Westminstenders: One Pepperoni Pizza Please. And a Milkshake To Go.

[RedToothBrush]

On the Eve of the EU Elections that we never met to happen, and we don't know what the next hour next mind day might bring.

Farage is enjoying the theatre of milkshakes. It means he gets attention and gets to play the victim. And avoid talking about his dodgy friends and even dodgier financing. The Brexit Party are polling so highly its possible he could be PM. And boy does he know it. The temptation is there and its too much to resist.

May has refused to resign so far tonight after a day of asking her to. The 1922 Committee refused to change the rules to help oust her - possibly because they don't want the next PM to be beset with challenges to the leadership at the drop of a hat. Graham Brady is seeing her on Friday... The ERG are not happy bunnies.

May is still apparently planning to plough on with the WAB with a referendum possibly attached. Though this remains to be seen.

Meanwhile Leadsom has just quit the Cabinet. She was one of the Brexit 'Pizza Club'. Rumours are this might be the Cabinet withdrawing support for her. Though Gove has said he doesn't intend to resign (tonight at least).

Rumour is that May's senior staff have abandoned her to let her make the decision to go. And rumours are that when Leadsom rang May to tell her she was leaving cabinet, May didn't tell her senior staff. This comes two weeks after rumours where that Phillip May was at the point of telling her it was time to resign. The rumours of course may be just that, rumours but it's hard to see how or why anyone would tell her to carry on now.

And so tomorrow. Who would vote for this utter shower of shit? Even if you were the most loyal of Tories?

The thing tomorrow is to get the remain vote out. It doesn't matter ultimately what people vote for. Every vote cast for remain keeps the Brexit Party popular vote down. Even if it doesn't win seats. And that is psychologically important.

Tomorrow make sure EVERYONE you know who is anti brexit party votes. More so if they are a Remainer voting for a Remain party, but also if they are solid Labour or the rarest of things, a true blue.

It MATTERS. Narratives will be set.

If you are not sure if you are registered to vote, please TRY ANYWAY. The worst case is you are turned away and have lost 20 mins of your life. But you might also be able to vote and that might change the course of events.

Talk to people tomorrow. Remind them. Make sure it's about preventing a hard right foothold. Apathy will destroy our futures. Being fed up of politicians so refusing to vote is actively shooting yourself in the face.

Who am I voting for?

Still no idea. But I will vote.

Just voted. Plaid for me, Lib Dem for DH and DS.

First time in nearly 40 years that I haven’t voted Labour ( and I’m still a member.) It felt very strange.

Dh, ds and I have been and done our duty. First time ds has voted as an 18 year old (although the 3rd time he has voted )

No guesses which party we voted for

The teller said that it had been busier than usual

I don't know DGR

I do, and I've called it.

What on earth makes anyone thinks a few hundred foreigners not being able to vote is going to bother anyone after the whoppers of the past few years ?

usuallydormant we were disappointed not to get leaflets from the monarchists and the esperanto party 😀. We keep switching on the telly for the lunchtime weather programme and getting bloody Marine le Pen on the endless loop of party political broadcasts. I do think Nathalie Loiseau across well for Renaissance though. DH is voting here; I voted by proxy in the UK.

What on earth makes anyone thinks a few hundred foreigners not being able to vote is going to bother anyone after the whoppers of the past few years ?

Clinging on to the hope that our democracy isn't in as bad a state as is feared. That hope is diminishing though. Wish we didn't have to wait so long for results!

Clinging on to the hope that our democracy isn't in as bad a state as is feared.

Actually, it's worse. Wait till they find a way to (re)introduce property qualifications for voting.

{They don't think EU citizens should be able to vote in the UK.}

Struggling not to call them 'thick' here I am afraid.
This is the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT candidates they are voting for.

We’ll have to see DG -

Lisa O’Carroll is on the story for the Guardian and asked people to contact her, thus far has so far read 300 emails:

"300 emails in from EU citizens and counting #deniedmyvote. Haven't had such a response since we did call on SMEs impacted by Brexit." -

twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1131562015456145409

Business Insider is reporting "hundreds".

Thiemo Fetzer @ Warwick is compiling an official list and it’s reported to be 1000s.

Jo Maugham is paying for legal action via the Good Law Project a "torrent" of cases.

We’ll have to see DG

I'll wait for you at the end when you get there ...

Nothing will happen.

