by Richard A » Sat Aug 17, 2019 5:22 pm
And now an interesting twist in the tale. As Boris determinedly steers for No Deal, "no ifs, no buts", there's a proposal to bring him down through a vote of no confidence on 3 September and instal a caretaker government of national unity. "National unity" is somewhat far-fetched - the country is still bitterly divided and political violence continues. (What did not make the news was the recent beating up of progressive journalist Owen Jones by a bunch of thugs.) But the will within Parliament to stop No Deal is there. One option, passing more legislation ordering the government to ask for another extension. One, Boris might ignore it and by the time the case had reached the Supreme Court, the bell on Brussels's Grande Place would have chimed midnight, bringing in 1 November. And two, the EU would rightly ask, "extension for what?" But there have been those that have said that an extension might be granted in order to allow either a general election or a 2nd referendum and so have proposed a caretaker government to oversee just that. The question, though, is who should lead it - and Corbyn and Jo Swinson are still arguing over that one. If she's right that not enough MPs would be prepared to countenance Comrade Corbyn as Prime Minister, then maybe Ken Clarke is not a bad idea. He's too old now to have long-term political ambitions, which also means that if it looked like the EU would not grant a further extension (and it only takes one Member State to refuse), then he'd be prepared to take the flak of cancelling the Article 50 notification. I think if it were a binary choice between leaving on 31 October with no deal or pulling the plug on Article 50, Clarke really would choose the latter - and blame Boris and his mates (who despise him anyway) for getting us into that situation. Harman on the other hand, although almost 70 herself, would very likely see this as an opportunity to reorient the Labour Party back towards Blairism - which would delight Jo Swinson no end. It's also why not only Corbyn himself but also those who support him (a large chunk of the Labour membership) would not countenance her.
It could just avert No Deal and (at this point) hence Brexit altogether. But a government of national unity it won't be!