Westminstenders: Boom. The Brexit Backlash starts to hit.

[RedToothBrush]

So it turns out that immigration figures that stated students overstayed were wrong. The home office knew this. And sat on it. Since 2015. Under Theresa.

That smells a bit doesn't it?

Imagine it: "Let's do lunch Paul. I'll cover up and give you a nice immigration story for your front page. In return, crown me PM."

Then tonight BOOM. Labour look like they have made a move. Soft very swishy Brexit. Even less brexity than the Beano Brexit that the Tories have been trying to announce on the quiet over the summer whilst Brexiteers are on holiday.

amp.theguardian.com/global/2017/aug/26/labour-calls-for-lengthy-transitional-period-post-brexit
Labour makes dramatic shift on Brexit and single market
Party opens clear divide with Tories, with support for free movement and paying into EU budgets for up to four years

Labour is to announce a dramatic policy shift by backing continued membership of the EU single market beyond March 2019, when Britain leaves the EU, establishing a clear dividing line with the Tories on Brexit for the first time.

In a move that positions it decisively as the party of “soft Brexit”, Labour will support full participation in the single market and customs union during a lengthy “transitional period” that it believes could last between two and four years after the day of departure, it is to announce on Sunday.

This will mean that under a Labour government the UK would continue to abide by the EU’s free movement rules, accept the jurisdiction of the European court of justice on trade and economic issues, and pay into the EU budget for a period of years after Brexit, in the hope of lessening the shock of leaving to the UK economy. In a further move that will delight many pro-EU Labour backers, Jeremy Corbyn’s party will also leave open the option of the UK remaining a member of the customs union and single market for good, beyond the end of the transitional period.

Why would Labour suddenly do this? It's not just because of the youth vote. What about their leave voters?

Faisal Islam on the subject:
2. On Labour Leavers is very very interesting and involves quite the psephological judgement re the election....
...the calculation appears to be that Labour Leave voters had the chance to vote for Theresa May's brand of Brexit, and bar 5 seats, said No
Was that because Lableave voters were already signalled "hard Brexit"? Or many millions such voters much more concerned about other things?

Have Labour been polling their voters on this?

Theresa has also apparently set her sell by date: Friday 30th August 2019.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-sets-date-shell-quit-11061894.amp
Theresa May sets date she'll quit as Prime Minister - giving herself time to see Britain through Brexit

The longer the transition and the squishier it gets, the more the more you wonder.

Mr Barnier will enjoy his coffee and newspapers tomorrow as he prepares for round two of Brexit talks starting next week.

The question on his mind most: Will David Davis remember to bring his notes this time?

Anyone else remember the 3-day week during the Heath govt (Tory) in the early 1970s ?

Companies only had electricity for 3 days per week and iirc, some pubs and clubs were closed the other days too.
Private homes had frequent power cuts.
TV programs stopped in the evening too

That was fun in my late teens, but I shudder to think how the disabled, elderly and their carers would cope now.
There was a good social services safety net then, so vulnerable people were supported quite well
Also, we weren't as dependent on electricity for many gadgets, that are essential now to communicate, e.g. Mumsnet !
but also more lifesaving devices now that need power.

Quite a shift, that one,BigChoc; like the olden days.

Ds1 (14) saw Angela Merkel back in May wbwn hexwas on a trip to Berlin - he said he gave her the thumbs up 👍😁

Blimey
Typo city

I know I was very careful when responding to him/her, to always mention the arguments as being crap wrong.

But I did make a few pointed general comments about "ignorant" (in the true sense of the word) posters

Ds is convinced that if Bernie Saunders had won the nomination, then he would have beaten Trump. I've tried to explain to him that neither the Alt Right nor the GOP had even started their smear campaigns against him (because they'd been focussing on Clinton). They'd have gone to town on his perceived Communism/Socialism and the anti-Semites would very definitely have crawled out from the woodwork.

I had a post deleted once for saying somebody was being condescending. They bloody were as well. Still, they made a right idiot of themselves on their professional blog that they kept linking to, so revenge was sweet.

woman it's astonishing in some ways that Merkel is such a popular figure with teenagers in Europe (I don't think my teenagers are in any way exceptional in this respect). Radical centrism may be making a come back ;)

Merkel is such a popular figure with teenagers She's clever, brave and humane. As opposed to...........

Companies only had electricity for 3 days per week

Not all ... in the 80s, I did my sandwich year with a company that was exempt. They still had the blackout blinds they were required to install, so that people couldn't see them working when all around was dark (cf air raid blinds).

(They also had a hotline to Scotland Yard as they were an IRA target. And a helipad on the roof, which allowed the police to helicopter in essential staff in the winter of 1986/87 when London was snowed in.)

Oh the good old days, eh? I swear when people hanker back to the past, what they actually mean is being able to tell racists jokes without facing social ostracism and the ability to pat one's secretary on the bum without facing a harassment charge.

I was a child of the 80s, growing up in a provincial market town that had last seen its glory days many decades ago. It was dull, depressing, limiting and the opposite of what I want for my children.

That phrase from the refusal letter (“There is no reason why you and Mr Kiff could not relocate to China and enjoy your family life there.”) is absolutely standard text - most of the letters use set formulaic sentences to reduce legal risk and improve productivity. Even when it results in a crassly insensitive response. I hope they get a really good lawyer to help with their appeal: perhaps there is some sound reason behind the refusal (I won't speculate here), but it is an awful situation for the family involved.

I swear when people hanker back to the past, what they actually mean is being able to tell racists jokes without facing social ostracism and the ability to pat one's secretary on the bum without facing a harassment charge

Even under Thatcher the welfare state was operational.
Disabled people weren't asked if and why they hadn't tried to commit suicide; Unemployment benefits were provided without inequitable criteria; taxes were high and collected; and the Greenham women were shutting down nuclear armaments; the list is endless.

