Boris Pfeffel Johnson elected UK Prime Minister. . .MSM in meltdown.

[Marty_d]

We can only hope.

 

Now watch the apoplectic old Brexiteers start frothing at the mouth about the judiciary.

 

 

[facthunter]

 Unanimous  and 11 judges in agreement, but you are correct ." Unlawful and VOID."  There are none so blind as those who will not see. IF the LAW doesn't apply to pollies, dog help us. Betty Windsor will not be amused.(Of that you may rest assured. From day one THIS was wrong and obviously so from a must operate perspective and a Democratic (government of the people BY the people) and just illustrates how some Tories still "think". ALL people are equal, but some are MORE equal than others. (Animal Farm) if my memory serves me correctly.   Nev

 

 

[Methusala]

Why in h*ll's name didn't the damn Mrs Majesty do her homework? Shows the arrogance of the ruling class. 

 

 

[Litespeed]

Maj by law and convention is bound to accept the advice of the prime minister. She has almost no ability to test or refuse the advice.

 

Its a flaw of the system not her. Even if she didn't want to , she must assent. 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

What will history remember Boris for?

 

Getting Britain out of Europe, or forcing a nice old lady into a corner?

 

 

[Yenn]

I think the Brits want to just keep on in limbo. Delay Brexit for how long? What good will it do the country?

 

It just shows how good Theresa May was. She never wanted Brexit and has just about scuttled it. I bet she has a smile on her face.

 

The system is flawed as it is for us and the Yanks. It has become a dictatorship, where we hand over all power to one man, while we thing democracy is happening.

 

In Australia and the UK we don't even get the chance to vote for our dictator, we vote for someone else, who gets to vote for us.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Public opinion is largely a product of the diet it's fed. 

 

Too much junk food and we get very unhealthy decisions.

 

 

[Marty_d]

What will history remember Boris for?

 

Getting Britain out of Europe, or forcing a nice old lady into a corner?

 

He'll be remembered?

 

 

[facthunter]

 Yes he will. Damage is probably more remembered than good deeds and potentially on a greater scale, with a longer lasting effect. The IDEA of the Queen accepting the Prime Monster's word was the assumption it would be the view of the government at the time. Boris only represents himself.. Nev

 

 

[Marty_d]

I get the feeling he won't be there long enough to be remembered.  Yes I know it's folly to predict anything in this particular time in history, but my thought is that he'll be gone before Brexit happens.

 

 

[spacesailor]

If Brexit does NOT happen, The Republicans will be a shoe-in at the next election. 

 

Trouble is the pollies will still be there in the New republic.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Marty_d]

What Republicans?  I thought the UK had Conservatives and Labour.

 

 

[spacesailor]

SAME AS, Australia, People who don't like our,  & their constitution.

 

A republic without a vote for our leader, Is politicians dream, to get that top job, (idi amin) Presidenti !.

 

(don't forget England tried it once)

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Yenn]

Mention of Idi Amin reminds me. I was in the UK on holiday years ago and the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting was about to happen. The big question was would Idi Amin appear. He was hated at the time and the Poms couldn't decide what to do if he appeared. Would they welcome him or throw him in jail?

 

He kept away.

 

The other thing I remember from that trip, My wife and I got on a bus in London to travel a short distance at night. There were rolling power outages and all the traffic lights stopped working, so we sat on a stationary bus and talked to the other people. We were the only white people, We were the only people who had been born in England, We were the only people who didn't live in England.

 

 

[spacesailor]

THAT LAST BIT.

 

IS

 

LUCKY

 

you. LoL   .... ( don't have to wait for Brexit)

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Yenn]

It looks as if the biggest stumbling block to Boris is Northern Ireland, so what's new?

 

Northern Ireland didn't want to join with Eire and the Brits fought for years against the Sin Fein. Now they don't want to leave Eire. They should have been cut adrift many years ago.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

A friend from that way told me that people in Northern Ireland are getting Republic passports without problems, and in big numbers, this will probably lead to reunification.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Maybe a little "unbiased"* reporting form the ground..

 

Firstly - the only people who really like BJ are the same types that really like Trump... And thankfully, they are a minority (albeit larger than most predicted in the UK. However. as unpopulare and buffooned as he is portrayed in the media, there is little doubt he is a clever oeprator.. And there is little doubt he would get in should an election be held. He wants an election because it would a) give him 5 years as PM and b) give him the mandate to get Brexit done.

 

So, let's look at a couple of the assertions here:

 

He wasn't elected by the people. I love this one. He was.. I hate to say.. Because, as with Australia, one votes for their local MP, not the leader. Of course, in practical terms, one is voting for either the leader or the political party; rarely for the MP. However, at the end of the day, it is the team that can command the majority of the house (not necessarily have the majority).. That means, as with Australia, the team that commands the majority can change their leader and therefore the PM. Australia has done it as well (I think Rudd was ousted by the ALP of late, certainly Keating's first tenure as PM was after stabbing Hawke in the back - and he didn't just operate a caretaker government until Hews unceromoniously threw himself under a bus by doing the same thing that Theresa May did.. promise a brand new tax.

