Westministenders: Boris and his friends hand in their homework to be marked.

[RedToothBrush]

The last week has been depressing for a lot of people.

Even if you are happy about the vote in the Commons, there is a worrying lack of backbone in MPs of all shades.

Then there’s what is going on in the USA which I’m going to quietly ignore in this post except to say that cosying up to Trump still could backfire on all who do for numerous reasons.

It seems like its all over in someways, but there is still plenty going on.

The A50 Bill has only passed stage one. The Government’s deliberate publishing of the White Paper after the vote has left a lot of people with egg all over their face.

Plus its just crap. Actually its not crap. It’s a dog dinner of farcical proportions with no content, faulty data and incorrect details that an A-Level Student did the night before their assignment was due, masquerading as an official government document.

Now its amendment time, which is the serious bit. For an amendment to make it, it will need cross party support. After the government failed to produce a White Paper worth the paper it was written on, and insulted the intelligence of the House of Commons, that could get interesting.

For starters the White Paper says that EU citizens are one of our best bargaining chips. Trouble is a lot of Tory and Labour MPs don’t agree.

In short there is a fair old chance of a government defeat next week at some point. The government don’t want any. Especially not this early. I really think it will be very difficult for the government to provide the assurance MPs will want, even if they crack the whip. They have lost the trust of too many. In voting for the first vote, many MPs will feel they have shown their intent to support leaving and now will get busy on trying to hammer down the details.

Highlights include of the White Paper include the idea that we will still be subject to the ECJ except we won’t. This is ridiculous. We will be subject to ECJ rulings but not be subject to ECJ rulings directly. Eh? What? (Not that we didn’t see this coming). There’s Euroatom and the government doing an impression of Homer Simpson. With a by-election in Copeland on the cards. That story has some time to keep running. As Steve Peers points out, the Leprechauns are going to sort out Northern Ireland for us which is a great political strategy to employ.

Its full of lots of other utter bollocks but those particular points are the ones that are potentially the most problematic for the government. If you don’t think the White Paper screams we are going to get eaten alive by the EU and Trump, you need to get off the hallucinogenics pronto.

If that isn’t awe inspiring enough we also have:

The wonderful mental image of Paul Nuttall kipping on a mattress in a house in Stoke disparately pretending to be a Stokie, nervously hoping that letterbox rattling in the wind isn’t C4 letterbox again and that the coppers don’t pay him a visit in the near future. I confess that whilst my imagination has been kept busy with this, I am disappointed in the lack of video clips of him munching on an Oatcake in a Stoke City shirt, sitting on an Armitage Shanks throne, turning his plate over whilst listening to Robbie Williams and with a Titanic by his side. All at the same time. I think he’s missed a few tricks.

AND

Diane Abbott doing quite possibly even more damage to Labour than them merely rolling over and dying over a50 by pulling a sickie. Her ‘Brexit Flu’ damages the party’s image and Corbyn himself even more. If that’s even possible. Some Labour MPs have demanded an apology.

Labour is starting to look like it’s a ship with rats fleeing this week. MPs have defied a three line whip and quite the Shadow Cabinet (Again). Rumours are that over 7000 members have left. A councillor has defected to the Lib Dems. There was a council by election in Rotherham where Lab lost a seat to the LDs in an area where there has never been as many people vote LD. Nor were there as many remain voters as LD voters. The Parliamentary vote for Unite’s new leader has unsurprisingly selected the anti-Corbyn candidate Gerald Coyne over Len McCluskey. The bookies have dropped the odds on Corbyn leaving Labour before a GE from 6/1 to 2/1 overnight. Oh and Red Ed is being rumoured to be returning to the front bench…

From Hansard
hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2017-02-06/debates/3321CE93-B49F-426D-897E-6105183667E3/InformalEuropeanCouncil

Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)
What did the Prime Minister say to her fellow European leaders about her assessment of the Trump-Putin relationship, and specifically about Russian interference in western democracies, including our own?

