It all kicked off yesterday afternoon and it was truly delicious to observe. Even more delicious are the Brexit headlines in the MSM this morning. The vestiges of awe I had for the MSM and especially their pundits have now been shredded to perdition.
It all kicked off – on twitter. Frankly, if you want to make yourself look like a dolt for all to see then that’s the place to go. Housewives in the olden days, gossiping across the fences of their back gardens while hanging out their washing, were models of erudition compared to that lot.
There was a pre-kick-off kick off: Ms Symonds introduced the new No 10 doggie to the world (here) It is cute. We don’t know what Larry, the No 10 cat, had to say. He was not interviewed. He was in hiding.
And so to the actual kick off: a tweet from Ms Kuensberg (BBC) saying that according to ‘sources’ there’d be an ‘emergency’ cabinet meeting that afternoon. Thereupon the MSM went into twitter overdrive.
Yes, there was going to be a cabinet meeting, followed by a reception in the No 10 gardens for the Tory MPs. An MSM tweet gasped that all attendees were going to have to hand in their phones so that no leaks or txt messages would be sent out. The horror!
While the massed MSM representatives converged on No 10, the next twitter cat let off amongst those particular pigeons was that Johnson would give a short statement at 6pm.
Thus the scene was set for the most extraordinary twitter event so far. The Remain Tory MPs of course wanted to get into the headlines before whatever bombshell Johnson was going to explode.
Thus there was a tweet with a letter by Philip Hammond demanding Johnson give the details of the negotiations with the EU so far! Next, Ms Amber Rudd thought withdrawing the whip from Remain Tory MPs was a very bad idea. Oh.
Thus, wanting to get a piece of the MSM attention as well, Hilary Benn (Lab) released the text of the Bill the Remainers propose to get through the HoC today, forcing Johnson to ask for an extension. You can read the whole thing in this report.
The MSM pundits, from Ms Kuensberg (BBC) to Mr Peston (ITV) and the SKY reporters kept tweeting frantically about what this could mean. Would Johnson announce an election? And if so, why – and when – and how would that affect Brexit?
The plain fact was that none of them knew anything, that there was nothing leaking from No 10 and that their posturing and ‘erudite’ analyses were based on speculation and hot air. We plebs, enjoying this spectacle, were as informed as they were!
Keep that in mind: nobody knew anything! The amount of tosh and twaddle produced by the ‘live at 10 Downing Street’ reporters was breathtaking. It was as if they were waiting to get the very first glimpse of a royal bride’s wedding dress …! It was as if the MSM punditry were desperately trying to interpret the same tealeaves!
They tried to demonstrate their own cleverness and erudition by talking endlessly about the fact that the Government crest was on the lectern which had been brought out of No 10 for BoJo’s speech. So we learned the world-shaking news that this must mean Johnson would not, could not announce a GE – or could he?
You can watch the video of that speech here. In a typical MSM Remain fashion, the sound technicians turned up the noise made by a handful of Remain demonstrators outside the gates to Downing Street while Johnson spoke. Strangely enough, that sound was thoughtfully turned down when the reporters were waffling.
What happened next was as if a flock of headless chickens had taken over the MSM twitter accounts. Just like ourselves who’d also watched the speech live, we and they were puzzled.
Johnson only said he didn’t want a GE – so what did he mean by that? What was he going to do? Surely this speech had been written by Dominic Cummings and must have been a very clever, five-dimensional game of chess?
We plebs settled for ‘it was a cryptic warning’ to Remain Rebels that Johnson would not hesitate to call a GE should the Remain HoC try and tie his hands by forcing an extension on his government. While we had already come to that conclusion, the MSM pundits were still all over the place.
However, and lo and behold, in a concerted effort overnight, this morning all MSM pundits had miraculously reached the same conclusion we had already reached last evening.
The headline writers all agreed: Johnson will call a GE. See e.g.
“Boris Johnson warns Brexit rebels: I’ll call October general election” – Prime minister rules out extension as Remainer MPs seek control of Commons agenda (link, paywalled),
or even more strongly:
“Boris Johnson plans general election for October 14 if MPs seize control of Brexit” (paywalled link)
After the pundits had deciphered the meaning of Johnson’s speech – it took them long enough! – the MSM rushed to get the opinion of other pundits: would, could, Johnson win?