 

I feel Boris will be elected for the sole purpose of getting the UK out oif the election. Once that is over and done with, he will be in shaky ground. It beggars belief that people are willing to turn a blind eye to some of his antics which are becoming very public - but the public are willing to do anything now to get out of the EU.. even many but the mist ardent remainers are going that way (yes, there are Brexit voters who want the thing reversed too).. People are sick of it. And people are realising it will not be the armageddon it was originally portrayed as (Even Carney - the Bank of England Governor has said their previpus forecasts overstated the forecast effects). This uncertainty is killing the economy and while one side claims businesses are not ready yet (they have had 3.5 years) and the other side claims they are, the companies I have worked for an know people who have worked for have all planned for a no deal Brexit from Day 1. For some industries, this is hard as it would be a massive infrastructure investment to handle disrupted supply chains, but the inability to plan for the future is the problem - the option takne itself is not a bid deal to them anymore.

 

The proroguing of parliament being illegal - I agree that BJ was doing this to circumvent the operation of democracy, as after all, parliament is what in theUK is defined as the vehicle of democracy. UK democracy, like Australia, operates a representative democracy; i.e. it is parliament that determines through its vote, the laws of the land and largely how things are goverened. However, unlike Australia, which has a constitution, the UK operates under the doctrine of Palrliamentary Sovereignty with residual royal perogative powers of the soverign exercised by the government. One of those sovereign powers is prorouging parliament. I don't disagree that BJ had in mind muting parliament so he could get Brexit through.. we have to put tis into context.

 

An excellent article by a radio presenter/journalist, albeit one who voted Brexit but seems to have moderate views is this one: https://www.iaindale.com/articles/calm-down-calm-down-prorogation-is-not-the-end-of-democracy-as-we-know-it. Interetingly, it is common to prorouge this time of year and BJ's prorougation was for a week longer than normal (depending on who you speak to).

 

However, the Supreme court ruled it was illegal, anf their judgment seems reasonable to me in that under the Bill of Rights (1685 or thereabouts) parliament did not ascent to it. However, there are two things that have been questioned by lawyers resulting from this case.. Firstly, the Supreme Court itself, as the highest court is not served by the highest judges of the land, apparently. I read somewhere that as an institution, the High Court has the most senior judges of the land and the Supreme Court has senior judges mainly from the family court.. I am not sure how true that is. But the Lord Cheif Justice and the Master of the Rolls are the highest judges and don't sit on it (and btw, they found it lawful). This, admittedly, may have an element of  conspiracy theory.

 

However, they raise another point and that is, it is clearly a royal perogative and that the queen herself signed it. Now, the queen assents to many things and as pointed out, by convention, signs. This includes Royal assent to Aussie acts of palriament (well, she has delegated this to her governors and governor generals.. and she is acting as the Quee n of Australia, but you get my drift). Under constutional law, the courts have no more power to inquire into the legality of the use of the royal perogative than they do an act of parliament... and many lawyers, even in Scotland, are questioning the validity of the judgement.. Of course, those same lawyers are hailing it as a victory for democracy, as I am.. Whichever, the PM is subject to the law and what was found was he exceeded it. We have to accept this or society breaks down.

 

We also have to remember that democracy is representative.. and in that, parliamentarians vote on various laws to determine how the country is governed.. but in a representative democracy, this should be about acting on behalf of the will of the people and not frustrating it. Brexit has been expressly shown to be something the people want.. although by a small majority. It is encument on parliament to deliver Brexit. In the referendum, it was in or out.. no conditions, no guarantees, no "deals". When I looked at the ballot paper, one of my thoughts was if the exit vote gets up, it is in the hands of the pollies.. people will have to be trusting.

 

I don't think the desire of the people has changed much since. People may have voted for something out of protest, out of spite, out of ideology or out of being able to profit from it. However, they did without coercion.. and the worry is democracy is not being delivered.

 

Also, who are Bojos competitors? Jeremy Corbyn is an outright commie loony who fraternises with terrorists.. In fact, my partner has agreed if he gets in, we are Aussie bound. Swinson - absolutely defiant of democracy.. and the Brexit party - Farage? Yuk!

 

Watch this space..

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I could not have said it better Jerry.

 

A few things which seem to have been forgotten, or rather swept beneath the rug in this whole screamathon is that PM John Major prorogued parliament for a period of Six Weeks during his tenure, Wholly to prevent the publication of a damning report detailing MPs of All colours seriously fiddling their parliamentary expenses purely for self enrichment. this, on top of their lavish salaries as 'Rubber Stampers' of all and any EU diktat.

