THERE SHOULD BE NO RECESS

Vince Cable and Tim Farron didn’t turn up to vote.

If you are talking about last night's vote you should note that four Labour Mps supported the government

They should all b*gger off to their Tuscan villas. They won’t be missed. Didn’t Belgium have no government for about a year and the civil service did all the work? No one really noticed.

That’s interesting Annie, I wonder if we’ll find out why.

You’re right Crystal, I believe the Civil Service do run the country and the Government merely influence them a bit. What a party says out of Government always changes when they’re voted in and the Civil Service gets its hand on it. Perhaps it needs Parliament to go on holiday to give it a chance to sort things out a bit.

Have lost the plot here - was there a vote re the recess? I thought this was a TM decision, without any vote. Many MPs might have been as outraged as the rest of us, so we should be careful not to lump them all together if they had no say.
The Jo Swinson issue was equally outrageous and may deserve its own post but had nothing to do with the recess unless I’ve missed something.

I am a little diffident about criticising the Recess as I was a school teacher, but then I wasn't running the country and I don't think we ever left any school in such a mess during the Hols.
Obviously, I worked all through the holidays from home.

Not criticising the normal recess, Eazybee, or everyone’s right to a holiday at some point during that period, but angry at TM deliberately bringing it forward by a few days to help her out of a hole.

Have a strong suspicion that the current sitting parliament is making such a hash of things we wouldn’t be much worse off if they were all sitting on the beach at Bognor with their buckets and spades

Seems they did reject the breaking up early idea and TM forced to abandon it. Good. My paper hadn’t come when I posted earlier.

It was not said there should’ be no recess, it starts next Tuesday,I think, it was put forward it should start this Thursday

The four labour MP’s who voted with the government were

Frank Field. Kate Howey. John Mann, Graham Stringer plus
Kelvin Hopkins who is suspended from the labour whip

Only the one suspension, Annie? I thought they all defied the whip?

I have always liked Frank Field, also Kate Hoey (Howey?)

Have a strong suspicion that the current sitting parliament is making such a hash of things we wouldn’t be much worse off if they were all sitting on the beach at Bognor with their buckets and spades

"Bugger Bognor"
They are all probably buggering swanning off to the Continent .....

Maizie, no one was suspended for defying the whip, Kelvin Hopkins was suspended before the vote.

Apologies for the swear words Anniebach, it was George V who coined the phrase, not me.

On his deathbed, so it goes Jalima
I hope I have the energy to coin a bon mot before I pop off.

If I do, I doubt that anyone will remember.

Jalima, bugger Bognor doesn’t bother me, bugger Bangor would ?

Tort Chief Whip Julian Smith summoned Brandon Lewis, the Tory chairman, from a meeting to parliament as a crunch vote on customs approached, witnesses claim.

The chief whip is understood to have told Mr Lewis that the later votes were going to be close and he needed him to vote. This breached the pairing deal with Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat MP who is on maternity leave.

The Times has been informed of two other Tory MPs told by Mr Smith that they should vote on Tuesday despite being paired. Both sought further advice and ignored the instruction. The party did not deny the story this lunchtime.

One Tory MP said: “This suggests a worrying pattern of behaviour and could amount to a breach of trust.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chief-whip-julian-smith-told-mps-to-defy-pairing-deals-r5rv59fm3

Firstly, we are not in a 'tragic crisis', neither is the country in a 'state of emergency'!

It does amuse me how some just love to be over-dramatic!

Yes, the Brexit talks are complex and the Cabinet resignations haven't helped, but progress is being made.

I do agree though that it would have been a good idea for the Summer break to be shortened this year.

Ultimately though, so long as we get the proper Brexit we have been assured will happen, then all will be well.

Doesn't look too convincing though, with EU countries being told to make sure they have 'no deal' strategies in place...

We had a lovely time the day we went to Bangor (Anniebach)

sorry, Anniebach

Mr Brandon said on our local news tonight that he wasn’t on the list for pairing so voted. He didn’t know he was supposed to abstain. He was upset and had apologised.

It was apparently an admin error! We’ll never know.