PM Loses Majority after Tory MP Quits ahead of Crucial Vote

With Phillip Lee's defection to the Lib Dems and the expected vote later, MPs have returned from their summer break straight into a defining moment for Brexit.

Brexit : au début d’une nouvelle semaine cruciale, Johnson perd sa majorité

LE MONDE: Tandis que le premier ministre s’adressait à la Chambre, le député Phillip Lee a quitté les rangs du Parti conservateur pour rejoindre ceux du LibDem.

A Westminster, mardi 3 septembre, Boris Johnson a tenté de convaincre, pendant près de deux heures de discussions, les députés conservateurs « rebelles » de ne pas soutenir l’opposition contre un Brexit sans accord. « Nous avons promis au peuple que nous mettrions en œuvre le Brexit. Nous avons promis de respecter le résultat du référendum et nous devons le faire maintenant. Ça suffit ! », s’est agacé Boris Johnson lors de sa prise de parole pour l’ouverture d’une rentrée parlementaire houleuse.

« Tout le monde dans ce gouvernement veut un accord, mais c’est vraiment cette Chambre des communes qui a rejeté trois fois l’accord de sortie [conclu entre l’ex-chef du gouvernement Theresa May et Bruxelles] et il ne peut tout simplement pas être ressuscité », a-t-il ajouté. » | Le Monde avec AFP | mardi 3 septembre 2019

The Brexit Ultras Cheer Him, But the Boris Johnson Pantomime Will End

THE GUARDIAN: The prime minister’s performance on the reality of no deal works by suspension of disbelief. The EU will not indulge it

Brexit is not the first thing Boris Johnson has found difficult, but it might be the first difficult thing he cannot simply abandon. The path by which he arrived in Downing Street is strewn with jettisoned jobs, principles and relationships. He finds other people’s needs burdensome, and is used to shrugging them off. But now he is yoked to an onerous national duty. His discomfort was obvious in parliament today.

Johnson’s traditional repertoire of glibness and bluster served him poorly as his authority and his majority were chipped away. His statement on last week’s G7 summit was upstaged by a Tory MP, Phillip Lee, ostentatiously quitting his seat on government benches and swapping it for a berth with the Liberal Democrats. When MPs, including former chancellor Philip Hammond, demanded evidence of progress in Brexit talks, the Conservative leader could not even wriggle with eloquence, let alone defend himself with facts. He did not look like a man with well-laid plans coming to fruition. » | Rafael Behr | Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Brexit Debate: A Very British Coup?

Doctor Dares 'Muppet' Rees-Mogg to Report Him after No-deal Clash

THE GUARDIAN: Politician called neurologist ‘shameful’ for raising concerns about supply of medicines

The consultant neurologist who clashed with Jacob Rees-Mogg over contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit has challenged the politician to report him to the General Medical Council.

David Nicholl, who drew up a risk register of epilepsy and neurology drugs for the government’s Operation Yellowhammer plans for no deal, said he was not going to take lessons from a “muppet” who had no medical qualifications.

“If he has got doubts about my probity, I am more than happy to be referred to the GMC,” said Nicholl.

“I am not bothered about Jacob Rees-Mogg. I’m not going to take a single word of health lessons from a muppet like him. What does he know about epilepsy or neuropathic pain?” he added. » | Lisa O’Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Monday, September 2, 2019

Brexit: Government Wants to Purge Tory Rebels, Says Ex-minister Gauke

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Bundespräsident, bei Gedenkfeier zum 80. Jahrestag Beginn Zweiter Weltkrieg

Mit einer Zentralen Gedenkveranstaltung wurde in Warschau an den Beginn des Zweiten Weltkriegs vor 80 Jahren, am 1. September 1939, erinnert. Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier hat eine Rede gehalten.

Trump Heads for the Golf Course as Leaders Gather to Mark Start of WW2

THE OBSERVER: Dominic Raab leads British delegation to the Polish capital, while Vladimir Putin is not invited

European leaders, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, will mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the second world war in Warsaw on Sunday. But Donald Trump – who cancelled on his Polish hosts at the last-minute last week, citing concerns over a hurricane barrelling towards Florida – was due to spend the day at his golf club in Virginia.

The conflict began in the early hours of 1 September 1939, when a Nazi battleship attacked a garrison of Polish soldiers at Westerplatte. Poland’s government had moved this year’s commemorations from Westerplatte, near the Baltic port city of Gdańsk, to Warsaw, in anticipation of a visit from the US president, who was to give the keynote speech. But Trump cancelled, citing Hurricane Dorian , and sent vice-president Mike Pence in his stead. » | Shaun Walker | Sunday, September 1, 2019

Final Sovereignty on Brexit Must Rest with the People

THE GUARDIAN: In these critical weeks for democracy, we must resist the actions of a phoney populist cabal in Downing Street

We will do everything possible to stop a disastrous no deal for which this Conservative government has no mandate. This is a smash-and-grab raid on our democracy, to force through no deal, which is opposed by a majority of the public.