The Prime Minister
Concern has been expressed both at this Council meeting and at others about the role that Russia is playing, in a number of ways, with its interference.

Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury) (Lab)
By you?

The Prime Minister
Yes, Lady Nugee, by me. It is a matter of continuing concern and will remain a subject of discussion.

Maybe there is a back history with regard to Thornberry's husband and Russia, but if there is, I don't know the story. To my innocent eyes, it looks totally unprovoked and unwarranted.

Penelope, the real problem is as a rule we have been too gutless and slow to label right wing crimes as extremists and terrorists when appropriate - this individual case aside. Language is powerful and important.

Referring the problem to advertising under the circumstances is poor leadership and is not challenging the problem. Once again its appeasement of a kind.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/06/the-guardian-view-on-decent-conservatives-we-need-them?CMP=twt_gu
The Guardian view on decent conservatives: we need them
Editorial
The Speaker’s assertion of decency is a welcome reminder that customs transmit values in ways that can’t be identified with left or right

I wonder how the Express and Mail will cover the same story...

RTB et al, what are your views on the crimes carried out by the left, particulary recently in USA, and do you think they were reported accurately?

would they be correctly described as extremists and terrorists? how do you define a terrorist?

wrt to Bercow and his impartiality or otherwise, isn't his primary concern meant to be the house itself?

Someone who uses violence or threats thereof to achieve or support political aims

I am appalled at TM's senseless and unprovoked putdown of E Thornberry. Once again she displays her lack of elegance and wit. Totally out of her depth and she knows it, hence the nasty defensiveness.

It's not constitutional but it's parliamentary procedure, re Bercow's intervention, apparently he has 'history' with May, looking spicy!

Plight of EU nationals being debated now:
^Earlier in the debate the Conservative MP Alberto Costa, who has Italian parents, said his party should drop its target for getting net migration below 100,000. He said EU nationals had contributed an “enormous amount” to the success of the UK...................
But I cannot possibly foresee a situation where a competent British government would attempt to reduce the levels of immigration that would damage our economy, which leads me to the point made by an honourable friend of mine in the newspapers recently about a promise made in the Conservative manifesto - which we did not keep and cannot keep.
We cannot get immigration to the tens of thousands without damaging our economy^

"MH issues" is a pretty broad category that lumps together a lot of different conditions. The culpability of someone with an anxiety disorder, say, is quite different from that of someone with paranoid schizophrenia who is in full blown psychosis.

Labour’s Wes Streeting is speaking now. He says his jaw dropped when he heard George Osborne say last week that the prime minister has chosen not to make the economy the priority in the Brext negotiations dropped mine!.

MH is a legal defence is all. Am I right my learned friend, Cecile?
You can't have mens rea if you are not sound of mind?

There are legal definitions of terrorism, largely following what cecile put above.

The actions in the US were those more of rioting, and there's a legal split between the two. Not that they were right at all either.

Labour’s Wes Streeting is speaking now. He says his jaw dropped when he heard George Osborne say last week that the prime minister has chosen not to make the economy the priority in the Brext negotiations dropped mine!.

What?!?!
The economy is not a priority? I hope that's what Leavers knew they were voting for...

Bored Please, define crimes carried out by the left or the right, whichever is easier.
To my mind crimes are committed by criminals, not by lefties or right-wingers.

Some crimes require intention (murder), others - negligence or carelessness as to the outcome (manslaughter) even though someone is killed in both.

Diminished responsibility (i.e. Serious mental health problem like schizophrenia) might justify a defendant being found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, but the outcome is indefinite detention in a secure psychiatric hospital rather than prison.

lala point taken but it will not be perceived as just cheap point scoring for women of my generation, which May is. We, for the first time, won the right to define our own identity. I still use my maiden name in business not especially from a feminist viewpoint, I do not use it in other parts of my life, certainly have not indulged in the double barrelling, but because it is part of my brand in a working world where networks are very important. That is even more true in politics.Her attitudes are seriously out of kilter with those of other professional women of her generation.

