Westminstenders: Johnson v Stewart

[RedToothBrush]

Debate time.

1. Foreign Sec who'll make Britain walk tall in the world

Foreign Sec who'll make Britain walk the plank

Fixed that for you. Jez.

Sorry 4 not 5.

5 is just creepy. Jez. Word of advice to the not so wise. Someone, also called Jez, tried that before. It didn't work.

Thinking about it. Jeremy isn't going to get PM.

Hunt that is...

Well, if Johnson gets it, I for one and somehow is forced to ask for an extension again, I look forward to Leavers that he was really a closet Remainer and he never intended to Leave. It would be perfectly true - because he wrote arguments for and against, and his main aim was to become PM instead of Cameron.

The one promise I hope he is held to account for is the money for the NHS.

Johnson NEVER delivers on his promises. He has form for this.

"maybe the country and Tory Party really are that batshit"

I don't think the country is batshit

but the Tory party has been getting more batshit ever since Thatcher was forced out
They have now have reached Full Batshit Takeover

The Tories are now just an extremist party, right wing. It has been a long time in the making.
I’ve resigned myself to have BJ as a prime minister and to see the U.K. being ridiculed in the same way that the US is. Except we don’t have the power the US has so it will be looking even more batshit.

As for what he will do... tbh it can be anything as long as it benefits him.

Rory had no chance of winning, so his votes went to candidates who did have a chance - probably Gove ?

He was the only candidate who acknowledged that we'll need to sign up to the main terms of the WA

• including an NI backstop - at some time

The questions are only:

• Will it be NI-only or all-UK

• Will it be before Brexit - so we get the huge benefit of a transition period , which can be extended -

or some months after No Deal, when the UK economy has crashed and the EU - and every other trade bloc / G20 country - is dictating terms to a desperate UK

The Tory party would be totally batshit to choose the latter

I'm not sure the EU would give us another extension. the tone with the previous one was pretty clear "Use this time wisely".

I might start topping up my stockpile. Fucking horrendous.

The Tory right have always hated the GFA
and the DUP's main reason for supporting Brexit was to get rid of it and return to the old Unionist dominance of NI

Corbyn reportedly opposed the talks leading to the GFA, but from completely the other direction:
he wanted a commitment to a United Ireland first

He kept trying to persuade Sinn Fein / IRA to hold out for more concessions from the UK govt
Gerry Adams had to tell him to stfu and stop blocking peace talks

Labour policy since partition - until New Labour - was that Ireland should be reunited

So, Corbyn may keep opposing FOM, but the backstop is unlikely to be a red line for him or for most of his party.

I really really hope that the backstop remains UK wide, NI only is the end of the union.

If that was what the majority of NI and the Republic wanted then that would be fine by me. It won't be fine if it leads to further violence.

If the United Kingdom is broken up as a result of Cameron, May and Johnson's actions then it will be very pleasing to see the Tory party get the blame.

Rory might have wanted to last another round, but he hasn't been outplayed

He represented a very small minority view in the Tory Party, but managed to defy gravity and last longer than mainstream candidates like Raab

I expected him to lose in round 1, or at least round 2, tbh

He may be a leader for the future, but only if the Tory party returns to One Nation, right of centre, conservatism

He'll never be elected leader if they stay a hard right party

When is the EU27's 'stock take' meeting this month? No doubt there'll be a collective eye roll as to how much of the extension we're wasting due to internal politics.

If the United Kingdom is broken up as a result of Cameron, May and Johnson's actions then it will be very pleasing to see the Tory party get the blame.

Yes the conservative and union party attempting radical constitutional and economic change that smashes the union might want to think about changing their name: clearly they are neither.

Irish Reunification is going to happen at some time

Without this Brexit mess, it would probably not have been for 50 years
Now it looks like happening earlier - muccch earlier if we No Deal.

I wonder if Scotland may also be more motivated to leave than before, if a referendum decision dominated by English votes, crashes the Scottish economy too

• maybe pretty can say whether she thinks in that case that Scottish voters would be more wary of further change, or want to leave the sinking English ship

I also wonder if many Scottish voters still remember that the Tories told them that voting against Independence was the way to stay in the EU

• that was a really shameless lie, even for Tories

haha - well that was thrown out of court for some reason.

His lying doesn't seem to have consequences.

The full court reasons haven't appeared yet have they? It was easy to prove our future prime minister was lying and that he was knowingly lying. I don't think the lawyers had a problem with that.
The part of the offence that was harder to establish was the public office part of the offence.

I'm glad Rory is out tbh, sick of the love he was getting, still a tory, still voted to make my disabled life as hard as it can be

Rory got the votes he did yesterday because of the tv debate. There were MPs who wanted to see him v Johnson. But he didn't do as well as anyone hoped.

So there was no point in supporting him further. He was in because he was a foil to Johnson.

His job done, it was time to move to supporting the other candidates. Javid scored a big hit last night with the Islamophobia inquiry thing, plus in head to head polling for the final, he's doing best amongst the Tory Membership according to ConHom.

I was expecting Stewart to go first with Javid tomorrow in the first round, but we shall see, how it goes still.

Gove is still polling badly both internally and externally but it was interesting watch everyone shut up last night, every time he spoke, which they did for no one else. It suggests he has a level of respect from the others which isn't enjoyed by Javid, Hunt or Johnson. This might yet save him. 'Stewart's sensibles' are likely to go for Gove I suspect. Then Javid's Remainers split between Hunt and Gove - so it's still too close to call.

There's talk of Johnson voters helping out Hunt but some might go for Gove for exactly the same reason too!

fluffy EUCO is 20-21 June, i.e. tomorrow & Friday

Brexit will be only 1 topic of several:

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2019/06/20-21/

At the European Council (Art. 50) meeting on 12 April 2019, the EU27 agreed to revert to the issue of Brexit at their next meeting in June 2019.

This will take the form of a short informal update on the situation, including on the EU's preparedness for a 'no deal' scenario, by Presidents Tusk and Juncker.

poster00 "still voted to make my disabled life as hard as it can be"

Unfortunately, life could get much harder after No Deal