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?

Labour's Jess Phillips received '600 rape and death threats in a single day
'
There was nothing in common with those threatening her online other than them being men, said the MP for Birmingham Yardley

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/labour-mp-jess-phillips-rape-death-threats-one-day-social-media-attacks-training-a7915406.html

Are these attempts to silence free speech from the same old extreme right misogynists, or is this something else?

Doesn't happen in Greece, though. Or Germany, or France or the Netherlands.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-keir-starmer-single-market-customs-unions-free-movement-jeremy-corbyn-a7915631.html

Labour ready for 'political hit' after backing remaining in the single market after Brexit

The move will mean the party would retain free movement for several years after leaving the EU

I think they've built this in to the game plan. Timing is good. Since the 15% jump in 2 months during election campaign for labour, they are targeting at least the key 30 seats to get the majority. There is time to bring round leave labour areas. Plummeting exchange rate is fresh in everyone's minds.

The thing the 'brexiteers' really hate about the EU is its redistributive financial programme, and if there's one thing those labour leave areas need......................

woman because Greece is the only one of those particular unicorns left. The others have pretty firmly rejected eu exit by watching our example. That wasn't in the fantasy script.

Hashi I've notice that brexiteers are often those who 'voted remain' but support brexit because of poor Greece. Many seem to work in the building trade too.

I'm perplexed by those who seem to think that Greece and its fiscal/economic situation is either a) representative of the EU as a whole or b) is relevant wrt Brexit.
I think they do so because the words Grexit (which came first) and Brexit sound similar.

If the Uk didn't bother to collect taxes, or almost everyone managed to avoid paying the correct amount, then the UK can also become like Greece.

Olenna It isn't justification because in reality May's targeting of overseas students is really about having a soft and easy target for reduction. It is hard to track down determined illegal immigrants but easy to roll up in a van to a social gathering of international students who have worked hard to access our top universities and are contributing to their economic and academic success and the wider economy and use hearsay evidence from a Panorama documentary to illegally detain them.... Anyone who now has contact with International students knows that they now feel harassed and stigmatised and many are deterred from coming here at all. There is no rational justification for it, other than Mays irrational obsession with reducing the immigration figures......

Recent reports from HMRC regarding understaffing in their offices and sweetheart deals at multinationals suggest that might be happening, Choc.

The propaganda war continues. Social media being dominated by pro Brexit arguments evoking an emotional reaction to the proposed continued use ECJ and in support of JRM. The Remain argument finds it hard to gain traction because it is all about process. Aaron Banks in there stirring it I am quite surprised we haven't had more 50 centers turning up, must be taking the long weekend www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/28/brexiters-ecj-backlash-rally-support-jacob-rees-mogg?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The depressing thing is that I really don't feel that you can say it won't happen anymore, and the thought of the proportions his ego must be inflating to with all this attention makes me feel physically sick.....

I'm perplexed by those who seem to think that Greece and its fiscal/economic situation is either a) representative of the EU as a whole or b) is relevant wrt Brexit

a) Greece is representative of several countries that joined the Euro at the wrong rate and have seen their economies suffer greatly as a result. This is evidence that the economics of the EU are too disparate to have ever been pushed into an artificial superstate.

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

So no, Greece is not representative of the EU as a whole. And what has the UK not joining the Euro got to do with it?

If the deal is not some version of EEA / EFTA, then you'll be celebrating the UK economy tanking and most people getting poorer.

Longterm Leaver Richard North is apocalyptic about what WTO Brexit could cause:
UK ports logjammed, shortages in the supermarket, British exports unable to enter the EU because under WTO rules they'll legally have to treat the UK as a "3rd country", pound crashing through the floor.

The UK loses all the FTAs and hundreds of MRAs (Mutual Recognition Agreements) with all countries, both EU & outside

NO country trades with the EU just on WTO terms.
e.g. the US and EU have about 50 MRAs which keeps agreed trade fairly frictionless
There is a complex web of trade agreements that take years to negotiate

No deal / WTO means the UK loses the rights to fly outside the UK, EURATOM, has to create alll EU agencies from scratch,
loses financial passporting for the City of London....

The Uk was about the 2nd poorest member when it joined and has done very well out of the EU.
The Single Market was probably MrsT's greatest achievement and must businesses love it.
She just hated the Social Chapter that other countries insisted on accompanying it.

The entire Greece argument is a bit like saying Liverpool should leave the premiership because West ham are doing badly. Ignoring that both teams at some point have had highs and lows, and both teams have done very well out of being in it.

Thatssomecatchthatcatch22 Which bits of anti EU Golden Dawn's agenda do you disagree with then? They certainly share their funding streams with the ukips

The Uk was about the 2nd poorest member when it joined and has done very well out of the EU

We didn't join the EU. We joined the EEC (a trading block of 8 countries). We are leaving what this morphed into over the years... a corrupt, inefficient, unwieldy ragtag collection of 28 divergent economies with some incoherent fantasy of becoming a United States of Europe.

incoherent fantasy of becoming a United States of Europe

What was someone saying up thread about 50 centers?

Change 28 to 4 and that's a good description of the UK.

Change 28 to 4 and that's a good description of the UK.

Really? Shared heritage, history, main language, national parliament, values and currency for centuries?

Do you think Scotland has less in common with England than Bulgaria has with Belgium?

Sorry, what do Celtic languages share with the English language? 'Main language' only because the others were crowded/forced out. Never heard of children in the 19th Century being beaten for speaking in Welsh? I imagine the same went on with Scots and Irish Gaelic also.

Highland clearances? Irish Famine? Not sure that these are reflections of 'shared values'.

I am quite sure that northern Scotland, the Orkneys and Shetland especially, have more in common with similar communities in Norway than they do with Home Counties communities.

Quentin I did say I was surprised there weren't more. I thought Fridays developments would have merited sending in some crack troopers with better crib sheets.....

corrupt, inefficient, unwieldy ragtag collection of 28 divergent economies
Yes that, change that to the 4 UK countries and that's a good description of the UK.
But nice try on attempting to say you've said something else.

Peregrina I am pretty sure I have less in common with the DUP than I do with Bulgaria.....

peregrina but they're english enforced values, so they're OK to be forced on others 😉

Yes indeed, Peregrina, last time I was in Scotland I was besieged by thousands of Scots telling me how much more they had in common with Bulgaria....in Gaelic.

Especially Bulgarian business ethics
www.reuters.com/article/bulgaria-banking-idUSL6N0PM28G20140711

Which bits of anti EU Golden Dawn's

This caught my eye.

Golden Dawn has a very interesting pedigree through the C20 (and possibly earlier). Aleister Crowley for a start.

TL;DR, but is there any connection ? Or to put it another way, could the choice of words be a coincidence ?

I should probably read less.

Thatssomecatch.

You are asked what you know about children being beaten for speaking their own language, and acts which caused starvation and mass emigration and you come up with nonsense like that answer. Still you are not alone, Johnson, Gove, Fox, Redwood all talk the same rubbish.