Red The Mirror seems to think that TM just wanted to discredit Emily Thornberry. I mean what can be more damaging than being married to "the enemy of the people", ie a judge?!
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/theresa-forced-apologise-breaking-parliament-9769596

Was it not Hammond at Davos who made it clear that the economy was not our priority?
"Because our political imperative says we cannot accept freedom of movement, we must accept the EU's political imperative that we cannot be a member of the single market" www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/20/davos-2017-philip-hammond-centre-stage-world-economic-forum/

Yeuch what a vile parochial small minded woman she is. I wonder who she is trying to impress. I thought she already had the votes of all the women (and men) who would likely get excited by the idea of a woman using only her husband's name for 36 years. 'Conservative' in every sense.

Thanks unicorn

The economy cannot be a priority. That much has been clear from day one. That's the crux of their problem - all those years of 'austerity' and wages freezes to fix the roof while the sun is shining and for what... - oh dear.

Bored, a terrorist is a terrorist.
It is the use of violence to further a political objective.

I think the word has changed in its nature. For some it is now almost inter changeable with the world Muslim. That's the problem.

I have great difficulty with this because of my personal experience.

I found it very hard when 9/11 happened and all the American commentary in particular, had memory lapse over terrorism in Europe (where it be the IRA, UDA, ETA and the history of France and Algeria or someone else). It was almost as if terrorism was redefined.

I think I am particularly aware of how the word is used and where it is not used when it should be. Its a weapon in its own right.

It should be applied equally to right wing nationalists, white supremacists, Christian anti-abortionists, animal rights activists and anti-capitalists alike.

We should not be afraid to use the world. Its non-use is as political as its use.

Jay Rosen @jayrosen_nyu
1/ Here's my read on this news: CNN declines to have Kellyanne Conway on air— and lets that fact be publicly known
2/ The background here is the Trump team 'freezing out' CNN and trying to punish it for reporting they didn't like.
3/ Last week, @jaketapper spoke up about the White House refusing to send any representative to his Sunday program.
4/ Instead of 'you get no one,' the White House is this week saying to @CNN: you can't have what everyone else is getting... Mike Pence.
5/ But instead of taking a second tier guest — @KellyannePolls — CNN came back with its own statement: you wanna give up the air time? Fine.
6/ Why do these adolescent games matter? Any kind of push back matters for a press capable of cave-ins like this:
7/ Another reason it could matter is that the White House is pushing CNN into a little booking experiment that might otherwise never occur.
8./ Weeks of news coverage ABOUT the Trump White House without on-air guests FROM the Trump White House allow CNN to test a proposition...
9./ Does it really hurt CNN in the ratings when speakers from the White House fail to appear on air? What if the answer turns out to be no?
10./ If the boycott and 'punishment' continue, but CNN does fine in the ratings, AND in digging up juicy things about the Trump White House—
11/ —then it will have been demonstrated that you don't need their guests to do well. If the White House wants to give up the airtime, fine!
12/ Which in turns means: if the White House "comes back" to CNN, the power relationships between guest and host might be subtly altered.
13/ When everyone on set knows CNN can live with it if the White House rep never returns, it's a little easier to hold speakers accountable.
14/ Works the other way around too. When a guest doesn't care about getting asked back, this has a welcome effect on freedom of expression.
15/ In sum: the White House thinks it's playing hardball with CNN. But it may wind up illuminating an alternative path: outside-in coverage.
16/ Compared to the shifts I have described here, news that second-tier @KellyannePolls was turned away is just a delightful confection. END

MPs have voted down the Labour amendment demanding periodic reports on the Brexit talks by 333 votes to 284 - a majority of 49.
Majority of 49 seems a wee bit small?

Must've been a few tories, wanting more updates on Mrs Married Lady's uneconomic plans. She's certainly economical with the truth. lol