2 ms·

If the ranked vote produces a clear winner, I think the hope would be that (given the short deadlines and immense public pressure) it would fairly easily pass a

If the ranked vote produces a clear winner, I think the hope would be that (given the short deadlines and immense public pressure) it would fairly easily pass a straight aye/no vote too. Why would a majority want to vote it down? To the contrary, you’d expect some naysayers to switch just to get it over with and to end up on the winning side. It’s slightly risky but overall seems like a reasonable approach to me, in the circumstances.

dagw 8y ago
If the last round of indicative votes are anything to go by, they winner would probably the Labour plan or the Customs union, both of which the Prime Minister are against. So either of these winning will almost certainly trigger events leading to new general election and the ´Conservatives know that. So the real question is how many Conservatives want to fight a general election now with their party in the state that it is and what are they willing to gamble to avoid that. Voting against your PM on an issue you disagree on is one thing. Actually bringing down your government is quite another.
- iainmerrick 8y ago
  Yes, that’s the tricky bit. There should have been an election already. I think it was dishonest not to bring down the government in the recent vote of No Confidence, since it was and is blatantly obvious that absolutely nobody has confidence in Theresa May’s government. But they feared letting Labour in. Edit to add: I would have thought some emergency compromise might work, eg a moderate Tory who backs the consensus plan as PM, maybe Corbyn as deputy, maybe Keir Starmer as Brexit secretary. Get the Brexit process on an even keel now, agree to call an election later. That’s probably unthinkable on all sides, though. I feel like Corbyn in particular doesn’t actually care much about Brexit either way, and is much more focused on just winning an election and getting a Labour government in.
  - dagw 8y ago
    But they feared letting Labour in. Or more specifically they fear letting Corbin in. I imagine that if a more center-left, pro-Europe 'Blairite' MP was Labour leader then perhaps some of the more moderate pro-Europe Conservatives might have been willing to give it a punt.
    - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
      I'm not in the UK. How bad is Corbyn? How much damage is it worth doing to the UK to avoid Corbyn becoming PM?

dagw 8y ago

If the last round of indicative votes are anything to go by, they winner would probably the Labour plan or the Customs union, both of which the Prime Minister are against. So either of these winning will almost certainly trigger events leading to new general election and the ´Conservatives know that. So the real question is how many Conservatives want to fight a general election now with their party in the state that it is and what are they willing to gamble to avoid that. Voting against your PM on an issue you disagree on is one thing. Actually bringing down your government is quite another.

iainmerrick 8y ago
Yes, that’s the tricky bit. There should have been an election already. I think it was dishonest not to bring down the government in the recent vote of No Confidence, since it was and is blatantly obvious that absolutely nobody has confidence in Theresa May’s government. But they feared letting Labour in. Edit to add: I would have thought some emergency compromise might work, eg a moderate Tory who backs the consensus plan as PM, maybe Corbyn as deputy, maybe Keir Starmer as Brexit secretary. Get the Brexit process on an even keel now, agree to call an election later. That’s probably unthinkable on all sides, though. I feel like Corbyn in particular doesn’t actually care much about Brexit either way, and is much more focused on just winning an election and getting a Labour government in.
- dagw 8y ago
  But they feared letting Labour in. Or more specifically they fear letting Corbin in. I imagine that if a more center-left, pro-Europe 'Blairite' MP was Labour leader then perhaps some of the more moderate pro-Europe Conservatives might have been willing to give it a punt.
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    I'm not in the UK. How bad is Corbyn? How much damage is it worth doing to the UK to avoid Corbyn becoming PM?