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Brexit

Westministers: Boris and May give us the Brexit Leeming Plan.

995 replies

RedToothBrush · 17/01/2017 15:17

Theresa May has made a speech.

It’s a wish list for hard core Brexiteers. It’s a large corporate executive’s wet dream for exploitation.

Even requests for a white paper as recommended by the Brexit Committee have been ignored. Thus meaning there is no chance for proper scrutiny. Plus whilst on the one hand parliament have been told they will have a vote on the end deal, this is merely slight of hand, with Davis stating that if parliament vote against this, then we will leave the EU without a deal in a chaotic exit. Thus making the vote an exercise with a gun to parliament's head.

Workers Rights and the Welfare State die with Brexit. Even the precious NHS. Especially the precious NHS once its been stole off to the highest American bidder.

May is being lobbied by her hard right and to save her next she listens only to them. She has no interest in listening to anyone else. The demographic and voting patterns favour her to head this direction. There is nothing to be gained for her personally by doing anything else.

She is already laughing her head off in glee at the collapse of the NI assembly. It plays right to her agenda.

Under the wheels of the bus go the JAMs, under go the disenfranchised who rarely vote but came out in force for the referendum, under go single mothers, under go the disabled, under go those with mental health concerns who struggle with already bureaucratic systems set up to ‘catch them out’, under go the EU immigrants especially those who have families here and may not have equal rights in future, under go British Citizens living abroad who might find themselves without healthcare or pensions, under go our Human Rights and any chance of challenging the state’s authority and interference in our every day lives, under go small business who will drown in red tape, under go Scotland and NI.

Yet this is ‘for the children’ or ‘the grandchildren’. Its spineless and cynical and offers nothing for those currently able to vote but under the age of 40. Won't you think of the children? Its fine if you are already retired and have a nice little pension isn't it?

The National Interest? This is a foreign concept. Probably an EU one.

The Baby Boomers are net beneficiaries of the welfare state. The young are unlikely to have a welfare state in a few years and are already net contributors. They have now been robbed of the choice over their future and in patronising tones effectively told they are irrelevant.

And of course Uncle Donald is a fan. You can almost see his vampire fangs reading to get his teeth into the UK and suck the life blood out of it.

It is a horror show.

Its all about selling Theresa May to the Express and the Mail and they love it. Her speech is to set the scene of how committed she is and to lay the blame at anyone who challenges her. It attacks the EU and paints them as the aggressor who are there to prevent poor little Britain from getting what it wants. If Brexit goes wrong, it was all an anti-British plot. Not a collective self inflicted brain haemorrhage. She's gone full on Farage and out Farages Farage.

This all comes perhaps a week before the Supreme Court Ruling.

Funny timing eh? No not really.

It’s a pre-emptive strike.

What on earth will they say? Will this merely allow May to dismantle our current legal system by gathering support for a General Election Manifesto that outlines its demise? Thus extending the mandate for Brexit even further. Probably.

I fear that the courts may only serve to strengthen May in the long run due to the lack of opposition and a Labour party that is imploding, with dozens of its MPs being rumoured to be looking for employment elsewhere. I fear that without a media able to effectively hold May to account in the face of her media baron supporters.

Our only hope really lies within the Conservative party itself and whether May is able to keep a lid on the various on going power struggles. The only trouble is that one of those challengers is a certain Brutus in the form of Mr Gove. I struggle to work out who would be worse; Gove or May. And of course this only highlights the issue that who else is there with in the Conservatives who isn’t a reptile? Even Arron Banks commentated that during the referendum he found Labour MPs nice people and the Conservatives unpleasant almost to a man. High praise indeed.

Meanwhile in America, NATO is obsolete and so Europe will have to consider an EU Army and Russia is firmly getting its claws in. And yeah, just Donald Trump. That Project Fear thing was just fake scaremongering wasn't it? Right? Right?

sigh

What on earth can possible stop this insanity? Not necessarily stop Brexit, but at least stop the PURE INSANITY.

