My goodness – for once the MSM would have been justified to write “Brexit Bombshell” headlines, but today they refrained! How odd …
This is what happened: yesterday in the late afternoon the Speaker of the HoC ruled that the government, i.e. Ms May, cannot ask for a MVIII – that ‘meaningful vote’ she needed to get her diabolical WA through the HoC, not after it had been voted down twice (see all my previous ‘Daily Brexit’ articles archived here). Mr Bercow applied the precedent ruling that the same motion cannot be brought to the House more than once during the same Parliamentary session unless it’s ‘substantially changed’.
Ms May was going to present the WA again to the House today, hoping to get it through after lots of arm-twisting and bullying en coulisse. The aim was to present it to the EU Council on Thursday, thus achieving a ‘short extension’.
During yesterday morning we heard of ‘Hardcore Brexiteers’ caving in, and, with astonishment, of Ms May’s latest ‘sweetener’ for her ‘rebels’: the ‘sacking of Olly Robbins’ if only they voted for her WA. This was another fudge though because Mr Robbins was due for a move inside Whitehall anyway …
Then there were the febrile ‘negotiations’ a.k.a ‘rank bribery’ (e.g. here, paywalled) to get the DUP on board.
And then the Speaker detonated his ‘bomb’ … and all ‘play’ stopped.
No matter what you think of him – e.g. “Brexit destroyer” here, or other choice descriptions in outraged comments here, here and here – he was within his rights because there was and is no substantial change to Ms May’s WA.
The effect of this ‘Brexit bomb’ on the government, the HoC, the ERG and especially the MSM was like poking a stick into an antheap. Alternatively, one can compare their reactions to a whole farmyard full of headless chickens flapping about …
Nobody knows what will happen next, but everybody has an opinion. The one most MSM pundits are agreed on is that this is a constitutional crisis (here and paywalled here). Opinions as to what this means range from ‘shattering blow to the PM’ to ‘sabotaging Ms May’s attempt to rescue her WA’.
Pundits seem to agree that Ms May would now have to ask Brussels for a ‘long extension’. Again, as I’ve pointed out previously, our MPs and indeed the Speaker seem to be oblivious of that ‘player’ sitting opposite that table, the EU. Perhaps they believe that, given the well-demonstrated intransigence of Brussels, the Speaker’s bomb will give the EU the incentive of keeping us in forever:
“Chris Heaton-Harris, a minister in the Department for Exiting the EU, predicted in a message to Tory MPs that it was “game over” for Brexit as a long delay will mean Britain never leaves. (link, paywalled)
Another ‘government source’ concurs:
“[It] seems clear that the Speaker’s motive here is to rule out a [meaningful vote] this week, which also stands in the way of securing a shorter extension,” the source said. “That leads you to believe what he really wants is a longer extension, where parliament will take over the process and force a softer form of Brexit. But anyone who thinks that this makes no-deal more likely is mistaken — the Speaker would not have done it if it did.” (paywalled source)
So what the heck does this mean for us, for Brexit? Will we leave on the 29th of March without a deal, as we peasants demand and voted for or not? Some seem to think so:
“EU leaders have previously warned that they will not grant an extension unless Britain comes up with new ideas, meaning a no deal Brexit remains possible. Some Brexiteers said Britain must now end the uncertainty by leaving with no deal next week.” (link, paywalled)
Is Nigel Farage right who said this on his LBC show yesterday, after ‘that bomb’:
“Has a no deal Brexit got a bit more likely? It has! A lot is going to rest you know on this summit on Thursday. If they say we do not want an extension, we have had enough of your games, just get thee gone, and it only needs one of the other 27 to do that and there will be no extension. Then Parliament would face the ultimate choice. In the days leading up to March 29, are they going to get us out on the current legislation or revoke and stop Brexit completely? I think there would be such catastrophic implications for Parliament if they did that.” (link)
However, reports from Brussels seem to contradict this (paywalled, here):
“Brussels politicians and officials are angry and dismayed at the latest obstacle thrown in the way of the ratification of the Brexit withdrawal treaty. […] In the event that Britain has not passed the withdrawal agreement by the end of next week, the EU will use a special procedure, if European leaders agree on Thursday, to allow a “long extension” to Brexit “within hours of midnight” on March 29.”
‘Special procedure’, is it? To be applied after we’ve left? Is the Brexit date a total sham then? Is this the long-prepared stitch-up, concocted by Olly Robbins and M Barnier? Would this ‘special procedure’ have been applied anyway? We should be told!
