PMs change and lol we're all gonna die (but brexit will never end)

yeah i read this one today

http://www.democraticaudit.com/2019/08/05/is-it-too-late-to-stop-a-no-deal-brexit/

which ought to conclude "lol we're all gonna die" but instead pretends to some kind of deluded optimism that the actual content ruthlessly squashes

xp they’d rather wank themselves to death over their ~*~*~fantasy cabinet of all the talents*~*~* than acknowledge that the nice people they go drinking with might be cavalier about food and medicine shortages.

the situation is nicely poised now tho so that Corbyn can take the entire blame for no deal when he fails to step down for compromise prime minister *checks notes* Anna Soubry????

British politics needs to be understood, first, as a conspiracy to ensure that the Conservative Party - while sometimes unpopular - is always legitimate.

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) June 10, 2019

A lot of these "can no deal be stopped?!?" pieces seem to leap into the wildest "the Queen could..." realms and skip over the prosaic stuff.

The times are risky but I don't think it's that hard to see how it could be averted. For parliament to prevent No Deal (again) they'd need to move the leave day in UK legislation and then get the EU to approve an extension on their part too (it doesn't have to be the PM who seeks it necessarily). The EU might rightly ask to what end, and that might mean passing a VONC to justify another extension but with a majority of 1 this will seem possible by October.

If the situation is ultimately still that Johnson needs an election a) with Brexit still undefined and b) that appears to be "forced on him by anti-democratic politicians" then this exactly how he'd want to play it out anyway, right? No Deal averted, election called, Boris with clean hands, people vs politicians campaign ahead.

the Graun piece sets out the legislative hoops fairly clearly I think, every scenario requires a degree of coordination and determination not previously demonstrated by the anti no deal MPs

is there a reason that is not dumb for calling the backstop "undemocratic"? I assume no but I want to treat The British Government with the utmost respect

the not dumb reason is that if you repeat a soundbite for not very long the national media will start to echo chamber it and then a significant chunk of what you hope is your base will believe it

so this is just a "Brawndo's got what plants crave" thing, cool

I'm sure plenty of people that know nothing about Ireland or the GFA will mindlessly parrot undemocratic backstop, hell they've probably even got an ipa named after it in their subsidised bar.

The Graun piece is of the same pattern though: so keen to get to discussing the never-gonna-happen Queen stuff it skips the mundane options. Like amending the withdrawal act rather than repealing it.

It also discounts the politics. Yes many of the options are unreasonably difficult starting from today, but they all play off against one another: if you try and redo Cooper-Letwin for instance and Johnson just decides to ignore it, that strengthens your hand for attempting more drastic interventions because it becomes clear that he’s acting kamikaze.

there is an actual answer and it's that the EU has to agree to its termination which of course means that the UK is being crushed under the heel of the unelected etc

(xpost)

The guy who wrote the Guardian piece is a constitutional expert, I believe, i.e. not one their usual remoaner clowns.

He is, which explains the focus on what could theoretically happen, rather than what is likely to.

the backstop is undemocratic because fifty odd unionists havent agreed to it

ah ok Tracer Hand, that makes more sense. the EU wasn't elected by the UK populace, so any act that requires collaboration with the EU is undemocratic.

can't wait to see a democratic trade deal with the USA!

usual remoaner clowns

We're using this term unironically now?

with all due respect i would suggest that any MP not currently convinced that Johnson has set the controls for the heart of The Sun may not be temperamentally ready for whatever struggle lies ahead

yeah the piece ends up at the usual West Wing fanfic but i suspect this is because of the slow awful realisation that all of the parliamentary alternatives are at best uncharted territory and at worst not gonna happen

We've been doing that for a while, keep up there, pom. (xp)

Ah, my bad. All is well, carry on.

