"oh you don't get me I'm the end of the union": lol brexit is how we're all gonna die

Yes, but, as alluded to earlier...optics

Forgive me for starting to feel a little freaked out by No Deal, although I'm still of a mind that something will somehow deflect the asteroid

Idk what he’s meant to do to prevent no deal? Whip his MPs to support a deal & let labour take the hit and condemn the country to decades of hard right government?

Well obviously not that either. I'd almost prefer No Deal but paradoxically I can't see how he'd survive it? Maybe I need to take a chill pill

surely in your system the Opposition Leader can't be faulted for Opposing

at the moment the two options available are: no deal or the deal on the table.

no deal is worse.

no deal will happen if something isn't done.

He should have been agitating for something else all along and for the last few months I'm increasingly thinking he should have been agitating to put a long, long delay if not a full revoke in the works

Still not seeing how that would make Corbyn’s position untenable.

The coverage of May last night is what she should have been getting for the last three years, but she’s basically been playing on easy mode the whole time.

What is the magic something else that the majority of the party will bsck and that would peel away enough conservative MPs to pass the house?

I guess you have a point

I'm happy to see how this plays out. Maybe he'll come out of it stronger. I'm just yknow voicing my concern that he'll cop quite a bit of flak in the case of No Deal

surely in your system the Opposition Leader can't be faulted for Opposing

Yeah no shit, but the blame lies squarely at the door of the Conservative party.

Discussions between the leaders are ongoing, and don’t appear to be close to being resolved.

France and Belgium are pushing for an extension to the 7 May date, with an option to extend until the end of the year.

The reason for the move by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is in part that 8 May is a bank holiday in France. That would give him a buffer in case of the financial shock of a no-deal Brexit.

That bank holiday being la Fête de la Victoire’ – Victory Day – to celebrate the end of the second world war.

There is also an EU summit in the Romanian city of Sibiu on 9 May, where the bloc’s 27 heads of state and government are set to start planning the future of Europe without Britain.

The draft conclusions presented to leaders to debate at the head of today’s discussion had stated that the UK could extend until 22 May. The UK holds European elections on 23 May.

But Macron is also keen to avoid a no-deal scenario on 22 May – just ahead of the European elections in France on 26 May.

Under the Macron plan, there would also be an option for the UK to extend to the end of 2019 if the British government notified the EU of its intentions by 11 April.

That is the date by which the Electoral Commission would need to know if European elections are being held in the UK.

Any extension beyond 22 May would require European elections. It is an EU red line. The EU wants to protect its institutions from being improperly constituted through having the UK in as a member state but without MEPs in the parliament.

here's how this works out in america, lj

when the people in power fuck up massively and somebody asks "yes, but what are the people who aren't in power doing about it?"

the person asking that question is stupid and we get to ignore them

please enjoy your impending civil war

he'll cop quite a bit of flak in the case of No Deal

not from anybody who isn't already giving him flak

The French Deal seems like a good offer and gives us until April 11 to have MV3 and then Get The Fuck Shot of May

hard to imagine her going of her own volition whatever happens

I would love to know what the remain members of the cabinet are whatsapping right now. If no deal seems imminent, they should be queuing up to resign.

They've not exactly shown much spine up to now

Indeed. But what are they staying for?

To stop Corbyn turning the country into North Korea obv.

Meanwhile

So 7 May, whatever happens with WA. If UK notifies EU election by 11 April then can extend until 31 December FLEXTENSION is a thing

— Bruno Waterfield (@BrunoBrussels) March 21, 2019

Yes I’d seen that too but waiting for Tony Connelly to confirm it.

Those MPs who have been in to Downing Street in the past week have been surprised by May’s resilience and intransigence despite the intensity of the crisis, giving one visitor the impression that she would be prepared to lead the Conservative party into another general election if it came before her stated departure date of 2022.

