Rees-Mogg would be a disaster in reality in that heās an utterly shameless, plutocratic, Trump-like con man who wants to turn the clock back to the 1920s.
Whether he would be a disaster electorally is another thing entirely.
There is a significant proportion of the voting English public who would get almost sexually aroused at an Eton-educated Tory leader constantly invoking Agincourt and Waterloo.
Theyāll have a choice between two of them soon enough.
Getting 502 errors all over the place on the other thread so posting here.
Itās possible Labour could win an election now (ie. in the next six weeks) but Iād say it would be by no means likely in the hypothetical event one was held.
For Labour to be likely to win an election at some point this year, I think Corbyn has to embrace the second referendum first. The enthusiasm he built up in 2017 has dissipated significantly because he has been so stubborn, and his core support is overwhelmingly pro-Remain.
That said, Corbyn is a better campaigner than May and could make up the ground he lost if there were to be a snap election - Labour supporting Remainers are highly unlikely to jump ship even if they arenāt satisfied with party policy on Brexit.
Anyway, the no confidence vote wonāt succeed, and May will hang on and try to push her deal to the wire in the hope of either forcing it through as is or getting the Irish to fold over the backstop.
I do feel thereās a good chance of an election at some point this year, hell knows who would lead the Tories into it.
I think thereās a chance Labour implode over this, actually. Once the no confidence vote fails, Corbyn has one last chance to shift policy to favouring a second referendum. If he doesnāt, all hell could break loose. There would even be an outside chance of a split.
I donāt really, as may will cling on grimly, neither the tories nor the dup will vote against her as they know they would quite likely be eviscerated, so itās hard to see the mechanism by which another ge is triggered.
Well, if May eventually pushes or blackmails through some form of deal including a backstop, and I wouldnāt yet rule it totally rule out, the DUP would surely have to abandon her.
On the other hand, if such a deal was to eventually go through and the DUP pull the plug after the event, itās sort of pointless because the DUP would have failed to prevent the exact thing they threatened to bring the government down over, and they would have failed to āprotect the unionā.
What I think could happen now is that this sleepwalking to deadline day will continue, and the Tories and their associated nutters in the press will go full metal jacket on the Irish government in a blackmail attempt to get them to fold over the backstop.
The Brits know that the EU will not fold on the backstop. But they probably figure that if Ireland was to go the EU and ask them to drop the backstop, they would.
To do this, to get Ireland to āfoldā, they could try and create a narrative that the Irish government will be the ones responsible for a return to bloodshed if there is a hard border and push this relentlesssly. Anti-Irish sentiment in Britain could get extremely nasty.
Irexiteer charlatan Ray Bassett was pushing just such a narrative blaming the Irish government on the Marian Finucane Show on Sunday last.
There canāt be a āhardā border in Ireland - GFA says so, itās legally binding, protected internationally
and thereās nuttin nobody can do about it.
There canāt be an open border - because Europe canāt allow it, the brits canāt allow it.
If the UK has an open border in Ireland then itās effectively an open border- not only with Europe, but with the rest of the world.
If thereās no deal and the UK refuses to enforce a hard border, every other country in the world has 0% tariff access to the UK market under WTO rules, with no reciprocity.
A second referendum would require a defined Brexit, either no deal or Mayās deal. The only realistic way this could be done, and in which disinformation could be minimised, is in a two part referendum. Define Brexit once and for all, then run it off against Remain. It would be no slam dunk for Remain, however, perhaps a 50-50 chance at best.
But for all the talk of a second referendum, itās difficult to see it gathering the votes required to force one.
A unilateral withdrawal off Article 50 is another possibility. It could even be the most likely route out of no deal, given that there is a majority in parliament against no deal.
To avoid a no deal, there still has to be a materially significant change in circumstances. Itās very difficult to tell what that will be, if it happens at all, and from where it comes from.
A majority in parliament against no deal, but also probably a majority in parliament in favour of honouring the 2016 referendum. And unlikely to be a majority in Parliament for any withdrawal deal that the EU would agree to. With both main party leaders determined to honour the referendum, no deal and the shifting of all blame to the EU and Ireland looks the most likely outcome here id say.
They just need to go back to the EU and get a new deal, one that doesnāt include a backstop or any other, as yet undetermined, aspect that any of the 650 MPs donāt like about the current deal on offer. They just need to get on with it. Brexit means Brexit.
She should just blummin well get on a plane and go to Brussels and tell the frogs and the krauts that they should just jolly well give them a proper deal. Thatāll show them.
Britainās negotiating strategy essentially amounts to that of a fading celebrity shoplifting a suit from Marks and Spencer and then shouting at the security guard who apprehends them: āDonāt you know who I am?ā