Westminster: Brexit is the hard right's weapon of mass distraction

[BigChocFrenzy]

The fervour and divisions over Brexit have suspended normal party politics.

The staggering incompetence & unsuitability of Corbyn as a leader, together with the resulting impotence of Labour has removed the normal checks & balances in UK politics.
There is a vaccum where the Official Opposition should be, so Theresa May is under pressure only from her right.

I fear Thereas May and the Tory rightwing are taking advantage of Brexit to complete the destruction of the post-WW2 social contract and the welfare state.

Meanwhile, the constraints of civilised discourse have been loosened and those with racist or social Darwinist views now feel free to spout their poison openly.

Putin is pouring petrol on all the fires and Arron Banks is lurking < sinister emoticons required >

Zoe Williams:
"Behind a smokescreen of bogus patriotism, ideologically driven cuts to the NHS and all our public services are unpicking the bonds of nationhood"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/05/brexit-theresa-may-falklands-war-nhs-cuts

"We should be marching against the crisis in adult social care, the closure of care homes, the systematic exploitation of carers, the £4.6bn cut from social care budgets this decade.
We should be .... asking:

“What exactly is the plan, if we’ve decided we can no longer afford to care for the elderly and the disabled?
What do we do with them instead?”

"We should be marching against cuts in education funding"

"Every morning we wake up to someone on the radio explaining, despairingly, that you can’t fix the hospital bed crisis until social care is fixed, and you can’t fix that until council tax brings in more, and it can’t bring in more because wages are too low."

"But when everything breaks at the same time, that is not a coincidence: it is a plan.

As surely as Margaret Thatcher had an economic plan on employment, rights, industry and wages,
this century’s Conservatives have a plan on public services, which is to smash them beyond all recognition."

The answer to why there was a ramp up after the HoL I'm guessing was an attempt to steer away from any negative effects of the budget being Brexit related. Which of course they've horribly failed at

*I think the secret May strategy is EFTA with an EEA transition period.

Sorry, brexiters! Though actually I think this would not meet with any fundamental objections from not-completely-insane wing of the Leave ranks, eg David Davis.*

I've thought all along that this would be the most likely outcome.
It's the solution that can be 'sold' to the broad majority across the middle ground.

Hard Remainers won't be cock-a-hoop as it's not full Remain, hard Brexiters won't be impressed as it's not full detachment.
However, for most it addresses their broader aspirations.

For me as a leaver, the most important first step was detaching from the EU as a full member - that's the messy, entangled part that was always going to be the biggest and most difficult hurdle.

As a 'partner' rather than a full member it gives UK a more flexible position in the future, to make the full detach or not decisions in the long term, depending on how the EU evolves in the future.

I think the secret May strategy is EFTA with an EEA transition period.

But, but - it doesn't get her out of FoM. It doesn't get her out of the ECJ. Apart from that, many, including at one time Farage, would think it a decent compromise.

bear minimum

Clearly I meant bare

Meanwhile ...

Exclusive The UK has suspended ZTE from the immigration scheme used by foreign companies to allow foreign nationals to work locally, The Register can exclusively reveal.

The Home Office has suspended the Tier 2 visa sponsor license for the Chinese state-owned telecoms giant, the fourth largest supplier of telecommunications equipment in the world.

(contd)

hardly a headline that the UK is open for business from the rest of the world.

Dover has nowhere to expand to unless you either drill into the cliffs or build into the sea, Folkestone, Hull and Southampton could expand but the access is poor etc. All port expansions for custom checks are realistically about 10-15 years off, if the funding and government backing were announced tomorrow.

Interesting.

I've thought all along that this would be the most likely outcome.
It's the solution that can be 'sold' to the broad majority across the middle ground.

I think this is probably true, although you are possibility in a minority of one among the hardcore leavers on MN and elsewhere.

I don't think most remainers would have a major issue with an EEA type outcome; we just think it's an expensive way of having the same trading relationship with less input into the rules and less control over how they are applied.

On the infrastructure point - I know people involved in the Heathrow expansions over the years who say the next runway is currently a 10 year point.

