Westminstenders: What hangs in the balance?

[RedToothBrush]

Yellow Hammer (and Black Swan if it exists) and other documents the government itself has produced are our truths and our evidence.

I look to Thomas Jefferson quotes in trying to defend liberal democracy.

His most famous of quotes is

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration states, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….”

Self evident truths. These are the bedrock of democracy.

There are many more quotes from Jefferson which talk about the shining beacon of truth and the threats to liberty from falsehoods and those who tell them.

He argued that when the power of the state is used to avoid scrutiny we should be worried and afraid. As a leader he should never be afraid of the truth, because the truth always exists and you can only merely hide it before it makes itself apparent anyway.

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

Today I feel the need to dust off old Jefferson for my own sanity and to remind myself of what matters. Jefferson helps me focus on dangers and how you fight back. It always comes back to exposure to the truth - how do you work to expose this (and the role of journalism in this)

Seek the truth. Talk the truth. Even if that means being self critical and humble in admitting your mistakes and errors.

It is not your identity as Leaver, Remainer, Tory, Labour, LDer, SNPer, woman, man, English, Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh or European right now.

These identities are harming us, by making us look at the wrong thing rather than see the real danger facing us. They divide us whilst they conquer us.

What you should be focusing on NOW is your commitment to democracy in the face of someone in power actively and explicity saying the rule of law does not matter and the courts are wrong. That is advocating mob rule.

Johnson stood and said threats to MPs were humbug. And refused to moderate his language despite so many (mainly female) MPs saying the threats they received were extremely serious (remembering we've even had a prosecution for a plot to kill Rosie Cooper as well as other successful prosecutions for threats to MPs)

This is where we are at.

Focus on it.

No Deal Brexit and the future of liberal democracy in this country are indivisible and inseparable. They are entwined by the rule of law.

Brexit is NOT in of itself a threat to liberal democracy. It is HOW we leave that is.

I wish this was being said and emphasised concisely and cleanly.

Come to think of it, it wasn't really pro-Brexit propaganda; it was pro-Johnson propaganda.

Johnson the hero. Johnson the funnyman to appeal to primary school children.

It's about establishing the Johnson brand.

Louise that’s about where I am. Take away the two extremes and I suspect that’s where a lot of people are.

I see that Cummings has been caught out gaslighting with his “walk in the park” comment.

Padfield means it’s judicially reviewable. The relevant minister can be taken to court to have the decision scrutinised.

So if challenged he would have to satisfy the Court that he acted lawfully and reasonably in satisfying himself as to the existence of an emergency or an imminent emergency, and that the emergency steps taken were appropriate to control, mitigate or prevent the emergency.

Hence the whipping up of the betrayal narrative so that he’ll have evidence of a threat to wave at the Court if need be.

1968 case of Padfield

has put a plus in the Denning column (although he's still in deficit ...)

Louise imo your suggested March for a Deal is a very positive idea

However, atm both sides are still fixated on winning 100% of what they want, so I don't know how many would attend
Absolutely worth trying to organise though
it's the kind of thing that should have been started months ago, so it had time to gather momentum, but never too late - especially if we get yet another extension !

Padfield

I am with those who want a deal too, I have family who voted Leave who also want a deal.

You know that old adage about when you are used to privilege, equality feels like oppression ?

Well constitutional version might be that when you've got away with things long enough, being bought to book feels like oppression. Because there are other areas of law where successive governments have gotten away with things that should have been stopped by the judiciary. But very few get bought to court.

So the complement to an independent judiciary, is there must be a mechanism or body to take the citizens side in such disputes, rather than relying on the goodwill of private citizens. I know we have a National Council for Civil Liberties, but being frank, I have no idea what they really do. Is it advise on office layout, or theme workspaces with art from up and coming new artists ?

I live beside the 'sleepy hamlet' of Padfield. pop: about 500.

No idea it was going to shoot into a celebrity status!

People can write to their MPs and stuff but what about a public demonstration, A march FOR a deal Could this attract some support from both “sides” do you think?

Go ahead and organise it, and see how much traction you get. I would be more than happy to see moderate Leavers do this; it would be an emphatic demonstration that they weren't all Faragists or Tommy Robinson types.

