Westministenders: Johnson defends his President whilst we try to defend Britain

[RedToothBrush]

Theresa and Donald
Sitting in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First come Brexit
Then comes the Ban
Then comes the
Removal of Human Rights
… Damn

(Shamelessly stolen from a protest sign)

A couple of weeks ago people were still asking why we were talking about Trump on a Brexit thread. I think the answer has made itself all together too apparent.

What is happening in the US is not going to stop. It’s not going to get any better any time soon. The situation is grave with suggestions there has been a coup. What happens next is not going to be pretty. American institutions are struggling. The rule of law has been undermined. We are not talking about a developing country. We are talking about the country which has stood for freedom and democracy.

Our leadership looks weak in the face of this. We look like we are not only appeasing but endorsing. For what? A trade deal that he could revoke in 30 days?

We have but one question. How many of our ‘British Values’ will have to be sacrifice for the special relationship?

Make no bones about this: Cosying up to Trump threatens our national security. It threatens our democracy. It ruins what little moral authority we have left. It threatens our ties with Europe who we DO still need to have a relationship even if we are outside the EU. This is not world leadership. This is appeasement. This is cowardly weak and downright desperate.

Let us also not forget ‘Good old Boris’ pretending to be Churchill and calling the EU Nazis and Hitler during the Referendum and on several occasions since. He has now had the bare faced audicity to stand in the House of Commons and call MPs out repeatedly for ‘trivalising the holocaust’ or for making comparisons with the 1930s when they saying they have been told this by survivors of the holocaust. It is SHAMEFUL. I also note how many times Johnson referred to Trump being democratically elected as if this makes all the difference and he can’t possibly be a dictator if elected.

Why do they want to use the parallel themselves and HATE it when its used for things they use? Fascists hate being pointed out as fascists.

What would happen if you put it to the public? You have a choice, The EU or Trump? What would they say. At its most basic this is what Brexit is now. You can not hide it or disguise it any longer.

Get used to this. Be prepared to protest, to keep challenging, to keep calling things as they are. Fatigue might set in, but we need to keep on. This is for the long haul.

Today the a50 Bill starts in parliament. It’s not looking good, as it looks like MPs will completely fail in their DUTY to hold the government to account and will not have the balls to add amendments to the bill.

If it passes without any, get worried. It is not just about the EU.

It never was.

Was Corbyn suddenly taken ill as well?

He probably rushed off to play Florence Nightingale to Diane Abbot.

I wrote to a bunch of Remainer MPs prior to the vote. (Obviously had little effect!)

What are the amendments all about next week?
Is it worth writing again to some others about them?

Tonight's by-elections - three of them. Tory defence in Uttoexter. And two wards in Rotherham. One Labour one UKIP.

Uttoexter looks like a pretty safe bet for the Tories to hold. They are up against Labour and UKIP.

Rotherham on the other hand looks 'interesting'. If I was Labour High Command, I have to say Rotherham is pretty much the one place I wouldn't want a by election tonight. I sense a potential blood bath here. London you could perhaps explain away a poor result after last night. Rotherham... Well Labour made a strategic decisions to stand up for its Northern voters. If that is seen to be not paying off then that doesn't bode well. It's really bad PR.

The Labour defence here is because the councillor was done for sexual assault after groping another councillor. Add into the mix the child abuse scandal there and the lingering memory of the labour MP having to resign over parliamentary expenses a couple of years ago and you have Labour's idea of hell.

This is prime UKIP land. I wouldn't bet against them with a Labour backlash or mass stay at home likely today. I don't see any reason for voters to come back to Labour locally or nationally. The result tonight will be terrible for Labour tonight imho. It's just how terrible that's worth watching for.

Keep an eye on the LDs for this reason. They won't win but it perhaps will show just how much remain/left vote Labour might shed as a result of Brexit/Corbyn even in the north.

I think UKIP are likely to be happy bunnyies this evening.

Thinks of Paul Nuttall rubbing his back and desperate for an early night tonight in his lonely house in Stoke, listening for people looking in the letter box

Hester yes. Rumour times is carrying today is Tories are trying to head off rebellion from own party on EU nationals rights. Government do not want ANY rebellions now this early in process as they fear that makes them more likely further down the road.

Diane Abbott was too ill to vote? Unless she was cared for at ICU she should have popped some paracetamol and turned up.
Pulling a sicky on such an important occasion is immoral.

Uk Prime Minister @No10gov 5m
PM: #TimetoTalk is an important day when we put the issue of mental health at the forefront of our minds.
With video of Mrs May

I'm going to give my most polite and considered reply to that given how I suspect a lot of people are feeling this week.

JUST FUCK OFF YOU CLUELESS COLD HEARTED EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING. Are you trying to run salt into wounds that you were instrumental in helping to create?

As I say, that's the most civil response to that tweet I have today.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-theresa-may-final-deal-vote-revolt-conservative-neil-carmichael-a7558056.html
Brexit: Conservative MP Neil Carmichael reveals he is set to rebel to guarantee MPs a 'meaningful vote' on final deal

It doesn't look as if Nuttall's address shenanigans will have that much effect, according to this story in the Grauniad.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/01/paul-nuttall-stoke-byelection-papers-gave-address-he-had-not-moved-into

"Peter Stanyon, deputy chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said the address had to be the home address at the moment of nomination.

