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 He has been replaced by the Head of the infamous Arch-Brexit Whatsapp group.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

Very telling that newsreaders have switched from saying 'when' Britain leaves the EU to 'if' Britain leaves the EU.

I heard that on the BBC this morning, made me prick my ears up

Some MPs in 'safe' seats were even ordered to knock up in other constituencies on polling day. They then lost their seats.

Another example of Theresa May sensing that the country was behind her?

Meanwhile Corbyn has been at the Grenfell site talking to people, telling them questions will be asked, meeting and shaking hands with the real people.

Acting far more Prime Ministerial than the Prime Minister.

@JohnRedwood

Fuck off.

David Allen Green‏*@davidallengreen*

Poor Queenie, having to repeat "very clear" thirty times in a row, with a crown on her head.
"Should have retired same time as me," says Phil as she leaves. She nods, and then adopts a very fierce facial expression.

HuffPost UK‏*@HuffPostUK*

#Breaking Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry into the #GrenfellTower disaster

Peregrina I don't think even UKIP think women should be chained to sinks reproducing but according to our local candidate anything else, especially any notions of equality, are against the word of God as written down in the bible Funnily enough he was a Catholic priest turned High Anglican turned Evangelical

But otherwise yes UKIP at prayer right down to the obsession with etc Liberal elite who presumably God has some choice words for "Disappointingly, Zac Goldsmith supports same sex marriage, gender abortion and assisted dying and voted against Christian views being protected.(4) He is following the liberal elite who are pursuing a blatant anti-Christian and un-British agenda and that is why we are standing against him."

My late father always amde me promise never to stay in an ibis hotel whilst in Europe..
He said they were death traps.
(He was a boiler engineer and knew his stuff)
I agree LH...John redwood can fuck off
I've re tweeted sme daily fail headlines this morning.."elf n safety madness" etc
I'm sure you can imagine...

*Anyway, I think Grenfall will become the embodiment of consequences of disregarding the value of the poor within our society.

Its a game changer. An attempt to dodge responsibility will not end well.

This is where human rights and the ability to take on the state should be at the back of minds in view of who wishes to remove them*

Could not agree more.

Also compare JC visit with TM. Very telling.

I thought yesterday that Grenfell would be emblematic of the Tory government but in a political sense (not to in any way undermine the sheer weight of human suffering ) as events unfold it is going from bad to worse and becoming almost like a morality tale. Good v Evil and it is very clear to everyone except her who is on the side of evil.

Sam Coates Times‏ @SamCoatesTimes
Mansion House speech - where Philip Hammond was expected to set out new tone on Brexit - cancelled day BBC

Jim Waterson‏*@jimwaterson*

Also ensures there's no pics of a Conservative chancellor wearing black tie at an upmarket dinner filled with bankers at a time like this.

I must apologise for my outburst against John Redwood earlier. It was childish, boorish, and above all else wrong ...

I should have said:

@JohnRedwood

Cachau bant

What's Redwood done THIS time?

So does the a enquiry start now or do we have to wait for the camberwell one first?

Peston
www.facebook.com/pestonitv/posts/1865262307131839

DUP BACKS MAY'S BREXIT VISION, NOT CHANCELLOR'S
The announcement that the Queens Speech is next Weds is about the only good thing to have happened to Theresa May since she squandered David Cameron's majority in the Commons last Thursday.
Because it is confirmation of a blood oath by the DUP's 10 MPs to sustain the Tories in power - the Tories, NOT her - and keep Labour out, for the next five years.

Now to be clear I am not saying it is remotely likely this government will survive five years. I give it two years at best.

But I am saying the DUP has committed to do its darnedest to prop up the Conservatives until 2022 - including by more-or-less integrating the two parties' respective whips offices (which manage how their MPs vote, to minimise the risk of defeats).

There is a double bonus for May in the deal, which is that a DUP source told me - and was very keen to be quoted on this - that his party completely backs her vision of Brexit.