The checks & safeguards can crank into gear

However, they aren't particularly designed to force a PM to do something - and certainly not to do so within the 12 days we would have, 19-31 October

There are several tactics BJ could try, setting up obstacles to an extension request
They would probably all fail in the end
The issue is that each could take 1-2 days, which could well add up to the 12 he needs to waste

And of course, if he stays in the USA for 19-31 October, I am v doubtful if Parliament or the courts are able to give this power of the PM to someone else during that time, when the existing PM opposes this

That really would be creating new constitutional law

The HoC need to grow up and agree on a replacement for BJ; otherwise the chance of No Deal on 31 October remains high

One reason why there haven't been marches 'For a Deal' is that until Johnson/Cummings became PM, May was trying to get a Deal, so what would the march have been about?

There might be quite a number of moderate Remainers who'd join it, not just moderate Leavers

At least I would, if I weren't working in Germany

Sky say Cummings thinks there are 'loopholes' in the Benn Act. Well that's them lawyers with all their fancy book-larnin told.

Sky also doorsteps Cummings about his claims last night that Brexit was "A walk in the park." Who said that, he asks. You did, last night, and the man of the people scurries for the security of his armoured Range Rover.

Noticeboard firm boss: Primary school slides ‘taken out of context’ and aren’t ‘pro-Boris propaganda’
schoolsweek.co.uk/noticeboard-firm-boss-slides-were-taken-out-of-context-and-arent-pro-boris-propaganda/

Phil Austin, managing director of Anomaly, which produces content for digital noticeboards in schools, said he had received a death threat after slides from a presentation were shared on social media amid claims the content was pro-Brexit.

Austin told Schools Week the slides concerned were from a wider educational presentation about British prime ministers, a presentation he claims also covers anti-Brexit arguments.
[...]
There are also slides on other prime ministers, including Sir John Major. Austin, who would not share the full presentation with this newspaper, said the slides were seen by less than 20 schools. He also told Schools Week he has “never taken a single penny” to promote videos in schools.

The Johnson material comprised three out of nine slides, according to the Guardian article.

On the one hand I want to feel sorry for him.

On the other, why does he not want to say where the slides came from? Why won't he share the whole presentation? If he hasn't taken a penny to show them, has he paid someone else or were they given him for free? Did he even know the content of the slides or were they a package slipped him by... whom?

Don't know what's going on here, and feel it's worth a good ol' dig.

Louise I don’t think you are being fanciful at all, comprise is the only sensible route now I believe & pro deal March would maybe show that not everyone is so entrenched & possibly help stem the tide of the awful use of inflammatory language being so freely used at the moment, but then again I’m an eternal optimist who has always hoped that sense will prevail in the end, I know I’m probably deluded but it helps me cope.

So once the UK is out of the EU, how soon before we pull out of the UN ? Alongside the US ?

My only concern about a pro-deal march is the logistics - would many people bother to travel to London to tel the government to do what it has said it will do* and which is sub-optimal...

I'd certainly sign a petition though.

*obviously its lying

Agree Perigrina pre-Johnson while the government were meaningfully negotiating it wouldn't really have made sense and personally I hadn't even thought of it then (I am SO not a natural protestor lol.) Now though, there is serious doubt that they are meaningfully negotiating and essentially whichever way this shakes out we all have to live in the same country again.

Well my compromise email to my hard Tory MP yesterday has elicited a response which ignored the entire content of my email to say "The Prime Minister is robustly holding to account those people who are cynically frustrating Parliament’s ability to deliver Brexit and, in so doing, denying the choice made by people in 2016" and it's everyone else's fault.

The problem with March for a Deal is that it would be 99% remainers.

All the evidence suggests that the people on the leave side who still feel strongly enough about Brexit to attend a march have been highly radicalised. They certainly won't support May's "surrender" deal which is of course the only one on offer.

Roland Smith (leaver, involved in the leave campaign) said this the other day:

"Checks Leave bubble. It's very 'fired up'. Even 'sensible Leavers' radicalised. "

(He's talking about friends and ex colleagues here).

If May's deal is brought back, it will be remainers who vote it through. How is that going to play to the hardcore?