rationalskepticism.org

ronmcd wrote:Boris Johnson no-confidence vote 'next week', says SNP MP Stewart Hosie

An SNP MP has said there could be a vote of no confidence in the government early next week aimed at replacing Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Stewart Hosie told the BBC such a move may be the only way of avoiding a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon hinted on Friday she might back Jeremy Corbyn becoming a "caretaker" prime minister.

The Liberal Democrats have, however, said Mr Corbyn is too divisive a figure to play such a role.

[...]

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has said an "emergency government" may be necessary but argued that MPs from all parties would not be able to unite around Mr Corbyn as a temporary leader.

She said her party had suggested other MPs as possibilities, including senior MPs who are planning to step down at the next election.

Mr Hosie said: "If another name came forward that was acceptable to everybody, a Ken Clarke or Dominic Grieve-type figure, then self-evidently that would be a good thing to do." he said.

"But it is also self-evidently the case that the second largest party (Labour) should have the first chance to form that administration.

"If Jo Swinson and the Lib Dems are actually serious about their stopping Brexit position then they need to stop playing political games, get on board with everybody else."

I said it, back when Swinson first made her immediate rejection of Corbyn before even engaging in talks, that she might have fucked it. That she still hasn't admitted her mistake and got behind Corbyn is utterly ridiculous from the leader of a party supposedly putting stopping Brexit as their top priority. By advancing the as yet untested opinion that Corbyn couldn't get the support of the house, by having one of the main anti-brexit opposition blocks refusing to join a united front against No Deal, they remove all pressure that could be applied to the rebel and now ex- Tories. And all the people that have been suggested as "compromise" candidates have either said they'd back Corbyn themselves or would want to try and get their own Brexit deal.

At this point they don't even need the support of the Tories. If the Lib-Dems and the Change Independent group, whoever they are now, were to support Corbyn for a confidence vote for a temporary government, to do no more than get an extension and call an election, all they'd need from those ex-Tory MPs, who were kicked out for trying to prevent No Deal, is for them to abstain. They wouldn't have to vote for Corbyn, they'd just have to not vote for Johnson's No Deal at the risk of their own jobs, and they've already done that once. It's the Lib-Dems that are blocking what might now be the only way to guarantee that we don't leave with No Deal in a month's time. When the Lib-Dems say that MPs won't support Corbyn, they are only talking for themselves.

If the wider Lib-Dem membership can't get their Leader and MPs to rapidly change tack, and if Johnson can find any way to get around the Benn law, which seems possible, we might be fucked. And it would all be because Swinson would rather get credit for making a Brexit cancellation promise she'd probably never have to keep, than lose support by keeping a promise to do whatever it takes and putting the country before her party.