Today’s headlines .........

[MyNameIsTerry]

He's knackered anyway trying to get any legislation through now he's sacked 21 MP's from May's already struggling numbers. But it does mean one good thing, we don't have to pander to the DUP as their votes are no longer important. This is why he desperately needs a GE because he needs more seats. Even then it seriously doubt there will be a majority for either of the two main parties and polling seems to back that up over many months of trend now.

If he loses the SC case and want recall Parliament it will be easily resolved. Unlike the US where you have to impeach (please correct me if wrong) we have more powers to remove a PM for legal reasons from what I gather. But even so it will be easy enough for the court to summonse him for contempt. If he refuses then he will get booted.

And the parties can call a Vote Of No Confidence (VONC) any time they want. They aren't because it's political inconvenient for them too as they can't win a GE either. :Winks: Had they done that the court cases would be irrelevant.

I guess Boris is banking on the SC case backing him so he can carry on.

In one way I can see a benefit to a gap in Parliament. May was bogged down by endless backstabbing and justifications of anything & everything going on. If the gap allowed a government to stop answering questions and dealing with a long list of challenges from MP's who simply want to cancel Brexit we could see something thrashed out. But the problem with Boris is we have no idea if he is or would. Whilst the EU are saying he isn't I don't think we should take their opinion at face value either but I guess BoJo needs keeping on a tight leash or he will crash us out simply so he can write a book about it later.

[mezzaninedoor]

Isn't it scary that we get a sociapath like Boris in power and we can see that hes PM because he wants to be King of the World, not because he wants whats best for the country. Hes got his eye on a book deal because hes got journalism in his bones and any Boris book would outsell Cameron 10 to 1 because at least a Boris book would be interesting. He wants to be Churchill, probably the dog not the prior PM of the UK. !!!

I think its interesting that the C4 head of news is in trouble for calling Boris a liar, shes able to call Boris a liar because its factually accurate that Boris is a liar, the lawyers have checked at C4 and the BBC and yes Boris is a liar. Nish Kumar has said the same on the Mash Report.

I think the Supreme Court might find in Boris favour because we have an unwritten constitution and they don't want to rock the boat with deciding that the prorougation was political rather than principalled and for its normal purpose. However they risk the next PM prorouging for 6 weeks and later someone prorougs for 10 weeks, they have a careful line to navigate.

I think there has to be some weight to the argument from the EU that Boris isnt really negotiating hes just waiting for the 31st to come.

May you live in Interesting times.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Whilst there may be some truth to it we must also remember Juncker & Barnier are spouting the opposite of the new EU president and trade head. Then Boris has met Varadkar and this NI backstop has reappeared. If he was doing nothing at all why waste time on that? You could see Trump not even doing anything and sticking to his own course. Are any PM's and the majority of their ministers interested?

Cameron was false, Blair was false. Boris is easier to point out but the rest seem little different.

Something interesting about the court case is that the government lawyer has previously argued it's not for the court they don't rule on political reasoning but Boris also told the Queen it was procedural. They may pick that apart? I'm not sure really about the misleading the Queen stuff because she surely doesn't need to rule on reasoning either being just a signing hand. I guess that depends on the regs.

[mezzaninedoor]

John Humphrys to host his final edition of Radio 4 Today programme on Thursday, was he pushed?

[mezzaninedoor]

The Supreme Court has ruled, in a unanimous verdict, that the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue Parliament was unlawful, void and should be quashed. The Court found that prorogation had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without justification. I anticipate that Parliament will now be recalled imminently, well before 14th October, the date which had been scheduled for the Queen’s Speech. It is not immediately clear precisely how quickly MPs will reconvene, given that the party political conferences are underway and Parliament is usually in recess during this time. Isn't that going to mess up this weeks Labour and next weeks Tory conference !!!


People must agree that there is no doubt that this is a landmark constitutional moment, with the highest court in the land judging that the Prime Minister misled the Queen. I guess the engagement for prorogation in future is now tightened in our unwritten constitution now this has happened. That's good that prorogation can not be used as a political tool. We need to deal with fillibustering now as well.



The judgement does not affect the legal default date of 31 October for exiting the EU, or the legislation — the ‘Benn Act’— requiring the Prime Minister to seek a Brexit extension if he cannot secure and pass a Brexit deal by 19 October. We should not assume that because the Government has lost this case, that any separate legal challenge the Government brings against the provisions of the Benn Act will likely go the same way, I guess Boris could go to court to allow him to Exit without asking for an extension.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Tony, Bercow has said Parliament resumes tomorrow and makes the distinction it's not a recall due to the court decision.

[Carys]

.....and now we have a thousand and one stories about 'did he lie to the Queeny-weeny?' 'Where does that leave Boris?' 'Will 10 Downing Street cat be questioned?'.....and Tomorrow is going to be VERY interesting indeed.

[MyNameIsTerry]

No 10's cat has been the most consistent of the lot throughout the Brexit years, he just licks his bits whenever it comes up

[Carys]

[mezzaninedoor]

I can't even paraphrase whats gone on in UK politics today.
Boris seems to lack a moral compass, his use of humbug today regards a 'Jo Cox' question was ugly.
Inflammatory language is on the increase.
Death threats to MPs on the increase.

Watching 'Peston' tonight it seems Grieve and Rudd from the Tory party are really angry with Johnson vereing away from One Nation Conservatism.
Labours position seems clear to me at the moment for once but commentators keep asking them why they are scared of a General Election, when thats patently not whats happening.
I really do wish that Labour had a different leader to Jeremy Corbyn though.