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 He has been replaced by the Head of the infamous Arch-Brexit Whatsapp group.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

May is sure making use of delay to Queens speech cos Parliament can't do anything till that's passed. There should be questions asked officially in Parliament tomorrow on Grenfell. It is true to say that the tenants are afraid that they will be moved right out of London now and isn't that the idea? Get rid of the poor out of London so its just for the elite. These tower blocks have been systematically run down so they can be pulled down. A quick refurbishment which looks like it was done by a cowboy outfit was just a stay of execution . a bit like what the Tories are doing to the NHS, run it down, underfund it, then privatise through the back door. Everything the tories do smells of corruption or you scratch my back I'll scratch yours. If they dont get this blooming firm that ran the building and the cowboys who done the refurbishments then it really is a corrupt system in this country.

Placemarking. What a day it's been. Thanks for keeping the threads going Red. I share people's despair.

The terrible events in London crystallise for me how callous and awful this government is.

Placemarking and hugely grateful to red and others for insightful postings.

Don't know why the press keep describing Grenfell Tower as 'in Kensington' it's not, it's the far end of Notting Hill. Being in the borough of K&C doesn't change this. Barnes is not Richmond just because it's in the borough of Richmond.

(telegraph paywall) < seems a ridiculously petty reason, considering what this delay is costing the UK in time & reputation >

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/14/philip-hammond-accused-delaying-dup-deal-row-airport-taxes/

"Philip Hammond has been accused of preventing Theresa May from concluding her all-important pact with the DUP because of a row over airport taxes in Belfast.

Whitehall sources have blamed “nitpicking” by the Treasury for the fact that no agreement had been reached by last night following two days of talks.

The Daily Telegraph has been told that the deal is “95 per cent agreed”
but a key stumbling block is a demand by the DUP for an end to Air Passenger Duty at Northern Ireland’s airports,
which have been described as “an anchor on tourism” to the province because the taxes are not levied in the Republic of Ireland."

"One Tory source even suggested Mr Hammond might be deliberately “foot-dragging” to delay Brexit talks and give him more time to argue for a softening of the Government’s position on Brexit.

"The source said: “Anything involving the Treasury is cumbersome.
I am not sure Philip Hammond wants these talks to succeed.”
EU negotiators have said that Mrs May needs to end the “uncertainty” surrounding her ability to command a working majority in Parliament before Brexit talks begin

The DUP wants the Treasury to give it the power to scrap the tax, but Mr Hammond is said to be concerned that if he gives Northern Ireland an opt-out it will mean Scotland also has to be given extra cash under the Barnett formula that determines how much money is allocated to the devolved powers.
Removing APD would mean a reduction of £55m in the block grant Northern Ireland receives from Westminster, to cover the revenue the Treasury receives from the tax.

The DUP wants to find a way to scrap the tax without losing money from the Treasury.

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, reportedly flew back to Belfast last night in a signal that she does not expect a deal imminently.

Mrs May will face a showdown over the DUP deal with the Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams in Downing Street today."
With no DUP deal in place last night, Mrs May will come under huge pressure from Sinn Fein over the proposed pact when she meets its leaders today.
Mrs O’Neill hinted that she might demand the scrapping of the DUP deal if it threatens the Good Friday Agreement,**
which commits the UK and Irish Governments to demonstrate “rigorous impartiality” in their roles as co-guarantors of the peace process."

Nite nite flippinada and nite nite all and thank you red et al for another great thread. Peace to all and prayers to the bereaved and injured and all their families at Grenfell. XXX

I'd imagine Hammond thinks the DUP deal is a bad idea in itself (not just a delaying tactic for Brexit) - along with the rest of the country.

The poor suffering again, this time because of the pound crashing after the referendum

https://behindthepaywallblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/a-hard-brexit-risks-no-brexit-at-all/

"When the pound fell of a cliff from 2007-2008, the poor were protected.
Benefits and in-work tax credit rates were indexed to inflation.

This time the benefits for 11.5 million households have been frozen until 2020.
They will take the brunt as the cost of imported food, clothes, and fuel grind higher.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that the poorest 8.3 million families will in the end lose an average of £470 a year or more.
This was always going to be a time-bomb.
It is detonating before our eyes."

