As much as I’m laughing about the shenanigans and clownery of Boris Johnson and the parliamentary mess, I’m actually feeling some pangs of envy towards the British system of government at the moment. Of course it’s not perfect, and I doubt most British people are happy with all of this nonsense. But on the other side, Boris Johnson is a racist buffoon and he’s taken hit after hit, loss after loss, and it’s not only hilarious, it’s the way “the system” should work. Elected leaders should hold power to account. Elected leaders should shut down Boris Johnson’s fascistic ideas. Yesterday, the “proroguing” thing happened and Parliament was shut down for a month (or longer), all part of BoJo’s scheme – with the Queen’s approval – to shut down debate and force through a no-deal Brexit. Only Parliament screwed over BoJo one last time before they were suspended:
Britain’s embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered yet another political defeat on Monday as he failed for a second time to convince lawmakers to back his call for an election to solve the Brexit deadlock. Johnson’s bid failed, with 293 Members of Parliament supporting the motion, 46 voting against it and multiple abstentions. The prime minister needed two-thirds of support of the House of Commons, at least 434 votes, for the election to take place.
Johnson blamed opposition lawmakers for delaying “Brexit yet again” and promised that his government would “press on negotiating a deal while preparing to leave without one.”
“No matter how many devices this Parliament invents to tie my hands, I will strive” to get an agreement in Brussels, he said.
Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, described Johnson’s shutdown of Parliament — that began Monday night — as a way to avoid any discussion of that deal. “This government is a disgrace and the way the prime minister operates is a disgrace,” Corbyn said. Longtime House Speaker John Bercow, who earlier announced his decision to step down from the job and has repeatedly urged lawmakers to wrest control of Brexit’s future, told the chamber that there was nothing “normal” about Johnson’s suspension of parliament. Bercow, who belonged to Johnson’s Conservative Party before he was elected Speaker, was met with jeers and repeated interruptions from right-wing MPs. The suspension, he warned, “represents not just in the minds of many colleagues, but to huge numbers of people outside, an act of executive fiat.”
In the last-ditch attempt to save him the embarrassment of asking Brussels for an extension to the process of leaving the European Union, Johnson wanted voters to back his hard-line “do or die” stance on leaving under any circumstance on Oct. 31. But opposition lawmakers didn’t want to agree to a “snap election” unless they could ensure Johnson would not be able to take Britain out of the E.U. without a deal — which they say will have devastating consequences for the U.K.
So…after BoJo purged disloyal Tories from the party last week, his majority has obviously gone down. But even remaining Tory MPs are voting against him and voting against his schemes. And instead of allowing BoJo to get a new election, Corbyn is refusing to give BoJo what he wants until the Brexit mess is worked out. Is that it? BoJo screwed himself into a corner and now Labour and Tory MPs are relatively united in making him suffer. It’s beautiful.
I do have to ask this of our British Celebitches: is there any long-standing resentment towards the Queen for giving BoJo the greenlight to prorogue? Because there should be – she could have chosen a different path. She did not. She chose to go all-in with BoJo. So this mess should be blowing back in her face too.
"This is not a standard or normal porogation" – Commons Speaker John Bercow says the suspension of parliament is "an act of executive fiat".
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— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 10, 2019
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Yeah, say what you want about them, but British government keeps check on the leader. The American either has no balls anymore or all in with its racist president.
they have far less money in their politics, vastly shorter campaigning cycles, less insane lobbying. and lo and behold, they are able to find their balls a lot better and put country over party.
They also don’t have an electoral college, gerrymandering and voter supression. We essentially live under minority rule. Our whole system is trash.
“We essentially live under minority rule. Our whole system is trash.” <— This right here.
I am not hopeful for 2020. I still think it could go either way. It's not that just Repubs are scum who kowtow to a ridiculous buffoon, it's also that Dems are so obsessed with "playing nice" that they can't see that playing nice is a useless strategy. And with the exception of the 1%, we ALL pay for their duplicity.
The majority of the Republicans running for re-election are all in with racist Trump because all they are interested in is getting re-elected and they cannot do as such without Trump’s base of deplorables. Many Republicans who see the handwriting on the wall (especially in the House of Representatives) are not standing for re-election and/or have left the party.
When the commentator, journalist and staunch conservative George Will leaves the Repube party to become an independent, there should be no doubt that the Republican party basically represents Chump and not the other way around.
It’s been a real civics lesson in checks & balances, a concept the U.S. seems to have abandoned.
Good, he looks lacerated. Brits are genius at getting rid of unwanted leaders. We should have learned from their book and unceremoniously chucked out our moron.