John Curtice, the famous statistician, is not so sure. He cautioned that (link, paywalled), while neither Tories nor Labour are in good shape, the real winners could well be the LibDems, and that a Tory win might well depend on the Brexit Party. What then did Nigel Farage have to say? See this:
“Nigel Farage told Boris Johnson last night that he would have to abandon all elements of the current Brexit deal as the price of an electoral pact with his party. Mr Farage told The Times that his party was “ready to go” if the prime minister called a snap election before October 31, and intended to field candidates in every seat across the country. He suggested that he would only be prepared to enter into a non-aggression pact with the Conservatives if Mr Johnson pledged to scrap the withdrawal agreement, the deal struck by Theresa May and the European Union, in its entirety and pursued either a no-deal Brexit or negotiated a completely new deal with Brussels by October 31. […] Mr Johnson plans to campaign on a platform of giving him a mandate to secure a better deal. This would leave him vulnerable to claims by Mr Farage that what he is proposing is little better than Mrs May’s deal.” (link, paywalled)
As for Labour – well, Tony Blair had this to say:
“Tony Blair has admitted that he would face a “dilemma” voting for the party he used to lead in a general election, but would support Jeremy Corbyn to prevent a no-deal Brexit.[…] He said, however, that he would reluctantly still back a Corbyn-led party even though he had “real anxiety” over Labour’s programme for government.” (link, paywalled)
What a ringing endorsement …! The unmissable, indefatigable Sir John Redwood has some stern words about the onset of election madness in his Diary today:
“It is quite likely an early election before we had left the EU would be an acrimonious re run of the referendum, with parties wanting to do well having to be clearly leave or remain. There is no guarantee the voters would create a good majority for one single view of Brexit in any new Parliament. […] Our main problem is not too few elections. Our problem is the inability so far of this Parliament to implement the decision of the referendum.”
Just so! Now we gird our virtual loins for the coming spectacle in the HoC this afternoon. Some watchers – ordinary plebs like myself, not the MSM – have pointed out that the Leader of the House must have something up his sleeve because he was looking rather pleased with himself in the video of his LBC phone-in. He also slapped down one of the fear mongers who had phoned in – do watch that clip here! – in a rather sharp manner.
Will the ‘Rebels’ prevail this afternoon? Will Johnson then call a GE and for which date? We’ll know more in twelve hours. Until then we must not let ourselves be lulled into a false sense of security. Nigel Farage is not the only one who suspects that Johnson may well go and ask for a mandate to get Ms May’s BRINO accepted. So, as always, we will and must
KBO!
Oh dear I quite fancied the allegro – that was before I ‘discovered’ the Morris Minor Traveller. Certainly hated the Ford automatic choke when I was forced to drive it.
Speaking as I am now on the day after Tuesday’s take over, Bercow thinks he’s dealt with procedural objections but I still have hope that Boris can advise her Majesty NOT to approve the anti No Deal law.
Bercow the stooge needs to get his split personality back into alignment,
I’ve just finished reading a remarkable book about the BBC. It is by David Sedgwick and entitled ‘BBC: Brainwashing Britain’ which, of course, the BBC has been doing for decades. It is a LARGE paperback and from Amazon costs £9.99 but very well worth the price. It lays out in black and white and in an ordered way, what we all know Auntie has been doing to us, especially since the Referendum.
Thank you I will check this.
“There is no guarantee the voters would create a good majority for one single view of Brexit in any new Parliament.”
No wonder Boris appears not to be rushing into an election.
All is revealed.
For the remainers it was simple. (It needed to be!) They voted to remain in the European union.
Easy to herd them that way again in an election.
However, the elites handling Maybot had her pushing that deal so hard and for so long that a large chunk of voters now think they voted for a ‘deal’ in the referendum!
While most of us are still fully aware that we voted to leave the European union
once we are free, some will also be looking forward to continuing and WINNING the soft war with the EU and the elites (they started it), using trade tariffs. (To stop them coming back at us again we need to pull a bomber Harris on them.)
Trump is showing the way in his dealings with the Chinese Communist Party.
US UK goals are (or should be) quite similar. Destabilise and then dismantle the elite’s regimes and restore democracy.
The government now have no option but to have an election AFTER leaving the EU on 31st October. If there is an election before leaving then Nigel Farage is going to compete for power against the Boris Johnson. I cannot see the Brexit Party campaigning for Conservative candidates. So the government has no option but to stick it out until it can call an election for early November.
Last Sunday eighty years ago Germany invaded Poland. Today the 3rd September Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Now we see the big showdown in the battle for Brexit. I am sure there will be more ‘showdowns’ but surely this is the one week where the course will be set. Unless of course we all get skewered by Boris, oh dear! So much adrenalin so many suspenders (Freudian slip).
I have just said my bit on John Locke’s part one article but would say that once again we are all spectators to the school playground antics of our politicians. Dominic Cummings for PM!
Thanks, Viv. I’d missed the JRM / “doctor” debacle on LBC. Very well done, Jacob.
Just in, from Jonathan Isaby (BrexitCentral) in his e-letter to subscribers:
“As to today’s agenda, bear in mind that the real shenanigans won’t begin in the House of Commons until considerably later this afternoon – and it could even be early evening. The parliamentary day opens at 2.30pm with Dominic Raab making his Despatch Box debut as Foreign Secretary with an hour of Foreign Office questions. After that at 3.30pm – before we get into the emergency Standing Order No. 24 debate – there will be a statement from Boris Johnson on Brexit and the G7 summit, which will surely go on for a couple of hours, after which we then expect Michael Gove to make a statement on no-deal preparations.”
So – might we look at a filibuster? Or will Bercow have torn up the order paper?
It’ll be rather interesting either way …
Twitter is undoubtedly the worst invention of the 21st century, maybe of all time though the Austin Allegro runs it close.
The Morris Marina could give the Allegro a run as the 5hittest car ever in UK history.
Ford Escort automatic choke. No contest.
JF
The Bercow Bug would have been better with an automatic choke. 🙂