Westminstenders: Super Saturday

[RedToothBrush]

Parliament sits on a Saturday for the first time since the Falklands.

A deal has been reached with the EU. Its utterly shite and worse for the UK than May's deal. It even leaves no deal as an option after transition.

The DUP don't like it. They got predictably shafted.

Tomorrow is a debate and vote on the deal. Amendments are key, in particular the Letwin amendment which seeks to close a loophole in the Benn Act and stop the Deal being adopted tomorrow, instead forcing the ultimate decision over the deal to a later date and forcing an extension.

Which the EU may or may not agree to.

There is also talk of forcing another ref via amendments but this, unlike the Letwin amendment is unlikely to pass.

The vote tomorrow looks to be very tight. The Letwin amendment passes looks likely to make Johnson fail to have the numbers. However there is talk that enough Labour MPs have decided to back the deal.

There is also a big anti Brexit march in London tomorrow (which runs the risk of having problems with the Extinction Rebellion ban). Good luck to everyone going tomorrow.

See you on the other side (which might now be on this thread!!)

"the Benn Act has to be completed by midnight UK time not EU time because its a UK required law not under EU jurisdiction. "

red Many thanks for this.
It has been reported so often as 11 pm that I didn't check the original source

David Trimble won the Nobel Peace Prize and he doesn't know anything about the GFA FFS

I imagine Tusk receiving the letter:

"Ugh, it's covered with BJ's bogeys !"

< I bet Jo Maugham forgot to make a court action to prevent that ! >

Suffice it to say that, while David Trimble might (optimistically) say he doesn't see it as being against the spirit of the GFA or imply he doesn't think it will affect the truce, he does not, alas, speak for all

Rather disingenuous as the point is not really whether it is against the spirit of the GFA but against the spirit of the Union from the Loyalist perspective.

I'm not surprised that posters like @Voila212 don't know Labour policy. It's not been well presented, and it's not been given the air time that the Tory policy has had, for obvious reasons. There's also been a bias in the media against Corbyn generally, which I believe has led to Labour policy being misrepresented and dismissed as too confusing.

It's important enough that I think I'll say it again.

Just who has got control over our communications in Britain? They're holding us hostage. Her Majesty's Opposition not being able to get a clear statement out in our media is a major major problem. Where's the bloody BBC at least??

Macron has the authority to apply the French veto

True but he's not going to go against the others now - they've stayed solid all this time, why fall apart so close to a possible GE or 2nd ref?

Thank you mship, I'm Irish so had no interest in the UK parliament until brexit. Now I've become very interested, I've read the forums on here and
check all newsites and watched the English news. In all that time I've never read or heard what Labour wanted. Cornyn come across as very vague. I know where lib dems, the DUP,the Snp and even the brexi t party stand but not Labour. I'm astounded on how Cornyn is portrayed on here and in the press. Thanks to Darks link i now have a clearer picture but can't fathom why he doesn't speak up more about what his party would do if in power.

derxa Trimble knows it, all right
but
tbh, when he received the Nobel Peace prize, many people were wincing, but accepted it because of the politics at the time.

His history is very dubious to say the least;
he associated with some very dangerous people and did some disgraceful things before he became respectable

imo, he has moved from being a sectarian Unionist to being a sectarian Tory

Where's the bloody BBC at least?? The BBC have had it in for Corbyn since the first moment he was elected leader.

Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize too once. Not every decision is a good one in relation to that award!

Arse I agree Macron will probably fall in line with the others,
but before this there were reports of some other countries who were saying much the same thing

So, it is very probable, but not certain, that the EU would grant an extension

And they may make us sweat until 28 October or later, until they reply

Journalism needs to be recognised as a proper profession again with a decent professional organisation with teeth. My area is information, not media, and we've been more or less wiped out. Journalism went years before us. Education is going.

so, I'm really confused. there was only the one vote, right?

Sky news just reported that Reuters said BoJo would send a letter asking for an extension.

@Voila212 I think this is a very good summary of the situation re Labour...

Totally agree with your points re Trimble , Tatiana and BigChoc.

Dark and MShip, you are right. Both of you.

Viola, I'm sorry. I thought you were just having a go at Labour's position. It was discussed here at length and I just responded to your post negatively. I shouldn't have - and I'm sorry I didn't treat you with the open-hearted respect I should have afforded you. That was a failing on my part.

And I'm also sorry if my reply wasn't enlightening. I hoped it was communicative. It wasn't. I'm glad Dark was more helpful. And I guess we were both lucky she wasn't as mean-spirited as I was. 💐

Yeah and I’ve been wishing too. But it hasn’t.

BigChoc I don't doubt many (all!) of the 27 would love to tell the uk to jump off that cliff but ultimately it's about what is best for them and that wouldn't be as useful as giving us that bit longer to get the deal through or arrange the GE/PV

True but he's not going to go against the others now - they've stayed solid all this time, why fall apart so close to a possible GE or 2nd ref?

You say that.

But Macron is also trying to asset his authority with the EU atm.

This week he effectively ruined years of work by vetoing progression of Albania and Northern Macedonia accension into the EU... This went against other EU nations. And it may have toppled the North Macedonian PM who had promised reform as a result

Have a good read of Jasmin Mujanovic's twitter feed for the last 24 - 48 hrs (@jasminmuj) for more on this side story.

There's a lot to unpack in what he observes and the potential long term implications of what has happened.

Macron's priority is domestic politics and getting reelected...

Yes, something very corrosive has happened to journalism, Dark.

Brexit deal: Northern Ireland loyalist groups consider response to PM's 'awful betrayal'

The issue is that instead of a "backstop," this WA has a "frontstop" and Nationalists have been given power to keep NI in that permanently.
That has been a major change in the perception of power, Unionists vs Nationalists

https://news.sky.com/story/an-awful-betrayal-why-the-dup-rejects-the-pms-new-brexit-deal-11839001

With claims of "sell-out" and "betrayal" - they are not mincing their words in the unionist heartlands of Belfast.
...
"Civil disobedience on a large scale has been discussed, as well as a large rally.
It is anticipated a public meeting will be called next week, inviting all loyalists to attend to make plans to resist Boris Johnson's deal."

Blinking heck did I hear right he has until 11pm tonight. This stuff is still crazy town.

No until midnight.

Not 11pm

tedchocolate Yes. Just Letwin. Vote on Johnson's deal scheduled for Monday, I think.

Well, we said it last night, BigChoc, but that is ^incredibly* worrying.