deal and we confirm this in law before the dickheads screw us)

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SacrebleuLondres · 14/05/2019 22:28

None of this gets thru the Commons without another referendum.

1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 22:30

WA is not a 'deal'.

1tisILeClerc · 14/05/2019 22:31

One more time:
Here we go round the mulberry bush, (etc)

phpolly · 14/05/2019 22:35

.

NoWordForFluffy · 14/05/2019 22:38

Thank you, OYBBK! Grin

It's all very Groundhog Day with the WA, isn't it. Tenacity and bloody-mindedness are TM all over. It's so painful.

mathanxiety · 14/05/2019 22:42

She has said she will resign if this gets through. Nobody is buying it of course because they are already considering changing the party rules on backstabbing and she has completely failed as a leader so nobody is on board with the bill.

TheABC · 14/05/2019 22:50

There may be nothing going on in Parliament, but the case against Boris Johnson started today. I am watching it with interest.

NoWordForFluffy · 14/05/2019 22:52

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that. I do hope he gets his comeuppance!

Peregrina · 14/05/2019 23:03

... Dare we speak the R word?

Will how the Brexcrement party do in the EU elections have any bearing on it?

Where is the case against Boris Johnson being reported?

SacrebleuLondres · 14/05/2019 23:08

@Peregrina guardian. FT.