Facilitating a ‘long extension’ aimed at achieving a GE and a 2nd referendum is also much to the EU’s liking, even if it means that we will have to run elections to the new EU Parliament. And lo and behold, our Remain Civil Service is already preparing for that:
“The Cabinet Office has stepped up plans for Britain to take part in this year’s European parliamentary elections. […] Legislation cancelling Britain’s participation in the elections comes into effect only after Brexit day. With that all-but certain to be delayed, taking part in the polls, which would cost about £110 million, could become a legal necessity both in UK and EU law.” (paywalled source)
How quickly can the Remain Civil serpents be out of the blocs when it’s about stopping Brexit! (In an aside, today another ‘anonymous civil servant has written about the Remain Culture in Whitehall, here is a summary.)
Finally, sigh, what are the ‘hardcore Brexiteers’ saying and doing? Well, there could be mayhem:
“According to The Sun, 20 core members of the European Research Group (ERG) will carry “vote strikes” which could bring Mrs May’s minority Government to its knees if she takes her Brexit deal to a second In/Out referendum.” (link)
Meanwhile, the inimitable, incomparable Sir John Redwood has some pointed remarks for Remainers in his diary entry today. He concludes:
“I do not see why the UK would seek an extension to Article 50. So far Ministers have been unable to come up with any plausible reason why the EU should grant us an extension.”
Ah – but we all know that these Ministers and indeed the whole Remain Whitehall gang have one reason which has been the standard reply for over 40 years: “The EU won’t like it” …
As for us peasants: no rest for the wicked! Keep writing to your MPs and to the papers!
10 days to Brexit – we must stand firm.
KBO!
There were old-fashioned solutions to all these problems.
In fact, the availability of such solutions made it very unlikely such issues would arise at all.
Oliver Cromwell would have been able to advise.
And Jean-Paul Marat would have been an expert.
So…who wants to be the first one to put his head above the parapet – or perhaps barricade? So you can learn first hand what Tommy R has learned, if you annoy the authorities?
Dunno about Ollie (the civil war one, not the one in No10), I think the catholic plot led by one Mr Fawkes has some merits to it. It would certainly clean out the rats known to infest the building, although they will doubtless return after the next general election.
> who wants to be the first one
First one?
When, more than a years ago, after the House of Lords’ attempt to derail Brexit entirely – certainly contrary to the spirit of the relationship between the Houses – I’d written an article calling for a Cull of the Peers (context made clear no violence was meant), I had Plod on my doorstep.
They got very short shrift indeed from me, and in 30 seconds found themselves talking to some fine yacht-varnished oak.
I misplayed that.
When I reopened the door to get their details, they’d scarpered.
Indignantly going round to the local nick the next day about it, no trace could be found.
If not for the police car behind a tree next to my drive, I’d guess I’d been the victim of a practical joke.
Many of us have put their heads above the barricade long ago, Rob… TR does it his way, for his reasons.
Just try and keep freedom in a box! We have to fight any way we can.
I believe any MP who voted for the WA or an extension of the Article 50 is a traitor because both subject this country to the filthy and deceitful subjugation of the EU. The EU is an entity hoisted on the wonderful peoples of Europe. Their rich and colourful cultures and characters will be left grey and poor. They will eventually learn the hard way.
These are some of the Traitors.
https://order-order.com/2019/03/14/412-mps-voted-delay-brexit/
There are more and those others need to be named and shamed too. Some of these MPs are selfish, some are evil, and some are just plain stupid, but it doesn’t matter what the reason. Andromeda will not be far enough away for them to hide.
When the EU implodes, I hope to God we are not still in it. But when it does their names will come up. They may not be MPs then but that will not matter we will remember them and the others and remind them what stupid ignorant people they are.
Bit of an ambiguous first sentence. Of course one cannot keep freedom in a box and it doesn’t matter how big that box may be. Freedom is an essential part of the human needs. So many have died for Freedom. Lest we forget! Well don’t worry about that because I won’t be forgetting! Not on your Nellie Duff.
Well said Kim, but I’m afraid the vast majority of people have pathetically short memories, made shorter by the msm.
> Just try and keep freedom in a box
Someone, maybe around 2012, wrote: “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself.”
They clearly hadn’t encountered the BBC, which must be a lion-killer.
I suggest the only way of proroguing parliament is to do it personally. That is to have massive demonstrations outside parliament and compass house so as to prevent MP’s entering parliament. I think that would be far more effective than a march from Darlington to London!
National priority 1 is to get rid of that woman. She is the biggest danger to this country since Hitler. A General Election may be the only way of removing her.