Most people in Britain reject a Tory no-deal Brexit. Boris Johnson’s government wants to use no deal to create an offshore tax haven for the super-rich and sign a sweetheart deal with Donald Trump.

No deal would destroy jobs, push up food prices and hand our public services and protections over to US corporations. And most of the public want nothing to do with this Trump-deal car-crash Brexit they are being driven towards.

Johnson and fellow Conservatives who campaigned for Leave in 2016 promised people that they would get a deal. In 2017, Boris Johnson, then foreign secretary, proclaimed: “There is no plan for no deal because we are going to get a deal.”

But clearly they haven’t got a deal. And now, running scared of being held to account for his reckless plans for a Trump-deal Brexit, Johnson has decided to shut down parliament to stop them doing so. » | Jeremy Corbyn | Saturday, August 31, 2019

Lessons of the Second World War Are At Risk of Being Forgotten, or Even Rewritten

THE OBSERVER: As we mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the second world war, with liberal democracies again under siege, Britain should be leading the fight against extremism

Eighty years ago, the start of the second world war saw Nazi Germany invading Poland. Six years later, up to 85 million people were dead. I’m in Poland this weekend to commemorate the start of the bloodiest war in human history.

An entire generation of brave men and women around the globe sacrificed everything to defeat the singular evil of Nazism and fascism.

We should be proud of Britain’s role in winning the war, but also in helping to build the peace that followed. A whole generation – both here and around the world – were determined that never again must we repeat the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. This laid the foundations in the years after 1945 for more than seven decades without another world war. And it is now to today’s generations – inheriting the better, safer world envisaged in 1945 – that future peace and prosperity is entrusted.

With the numbers of those who remember that dark period dwindling by the day, fewer survive to tell their story and to warn current generations of the lessons from history. Worryingly, these warnings are increasingly pertinent. For the first time in more than 70 years, it seems the lessons of the second world war are genuinely at risk of being forgotten or, worse still, being rewritten. » | Sadiq Khan | Saturday, August 31, 2019

THE OBSERVER: Rise of Donald Trump is ‘obscuring lessons of the second world war’, says Sadiq Khan »

#stopthecoup : Thousands Protest against Boris Johnson's Parliament Shutdown

THE GUARDIAN: Crowds march, wave banners and chant ‘stop the coup’ in cities across UK

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are taking to the streets across Britain and outside the gates of Downing Street in protest against Boris Johnson’s move to suspend parliament.

Crowds brandished banners pledging to “defend democracy”, chanted “stop the coup” and waved EU flags in London in a bid to resist the parliament shutdown.

Demonstrators are massing at protests in dozens of locations around the country including Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Brighton, Swansea, Bristol and Liverpool.

One Facebook group for the capital’s protest event, called “Stop the coup, defend democracy”, said: “Boris Johnson is trying to shut down our democracy so that he can deliver on his Brexit agenda. We can’t just rely on the courts or parliamentary process to save the day. We all have a duty to stand up and be counted.” » | Simon Murphy | Saturday, August 31, 2019

THE GUARDIAN: Boris Johnson is trashing the democracy fought for with the blood of our ancestors » | Owen Jones | Wednesday, August 28, 2019

John Major to Join Legal Fight to Stop Johnson Suspending Parliament

THE GUARDIAN: Labour’s Shami Chakrabarti already granted permission to join Gina Miller case on behalf of opposition

John Major has said he will seek the high court’s permission to join a legal fight to prevent the government from suspending parliament before the Brexit deadline, in an unprecedented legal battle that could pit a former prime minister against the incumbent.

And, hours after the news emerged, the shadow attorney general, Shami Chakrabarti, was granted permission to join the case on behalf of the official opposition.

In addition, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has said he will seek to intervene in his role as an MP, while the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, said she too was seeking to join the case brought by the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller aimed at preventing Boris Johnson from proroguing parliament from next week until mid-October. » | Jessica Elgot, Chief political correspondent | Friday, August 30, 2019

'Culture of Fear' Claims as Javid Confronts PM over Adviser's Sacking

THE GUARDIAN: Dominic Cummings tells advisers he’s ‘pissed off’ about briefings on pay and gender balance – report

A furious Sajid Javid confronted Boris Johnson on Friday and demanded an explanation of why his media adviser was sacked without his knowledge, amid claims that a deep “culture of fear” has taken hold within the government.

