Thread by @garius

"Colleagues, welcome back to our place of work" - Bercow kicks things off in style.

Geoffrey Cox gets up to defend himself.

Jo Cherry giving Mufasa a chance to show he's not being stitched up by Scar.

Cox is enjoying this.

To the surprise of precisely no one who has ever heard him speak before. He loves it.

Yvette Cooper asks Cox to tell the PM to shut the F up on claiming - openly or by inference - that the court decision was invalid in some way.

Angela Eagle asks Cox outright whether Rees-Mogg should be running around calling this a constitutional coup.

Behind him, Rees-Mogg somehow manages to look both sheepish and arrogant at the same time. One of his few genuine abilities.

Ahhh fuck. The downside of Parliament being back:

Christopher fucking Chope gets to speak.

Spouts some nonsense about changing the law to (effectively) allow the PM to be a dictator in future.

Because Christopher Chope is an awful human being.

Soubry asks Cox outright: Did the Cabinet see his full advice?

Cox says he doesn't know who asked or what they were shown. But he didn't hide it from anyone.

Rory Stewart spidermans down the chamber wall and asks whether Cox agrees that this was actually a profoundly conservative ruling in line with the Party's historic tradition of not being screaming zealots.

Cox waffles.

"It has no moral right to sit on these green benches!"

Cox goes off on one about Parliament sitting.

And he was doing so well.

"They don't like to hear it! They don't like to hear it!"

Cox has gone full Corporal Jones.

He also invoked the 17.4m.

EVERYBODY DRINK.

Cox starts calling Parliament cowardly for not calling an election.

"The time is coming when even these turkeys won't be able to prevent Christmas"

David Hanson:

"I think the honourable gentleman will find my moral right to sit here comes from an election called by the right honourable lady for maidenhead sitting right next to him, when she lost 40 seats."

Looks like the only line we're going to get from the government now is:

"Call an election!"

It's the gammon version of DEBATE MEEEEEE

Iain Duncan Smith stands up, looking like a racist version of Penfold, and makes the same point.

This is basically all we're going to get.

It's safe to say that Cox has BURNED any sympathy he had with the house with his tirade.

Barry Sheerman lets it rip.

"For a government like this, and a Prime Minister like this, to come here and talk about morals and morality is a DISGRACE."

Nick Boles asks whether the government will comply with the Benn act.

Cox: Yes.

Steve Baker gets up, and plays the part of that person in a meeting who says nothing important at length, because he wants to get a mention in the minutes.

He sits down.

Everyone looks confused.

Cox says stuff to make it look like a question was actually asked.

Chris Bryant suggests that the rules should be that Parliament should vote on prorogation length.

Cox says that's a great idea and that he really likes him.

"I think, but am not sure" Says Bercow, "That the Attorney General intended that to supportive"

Charlie Elphicke gets up. Everyone thinks:

"Who"

Sets Cox up to coxwaffle (thanks whoever came up with that) about what other parliaments might have been prorogued.

Pat MacFadden points out that if Cox is so keen on letting the people have a view on all this he should hold a referendum.

More coxwaffle.

Nigel Evans mentions 17.4m people again.

Everyone groans.

EVERYBODY DRINK.

Helen Goodman asks if Cox is going to investigate the leak of his advice, or whether he's worried doing so would show it was the government.

"Frankly I consider Cabinet so pourous these days that I consider it the best way to advertise." He says.

Rudd:

"Cease this language of putting parliament against people."

Coxwaffle in response.

Normally I don't mind Cox, despite his theatrics, but he's leaning so heavily into the 'chicken' and 'cowardice' stuff now that's it is both unseemly and frightening.

Geraint Davies points out that Cox is being downright dangerous in the tone he's taking today.

Coxwaffle.

Alex Norris demands we sort out the domestic abuse bill.

Damn right.

Cox agrees, still can't resist putting in an election dig.

"The actions of this house are bringing it into discredit" Says the Coxpot to the Parliamentary kettle.

Right, that's me done for now, but you may wish to pop over here and read my piece on the fall of Wrightbus and Boris Johnson's complicity in selling a false vision of the future.

Sounds familiar. londonreconnections.com/2019/the-rise-…

"Operation Ostrich, the communal sticking of heads in the ground."

Soubry lists off more operations that might be underway right now.