Westminstenders: The Brexit Apprentice

[RedToothBrush]

Theresa May is increasing looking like she is running an episode of the Apprentice with two teams trying to compete in their plan for Brexit. Complete with the obligatory reprehensible contestants.

On one side we have Team Creationists intent on hard Brexit and on the other we have Team Sensibles desperate to get a softer deal.
May herself has been held hostage by seasoned expert negotiators the DUP. Once No 10 has reported the deal was done, only for the DUP to say it wasn’t. Then it said, it would be settled today. But the DUP disagreed and said ‘the weekend’. Now its 'next week'.

Meanwhile the Queen has been messed about with a scapegoat over when her Queen’s Speech will be. It’s likely to be a week on Monday.
Meanwhile the Brexit department is also in chaos.

The Number two in the department was sacked and replaced by a Remainer, and the number three quit amongst reports that he no longer thought Brexit was achievable and that there was no way that the Great Repeal Act could pass through the Lords. He has been replaced by the Head of the infamous Arch-Brexit Whatsapp group.

Oh and Gove got hired. Nuff said on that one.

After some slight back tracking from David Davis, Hard Brexit is still on in all its glory. Negotiations are going ahead next week. Well that’s what we are saying. The EU, on the other hand, don’t won’t to go ahead until we have an officially sworn in government. Which seems pretty fair enough.

Tune in to find out which Team wins this week’ The Brexit Apprentice

I was reading with my DS (aged 9) one of his reading books. It was about the Roman times and how the landlords didn't make the buildings safe and there were lots of fires.

Scarily it seems not much has changed.

Watching the news last night, looking at a building that was still burning and hearing stories about rescues from inside it, I found myself disbelieving that anyone could make it down from the top half of the tower. I think the final number of casualties is going to be unimaginably large.

Maybe one day people will wake up to the fact that red tape tends to exist for a reason.

Bigly I forgot to add snobbery and illusions of superiority and entitlement to the list of essential right wing Tory credentials...

And misogyny

Surely May's paucity of a response to this absolutely heart rending tragedy is sapping away any last vestiges of respect for her. I do not know anyone who has not shed a tear or many at the coverage, she could at least show she is human....

I agree with ron here - at the time the abortion laws were first passed babies born at 24 weeks would not have survived but advances in medical care now allow them to do so, so there is rightly a debate about this.

As for his views on gay rights - a lot of church goers have a dilemma with this. I hadn't checked his abstention rate, but in recent years his voting record on LBGT rights has been positive. Which is more than you can say for Theresa May's record, or her consorting the other week with an actively homophobic organisation. But she gets away with it. (For now at least.)

If you live in London it is not just that you could see the smoke for miles around, you could smell it, even in Downing Street I am sure.

Bigly He was not voting against abortion, he was voting on the time limit.

I am aware of that, but he did not vote, he abstained...6 times, while claiming he would vote with the evidence. The evidence being that those who seek late term abortions are, as you say, dealing with horrific choices and aborting much wanted babies for serious medical reasons. Abstaining is not good enough.

And as I said it is not about whether there is an argument for or against gay rights or abortion term limits. It is about what the ideals of the liberal party are and whether he, as leader, represents those ideals. These will be different for leaders in different parties, so yes they will be held to different standards.

Anyway, Tim Farron has now resigned. Meanwhile the person who actively votes against Gay rights and also wanted the abortion time limit lowered, carries on in Downing Street. No doubt we will hear some fine words delivered from the steps of No. 10, and equally not in doubt those words will be as empty as her previous ones were.

I'm actively trying to avoid news coverage about the tower, it's just so incredibly awful .

These will be different for leaders in different parties, so yes they will be held to different standards.

Not sure about this. It suggests that we accept that Tories are amoral. Given that the vicar's daughter has made much of her religion, why isn't she being judged by how well she practices her Christian beliefs?

Abstention is not a vote against. Nor is it a vote for. To claim otherwise is pure polarisation. Like with most matters of government, things are rarely black and white.

Bigly We are talking about two issues that raise difficult questions not just for Christians but most people with profound religious beliefs. I interpret abstaining as someone who is wrestling with those beliefs and simply can't decide. However his voting record is certainly not illiberal. However the question is whether people who have profound religious beliefs can play a political role in our parliamentary democracy and specifically liberal politics. He clearly feels they cannot.