He wanted to knock down speculation that the DUP would like the UK to stay in the Customs Union, the arrangement that obviates the need for border checks on goods leaving the country.

He said the DUP was 100% committed to the UK leaving the single market AND the customs union - which is music to the ears of May and her Brexit minister David Davis, and a slap to the chancellor Philip Hammond.

Where the DUP has helped to encourage an amendment to the May's recent election manifesto is that means testing of the winter fuel allowance for the elderly has been dropped, and the triple lock on pension rises retained.

Permission for new grammar schools is also out of the Queens Speech, but that's despite the DUP - which likes grammars - and simply because quite a lot of Tory backbenchers (hello Nicky Morgan) don't like them.

Anyway all of this will be confirmed when we get the formal legislative programme on Wednesday.

But it will be Tuesday or Thursday that we will get a short statement about what the DUP has extracted by way of dowry for Northern Ireland from the marriage of convenience.

You can assume there'll be lots of lovely investment in public services and infrastructure. So at least one part of the UK will enjoy an end to austerity!

Part 1 of Brexit talks:

Sorting out NI and the border issues.

....

Oh holy fuck. That's the GFA gone isn't it?

Just when I thought the morality tale had delivered its message.......

She is surely not going to carry on with Hard Brexit? Completely turn her back on consensus. I honestly question not just her morals but her sanity? She is down some sort of Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole, filled with the right wing and Northern Irelands regressive minority without the benefit of any perspective on the real world....

If she gets away with this she is taking us all to hell in a handcart

Has John Redwood ever stopped to consider why people are not behind the government's stance on Brexit? whatever it is

David Allen Green‏*@davidallengreen*
1. Next time you hear "reducing the burden of regulation" and "slash red tape" just think:
"what regulations and red tape?"
2. Regulations, like all laws, are inherently neither good nor bad.
Some work, some don't.
They need a case-by-case approach.
3. The job of regulation is to affect outcomes and shape behaviour - some thing is different to what it could be but for that regulation.
4. Both a "regulate everything" and "regulate nothing" approach is misconceived. But there are few people who want to regulate everything.
5. But there are many who see regulation as an inherently bad thing. Something which needs to be got rid of, as an end in itself.
6. And so we frequently get "crack downs" on red tape. To "liberate" from "shackles". Cliché follows cliché. Easy headlines and applause.
7. But often absent from these demands are specifics:
What regulation?
What purpose?
What effect?
What would happen if not there?
8. Am a (small-l) liberal. Not all regulation works. Many decisions best made by individuals, not the state. But there is a "but".
9. Regulation is there to achieve outcomes which cannot be achieved just by individuals making own decisions. Public goods.
Public benefits.
10. So next time you here someone saying "reducing red tape" ask for the specifics. And in particular, what outcomes would be affected.
11. And if you do not get an equally specific answer, the demand is shallow and meritless.
And sometimes dangerous, even lethal.
/ends

I think its fair to say many here have asked that exact question. And got an answer that was not specific.

(THAT awkward conversation about Health and Safety)

Phillip Hammond pulling out of MH speech "because of Grenfell"

Has the whole event been cancelled 'because of Grenfell'?

*Meanwhile Corbyn has been at the Grenfell site talking to people, telling them questions will be asked, meeting and shaking hands with the real people.

Acting far more Prime Ministerial than the Prime Minister.*

Meanwhile the PM met the emergency services coordinators & people in charge on the ground, without a media entourage & without publicly announcing her expected arrival in advance.

Then announced a full public inquiry.

I would say that was pretty Prime Ministerial tbh.

Like or loathe TM & the Tories, this goes far deeper & broader - all 3 of the main parties have blood on their hands in this.

Since John Major's govt they have been shelving & ignoring proposals & recommendations.

So the content of the Queen's Speech must be agreed in the next day or so to allow time for it to be written up and the ink to dry...? Anyone feel confident about that happening?