Breaking: Unanimous Judgement from the Supreme Court...BORIS GETS SPANKED

[Soph0571]

Court has concluded the case is about the limits of the power to advise the Queen
Parliamentary sovereignty and parliamentary accountability
Power to prorogue is limited by the constitution
If constitutional functions have been limited because of the proroguing of Parliament - if that is the effect - frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament without reasonable justification.

Effects of shutting down Parliament on fundamentals for democracy were extreme.

UNLAWFUL, VOID AND OF NO EFFECT
REMEDIES = PROROGATION UNLAWFUL. PARLIAMENT HAS NOT BEEN PROROGUED IN LAW. THEY CAN TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS FOR EACH HOUSE TO SIT

[Myrddin]

1. You beat me to it Soph

Well spotted.

It'll be interesting to see how this develops?

[Soph0571]

7. Boris is going to try and prorogue again I think...

However, not sure the Queen will go along with it. After all she has to be able to trust that her First Minister is given her legal advice... the SC made very clear today that with Boris this is not the case...

[MartyTheGreek]

2. Ummm... Wasn't the Brexit vote hacked too?

Isn't Boris a Nationalist? Bannon and Boris have a bromance. See a pattern here?

[Denzil_DC]

3. There's no evidence it was hacked. n/t

[Ghost Dog]

20. There is no evidence it was hacked, no. But I and many others

in my position (Uk and EU citizen more than 15 years EU resident outside UK) have been and still are unjustly and unjustifiably disenfranchised in referenda and elections highly relevant to ourselves and our status in the EU.

(Rather like the way many people, in practice, especially non-whites and less well-off, are effectively disenfranchised in the USA).

[Denzil_DC]

22. Yes, that's a very valid point, and you've every right to be angry about it.

What our American friends need to grasp, though, is that it was a paper ballot and the result isn't out of whack with what polls showed in the run-up to the vote, within margins of error.

The shenanigans were a little more subtle, and preceded the vote (many of them by quite a few years!).

[Denzil_DC]

28. The Electoral Commission (toothless as it generally is) has been looking into this:

Link to tweet

Lewis Goodall ✔
@lewis_goodall

Reading through yday's damning @ElectoralCommUK report on the European elections. As a result of confusion which partly arose from the govt dragging its feet, we'll never know how many EU citizens (who were entitled and wanted to vote in the UK) were deprived of the opportunity.

In the replies to that tweet, I don't know if you've heard of a campaign called the 3 million, which is agitating on this issue:

Link to tweet

the3million @the3million

Our judicial review will be getting to the bottom of the #DeniedMyVote scandal. The Electoral Commission report confirmed our estimate of potentially disenfranchised EU citizens.
You can still support the review here:https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/denied/


#DeniedMyVote was unlawful - help the3million challenge the Government
Nicolas Hatton is a French national who lives in Bristol and a UK resident since 1995. Nicolas is CEO of the3million, the main organisation representing EU citizens in the UK

[Ghost Dog]

29. Thanks. These are natural allies

of those of us who are UK (and EU, still) citizens in the EU (outside UK), some of whom, having lived more than 15 years outside the UK since last registered to vote there, were denied the right to vote in a referendum that most personally concerned them; nor can they vote in UK general elections.

[MartyTheGreek]

24. GOP and FOX say Meddled, Whistle Blower of Mercer's CA Operation says Manipulated...

"Speaking to MPs on Tuesday (27 March), the former Cambridge Analytica employee described how pro-Brexit groups like BeLeave used Canadian firm Aggregate IQ (AIQ) to target online voters using data possibly gleaned off Facebook."

I'll stick with hacked since it was the same method used in our election scrapping data and false ads on Fake-Book.

"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg has also declined an invitation by the MPs to explain his firm's involvement in the scandal."

https://euobserver.com/justice/141470

[Denzil_DC]

25. "Hacked" has a specific meaning. There's no evidence of hacking in the UK referendum.

It involved paper ballots and hand counting with extensive real-time human scrutiny.

