What an amazing day, yesterday! Rumours started to fly from late morning that Johnson could – might – would ask Parliament for a vote to hold a GE. When the Leader of the House rose for his customary ‘must-watch’ performance at lunchtime to announce the business for next week, that announcement was however not forthcoming.
Of course I watched – it’s now general consensus that Business Statements are the best ‘events’ to see Parliament in action, even better than PMQs. They have become exemplary of how a parliamentary session should be conducted by all sides and is unmissable. There’s wit, repartee, convivial laughter on both sides and in spite of the usual bipartisanship it’s very civilised. Even the Speaker enjoys it.
Eager watchers were dissecting JRM’s every word to get a hint of what might happen on Halloween. The general impression was that we could be out with No Deal since the Bill is ‘in Limbo’ and wouldn’t be debated as the business plan for next week made clear. Questioned, JRM answered with a poetic ditty. Since you ask – he was referring to ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’. You can watch that clip here.
With nothing forthcoming parliamentary business trundled on to the debate of the Queen’s Speech, to be voted on later that afternoon. The MSM correspondents sought the security of Twitter to blast forth their assessments based on rumours they had heard, trying to whip themselves and their readers into a frenzy by cataloguing who all went in and out of No 10, and what sort of faces they made.
By mid-afternoon it had become obvious that something momentous would be happening. Thus, while voting for the Queen’s speech was underway, watchers flocked to the Parliament TV channel. (The government won that vote with 310 Ayes to 294 Noes, btw.)
And then the moment arrived. It wasn’t Johnson making the announcement. Instead, JRM rose for his business statement. He said that a debate would be held on Monday, preceding the already tabled debate, on a Motion to call for a GE, the date having been set for the 12th of December.
Quentin Letts in the paywalled Times describes the scene in his inimitable way:
“Amid the throng stood Boris Johnson, not in his place on the front bench but standing behind the Speaker’s chair, merely another legislator among others. It was Mr Rees-Mogg’s moment and as he stood there at the dispatch box, surrounded by beady eyes, looking little more than a sprig of willow in a double-breasted suit. Yet in that fogeyish frame, there lurks a performance artiste. He is a most understated show-off.” (link, paywalled)
While the Tories were hugely supportive Labour was in total disarray. So was the SNP who has been hollering for a GE at every occasion but now regards having to vote for one as a dastardly trick by Johnson. Here is a description of Labour’s dithering dilemma:
“The Labour leader on Thursday night said he would only back a poll if “no deal has been taken off the table” but refused to say whether Brussels granting a delay until Jan 31 would satisfy his demands. He also declined to say whether Labour would back the Prime Minister’s motion, due to be voted on Monday, which would see an election held on Dec 12. However, just minutes beforehand, it emerged that Labour MPs had received an email from the party’s whips office ordering them to abstain, meaning Mr Johnson’s request is likely to be rejected. […] It means Labour will have turned down the opportunity to go back to the country three times in two months, despite Mr Corbyn’s repeated assertions that forcing an election is his number one priority.” (paywalled link)
The government has presented the Remain Harlots with a choice which, no matter how they decide, will be hugely detrimental to them. It’s a backdrop to the theme on which the government will run their campaign: People versus Parliament:
“Faced with a Parliament that has, in principle, backed his [Johnson’s] deal but supposedly wants more time to consider its details, he has called their bluff. By offering Parliament more time to consider his deal, but on the condition that they vote for an election on December 12 as a backstop, Mr Johnson is trying to enjoy the best of both worlds.” (paywalled link)
Awkward, that! It’ll be even worse should the hint from this ‘source’ turn out to be correct:
“But as Mr Corbyn refused to commit, Downing Street threatened to stage daily Commons votes on a snap election until he concedes, saying it would not let him ‘hold the country hostage’. A No 10 source said the Government would effectively go on strike by pulling all legislation, including the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, and instead ‘campaign at every stage and at every opportunity for a General Election’. “ (link)
That threat – and it is one – was emphasised by another ‘source’ in No 10:
“Mr Johnson has threatened to effectively mothball Parliament if Monday’s vote falls. A No 10 source said the Government would do the “bare minimum” in terms of legislation if it lost and “focus everything on securing an election. We will ask the question if Parliament refuses to allow Brexit and refuses to allow an election then what is the point of Parliament?” (paywalled link)
It’s blackmail alright, as Mr Grieve wailed (link): they are being forced to actually make a decision, with the consequences of that decision being spelled out for all to see! There’s another millstone hanging above the heads of the Remain Harlots: the EU. EU leaders were to decide today if they were going to grant an extension and for how long. Apparently they are now going to wait for the outcome of that vote on Monday:
“The prime minister’s announcement of an election vote on Monday was initially seen in Brussels as removing French objections to the delay. After Labour failed to back the plan for an election on December 12, however, France moved to block any extension decision today. […] Donald Tusk will explain the problem to EU ambassadors today and is expected to wait until the situation in London is clear next week, which could push Britain to within two days of a no-deal Brexit.” (link, paywalled)
Awkward, this – for Mr Corbyn and the other Remainers. He and they are insisting on an extension and that a No Deal must be ‘off the table’ before they’ll agree to a GE. Now they must vote before the EU will help them out … apologies for secretly gloating …!
Moreover, if they do vote for a GE, meaning that Parliament business will come to a halt for at least five weeks before ‘that’ date, the WAIB will be off the table should it not have got onto the statute books by then. You can be certain that Johnson, Cummings and JRM are fully aware of this. Awkward, that, for the Remain Harlots.
