Hot times in the British Parliament
What's going on: Boris Johnson is trying to drag the UK through a ("catastrophic", says anyone sensible) hard Brexit departure, the kind where there are no arrangements between the UK and the EU about how to handle this change. He also thought that in the meantime, it would be a good idea to prorogue Parliament -- that is, get Parliament to shut down and do no business -- until after the hard exit was a done deal.
I wasn't the first person to observe that the last guy who went to that much trouble to keep Parliament from doing business lost his head.
Then Parliament rebelled. Ancient much-respected Tory stalwarts voted against the government, despite the threat to (less exciting than it sounds) "withdraw the whip." In a dramatic gesture, while Johnson was speaking and waving his arms around, Tory MP Phillip Lee silently walked across the room to sit with the Liberal Democrats, thus costing the Tories their one-vote majority. Johnson was reduced to calling for a snap national election in mid-October, but that actually requires approval by a two-thirds majority, and the leaders of both Labour and the LibDems -- who rarely act in such coordination -- agreed that they weren't going to give Johnson his election before Parliament passes a bill ruling out a no-deal exit. It was Boris Johnson's first serious fight in Parliament, and he lost big. Theresa May was photographed this evening leaving Parliament with a big grin on her face.
I abjectly apologize for being so tired, but Patrick kept finding one irresistible story, after another. Feel free to post links to anything good that you find. I'll see you first thing in the morning.
[Update from pnh: Teresa was in fact so tired that she didn't actually publish this last night. Posting it for her now.]