General Election - December 12th, 2019

[MillionMilesAway]

Down the rabbit hole we go....

In the Brexit committee Michael Gove has just finished answering a series of questions about how Dover would cope with lorry arrivals in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Hilary Benn, the committee chair, did not sound hugely reassured, and he concluded by asking Gove to admit that no one actually knows what will happen in the event of no deal. Gove did not contest this, but replied:

The future is known only to the Almighty.

Benn said unfortunately the Almighty would not be appearing as a witness.

At least Gove knows the blue bits on the map are water.

Gove sometimes is a bit tiny bit weaselly, isn't he?
Most of the rest of the time he's very weaselly.

 

[AlexWilliamsGloves]

I can't keep up!.....

dont misinterpret this...

Sinn Fein wont take their seats in Westminster...they wont form a pact with Labour...this is about beating the DUP in key areas on NI...so that they arent able to give their 10 seats to the Tories. This, if it even happens, is about aligning...or standing down in areas of NI where other pro-remain parties would benefit and defeat the DUP.

Remember we have so(too) many parties over hear....constituencies can have a choice of dup, sinn fein, uup, alliance, greens, sdlp, tuv, pbp, NI conservatives....

 

[Rascal]

And he is very left so you must have fallen off the scale

See he isn't, he is a Social Democrat, I am further to the left, not quite a full blown Communist, but definitely leaning that way.

 

[The perfect fumble]

Knock me down with a feather.....

 

[MillionMilesAway]

I agree, but the question is what if Johnson refuses to request an extension, that would be illegal I'm told, but what are the ramifications of that?

I would be happy to hear others views on this, but surely we'd be in no confidence interim government country? Because one way or another that extension needs to be requested and secured, or we're crashing out October 31st, and if Johnson won't do it someone has to.

I thought the bill was written to say "if the EU offer one". I assume the expectation is that they will, and then either the HoC or PM must agree to it if there is no other deal.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

dont misinterpret this...

Sinn Fein wont take their seats in Westminster...they wont form a pact with Labour...this is about beating the DUP in key areas on NI...so that they arent able to give their 10 seats to the Tories. This, if it even happens, is about aligning...or standing down in areas of NI where other pro-remain parties would benefit and defeat the DUP.

Remember we have so(too) many parties over hear....constituencies can have a choice of dup, sinn fein, uup, alliance, greens, sdlp, tuv, pbp, NI conservatives....

That's how I understood it. Makes sense, I guess.

 

[The perfect fumble]

I thought the bill was written to say "if the EU offer one". I assume the expectation is that they will, and then either the HoC or PM must agree to it if there is no other deal.

But Parliament cannot ask the EU for an extension, it can only instruct the government to do so, what if the government refuses?

 

[MillionMilesAway]

But Parliament cannot ask the EU for an extension, it can only instruct the government to do so, what if the government refuses?

I don't know.

My reading was that the law assumed that the EU could offer one without being requested. Probably out of sympathy for the people, and with the interests of the island of Ireland in mind, to avoid the no deal option being forced on them. I accept that other parts of it may say other things.

 

[Eds]

See he isn't, he is a Social Democrat, I am further to the left, not quite a full blown Communist, but definitely leaning that way.

No, he is very much left wing

 

[inbetween]

I thought the bill was written to say "if the EU offer one". I assume the expectation is that they will, and then either the HoC or PM must agree to it if there is no other deal.

The EU has to agree with member states to offer one first.

We have no idea if this will happen so we could be leaving regardless.

The EU could quite simply refuse extension to pressure us into ratifying the WA or leaving with no deal.

This is the beauty of their process....