UK - Politika i društvo

Revealed: Election pact between Johnson and Farage edges closer

Channels opened between Downing Street and the Brexit Party. Arron Banks prepared to donate substantial funds to Tories if a pact with Farage put in place

Boris Johnson’s aides in Downing Street have “opened channels” with the Brexit Party to discuss a formal general election pact, according to close associates of Nigel Farage.

The two party leaders have not talked since Johnson became Prime Minister. However, back-channel meetings between Number 10 and Brexit Party officials have taken place. Further talks, according to sources contacted by openDemocracy, are scheduled over the coming weekend.

They will include arranging a public meeting between Johnson and Farage that could take place shortly after parliament prorogues next week.
...
The anticipated talks between the two party leaders, according to sources, will initially centre on seats where a Brexit Party challenge to a sitting Tory MP would do most damage. In these seats, where Labour and the Liberal Democrats might come close to winning, the absence of a Brexit Party candidate would assist Johnson’s efforts to remain in Number 10.

Farage is understood to have made clear to colleagues that in any pact he expects a similar sacrifice from the Tories to stand aside in a majority of strong Labour seats in the north of England where the pro-Brexit vote was highest.

expects a similar sacrifice from the Tories to stand aside in a majority of strong Labour seats in the north of England where the pro-Brexit vote was highest.

Gargantua wrote:mislim da je ovamo pozicija bliža. sa ovim isterivanjem 20 torijevaca stranka se pomerila baš u desno, i mislim da je taktičko glasanje lako svarljivo za obe grupe.

korbin ostaje crvena linija za mnoge libdemove, plus su laburisti podeljeni, plus nisu to stranke ujedinjene oko istog cilja, kao što su to ovakve konzerve i faražovci.

plachkica wrote:

"You should be in Brussels, you're in Morley"

Boris Johnson was challenged by a passer-by moments after he arrived in the West Yorkshire town

[Tap to expand] https://t.co/fgEOcKNyQ7 pic.twitter.com/RZzZVeIrRh

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 6, 2019

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/peter-foster-brexit-longread

Fiasco: the inside story of the Brexit talks

UK, Hanbury Strategy poll:

"Which of the following do you think would be worse?"

Jeremy Corbyn (LAB-S&D) becomes Prime Minister: 43%
Britain leaves the EU with No Deal: 35%
They're both equally bad: 23%

Fieldwork: 3-4 September 2019
Sample size: 995#Brexit #BrexitVote

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) September 5, 2019

The prime minister reportedly wrote to Tory members on Friday evening pledging to break the law that will require him to seek an extension of article 50. “They just passed a law that would force me to beg Brussels for an extension to the Brexit deadline. This is something I will never do.”
...

The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith encouraged Johnson to break the law, saying he would be seen as a Brexit “martyr” if judges opted to put him jail for breaching parliament’s terms.

Gargantua wrote:

UK, Hanbury Strategy poll:

"Which of the following do you think would be worse?"

Jeremy Corbyn (LAB-S&D) becomes Prime Minister: 43%
Britain leaves the EU with No Deal: 35%
They're both equally bad: 23%

Fieldwork: 3-4 September 2019
Sample size: 995#Brexit #BrexitVote

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) September 5, 2019

KinderLad wrote:that the UK’s populist turn could damage the EU itself.




To je glavni cilj. Ono što pak recimo Kremlj mnogo bolje razume od ovih pajaca je da će sjebavajući EU sjebati mnogo više od toga. 


No, ima 1 druga stvar - a to su izbori koji će mnoge stvari pogurati na jednu ili drugu stranu, a to nisu britanski izbori, kad god bili

Gargantua wrote:

A “hard Brexit” would undoubtedly disrupt the EU economy, as highlighted in this report by Belgium’s University of Leuven. However, the view in EU capitals has been unchanged since the 2016 referendum: the damage to the British economy would be worse.

After an extraordinary week, what are Johnson’s options now?

