Westminstenders: The Rule of Law

[RedToothBrush]

We enter week 2 of what might be considered 'the end game'.

The Conservative Party has made it clear that liberals are not welcome in their ranks. It has become the Brexit Party.

Farage is talking of a pact, though Javid has said no. What would Javid know though, he's only in the Cabinet.

Amber Rudd has resigned. She will run as an independent in an unnamed constituency at the next election. The assumption must therefore be she has been talking to a few people this week about this, though whether that means she is a 'One Nation Tory' independent candidate or simply an independent isn't clear.

Some think that her departure will deal Johnson yet another blow at the polls. Others think as the cabinet members with the worst satisfaction rating amongst tory party members this will be viewed positively by leavers and give Johnson a bounce in the polls.

It been reported that Cummings has overruled Johnson on at least key decisions this week which raises the question of who is in charge and running the show.

Cummings has promised to make us all melt in the coming weeks as he takes a sledge hammer to constitutional convention. He's advised no 10 staff to be 'cool like Fonzies'. A reference to pulp fiction and to happy days. As some have commented if you think about Cummings as some one who has watched too much Tarantino it does make him make a lot more sense.

There are suggestions that Johnson will break the rule of law in refusing to ask for an extension and the No10 have a trick up their sleeve over loopholes. The most obvious thing here being to offer the EU a deal they can't possibly refuse agree too to smear them and to then make it impossible for the EU to agree to an extension which noises out of France seem to suggest anyway.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting...

But if there's been no extension, there can't be a court case challenging said extension. These two things aren't compatible.

Again, try that trick in a court of law.

I'd bloody love this lot to be in front of some of the Judges round my way. I've had total bollockings for slightly incorrect paperwork before (not my files, I was just the advocate!). The Judges would be stratospheric with this shenanigans!

Read elsewhere a comment that (from memory) seemed correct ... that polls appear to have a "permatory" inbuilt bias, and have shown the tories with a much higher %age in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015 and (famously) 2017. With the obvious caveat that if polls were found to be useless, polling organisations would be out of a job. Plus pollsters that repeatedly bolster one sides support will tend to find themselves getting a lot of repeat business from that side.

Has anyone seen John Cleese "The Alimony Tour" ? Whatever your personal feelings, he mentions his mother as having lived through the entire 20th century - First World War, rise of Hitler, Second World War, the atomic bomb, rise of communism, cold war, social revolution of the 60s, man going to the moon, Britains first female PM, the fall of the Berlin wall ....

...without really noticing any of it.

@threadneedle
Thanks for the link. I doubt BJ would have a Peter Osborne moment.

NoWordForFluffy

"But if there's been no extension, there can't be a court case challenging said extension. These two things aren't compatible."

That's true, and no extension would I suppose suit the government (if only to blame the EU). My question was whether, if no extension is granted, the WA is automatically brought before Parliament under the Kinnock amendment. The worry being that there'd only be 9 days before the Brexit day deadline to avoid No Deal. What measures would remain open to the government to delay for those 9 days, during which the WA would presumably be debated and voted on by parliament?

Hence the concern about the CCA.

I'd bloody love this lot to be in front of some of the Judges round my way. I've had total bollockings for slightly incorrect paperwork before (not my files, I was just the advocate!). The Judges would be stratospheric with this shenanigans!

Are we seeing the end of English common law ? I suspect Donnie T would also love to get rid of it, but he has no say over the US states legal systems (as I recall Louisiana isn't common law ?)

Be a shame, as it predates the Norman conquest, and was the one little victory the Anglo Saxons had in their servitude. We may have lost our land, our elected King, parliament and language. But even our Norman overlords had to leave the common law to allow us to be governed.

Do you have a background in politics or are you just a keen observer?
Degree in media and history that's all. And a keen observer. Nothing special.

I am sure history will tell who RTB was......
I think the fact I am a nothing except a mum to a little 5 year old boy is more important than 'being someone'. I have no desire to be remembered. I'd rather that the points I make are remembered and people realise how important it is.

.

I think they would struggle to show the requisite emergency for the CCA prior to a No Deal Brexit happening. In order to do so they would have to argue that No Deal was, after all, a potential catastrophe.

I just hope that more than the usual number of people turn out to vote.

I have a feeling it could be less ... the underlying malaise which made the referendum so easy to hold hasn't been addressed in the slightest.

Lewis Goodall@lewis_goodall
Sajid Javid said this am that the govt has presented a new proposal to Brussels about the Irish border.