She will in my opinion NEVER go , whether asked to or not, and she will drag the whole Tory party down with her if necessary. That seems to be her mentality . She is backed by the Remain faction, which simply refuses to accept the referendum result.
Labour smells blood and about 20 exasperated ERG Tories are already saying they will go on strike. So a confidence motion by Labour may well succeed, UNLESS the delay option fails.
If a GE occurred, I am sure May would still refuse to stand down in which case the Tories would fall to their greatest electoral defeat in history and probably spit up. But a Corbyn government would be massively unstable and a lot of their MPs would defect to the TIG if he got to No 10. So he would also be unable to deliver Brexit, even though he is a Leaver. Another GE would follow very soon. Talk about unstable!!
The Remainers have destroyed any reputation that Parliament ever had and the utterly selfish and arrogant Tory Remainers like Gauke and Rudd and Grieve have destroyed whatever was left of the unity of their party, which was the main purpose of calling the referendum in the first place. It’s two parties,it should recognise that now and split.
This just out in the Telegraph:
“The ‘nuclear option’: Queen could be asked to close Parliament early to get around Bercow ruling” (paywalled)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/18/can-theresa-may-secure-vote-brexit-deal-john-bercow-threatened/
God knows where this is leading? I think I’m owed a free article but I can’t even be bothered to log in and read the whole thing, I’m on BS overload.
By the time you log in it could all have changed. What a bloody fiasco, the vast majority of us have done our jobs, paid our taxes and complied with the law.
What have we done to deserve this?
But Peter, surely everyone must know by now that Theresa May was put into the position of Prime Minister deliberately so that she could prevent Brexit. After David Cameron’s resignation, it was noted with horror by Remainers, that Andrea Leadsom, a Leaver, was likely to become PM so she was ‘asked’ to step aside to enable TM to get the job — so she was a given the consolation prize of a minor position in the Government (Environment and whathaveyou). If you look at what TM has done, you will have to agree that she has done a marvellous job for the Leavers or The Powers That Be (TPTB). And even if she is finally bullied into resigning, I’m sure Someone will give her a gorgeous yacht…
There are none so blind as those who will not see. Too many I’m afraid.
> “Theresa May was put into the position of Prime Minister deliberately so that she could prevent Brexit”
[X] You have understood
[ ] You have not understood
She had the right mix of stupidity, stubbornness, untruthfulness, guile and ego.
During her watch as Home Sec’y throughout which she repeatedly claimed net immigration was coming down to the tens of thousands, I computed that more than 3,600,000 entered the UK (mainly England) with a view to living here permanently.
Would anybody like to start activation NOW to ensure that Bercow IS NOT OFFERED a Peerage?
It is so difficult to persuade these people whose eyes and ears are closed. There has been a Parliamentary petition to have him given a peerage now that was rejected so we can’t go down that route. Anyone any ideas?
Much more likely to be effective is to start suggesting what he should be offered.
I have a few suggestions.
Is John Bercow, The Speaker, thinking of W.S. Gilbert (in Iolanthe)?
“The Law is the true embodiment. Of everything that’s excellent. It has no kind of fault or flaw. And I, my Lords, embody the Law! The constitutional guardian I…”
Substitute “Brexit” for “love” and the Lord Chancellor’s song is very appropriate: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=64lewe9DdQg
Even May cannot be so brazen as to conspire even more openly to stop brexit at this late stage, the disappointment
and anger if we are cheated out of Independence now will unleash hell , if they imagine that we are going to quietly
let them get away with it somebody is in for s nasty shock.
Hear, hear!
Probably yes , most have now given up and come the election will troop off and vote for more of the same, while earning nothing like that of the millions who’ work’ in the public services particularly the civil service and laugh at them ! Yes Minister not so funny to watch now is it.
So, voting for a political ‘representative’ is a waste of time, voting in a ‘referendum’ is a waste of time, petition to the ‘government’ is a waste of time ()See latest cabinet office reply snubbing the petition to ask the Queen prorogue parliament’)
Writing to M.P’s is a waste of time as are marches and demonstrations. The ‘ Head of State’ is not interested, so where does that leave us? Writing to our M.E.P’s all of whom have gone native and have no power anyway.
What of ‘the Brexit March’?
Except for the first day there was a short clip after midnight, but since then the MSM silence is deafening.
Nigel’s continuing abscence is being noticed…
4th day of leave means leave march and they are heading for knaresborough today. The media are too busy broadcasting MP’s opinions at Remain Central to send a camera north of College Green. Some local media but very low profile at moment. It does not help that the march is trying to avoid Remainiac idiots determined to cause trouble so details of the exact route are secret. Weather is terrible but the walkers are getting a good reception from the public according to my walking friends. The media coverage can only get better and hopefully the supporting numbers will swell as the weather improves and they get closer to London. Anyone close to the route reading this please turn out if you can to give them a cheer. I know they really do appreciate your support. Lots of good people on this march.