{Wait till they find a way to (re)introduce property qualifications for voting.}
The threshold for being declared 'feeble minded' (which had dire consequences) was quite low in some places in the late 1930's

As far as I know the only remedies available to an electoral court are to disqualify a winner, and order a re-run of the election. They can't provide redress to an individual voter and - as I stated previously - with a vote having no value, a civil court cannot adjudicate for a person denied a vote. Even if they were able to (and I am guessing they aren't).

Remember how English law started - as a way to ensure the rich were protected from the rest of us scum. Sometimes it's more subtle than others.

The threshold for being declared 'feeble minded' (which had dire consequences) was quite low in some places in the late 1930's

Isn't IQ supposed to be increasing 0.3% a decade or something ?

It depends on how much of a fuss those denied the franchise make, DGR. It might not help this time, and it may never affect the UK again, but it might put things right for another time.

But people have to make a fuss: Cameron promised to enfranchise overseas residents of more than 15 years standing and it was a manifesto pledge, but this is one which has been ignored. Some pledges are written for all time apparently.

It depends on how much of a fuss those denied the franchise make, DGR. It might not help this time, and it may never affect the UK again, but it might put things right for another time.

Not really. if 48% of the electorate can put up with the warm feeling of being pissed on over 3 years, I really don't see how a few hundred whinging immigrants are going to shake things up.

As far as I know the only remedies available to an electoral court are to disqualify a winner, and order a re-run of the election.

Which would be fairly major deal.

if 48% of the electorate can put up with the warm feeling of being pissed on over 3 years, I really don't see how a few hundred whinging immigrants are going to shake things up.

It’s precisely because the 48% are so fed that this may become a issue.

I don’t think you can call it yet, it depends how many are affected and how many complain.

We weren't supposed to have these elections in the first place. Let alone a re-run.

Imagine the howls from Brexiteers.

Also can these elections be re-run. How could that square with the fact that the rest of Europe will have returned MEPs ?

What mechanism - if any - would the EU have for putting UK MEPs out of the parliament because they weren't returned in an orderly fashion ?

Although it would remove Farage as an MEP, so not all bad, I guess.

I voted Plaid this morning My DS has messaged to say he voted LD and my DH is voting this evening - he'll either vote LD or Plaid. That's 3 solid Labour votes gone - Thanks Jeremy

{Isn't IQ supposed to be increasing 0.3% a decade or something ?}
The international eugenicists, some of whom who persuaded Hitler to bankroll them had their plan for a 'master race' by excluding those deemed unsuitable. A form of enhanced Darwinism I suppose. Hitler accepted that by selective breeding the process might take between 600 and 1000 years. Certainly an ambitious plan, with more than a lot of flaws.

Among the (few) good ideas were good nutritious food, plenty of outdoor exercise and breastfed babies.

No mention of this on the BBC website yet (Guardian has been running it for a few hours). Nothing to see here, I guess.

I don’t think you can call it yet, it depends how many are affected and how many complain.

The law is not - and has never been - affected by peoples upset. It is what it is.

So I ask again, what remedy does a disenfranchised voter have in law ? And it's not a cheap debating trick to say that in the absence of any contrary proof, my assertion of "fuck all" stands.

Bear in mind, the UKs electoral system has already been described - by it's own electoral court - as allowing practices that would shame a banana republic.

www.theguardian.com/society/2005/apr/04/localgovernment.politics

A high court judge ruled today that there had been "widespread fraud" surrounding the election of six Labour party councillors in Birmingham in last year's local elections.

Richard Mawrey QC, sitting as an election commissioner, said he was satisfied vote-rigging had occurred in the run up to the June ballot.

Launching a scathing attack on the current postal voting regulations, the judge said: "The system is wide open to fraud and any would-be political fraudster knows that it's wide open to fraud."

Responding to an earlier refusal from the government to overhaul the postal voting rules he said: "Anybody who has sat through the case I have just tried and listened to evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic would find this statement surprising.

(contd)

So, not much seems to have changed, really.

Of course, if we can't trust the electoral system, then why should we respect the "government" it returns ?

{I don’t think you can call it yet, it depends how many are affected and how many complain.}
Well there were supposedly irregularities in the referendum, conveniently not investigated yet, but if about 700,000 were found to have had their votes 'lost' by various means, the referendum would have been within the margin of error I think? After all there are nominally 3 million in the UK and another million in the EU, although obviously not all were of voting age etc.

But this isn't just a local or domestic issue, DGR. It's an EU-wide matter, which will presumably be open to scrutiny beyond the UK electoral commission. I understand the potential futility of seeking a remedy in law, but it still has wider political implications.

Had 2 clients at the foodbank today.
Both NFA.
So no vote.