Off Topic UK politics and brexit ramblings

Boris Johnson has been blocked by Ruth Davidson from attending Scottish Conservative party conference in Aberdeen this weekend.
Scottish Tory sources said a number of potential leadership candidates had been “discouraged” from attending the event, which begins on Friday, amid concerns their appearance could distract from party leader Davidson’s return from maternity leave, insisting the decision was not personal.
Davidson appeared to downplay Johnson’s chances of success in any leadership contest in an interview on STV’s Scotland Tonight on Thursday night. She said: “Let’s remember that not everyone people talk about being a frontrunner make it to the starting line: Boris didn’t last time.”

 

As in the scottish conservatives hate the english as much as the rests of the jocks

they got a few seats back from SNP last election by being scottish not being the lap dogs of boris and co.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/ceeqy0e9894t/england-local-elections-2019

the residents association party I ask you.... has more seats right now than UKIP


360 "independants"

says it all about what people think.

the leavers are clinging to the fact labour has lost a couple of places that would be consider a lock and they were firmly leave in 2016.....

Tories getting a terrible kicking... lets ignore that.

lib dems doubling up.. nah meaningless.

 

so Tories are over 1000 seats down now with a few more council results to come.

That's a 25% hammering.

Labour are down 100.

lib dems as the remain party are up 500+

but may says this is the country saying get on and deliver brexit....

 

Local elections: Tories and Labour hit by Brexit backlash in polls
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48142181

 

Its bizarre how losing over 1000 seats is comparable to losing 100 seats according to the media.
Sure Labour have take a beating, but the Tories have take an absolute hammering

And the parties that wanting a 2nd referendum, Lib Dem and Green, have major gains. Your right that's a clear sign people still want Brexit

Also nod to the Green's, which shows that the people have more care for wanting to do something to save the planet than MPs.

 

greens is always a protest vote.

the lib dems have more than doubled in size. like... that is a very clear signal imo.

Their total size is less than what the Tories have lost though.

 

err Independants have gained almost as many as Lib Dems who were fighting from an incredibly low position.

 

true but they are also a great protest vote.

like residents associations.

it's interesting to see where Tories have lost seats and to whom regionally.

lib dems is a specific we are remain party. the independents could for all.sorts of anything.

you could say in theory if you are may those independents are all hard brexit votes but of course that's bollocks

 

Think it was more punish Tories i particular but also Lab and who else got voted for was almost immaterial.

 

Theresa May has interpreted the election results as the public saying they're disappointed about the delays to her #brexit deal going through.

 

Labour were down last time and are down again so certainly that says labour have not capitalised like they did in ge.

But what's happening with lib dems cannot be ignored either. People unhappy with both parties so.. ??

 

considering the losses of both Labour & Conservative plus UKIP i would have expected Lib Dems to do better tbh.

 

It's now 1300 seats lost for tories
Labour lost 70

The thing about lib dems is exactly how many candidates did they have? they are 695 up which means they have doubled in size..... could they have actually done better? I don't know

The greens added 193 which is like trebling party or more...

UKIP could be considered wiped out by ending up with 31 seats and losing 133.

612 new independents....

What we do know is the lib dems took control of 10 councils which most Tory loses have ended up with no one party controlling the council.

They dounled the amount of councils they control.

 

The only thing I am thinking now is the parliamentary branches of the Tory and Labour partys will be so shaken by this that there's absolutely no way either want an election now.

The remain labour might but I reckon there will be a hell of a hot of hoping for a full term now not a 2019election.

 

British Prime Minister Theresa May has carried out "scenario planning" for a second Brexit referendum in case she is forced by parliament to hold one, according to UK media reports.
Mrs May is hoping to find a way to get parliament to approve a Brexit plan without another public vote, but talks with the opposition Labour Party on a compromise exit strategy have yet to reach an agreement.
The 'Daily Telegraph' reported Mrs May had discussions with officials and ministers about holding a referendum that would give voters the choice between leaving the European Union with a deal, leaving without a deal, or not leaving at all.
The report cited unnamed government sources, who said the referendum plan would only become relevant if talks with Labour failed and a majority in parliament supported holding another public vote.
The newspaper said a source in Mrs May's office denied there had been a meeting to discuss a second EU referendum.
Britain's 2016 vote to leave the EU, which was split 52pc for Brexit and 48pc against, has continued to divide the country and paralyse the political system.
Mrs May's minority government missed a March 29 exit date and there is huge uncertainty over how, when, and even if Britain will leave.
She has publicly opposed holding a second referendum and has said if talks with Labour fail, parliament will be asked to vote on a series of options on how to break the impasse. However, those options have not yet been decided.
Talks with Labour, which has pledged conditional support for a second referendum, are due to resume today and ministers have spent recent days talking up the prospect of a swift deal.
However, leaked details on a possible compromise have angered Labour's negotiators, and politicians from both sides have expressed their opposition to a cross-party deal.
Ministers have urged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to do a deal with the Conservative government to break the deadlock.
Reports over the weekend suggested Mrs May was poised to propose a temporary customs arrangement with the European Union.
But shadow chancellor John McDonnell accused the prime minister of jeopardising the talks, claiming she had "blown the confidentiality" of the discussions.
He said he no longer trusts Mrs May, following reports in the 'Sunday Times' she was prepared to give ground in three areas: customs, goods alignment and workers' rights.
Meanwhile, Rory Stewart, the newly appointed international development secretary, warned the Tories could lose four million voters if the party takes a harder line on Brexit and tries to "outdo" Nigel Farage.
He said Labour and the Conservatives' positions were a "quarter of an inch apart", telling Sky News' 'Sophy Ridge of Sunday': "I think a deal can be done, a lot of this rests on whether Jeremy Corbyn really wants to deliver a Brexit deal. But I think if he wants to do it, it will be actually surprisingly easy to do because our positions are very, very close."
And Mrs May wrote in the 'Mail on Sunday': "To the leader of the opposition, I say this: let's listen to what the voters said in the elections and put our differences aside for a moment. Let's do a deal."
Elsewhere, a poll by political blog Conservative Home found 82pc of respondents want Mrs May to stand down as party leader and to call a leadership election.
Mr Stewart, who also confirmed he would be a candidate to be the next prime minister when Mrs May stands down, said: "Most Brexit voters voted for the Conservative Party but four million Remain voters voted for the Conservative Party. If the Conservative Party were to make the mistake of trying to outdo Nigel Farage, which I'm sure we won't but it is something that a few of my colleagues are talking about, then we would lose those four million voters."