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TuckersBadLuck · 20/01/2017 09:12

We discussed, in passing, whether Brexit could cause WW3:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38685460

"If I speak to Trump’s team, Trump's close advisers and even to President-elect Trump himself, none of them think Trump would have won unless Brexit had happened" (if we believe anything that comes from Mr Toad's mouth)

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:18

Peregrina - you make pertinent analysis of Theresa May's poor use of language. This morning I read a transcript of an interview she gave yesterday and it was very enlightening. Endless declarations of "I want" and "I believe" folowed by platitudes about free trade and a global Britain. She sounds like a petulant spoiled child: "I want chocolate" and "I believe in Father Christmas". Maybe her foot stamping demanding ineloquence passed muster in the Home Office but it's ridiculous for international negotiations.

lurkinghusband · 20/01/2017 09:24

On Channel 4 news last night there was a very brief mention of the fact that since Theresa May's speech on Tuesday major investment banks have announced the relocation of 7000 jobs from London to the continent. Did anyone else hear it? I can't find any other reports of it.

Project Fear innit ?

I'm more curious as to how this is being done. Are 7,000 people (and their families) being offered relocation ? In which case their employers are gambling that post-Brexit they will be allowed to stay in the EU ?

Or - as I suspect - are the jobs moving to go to EU nationals. (Which is what I would do if I wanted a stable future) ? So where are the 7,000 now-jobless UK bankers going to work ?

TuckersBadLuck · 20/01/2017 09:26

Are her speeches aimed at an audience of international negotiators though? Surely "I want" and "I believe" is aimed squarely at reassuring the 17m that she does have the same goal as they voted for at the referendum. That way she's not on the 'wrong' side when it all goes tits up.

"I was only doing what the electorate asked of me'

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:27

The 1000 HSBC jobs that will be relocated to Paris won't all come with expat packages...

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:29

Tuckers - everybody hears her, whomever she might want to target. And her speeches in Brussels and Davos are heard by her negotiating partners whose eyes roll at her preposterous language.

TuckersBadLuck · 20/01/2017 09:32

But they all know that politicians have their own domestic agenda which might well have no relation at all to their actual aims or expectations.

Peregrina · 20/01/2017 09:35

On Channel 4 news last night there was a very brief mention of the fact that since Theresa May's speech on Tuesday major investment banks have announced the relocation of 7000 jobs from London to the continent.

Yes, we did hear this but people need to read other news sources to get the picture. From our press there is not much reporting, because it doesn't fit with the Brexit means Brexit narrative which Theresa May intends to make a success of, does it?

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:41

I don't think that such a seriously unsophisticated discourse is viable, whatever TM might think. At the Home Office it might have worked for getting tough with criminals but on the world stage she looks like a second-rate provincial middle-aged power crazed numpty. So embarrassing.

TheSmurfsAreHere · 20/01/2017 09:43

The banks relocating will be very well versed in getting visa for their employees. That means they will also know how to get a visa for any British immigrants in the EU, if Britain decides to cut ties completely.

And no, not all of them will come with a relocation package. But then, seeing the situation and how hard it would be to find a job again in the uk in that industry within a year, I would just take the job anyway TBH.

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:44

Where would their DC go to school?

TuckersBadLuck · 20/01/2017 09:45

It surely depends on whether her actual plans are anything like what she says they are. In this no-win situation do you think she's playing with a straight bat?

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:47

Yes, I do sort of live in hope that she's play acting this hard Brexit scenario in order to provoke a backlash.

Peregrina · 20/01/2017 09:48

It's perfectly possible to live in London and work in e.g. Amsterdam, Munich or Paris during the week, because I know people who do or did just that. The children go to school in London - Dad, it was always Dad in the cases I knew, just caught an early morning plane on Monday, rented a small place during the week, and back late Friday.

prettybird · 20/01/2017 09:48

Re selective reporting: that's something we got used to during the Indyref Hmm

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:52

I know lots of people who commute between Paris and London/Brussels/Geneva for a while but it's unsustainable.

Motheroffourdragons · 20/01/2017 09:55

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This has been deleted by MNHQ to protect the privacy of the user.

TheSmurfsAreHere · 20/01/2017 09:55

Where would the dcs go to school?
In an international school if there is one around. Or to the local school, just like any other immigrant.

