Five-week suspension begins with shouts, singing and signs reading ‘silenced’
Several MPs were also involved in an altercation near the Speaker’s chair, as they attempted to prevent him leaving his seat and attending the House of Lords,...One Labour MP threw himself across Bercow’s chair in protest at the shutting down of parliament...Lewis tweeted that the group of MPs had been trying to re-enact an event from 1629 when the Speaker was pinned to his chair to prevent the prorogation of parliament.
Labour MPs, who remained in their seats after government MPs and the Speaker had left to attend the House of Lords, sang the Red Flag, SNP MPs Scots Wha Hae and Plaid Cymru MPs Calon Lân, with harmonies.
Parliament also voted by 311 to 302 for Johnson to publish Operation Yellowhammer documents detailing the government’s no-deal Brexit plans, after a leaked version from early August warned of possible food and medicine shortages...The motion, brought by the former Tory MP Dominic Grieve, also directed Johnson to disclose messages relating to the suspension of parliament sent by his senior adviser, Dominic Cummings and various other aides on WhatsApp, Facebook, other social media and both their personal and professional phones. Grieve said he had information from public officials that such correspondence contained a “scandal”.
Meanwhile, the Times has a feature and Times 2 spread [subscription] on 'grab bags' [known in my day as 'bug out bags' and confined to the loony fringe of survivalists).
[It was] started by, of all people, the British police. A number of forces put out messages and videos urging people to gather the contents for an emergency “grab bag”. In a tweet hashtagged BePrepared, Police Scotland urged us to get packing. “September is preparedness month. Emergencies can happen at any time and it’s recommended to have a #GrabBag ready containing essential items including medication, copies of important documents, food/water, torch, radio and other personal items.” An accompanying diagram of a backpack included, among other things, a whistle, a radio and a first aid kit. Other forces put out videos....The tweets sparked an immediate reaction, ranging from panic and puzzlement to satire and outright mockery.
not everyone thinks that serious grab-baggers are sad sacks. “I have both a grab bag and a contingency of where I will go with my family,” says Ben Fogle, the explorer and TV presenter. [But} “I think it’s bollocks,” says David Hempleman-Adams, the polar adventurer, mountaineer and record-breaking balloonist. “If you are on a sailing boat it’s common sense to have a grab bag so you’ve got all the stuff if you hit a whale or you are in a storm. You always take emergency stuff if you are on a mountain. “But you see a ‘grab bag for Brexit’ and you think: ‘This is just a money-making thing.’ ”...
If you want one but can’t be bothered to prepare it yourself, you can always buy one from Bushcraft Lab, a Cambridge company that offers a Two-Person SHTF (shit hits the fan) emergency bag for £219.99....“There’s a certain type of person that gets into this,” says Gareth Macfarlane, who owns the outfitter. “Wargamers, that type of guy, who lives with their parents. They tend to be into the prepper kind of thing.”...Although his bags have been steady sellers, in the past six months demand has dried up and he hasn’t flogged a single grab bag. Perhaps all this grab-bag talk will be a boon for his business. “I’m waiting for it to implode on Brexit and I will be laughing,” he says.
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