Westminstenders: Drain The Swamp

[RedToothBrush]

Johnson lost his first vote by 27.

The Commons take control again, and Johnson is now, with his majority gone, is seeking an election.

Whilst the feeling might be one of victory there is a definite sting in the tail.

Johnson has purged the party of 'trouble makers', meaning any replacements after an election are hard liners. And they will be in safe seats. Possibly many of which will be careerists parachuted in.

The party has split. The civil war is over.

Parliament has just lost some of its very best minds in the process. That bodes ill for us all in the long term. The polarisation has just jacked up a level. The centre has fallen even more.

There are no more moderates.

Polling suggests that Johnson won't be blamed for any of this and that's significant.

Take note of this tweet

Douglas Carswell @Douglascarswell
Boris Vs the political Parasites. Guess who wins across suburban Britain?

The optics are not about what you or I are seeing. Nor about what any of the politicial pundits are seeing.

The Democrats and the Media failed to see Trump coming... And this is what now concerns me. His optics are not bad with his core and targets.

Will Johnson be able to have his election?

If yes, I fear the polls look good for Johnson. People want 'Brexit over with' and don't want another extension. They may or may not understand the ramifications of that.

If no, then what? Johnson can do anything with his numbers. Does that mean potentially two governments and the Queen stuck in the middle? Or does he limp on, with no intention of doing anything but take us over the cliff by counting down the clock?

Or something else?

The Brexit Party and Conservatives now seem to have formally united one way or another. They have aligned with current politics alike the divided Opposition parties.

Tonight the penny might have dropped with a few Labour MPs too. They want May's deal to return. Its the only deal there is, in the absence of a Johnson plan and a Labour / Opposition plan. Too little too late...

This isn't going away as an issue either. Stoking up anger against the rebel alliance is a long term project for the fascist right.

Is tonight’s result a victory? Yes, but my fear is its potential to be a Pyrrhic Victory.

The battle today may have been won, but Johnson still looks set to win...

Paul Brand @paulbranditv
🚨 If you thought the rebels looked like they were having fun tonight, apparently Margot James turned to her colleagues and said...

“Isn’t it great not to be in the same party as those w*ers!” 🚨

🚨 If you thought the rebels looked like they were having fun tonight, apparently Margot James turned to her colleagues and said...

“Isn’t it great not to be in the same party as those w*ers!” 🚨

Hahahahahaha. 😂

Some Remainers would prefer a 100% Remain party, like LDems, Greens, SNP or Plaid
but vote tactically for Labour

Labour's current policy makes this feasible, whereas their previous one did not

What Corbyn's GE policy would do, is rule out No Deal
It would be what he calls a "Brexit for jobs" vs Remain
Well, political licence there !

I don't understand why a Lexiter, as distinct from a Tory Brexiter hedge-funder, would support the Tories rather than Labour in those circs.
Especially those who have been castigating the centre left and saying at last they have their "genuine" leader of the left in Corbyn

Of course I don't expect them to vote for a fully Remain party

Suspended Labour MP Chris Williamson (a close friend of Corbyn and a not so closet Lexiter) didn't vote last night or today. One for the notebook on future votes.

I also note that Jared O'Mara who delayed his resignation yesterday didn't vote either last night or today.

but I bet O'Mara continus to draw his salary and some allowances

Sky news breaking @skynewsbreak
^Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs
there must be an election and Britain will leave the EU on Oct 31st^

Is that really breaking news? Isn’t that what he’s been saying for the last umpteen weeks?

Alain Tolhurst @alain_tolhurst
I just realised, if there is a snap election, the new Father of the House will be: Dennis Skinner

Henry Zeffman @hzeffman
Meaning he would preside over the election of John Bercow's successor as Speaker, if Bercow stands down at the election

Alain Tolhurst @alain_tolhurst
The possibilities for carnage are endless

MPs like Williamson abstaining is one thing
Voting with the Tories re a GE is another
and supporting them in a GE campaign would be unthinkable for him

But some Lexiter voters do seem to be Tories now

*@MockersthefeMANist *
"You don't know Christchurch. Chope is considered a dangerous pinko by the oldest electorate in the UK."

