Westminstenders: The wrong homework

[HashiAsLarry]

I'm no rtb but I'll give it a shot, though her efforts deserve much more than me.

The August negotiation round has, well, fizzled out in much the same way as any other. It's taken over a year to get to written position papers and there's still no clue as to a direction from the UK government.

Japan, meanwhile, is about to sign off on a deal with the EU. A deal we want to copy.

@faisalislam
^but if post brexit britain's trade deal with third biggest economy in world is to be based on Brussels' deal, what about rest? TTIP? Canada?
...when PM signs off statements like this on primacy of EU-third party deals, one wonders how temporary the temporary customs union will be^

The NHS is now launching a drive to recruit foreign GPs, like the ones that have left thanks to Brexit. It's a good job they'll be £350m a week better off now. Oh hang on...

My point was the mock outrage levelled at the likes of Farron won't be applied to JRM because, as a Tory, it's 'acceptable' for him to hold such views.

Sorry Hashi. I had read it as meaning that we should be outraged at JRM's stance rather then we shouldn't have been outraged at TF's. If that makes sense. By the way, this is not defending JRM as I am pretty outraged by the lot of them on this one.

My quick Google on Merkel and abortion came up with absolutely nothing from her at all. I was surprised at the complete silence, though I wasn't an in-depth investigation by any means, so I might have missed it.

Re furrin doctors & dependents:

Only a few weeks ago we were discussing the case of the
US consultant surgeon, headhunted at great length by the NHS, who could not bring his school-age kids to the UK

He & his DW spent £ thousands on legal fees over many many months
I think he gave up and returned to the US in the end

I remember that discussion BigChoc - I wondered how patients waiting longer for their operations would feel about that massive own goal.

My assumption is that she is pro-life dragons, but is smart enough to not discuss it as much as possible.

Ian Dunt‏*@IanDunt*

Look at 4.13 - 4.18 of leaked immigration document: 'Economic impact of EU migration'
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/05/the-draft-home-office-post-brexit-immigration-policy-document-in-full

Starts by admitting that "in many ways, EU migration has had a positive impact."
Then says (rightly) "higher GDP is not only metric" govt is concerned about and we need per-head analysis. Then things take a strange turn.
The paper then seems to equate GDP with something which only benefits immigrants.
Then it whittles on about how immigration has different effects on different sectors and is higher in some than others.
Then ends with a long passage outlining all the other positive effects of immigration, on foreign market knowledge, languages, research etc
So in actual Economic Impact of EU Migration section in actual HO paper on reducing migration, it can find nothing negative to say about it.
Just fucking amazing. It's as close to outright political lunacy as you will ever see.

Until tomorrow anyway.

There's pro-life who keep it as a personal issue. Then there's pro-life who are proud of it and seek to promote it. And its infinitely worse when it happens to be a man - who will never be in that situation - who is doing it.

Steve Peers' analysis highlighted this gem.

"6 "Virtually no limit" on EU family: highly misleading & inflammatory. In other words, tabloid BS. No competent civil servant should sign."

Which is true - it's so vague as to be utterly meaningless.

Me too mother. Still smarting that I wasn't deemed good enough for Prince Edward. .

bigly The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) is quite socially conservative, so Merkel's views are fairly mainstream for CDU voters: civil partnership but not equal marriage

They differ from UK Tories in that they fully support the welfare state and inclusive social policies to help the less well off;
they don't demonise those on benefits.
They avoid military adventures and being dragged into US wars for oil.

Abortion is much more restricted here - iirc only up to 3 months unless the mother's health is at risk.
(I'm too old to need to check on that!)
That also fits social attitudes in the general population - there seems to be still a visceral reaction against Hitler's eugenics program.
So, even many social liberals (wrt equal marriage etc) are not keen on easier abortion

The CDU at least takes the good bits as well as the old-fashioned social

In Germany it is the FDP / Liberals who are economically rightwing but often the most socially progressive - more like George Osbourne on steroids.