As well as the social media manipulation you mention, there are suspicions that actual hacking of voting machines etc. - including your "scrapping data" - may have taken place during the last US presidential elections.

[sharedvalues]

13. Brexit vote was influenced by illegal money

And also by dark Facebook ad targeting.

Leave.EU broke the law. The election should be null and void.

[CottonBear]

4. Link to The Guardian UK News live feed:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics

[Soph0571]

8. Thanks!

This is going to be on a loop in the house today

The most significant judicial intervention in the legislature in my life time
I think the UKs democracy is going to be OK after all!!

[CottonBear]

15. You're welcome and good luck!

We are inching closer and closer to impeachment proceedings here in the US.

It’s hard to believe what an awful situation both of our countries are in at this time.

The UK may have a clearer path to solving your political crisis than the US does.

Good luck.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/sep/24/brexit-supreme-court-latest-news-labour-conference-starmer-says-it-is-obvious-labour-will-back-remain-despite-conference-vote-live-news?page=with:block-5d89faaf8f0834740f3c136e#block-5d89faaf8f0834740f3c136e

[Denzil_DC]

5. Judging by the frothing on social media and in some of the RW press,

even before this verdict, it's a bad time be either a Scot or a judge, even worse if you're both.

[Soph0571]

6. Indeed - however I have hope for our democracy today!

The judicial branch just made it very clear if you refuse to follow well held conventions of decency and honour we WILL step in.
Bloody marvellous!

[Denzil_DC]

9. Amber Rudd on Twitter:

Link to tweet

Amber Rudd MP ✔
@AmberRuddHR

Despite personal assurances from the PM, the Cabinet was not shown the legal advice around this prorogation.

This is an astonishing moment and I regret that the PM, who entered office with such goodwill, went down this route. I urge him to work with Parliament to pass a Deal.

Johnson wasted no time in power making enemies among the Tory ranks. He's about to learn a hard lesson on why that wasn't a good idea.

Has anyone seen that wannabe Machiavelli old sot Cummings this morning?

Parliament to reconvene tomorrow:

Link to tweet

Ben Quinn ✔
@BenQuinn75

Ian Blackford SNP leader in Commons says he’s spoken to the speaker John Bercow in the past few mins (bercow called him)
Parliament will be back tomorrow - 1130

Hugo Rifkind has a helpful suggestion:

Link to tweet

Hugo Rifkind ✔
@hugorifkind

Can the government appeal to the European Court of Justice, perhaps?

[Soph0571]

10. The night of the long knives...

Hehe
I am LOVING THIS

[Denzil_DC]

11. I just wish the bastards in this clowncar would settle down for a while.

I'm supposed to be trying to get some work done here ...

[Soph0571]

12. I have already decided that NO WORK will get done today..

I am far too distracted

[Denzil_DC]

14. I've hit a serious work glitch anyway.

My major consolation is that no matter how bad my day is, Johnson and Cummings are having an even worse one.

And heeeeere's Nigel:

Link to tweet

Nigel Farage ✔
@Nigel_Farage

The calling of a Queen's Speech and prorogation is the worst political decision ever. Dominic Cummings must go.

There's long been no love lost between Cummings and Farage, Cummings reportedly can't stand him, so if Cummings did go, it might open up the possibility of some sort of electoral pact between the Tories and the Brexit Party. Ugh.

[LeftishBrit]

27. One thing about the hate-mongers ...

is that they often end up hating each other: Farage and Cummings; Woolfe and Hookem; most members of the decidedly dysfunctional LePen family.

[Denzil_DC]

16. From Sky News's Sam Coates:

Link to tweet

Sam Coates Sky
@SamCoatesSky

Tories not panicking at all 🥶

Significant not just because it reveals the disarray among the government, but because it was leaked within 11 minutes of being sent!

[Denzil_DC]

17. Cummings tweets gnomically:

Link to tweet

Odyssean Project
@OdysseanProject

The central claim (that withdrawal requires further legislation) is wrong.

So ...

(1) Cummings obviously knows better than 11 Supreme Court judges.