... All port expansions for custom checks are realistically about 10-15 years off, if the funding and government backing were announced tomorrow.

This is a really important point. As part of my job I regularly evaluate major capital projects. Even once they are announced, planned (ie the details meticulously spelt out in a bankable feasibility) and funded, it can take 7-10 years to actually build them.

This is why I am certain that the government does not intend to leave the customs union any time soon. If it happens, it will be because of incompetence/ hubris on the UK side. My personal opinion is that the stakes are high enough on both sides that the grown-ups at the EU will keep some sort of EEA deal on the table ... The real risk here is that May is completely bonkers and has surrounded herself with people who are similarly bonkers and who won't take the deal they will be offered. I will start being more concerned if she gives Hammon the boot.

It is more and more clear to me that the UK has no cards at all; the EU can see the Dover problem even more clearly than we do! They know Britain is engaged in an elaborate game of political theatre.

If it happens, it will be because of incompetence/ hubris on the UK side

Two things the UK could power the world with.

Shame they're not exportable commodities, we wouldn't have to rely on jam then.

Lurking 😂

I swear when jam was mentioned my eye nearly rolled out of my head 🙄

Thanks for "Westministenders" reminder, pretty It'll be in new thread title

Two strong late entrants into the "wins the thread" competition there

If it happens, it will be because of incompetence/ hubris on the UK side

Well we did "forget" the VAT on the Olympics.

I wouldn't have an issue with an EEA/EFTA type agreement either (it is after all what Scotland is asking for if the UK is going to insist on Brexit) but like Misti, think it seems an awful lot of angst, chaos and disruption for essentially the same cost, less influence and still "suffering" requiring the ECJ and FoM

If it happens, it will be because of incompetence/ hubris on the UK side

Apparently we've also been forgetting to check containers of clothing entering the UK via Felixstowe, and when the French try to contact UK customs about this, they never get a response.

They probably only have one person on duty at a time though Misti, and he's busy chasing asylum seekers out of lorries .

I wouldn't have an issue with an EEA/EFTA type agreement either (it is after all what Scotland is asking for if the UK is going to insist on Brexit) but like Misti, think it seems an awful lot of angst, chaos and disruption for essentially the same cost, less influence and still "suffering" requiring the ECJ and FoM

we return - once again - to the fact that despite 17,000,000 people voting for it, absolutely no one; NO ONE; no one put even a cursory definition of what a vote to leave the EU actually meant.

Now leavers have had to suffer all sorts of indignations. Almost all of which do not apply to them as a whole. But in voting for something that was not clearly defined at the time, I think it's fair to question their judgement. And in the absence of a document pre-23rd June that charts what is happening now, I will continue to make that case.

badders, LH !

I think it's fair to question their judgement.

Mostly we should question Cameron's judgement tbh. I think that voters are entitled to expect, where an important question is put to the people, that the question asked is meaningful and that it has already been subject to the usual processes by which government policy is elaborated.

This is why I am certain that the government does not intend to leave the customs union any time soon. If it happens, it will be because of incompetence/ hubris on the UK side

But it does apparently intend to forge its own trade policy, as explicitly stated by May, and that's not compatible with staying in the cu.

She's set herself up to fail either way - either we don't leave and Leavers take to the barricades, or we do and face disaster.

I agree that the clearly government doesn't intend to leave, but it didn't intend to leave the single market either, & I'm not confident of the grip on reality.

.....so we're back to everlasting cake and unicorns

Mostly we should question Cameron's judgement tbh. I think that voters are entitled to expect, where an important question is put to the people, that the question asked is meaningful and that it has already been subject to the usual processes by which government policy is elaborated.

Sometimes, acceptance is the best resistance .... rather than complaining about the EU referendum, we remainers should press for all decisions to be taken like that in future. And whenever there is any majority - no matter how small - we should insist that "the will of the people be carried out". With a reminder to everyone that the referendum was advisory, not statutory. So any whinging about "oh, that vote doesn't count" isn't allowed anymore.

I mean, I like jam...it's just...you know...I don't think you can base a whole economy on it....

#keepikeameatballstarifffree