Ladies, I am new to lurking in these threads. However you have inspired my first MP email. Nothing terribly articulate I'm afraid, just visceral disgust at the Tories at all levels of Government (some local stuff going on here too). It is their utter contempt for the common voter and the utter incompetence they have recently displayed. I am, to be fair, not that old, but I have never felt so angry with a party and their arrogant irresponsibility in my life. Thanks for being a great source of information, though my blood pressure and ability to sleep disagrees.

God bless those poor souls.

Ninon What? Presumably your life is not affected by the borough you live in, though hard to see why not? Your life is definitely affected by LBRUT if you live in Barnes and you need a state school place for your child, and you are offered none at first allocation. But that pales into insignificance if you die as a result of the housing policies in Kensington and Chelsea....,.

Thanks Red et al.

I am learning so much from these threads and the Trump ones.

ron i think ninon's point is that Grenfell Tower is in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but it's not in Kensington (which is a distinct part of the borough of borough of K&C).

I think the press are saying Kensington because (a) shorthand for K&C (b) people have heard of it (c) Kensington sounds posh. Disasters aren't supposed to happen in posh places. Posh disasters are more newsworthy.

What a turnaround in just a month. Corbyn was heading for a 15-20 point defeat. Now he's looking like he will be the next PM?

/// Thanks RTB.

.

Placemarking. None of my rambly thoughts because of the fire.

I wonder if TM just doesn't feel like the PM at the moment and isn't thinking 'what does the PM need to do'.

Emma Dent Coad said as she stood amongst the debris, devastation and volunteers of the fire yesterday: "This is the real Kensington". There are the two worlds in London, and the labour vote there showed what people think of that. Shocking on the economic crash due to the de valued brexit pound, BCF, with no Gordon Brown to ease the pain.

Nottinghill is lovely at the best of times. Thanks for your good wishes to all, Sostenueto it looks like it's up to the ordinary people to fix what's clearly so wrong, again.

In the 1960s and 70s ago my late father was a Health and Safety Inspector for the Civil Service. It was founded because of trade union activism and was definitely founded pre EU. Lives were saved and injuries prevented because of the HSE. He would be devastated at the negligence or recklessness with which life saving rules are being flouted or created too weak in the first place.

(And that's before we discuss shoddy new builds built on flood plains)

What a turnaround in just a month. Corbyn was heading for a 15-20 point defeat. Now he's looking like he will be the next PM

I think the tories, Banks and Murdoch have other plans, but we'll see how it plays out.
Hoping it gives solace to the Bernie supporters in America.

I remember fire courses in the 90s run by a lovely but terrifying firefighter who would say with a wolfish grin that if he found any debris or chairs in a fire exit route he could shut our entire organisation down
Someone told me a few years ago that that whole approach to fire safety (ie regular inspection by experts empowered to take action to ensure safety) had changed, and from the timing i think it was under Labour I'm afraid.

The flames, I have never seen anything like it, it just reminded me of 9/11,” said Mua Ali, 45. “The fire started on the upper floors ... Oh my goodness, it spread so quickly, it had completely spread within half an hour

It looked like that, but was preventable, and there were children.

Khan, fire fighters, NHS workers and all the volounteers are being brilliant.

Nothing of note from the tories at all.

.

Local giving his thoughts about the situation ...

www.facebook.com/inthenow/videos/829657550517949/

Comments are interesting.

Comments are interesting.
One of the first things survivors were saying was fear of not being able to live in the area after.

Place marking

I hope there is a huge backlash if they attempt to move them out of the area to make way for swanky new developments.

This is why we should stick with paper and pens. It may seem antiquated, but sometimes the old ways are the best ways.

Russian hackers broke into voting systems in almost every US state, report claims
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/russia-hacking-us-election-trump-voting-systems-us-states-report-a7790701.html

Paper and pencils. I read an article about polling stations where the person said pens would just smudge and they wondered where people thought they would have time to rub out their answers. Interesting perspective.