Boris Johnson has lost his majority in The House of Commons.
Here's @DrPhillipLeeMP going to sit with the Lib Dems. Govt no longer has a working majority pic.twitter.com/Vv9HBvF36s
— Daniel Kraemer (@dcakraemer) September 3, 2019
And this won’t be the last defection today.
Sir Nicholas Soames says he will vote against the government this evening.
It will be w great look for Boris Johnson to expel the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill from the Conservative Party on what is the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. pic.twitter.com/12hinUf9z9
— Charlie Proctor (@MonarchyUK) September 3, 2019
Here’s the live feed from the House of Commons. Michael Gove is at the microphone now spewing his usual bullshit.
Here’s live coverage from Sky News:
Neither the BBC, nor ITV are running live feeds and coverage of what is going on. Or, rather, that can be embedded here.
As always, Carol Cadwaller is on top of this story!
So many have knocked, minimised & ignored. Perhaps cos they haven't understood it? It wasn't a criminal conspiracy; it was several. And it's not a one-off, it's systemic. Our laws don't work. The tech is out of control. And there's been no justice. Only cover-ups, denials, delays
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) September 2, 2019
via @JuliaDavisNews. Full clip here: https://t.co/DvKMspIr1m…
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) September 1, 2019
Peter Jukes gets right to the core of the problem.
It’s been proven beyond doubt that Cummings and Johnson cheated during the EU referendum. They got away with it. Now the government is being run by Vote Leave, the cheating and law breaking will continue apace. Those who downplayed the cheating are also now responsible.
— Peter Jukes (@peterjukes) September 2, 2019
Of course Brexit isn’t the crime, it is the cover up!
If the UK is still in the EU come January
New anti tax evasion laws will start exposing offshore accounts of the mega rich tax avoiding UK elite, people like Rees-mogg, Johnson & Farage
Will also expose where Arron Banks unexplained £8m Brexit funding came from#StopTheCoup
— Cirian75 / Simon #FBPE ? #WorkingClassRemainer (@cirian75) September 3, 2019
And here’s some solid analysis from Lewis Goodall of SkyNews.
This is really quite simple: any democracy where the government refuses to obey the rule of law is no longer a democracy. https://t.co/w5mzVPPxjf
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
When Parliament legislates you cant ignore it. No ifs. No buts. That’s it. It is, as we are so often reminded, sovereign.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
On a side note, if the govt wants to see how ugly things can get when we start picking and choosing which laws we observe, I look forward to seeing their reaction when the Scottish govt decides to hold IndyRef2 and unilaterally declares independence without a legal process.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
And as I’ve written many times in recent weeks, MPs cannot be the executive. Continuing to upend convention to seize control of the Commons and to try and bind govt in a million directions is not especially healthy nor productive. If you don’t like the govt. Change. The. Govt.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
The government is too frit to get a new parliament. The Parliament is too frit to get a new government. It’s a sorry state of affairs and fundamentally it’s that loop which is keeping us parked in this nightmare.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
Here’s a link to my analysis the day after the Brexit vote. An excerpt:
The short course for strategy and policy is really quite quick and simple. To make policy one determines what your ideal objectives are, establish how much risk you are willing to assume to achieve them, and then either decide to attempt to achieve those objectives or a less than ideal, but still perfectly acceptable, but less risky alternative. Once this is done, in order to further minimize that risk and to ensure the maximum likelihood of success, you determine what ways and means you have, what additional ways and means you may need, how to bridge the gap between the two, and then you execute: applying your ways and means to achieve your ends. Finally, personalities matter and relationships matter. Congratulations! You now know more about strategy and policy than any elected or appointed official pushing for the Leave position that I saw on the BBC News coverage of the Brexit vote from 8 PM EDT last night to 3 AM EDT this morning.
It didn’t matter if the official was from the Conservative Party or from the Labor Party or from the UK Independence Party. They knew what the ends they wanted to achieve – leave the EU on terms negotiated to be the most favorable to Britain, but that was it. None of them expressed any real idea of how to achieve this beyond Vote for Leave, Article 50 now or later, return of sovereignty, and a better future for Britain. I don’t mean to make light of what happened or what anyone tuning in witnessed. A number of these ladies and gentlemen were quite articulate, had a clear grasp of how the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty process worked, and in some cases actually were quite aware that the real issues were poor outcomes for average, and often rural/small town/village British people that resulted from the failures of British government and governance, not because of anything specifically involving the EU.
The pro Brexit vote demonstrates the failure of elected and appointed officials who do not have a firm grasp of policy, strategy, and their potential effects – positive and negative. It is quite ironic that a successful referendum campaign partially based on anger at elites, notables, and experts to run things effectively has shown that the elites, notables, and experts running the Vote Leave movement and campaign do indeed not have the foggiest idea of how to run things effectively. Nothing says “I understand and empathize” like a Vote Leave Tory Member of Parliament, who graduated from public school and the Oxbridge system and has been an MP for his entire professional career, explaining to BBC anchors that the average British person is fed up with the failures of the elites and the experts running Britain and that is why the country must leave the EU.
The chaos seen today clearly demonstrates the failure of strategy and policy among the Vote Leave campaign leadership. We can clearly see that they don’t really have any ways and means to achieve their stated end: a negotiated departure from the EU that provides Britain with the best possible terms. Nor do they have any idea what they should be. They have destroyed their relationships with the EU leadership who want the separation done immediately and are in no mood to bargain, let alone allow Britain off the hook easy. And they have no leverage with the EU as a result. Johnson, Gove, Stuart, Farage, and others are now the dog that caught the Vauxhall. Unfortunately they clearly have no idea what to do with it.
And here’s a live shot of Brexit in action:
https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1168791087873441793
Rule Britannia, Britannia rule a bunch of small towns in the middle of England where the population is old, on government assistance, white, and angry.
Open thread!