Haven't worn dungarees for a while mockduck

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/14/lib-dem-apologises-dawn-butler-lied-accounts-racism-westminster

Steve Wilson had criticised Labour MP after she recounted racist incidents at Westminster

A Liberal Democrat staffer has been forced to apologise after he claimed that Labour’s Dawn Butler invented her experience of racial discrimination in parliament.

The shadow equalities minister wrote to the Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, asking for the suspension of Steve Wilson. He had criticised Butler on Twitter by saying her account of being confused for a cleaner in a lift in parliament because she was black was was “just not true” and she should stop “propagating” such “stories”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/14/boris-johnson-wins-more-backing-from-mps-for-brexit-deal

Eurosceptics and Labour MPs indicate they could back prime minister if he clinches agreement in Brussels

Boris Johnson is edging towards the parliamentary numbers needed to pass a Brexit deal after more hardline Eurosceptics and pro-deal Labour MPs indicated they could back a new agreement made with the EU.

The prime minister will need to win over almost all the 28 Tory “Spartans” who held out against Theresa May’s deal if he manages to bring an agreement back from Brussels, as well as either the Democratic Unionist party or a chunk of Labour backbenchers.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2019/oct/14/martin-rowson-on-a-queens-speech-with-a-focus-on-law-and-order-cartoon

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2019/oct/14/how-unusual-language-boris-johnson-first-queens-speech

We compare Boris Johnson’s script for the Queen to 100 years of precursors to see where the PM stuck to – and where he departed from – tradition

The Queen’s speech lays out the bills that the government will be introducing in the parliamentary session, before the Commons starts to debate its contents and moves to a vote to approve it. It is written by the prime minister, although delivered by the monarch, and is usually a relatively dispassionate list of government priorities.

With Boris Johnson currently leading a minority government, it is very possible that the Commons will reject this list and make the resulting vote the prime minister’s eighth consecutive loss since securing the top job.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/14/lynch-mob-politics-experts-denounce-plans-for-longer-jail-terms

Tory tactics called ‘dangerous electioneering’ at time when justice system is underfunded

• Latest politics news – live updates

Prison reform charities have condemned the government’s enthusiasm for extending minimum prison terms as “the politics of the lynch mob” and an unnecessary duplication of existing judicial powers.

Proposals in the Queen’s speech to ensure violent and sexual offenders serve a minimum of two-thirds of their sentence – compared with half under current guidelines – before becoming eligible for release on licence have attracted widespread criticism.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/14/snp-women-close-to-quitting-gender-recognition-proposals-trans-rights-scotland

Concerns raised over law change that advocates say will reduce obstacles to trans rights

Senior Scottish National party MPs, MSPs and councillors have expressed concerns about proposed changes to gender recognition laws as they launched a pledge calling for women to have the right to discuss such policies.

Several women at the launch for the SNP women’s pledge said they were close to quitting the party because of what they considered to be a refusal by officials to address concerns that women and girls could fall victim to predatory men or lose access to single-sex services.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/14/the-guardian-view-on-the-queens-speech-show-without-substance

Rarely has the elaborately costumed pageant of the state opening of parliament looked less in keeping with the status of the legislative programme on offer. This was pomp in bizarre circumstances.

From the off, the Queen’s speech struck a curiously provisional note, beginning with the statement that the government’s priority “has always been” to leave the EU on 31 October. That was some way short of a commitment that this is going to happen, which is understandable. No one knows what is going to happen between now and the end of the month.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/14/sham-queens-speech-end-boris-johnson-labour

The prime minister wanted to shoot Labour’s fox but he has no plans, no vision – just focus-grouped pleasers

Folderol, hokum and flapdoodle – the usual absurdities of the Queen’s speech rigmarole were reduced to their ultimate fatuity on Monday. As she named those 26 never-to-be-enacted bills engraved laboriously on goatskin vellum, they might as well have been scribbled in ballpoint pen, these electioneering geegaws and giveaways, embellished with thumbscrews on crime and migration. But nothing matters here except the evanescent promise of an EU withdrawal deal, always just beyond reach. “My government will …” she intoned as if sucking lemons, but she has no government capable of doing anything at all.

