The SNP says that they will support the December 12 proposal, if the PM provides a "cast iron guarantee" that he would not bring back the WAB bill before the election. From the UK Guardian: The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, told the Commons his party would support the prime minister’s new plan for a 12 December election if he gave a “cast-iron guarantee” he would not bring back the withdrawal agreement bill. It is clear that there is a desire on the opposition benches to bring forward a bill that can give us an election. But we don’t trust this prime minister and we don’t trust this prime minister for good reason. So, the prime minister, if he is going to bring forward a bill, must give an absolute cast-iron assurance that, up until the passage of that bill and the rising of parliament, that there will be no attempt to bring forward the withdrawal agreement bill. We will have to wait and see, but I suspect that Johnson will be very pleased to agree to this condition, especially since this bill has already effectively been approved and then had the timetable blocked by this Parliament. In all likelihood, Johnson will rather want to take his chances with the new Parliament.
Jo Swinson the Lib Dems leader said that they will reject Johnsons' proposal for 12 December elections and so has an MP of the SNP. (The SNP always vote all the same there are no rebels). So obviously there is a very big difference in the 12 December Johnson's proposal and what the SNP and the Lib Dems wanted. At least it is to them. It is that they can't trust Johnson promise that in the 3 days he won't put his proposal for voting. For the Lib Dems it is absolutely crucial that the elections happen before any Brexit is agreed on. They were absolutely devastated as a party before 2016 because they had worked with the Tories in a coalition government and supported austerity measures that betrayed their own voters. They had lost all those votes and became a minor party. But now with their clear policy of Remain they have come back from the dead and even can become the main opposition. beating Labour. But only if there is still hope for Remain. Otherwise they won't be able to poach all the Tory and Labour remain votes. The SNP doesn't care so much because the Tories and Labour are now dead meat in Scotland. Especialy the Tories, they are projected to lose ALL their seats. In fact don't be surprised if the SNP deep down would be extremely happy if there is a Brexit before the elections. They will never admit it, but a Brexit is trully what can Scotland independence referendum come back again forth.
I posted moments before you, just above. SNP's Ian Blackford says he will support the December 12 date, if Johnson will postpone any further consideration of his Brexit bill by Parliament until after the election. Why would Johnson object to that? I cannot think of a good reason.
Yeah. The key word is " iron clad guarantee". If you saw in the Guardian the latest " The SNP will not be “dancing to Boris Johnson’s tune” on his demands to get a general election on 12 December, one of its MPs has said. Kirsty Blackman told Channel 4 News: We are keen for there to be a general election before the 12th. I don’t trust Boris Johnson. I’m not convinced I trust him to follow through on any promises that he’s likely to make on this. We may have conversations with many different people but we will not be dancing to Boris Johnson’s tune on this. " There is simply no iron clad guarantee that Johnson can give that the SNP can take at its face value. What can he do? Sign a contract? His word alone isn't worth anything. Why would Johnson want to put his WTA on voting before elections..because if he can go into elections with Brexit achieved he will be a surefire winner. Ask yourself if Johnson had no issue, why didn't he accept the SNP/LibDems proposal for 9 December elections in the first place? Since he wasn't planning on doing anything in 3 days?
I do not believe the dates matter. The issue is whether these parties are willing to face the voters or not. If they are really wanting the Brexit bill to be put on hold for six weeks, until after the election, this really is not a problem either, as it will suit Johnson's purposes to agree to this request just fine. However, if the opposition is just trolling around for another excuse to not agree to a general election, probably because they think that they are likely to lose, then I suspect this is as good of an excuse as any other. Anyway, there is currently too much cross talk and confusion being published about this. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.
BBC Political reporter Laura Kuenssberg has confirmed with #10 that they will not try to bring back the WAB before the election.
Labour has decided to support with a 3 part whip the December elections. Not yet clear the 9th or 12th one..but at this point it looks certain that one of the two will pass.
The government is now apparently proposing a December 11 date as a compromise. Any of these days would surely be fine.
