THIS CONTENT WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MY OLD SITE AND FORMS PART OF THIS SITE’S ARCHIVE

Direct Rule for Northern Ireland.

One of the key political rumours to come out from the big cabinet meeting (not in IKEA but 10 Downing Street) is that the biggest issue of No Deal would be “Direct Rule” – it has been stated that Andrea Leadsom suggested we went with Direct Rule, but called it something else – like that would change the fact of what it is.

And to be honest with the current stalemate in Stormount, we’re halfway there already, so this is not good.

Jeremy Corbyn is Target Practice for Soldiers.

Also to emerge this morning is the news that British soldiers were using a poster of the Opposition Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, for target practice. Whilst there is “social media” claims that the video is “doctored”, – the Ministry of Defense is investigating. To take the words of the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, a vehement opponent of Jeremy Corbyn, Stephen Pollard, who condemns this behaviour, writing:

I hardly need to state my utter contempt for Corbyn.
But this is grotesque and deeply damaging to the reputation of our armed forces. https://t.co/mhlKcAke6c

— Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) April 3, 2019

And my final morning story, so far…

UKIP Make Noise Missing Their Own Irony.

Neil Hamilton, UKIP Leader in Wales has failed to see the irony of his own tweet.
Writing:

Did anyone vote for a Tory/Labour coalition? Did anyone vote to put a Marxist in control of #Brexit? Didn't think so. This is not democracy. The people of #NewportWest need to make their anger known at the ballot box this Thursday and #VoteUKIP #ForTheNation

— Neil Hamilton (@NeilUKIP) April 2, 2019

So where to start with this notion…

At the 2017 General Election the British Public voted more for an agreement between Labour and the Conservatives than the Confidence and Supply arrangement with the DUP. That is based more on the fact of how many votes each party got:

“Between them, the Conservatives and Labour won 82.3% of the UK vote – the highest since 1970.”

https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7979

Which suggests that any coalition arrangement based on the Conservative and Labour parties would be more representative of the country than one based on 43.25% (Tory/DUP combined vote share) of the vote. And we shouldn’t forget that

“UKIP’s share of the vote fell from 12.6% in 2015 to 1.8% in 2017.”

https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7979

Even the DUP Supply & Confidence deal with the Conservatives can claim to be more representative of the British public than UKIP can alone.