BLIMEY Last Roll of The Dice for Gordon Brown

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8092235.stm

Proposing an AV system tomorrow. Will this be the last piece of legislation he passes before calling the election?

whatever the content of the proposal, this is NO WAY to eff with the constitution. in certain ways and on certain questions burke had a point: messing with things of this size for immediate tactical gain is a surefire way to fuck everything up even more.

even on the minor question of mps' expenses, surely there is a committee looking into it that doesn't need to be pre-empted by brown a second time after youtubegate?

In the current climate this will hurt the tories. They would stand to gain fewer seats under AV as Labour may well do well in the protest vote first preference, grudging labour second preference votes that would otherwise result in a split ticket. It would be hard for Cameron to oppose such a sweeping reform, I think.

In a way I feel he can dick around with the commons all he likes as long as we get an elected revising chamber.

Labour could probably pass this as it is the only way half the MPs could keep their seats. However, could they rush this through in 9 months and set everything up by then?

the lords will hate this, won't they?

Probably, especially as it will be easier for the Tories to resist this in the Lords than the commons (all DC has to do is make this a free vote, being of constitutional importance, and the turkeys won't vote for christmas)

(there seem to be other bones to throw as well, not privatising the Post Office and all that)

Scrap the ID cards scheme and renewal of Trident for starters, that'll save about £80 billion. Guess he'll announce an inquiry into the Iraq war but without any punitive sanctions at the end of it, it'll probably be as much of a smokescreen as the original dossier was

No way. One minute the guy's a dead man walking who can't pick his own chancellor, the next he's got a mandate to push through the most sweeping constitutional change for decades on a day's notice? Come on.

It appears he is going to hold a referendum on this, which gives him the mandate to steamroller the lords, even less likely this goes through in 9 months.

well that's just bewildering

In other news, Doncasters new mayor speaks

http://andys.org.uk/b/2009/06/08/a-whole-lot-of-nothing/

Less qualified than a man in a monkey suit

i don't want to sound like an elitist, anti-democratic cunt... but.

given the level of public debate in the media, holding a referendum on this is foolhardy. all he'll have to do is include one bit of populist mp-bashing bollocks to get through what he wants.

or maybe he'll include a BRING BACK HANGING CLAUSE!!! <---- pre-emptive defence against being called elitist, anti-democratic, etc.

Agreed. (cf. prop 8 and california budget referenda as nauseam).

Just to be clear: the prime minister's statement will not - and was never going to - endorse a change of voting system nor any particular system

So,basically nothings gonna happen and the tories will win a landslide and then nothing will ever happen.

Aha, so this is a talking shop, signifying nothing, Carry on nothing to see here.

Still, got a couple of hours of headlines out of it.

If this is Alan Johnson 'price' for staying on board then he is very cheap.

OK, here we go:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8092882.stm

Take a drink every time Cameron says "general election".

it'll have to be tea, its not 8 yet.

BIg reforms:

1241 Government papers, currently held secret for 30 years, will be released after 20 years apart from the most sensitive. His suggestion the executive will be made "more accountable to Parliament" is also met with laughter.

There is some laughter as Mr Brown suggests widening Freedom of Information legislation.

HoC all about the LOLs

LOL at Nick Clegg calling for MPs to forgo their summer recess and someone gets picked up on the mic snarkily saying "WE NEED TO GO ON HOLIDAY!"

If brown were serious about this he would not only forgo the summer recess but forgo her maj coming in and calling a new parliamentary session.

Another big LOL for Sir George Young calling against the introduction of a code of conduct for MPs.

This is actually the first time I have wanted Brown to go. OK, so he appears to have got caught by some over enthusiastic briefing by cabinet supporters of PR but his timidity is galling. He is clear out of ideas, I know this was apparent before, but he doesn't have enough in him for one roll of the dice to make his mark on Britain.

Is the rebellion still alive, or has Brown seen it off only to immediately slump comatose again? I'm starting to suspect he's just toying with these suckers

I really doubt Brown will lead Labour into the next election. Rebellion will be revived in the autumn, when the threat of a general election will be rendered obsolete by the fact that an election has to be called anyway.

I wanted to watch PMQs, how typical to have missed it. can it be seen online now?

Don't panic, the recession is over:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/10/uk-industrial-production-recession

DO PANIC! WE'RE GOING TOCOLLIDE WITH MARS

(see how 'collide with Mars has already collided with 'to' - it's started people...)