It Might Sound Clever But It's Actually Stupid

Evil genius or very silly person?

Woke up to an interesting Brexit twist on the radio.  The threat from No 10 now is that if parliament tries to block no deal then a general election will be called for after the 31st of October.  This means that Britain will leave the EU on autopilot during the campaign.


It's a cunning plan.  Imagine the look on leavers' faces!  They've outsmarted them after all....

Well I have to say I am pretty sure it wouldn't work.  I'm not a constitutional expert but I would have thought the House of Commons would have some way around this.  But even if it didn't wouldn't the EU simply extend the current agreement unilaterally for a few weeks until the new government had been elected?   This would in fact be the ideal scenario from their point of view.  The UK would have to go along with it.  If not the disruption would be clearly and unambiguously down to the UK choosing to not take them up on it.  Hardly the backdrop to win a tight election on.

So why are they flying this kite?  In particular why give prior notice to opponents?  If it were to be deployed you would want to at least give the impression it was being forced on you. I suppose there might be some clever strategy behind it that will only become clear later.  It seems more likely to me though that the team around Johnson are a bunck of thickies.