I feel that poses a greater danger than the moral dilemmas they face on those specific issues. I know that religion begets some of the worst hypocracy and prejudice but it also should be an enormous source of empathy, caring, taking responsibility for others and for contributing to society, morality and principled decision making. It also helps parliament be more representative of society (though the Anglican Church is overepresented) I think Tim Farron was an example of a Christian who bought all that.

By the way I argue that as a convinced humanist who has spent a lot of time as an activist arguing against a particular religious tribe who consider that they have a monopoly on all that and that secularism is a modern work of the devil that their children have to be protected from at all costs...

Or as the Leader of our Council terms it illiberal liberalism....

A pack of TV journalists surrounding May is not exactly calming for the residents who have escaped the fire either. 20 minutes seems enough AND Corbyn coming later . Must be utter madness there. Please no compare and contrast on empathy.

Ron Not quite sure what the problem is.

I've never said Kensington is a small area, I don't dispute the issue of pockets of affluence. Notting Hill is incredibly affluent and the point stands.

But Kensington is bound by Holland Park Ave in the north, and Olympia & West Ken in the West, Brompton road in the south. North of Holland Park Ave is Notting Hill. The Evening Standard got it right because it's a London newspaper.

Map: goo.gl/maps/MoFZMtkTZqG2

Barnes is Barnes. Residents don't identify with Richmond town or Hammersmith town as they're neither. Richmond is on the other side of Mortlake and Sheen, Hammersmith is much nearer.

@Elements me too. It's so, so awful. I've made a donation to the ES appeal..it seems such a small gesture, but I don't know what else to do.

David Lammy was saying this should be treated as corporate manslaughter.

Not going to type what I think of T May and co because it's unprintable.

I have deeply held Christian beliefs to the extent that I completed half the training to enter the Church of Scotland ministry. I find a casual acceptance that Christianity and abortion rights or LGBT rights are incompatible very troubling. I am at what is considered by many to be the extreme end of the pro-choice spectrum because I consider that the rights of the mother and existing family always trump the rights of the unborn. I no longer attend Church because I am disgusted by the constant fudging of issues on LGBT rights even within the "liberal" theology of the Church of Scotland. I am not conflicted with my deeply held and studied theological background.

One of the Anglican Bishops made the comment that TF made the mistake of straying into theological judgements he was not qualified to make. I agree with this. The concern for a politician, especially one who thinks of themselves as a Liberal, is them seeking to use their ill conceived religious notions to inform their secular moral and political judgements.

The irony is, it is in part because of my "extreme" Liberal views that I would never vote for the LibDems and their half-baked utilitarian notions and TF's "dilemma" epitomises this for me.

Ninon - you are correct. But those of us who live outside London (which is everything inside the M25 to us country bumpkins ), Kensington is near South Kensington tube station (and the museums) - so have a vague idea which part of London is referred to, without having to get maps out.

Labour have remained in campaigning mode, ready to step in if necessary but it appears that CCHQ are adopting this too:

order-order.com/2017/06/15/cchq-already-preparing-for-next-election/

Tory HQ was caught on the hop by the snap election, initially struggling to find enough candidates to fill seats having culled their list of approved prospective MPs. They are determined not to make the same mistake in the event of another early election – Guido hears preparations have already begun. CCHQ Head of Candidates Gareth Fox emailed the old candidates list yesterday inviting them to apply be considered for the new list. This would not normally happen for several months after an election, instead the process has been accelerated and is already underway less than a week after polling day. Applications from candidates are wanted “as soon as you can”, and by no later than 10 July. CCHQ wasn’t ready when Theresa May called the June 8 election, they want to make sure they are all set to go if they have to in the autumn…

So May not got full agreement with DUP but is going ahead with queens speech even though DUP not signed on the dotted line. Hope they are loyal!

As a non Christian, believer in pro choice and LGBT issues, I can't honestly say there are elements that I've found time to pause at and question my beliefs. Where does the line get drawn between one set of rights and another? Especially when there's no easy middle ground. These are hard questions for any liberal minded person let alone one who has a religion in the mix.

Tbf to Farron though, it wasn't him attempting to be a theologian at all. He was desperately trying to steer away from that. The press otoh.

I think all parties need to put themselves on an election footing, because either May stitches up a half deal with the DUP which doesn't last, or she forms a minority government, which probably won't last.

47% on either wanting a soft Brexit no Brexit or a 2nd ref.