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.

Couple of Tories describing Leadsome as "formidable" - in a positive way that is

Is it possible to send milkshakes to Nigel Farage vis Amazon?

Maybe deliveroo or just eat @RhubarbIsEvil ?

pretzels Queen's Speech is for a new Parliamentary session, not required just by having a new PM

I'd expect the next Tory leader to avoid a GE at all costs, with currrent polls
Iff Tory & DUP MPs support him / her, they can command a majority, so no GE

I don't know if those few Tories, who say they'd never accept Boris, would actually vote to bring down their own govt,
knowing it would decimate their party and let in Farage or Corbyn - and they might lose their own seats

tobee and violet now giggling because I have that too. I give myself lots of time in the booth to double-check my X is in the right place.... and still worry afterwards. But it does not take away the joy of voting!

Beautiful kittens mother!

Kate McCann**@KateEMcCann

Source says chief whip told 1922 executive that the PM isn’t going anywhere.

Said she is campaigning tomorrow and to focus on elections.
“They accepted that”.

< not for long ! they may want to check if EP results are really as bad as expected, before going all out to topple her >

Rule change was not mentioned in that meeting.

Thanks BCF - the new parliamentary session is due to start in June, TM wants to put it off, but could a brand new leader? Is there anything parliament can do to insist that a new session be brought in?

It's not that I think the tories will vote to bring down their own govt - it's that they don't have a majority (with defections, even less than they had in 2017), and with TM gone - and the DUP deal having hit the rocks a long time ago - parliament could still block the speech if the opposition just ... opposes.

British politics is broken and about to get a lot worse

https://capx.co/british-politics-is-broken-and-about-to-get-a-lot-worse/?

That sound you hear is the clattering of tumbrils laden with politicians who long ago exhausted the public’s patience.

These elections to the European Parliament are going to be a massacre; a moment when the inadequacies of both traditional parties are all too evident.

This is going to be ugly and little good can come from any of it.
.....
If you think these past three years have been a miserable time for British politics, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Votes for the Brexit party, like votes for the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, and for Change UK are not just about Brexit.
They should be considered, in all their rainbow glory, a collective howl of despondency;
a national declaration that this should not be as good as it gets, that there must be some any alternatve
.....
It matters little that no one campaigned for a no-deal “WTO” Brexit in 2016.
That was then and this is now.

The Tory party will shortly become if it has not done so yet — the party of no deal too.
That would at least offer a clean, quick, end.
But then so does the guillotine.

“Make it stop” is the order of the day and the public, I suspect, increasingly cares little how it is stopped so long as it ends.
No wonder the centre ground has been hollowed out.

Partisans on all sides define themselves less by their own beliefs than by their opposition to those who do not share those beliefs.
Your victory is very much less important than their defeat.
.....
Anyone who thinks decapitating the Government and starting again will magically produce a solution, or a way out of this maze, is indulging themselves in that most ancient of forlorn hopes: the idea that this is a problem of personnel, not one of policy.

It is not a lack of will that has brought us to this broken place but, instead, the irrefutable logic of the Brexit process itself.

It is not being done well because it cannot be done well

There is no perfect Brexit because something has to give.

Thanks Red

I love voting too. But I always panic afterwards that I had some blackout and put the X by the wrong candidate!

Tobees, Violet I thought that was just me! . I always have to stand there and stare really hard at my ballot paper after I’ve marked it to make sure I don’t have those post-vote panics!

Slightly alarmed by the number of posters on the last thread saying their DCs can’t see the point in voting. I do hope the young turn out tomorrow. They are so passionate about wanting a PV, I hope they can see the importance of these elections.

pretzels The govt has sufficient votes to win an NC vote, because the DUP for the moment at least will continue Confidence & Supply

It is only the WA that won't get the votes, because the DUP & many Tories oppose the backstop

Tory MPs won't vote for a GE, which would decimate the party am, probably not even to bring down Boris; neither will the DUP
So the zombie govt may survive for many months, staggering on desperately

The HoC can't really force a new parliamentary session, because they have the power to bloc things, rather than power to force the govt to carry out specific actions

All they can do is try for an NC vote - but no chance unless the DUP and / or some Tories vote against the govt, or abstain.

However, HoC rules mean that the govt can't put off a new session past about October at the latest.
The govt may not even have the votes to postpone it past June, if Tory Brexiters want to push things forward.