Women of all ages were much more prominently and respectfully represented in media, culture and politics.

It was not nirvana for many reasons, but I wish my kids were growing up with a functioning NHS, workers' rights, genuine legal constraints on racism and sexism, accountable schools, free FE and HE ,and a less materialistic and wasteful society.

I swear when people hanker back to the past, what they actually mean is

they want all the good bits, but none of the bad. Strange how few people are campaigning for outdoor toilets, rationing, and coal fires.

Women of all ages were much more prominently and respectfully represented in media, culture and politics.

doing my sandwich year (mid 80s), my boss, and her boss were both women . My boss was half French, and we'd occasionally chit chat in French, and when I moved to Brum, my boss was a woman.

Compost toilets: a good thing. We do poop all wrong in the west.
whatwouldrondo do you know the Chinese folk song in honour of the 'night soil man'?
Rationing: meant the poorest had a much better diet and health.
Coal: would have meant keeping mining towns open for business and no brexit thank you very much.

A wise governance uses the best from the past and the even better for the future

“There is no reason why you and Mr Kiff could not relocate to China and enjoy your family life there.”

Standard issue? Damn, I thought it was an extra clever ploy by the Home Office to get the net migration figures down even further - not just getting rid of the foreign wife, but her British husband too. Sort of an inhumane BOGOF

Dh has just reminded me that Merkel's lustre has been slightly dimmed for ds because she voted against gay marriage. He is still at that "black & white" perspective on life and doesn't accept that her decided to give her party a free vote, even though she voted against it herself was a big thing and was instrumental in gay marriage being voted through.

I too am old enough to remember the 3 Day Week and the rolling power cuts. I can remember sitting in the kitchen with the gas oven door open (and on ) for warmth. Shopping in supermarkets by candle light. Buying supermarket freshly baked bread because you couldn't rely on the bakeries having bread. As a teenager it was fun - but for the adults, it must have been a pain in the arse.

I too am old enough to remember the 3 Day Week and the rolling power cuts.

Getting home as a 7-year old, and having to light the candles for when my DM got home.

Helping my DF rig up the electrics to run the (gas) boiler so we had central heating.

Hearing my DM give praise every evening that we cooked with gas ...

3 day week and all that was before my time (I'm a millennial don't you know... just), but I have to say it doesn't sound all that fun to me.

Yes the call of the night soil man was a regular feature of Chinese life, it features quite a lot in the literature too even in the cities, and still happens in some places . The only problem is that using human soil on crops spreads diseases like Hepatitis (which occurs in higher rates in Asia), and though there are things you can do to avoid that happening and the risk is probably overstated many urban middle class Chinese people won't touch raw veg, and there is a market for disinfecting products for washing veg.

In the 70s 80s and 90s whilst I think that the men at university were more respectful (but then only 1 in 8 students at my uni were female ) I experienced considerable misogyny in the workplace, sexual harassment, assault on one occasion, and constant sexist language. One of my colleagues was West Indian so she had racism thrown into the mix. There were plenty of Neanderthals (though I gather that may be giving Neanderthals a bad name ) and the unreconstructed around who felt free to express their prejudices and illusions of superiority. Having said all that I can't say it ever stopped me being promoted, apart from one occasion when the interviewer apparently wrote that I was a bitch in his notes (and that was most definitely not my management style, I found teamworking and networking far more effective). It was also well known that to network effectively you had to sacrifice your liver, which didn't help with the problem of harassment and was certainly a factor in the assault....

Theelements I know of a lot of British spouses who have had to move overseas. There is a particular suspicion of Asian wives and as I have mentioned before I know of women in proper love matches with careers in their home countries that have been refused extended tourist visas because they were told they were at high risk of overstaying. Racial and gender stereotyping........

Racial and gender stereotyping........

Tell me about it ron

I'm an Asian wife and have heard so many stories over the years (although never anything as crassly inhumane as your link above!). I went for British citizenship on the basis of being a highly skilled person and not because of marriage to DH, to try and avoid this sort of stereotyping from officialdom. Didn't stop the casual day-to-day type of racial stereotyping, of course.

mathanxiety

Counting our blessings that we were never foolish enough to have joined the Euro. Celebrating we're getting out ...

Not sure why anyone would celebrate leaving something you were never a part of. I have encountered another Leave poster here on MN (on another thread) who also conflated the Eurozone with the EU.

Ang abaaaat, hun, So wot ur sayin is them bits o'paper I is been carryin' araaaaand to pay fer fings wiv wot of got pics of the Queen on em and numbers on em and writin on em wot sez (someone told me) "On behalf of the Governor of the Bank of England" ...ur tellin me thems is paaaaaands and not Euros?

Faaaack me!!!

Fanks hun. You Remainers really are so faaackin clevva an at.

Counting our blessings that we were never foolish enough to have joined the Euro. Celebrating we're getting out ...[of the EU] (for the anyone else as bright as Mathanxiety.)

I don't think sexual or racial discrimination is any less now, and in many ways, especially recently, I think it's got even worse. Look at the 'mental health problems' amongst young women, and daily racism and sexism levels in this country and on various threads.

I see history being re written all the time, and the great strides anti racist and anti sexist movements made in the mid 20 century are being written out of history, for the moment.

The 3 day week was because of Heath's snit with the miners? It was a solid strike. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week
Thatcher with her alliance with Mac Gregor ensured there was no more strikes, trades union rights, coal, living industry in coal mining towns.

But it did do wonders for the brexit vote.

MyRedPepper
The issue is that we only have a 4.4% unemployment rate, which is pretty close to full time employment

Where was that in Project Fear?