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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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SingingBabooshkaBadly · 11/05/2019 09:20

Pmk with a thank you to Red

Lonelyplanet think that’s your best Lewis Carroll to date.

I said at work that TM could quietly revoke A50, have a very small news article which only made page 9 due to Archie photos, and just act like nothing had ever happened!

Yes she missed a trick there. But then what's new?

Maybe she did it and we just haven’t noticed yet (wishful thinking brought on by stress, lack of sleep and Brexit-induced mania)

Violetparis · 11/05/2019 09:24

I think the HIGNFY fiasco might be a blessing in disguise. I find Heidi Allen excruciating to watch, Ian Hislop could have humiliated her. It has given Change UK good publicity which they need right now.

RedToothBrush · 11/05/2019 09:35

In future centuries, if climate change sends the flood waters rising over the continent, the last sound to be heard will be a gurgle gurgle from a Eurovision entry

You are saying this, as if its a bad thing. Wink

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lonelyplanetmum · 11/05/2019 09:39

Funny how we are so polarised on Eurovision. I love it so much my bgf organised tickets for last year in Lisbon - it was fab!

1tisILeClerc · 11/05/2019 09:45

Eurovision is a show to be 'watched' while younger family play and eat snacks with friends and you partake of alcohol of some sort and concentrate on removing fluff from navel, soaking your feet or any other mindless distraction. To consider it as a real 'competition' is tragically missing the point. About as serious as Antoine de Caunes (spelling?) the Luxemburger.

RedToothBrush · 11/05/2019 09:46

I soooo want to go to Eurovision. Its definitely on my bucket list. I've already watched all this years entries on YouTube DH and I had a binge watch across two evenings in part because he's away next weekend which I'm gutted about. He's worried he's going to miss it, as he's with his mates and he doesn't think too many of them are fans. The first song DS started singing was a Eurovision one. And he was obsessed with SuRi last year. He's quite clearly been brainwashed by us, what with Eurovision and Mr speaker. I'm not sure how child friendly this years Eurovision is though!!!

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RedToothBrush · 11/05/2019 09:47

To consider it as a real 'competition' is tragically missing the point.

This.

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bellinisurge · 11/05/2019 09:48

If Eurovision makes you happy @RedToothBrush , I , as a confirmed and unrepentant Eurovision hater, am happy that it's on. You definitely deserve it - and a trip to a live one.

ContinuityError · 11/05/2019 09:53

I’m firmly in the Eurovision haters camp.

Was quite proud when DS1’s favourite song as a toddler was Blue Monday (although DH a bit devastated when years later DS1 turned down the offer of having the Sex Pistols as his first gig). DS2 used to sing Madonna songs when he was in his buggy.

1tisILeClerc · 11/05/2019 09:56

Maybe we should bring back Sandie Shaw 'Puppet on a string'?
Then for more political balance, Clive Dunn and 'Grandad' (OK it wasn't a Eurovision song).
Bucks Fizz and 'Making your mind up' might be OK.

1tisILeClerc · 11/05/2019 09:57

Unlike Brexit, for the Eurovision haters, there is always the 'off' button.

bellinisurge · 11/05/2019 10:06

I've never really liked it - I'm old so I've seen a few - but,as @1tisILeClerc says, the off button works for me.

phpolly · 11/05/2019 10:06

.

missclimpson · 11/05/2019 10:12

Eurovision has been downhill all the way since Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson. 😀

Peregrina · 11/05/2019 10:20

Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson didn't win though. Sandie Shaw was our first winner and still the best.

Otherwise who remembers those songs which didn't win, but became famous and the winner was forgotten? Like Volare (which had a proper title of something else) and Love is Blue - blue, blue my word is blue, blue is my world now I'm without you. Classic.

Peregrina · 11/05/2019 10:24

That was a posting for us older MNers - I realise that Love is Blue was the mid-sixties. I think it came fourth and was from Luxembourg?

CrunchyCarrot · 11/05/2019 10:25

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I", said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

Tolkien certainly knew a thing or two. Smile

Going to be voting LD in the election (West Midlands area). Decided against ChUK and Greens as I felt the LDs might have a better shot. If anyone thinks differently I'm all ears. Smile

OublietteBravo · 11/05/2019 10:25

Our Eurovision participation is due to the state broadcaster belonging to the European Broadcasting Union, and nothing to do with being politically or geographically part of Europe. So I’d imagine it will be unaffected ty Brexit (especially as our results really can’t get any worse).

Peregrina · 11/05/2019 10:26

Yes, I am a nerd - it was from Luxembourg and it did finish 4th, in 1967.

OublietteBravo · 11/05/2019 10:27

(Although I do wonder if someone is trying to send a subtle pro-EU message with this years UK entry - entitled “it’s bigger than us”).

missclimpson · 11/05/2019 10:27

Britain winning Peregrina? Dashed bad form in the Eurovision. 😀

BigChocFrenzy · 11/05/2019 10:29

The first Eurovision song I can remember was a rare good'un:

Eurovision Song Contest 1967 - Sandie Shaw - Puppet on a String (UK WINNER)

(not my personal taste, but it was a throoughly deserved winner)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4xnzPnyyWbY

BagpussAteMyHomework · 11/05/2019 10:36

I agree re the HIGNFY debacle possibly rallying support for the Change party.

I’m appalled by the BBC but judging by what I read on Twitter and other spaces a lot of people still think they are pro remain in their bias.

woman19 · 11/05/2019 10:37

Love Puppet on a String, (and Sandie Shaw, she's an interesting woman) Love Mrs Brown's Boys too mother. (the earlier funnier ones)
Thanks for the thread red Smile

BigChocFrenzy · 11/05/2019 10:38

"Being prepared to leave without a deal is a virility test in the Tory leadership stake"

I snarled though at this article and all others who smugly claim that because there is no HoC majority for No Deal it can't happen:

a) The EU may eventually get fed up extending A50 for more UK dithering & posing

b) Eventually there will be a GE which may return a No Deal majority .... especially if a frustrated public get the Turquoise Turkeys into the upper 20s - FPTP then gets alarming

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/09/no-deal-brexit-tory-leadership-eu?CMP=sharebtnn_tw

An election to choose May’s successor will happen at some point this year
^^ < Mid-December even if the 1922 don't change the rules >

The contenders know that opinion polls show three out of four Tory party members, who make the final choice, back no deal.
< only an annointment by MPs along could avoid this - very unlikely >

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