Ah! Thanks. Was just reading up on his constituency. I'm up North.
We've a local County Councillor cut from the same cloth. I'm in Leave land. Definitely a Bin thing here also, if you want to get many of the village elders riled.
( Old voter here, proud of her stance on other issues as well as bins)

Things are moving very fast

'No Deal better than Corbyn' was 17th August and before Boris started purging MPs and proroguing parliament.

Corbyn's parliamentary performance over the past couple of days has been more competent and confident than Johnson's.

In the Telegraph yesterday:

"Corbyn better than no-deal Brexit, say investment banks as anti-capitalist Labour wins unlikely new City fans"

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/09/03/corbyn-better-no-deal-brexit-say-investment-banks-anti-capitalist/

Pathetic that Johnson tries to blame the chief whip. Obviously nothing is ever his fault.

An authoritarian hard right Tory govt, with a speaker chosen by them, would have few if any democratic constraints

Metempsychosis How do the maths of the Commons look without Scotland?

I've discussed before how the colour of the Scottish MPs almost never makes a difference to which party is in power in WM. Certainly not a stable government.

It is arguable that the 13 Scottish Conservative MPs made a difference in 2017. But it only supports the argument that they only contribute at the margins and don't help form stable governments.

Harold Wilson in the 70s is another example.

Blair never needed his Scottish MPs - he had enough of a majority without them. Thatcher ditto.

So the Labour trope that England "needs" Scotland to "save" it from the Conservatives is just that: a trope

Voting on amendment 19 in progress now

Pretty If we are in an era of v small majorities, or hung Parliaments, then the Scottish MPS certainly matter

Until the last decade or so, this wasn't the case:
the main 2 parties had almost all the seats

BJ may well gain a large enough majority this time though, despite a near Tory wipeout in Scotland

Piggywaspushed Alastair Burt is my MP. Not my party but I do respect him. Very dignified speech, I wish him well.

If Corbyn changes the standard Labour tack and supports Scottish Independence, then we can presume he doesn't believe in the old trope

Thank you to everyone for the support and suggestions earlier. A few lurkers and familiar faces pm'd me with info as well. So helpful. So, so, kind of you all. It keeps making me cry! ❤

Getting it sorted. We're very lucky to be able to do so and I keep doing a different sort of crying that there'll be people who can't afford to. No one deserves this.

Anyway. Sky news on and cooking dinner.

!

Not my party either... if I lived less than a mile down the road, I'd be in marginal Bedford, annoyingly. Have you seen the 12year old the Tories plan to put up there as their candidate? Takes constant selfies and puts them on Twitter.

French govt say No Deal is the most likely outcome:

https://www.20minutes.fr/politique/2595807-20190903-brexit-no-deal-hypothese-plus-probable-selon-paris

and latest EU prepping docs for 1 Nov:

ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/com-2019-394-final_en.pdf

Just told DH Red's Boris versus Parliament theory - he was saying Twitter is unanimous about how shit Virus was in Parliament - and he said but if it's Boris versus Parliament, isn't it Boris versus democracy? Which of course it is, but will people see it?

If he's deliberately, going out of his way to say it's him versus parliament, shouting it from the rooftops so to speak, are we to be surprised when he acts to take sovereignty away from parliament?

He's actually preparing the ground here for people to accept that parliament is the enemy of the people. But if parliament is the enemy, who leads? Enter Boris, King of the World.

I think he actually might want a deal now (avoiding no deal chaos) then an election where the Tory party is the Brexit party, campaigning to really leave the EU without parliament tying their hands. Though I suppose with no deal, he can also blame parliament, so it makes no difference. Overall majority and I think we'll see more referendums and legislation to decrease the power of parliament. Might even have a referendum on that very thing. Yay. You know, because parliament spoiled Brexit.

Blaming parliament for Brexit is just the first step towards getting rid of it.

Ian Dunt@iandunt
First one is amendment 19, which replaces the automatic Oct 19th extension request with a requirement for the govt to hold a vote on a deal by Oct 21st, with an extension afterwards if it passes.

I used to live in Burt's constituency too. Never voted for him but he has my respect lately.

I'm now in Laurence Robertson's. Fucking dickhead.