Nigel was never going to do the full march. I bet he was only there for the first day, just to pose for the cameras.
Don’t forget, he doesn’t ‘do’ street activism remember, which is what public marches and rallys are essentially
> [Nigel Farage] doesn’t ‘do’ street activism
Not correct. I was with Nigel for some of it in London is 2015-16.
For example, one day in mid 2016, with me leading a small team who staked-out venues a few minutes before Nigel got to them, and then rushing off just before he left to get to the next one ahead of him, we did street walkabouts in an giant counter-clockwise arc half-way round London, starting with Kingston in the morning, then Sutton, then Bexley, then Bromley and finally Romford.
In one day, and finishing by 4 pm.
Should have gone one further, to Hornchurch & Upminster, but internal politicking came into it.
As Gerard has said himself, no one did more for the Brexit cause than Nigel. Faulting Nigel on that is unfair and factually incorrect.
While Nigel’s standing down a few weeks after we “won” the Referendum had monumental negative consequences, it was after a sustained period of almost impossible pressure on him. I’m a fairly tough nut myself, and I don’t use “impossible” lightly.
I don’t “do” heroes, note.
It is always unwise and it is always unwise for the same reason.
My only one was Batman – and then Hollywod screwed that up. One should generally be cautious of men who wear their underpants on the outside of their tunics.
This march is symbolic – there is historic precedent both in England and the former Empire – and he will only top and tail it. It’ll be only a small band most of the way, which of course will be broadcast.
BUT:
Any splitting of the vote on the centre-right or right (as has not *yet* happened as a result of Nigel) was and is playing into the hands of the likes of Diane Abbott and, if it is possible, even worse. I hope For Britain too is listening.
Well, it was inevitable, and he said so himself before or on the day it started.
I trust they anticipated what use images of the dwindling numbers would be put to by hostile media.
Freddy said.
///Any splitting of the vote on the centre-right or right (as has not *yet* happened as a result of Nigel) was and is playing into the hands of the likes of Diane Abbott and, if it is possible, even worse. I hope For Britain too is listening.///
He is of course correct.
I suggest all our factions get together as one next Friday week in Westminster .
One thing for sure is that it will be an electric atmosphere.
Since the referendum in 2016, I always knew it was going to be a difficult couple of years, nearly three as it’s turned out, little did I expect this level of insanity though. We really are in the twilight zone with politics, both domestically and globally, it’s all too depressing and I’m certain that this is leading to somewhere particularly nasty.
After nearly three years of this pantomime and with only ten days left to our supposed Brexit, that we should be in this mess with no clear direction, is not only disgraceful but it highlights the contempt that the political class has for us, the people they were supposedly elected to represent.
We the people seem to be long way down the list of our political leaders priorities, we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our politicians main job is to simply fob us off. Well, I certainly won’t forget what they’ve done and I’m sure most of you won’t either.
Anne Marie Waters hits the nail very firmly on the head in this video:
“Are we going to let them get away with this?”
https://youtu.be/rnvyCmA6bzI
Yet all I see from GB is a “Leaders Update” preaching to the converted. Am I missing something?
no
Yes flyer, Anne Marie Waters puts UKIP politicians to shame. She frequently makes these rousing public statements by video, while UKIP is still relying on the indulgence of the fakestream media and being ignored.
I’m a For Britain member and at the time Anne Marie published this video, I DM’d her that the answer to her rhetorical question is Yes, they are going to get away with it. Thanks to FPTP, that’s why. I can see perhaps millions of disillusioned LabCon voters abstaining at the next general election or the locals, so the same pondscum will get to return their fat asses to The Commons albeit with massively reduced popular vote, which under our system will make no difference to the result. The number of people who keep thinking the Tories are gonna be slaughtered come the next GE are the same people who don’t understand the way our system works, and if they did they would join me in screaming for Proportional Representation.
In FB we had a binding membership consultation on PR, whereby 88% of us elected to institute this form of voting as the party’s preferred system for Westminster. I think UKIP owes it to their membership to have a similar consultation, it would be very interesting to see just how many Kippers are in agreement. I’ll bet it’s more than is indicated by posts on ID.
> “Are we going to let them get away with this?”
Here’s my answer in 315 seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l74DDNCdc4&t=571
It seems to have tickled the fancy of a few.