Autumn chill is in the air on the day that six odd weeks of campaigning begins in the lead up to the General Election ‘snap poll’ on 12 December – Johnson wins the vote on his fourth attempt. More than 100 Labour MPs abstained and 11 voted against the motion, which doesn’t bode well for Corbyn. What spectacle will ensue? The party line is that this election will break the Brexit deadlock. The Tories will campaign along the lines of ‘getting Brexit done’, Labour is promising a second referendum to resolve the question of the EU, Farage’s Brexit are arguing for a no-deal Brexit, while the Lib Dems pledge to revoke article 50. Nicola Sturgeon has made known that a second Scottish independence referendum in 2020 – six years after the first one – will be at the heart of SNP’s manifesto. European council President Donald Tusk has announced that EU27 has formally adopted the extension to the withdrawal agreement to 31 January, but he warns that: ‘It may be the last one. Please make best use of this time.’ So it looks to be a fractious stretch. No change there then.
