Sooky

Jo Johnson, his own brother, has just resigned stating “In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest - it’s an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP” Ouch.

Jess Phillips calling all Tory MPs cowards for privately, not publicly, saying that purging the 21 Tory rebels was the wrong thing to do was quite good fun.

He’s losing control.

He’s such a fucking parasite.

725,000 of us very sad people were tuned in to BBC Parliament at 10:14pm last night, which is quite something.

I don’t think so. The thing about most of the rebels are that they genuinely regard themselves as conservatives and that their party has been taken away from them. So I think for most it’s either stand as a Tory or don’t stand at all. Which is what makes their stand last night all the more remarkable imo, essentially voluntarily ending their political careers.

Clearly his Mi6 training didn’t get him too far.

A lot of respect for the 21 Tory rebels. I reckon that’s about double what Johnson and Co were originally expecting to rebel, massively overplayed their hand by the threats of deselection. Also reassuring to see all the opposition leaders uniting around the fact there should only be an election once this bill has passed. This must be the closest the opposition parties have all worked together since the whole Brexit process began.

And so it begins.

That was a brilliant speech by Ken Clarke who, as a genuinely good Parliamentarian, will be sorely missed. Points out the lunacy of people like JRM claiming he’s defying 17.4m people despite the fact he voted to leave the EU on three occasions, despite being a lifelong Europhile, voted against holding a referendum, and voted against triggering Article 50.

1-0 Bercow over JRM.

Must be around 15 Tory rebels pictured who stood up in support of the Letwin motion?

Bit surreal seeing Philip Hammond going from Chancellor to one of the chief Tory rebels within weeks. Was on R4 this morning saying he’s been a member of the Conservative party for 45 years and won’t be pushed out by people (Cummings) who are not even a party member. Says he’ll fight a legal challenge against any attempts to deselect him as his local association readopted him as their candidate last night. The civil war escalates.

Agree with all of this, especially the length. I’d give it an 8 though, purely because I found myself laughing at the pool scene towards the end...

My laptop is five years old and on its last legs. Could really do with something (cheap!) that I’d use purely for essay writing and general web browsing whilst I do my year long masters course. Would a Chromebook (at around £250) do the job?

My Tesco meal deal costs me £2.70, sometimes even £2.40! They expect me to occasionally do the odd bit of work to get such a luxurious reward, which is the downside. Working on the self service tills is where you get to make dreams come true for punters. “I’m sorry, sir, that small Twix you bought doesn’t qualify, please help yourself to a larger one for cheaper instead”.

Alistar Jack went in to Downing Street, so that’s Scottish Secretary confirmed I assume.

Ben Wallace is defence secretary. Apparently he was an MSP from 1999-2003?!

Priti Patel confirmed Home Sec. Two huge roles for BAME MPs would be nice, if one of them wasn’t a proponent for the death penalty.

To be a bit different on the Mundell replacement, Alister Jack has been a whip so has ministerial experience?

I just don’t understand sacking Penny Mourdant. First female defence sec, Brexiteer, very popular with party membership. Hardly had any time in the role.

Can’t wait to see a whole host of incompetent idiots failing upwards this evening. Taking after their new boss, I guess.

Reshuffle rumours are that Priti Patel will be Home Sec. Of course, she argued in favour of the death penalty a few years ago. Jeremy Hunt has been offered Defence but turned it down. Says he’d only be happy with staying as Foreign Sec or going to Chancellor or Deputy PM (which is surely a fairly non-job and a demotion?!)

So Boris Johnson has the smallest constituency majority (5k) of any PM since 1924. Wonder if other parties will stand aside at the next election to give Labour a free run at it? Also, you probably won’t hear much about it, but there will be a fair chunk of young, remain voting, Tories who will be leaving the party today or in the coming days. The party membership is going to become even more no-deal obsessed.