Ours has moved from the Village Hall to the Scout Hut for the EU elections; all our votes are held in the Village Hall, and in a very Brexit area I am suspicious...

No, it's because the UK election was called late, so some of the regular polling stations are booked up. It does cost money to hire these places, and if May hadn't been so adamant about not holding the elections, the Local elections could have been held over until tomorrow, thus saving on costs. Which in turn might have helped May and Labour, because the extent of the carnage would not be apparent and the LibDems and Greens would not have been emboldened.

Wouldn't it be delicious when PM Johnson took over and then had to face a GE and went and lost his seat? Would he then be the shortest serving PM in the UK's history? It would be more exciting than the time Portillo lost his seat.

I know there is reporting restrictions, but when do the votes actually get counted? Presumably they can't tell the candidates before Sunday either cos they'd never be able to keep it all secret.

fishfingers i'd instinctively go with east as well. Only instinct but London was very pro remain in ref so in theory will be remain leaving in MEPs.

I panicked I put the cross wrong in the ref because the ballot didn't look how I expected and I thought was worded chunkily...I had to Google to reassure myself! I panick less when picking parties but always triple check...and then worry I've taken to long and the polling station volunteers will think I'm up to something so I hurry myself along while trying to look natural.

@RedToothBrush

The Brexit Party are polling so highly its possible he could be PM

You didn't really mean that.... did you?

Votes in today's European elections won't make him a Westminster MP, nor any of his buddies. And certainly not PM.

piglet It is actually possible he could become PM
It depends very much on when the GE happens / whether the Tory vote collapses - BREX would then basically replace them as the party of the right.

FPTP with 3 or even 4 main parties means a much lower threshold is needed to win a GE than with 2 main parties

He could win an overall majority in the HoC if he gets near 30%
One scenario I posted upthread from the seat predictor gave him an overall majority of 56 in the HoC with just 24%

A Comres Poll found Farage may hang on to 90% of his EP voters at a GE
We won't know until Sunday / Monday how reliably the polls can predict a new large party
and whether the incredibly low Tory predictions ae true

red obviously means a v high showing in the EP elections could give sufficient momentum to win a GE later

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eureferendumm2016/3588567-Westminstenders-Has-Boris-been-outmanoeuvred-Reprise?pg=

A source in the 1992 Committee of Conservative backbenchers said
the executive had voted tonight on whether to allow a new confidence vote that could oust Theresa May from premiership.

The votes are now sealed in an envelope, and would only be opened if May fails to resign by 10 June

There was speculation that May could announce her resignation as early as this Friday 24 May when she will meet Sir Graham Brady, chair of the backbench 1922 Committee,
BBC reports.

Police have made arrests after anti-racism campaigners were pelted with bricks and eggs following a Tommy Robinson campaign rally in Salford.
Three anti-racism activists suffered bruising and cuts after they were hit by rocks.

Trouble flared when objects were thrown at a group of about 50 counter-protesters who were being escorted away from the event by police.

PMK

Voting Greens tomorrow (Molly Scott Cato) for the second time.

pmk,

You didn't really mean that.... did you?

Yes I do.
Once he's proved he can get that much, he's proved the Brexit Party are a real contender. And asked the question what is the point in the Conservatives. It's also been pointed out that he seems to be polling better than the Conservatives in the 18 - 25 year old age group, which is making people sit up and take notice. I think it's something like 10% of the vote in that age group compared to 6 or 7%. It's not a huge amount but the Conservatives have a real problem with young voters.

I echo what others say about alarm at young people saying they don't see the point in voting. They need beating with a rather large stick by parents to tell to get them out! It's almost as if they want to shoot themselves in the head and have no future but can whinge about how unfair it is because they can't be arsed to go to a polling booth. The abdication of responsibility is appalling.

I feel rather queasy this morning about today's vote. It's going to be a long few days waiting for the vote.

SE counts on Sunday, I ores it's the same for all regions. Given our local struggle for sufficient staff I hope they start the count at a sensibly early time.

I'm going to be out of the country on Sunday. In furrin EU land. Be interesting to watch from there.

@Red have you decided who to vote for? We’re in the same region and I’m a withering between LD and greens, I like the idea of the tactical voting for green, but worry that if too many people don’t vote LD they won’t get theirs either