BREXIT UPDATE 55: THE FOURTH WEEK

Steve Bell cartoon on Corbyn vs. Mirvis (based on a TV cooking contest called The  Great British Bake-Off).  My money is on Corbyn:      

BREXIT UPDATE 54: GENERAL ELECTION: THE THIRD WEEK What has happened in this crucial half-way week – the third of the five-week election campaign?

Limerick Corner:  There was a Chief Rabbi Called Mirvis My limerick about the Chief Rabbi, posted to #Jews4Labour https://twitter.com/DMaccoby/status/1199386763296460806  

BREXIT UPDATE 53: THE SECOND WEEK

BREXIT UPDATE 52: GENERAL ELECTION: THE FIRST WEEK

BREXIT UPDATE 51: THE RUN-UP TO THE GENERAL ELECTION Yesterday (Tuesday October 29), the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to hold a General Election on December 12.  But on Saturday (October 26), when I posted the last Brexit Update, it seemed that Johnson’s plan for a December 12 election was about to fail; it appeared very unlikely that he would muster the required two-thirds majority for his motion, to be debated on Monday (October 28), for a December 12 General Election, to be held under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act.  So what has happened in the past four days?

BREXIT UPDATE 50: Johnson’s Letter to Corbyn In his letter  to Corbyn#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1] sent on Thursday night (October 24), Johnson seeks to strike a bargain.  He offers to work with Corbyn to create a timetable allowing the Bill to pass through all its stages by November 6, if Corbyn will instruct the Labour Party to vote on Monday for a General Election to be held on December 12.

BREXIT UPDATE 49: Johnson’s Machiavellian Strategy As was expected (see the end of Brexit Update 48), the Speaker rejected the Government’s plan of holding another “meaningful vote” motion on Johnson’s deal on Monday (October 21).  Instead the deal returned to the House of Commons on Tuesday (October 22) as a Withdrawal Agreement Bill undergoing its Second Reading (the First Reading occurred when the Bill was briefly tabled and thus formally introduced to the Commons on Monday).

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BREXIT UPDATE 48: The Letwin Amendment At the end of Brexit Update 47, I briefly mentioned the complicated amendment (short but very complicated in its intention), that had been tabled by the rebel ex-Tory MP Sir Oliver Letwin to the motion on Johnson’s deal.    This amendment was intended to pre-empt the possibility that Johnson could take the UK out of the EU without a deal on October 31, even if his deal were to pass.

BREXIT UPDATE 47: Johnson’s Sleight-of-Hand Deal To do Boris Johnson credit, hardly anyone thought a deal could be concluded in five days and nights.  But EU and UK negotiators were engaged in “intense technical talks”, seemingly non-stop, day and night, till a deal was finally agreed on Thursday morning.

BREXIT UPDATE 46: JOHNSON’S SCHRODINGER’S BACKSTOP On October 2, the day after I posted my last Brexit Update, Boris Johnson publicly outlined — in a letter sent to Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission — the UK government’s proposals for an alternative to the Irish backstop.

BREXIT UPDATE 45 There are two big Brexit stories since my last Update two weeks ago:  the Labour Party Conference’s decisions on Labour’s position on Brexit  and the Supreme Court’s ruling on Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament.  First, in chronological order, the Labour Party Conference.

BREXIT UPDATE 44:  CORBYN AND THE UK’S SANITY GAP

BREXIT UPDATE 43: BORIS IN BREXITLAND

BREXIT UPDATE 42: THE STORM BREAKS

MAJORITY VERSUS MINORITY: How the Supreme Court Reasons

 Tue, Sep 10 2019    6:30 pm – 9:00 pm    Central Library, Trustees Room

BREXIT UPDATE 41:  Corbyn Cuts Through the Confusion

BREXIT UPDATE 40: PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS

BREXIT UPDATE 39: Johnson vs. Corbyn

BREXIT UPDATE 38:  Parliament Shows its Strength

BREXIT UPDATE 37: CORBYN FIGHTS BACK

BREXIT UPDATE 36:  Corbyn Under Fire The Conservative Leadership Contest

BREXIT UPDATE 35: Boris and the Red Wine on the Sofa The Conservative Leadership contest has now been whittled down to the final two candidates: the former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and the present Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt; they will engage in 16 hustings debates over the next few weeks.  Tory Party members will receive their ballot papers between July 6 and July 8; and the name of the new Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister is expected to be announced in the week beginning July 22. Rounds 2 to 5

BREXIT UPDATE 34: The Conservative Leadership Contest The Rules of the Game

My dear comrade Christos, you lived all your life with dignity. You will always be dearly remembered for your infinite support of the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom. May your soul rest in power. Sana

BREXIT UPDATE 33: The Peterborough By-Election This was a week dominated in the British news by President Trump’s State Visit to the UK and the D-Day anniversary commemorations – but in terms of Brexit, the main story is the Peterborough by-election.  Minor though this sounds in comparison to these other two events, it is significant in relation to Brexit and a future General Election, even though its main moral is the need to go beyond Brexit.

BREXIT UPDATE 32: The European Parliament Elections

BREXIT UPDATE 31: The Maybot’s Fate is Sealed

BREXIT UPDATE 30: THE MAYBOT AND THE MEN IN GREY SUITS There have been dramatic developments since I posted Brexit Update 29 last Friday.  It is best to divide them into four main overlapping areas: 1) The Withdrawal Agreement Bill  (WAB) and the Maybot’s future; 2) The Labour/Conservative talks; 3) The latest polls for the European Parliament elections on May 23, together with hypothetical polls for a General Election, if it were to be held tomorrow;  4) Divisions within Labour over a second referendum. 1) The Withdrawal Agreement Bill and the Maybot’s Future