What heavy lifting it would take to turn this country into Boris Johnson’s “greatest place on Earth”, in its present miserable state caused mainly by him. Leave aside Brexit devilment that hangs by a thread, look at the rest of his empty prospectus. If this was a hunting expedition designed to shoot Labour’s fox, it may have the opposite effect.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2019/oct/14/cbi-wrong-see-cost-big-issue-in-labour-nationalisation-plans

Details such as fair purchase prices and effect on foreign investment are what really need explaining

The Confederation of British Industry is barking up the wrong tree when it howls about the “eye-watering” cost of Labour’s nationalisation plans, which it puts at almost £200bn. Of all the arguments against nationalisation – and there are many strong ones – the claimed upfront cost is the weakest.

The CBI skips over the fact that the companies on Labour’s list generate profits and cash. Viewed through a pure mergers and acquisitions lens, one could even regard a £200bn takeover as cashflow-enhancing for the state since the CBI itself puts the additional interest costs at £2bn, a sum that might be covered comfortably by the newly acquired companies. Severn Trent and United Utilities made post-tax profits between them of almost £700m last year, and they are only two of 10 major water companies.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/14/labour-want-elect-female-leader-john-mcdonnell

John McDonnell is calling for a woman to succeed Corbyn, but it feels as though the party is being embarrassed into it

Not now, darling. There are really more important things than women. And the Labour party. There is Brexit, the Queen’s speech, voter suppression, almost every other issue – and the unfettered egos of Boris Johnson and the posh bouncer Dominic Cummings. And there is the Brexit party on the sidelines, with its Stepford Wives view of femininity.

This is not the time to think about that “single issue” of female representation, because everything else is more urgent. Except, actually, there is no policy that doesn’t affect the majority of the population – women. And there is no future for Labour unless it attracts women voters. When John McDonnell spoke of shortening the working week, which is great, I wondered how this plays out in the double shift of paid work and domestic work that is most women’s lives. Jeremy Corbyn’s power is leaking away. No simple chant can bring it back – and if you want to call me a Tory for saying so, more fool you. Polls, schmolls.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/14/the-guardian-view-on-scottish-nationalism-a-warning-from-catalonia

Nicola Sturgeon will put independence front and centre in her leader’s speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen on Tuesday. That’s no surprise. Independence is what the SNP is in business for. What is more, after 12 years of SNP rule and five years on from the 2014 referendum, Scots voters show little sign of tiring of the party. Conservative advances have ebbed since Ruth Davidson quit and Boris Johnson became prime minister. Scottish Labour remains in historic eclipse. The SNP is on course to recapture Westminster seats from both parties, while a weekend poll put support for independence at 50%, the highest figure in recent times.

An imminent prospect of Brexit means a second independence referendum is once again a wholly live issue. Ms Sturgeon is expected to make a formal request for a new vote to the UK government in the coming weeks. If there is an early general election, the indyref2 demand will be a central part of the campaign, with rival parties under pressure to define their positions. Labour, in particular, will be in the SNP’s sights. Ms Sturgeon has said that, if there is another hung Westminster parliament, Jeremy Corbyn should not pick up the phone to propose a parliamentary deal unless he is willing to agree to a second vote. If the SNP gets the support that the polls currently suggest, her mandate to make that demand will be incontrovertible.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/14/britons-in-europe-face-citizens-rights-lottery-in-event-of-no-deal-brexit

Requirements and costs of staying put abroad after Brexit vary across EU member states

Tens of thousands of Britons seeking to secure residency rights in EU countries in the event of a no-deal Brexit face fees of up to €210 (£183), tight application deadlines and minimum salary thresholds, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

The challenges for British nationals will vary across the 27 EU member states if a withdrawal agreement is not ratified. The European commission has suggested member states should take a “generous” approach, but apart from Ireland none of the EU member states are said by citizens groups to be offering terms on a par with the approach taken by the British government.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/14/jeremy-corbyn-hits-out-at-farcical-queens-speech

Labour leader suggests party ready to back election once no-deal Brexit danger off table

• Latest politics news - live updates

Jeremy Corbyn has condemned the government’s planned legislative programme outlined in the Queen’s speech as “a farce”, as he signalled he would back a general election that could deliver a Labour government within weeks.