From 16 mins ago:

Mike Smithson‏**@MSmithsonPB**
PaddyPower ease odds on Rees-Mogg becoming PM from 6/1 to 8/1 following his comments about his opposition to abortion & gay marriage

From 12 mins ago:

Mike Smithson‏**@MSmithsonPB**

PaddyPower now move Rees-Mogg out further to 40/1 to become next PM in wake of his gay marriage & abortion opposition

oops: The CDU at least takes the good bits from religion not just the "thou shalt nots"

No worries bigly
It's one of my bugbears that as a lib or left leaner you're held to a higher standard than those right leaning.
But tbh, those views and his attitude towards POC sort of make him perfect for Tory leadership candidate at the moment.

BigChoc I am aware of the CDU and the abortion laws in Germany. My point was not to critique these or to argue the case for or against abortion. It was just to highlight that there are those on this thread (and I include myself in this) who have been very vocal in praising Merkel while then being horrified at someone else holding similar views to her and her party. It was a brief aside about a minor inconsistency in attitudes I think people should be mindful of whatever their views on abortion.

Liz Kendall @ LeicesterLiz
David Davis says Govt won't use Bill to make major changes to workers right etc...in which case it shouldn't give them powers to do so

Can anyone think of a reason why this shouldn't be an amendment to the repeal bill? Oh yeah the leaked memo...

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-parliament-european-macron-italy-france-europe-wide-meps-britain-british-uk-a7931821.html?amp
Britain's European Parliament seats could be given to EU-wide MEPs

Plan is backed by France and Italy

And then there's the CSU - the Christian Social Union, Bavaria's conservative party, which generally campaigns with the CDU... "As a rule, the CSU is more conservative than the CDU, especially on religion and law enforcement, while being to the left of the national party on social welfare issues. " Source

Astonishing if we've had no Catholic PM - in the 1860s we had a Jewish PM Disraeli

You need to bear in mind that the British prohibition on Catholics was just that - specifically aimed at Catholics, rather than an insistence on (CofE) protestantism.

And the cheerleaders for keeping the Catholics out were .... The tóraidhe party.

So to hear JRM is a Catholic Tory does rather call into question his mental faculties.

This is why a little bit of British history can shed light on a lot of things.

Reading Swedish Edith's link upthread, it seems that Catholics have been perceived as public enemy no 1 since 1701

(snorts) - and the rest. Remember 1588 - England defeats a potential Catholic Spanish invasion.

It's an interesting parallel with current Tory Brexit strategy that Elizabeth I used the English parliaments terror of a Catholic monarch along with her dogged refusal to have an heir to get her way.

In fact such was the English horror of a Catholic King, they preferred a foreign protestant to an English catholic !

(Who else is thinking

Irish citizens are EU citizens and will continue to be.
The world has changed since the last iteration of CTA, and like everything brexit related, it isn't as simple as just rolling it back.
The claim that Irish citizens won't lose rights is false too, as they have more rights under EU than the UK is offering.

Yup. Irish citizens in the UK definitely would lose rights under these proposals.

At the moment, they have two lots of rights. They have their EU rights, and they also have rights that existed before either country joined the EEA (same is also true of Brits in ROI). So for example, ROI citizens currently have Indefinite Leave to Remain as soon as they arrive in the UK, which other EEA nationals don't, and that's because of rights that exist on top of those in the EU. The document doesn't appear to suggest ending those.

But they also have EU rights that give them more rights than the pre-EEA arrangements did. For example, they'll have fewer rights to bring a non-EEA spouse in under these proposals.

Now you can obviously be ok with this or not, but it definitely will impact on Irish citizens too.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/neo-nazis-army-arrests-fascism-prevent-far-right-extremism-a7932081.html
Why is no one talking about the four neo-Nazi army soldiers who were arrested for terror offences?
We need to dispel the myth that far-right terrorists are 'lone wolves', when there is so much evidence that they are emboldened by a network of extremism