Westminstenders: The Maddest of May and Boris's Dare

[RedToothBrush]

Boris Johnson just dared May to fire him.

That's what his little rant about £350 million buses is.

Meanwhile its been pointed out that HMRC literally are incapable of handling a no deal and can only cope with an EEA / EFTA deal with no tariffs.

And given how good and on time the government are with computer systems even in a best case scenario are extremely unlikely to crack it in time.

Which makes Hammond's talk of a civil contingence plan, look, well half arsed and lacking.

We also wouldn't have planes able to fly to Europe under a no deal as we would no longer be part of Open Skies. This could leave thousands stranded. But no biggie there.

Meanwhile if the Leave Alliance have things right, May is about to serve our one year notice on leaving the EEA making all these things a reality.

Which is less like shooting yourself in the head and more like shooting yourself in the head, chest, foot, arm, leg and face (for a second time), whilst being run over at the same time.

But hey, Boris Johnson has it sussed in his 10 point plan. Especially the point where he says Brexit will be a success.

If you call success ending democracy, becoming a dictatorship, starving everyone, bankrupting the country and causing civil unrest.

Rule Britannia.

Thanks for that, BCF, hoping that the Jamaica coalition comes to pass. And this little fascist tantrum subsides across the west.

The 2 on the left of A Flock of Seagulls look a bit like a young Bojo and Gove.

Brexit: No one from the EU Commission is going to Theresa May's big speech
Exclusive: The Prime Minister’s audience will instead contain her own ministers and other dignitaries

Well, her incredibly important speech is intended solely for domestic consumption of the Brexity population. I imagine she's delivering it abroad, again for domestic consumption, to give the impression to the gullible, that it is aimed at the EU27. I am expecting, at best, she will deliver some flavour of Cake Having-and-Eating and/or some degree of Don't They Know Who We Are.

If when there is a muted response from the rest of the world, that will be used by her intended domestic audience as further evidence of Bullying, Punishment, and That's Why We Have to Leave.

Farage, Johnson, Cummings – the Brexiters are fleeing May’s sinking ship

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/21/nigel-farage-boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-brexiters-sinking-ship

This one is good value for the replies
@Telegraph
We need a completely new Brexit hit squad to deliver the visionary deal we require - Allister Heath #premium

Barnier on the case:

Where there is a great will there can be no great difficulty
Says Barnier, quoting Machiavelli.

How can Amber Rudd be the leader of the Cons? How can she be favourite? I am trying to remain level headed about the utter fuckwittery of the Tories but it is not getting any easier.
Barnier in a press release today formulated the point very well:

"1/ On citizens' rights, our priority in this negotiation:
The issue of guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens in the United Kingdom has not been solved.
It is absolutely necessary that all these citizens, hundreds of thousands of whom are Italian citizens living and working in the United Kingdom, can continue to live as they did before, with the same rights and safeguards.
This is a human and social question, which the European Parliament and its president, Antonio Tajani, are vigilantly watching, and rightly so.
Citizens should be able to enforce their rights directly from the withdrawal agreement. This would prevent any possible dilution of these rights, if the rules implementing them in the UK were to change.
In the same way, we want these rights to be valid in national courts and that national courts have the possibility – or even the obligation – to refer questions related to the interpretation of rights deriving from European law to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Court of Justice would remain the ultimate guarantor of the agreement.
This is for a simple reason: rights need to be effectively guaranteed.
Our citizens have real concerns today – which we share – when the Home Office sends deportation letters or appears to defy High Court orders, as we read in the press."

I am very worried.

Amber Rudd is unlikely to become party leader because her majority is now very slender.

This is why we still have lame-duck May. All the other candidates have something majorly wrong with them. And sensible Tories don't want to touch it. Poisoned chalice.

Growing Panic in the Tory Party and in DexEU

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/09/this-new-tory-brexit-battle-will-be-the-bloodiest-of-all/

A basic (and reasonable) question hangs in the air: what does Britain want?
Yet the government has managed three rounds of Brexit talks with the EU without saying which is its preferred option.

This is not a clever negotiating tactic borne out of a desire to keep Brussels guessing.
Rather, it is a consequence of the government not knowing the answer.

It might seem remarkable, incredible even, that more than a year after the referendum and almost six months after Article 50 was triggered, the cabinet cannot agree.
But it is true.

