We (apparently) have a new government. Staggeringly, after seven years of malicious and incompetent Tory led governments it still seems like we are going to have another.
But there is a difference. This is a minority government supported by one of the most obnoxious groups of MPs elected in recent years to the House of Commons whose views are wildly out of line with the sentiments of most Conservatives, let alone most people, in the rest of the UK. This means that this is a fragile and unstable government, open to challenge and liukely to fall at any time.
What that requires are some pretty hard red lines to be agreed by as many as possible of the combined opposition that will guarantee to work together on such issues to make sure a lame-duck administration will not seek to impose change where it does not gave support.
So what are the opposition red lines? I would suggest:
1. No hard Brexit.
2. No boundary changes.
3. No changes to election law unless it is to relax onerous obligations.
4. No changes to media rules.
5. No cuts to NHS and education budgets.
6. No benefit cuts.
7. No cuts in police funding.
8. No changes to LGBTQI rights.
9. No changes in abortion law.
10. No changes to marriage law.
11. Respect for the Good Friday Agreement.
12. No weakening of commitment to climate change measures.
13. No Brexit behind closed doors.
14. No corporation tax cuts.
15. No to a return of fox hunting.
I am sure I will have missed some issues of significance. But the point is clear, I hope. There have to be some very clear lines in the sand now. The above list suggests those that immediately occurred to me.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Well thought out.
I would add another:
16) No preferential treatment of Northern Ireland in terms of Westminster budget allocations if austerity continues. They suffer like the rest of us.
BTW – I expect that this was has already been crossed. I mean if you are that stupid to have put yourself in a position whereby another party has you over a barrel as May has done, what can you expect?
I did wonder about making a blanket no reallocation of devolved budgets
Ivory ban
No new grammar schools
Agreed
No repeal of ECHR
No restrictions/backdoors in internet security
No privatisation. No implementation of Naylor Report.
1. Government needs to cost out spending that includes proper provisions for brexit expected costs
2.No money for Trident replacement as we are no longer ablre to trust the US to keep supplying us with necessary Technology. If current US administratio cannot prove no links to Russin intelligence – we are daft to work with them without reassurance.
for all your fake outrage you do realise that gordon brown tried to do a deal with the dup in 2010. Or is that different ? Hypocrisy of the first order. Looking at their policies http://www.mydup.com/policies i don’t see anything obnoxious. Talking of obnoxious northern ireland politicians – if anyone knows more about them than anyone else it has to Mr Corbyn – he’s met and supped with many of them
I am not a member of the Labour party
that’s pure sophistry and doesn’t answer my question. I remember being at one of your meetings where membership of the labour party was discussed and you explained that you didn’t join so that you could claim to be independent. It is plain from this blog that you are a supporter of the labour party. I asked what was so so obnoxious about the dup. You didn’t answer that question, but a question that was not posed.
I answered honestly
I was not a member of Labour because I was and am independent of it
As I am independent of the SNP
And Greens
And even the Tories when I sat on a committee for them
And the LbDems when I used to talk to Vince Cable
You can accuse me of sophistry once when I tell the truth
But not twice