No Confidence

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 11:17am

The Theresa May Tory government in the U.K. faces a no-confidence vote in just a few hours.
The Emmanuel Macron government in France faces a no-confidence vote tomorrow.
That's where the similarities end.

For Britain, the no confidence vote is all about Brexit.
The rebellion is happening within the Tory party, while the opposition party is organized and poised to seize power.

In particular, many hard-line Brexit supporters within her party believed she was not making a complete enough break with the bloc.
In recent days, she suffered two embarrassing setbacks in Parliament. Last week, the House of Commons voted her government in contempt of Parliament — the first time any prime minister had been censured in that way — for failing to release the advice her government’s lawyers had given on Brexit.

And on Monday, she postponed a vote on the Brexit agreement she had negotiated with the European Union, acknowledging that it stood to be defeated by “a significant margin.” In fact, lawmakers say, views on the topic, which has dominated British politics for nearly three years, are so fragmented that no approach has majority support in Parliament, and probably not among Conservatives, either.

Today's no-confidence vote is going to be close and could go either way.
If May loses the vote then she'll have to step down and a new PM will need to be found, which would be a challenge because there is no obvious candidate.
The only thing the conservatives are united on is their opposition to socialist Jeremy Corbyn.

The situation in France is almost the complete opposite.
The main opposition is in the streets, essentially leaderless, and virtually unstoppable at the moment. The opposition in the government is small and fragmented.
A no-confidence vote in France will be mostly a formality.

Now representatives from the French Communist Party, the Socialist Party and the far-left populist movement France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) have come together to table the motion against Macron’s government.
The government of Georges Pompidou in 1962 was successfully toppled by such a motion but few believe this one will pass as Macron’s centrist La République En Marche! party enjoys a strong majority in the 577-seat house.

“The French political system makes it extremely difficult to remove a President from office,” said the Deputy Director of Research at Teneo Intelligence in a note Wednesday.

“The only political tool available to the opposition to expel Macron is the constitution’s impeachment procedure, which no one is currently considering,” he added.

That doesn't mean that the vote on the Macron government is meaningless. Losing the vote would leave his government weakened.

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Comments

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 11:32am

What's wrong with this picture?

Is this gilded room, with the gold desk, the best place to address people protesting inequality?

Indeed, the Élysée Palace, the French presidential residence and workplace that is twice the size of the US White House and costs €104m a year to run, has been the object of fury during the protests. The demonstrations, which began as a citizens’ revolt against a proposed fuel tax on 17 November have quickly morphed into wider anti-government demonstrations against inequality.
On the barricades, many have been critical of the Macrons for redecorating some rooms in the palace – including the main reception room where new carpets will cost €300,000 (£271,000).

Macron chose to announce his measures aimed at calming the gilets jaunes protests by speaking from the traditional presidential office known as the salon doré, with its gold decorations.

He sat behind the large antique desk that has been used by all presidents since Charles de Gaulle and is the most valuable piece of furniture in the gilded palace.

The 13-minute address had to prove the pro-business Macron understood the “real world” of protesters. There had been outrage among gilets jaunes when an MP from Macron’s party, La République En Marche, was recently unable to state the minimum wage on TV or when a cabinet minister trying to show the gulf between the working poor and the political elite appeared to complain that Paris dinners cost “€200 without wine”.

Submitted by dance you monster on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 12:11pm

Answer: Nothing.

@gjohnsit

Nothing is wrong with that picture if you are addressing your bankster backers. Indeed, like the attire one chooses for an interview, it's a not-so-subtly-coded confirmation that you still are one of them and understand their nervousness at these protests from the rabble.

Oh, you say he was addressing the protesters or the larger orbit of dissatisfied French people? The evidence in the picture should clear that up. The bankers get it. They get it all.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 2:17pm

I have to give Macron credit

@dance you monster
He never mentioned the eating of cake even once.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 2:22pm

Bernie Truthbomb

@dance you monster he won't get invited to the right parties

“We live in a nation owned and controlled by a small number of multi-billionaires whose greed, incredible greed, insatiable greed, is having an unbelievably negative impact on the fabric of our entire country,” Sanders told Paul Jay, CEO and senior editor of The Real News Network, in an interview posted Thursday.
...
“What you have here is, first of all, massive income and wealth inequality. And as a nation we have got to think from a moral perspective and an economic perspective whether we think it is appropriate that three people, one, two, three, own more wealth than the bottom half of the American society, ” Sanders said.
“You know, that’s really quite outrageous, and it’s appropriate that we take a hard look at that,” Sanders said.
...
The influence wielded by the ultra-wealthy is visible in politics and the media, according to Sanders.

