Brexit - Has anybody actually changed their minds?

[Strokes]

I wonder whether the withdrawal bill would be voted on again if the EU do decide to deny the extension? If not, it’s revoke or no deal surely?

[Guest MattP]

How the fcuk have the ERG gone from having Rees-Mogg as the public face of the body to Mark Francois?

[Guest Electric Yetis]

7 minutes ago, MattP said:

How the fcuk have the ERG gone from having Rees-Mogg as the public face of the body to Mark Francois?

You say it like one is preferable to the other.

[bovril]

Francois has done more good to Europhiles' cause than Nick Clegg could only dream of. 

[Guest MattP]

37 minutes ago, pds said:

You say it like one is preferable to the other.

Even it you hate them both I'm sure any reasonable person can see the benefit in the calm, reasoned and articulate one doing the speaking.

[Carl the Llama]

1 hour ago, MattP said:

Even it you hate them both I'm sure any reasonable person can see the benefit in the calm, reasoned and articulate one doing the speaking.

It is the better way to disseminate propaganda for sure.

[Grebfromgrebland]

 

Boris for Britain!

[ozleicester]

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/09/brexit-basil-fawlty-towers-sitcom

[Alf Bentley]

Good analysis of where we stand from Stephen Bush (New Statesman):

 

"Will Theresa May get her asked-for extension? The Prime Minister will make the case to her fellow heads of government at tonight's European Council for an extension until 30 June - but the likelihood is that the United Kingdom will end up with a longer extension than the one May wants - or no extension at all.  Will someone veto the extension request? I'm not going to pretend to be sufficiently versed in Emmanuel Macron's inner thoughts to say with any authority, but I don't buy it personally. While the consequences of a no deal Brexit fall the heaviest on the UK - I'm yet to have a conversation about it with someone involved with the planning, whether they voted Remain or Leave, who hasn't used the phrase “worse than you think” to describe the fallout - it will have knock-on consequences for the rest of the bloc. No-one is going to want to have their fingerprints on that particular mess, particularly not if they are then hoping to get support from other EU countries hit by the fallout for their ambitious proposals to reform the EU.  But while the request for an extension is likely to be accepted, yesterday's vote to seek an extension underlined the problem as far as finding any resolution to the Brexit crisis is concerned. Although asking the EU27 for more time passed the House of Commons overwhelmingly, with 420 votes to 110, just 131 Conservative MPs backed extension. The big Brexit problem is that there appears to be no path forward capable of commanding majority support in both the governing party and Parliament as a whole.  Will the talks between the Conservatives and Labour yield anything? It doesn't feel particularly likely: for Corbyn to sign off on a deal, it needs to look like a victory to all of the following - Labour voters, Labour party members, and Labour MPs, not necessarily in that order - while for May to retain enough Tory support to pass it can't look too much like a defeat. Added to that, it needs to look enough like Brexit to appeal to Leave voters and to be sufficiently un-Brexit like not to irritate Remain ones.  No such Brexit exists. But it is in the interests of neither May nor Corbyn to be the one who walks out of the talks, so they rattle on regardless. Of course, the cross-party negotiations are really just a device to get the government the extra time it needs. But what happens once that extra time is secured? The only ways out look to be the two things that we know for certain a majority of MPs don't want: an election or a referendum".

[Guest MattP]

Stephen Bush is one of the best commentators out there at the minute, always good reasoned analysis which is much needed - always worth a watch if he's on Newsnight.