The Labour leader dismissed Boris Johnson’s programme for government as hollow, after the monarch read out a list of 26 bills and other ideas mainly related to Brexit, crime and the NHS.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/14/makes-monty-python-look-like-panorama-readers-on-the-queens-speech

You have been reacting in the comments to the Queen’s speech and the state opening of parliament

• Latest politics news - live updates

This is all pointless isn’t it? We all know this government can’t pass anything, we know all these promises are hollow electioneering, we know there will be an election very soon and everyone in parliament knows that we know all of that. What a tremendous waste of everyone’s time. deGooder

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2019/oct/14/labour-mp-dennis-skinner-heckles-black-rod-queens-speech-video

The ceremony around the Queen's speech is laced with tradition – one of them is the Labour MP Dennis Skinner heckling Black Rod as she tells the Speaker of the House of Commons that the Queen has commanded MPs to attend her in the House of Lords. This year's offering was short and barely picked up by TV microphones, but Skinner appeared to respond to the Queen's invitation with: 'I'll not be going' 

• Queen's speech branded farcical as 'difficult' talks continue in EU – live news

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/14/two-mps-challenge-refusal-of-judge-led-rendition-inquiry

Labour’s Dan Jarvis and Tory David Davis go to high court over abandoned promise

A Labour and a Conservative MP have joined with a human rights charity to mount a legal challenge against a decision to abandon a promise to hold a judge-led inquiry into torture and rendition involving British intelligence agencies after 9/11.

Dan Jarvis and David Davis have submitted an application for a judicial review in the high court in conjunction with Reprieve to try to reverse a decision made in the last days of Theresa May’s government, which contradicted a promise originally made by David Cameron.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/14/budget-2019-date-6-november-sajid-javid-brexit

Sajid Javid ramps up Brexit pressure by saying budget will be first after UK leaves EU

Sajid Javid has announced the government will hold a budget on 6 November, less than a week after a possible no-deal departure from the EU.

In an attempt to ramp up pressure during 11th-hour Brexit talks and as an election looms, the chancellor said the set-piece tax and spending event would be the first since the UK left the EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/oct/14/brexit-latest-news-queens-speech-branded-farcical-as-talks-in-eu-still-fail-to-achieve-breakthrough-live-news

The day’s political developments as they happen, including the Queen’s speech, and Johnson and Corbyn speaking in the subsequent debate

• Queen’s speech reveals tougher jail terms and end to free movement
• How unusual was the language of Johnson’s first Queen’s speech?

4.05pm BST

Johnson ends saying he believes in a “generous, tolerant, outward-looking and humane society”.

And that’s it.

4.03pm BST

Johnson says he wants a Britain where “fairness and balance” are at the heart of what we do.

He says the government should be fighting crime. But he says he agrees with Jeremy Corbyn on the importance of rehabilitation.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/14/pathway-brexit-deal-hits-usual-obstacles-irish-border

A breakthrough seems as far away as ever with the customs union problem still not solved

• Latest Brexit news – live updates

Hopes of a Brexit breakthrough surged after Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson went for a walk in the Wirral and declared “a pathway to a possible deal”. Four days later it is increasingly obvious that the pathway is steep and strewn with rocks.

After a weekend of Brexit talks, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, gave EU diplomats a bleak account of progress on Sunday night. At the heart of the problem is the same old Brexit conundrum: how can the UK quit the EU customs union and single market while maintaining an open border with Ireland to protect peace on the island.

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