 

Not a word was said about the suspension of democracy at the time. . .there was certainly no mention of this on any UK news print nor electronic media.   Interestingly, around a year later; a law was quietly passed in order to preclude publishing of expenses, or the illegal swip swapping of their official and private homes claimed upon Members expenses.

 

It ought to be remembered also that John Major when PM, signed the Maastricht treaty, which began the imprisonment of the UK into rule by the EU, without an act of parliament NOR a public plebiscite / referendum.    PM Gordon Brown followed this up by signing the LISBON Treaty, this was the big doozy which ended the sovereignty of the UK, . . .signed in the dead of night with no parliamentary authority or referendum. 

 

Lisbon was the BIG one, tying the UK into every new wheeze that the unelected EU commission came up with. 

 

Lisbon contains small items like, accellerating economic and monetary union, which included adopting the Euro, plus the total control of ALL UK Armed forces further down the line.  ( This part is about three quarter done already. . . )

 

No wonder he signed it on the quiet.

 

and, in true Politician style, Brown batted away minor criticism saying that Lisbon was merely a 'Tidying Up' exercise. ! ! !

 

So thanks to PM Edward Heath, lying about what our joining the EEC ( common Market) really meant, (and admitting that he lied some years later )

 

John Major and Gordon Brown stitched up the rest of the underhand deals.  Margaret Thatcher, when PM, would never have allowed any of this which is why they had to get rid of her.

 

 

[nomadpete]

It sounds like a story of democracy's death by a thousand cuts.

 

We colonist seldom get such insights into what's happening or how it's happening..

 

But I blame that on our yankcentric MSM.

 

BTW, are any other countries unhappy

 

 with their membership of the EU?

 

 

[Methusala]

Ask Greece!!!

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Italy is bending against the EU.

 

The newer entrant countries are all for it as they have benefited economically and to some degree, socially. Although the refugee crisis stretched some of their thoughts on the EU. Poland and I think Hungary, have had very public tussles of incompatibility with the EU and their laws. Ireland love the EU. Germany and France effectively control trh EU and France ol;y really opt in when they like it (OK - I may be being a little cynical with that - but they decided they didn't like EASAs approach to cost sharing, so they slapped on their own rules that are tsupposed to be time limited to give them a chance to appeal to the EU to have the rule changed - when they lost that appeal - they kept the rule slapped on)..

 

In all honesty, the only poll I will believe about whether a country wants to stay in or come out of the EU is the poll where the people are formally asked in an election. I have heard/seen polls ranging from 35% wish to leave to 55%.. I think the truth lay somewhere in between...

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Ask Greece!!!

 

Greece has been a basket case for decades due to endemic corruption throughout it's government and public services. Their worst mistake has always been the fact that hardly anyone pays taxes, especially those who are moderately financially 'Comfortable'  and certainly the rich..  The bottom limit for tax paying is always quoted by those owning yachts as beong a couple of Drachma / Euros below the limit and NO ONE ever checks.

 

This was highlighted by a long time friend of mine, who lived and worked on the island of Rhodes for nearly nine years.

 

He is / was a specialist ceramic tile fitter. . .( Everything in Greece is ceramic tiled ) He was self employed, used a Greek accountant and never paid a cent of tax for the whole time that he worked there, his wife worked in the public service, and she ( Apparently ) didn't earn enough to pay tax either ( ! ) 

 

They were shown by a Greek neighbour how to tap in to the electric supply cable in their back garden, so never paid an electricity bill either so had their Aircon for free. . .   All in all, the Greeks are wholly and collectively responsible for the dire situation that they now in find themselves in, and why the Germans now own most of their airports and many other pieces of infrastructure.

 

Not much sympathy for them from most other EU members. 

 

 

[Methusala]

Those who wish to view the situation that Greece has been forced to endure due to the depredations of "The Gnomes of Brussels" may read Ioannis Georgiou "Yanis" Varoufakis' excellent book, "And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe's crisis, America's economic future".

 

Speaking on the question of the proposed Brexit he said, "My message is simple yet rich: those of us who disdain the democratic deficit in Brussels, those of us who detest the authoritarianism of a technocracy which is incompetent and contemptuous of democracy, those of us who are most critical of Europe have a moral duty to stay in Europe, fight for it, and democratise it."

 

Yanis has excellent credentials in this field, having served as Greece's Finance Minister in the Tsipras government until he was forced to quit over his opposition to concessions made to Brussels on austerity.

 

The UK can expect little mercy from the EU down the track if it exits Europe.

 

 

[Yenn]

I wonder what mercy Britain would get if they stay in Europe.

 

I reckon it all goes to when they supported general De Gaulle and made France a part of the 3 western powers controlling Germany after the war.