Remoaner clowns to the left of me, FBPE piss boilers to the right...

well they are both the same but never mind!

haven't asked what ye want for a while now

what do ye want again

Tbf ça a le mérite d'être clair.

ah ok Tracer Hand, that makes more sense. the EU wasn't elected by the UK populace, so any act that requires collaboration with the EU is undemocratic.
can't wait to see a democratic trade deal with the USA!

yes, we are Taking Back Control, and if we have to trash our NHS and food/agricultural standards and who knows what else for a trade deal where Trump can be sure he's unequivocally Winning, that's all just part of the special relationship that nobody outside the UK knows exists

similarly, if unelected bureaucrat Dominic Cummings seems to be having an undue amount of influence or airtime it's all still very good and democratic because the man is going to have a blue passport soon and give them to all of the rest of us too (if anyone can afford to pay for them or wait for them to make their way through hundred-mile lorry tailbacks on their way over from France)

haven't asked what ye want for a while now

what do ye want again

cash bonanza for disaster capitalists wrapped in the guise of 'send the buggers back' iirc

unelected bureaucrat Dominic Cummings

unelected bureaucrat only just recently held in contempt of parliament, remember, because nothingmatters.gif

I want what I voted for in '17, simple as.

people love clarity, that's why Sturgeon is so popular with the melts - because she has the luxury of representing a pro-remain part of the uk and she can come out with nonsense like yesterday when she said a NDB would be just as much Corbyn's fault. Now for starters she's the one whose indyref2 tactics handed 10 SNP seats to the tories in '17 and effectively kept them in power, so she can take some blame herself going by her own dubious logic.

Given that Johnson's Cabinet of all the headbangers could well have neutralised the ERG is it possible he's just trying to scare the EU into giving him a few face-saving changes to the WA and trying to scare Parliament into voting it through?

it's *possible*

one might argue that bringing in Cummings is a step too far for a game of chicken

The world's worst spad.

what do ye want again

a proper welfare state, regional devolution, move towards common rather than private partnership and ownership models, land reform, prioritization of the reduction of inequality, abolition of the monarchy, abolition of westminster, vastly improved public transport and a move away from car-centred planning, a 3 day weekend, proper provision for refugees, more democratic and stronger unions, stricter regulation for finance, tech, media and other multinationals, prison reform, ambitious industrial strategy, an end to the hostile environment and all similarly dehumanising bureaucracy, a written constitution, nuclear disarmament, and the digging of a giant pit in the centre of the country

can't argue with any of that.

I assume we're all on board with that Homeric catalogue. Dissension begins with the question of method.

i want an end to people with autism being sectioned and warehoused like animals. people with conditions like MS being put into private elderly care homes and left to rot. This is stuff much more important than brexit to me, and the longer it it is the main show the less chance of any important reforms. but this is my self-interest stuff, there is much more that needs fixing and won't be fixed until there is an end to austerity.

At the risk of stating the unfortunate obvious, Brexit will have a bearing on all that. It's not a sideshow.

giant pit is inside giant peach:
https://decollins1969.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/james-pessego-gigante-2.jpg

yeah but the sensible moderates are not meaningfully opposed to austerity (apart from occasional weak lip service) - so here we are.

i support the quatermassisation of the midlands fwiw

about time the landed gentry got a bit closer the land!

Once scooped up, that soil could be used to construct a man-made island off the Pacific coast where they could all congregate in blissful, communal solitude at long last.

the rutland archipelago

fuck that it sounds too nice, the scunthorpe gulag archipelagos would be much more educational for them.

can we just wall off guernsey escape from new york-style and intern the rich there until we can get this whole situation under control

open for a surprise:

Mayor suggests parking problem solution https://t.co/r4lRYD8eQu pic.twitter.com/Bog3G9ROdn

— SHROPSHIRE (@DailySHROPSHIRE) August 5, 2019

climate will have a bearing on everything, the state of the big parties will have a bearing on everything, revolutions in tech will have a bearing on everything, the media will have a bearing on everything, the general mood of the demos wrt the political process will have a bearing on everything, the global economy will have a bearing on everything, the unforgettable terror of the great yawning abyssal nothingness will have a bearing on everything

some exemplary 'local councillors pointing at things' content there xp

Indeed, ogmor, indeed.

the unforgettable terror of the great yawning abyssal nothingness will have a bearing on everything

it all comes back to the midlands eventually