Sonia Khan, Javid’s media adviser, was escorted from No 10 by an armed police officer after a meeting with Johnson’s top strategist, Dominic Cummings, in which she was accused of being dishonest about her contact with the former chancellor Philip Hammond and one of his ex-advisers, who have been trying to block a no-deal Brexit.

Khan is the second adviser working for the chancellor to be sacked by No 10. She is also the fourth young woman in a month to be axed from the prime minister’s network of advisers and senior staffers. » | Kate Proctor, Political correspondent | Friday, August 30, 2019

Lord Heseltine: No Deal Brexit a 'Grotesque Act of National Self-harm'

Lord Heseltine tells Sky News that there is "no parliamentary majority for what this government is preparing to do".

One on One: Omar Suleiman

TRT World’s Abubakr Al-Shamahi speaks to Omar Suleiman, an imam from America, about the rise of xenophobia in the United States, religion and social activism and what it means to be an American Muslim under the current administration.

Is a No-deal Brexit Inevitable? | Inside Story

British MPs are crying foul after the Prime Minister suspended parliament just weeks before Brexit. Some members of Boris Johnson's own party have resigned, while others are calling the move "undemocratic" and a "political coup".

The suspension leaves politicians with little time to prevent the UK leaving the European Union in October without a deal. The government denies it's trying to limit debate. But with Brexit only two months away, is a no-deal exit now inevitable?

Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra | Guests: Asa Bennett - Brexit Commissioning Editor at the Telegraph; Pieter Cleppe - Head of the Brussels Office at the Open Europe think tank; Jonathan Lis - Deputy Director of British Influence

Trump Ends Birthright Citizenship for Children of Troops Overseas

Donald Trump’s administration is once again flouting the law in order to appease their base. The administration has now ended birthright citizenship to children born overseas to members of the military and US officials stationed outside the country. These children, under law, are US citizens, but not in the eyes of the Trump administration, and they will now have to go through the standard immigration process and apply for citizenship. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

Brexit : l’« outrage constitutionnel » de Boris Johnson

LE MONDE: Editorial. Le premier ministre britannique ne trompe personne : ce qu’il veut en réalité à travers la suspension du parlement, c’est empêcher les députés de s’organiser pour faire échec à un Brexit sans accord avec l’Union.

Editorial du « Monde ». Il y a plusieurs Boris Johnson. Il y a le pur produit de l’élite britannique, qu’il est intrinsèquement. Il y a le bouffon, qui a fait rire de bon cœur lorsqu’il était maire de Londres. Il y a le menteur, qui n’a pas hésité à faire campagne pour le Brexit en 2016 sur des arguments fallacieux. Il y a le dilettante, chef de la diplomatie de passage dans le gouvernement de Theresa May. Il y a l’homme d’Etat courtois et responsable que l’on a vu au G7 à Biarritz.

Et puis il y a le premier ministre populiste, cynique et brutal, décidé à tout, y compris à forcer la reine à suspendre la démocratie parlementaire britannique, pour parvenir à ses fins : faire sortir le Royaume-Uni de l’Union européenne le 31 octobre. Cette sortie se ferait « coûte que coûte », avait-il promis en prenant ses fonctions. » | Editorial | jeudi 29 août 2019

Why Comparisons between Boris Johnson and Charles I Aren’t Just Lazy Rhetoric

THE GUARDIAN: He may not be the absolutist king, but Johnson is isolated and autocratic – and we’ve seen that before

When a prime minister who hasn’t faced a general election gains the assent of an unelected monarch to prorogue parliament, it is inevitable that some parallels will be found with Charles I’s dismissal of MPs in the mid-17th century.

Only yesterday, Labour’s Margaret Beckett made exactly the comparison, noting that it didn’t end well. But are there really any similarities, or is this just lazy history and easy rhetoric?

Certainly, in the most famous case of Charles I’s decision to dismiss parliament in 1629, the result was an 11-year dictatorship, decoratively known to history as the “personal rule” – and the imprisonment in the Tower of London of those who opposed him. Presumably not even Dominic Cummings is planning that fate for Jeremy Corbyn.

But while we might not be on the verge of an absolutist King Boris dictatorship, some deeper parallels are worth investigating. » | John Rees | Thursday, August 29, 2019

We Do Have a Mental Illness Problem & It's in the White House

Trump, the NRA, and the Republican Party keep talking about mental illness as the core of our problem right now in America. And, indeed, we have a major mental illness problem in our country right now. It’s in the White House.

Our president is mentally ill, and until we recognize that, acknowledge that, and begin a national conversation about it there can be no solution.

Donald Trump lies, he continuously contradictions himself, and his erratic behavior are all symptoms of his severe mental illness.

Many of America‘s mental health professionals have recognized this, but a serious discussion of the president’s mental illness has not yet moved out of the realm of mental health professionals and into our mainstream discussions.