“They don’t put their wealth under neath their mattresses, right. They use that wealth to perpetrate, perpetuate their power. And they do that politically,” Sanders said. “So you have the Koch brothers and a handful of billionaires who pour hundreds of millions of dollars into elections, because their Supreme Court gutted the campaign finance laws that were in existence, and now allow billionaires quite openly to buy elections.”

Submitted by WoodsDweller on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 2:47pm

Can you 3D print a guillotine?

@gjohnsit Asking for a friend.

—

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by crescentmoon on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 12:50pm

Interesting observation,

Interesting observation, dance you monster.

Submitted by divineorder on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 1:29pm

Corbyn nails it.

...

Whatever happens tonight, it is utterly irrelevant to the lives of people across our country.https://t.co/DvrDvgTi5K

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) December 12, 2018

—

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Submitted by divineorder on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 1:38pm

A review and a political cartoon .....

@divineorder

...

Regardless of whether May is ousted by her party, this rotten government is too riven with division to unite parliament and the country to get a good deal. Me for @guardian: https://t.co/v9mhcd1INe

— Jon Trickett (@jon_trickett) December 12, 2018

Would Corbyn win if a new election were held?

—

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 2:46pm

Corbyn would probably win

@divineorder
But only as part of a coalition with the Greens and SNP.

But since May survived today, we are still months away from knowing.

Submitted by WoodsDweller on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 1:50pm

As always the problem is

that the poor have it too good. Only grinding poverty instills the (a)moral fibre it takes to achieve prosperity. Only the wealthy deserve wealth. Out of the goodness of our black hearts we will help you by punishing liberty and compassion. It says clearly in the Prosperity Gospels that "the flamboyant psychopaths shall inherit the Earth", and woe to those who attempt to tax our justly deserved inheritance.
This is the best of all possible worlds.

—

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 2:16pm

Is that from the Book of Obama?

@WoodsDweller

It says clearly in the Prosperity Gospels that "the flamboyant psychopaths shall inherit the Earth", and woe to those who attempt to tax our justly deserved inheritance.

Or the Book of Trump?

Submitted by Battle of Blair... on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 2:42pm

The Book of Prescott

@gjohnsit The first of the books of Bush.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 2:43pm

Theresa May survives

. @Telegraph final headcount 176 Tory MPs have declared they support Theresa May, the rest are not known #toryleadership (with thanks @horton_official).

— Christopher Hope (@christopherhope) December 12, 2018

But also promised to not run for re-election. Sounds like she cut a deal.

Submitted by dance you monster on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 3:06pm

That would be barely surviving . . .

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit

. . . among members of her own party. Only 17 votes above the minimum she needed. Like winning on a technical.

So expect a no-confidence vote of the full House of Commons as soon as she tries to get Brexit through.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 3:23pm

The Brexit vote failing

@dance you monster
which it is expected to do, should trigger another political crises.

Submitted by bobswern on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 4:24pm

"Theresa May survives confidence vote with a majority of 83..."

Per the Guardian, about 10-20 minutes ago: "Prime minister defeats leadership challenge after Conservative MPs vote to back her by 200 to 117."

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"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson

Submitted by Bollox Ref on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 6:06pm

At this point,

May is 'Dead Woman Walking'. Her 'premiership' (if you can call it that) will go down in history as a 'how not to do it'.

As for Macron, the gilded cage 'mea culpa' won't do him any favours. Louis XVI was personally a rather pleasant fellow. Emmanuel obviously 'cut' the charm classes.

—

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Submitted by Hawkfish on Wed, 12/12/2018 - 7:06pm

Tory Party No Confidence vote

Not a parliamentary No Confidence. If she lost, it would only affect party leadership, not trigger an election. Although there are voices arguing that now is the time to push for a parliamentary one.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg