Home » Now they’re talking about impeaching Boris Johnson

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Now they’re talking about impeaching Boris Johnson — 15 Comments

  1. The “Benn bill” is authored by the daughter of Tony Benn a Soviet agent while in Parliament.

    Another possibility is the EU veto option.

    Unanimity
    The Council has to vote unanimously on a number of matters which the member states consider to be sensitive. For example:

    common foreign and security policy (with the exception of certain clearly defined cases which require qualified majority, e.g. appointment of a special representative)
    citizenship (the granting of new rights to EU citizens)
    EU membership
    harmonisation of national legislation on indirect taxation
    EU finances (own resources, the multiannual financial framework)
    certain provisions in the field of justice and home affairs (the European prosecutor, family law, operational police cooperation, etc.)
    harmonisation of national legislation in the field of social security and social protection.

    Trump may talk to Estonia and Latvia and ask them to vote no.

    BREXIT happens !

  2. Boris Johnson called for the impeachment of Blair. So couldn’t the “British Left” be taking a page from the “British Right”?

  3. Blair’s actions like Obama’s, objectively justified impeachment.

    Johnson’s actions like Trump’s do not objectively qualify as impeachable offenses.

    But of course, your arguments reveal that in your view, “some animals are more equal than others”…

    This is known as hypocrisy and proof of intellectual dishonesty.

  4. Manju:

    Of course, both sides call for impeachment at various times. Therefore, calling for impeachment is a leaf out of everyone’s book, depending on the time you’re talking about. In fact (as you no doubt know) some people on the right wanted to impeach Obama, and the most recent impeachment of a president was of Bill Clinton in the late 90s, mostly by the right. Nixon was almost impeached by both left and right in the 70s, and he resigned instead. And you can go back further and further.

    But I am speaking not of history but of the current situation, in which the British left is taking a leaf from the book of the current American left, going to impeachment as an instant remedy.

    Johnson called for Blair’s impeachment in 2004, over Iraq. At the time, I suppose you might say that Johnson was taking a leaf out of the American left’s book as well, because that’s what the left in America was doing at the time to George W. Bush. Here’s a book from 2003, forward by a US House member . The cries for impeachment over Iraq and other issues continued for most of Bush’s presidency.

  5. Impeachment would be unnecessary if Labour and the Liberal Democrats would simply move a no-confidence resolution. They don’t want to do that because that would mean a general election, which they fear they’d lose.

    I am having lunch with an English friend tomorrow. Perhaps he will be able to explain some of this maneuvering. I feel as I did when I arrived in India. Sitting in a hotel with little to do during the day, I watched an India-Pakistan cricket test match. I watched it and read the Times of India reports on it every day, and I was unable to understand who was winning. As it happens, nobody won after five days of play. This Brexit game reminds me of that. Who’s on first? I dunno.

  6. ” Since the UK doesn’t have a constitution, the Court won’t be deciding whether that is constitutional …”

    You’re going to take a hit on this remark.

    It certainly has no written Constitution in the sense Dicey explained.

    What it does have nowadays, is anyone’s guess. They even claim to have a meaningful bill of rights, though what that means in the face of continuing parliamentary supremacy, I cannot say.

    As far as I am aware, Parliament may make any law it likes, and there is no higher law recognized as constraining its power to do so.

  7. Where’s Oliver Cromwell when you really need him?

    The root of the problem seems to be that too many in the Parliament care more about global issues than the concerns of their own people and homeland.

  8. “Where’s Oliver Cromwell when you really need him?” Beheading the Queen really wouldn’t help anybody. But the British elites have been globalized, so they no longer represent or even care much for their constituents.

  9. ” It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that the left would be applauding a leftist who used the methods Johnson is employing, but is flabbergasted and outraged when the right plays by those rules of engagement.” – Neo

    The Left really, really doesn’t like anyone but themselves to have a pen and a phone.

  10. After reading the post at Ace HQ that Neo linked on the John Bolton post, I cruised on to a previous article, and found this very apropos observation, about leftist judges in that case, but it is extendable.

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/383237.php

    I always say “The rules you make for us, you make for yourself as well.”

    There’s a corollary to that: The laws you claim your tribe-members can ignore and have immunity from, are laws that I can also ignore, and which I also have immunity from.

  11. And again, on the dangers of changing the norms of governmental behavior:

    John Ratcliffe predicts that disgraced leaking liar Andrew McCabe will be indicted.

    I think the DOJ has realized it cannot once again whitewash all the criminal behavior of its Democrat favorites, or they’ll never get a conviction in a courtroom again. One or more people will have to be indicted for their crimes.

    (at the bottom of this post)
    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/383231.php

  12. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/boris-johnson-can-still-salvage-brexit
    (starts with lots of useful background on Parliamentary law and procedures; written by a Farage & Brexit supporter, Tim Worstall)

    The only way out is for Johnson to do a Br’er Boris trick — don’t, whatever you do, throw me in that thicket over there. The trick is to force Parliament into voting for an election. There is just one way that I can see this being engineered.

    Make sure that the Queen’s Speech contains one or more proposals that a sufficient number of people will vote against. Perhaps this: that the government is ready to leave the EU on Oct. 31 without a deal. We already know this won’t pass. We know that a majority of the house would vote against it. But that’s the Br’er trick: make them vote to topple the government, which will cause the election they don’t want. Or, of course, if they’re “frit” (a Maggie Thatcher word for frightened) to do that, then they can just vote to say that the government can indeed leave.

    I don’t know whether this is what will happen, of course. Johnson is more clever than I am. But it’s the only way I can see of actually getting something done. The current Parliament simply won’t agree to do anything about Brexit. They’ll vote against any specific deal or no deal, but not in favor of any actual alternative. Therefore, we need a new Parliament, and the only way to get that is to force them into voting for an election.

    We can hope, eh?

  13. Claremont Review of Books 8/15 “Why Hasn’t Brexit Happened” by Christopher Caldwell. Gives a tremendous background on this life and death match between ordinary Britains and the elite.

    There is no way the EU is going to let this happen but Boris May find a way.
    Exciting reading.

  14. If you think British government is hard to understand, try to understand the game Cricket…

  15. The funny thing is, er, amongst the many funny things is this:
    Boris can just resign.
    Which might make socialist Corbyn PM, or might make a new election.

    It seems hypocritical for a Parliament to make a law that requires the PM to do something that the PM doesn’t want to do, while refusing to have a “no confidence” vote. I’d guess the UK Supreme Court would rule that Parliament needs to vote him out, rather than “impeach” him, but it’s all clearly Brexit games.

    Most UK voters understand that if there’s now a delay to Jan., no-deal Brexit will loom in Jan., since the EU is not going to offer any acceptable deal.

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