DaveLovesDee

Opens for business at 11.30am tomorrow.

jimf

Oink

Meghan Markle wears headscarf in public for the first time

Shard

Bercow said there will be time for urgent questions and MP statements. A fair guess is that these would be Brexit related, including a possible no confidence vote. It will certainly be lively!

jimf

dave_j

A very good point. The initiative lies with parliament now. But it's a parliament that's demonstrated it's inability to agree about anything except things they don't like.
This is a recipe for nothing but a talking shop. There'll be a great deal of Boris bashing and self righteous pro-parliament speechifying but action? I think not.
I don't think that there's ever been a government with a majority of -40 in a position where the opposition dare not take it to task other than protest.
So having achieved their goal, I suspect that the Remain Group now have sufficient time to start internal squabbling about what to do next. There'll be an interval where they'll be at each other's throats, they won't be able to stop themselves.
Waiting in the wings, of course, is the Brexit Party ready to capitalise at the forthcoming election on an anti-parliament anti-establishment platform. We may be witnessing the obliteration of the Conservative Party having been shown to have been impotent in delivering the result of the referendum. May sowed the seeds and Johnson will have eaten the poisoned fruit.

Shard

Parliament, despite continual dirty tricks, has managed to pass the Ben Bill, and if implemented will avoid a disastrous No Deal crash out. That's a huge achievement. Next is to hash out whether a referendum and/or election will better address the impasse. Of course, the simplest and most effective solution is revoke and move forward, but extremists (ERG etc) and those held hostage to their constituents' Leave vote prevent that solution. It's easy to knock parliament, but it's a genuinely complex democratic issue. Today's ruling is a huge move in the right direction.

Annetje

If Johnson refuses to ask for an extension (as arranged in the Benn Bill) he will break the law again. I suppose that can become a habbit, bit like lying.
Now, before the extension is arranged, Labour does not want a VONC or GE because that would happen whilst the UK crashes out of the EU.
ASA the extension is arranged, we'll see what opp parties will want to do.

At least, it gives Parliament time to discuss the yellowhammer papers (remember them) since they never had the time for that.

Shard

The focus now must be to clear the way to get the extension submitted and granted. Assuming BoJo doesn't pull out a workable deal prior to 31.8 it will get interesting to see the length of an extension the EU would approve. Perhaps 6 months or perhaps longer.

Annetje

Yup, don't know how long the EU is willing to go on with this sherade.
I assume, if an election or 2nd ref. is on the cards, they might offer enough time for that, but I don't know for sure.

dbd33

I think it very likely that an EU member state will veto another extension. "Enough, already". Then, with Labour still dithering about whether or not they would have been for or against remain had they ever made their minds up, Johnson can stand for election as the man who got the job done. So long as that's very soon, say this year, he could win. Then again, there are a lot of long knives in the Tory party.

Shard

The tragedy is that he could indeed win. Corbyn makes Labour a very difficult proposition from both within and without the party. Then, if that's not precarious enough, he insists on a bizarre Labour neutrality policy on Brexit. And finally, he rules out any possibility of entertaining a caretaker government without him at the helm. He is a massive liability to anyone who wants to avoid Brexit.

Almost Canadian

That's the issue isn't it: He doesn't and all his grandstanding can't hide that fact. He could have voted for the current WA and the UK could be focusing on getting a deal done right now - no crash out required.

jimf

Partially discharged

Yes, but how much did it cost and where can the general public buy such a headscarf.