A senior EU source tells me that isn’t true: “there were no new proposals. They were promised last week, but nothing this week. Just crossing out of text [from May’s deal].”

Source says “gap is widening” between the two sides, not getting closer. To the point where even traditional allies, like the Dutch have run out of patience and given up.

Javid said he couldn’t say what the proposal was because in public because it was “a negotiation” and that’s not what you do. Fair enough, just. But probably a good idea to reveal it to the other side.

When I asked if Javid was being deliberately untruthful about saying there was a new proposal/getting a deal, source said: “depends on one’s definition of ‘trying to get a deal’”.

Pmk. Hopefully with added cat.

@threadneedle I saw that on Twitter earlier. Not sure how you can watch that and think no deal makes any sense.

Tom Newton Dunn @tnewtondunn
👇In other words, if PM’s refusal to implement the Benn Act crosses into the illegal, Robert Buckland will resign too. I’m told Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will also join him.

Re Buckland's statement

This is worrying.

BREAKING - Momentum Camden meeting on Monday to discuss trigger ballots against Keir Starmer and Tulip Siddiq

twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1170413427745050624

@Hasenstein, I'm not sure what cunning wheeze could be thought up by this lot, to be honest. They're stopping to new, unmined, levels.

AFAIK, the WA must be brought back. I need to find the wording to see the exact circs / timings though. I'll go and dig.

There could be a load of emergency applications going through the Court system after 19 Oct though.

DGR, I've not seen any rumours from the Law Society updates or Kerry Underwood (who has his finger on the pulse) regarding us lot being shoved out on our ears yet (or swiftly learning the mechanisms of civil law, as used on the Continent). I'll keep an eye out, however!

We do get regular no deal Brexit updates from the LS.

I went out so have lost the train of the threads once again.
Consensus over lunch about the games to come over the next 5 days.
Johnson/ Cummings obviously have plans up their sleeve. Either it's an absurd impossible proposal to the EU or (bizarrely) a Tory VNC in itself??

John Rentoul @johnrentoul
Lib Dems & Greens would stand aside to let Rory Stewart have a clear run as an independent in Penrith – S Times
www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/lib-dems-to-stand-aside-for-rory-stewart-and-other-tory-rebels-in-general-election-m0cvdjlr8
Lib Dems to stand aside for Rory Stewart and other Tory rebels in general election

Because I always wondered how the ordinary people in 1930s Germany felt. Powerless.

Did they ? Or were they quietly happy to turn a blind eye ... until it was their turn ?

Whilst it is possible to mistake ignorance for tacit approval, it's also possible to engineer the reverse process, and allow people the fig leaf of ignorance, whilst they know what's happening. In fact you aren't much of a fascist regime if you don't allow for mechanisms to allow the public to claim collective ignorance of what's really going on. A trawl of the history of the Southern US states during Reconstruction would be illuminating.

There's also that midset of people who do know what's happening, and who might be a little uneasy about it, but who have convinced themselves "it's for the greater good".

Besides, when the purges happen, and people are being carted away, it's always best to feign ignorance.

Christ almighty. WTAF is Monentum up to? We're in a constitutional crisis and that's what they're planning? Fucking give me strength.

And they wonder why Labour does poorly in the polls. 🤬

I think they would struggle to show the requisite emergency for the CCA prior to a No Deal Brexit happening. In order to do so they would have to argue that No Deal was, after all, a potential catastrophe.

A ground for invocation is to deal with emergencies that threaten "serious damage to the public welfare". Would riots as a result of fuel/food/medicine shortages suffice? Public clashes caused by targeted right-wing agitation?

"Damage to human welfare is defined in the Act to include disruption to transport networks or to the supply of food, money, energy, or health services".

HMG's "new proposal" on the Irish border has been reported to be the old proposal with all the bits HMG doesn't like crossed out. They seem not to have got the hang of this negotiation thing.

Cummings meanwhile has urged evryone to "be cool like Fonzies," which raises so many questions. "Happy Days" ceased production when DC was 12. Fonzie jumped the shark when he was six.

on the basis that an attempt to legislate against the current extension legislation by using the CCA is an abuse.

Cummings and Gove used terrorism legislation to get through an education act.

My MP, total BJ lackey is retweeting everything he can about having a GE ASAP and Corbyn being a chicken.
He is getting a surprisingly large amount of pushback.

I imagine if Starmer and Saddiq were purged, they’d do the same for them. The Libdems are really showing their patriotism right now. I’m impressed.