(2) That isn't the central claim in the judgment at all, as the Guardian liveblog points out:

He seems to be referring to this passage in the summary (pdf) of the supreme court’s judgment (bold text inserted by me).

This prolonged suspension of parliamentary democracy took place in quite exceptional circumstances: the fundamental change which was due to take place in the Constitution of the United Kingdom on 31st October. Parliament, and in particular the House of Commons as the elected representatives of the people, has a right to a voice in how that change comes about. The effect upon the fundamentals of our democracy was extreme.

This passage does not say that Brexit requires further legislation. It says that parliament wants to have a say, which is not the same thing.

(3) A central plank of Keen's case at the Supreme Court (and repeated claims by Johnson and others in or near government who seem to have forgotten the script today) was that prorogation had nothing to do with Brexit, but was simply to prepare for the Queen's Speech.

(4) Withdrawal definitely does need further legislation, even if it's to happen on 31 October as Johnson still plans. It was one of the corners prorogation boxed Johnson and Cummings into.

[Ghost Dog]

21. Re. your point (3), Denzil_DC, see 19 below. nt

[Denzil_DC]

23. Yup.

what sort of universe have I landed up in, where not only do I have to cheer the blatantly obvious being stated, but Amber Rudd for stating it?!

[Denzil_DC]

18. Cummings has apparently dragged himself away from his bottle of plonk for a minute

(or maybe he was waving it around while ranting, Kuenssberg doesn't bother to say):

Link to tweet

Laura Kuenssberg ✔
@bbclaurak

1. No 10 source: “We think the Supreme Court is wrong and has made a serious mistake in extending its reach to these political matters."

2. Source goes on... "Further, the Supreme Court has made it clear that its reasons are connected to the Parliamentary disputes over, and timetable for, leaving the European Union. We think this is a further serious mistake. "

3. No 10 - "We think this is a further serious mistake. We will study the judgement carefully to consider how we can best respond in these unique circumstances. As always the government will respect the law and comply with the courts.”

"No. 10 source" is widely believed to be code for Cummings himself, and the attitude in his earlier tweet I posted above would seem to bear this out.

Kuenssberg is roundly (and rightly) being taken to task in the replies for serving as the stenographer for this "source" and offering no journalistic comment, context or identification of the source of these scurrilous rabble-rousing sore-loser ravings that will no doubt play well with the base. For example, the first reply:

Link to tweet

jimexplore
@jimexplore

Do you do much other than amplify anonymous government soundbites? Ask them to go on the record or refuse to repeat it. We need proper journalism, not just parroting. These are not 'scoops'. Impartiality is more important than access.

This really hits home. Without her elite insider contacts list, Kuenssberg has nothing, and is an utterly crap "journalist", really more of a propagandist. I may watch the BBC news tonight for the first time in ages, to watch her squirm, if nothing else.

[Ghost Dog]

19. Another de Pfeffel-Johnson blatant lie exposed, then:

... Boris Johnson has been forced to cut short his trip to the US in the wake of a humiliating Supreme Court ruling which declared his decision to suspend parliament unlawful. Responding to the explosive decision for the first time, the PM told reporters in New York that he “strongly disagrees” with the verdict but said parliament “will come back”. The prime minister also said his “preference” was for parliament to be prorogued again so a Queen’s Speech could be held...

... Boris Johnson has come under fire from a former member of his cabinet for contradicting his previous claims that the suspension of parliamentary sittings was “nothing to do with Brexit”.

Responding to the Supreme Court’s ruling that the five-week “prorogation” was unlawful, Mr Johnson said that some people were trying to “frustrate” Brexit and that the job of negotiating an EU withdrawal deal was made harder by the outcome of the case.

Former work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd, who walked out of Mr Johnson’s cabinet in protest at his expulsion of Brexit rebels from the Conservative party, said the prime minister was trying to “have it both ways”...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/supreme-court-news-live-today-boris-johnson-brexit-ruling-parliament-prorogue-latest-corbyn-a9117696.html

[LeftishBrit]

26. Three cheers for the rule of law!