May-fought*

so how would an extension suddenly unite the country behind one clear anything?

it.... totally wouldn't

extend FOR WHAT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU

Seems like the only people who would support May in a no conf now are ultra-party-over-country Tories and those who hope she’ll bring about No Deal. That’s a alarmingly large number of them but still leaves enough Remainers and pro-business Tories to bring her down.

Extension gives breathing room sufficient both for her to prove she really actually means to drive this deal deal into the ground and for them to do something about it.

Uniting the country is the next PM’s job.

presume we'll just be back here on 10 april, staring down the barrel of no deal

at least with some 5kg sacks of basmati rice, some bales of toilet roll and a shotgun!

Extension gives breathing room sufficient both for her to prove she really actually means to drive this deal deal into the ground and for them to do something about it.

she has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt and the maths don't work for it, nor for anything else, is the problem iirc

....when asked who would be to blame for a no-deal Brexit, the public are most likely to say the government and Tory MPs. That is ominous for a government that is already very unpopular by historic standards... pic.twitter.com/wyFcfGmp23

— Keiran Pedley (@keiranpedley) March 21, 2019

I think the numbers have changed quite a lot since MV1. She has moved beyond stubborn/resilient and into dysfunctional/trapped, even in Tory eyes. Accounts from her session with the EU are grim.

Can you see Grieve et al voting confidence in her, if it’s that vs No Deal? I can’t.

Reckon no deal will happen and life will go on as before, which is its own level of disappointing, as we will still be alive

Hmm

I mean I feel like Skywalker with half his face in shadow, wondering whether to turn to lolz or despair if No Deal happens

aka choosing between my ILX tankie buddies and the FBPE side

NEW: updated draft conclusions: 'EUCO agrees to an extension to 22 May, provided WA is approved by the HoC next week. If the WA is not approved by the HoC next week, EUCO agrees to an extension until 12 April, expects UK to indicate a way forward for the consideration of EUCO'

— Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) March 21, 2019

ah sorry stet you meant "do something about it" as in remove her. that i can see. but i can't see another tory shifting the parliamentary numbers on the various options out there. given what you just posted, a lot would need to happen in 20 days. new leader, new red lines, EU agrees to new deal, MV3/4 happens?

so you'd have MV3 next week. MV4 in one of the two weeks after that. in that time, parliament would try again to take control of proceedings, with indicative votes etc. they'd at least have some time to enact legislation on the back of those, which is good.

we could also have a VONC which had a chance of avoiding no deal - but there's probably not enough pressure in the system for grieve et al to fall in behind that until the last week, at which point it's probably too late to avoid no deal because TM stays PM for 14 days.

ultimately pressure would build in the system again until we get to the last week and we'd be back here again?

but "indicative votes" aren't enough at the stage are they? EU needs a signed WA or a long extension so that something of actual significance can break the logjam (and no, i don't think jeremy hunt becoming PM qualifies)

May really has to be forced out for anything that's not Her Deal or No Deal to happen. It's like a personality disorder at this point. Following that, you're right, it's not at all clear exactly what any leader of that party could do either. Which means either elections or working with Labour. Which amount to the same thing, because the only Tory leader who could work with Labour is the unchallengeable May, and she won't.

All of which means we need some serious time, and that means we need to hold MEP elections. Which is probably why May tried to extend until June to take that chance off the table, and why the EU will likely let us extend only until April 11 unless we hold them.

But the problem there is that if May refuses to go until her 14 days are up, we won't have a new PM in place in time to order those elections. Unless parliament can force the issue. Fucking hell.

Y/N carried out in a straitjacket?

john bercow now eyeing some useful parliamentary precedents from the 1640s iirc

Telegraph reporting Gove is likely to be the 'unity' candidate after May's toppling so it could be a frying pan/fire scenario

another bloody sweaty sock in 10 downing street?

maybe corbyn should stick around tbh, he'd probably have any of these halflings

gove has long been the telegraph choice and it doesn't really do "reporting" any more

just what we need - someone whose guiding motto is "move fast and break things"

Britain, you must keep Sarah Vine the Hell out of Downing Street.