“The general provision will clearly be that it needs to be a factual statement made at the point the nomination was being submitted,” he said.

The challenge could come in the form of an election petition, filed by an “interested party” such as another candidate or electors, within 21 days of the election. If successful, the result could be annulled.

“It could be held as a technical breach of the law, but did it have an effect on the actual election itself, since the individual did subsequently move into that address,” Stanyon said.

However, he added, to prove an effect on the election was “quite a high bar”, and it would probably need both a very small margin of victory and voters who could say Nuttall moving into the house a few days later than he said made a difference to their decision."

Brexit: Conservative MP Neil Carmichael reveals he is set to rebel to guarantee MPs a 'meaningful vote' on final deal

Can someone explain how it will be possible for MPs to have a meaningful vote on a final deal?

What if they say no to the deal?

As I understand it Article 50 means at the end of 2 years our EU membership is at an end and whether or not a deal is agreed makes no difference to that.

Am I misunderstanding this?

Bunch of Mimsy bastard quisling fucks

Patty. You just ruined my one political plus point for the day.

Now I am going to just have to sit in the corner quivering for the rest of it.

The thought of Paul Nuttalls of the UKIPs under a leaky roof shivering for no good reason was just wonderful.

BOOOOOOO HIISSSSSS.

I want a refund.

Red I know. I'll try to find something hopeful before the day is out.

Or at least something amusing.

BTW, go the Romanians protesters!

That should be Romanian protesters.

Making my adjectives agree with my nouns again. That's a habit that'll get me into trouble, suggesting as it does that I speak and write other languages.

My uncle voted Remain in the referendum despite the fact that he was dying of brain cancer (and died not long after). Just sayin'.

Misti

Thanks for the link on NI. I hope to have time to watch it later. I watched a previous NI select committee with Prof Dougan - on a slightly different angle - but nonetheless but the implications were similar - that there is no way of avoiding a hard goods border.

I've no idea what May & Kenny were on about at the beginning of this week.

Diane Abbott was too ill to vote? Unless she was cared for at ICU she should have popped some paracetamol and turned up. Pulling a sicky on such an important occasion is immoral.

Absolutely agree. If you don't have the strength of character to act like a politician during the tricky times then find a job that better suits your delicate temperament.

You couldn't make it up. Trump has made a Creationist head of his higher education reform task force. Jerry Falwell Jr.

Welcome to the Unenlightenment.

"Welcome to the Unenlightenment."

Dark ages 2.0. Only infinitely worse as aided by sophisticated digital technologies, firmly controlled by autocrats.

Leavers are talking of 'change'. They shall be rewarded with a brave new world and they won't even have to wait until AD 2540.

To pick up on the Frank Field piece - he is one of the idealistic left who has walked into a trap.

He has actually voted in the most hard right government since Thatcher - but to be fair to Thatcher she knew we needed the EU & single market, and she prioritised economics over ideology. (She also actually listened to economists).

The reality of what Field has voted for is far divergent from his vision.

Inequality is now set to get much worse. Hard Brexit will pitch us into economic downturn. Inflation will take hold, Sterling will depreciate further, wages will not rise in line with the cost of living, everyone will experience a decline in living standards. (That is quite apart from the effects of a disorderly Brexit which will leave us in legal and trading chaos.)

If we go the tax haven route: Field will actually have voted for low tax, low regulation (ie fewer employment rights), and low social protection economic model. In other words considerable cuts to the welfare state and public services such as the NHS.

This particular comment is painfully naïve: "I’m absolutely confident that if any Tory government was foolish to attack our fundamental rights they would fail in their ambitions to gain support in the north of England and in the cities".

One should never be confident that a Tory government will not attack 'fundamental rights' least of all a government whose MPs have stated openly that their ambition for leaving the EU is to cut workers' rights (red tape) as they call it.

He's correct that ultimately it will lose the Tories support. The effects of Brexit may even finish of the Tories for good. But only once it's too late.

Piggelig seems like you understand it entirely. I wish MPs also did.

Completely agree Tatiana. Le Pen had the same socialist discourse in France, but then people took a look at Brexit Britain andTrump's US and realised it didn't look like a workers' paradise and that they were better off in the EU. Can't imagine the French thinking they'll be better off as a lone nation in this world at this stage.

'Free from a behemoth' and forced to flirt with unsavoury countries for trade. Hopefully we (by which I mean the UK) will be lucky.
I find it quite ironic too that the government is considering keeping access to a flexible foreign workforce in certain sectors such as agriculture post-Brexit by the way. It looks like it would like exceptions to closed borders for certain sectors - I thought a flexible and hardworking foreign workforce undercutting locals was the reason the whole of the U.K. was on its knees. Didn't Leave posters really want to have the chance to pick fruits again a while back?
Not that I want to talk about it all over again, I think I have had it with everything & need a break too.

maybe?