Er... prorogation is a Crown prerogative and is not subject to a vote in the House. That's kind of the point.

er yes ldo but it could be changed - which was the point being considered.

The difference to a dissolution is clear to me, of course the house has to stop sitting at some point before a GE. So the only other use is basically to set the beginning of the obligatory parliament "vacation" before the new session. So essentially Johnson just tried to start it earlier than the usual ~1 week before?

So once prorogation could be used to pause a parliamentary session whenever for whatever reason, until that was stopped (by a court rule or a law btw?). It is a general tool in in principle, but it's only allowed to be used for two specific reasons now.

Yeah, thanks, mostly. Johnson tried and was caught. Isn't the Queen (I assume she has some legal council) obliged to check that stuff somewhat? I mean it's the law since the 17th century, they do it every year, and didn't it raise eyebrows already when the plan was announced? Could the Queen involve the High Court right from the start?

It's not as simple as being presented. It's generally accepted (and found by the English court) that they acted within the law but that the supreme court, which itself is new, 'developed' the law further than before. The queen and her advisers would have no way of predicting this - in fact before the case most expert commentators seemed to think it was lawful and everyone afaict was stunned by the unanimous ruling.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/n...nson-h8m7wlpg2

Bye bye Boris

Hey, Debbie Harry wrote her memoirs!

That would require shame, and a break from his hedge fund pay masters. He's not capable of either. He'll be thrown out soon enough then he'll turn into a Farage like figure. Great for the country I'm sure.

Oh he won't go by choice. Would love to see him go against his will.

I'd rather he was put to the sword. I don't know what the climate is like there but we have mongs still here in thailand thinking he's a man of the people, its ****ing bizarre to see these guys who have left thailand talking about immigrants. The movement has definitely been co-opted.

This is pretty incredible. In 2015 Labour lost 40 of it's 41 Scottish MP's, Ian Murray was the sole survivor and he actually managed to increase his majority. In 2017 he increased it further making it the safest seat in Scotland. Now Unite vote to trigger him. I would say it's unbelievable but Labour have been intent on electoral suicide for a while now so maybe not.

Don't know the Murray specifics but Labour & the SNP are in de facto political alignment and it's smart for both parties.

Murray definitely isn’t in alignment with the SNP and that’s why he’s been so successful electorally. His constituency isn’t exactly a natural Labour area but he appeals to a broad section of the electorate many of whom have one goal, to keep the SNP out. If he somehow does lose this vote and stands as an independent he will wipe the floor with whichever far left clone they try to replace him with.

Never even heard of the fella, that’s how much of an irrelevance Labour have become up here. They were already in decline but since Corbyn got his man Richard Leonard into the leadership role and the inevitable purge of the moderates that followed they’ve been an utter shambles. And that’s proven again by the fact they’re trying to get rid of an MP who has the largest majority in the country, increasing it from 300 in 2010 to 15,500 in 2017. He’s a moderate so he must be purged.

Accepted wisdom on my twitter feed is the SNP are pushing to get an election in before Salmond's trial, which is due to start in January/February. Is this true? How damaging could the trial be to the SNP's popularity?

That’s the case. The hardcore won’t care whatever the outcome but there are issues around discussions he had with Sturgeon about the allegations that could possibly see the end of her political career. In addition to the above it sounds as though certain Scottish govt emails may have been wiped despite instructions that they shouldn’t be in case they were required for the investigation.
A recent issue has also arisen as it’s come out that Sturgeon has been using a SNP email account rather than her government one for government business thereby avoiding the scrutiny of FOI enquiries. Again, this may have implications for the upcoming trial, we don’t know though.

Elections dominated by coverage of a female politician's private email use are always great fun.

Yeah it all sounds familiar...

In this case though it has jus been brushed aside and a relatively compliant media just move on. Time will tell if it gains any traction, as it should.

Very good news

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...itics-50177150

All constituency member branches voted to reselect him. Unite completely shown up here

Owen Jones on newsnight is bang on. We have to block boris's deal and have a GE on a platform of let the people decide and domestic politics. Be positive and go for it. (I had wanted the 2nd ref, which I disagreed with him about, but it doesn't appear to be on).

He also correctly points out that people underestimated how ruthless boris would be in getting a deal and that the opposition has to act and drive events. We don't have to agree to boris's plan, the opposition can force a GE and they need to now (unless by some miracle they can form a government and get the 2nd ref)


[this is all under the reasonable assumption that the EU offer a long enough extension]

And Jonathon Freedland in the Guardian is pointing out the issue with a General Election and why Labour, quite rightly, fear it.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...e_iOSApp_Other