At least their dcs might come back bilingual.

Motheroffourdragons · 20/01/2017 09:58

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RedToothBrush · 20/01/2017 09:58

Simon Cox ‏*@SimonFRCox*

Con MP: poor people have to much freedom. They use food-banks bc they "spend money on food that isn't good for them"

inews.co.uk/essentials/news/health/conservative-philip-hollobone-rations-wartime-poor-households/?utm_content=buffer0fafc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Tory MP Philip Hollobone: Poor households could learn about eating healthy food on a budget from wartime generation

The wartime generation didn't have fuel poverty in the same way. Nor did housing cost as much as a percentage of income. Not to mention all the middle class families who have ended up using food banks as a result of a sudden loss of income. The wartime generation had 'dig for victory'. How many people don't have a garden anymore. Processed food is still cheaper than unprocessed food no matter what you do and how you cook. The wartime generation didn't have processed food in the same way.

OP posts:
Bobochic · 20/01/2017 09:58

I live in Paris. I know precisely what's on offer, education wise, for non-French speaking DC. Good luck to anyone taking their English-educated DC out of school and trying to find something appropriate here.

Peregrina · 20/01/2017 10:01

I used to do a long distance commute of the same order as London/Amsterdam although wholly within the UK. After 5 years I had had enough, but others did it for longer. Usually people end up negotiating some work from home days, so do things like one week in the office and one not.

I wonder how many of the Bankers relocating are (other) EU citizens? (Other because UK citizens still are.) For valued employees, the way will be found to keep them; others will be 'let go'. Ah well, if you voted for Leave and are 'Let go' you will have to tell yourself that this is what you wanted and it's an opportunity.

lurkinghusband · 20/01/2017 10:02

It's perfectly possible to live in London and work in e.g. Amsterdam, Munich or Paris during the week,

That's in 2017. How about 2020 ?

It's worth noting that if (or when) the UK manages to isolate itself from the rest of the worlds intelligence communities, it could become a magnet for terrorists, which could prompt an elevated immigration check for people travelling from the UK.

Less reported (obviously) but the recent UK snooping laws are already being questioned with respect to GPDR and EU data protection directives. If the UK law is found to be faulty then it's entirely possible EU law will prevent data sharing. Of course one solution would be for the UK to give EU nationals better protection than UK citizens, although I suspect it would be sold as the opposite to the Daily Mail.

TheSmurfsAreHere · 20/01/2017 10:02

Another view from Davos

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-20/brexit-bulletin-theresa-may-tries-to-charm-banks-at-davos
It looks like most people who are not the government think she will have a. Why hard time, some of them think she won't last either...

Billionaire investor George Soros, the man who “broke the Bank of England” by betting against sterling in the 1990s, went as far as to say May “will not last” long in office because her Cabinet is divided and voters underestimate the pending hit to the economy.
Actually believe he has a pint about the fact the Cabinet is divided. ANd the Conservatives. ANd the public.
And it will be even harder once reality hits.

Unlike what most people did say, I never believed that the uk economy would just collapse after the vote. I still don't think we will really see the effect until the uk is out of the EU, whatever that means. We will start feeling some effects with relocation and people not investing as much. And we will feel the effect if the pound carries on plummeting.
This will already be felt by the JAMs and the population as a whole. I also don't think that so many people will be happy to accept a few years of hardship to get Brexit. They are struggling enough like it is.

But the REAL effect of a hard Brexit will only be felt after it has left the EU as such. The less time for transition, the harder Brexit will be and the more the uk will feel it.

missmoon · 20/01/2017 10:04

"The banks relocating will be very well versed in getting visa for their employees."

This is only worth it (for the bank) for a few key employees. Everyone else can be replaced with local staff. This is true for other sectors too. I work for a university, and there had been talk about moving research centres to Europe, to be able to continue to apply for research grants. Some of the key professors / postdocs may be offered jobs, but most junior research and technical / administrative staff will be replaced. They may be offered a job, but the terms will be such that most will not be able to accept (e.g., to relocate at short notice, disrupting children's schooling, caring responsibilities for elderly parents, having to sell homes, etc.).

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