Westminstenders: Extension or No Extension

[RedToothBrush]

Johnson has sent a letter he said he never would asking for an extension.

We now wait to see what the EU come back with.

It's likely to be a technical extension. At best.

France are really not happy with the idea of an extension and Macron is flexing his muscles with the EU at the moment. He has been prepared to upset all the other EU countries as he proved with blocking progress on accession to the EU for Northern Macedonia and Albania this week. Macron is fighting his own domestic battles.

It looks as if Johnson now has a majority for a deal. What that deal will ultimately look like will be dictated by the Withdrawal Agreement Bill which sets out implementation of the Withdrawal Act.

However, with the DUP firmly offside the chances of a vote of no confidence go up. As do the chances of an election.

And its also worth pointing out that whilst the WAB is legally binding if we have an election and Johnson gets a majority, then there can always be changes made to domestic law. (implementation of the WA rather than the agreement principles of the WA agreed with the EU).

Thus any 'assurances' over workers rights and regulatory standards are only as good as long as this parliament...

Yep.
He needs to just go.
Labour are poisonous whilst he is leader (no, I don't believe all the crap published about him but there are vast numbers of the uk electorate who will NOT vote for labour whilst he is leader. Any labour supporter knows this. He has become labour's achilles heel. Maybe the oenny is dropping for some. Too little, too late)

Brexit could be such a disaster for small businesses in NI

I hope their constituents kick out the DUP on their corrupt, incompetent arses at the next GE,
for supporting Brexit and the hard right oligarchs & US Biz behind it

Jeremy Corbyn was in Liverpool (remain city) on Saturday night where he got a great reception

We're not at the stage where he drops his pants and shits in the middle of the chamber

cat now I'm imagining how the Express would front page that as a massive triumph for Johnson and that opposition MPs complaining was because they were traitors to the country.

Any normal Labour leader would have campaigned harder and more effectively during the ref, which would have been enough to swing a few % the other way
and hence avoid any of the clusterfuck even starting

Then there were the crucial few months after the ref, when he could have advocated cross-party talks and a v soft Brexit,
instead of immediately demanding that A50 be invoked.

Then the 3 years of a near political vaccum, which the hard right / populists filled

this is why govt didn’t want to get into the detail until a MV had passed

I don’t see how anything can be passed without anyone seeing the detail!

Corbyn blamed for Brexit? People still want to leave 3 years later. What have the Lib Dems, major, Blair et al achieved?

I, for one thing, am highly sceptical about the stories of Corbyn's ill health but Labour need to deal with reality. It's great to have ideologies but at some point it's probably best to be able to know how to make them a reality of you're a serious political party.

See also the ERG trying for their unicorn Brexit.

Absolutely bcf
It's what he hasn't done, not what he hasdone!

People still want to leave 3 years later despite the fact that the main opposition party is remain. Which makes me think Corbyn hasn't done a good enough job promoting remain

Where's Jeremy Corbyn?He was in Liverpool campaigning

Interesting decision. Liverpool is die hard Labour. No danger of losing seats there so not sure what he'd be campaigning for. It's the definition of preaching to the converted. As a pp mentioned it is also Remain, but Corbyn wasn't going to be given a hard time there.

Labour voting areas are still split. Why haven't the Lib Dems cleaned up? Or Change UK? Plenty of prominent figures have campaigned for remain it's made very little difference.

Corbyn supporters are accused of being part of a cult yet it's the centrists that expect him to be the messiah, waving his wand and making the bad brexit go away

Latest from Stormont for those asking

JustAnother
I was in Parliament Square listening to the chants, watching this on the screen

If Corbyn had wanted to work with both sides, he could have walked out into the Square - as McDonnell did

but he does not want to compromise on anything
which is breaking the country

Agree with BCF completely.

We don't discuss Labour much on these threads - mostly because they have been quite silent.

That's extraordinary: they are the main Opposition. Any opposition to Brexit needs Labour.

There's no getting around that.

Brexit is the single biggest issue facing the UK - yet, bizarrely, the Labour message until very recently was that Brexit was a distraction from austerity.

Which was ... wrong-headed to put it kindly.

Anyway, as I started by saying - we tend to ignore Labour a bit - and we shouldn't. For good or ill, they are needed in any calculation of opposing Brexit.

As I said up-thread, Lisa Nandy has signalled she will vote with the government.

Sadly, that matters.

She was Corbyn's heir-apparent - still might be, FGS, despite intending to vote with this Far Right government.

It suggests that the whipping operation has broken.

It suggests a crumbling of the United opposition to this deal at the head of the Labour Party.

This is not good.

Corbyn is a harmless herbivore. It's the evil bastards pulling the strings behind him that spook people with their racism and their Stalinism in process if not actually in content.

What happens if Boris does not get his deal through? Even with an extension?

So you mean after the PV March - which he would've had to go past to get to Liverpool

The country is split, parliament is split. That's representative democracy.id suggest MPs in leave voting areas are now worried about pissing their constituents off and will vote a deal through just to say it's done. Good luck going somewhere like Wigan and convincing brexiteers that leaving is wrong. It hasn't worked for 3 years.

Perhaps the Lib Dems would be doing better if they hadn't propped up the Tories and austerity for 5 years. Labour voters and former Lib Dem voters remember. Corbyn does well in this respect because he is anti austerity. We are partly at this point because of what happened between 2010-15

I don't expect Corbyn to be the messiah. I just expect him to try a bit harder. And if that's too much for him, I think he should resign.

BBC news making a point about the EU timetable over the deal.

Due to the timetable in Westminster the EU can't ratify it this week.

That means either an extraordinary meeting next week. Or they themselves will need a technical extension.

So had the 'weak' and 'ineffectual' Corbyn campaigned for Remain, Remain would have won?

And we talk about Brexiters being able to hold contradictory viewpoints

What happening with Stormant

At a guess that maybe BJ bribe offer urgent recall to sit today

Ben Bradshaw on BBC news channel made me laugh (wryly). Interviewer asked him why Bercow shouldn’t allow MV “since it hasn’t yet been out to parliament”.
Ben summed up what Red had been explaining and then added words to effect of “and we’ve been trying to explain this since Saturday - the poor reporting isn’t helping!”

'Let's have news without Brexit, and let's just get Brexit done' - as though we just leave and that's it, ta da sorted! What do people think happens then? Our relations with our nearest georgraphical neighbours and biggest trading markets just magically sort themselves out? We instantly revert back to the country we were before we joined the common market? If Brexit happens on Oct 31, however it happens, there will still be years and years of stuff to deal with. It will be ongoing news forever. Just like Europe and its machinations have been news that have affected us for decades. Nay centuries.
Boris or Corbyn. How in hell's name can anyone support either of them? If there's a GE I'm jiggered if I know what to do, but I sure as hell don't want either.