PM Johnson and the Tories have invited 10 of the 21 Tory rebels who were thrown out of the party, back to the party. It is not clear how many of these will accept the offer, or how many will want to run again in the next general election. Boris Johnson personally invites 10 of the 21 Tory rebels back to party Prime Minister Boris Johnson has restored the whip to 10 Conservative MPs who were expelled from the party earlier this year. The Tory MPs lost the whip after they voted for the so-called Benn Act, which aimed to rule out a no deal Brexit. But, the Prime Minister has now personally welcomed 10 of the MPs who were expelled back into the Party. The list, however, does not include former chancellor Philip Hammond or Father of the House, Ken Clarke. The MPs who have been invited back into the Conservative Party, includes: Alistair Burt, Caroline Nokes, Greg Clark, Nick Soames, Ed Vaizey, Margot James, Stephen Hammond, Steve Brine, Richard Harrington, Richard Benyon.
Well, blow me down. The UK Parliament has just voted to hold a general election on December 12, 2019 by a vote of 438-20. Brexit: MPs vote for general election on 12 December Boris Johnson’s wish for a general election on 12 December looks set to be granted after MPs voted in favour of it by 438 to 20; a majority of 418. The prime minister had already defeated an attempt to change the date to 9 December (see: 8.01pm) – the only serious opposition remaining to his proposal – and the bill that seeks to implement a 12 December general election will now pass to the Lords, who are expected to wave it through.
The last Prime Minister's Questions session was held before the election today. House Speaker John Bercow was given tribute by PM Johnson and many other MP's. Bercow gave a misty eyed final address. Former Tory MP Kenneth Clarke also gave his final speech after over 50 years in Parliament. Bercow formally resigns tomorrow, October 31. There is still some question about whether his replacement must be voted in with possibly only one day left in this Parliamentary session. However, if the Lords can get the election bill passed - without any amendments - and a few other house cleaning matters can be tidied up by tomorrow, then it appears that the plan may be to dismiss Parliament tomorrow and then vote in a new Speaker of Parliament when the new Parliament convenes after the election. Obviously, this makes sense. Parliament could be closed down by tomorrow night to enable MPs to hit the campaign trail six days early Parliament could be closed down by tomorrow night to enable MPs to hit the campaign trail six days early, The Sun has learned. The Government is working with Commons officials to work out if they can get all outstanding Parliamentary business done before the close of play tomorrow. No decision has been made on whether it is practically possible to tie everything up by tomorrow night. But three government sources have confirmed to The Sun that they are looking into plans to wrap everything up tomorrow and are “very keen” to do so. One insider said: “We are looking at all the business to get done before we all go off. No decisions made yet.”
The UK Guardian's 14 day moving poll average: 37% - Tories 24% - Labour 18% - Lib Dems 11% - Brexit Party 04% - Greens There is a very nice graph at the link above. A couple of things on this. The Brits use a "first past the post" system, with no runoffs. So with all of these candidates, it is highly likely that the winner will not get better than 50%. If the winner gets 29% and all the rest get less, then the winner still wins. We have a preliminary primary process that reduces these numbers down first. The British do not. Also, there are 650 districts that elect MP's to the UK Parliament. So this math has to be applied individually to each district. Whichever party can muster the support of roughly 325 MP's gets to run the government and appoint the Prime Minister. The number to watch here in my opinion is the Brexit party number, which has been trending steadily downward, as can be seen in the graph at the link. Support for the Brexit Party peaked at about 25% late last May after Theresa May capitulated to the Remainers and then started to make motions towards supporting a second referendum. She was booted out as PM a few weeks later. It is now down to 11% and looking like it will probably continue to trend further downwards. If the Brexit party numbers go below 10%, the Tories are likely to be very strong. If the Brexit Party puts up a lot of candidates opposite the Tories and support goes above, say 15%, that will make the battle more difficult for the Tories. Of course we need to caveat all of this by saying that polls like these are notoriously unreliable and we cannot really know with accuracy how this will turn out until the returns actually come in. But this is the best information we currently have and it shows the Tories leading by 13% in the poll average, which is very strong, by any reasonable assessment. The Remainers wanted a second referendum. Well, this general election is a proxy for a second referendum and the government that comes out of it will determine the destiny of Brexit.
We are still ticking. This time towards a general election on December 12, 2019. The default law of the land is that the UK exits the EU on January 31, 2020.
