Westministenders: Conference Cult

[RedToothBrush]

Is it over yet?

The Tory Party Conference is in full swing in the Manchester Rain, and is proving to be its usual fun.

Johnson is caught up in all sorts of allegations of abuses of power - the non-declaration of his "friendship" to a busty blonde whom was getting a large tax payer grant, and then there the Odey question after his sister said he was under the control of the Hedge Funders.

And thats before we talk about the 40 hospitals, his provocative language and how many times he can say the word surrender.

There is lots of distancing from Lyton Crosby. And accusations that Johnson has gone 'rogue' only listening to the wisdom of Cummings and Symonds.

The Queen apparently has asked for advice as to under what circumstance she can dismiss a PM.

AND NO ONE IS EVEN TALKING ABOUT A DEAL.

I wonder where they tested them

www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/02/ai_news_bot/

As if the internet isn’t already a complicated cesspool full of trolls, AI engineers have gone one step further to build a machine learning model that can generate fake comments for news articles.

(contd)

@TheElementsSong at 09:27 - I agree with you wholeheartedly!

700 people have died this year who were living on the streets............
I would like to see huge electronic boards in every city, town, village with the number of deaths associated with a no deal brexit after 1st November. What figure of deaths will wake up this country? 100, 1000, 1 million more? The truth is no one would take any notice unless it was one of their own. The reaction would be exactly the same as I have got posting the number of deaths of homeless people.

We looked at the metric martyrs in first year law school. At the time I was quite surprised that it was the UK government pushing for metrification not the EU. The EU said the UK could keep their exemption but the UK, who had been trying and failing to get everyone to go metric for years, said thanks but no thanks. It was the perfect opportunity to push it through and pin the blame on someone else.

No one under the age of 53 has used anything other than metric at school.

At the time I was quite surprised that it was the UK government pushing for metrification not the EU

It almost happened in the 1890s ...

A billboard displaying the number of homeless and the number of homeless deaths is a good idea Sos.

How the actual fuck can BJ go back to the Queen and ask to prorogue again? Does the SC judgement mean, literally, nothing?

Britain Elects
@britainelects
·
8m
Westminster voting intention:

CON: 34% (+1)
LDEM: 23% (+2)
LAB: 21% (-1)
BREX: 12% (-1)
GRN: 5% (-)

via
@YouGov

Chgs. w/ 27 Sep

Robert Peston
@Peston
·
8m
Initial reaction from EU capitals is they can't accept what they understand to be
@BorisJohnson
's Brexit offer. But what is not clear is whether offer is a basis for negotiations. Or whether we go straight from PM's conference speech to no-deal prep. That is the crucial question

I think that really is the question now. Does the EU just say 'absolutely not' and thats the end of it? Or is there any room for negotiation? I fully accept it's a ludicrous proposal from us really, so if that's it, what happens about enforcing the Benn act?

My 'somebody, do something!' plea from yesterday still stands!

How the actual fuck can BJ go back to the Queen and ask to prorogue again? Does the SC judgement mean, literally, nothing?

All SCOTUK said was that because prorogation effectively stops parliament, it can't be used willy-nilly. So a "regular" prorogation is just business as usual.

If Boris decides he wants an unusual prorogation, well, that's a different matter. However, given the SCOTUK ruling, he might be advised differently in future than previously.

Of course he could roll the dice, and try and prorogue anyway ... a lot would hinge on whether SCOTUK viewed it as a front for (let's say) trying to avoid complying with the Benn act. Which is something Dominic Grieve suggested won't fly for a second.

To be fair, the Supreme Court didn't say that he could never prorogue (God, why am I even half defending Smug and BJ ?!). A couple of days for the Queen's Speech would be lawful but the excessive length of time that he tried to do it last time and the inferences as to the reasons was what was unlawful.

Thanks DG and pretty. The nerve of it. Someone stop him

sos Good luck to your DGD 🤛🏼

sos A billboard with the number of deaths of the homeless,
maybe next to the number who died because their benefits were cut

Whether it is a basis for negotiations ?

• It is far worse than May's initial cake demands, which Juncker described as not even being on this planet

• Cummings - who tells BJ what to do - ruled out further negotiations, hence all the headlines "take it or leave it"

TokyoSushi

CON: 34% (+1)
LDEM: 23% (+2)
LAB: 21% (-1)
BREX: 12% (-1)
GRN: 5% (-)

What beautiful numbers! Looks like both Boris and Jo Swinson are quite a bit better at this politics thing that one might be given to expect from MN/Twitter. Labour in 3rd, and 13 points behind? I know it’s annoying when Christmas begins in October, but for once I’m not complaining...

Britain Elects
@britainelects
·
17m
Most recent preference for Prime Minister:

B. Johnson: 27% (-2)
J. Corbyn: 16% (+3)
J. Swinson: 14% (-)
N. Farage: 8% (-1)

via
@OpiniumResearch

Chgs. w/ 20 Sep

So the upshot is that I admit would prefer somebody else without the baggage, to lead a GNU. But because my hair is on fire, yes I would accept Corbyn with a heavy heart, because frankly I'd accept a fucking courgette at this stage.

And that could well be what happens.... But we’re not quite at the stage for that. Swinson and others are right not to dance obediently to JCs tune. If they are still squabbling come 19th October as BJ defiantly flouts the Benn Act, my view will change.

JC risks a lose-lose-lose though. Either no GNU is agreed and we crash out, and he is blamed alongside JS and assorted Tory/Labour rebels....

Or JS and others back down “in the national interest” as JC is castigated for persisting in putting party above nation by insanely allowing No deal to have occurred if he hadn’t have gotten his way.

Or JC backs down earlier from his insistence on being PM and looks weak.

Very bad tactics from JC all round, but that’s what we’ve come to expect!

Yep, I don't care if they exhume one of the poor bloody corgis to be PM

How about John Lithgow? He was awesome as Winston Churchill in The Crown!

Corbyn - or more likely Milne - still fancies the chances of Labour sweeping to power in a landslide the GE a couple of years after No Deal
and staying there for a generation

Could happen,
or No Deal keeps the authoritarian right in power,
or we have a succession of hung Parliaments
or ...... ?

It's been a while since the last wealthy country jumped off a cliff with its eyes closed - Argentina - hence difficult to predict

Very bad tactics from JC all round, but that’s what we’ve come to expect!

No Deal will be down to the Tories and to a lesser but not insignificant part down to the LibDems, he's currently the only party leader offering to not ignore either side of the referendum result, Swinson needs to remember that her party is not even the 3rd largest party in the HOC and as a party offering revoke they dont seem to be that concerned about No Deal, our hair is on fire and the LibDems are complaigning about the colour of the ambulance they want a blue one not a red one, Swinson more Tory than some Tories

Any journalist worth their salt shouldn't be parroting the press release soundbite of "Get Brexit Done" but should be saying "Get Brexit Started".

Because that's the truth of it. The issues START when we leave, and we haven't even taken advantage of the head-start a leaving deal would have given us.

It's actively misleading the public to refer to crash-out date as Brexit being over and done with. It has a false appeal to those who want to STOP thinking about Brexit. In reality, for most people that's when they'll be forced to START thinking about it.

I've always liked John Lithgow. But he does tend to play villains. The last thing we need is Lord Farquahd or the uncle form Santa Claus the movie running the shop.

So the queen's speech is his next bid for an election - right? If they don't pass the speech then that's similar to a VoNC. Which means they either have to have sorted a GNU by the QS or vote the QS through - otherwise we crash out.