Westminstenders: Constitutional History

[RedToothBrush]

The Supreme Court case continues
(ruling possible Friday but likely Monday)

The new NI proposal is bollocks and Johnson didn't get why until it was discussed in Europe.

There was a press conference in Luxembourg which looks good for Johnson.

Johnsons approval ratings are up.

And we are making no obvious progress to anything but no deal...

You clearly have your views of this whole situation and I have my own, as do we all.
LouiseCollins

You are of course allowed to have your views on the situation. I prefer to deal with facts.

The Kuper article was quoted at length upthread, I believe by kingsassassin.

LouiseCollins is this a question I should not ask then?

You should examine the foundation on which it rests.

That foundation is anti-EU propaganda, and for some reason the narrative there has appealed to you.

I now see the EUs interests as largely distinct from Britain’s interests.
Hook, line, and sinker.

Reading that summary of the backstop development above, it occurs to me that really, the Tory party don't have a clue what they're doing, and they haven't had for a long time. It's like one big game to them.

Theresa May and her 'get immigration numbers down at all costs' policy led to the Windrush scandal. David Cameron didn't and doesn't seem to understand the whole structure of the EU (and fyi Dave and George, the country is not a household budget), and Boris doesn't seem to know what the SM and CU are, and what they mean practically.

It's like they have no grasp of practicalities at all. Is it because they are so privileged, like Jean Luc Picard, they have just signalled with their hands and said 'Make it so', their whole lives?

And when 'make it so' doesn't work, they have absolutely no idea what to do?

I learnt the word tortfeaser the other day! A person who commits a tort. Next question, what is a tort? According to wikipaedia it's

A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act.

I am not sure who it was being said about - I think Boris Johnson.

Here are the latest YouGov poll results plotted on a map to model seats.

Now...I know you can't trust polls...it's too chaotic to rely on them...blah blah blah

BUT

Just give me 2 mins to say, if this were true:

• John Deadwood loses his seat to the LDs
• Dominic Raab also loses his seat to the LDs
• Also Geoffrey Cox though I would miss his voice
• We're within a few % points of Jeremy Hunt

Just looking to see who else would het knocked out in this fantasy...

flavible.com/politics/map/polls?sid=2295

Actually worth booking marking that site as it lets you switch views across the last five or so polls to look at results by constituency and overall seat projections...

I learnt the word tortfeaser the other day! A person who commits a tort. Next question, what is a tort?

Ugh...horrible flashbacks to studying Tort. My absolute least favourite topic back in uni days.

Ummm, ironically, EU Law was my least favourite topic! All the direct and indirect effect of legislation! De Cassis liqueur is forever stuck in my head!

I practise civil litigation, so tort is my thing. Nobody refers to torts or tortfeasers anymore though! The Scots do use more archaic language in their proceedings, so it may still be used there.

I know of torts, but tortfeaser - sounds like being told where to put your tort

btw, it's been depressing to learn from here that that I thought were fairly common words like "tort" and "stytmie" are achaic
I'm archaic !

Maybe because someone who plays the bumbling idiot isn't taken seriously as PM ?

People don't laugh so much when he is the one in charge of crumbling public services ?

Matthew O'Toole@MatthewOToole2 (ex-No 10 civil servant)

Re hospital fiasco.

As a civil servant who worked on countless media operations & visits for controversial senior politicians,
there is something unique about the willingness of people (not just activists) to confront this PM in public

It must be at least partly related to his own insistence on flouting convention and the sense of permission that some people take from that.

George Osborne or David Cameron were hardly loved - and were frequently loathed - but they rarely got the treatment Boris constantly gets.

Osborne in particular was the face of the most aggressive cuts in generations.
But prevailing norms and restraint generally prevented people from berating him at will.

People dont seem to apply the same norms to Boris Johnson.
Perhaps because he doesn't apply them to himself

BCF, it's more that the plain English campaign means that we were specifically taught at law school to use language that our clients understand, without having to resort to the dictionary. So, while the words are used academically, they're not used in legal practice. Solicitors don't even use legalese in letters / emails to each other much (most emails between parties are very informal, 'Hi' / 'Good afternoon'- type chat in my world), unless it's a specific legal concept you're referring to.

Academic legal teaching (and even the LPC, which is meant to teach you about legal practice, hence the name!), is very far removed from day to day working as a solicitor / legal practitioner.

We use duty of care / negligence rather than tort, by the way.

Here are the latest YouGov poll results plotted on a map to model seats.

Now...I know you can't trust polls...it's too chaotic to rely on them...blah blah blah

It's not that you shouldn't trust polls in this case, it's that you can't apply national polls to constituency level. Too many local issues.

The YouGov modelling by national level for the 2017 GE was very different to the one by constituency level.

Plus we have a pile of don't knows going on which matter a lot more at constituency level.

Take with a VERY large pinch of salt. (Cos its rather meaningless.)

BJ made himself into an amusing, bumbling, loveable people-pleaser of a politician and perhaps amazingly managed to persuade people that beneath the facade lay a keen, incisive intellect and a talent for getting things done.
Unsurprisingly, having rumbled the deception, people are all too ready to have a go. There’s nothing worse than having your idol disappoint you.

tortfeaser

Sounds like something from Bake Off! "This tortfeaser has a soggy bottom, but the flavour's not bad".

BJ is my MP. His GE campaign here is to reopen the local police station (which surely his party also closed down)

I think that will be VERY popular, so I can’t see any chance of him being voted out.

Tort is clearly Latin (in Italian it’s “torto” and it means damage, or mistake. You are “in torto” when you’re found culpable of having caused damage, or you’ve made a mistake. You suffer a torto when you’re at the receiving end of it)

I still blame the way history is taught in this country (or at least, in England, I don’t want to presume about Scotland). Studying history in separated chunks without following the timeline is I believe a UNIQUE approach in the general schooling of european countries. My eldest history knowledge is ridicolous. He did (in this order) London under the blitz, Tutankhamen, the dinosaurs, Henry the 8th. That’s it. Dropped history at 14yo. And he has no concept of consecutio. History is ALL based on events being “concatenated”, one thing comes after the other and affects the future. You can study things in isolation. That’s not how history works.

And using Latin is archaic in practice!

I'm ignoring the polls, to be honest. All that matters is how people actually vote.

I fell asleep with dd last night at 9! So I haven't caught up but found this interesting, talking of polls Guardian - do polls create opinions?

Off to do school run and have tradesmen around all day as well as about a weeks' worth of housework (which probably means I'll ignore it and be on here).

So, is anything likely to go on today? The court case has sat, results not due till next week...

What is BJ up to next?

He’s done the NHS this week, the police last week-is it time to go and piss off some teachers?

I first encountered the word tort in a John Grisham thriller (how fiction broadens the mind) but every time I see it I think of a toffee flan. I’m sure that’s just me.
On the other hand, every time I think of our (not) esteemed PM I think of a custard tart.

I think a custard tart is a good comparison - kind of flobbery looking and I wouldn’t go near it if there was any other type of pastry on offer

Whenever I see a poll and a party or a newspaper claiming that there's been an increase in support, the first thing I want to ask is "What's the margin of error?"

Unfortunately, along with history, it's also statistics that is badly taught at school.

I agree: teachers/schools next