British Politics Guide

[MacAnDàil]

Yes, he likely dropped tou support his pal Sunak (who might lose to May mark 2 Truss or May mark 2 Mordaunt)

Well, I was right that Sunak would lose that one, but I had thought Truss would be less spectacularly useless than that.

It might actually have been funnier (for onlookers and in the long run only) with Johnson back. With the Tories resigning en masse, there could have been so many byelections like with Major and Callaghan but even more dramatic.

[hwhatting]

It might actually have been funnier (for onlookers and in the long run only) with Johnson back.

Yes, I guess the fun part is over now. Looks like the grown-ups have taken the reins again. And here I had hoped that the Tories would self-destuct for good...

[Arkasas]

It might actually have been funnier (for onlookers and in the long run only) with Johnson back.

Yes, I guess the fun part is over now. Looks like the grown-ups have taken the reins again. And here I had hoped that the Tories would self-destuct for good...

Hope springs eternal!

[Raphael]

Is Rishi Sunak trying to lose the next election?

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-64087160

[alice]

Is Rishi Sunak trying to lose the next election?

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-64087160

Do not attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.

[Raphael]

So the very first time the British government uses an obscure legal provision to block a bill for a piece of devolved Scottish legislation, it's to prevent the rights of trans people from being expanded. What a sad spectacle.

[Raphael]

And here I thought the time of the Tory government providing a steady supply of involuntary comedy was over...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64337866

[Moose-tache]

The issue is going to the courts, but is there any court in the UK that has the power to overrule Westminster?

This whole thing just confirms what a friend of mine said during the Boris government: "Constitutional law in the UK is whatever the person with the fastest laser printer believes to be constitutional law."

[Rounin Ryuuji]

You say such amusingly hyperbolic things sometimes.

[Richard W]

The issue is going to the courts, but is there any court in the UK that has the power to overrule Westminster?

Well, the ruling that someone born to a married woman may choose to have his natural father treated as his father for the purposes of British nationality law looks like a clear overruling. However, I don't know whether this ruling extends to the Passport Office, which works under Crown prerogative. (Non-dual national British citizens have no right to have, even by purchase, evidence of right of abode to present on entry at a British port.)

[Raphael]

Poor Liz Truss never had a chance: her glorious tax-cutting plans were doomed from the start because of opposition from the "left-wing economic establishment":

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64527252

Because, as everyone knows, the economic establishment has always been very left-wing. Wall Street and the City of London are well-known hippy strongholds.

EDIT: CORRECTION: Apparently she never actually used the phrase "left-wing economic establishment" - that was inserted by the Telegraph's headline writers.

[Raphael]

So Nicola Sturgeon is retiring as First Minister of Scotland. and one of the people trying to succeed her (in the internal SNP leadership contest) is Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy Kate Forbes. She's a pious member of an evangelical Calvinist Church, against marriage equality, against trans rights, and apparently anti-choice as well. She's now said that her leadership campaign is "absolutely not" over, and that the public wants politicians who answer "straight questions with straight answers".

As someone on Twitter put it, "that is a *bad* choice of words there, given the circumstances".

[Ares Land]

I'm not an expert on Scotland or anything, but she'd be a surprising choice for First Minister!

[Raphael]

Well, if you have to assure the public that your campaign is absolutely not over...

("Hi, I'm Alan, I'm a plumber, I like pizza and watching motorsports, and I definitely don't have a gambling problem!")

[alice]

As things stand, the choice is currently, and rather curiously, between two women with, er, socially conservative views and a Muslim whose views are exemplarily* progressive.

* is that a word?

[Raphael]

and a Muslim whose views are exemplarily* progressive.

* is that a word?

My spellcheck says it is.

[Raphael]

I just noticed that two of the three candidates are younger than me.

[Ares Land]

La la la I can't hear you! They're extremely old, all three of them!

(Two of them are younger than me too, sigh.)

[Raphael]

Wait, so Britain is having a shortage of what? And the environment secretary reacted to that by saying what?

Look, I've said before that I really don't like the condescending giggles that many Germans have as their standard reaction whenever anyone mentions Britain. But this piece of news made even me react in that way.

[Ares Land]

My views on this are a little contrarian. Coffey kind of has a point: tomatoes aren't in season this time of year. I don't think fresh tomatoes in winter is a very sustainable thing.

(I try to stick to seasonal products for environmental reasons. I freely admit on that respect February is particularly depressing.)