Barely a week ago a ministerial meeting about the Florence speech broke up without agreement because Michael Gove had concerns about the ‘end state’ that it indicated.
.....
May famously said that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’.
But there is growing concern in government that preparations for ‘no deal’ are so inadequate that the UK couldn’t actually do that.

civil servants in David Davis’s Department for Exiting the European Union have taken to writing emails setting out the problems,
chiefly to ensure that their backs are covered should any Chilcot-style inquiry look into what went wrong.

Barnier speaking to the Italian Parliament today:

He said there would be no transition period if there was no deal.
The transition would be part of the withdrawal agreement

"I would like to be very clear: if we are to extend for a limited period the acquis of the EU, with all its benefits, then logically

“this would require existing Union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures to apply”

– as recalled in the mandate I received from the European Council, under the authority of President Donald Tusk."

"But one thing is sure:
it is not – and will not – be possible for a third country to have the same benefits as the Norwegian model but the limited obligations of the Canadian model."

to ensure that their backs are covered should any Chilcot-style inquiry look into what went wrong

I'm afraid that what so many of them have done is criminally negligent or worse.

3 council by elections tonight.

Britain Elects‏ @britainelects 5h5 hours ago
Public Satisfaction / Dissatisfaction with...

T. May: 37 / 54
J. Corbyn: 43 / 46
V. Cable: 30 / 31

@IpsosMORI
@britainelects 7h7 hours ago

Westminster voting intention:
LAB: 44% (+2)
CON: 40% (-1)
LDEM: 9% (-)
UKIP: 2% (-1)
GRN: 1% (-1)

May has 37% satisfaction ratings, how?

chiefly to ensure that their backs are covered should any Chilcot-style inquiry look into what went wrong.

I'm very much looking forward to Chilcot-style enquiry that will happen one day. Except I'm hoping it looks a bit less like the Chilcot inquiry and a bit more like the Nuremberg trials.

Banks and building societies are to carry out immigration checks on 70m current accounts from January in the biggest extension of Theresa May’s plans to create a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants in Britain, the Guardian has learned

The accounts of those identified will be closed down or frozen “to make it harder for them to establish or maintain a settled life in the UK”. Officials say freezing accounts that hold significant sums “will create a powerful incentive [for those involved] to agree to voluntary departure” so they can secure their money once they have left the country

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/21/uk-banks-to-check-70m-bank-accounts-in-search-for-illegal-immigrants

70million accounts, how many of us is that?

A C Grayling tweets that the cost of the EU to a household is £317. And the cost of Brexit to a household is £4200.
Insane.

mobile.twitter.com/acgrayling/status/910715395266539521

This mistake is expensive. Hester

When will this madness stop?

Pesto on what Treeza wants.
www.itv.com/news/2017-09-21/what-the-cabinet-decided-on-brexit/

Badders I know how you feel. It still feels like this is the longest nightmare and I'm eventually going to wake up and the world will have gone back to normal.

For you LH. From one oldie to another.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=opkzgLMH5MA

Every day I wake up and think "it can't get worse..."

Yes, I would like to see something like Nuremburg trials with Cameron, Johnson, Gove, May and Farage locked up. I would also like to see Amber Rudd on trial for contempt of court, but it may be that her constituents will do for her.

At one time we were told there would be no running commentary on the negotiations. Now it seems it's all commentary and no negotiation.

Carole Cadwalladr‏ @carolecadwalla
Electoral Commission & ICO both investigating EURef. Facebook=potential crime scene evidence. But it's in US servers controlled by US corps

What is happening to the UK ?

The govt staying in power only by giving a £1.5 billion bribe to an NI party that has paramilitary links
That same govt determined to pass a law that removes constraints on its power
A mostly jingoistic press egging them on
Judges who get in the way are Enemies of the State
Remain supporters are Citizens of Nowhere
70 million bank accounts to be monitored
Schools reporting on nationality and immigration status
GPs and hospitals checking ditto - and often getting it wrong
Landlords, banks, employers already discriminating against E27 citizens
Home Office persecuting legal residents
Home Office refusing to accept Uk court decisions
Internet activity, Emails, phones closely monitored

CCTV systems that make the UK population the most closely watched in the world
Brexit contingency plans for martial law & rationing
......
I don't know where it will end
I'm so glad I emigrated