How are we going “chuck out our moron” if the Senate will not convict the orange turd.
The 2020 ballot box is the only way.
A recent episode of the excellent Crooked Media foreign policy podcast “Pod Save the World” (sister podcast to my favorite, “Pod Save America”) dealt extensively with Boris Johnson’s Brexit shenanigans. I highly recommend both the episode and the pod itself, as Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhoades are extremely knowledgeable and articulate on world current affairs AND are both former members of the Obama White House, which, in my mind, is a lot to recommend them. The Pod Save America fellas, too (Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor again, and my favorite, Dan Pfieffer).
That was a great episode.
It’s funny because my BF doesn’t care for PSA at all but he’s obsessed with PSTW so I listen to PSA on my own but we listen to PSTW together, usually when we’re in the car (we do a lot of weekend road trips). I love the insight that Tommy and Ben provide and it’s a great introduction to foreign policy, which is a subject that most Americans don’t care enough about, sadly.
My hubs dislikes PSA/loves PSTW as well. Are they long lost twins? I think the work that those guys at Crooked Media are doing is incredibly invaluable. They are obviously engaging in left-side-of-the-aisle punditry, but they give such sobering views on policy, court issues, and the consequences of Republican ratf*ckery. I feel everyone should listen to it to stay fired up within the resistance.
Did the queen have a choice though? She has basically no power; she exists as a very expensive rubber stamp.
The Queen can not be seen to be making political decisions, whether she agrees with the prime minister or not. If she did go against Bojo, she would no longer be seen as neutral. So it is the prime minister’s fault for putting her in an awkward situation and she is likely to have been furious about being brought into the conversation – as she is powerless to take sides. This hasn’t been a problem in the last few decades as the elected governments haven’t been extreme far left/ far right candidates until recently.
When boho came to her, she could have told him she would think about it and she would let him know when she’d made a decision, and then consulted with her advisors. That would have at least bought some time. But she didn’t, just went all
In with him. That tells you something.
The Queen can’t actually think for herself on these matters given the state of the monarchy when these laws came into place. She is meant to take the advice of the PM/Cabinet. Basically Bojo put all this on an old woman knowing she can’t refuse.
I don’t think there is any resentment towards the queen- if she had gone against the advice of the prime minister that would actually have caused a huge constitutional crisis.
The queen doesn’t have a choice in these things anymore her role is entirely ceremonial.
Although it’s the Queen’s parliament and supposedly the Prime Minister operates by her leisure, the Queen is a figure head, and supposedly what people like about the queen is that she’s neutral.
The issue isn’t the Queen’s judgement at the minute, she does what her special advisers tell her to do. The main issue is that lawyers Cheney, Grieve and Starmer have used a Humble Address to force the government to release various information (Yellow Hammer) about what no deal means. There’s also a strong suspicion that Johnson and Rees Mogg lied to the Queen to get her permission to prorogue Parliament.
I loved the fact that the soonest one can have an early general election is in November. So Johnson and Cummings can twist in the wind. Johnson says he won’t obey Parliament re: extension, so I do hope that he goes to jail. BUT – I can see him actually coming back with a deal – the original deal that the EU offered two years ago, in terms of dropping the border in the middle of the Irish sea. In order to get Brexit, Britain will have to give up Northern Ireland. I can see Johnson doing that, and that’s why the DUP are going to Westminster post haste. This is happening with the Conservative and Unionist Party. The DUP are going to have a sh*t fit.
You’d have a heart of stone not to laugh.
If he wins the next election though, things will really go to shit – and yes, people are that stupid and will still vote for his Tories. Polling is all over the place at the moment.
He will get in but he will have to form a coalition with the Brexit party (who are predicted to do well). Its not roses for Labour as they are also expected to get hammered and if they want to continue to be the opposition party then they are going to have to form a coalition as well (SNP and/or Greens) – which is unlikely to happen as if they want the SNP to support them they will have to sell Scotland out by bribing them with a 2nd Indy ref if they got into power. The Lib Dems have so far ruled out a coalition with them.
Labour need to get rid of Corbyn and McDonnell, who have pretty much outed themselves as desperate liars and incompetent old fools. Did you hear that over the weekend McDonnell was saying that if he and Corbyn got into No. 10 they’d resurrect May’s deal and ask the EU to make a few changes to it before they’d ‘accept’ it. You know the deal they worked hard to vote down 3 times.
Yeah, I don’t know why Labour hasn’t replaced Corbyn yet – they really need someone with more carisma. But the different fractions of the party probably can’t agree. The can’t agree on a clear line regarding Brexit either.
I don’t get the sudden appeal of the May deal either – a bird in the hand, I guess.
