Coup on track?

The BBC programme wasn't too bad,although readings will vary, no doubt.Quite shocking to hear from Selmayr that May had never even threatened a no deal. Interesting to see some of the dark artery involved -- Barnier always greeted Davis standing at a lectern looking authoritative,and staged the stunt where they sat down with the EC side provided with sheaves of prop documents while the UK side had none. The UK got its own back by making Davis learn his script while Barnier was given a dossier to cope with live -- with both sitting. Quite informative overall and damning about May and her team (O Robbins frequently shown in the background). There was a tendency for the usual ruling class preference for showing inexplicable incompetence rather than a deliberate attempt to undermine Brexit [surely blown by the KitKat tapes] . N  Robinson tried to restore some Remainer ground by patronisingly smarming at the end that it all showed that Brexit was not as easy as those silly Brexiteers had thought, and predicting it would not be easy for Johnson either.

Quite why the BBC and others are so happy that the EC might turn out to be impossible to leave whatever people want is unclear..

Couldn't find any report of the prog in the Graun today -- might have missed it if they tucked it away somewhere. Instead they talked up the latest coup, a vote in Parliament insisting Parliament meets to report on progress on restoring local rule to N Ireland (which would mean there would be an opportunity to pass an emergency amendment preventing no deal, and making prorogation more difficult).

MPs have given Boris Johnson a brutal preview of the scale of the challenge facing his premiership, as Conservative rebels voted to block any attempt to suspend parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit...The new measure was passed by a hefty 41-vote majority,[and voting included]...the resignation of one minister and abstentions from four rebellious cabinet ministers, who will soon be on the backbenches, as well as half a dozen others.

The Graun approved of ' the ingenuity of backbench rebels in thwarting his Brexit plans.' There was also some criticism:

“Their disruptive amendments are cynical and corrosive but they don’t change the underlying legal realities one jot: we are leaving on 31 October with or without a deal.” [said a Brexiteer MP]...No 10 has said it opposed the amendments being tacked on to the Northern Ireland bill because they were an inappropriate use of a technical measure....May’s spokesman said: “In the light of the ongoing talks to restore the executive, our view is that forcing a report and debate every two weeks on the progress of those talks risks being counter-productive to this overarching aim.”

The Times' political sketch put it differently:

Penrose is a minister in the Northern Ireland office..[who]...is normally no firmer than whisked egg-white but he finally found some fight. “Voters’ tolerance is running out,” he cried. “This is a stitch-up. It pretends to care about democracy but in reality it is trying to prevent a democratic decision that has already been taken.”...Mr Benn (Lab, Leeds C) [who actually signed the amendment, although everyone knows it was a D Grieve stunt] claimed to be motivated solely by his Christian desire to protect the people of Northern Ireland from the ordeal of their MPs not sitting for a week or so.