 

Brexit: UK 'has to fight European elections', says David Lidington
The UK will have to fight European elections, despite hopes from the government a Brexit deal would be done by then, says the PM's de facto deputy.

The vote is due on 23 May, but Theresa May said the UK would not have to take part if MPs agreed a Brexit plan first.

Now, David Lidington says "regrettably" it is "not going to be possible to finish that process" before the date the UK legally has to take part.

He said the government would try to make the delay "as short as possible".

The UK was due to leave the EU on 29 March, but as no deal was agreed by Parliament, the EU extended the deadline to 31 October.

It can leave the bloc earlier, but if the UK has not left by 23 May, it is legally obliged to take part in the EU-wide poll and to send MEPs to Brussels.

Mrs May's spokesman said she "deeply regrets" that the UK did not leave as planned in March and recognised many people felt "great frustration" that the European elections were going ahead.

But she hoped Parliament would agree a Brexit plan before MEPs start their session in July.

The deadline to register for the EU elections is Tuesday 7 May.

The government has resumed talks with Labour to try to break the deadlock in Parliament over the terms of withdrawing from the EU. It has promised that if no compromise is reached, it will offer indicative votes on possible next steps to Parliament.

Arriving at the talks, Labour's shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said it was "crunch time, where the government has got to decide whether it is serious about significant changes capable of actually delivering a majority in the House of Commons".

• May to meet senior Tory amid calls to resign
• Brexit: Stepping stone to progress?
• European elections: What you need to know

A number of other parties have already announced their candidates and launched their European election campaigns, but the Conservatives have yet to do the same.

Cabinet Office Minister Mr Lidington said: "Given how little time there is, it is regrettably not going to be possible to finish that process before the date that's legally due for the European Parliamentary elections.

"We very much hoped that we would be able to get our exit sorted… so that those elections did not have to take place, but legally they do have to take place unless our withdrawal has been given legal effect."

Mr Lidington said the government would be "redoubling efforts" in its talks with other parties to find a way forward to "make sure that the delay after [the elections] is as short as possible".

He added: "We would like to be in a situation… certainly to get this done and dusted by the summer recess."

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Analysis
By Chris Morris, BBC Reality Check

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Image copyright PA
Even if an unexpected deal were to emerge in the next few days between the Conservatives and Labour, it would only be a very tentative first step towards Brexit, with no guarantee that it would enjoy a parliamentary majority.

And a first step isn't enough.

The conclusions of last month's EU summit, agreed by all EU leaders including Theresa May, said that if the Brexit withdrawal agreement has not been ratified in parliament by 22 May, the European elections will have to take place in the UK.

The ratification process means Parliament would have to pass a meaningful vote on the withdrawal agreement (the deal negotiated between the government and the EU), and then turn it into UK law in the form of a Withdrawal Agreement Bill.

And, as Mr Lidington has now conceded formally, time to do all of that has run out.

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Some Brexiteers are angry at Mrs May's efforts to find a compromise with Labour after her deal with the EU was effectively rejected by MPs three times.

One leading Eurosceptic, Sir Bill Cash, told the Press Association "the time has come" for the PM to resign and she "needs to be given a date".

But Chancellor Philip Hammond defended the cross-party talks, suggesting the government had no other option.

Sir Keir said Labour would be "pressing [the government] hard" for a solution this afternoon, and a "confirmatory ballot" - or further referendum - on a deal would "always be on the agenda".

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he was hoping to see "movement from government" when talks resume this afternoon.

He said they would go on "for the rest of this week, and then we'll see where we're at".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48188951

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Go on for rest of this week then see where we are at

Think most of us could answer that now ffs.

An ****ing shambles

 

Liverpool refuse to leave Europe.