Furthermore, the Leave date is set in Law, ours and the EU’s, as has been made clear again and again during the last week’s debates. It can only be changed by a statutory instrument, i.e. a Law, no matter what the EU says. Remainers might try over the weekend to prepare such Law and to get it onto the statute books before Halloween. After all, didn’t they push the Benn Bill through within three days? I doubt though that the government will be so compliant this time – remember they did not filibuster the readings in the HoL. And the clock keeps ticking …
Meanwhile the gloom-and-doom merchants are already predicting an electoral disaster for Johnson, pointing out that the last time a Tory government held an election in December, they lost. That was in 1923 (here). Also, they moan, it will be dark and the weather will be too horrible for the poor canvassers to go out. How on earth do they manage in Norway or Iceland?
One insignificant point overlooked by the Remain MSM is that the Speaker will leave on Halloween. There’s no way back for him, as JRM and Peter Bone MP appear to have confirmed in what looked like a well-rehearsed question-and-answer manoeuvre. Bercow has no choice now but to stand down.
Finally, since JRM invoked it yesterday, let me remind you as well: today is St Crispin’s Day – that is: Agincourt Day. In that spirit, let’s go forth and
KBO!
I favour the longbow men. NOW I understand about the Agincourt Salute!
With six days and less than four hours left Brexit appears to be going to hit the wall. Even the EU have become stymied and the Remainers have now lost their leadership. All the ghosts are coming back. Those that fought and died for the freedom of this country and European countries. The reason for the lack of accountability, the suffering of local communities throughout Europe who have seen their way of lives lost and their children without purpose. All the other injustices to European values and identities. No deal is better that a bad deal, we will leave on the 29th March, and we will leave on the 31st October.
It will go ‘down to the wire’ no doubt.
So I would suggest that at about 21.00 hours on the 31st someone start shouting ‘Gunpowder, Gunpowder!’ another activates the fire alarm and a third calls fire repeatedly in a panicky voice. That should do it, given the abundance of self-serving tinder wood.
The Law is the Law.
“Awkward, this – for Mr Corbyn and the other Remainers. He and they are insisting on an extension and that a No Deal must be ‘off the table’ before they’ll agree to a GE.”
So what is the law? Can the EU grant an extension based on an unsigned piece of paper with no indication of State origin, when the representatives of the State made it clear they do not want one? And it looks like the EU cannot use this as an excuse for an extension despite the media hype as they have made no grant of an extension and Labour want No Deal taken of the table.
But as I said yesterday the EU does not make the same mistake twice and trying to crush Labour in an election before leaving is not a good idea.
“JRM answered with a poetic ditty.”
Talking of which – I found a ditty somewhere a while back, but I can’t remember where or who wrote it. Very apt I thought.
What a price we all pay, on this treacherous day.
What status does anyone hold?
What’s the point in a vote, what does it denote,
When the monkeys won’t do what their told.
Now how do we stand, all the folk in this land?
In shackles and chains on this day.
All cowed and dismayed at the sneer you displayed,
When you voted our freedom away.
You made fools of us all, but we know you will fall.
Your future is in our own hand.
For monkeys can’t rule and treat us as the fool,
That point we all understand.
We will have it our way and will send you away,
We will banish your own ‘gravy train’.
And I hope with my heart, when we tear you apart,
That we never will see you again.
I like it – and yes, let’s make it so – that we’ll never see them again!
Brilliant.
I copied it and sent it to my grandson who is studying politics and, coincidentally, is visiting the HoC today where a meeting for all his class has been arranged with both JRM and Boris.
I like it too.
Why must “No Deal be taken off the table”? We voted Leave in 2016 and this Parliamentary House of Horrors has no intention of allowing it to happen. The only thing that should be taken off the table is “Remain”. This Remainiac Parliament should be scrutinised and held to account by the people in a GE, or, alternatively there should be an enquiry along the lines of maladministration. Delay, incorrect action or failure to take any action, broken promises, misleading or inaccurate statements, amongst other things, are all applicable. By their actions (or inactions) democracy has been severely damaged, trust destroyed, and our country made a laughing stock in the rest of the world.
However, it’s St Crispins Day. Time to bring on the longbowmen. We’ve still got our two fingers, SO USE THEM!
It seems the government has quietly conceded that we won’t leave the EU next Thursday – Halloween. Or could it be that they’re not saying very much at all, just running the clock down in the knowledge that if we reach Thursday, it’ll be all over. Of course they could make a song and dance about it but that would jolt the Remainers into planning how they’re going to foil Boris’ plans.
If Macron, or any one of the other 27, vetoes an extension and announces it on Monday, that’ll leave precious little time for anything to be done, although it has to be accepted that the EU wants to keep us in for as long as possible so that we can give them as much of our money as they want.
Are we coming to the crunch time or will there be another extension, and another, and another, and ……?
This is beginning to feel like a blockbuster movie where our hero is hunched over a bomb with the clock visibly ticking down to wards oblivion. With sweat soaked brow and clenched teeth, ten seconds left, our hero shakily offers the wire-cutter up to the red wire, dithers, then, with three seconds left, goes for the blue one. Snip. Clock stops. In our case the clock is counting down the days to Halloween, and an explosion of freedom for us and devastation for the EU. There are wire-cutters everywhere, but not in the hands of heroes. Let us pray neither blue nor red will snip those wires.
‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.’ KBO
Here’s the link, enjoy:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A-yZNMWFqvM