The tide is turning. The Brexit extension legislation will go through, unimpeded, possibly as early as today. And Boris Johnson now appears to have lost the fight for an early election, before October 31. He and his team miscalculated parliament’s willingness to grant an election. It turned out to have been a huge tactical error for him to withdraw the whip from 21 Tory rebels - if only because he would have needed their votes to trigger an election. The combination of prorogation of parliament and the suspension of 21 Tories was simply too much for the British soul. They are now all panicking. You can tell this is the case when they start blaming advisers, like Dominic Cummings in this case.

Even the touted possibility of the government launching a vote of no-confidence in itself would probably not work now, because the united opposition would fail to support it. Yesterday, Labour and the SNP got together and agreed to frustrate any attempt for an Oct 14 or 15 election. They fear that Johnson would win it. We agree. What we are struggling to understand is why they believe that Corbyn’s prospects are better as a result. We think the opposite is the case. Maybe some believe that the EU will offer a long transition - until after the scheduled election in 2022, and that the UK parliament would then accept that offer.

We have yet to understand why team Johnson is not frustrating the anti-Brexit legislation through one of the means we have outlined in recent days. The media are silent on this point. If readers have any information on this particular point, we would like to hear it. Maybe they received legal advice. Or they concluded that any further involvement of the Queen would backfire. It is also possible - in theory - that they have a better plan, but we should probably not overestimate their strategic acumen. They certainly did not game the election scenarios carefully enough. The two-thirds majority threshold in the fixed-term parliaments act was always, and remains, formidable.

So what can Johnson do apart from cranking up the rhetoric, like the pledge that he'd rather die in a ditch than ask for an extension? What will he do when the request for an extension is the law?

One option for him is to resign shortly before the critical Oct 17 EU summit. At that point the Queen would have to appoint the leader of the opposition as prime minister. Corbyn's sole job would be to ask for a Brexit extension and make way for elections afterwards, since he commands no parliamentary majority either. The election scenario would be the same as it would have been on Oct 14 - a choice between Johnson and Corbyn. It would make it harder for Johnson to campaign on a Brexit delivery theme when he so clearly failed to deliver Brexit. At the same time, it would allow Johnson to accuse Corbyn of surrendering to the EU, or betrayal of Brexit. The outcome would depend on whether Johnson and Nigel Farage would manage to unite. The election campaign would be horrendous.

Another option for Johnson is to defy the Brexit bill, and risk being impeached by parliament. This is what Robert Peston was suggesting yesterday. Impeachment in the UK is an ancient procedure to try individuals for high treason that is now considered obsolete, in contrast for example to the US. But would it not be easier for parliament to launch a vote of no-confidence and install Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10? We presume that the LibDems might hold their nose, but maybe not all opposition MPs would support Corbyn.  

A third possibility is for Johnson to find some way for the EU to reject the extension. This is probably the smartest choice, but requires a strategy the UK has not yet deployed. The UK could refuse to comply with EU demands attached to an extension, like appointing a European Commissioner. The UK could co-opt another member state ready to wield a veto - maybe against the promise of preferential treatment for its citizens after Brexit. Maybe Johnson could tell the European Council that the request for an extension was forced on him by his parliament, and that the European Council would risk a very disturbing period unless they refuse this reluctant request.

The fourth and least likely possibility is for Johnson to agree a deal. This is something he could have done after an early election.

There is a silver lining for Johnson. The Labour Party is not doing itself any favours. Since the current parliament is not in a position to settle Brexit one way or the other, there is logic to an early election. Voters would not be happy with another Brexit extension. They want to get this over and done with. It was the April extension that put a premature end to Theresa May’s premiership.

Johnson is receiving a lot of bad media coverage now, but five weeks without parliament will give him an opportunity to reassert his authority. His party's conference will undoubtedly reward his uncompromising stance on Brexit. Things might look different then. A reminder of the weakness of Labour’s Brexit strategy came last night on BBC's Question Time when Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, struggled to explain the party's official policy. Labour would renegotiate, put the deal to a referendum, and then campaign against its own deal. This construction is obviously a fudge to cover up deep disagreements inside the party. We don’t think this position would survive an election campaign.


https://www.eurointelligence.com/public.html

Someone shared this under the Times piece. Suspect millions of people feel like this. Many, many millions. They will never come back to the parties they hold responsible. pic.twitter.com/YOECHFVTNH

— Labour Leave (@labourleave) September 7, 2019