Agree on the SNP deal, both, Tories and Labour, will have to seek packts with other parties, but imho another referendum in Scotland is just a matter of time, especially if Brexit puts the economy into the gutter. But I am really worried about NI and appalled by how we are treated in all these discussions. And the DUP can go fuck themselves.
@Digital Unicorn – I think they are talking about May’s deal that was going to be presented to parliament – but this was the one with the Kinnock amendment. That was the one with the customs union and such. But FOM is important to me, tbh, I want stay on the continent, not return to Ol’ Blighty.
But yeah, I wish Corbyn and McDonnell would piss off, and Starmer or Cooper as the head of the party, tbh.
@Duchess – Ah that’s it, couldn’t remember the amendments off the top of my head. The thing is FOM is the reason MANY MANY people voted to leave, any deal with it in it will be met with by resistance from Brexiters. FOM is important for everyone, this is a country that needs immigrants (skilled or otherwise). Leavers sadly can’t see past what Fishface and the Fail tell them.
Even if Labour got voted into oblivion in this upcoming election the party power players won’t get rid of him – he’s their stooge and his cultists would riot at the thought of their dear leader being booted out. Labour is not a socialist party, its a commie party pretending to be socialist. Singing commie songs about red flags on the floor of the Commons should be enough to show people that.
I’ve read some of McDonnell’s stuff. He really sounds like a communist from Soviet Russia. Also said in an interview that Labour would arrest politicians in the previous government and then figure out the crimes.
The Labour party is rampant with anti-semitism. People are quitting it left, right and centre. British Jews are genuinely concerned about it. It isn’t fake news, it is a fact, people know, people are resigning from Labour because of it. But hey, voting Tory is the bad choice. I don’t vote for either but if I had a choice it wouldn’t be for blatant supporters of anti-semitism.
Here’s what would make me furious if I was a Brit:
This parliament is totally dysfunctional right now. Why won’t they hold elections before the 10/31 deadline? It would be in effect a 2nd referendum. I think is that the parties, except the Tories & Brexit are terrified that they that they will lose their phony baloney jobs. If they can stretch it past the deadline the Tories will be demoralized, they hope, and Red Cobryn will get into office.
@UptheDownStaircase – long story short, Parliament couldn’t trust Boris Johnson to keep his promise of a date. So all the opposition parties have said that they’d defang the date, which would force Johnson to work towards a deal (because he’s gunning for a no deal to make his friends money). I think (hope) that we’ll have a hung parliament, tbh. I want the parliament to be hung into infinity until we get rid of the dreaded first past the post. Proportional Representation for the win.
How I understood it is that the Queen’s role in the prorogation is a traditional formality only. The prorogation has been ruled a political issue, rather than a legal one. The tradition is that she ‘takes the advice’ of the Prime Minister on political issues, so for her to reject the advice of the PM or be seen to have an opinion would have riled up pro- and anti-royals alike. One side would see it as going against tradition, the other would see it as her meddling in politics. And it would have had no impact, Boris would have been free to go ahead with it anyway.
It’s considered bad form on BJ’s part to publicly involve her in such a controversial situation.
Parliament is frequently prorogued. Parliament does not normally meet at this time of year because they all go off to their political conferences. It isn’t out of the ordinary at all but people are choosing to portray it as such because of how it is timed.
Corbyn doesn’t want an election because he knows he will lose power. His party, under his leadership, is also disgusting and anti-semitic but no one mentions that for some reason, it’s an inconvenient truth.
The people wanted Brexit, the majority voted for it. If you count the people who voted for it, plus the people who didn’t care to vote, which is a tacit acceptance of whatever the outcome is, that is a huge majority accepting the outcome of the referendum.
Why are people complaining about losing 4/5 days of Parliament now when they have had 3 years to debate this damn situation and they have all just enjoyed a long summer break when they could’ve been working to sort it out instead.
Trying to block the will of the people following a referendum is anti-democratic. Our MPs are not reflecting the votes of their constituents – there are places that voted for Brexit and their elected representative is going for Remain. So those people have no representation and now no way to gain representation because they are being denied an election. The election is being denied because the politicians who have let down their own electorate, know they will be out of jobs if they allow an election. How is that fair or democratic? If you don’t believe in what you told the voters, fine, but quit and become an independent, don’t abuse the power people trusted you with.
Not at all. Most remainers didn’t bother to vote because they were sure of the outcome. Much like the voting stateside in 2016. With similarly tragic results. The rest of this garbage (anti-democratic, etc) I’m too tired to address, but everyone sees through it here so I don’t know why you bother.
And the orange idiot in the White House is no doubt thinking he has the authority to disband congress.