Westministers: May Shares the Cake

[RedToothBrush]

May's Speech Abbreviated:

We still have nfi how we are going to do this. EU this is your fault. You sort it out. We are too lazy, workshy and fighting like high school children to work it out ourselves. Be our whipping boy.

I support democracy as long as I get to do whatever I like
I support human rights as long as I can ignore them when I like.
I support the rule of law except when it doesn't suit my agenda.

Waffle waffle.

"Creative", "Dynamic" PR for my Premiership.

Waffle waffle

We really need policing cooperation, PLEASE keep it with us. I know I threatened to withdraw this, but I'm sorry, I was wrong and a bit of a dick about this.

Gets to the point FINALLY.

"2 year transition period"

(With another time bomb lock which is still too short for IT departments. Nothing to do with the next general election, honest).

RULE BRITANNIA!

Polite Applause.

Faisal Islam‏Verified account
@faisalislam

Faisal Islam Retweeted Pete North
Meet Pete.
He's angry with the direction of Brexit.
He blames journalists who shd now be deprived of oxygen.

He campaigned for Brexit.Faisal Islam added,

^Pete North @PeteNorth303
Replying to @PeteNorth303 @faisalislam @bbclaurak

1. If ever there was a case for oxygen rationing, the loathsome *@faisalislam* and *@bbclaurak* are it^

By the way, Pete, having campaigned for Brexit, is now angry Brexit being delivered is too hard not too soft, & projects blame outwards

The shame is, he makes some important points on occasion, but no one is going to listen amid deranged rants. Sad!

Agree with Faisal here.

Journey to Brexit with May :

I can't believe anyone can think of Boris Johnson as a serious candidate for PM.

He's utterly hated by many, considered a fraud internationally, and those that don't hate him, only don't loathe him because they still think him a clown.

I also think the Norths are right.

May is (barely) functioning in the political pressure cooker that her misjudged election set upon the hob. Her Florence speech to the Tories did nothing to strengthen her position or fend off the circling pack of wolves. It answers no questions and it gives no clique in the party any hope.

We will no longer sit at the European Council table or in the Council of Ministers, and we will no longer have Members of the European Parliament.
Um, 'hooray'?

May spurns the EEA/EFTA option to propose something worse, but we still have FoM, still subject to the ECJ and still have to pay.
She has managed to make everyone unhappy.

The stage is set for the long struggle within the Tory party to become open warfare. David Cameron thought he could settle this with the referendum. May thought she had what it would take to drag the party through Brexit while preventing it from tearing itself apart. Unfortunately for the UK, the parliamentary party is composed of political cannibals.

Torygraph opinion differs wildly from the Norths'
I trust RN on facts, but he's predicting imminent martial law

• I think enough Tory MPs would back away from that - strong reports of a group of 30 that will vote down no-deal

However, it's impossible to predict what this chaotic Tory gang will do

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/22/theresa-may-puts-brexit-ice-2021-unveils-plans-20bn-two-year/

Theresa May put Brexit on ice until 2021 by announcing a two-year transition period during which Britain’s relationship with the EU will remain virtually unchanged.

In a keynote speech in Florence, the Prime Minister set out plans for a status quo implementation phase
with the UK and EU maintaining access to each other’s markets “on current terms” and under “the existing structure of EU rules and regulations”.

It means freedom of movement will effectively continue for another four years,
with Britain paying its full contribution to Brussels of around £9 billion per year in that period.

Mrs May faced an immediate backlash from Tory Eurosceptics

who said Britain would not be able to reap the benefits of quitting the EU for fully five years after voters chose to leave.

It was also interpreted by some of Mrs May’s critics as an attempt to cling on to power for another four years < that's alwaysher aim >
by pushing the “real” date of Brexit back until at least March 2021, and possibly even later.

Mrs May would only say that the transition period –
time-limited as part of any deal with the EU
– would be “around” two years, but that
the final length of it “should be determined simply by how long it will take to prepare and implement the new processes and new systems that will underpin that future partnership”.

There were signs of friction with the Conservatives’ parliamentary voting partners the DUP,
whose leader Arlene Foster insisted that the transition period should be kept to an “absolute minimum”.
< here come's trouble >

I can't believe anyone can think of Boris Johnson as a serious candidate for PM.

Meet the swivel eyed loons of the Tory Party membership then revisit that statement.

Invoke the spirit of George Orwell

Strong and stable
Smooth and orderly
Boris is Boris
Brexit is Brexit
United Cabinet supportive of the PM

One big change in power that May & the Brexiters haven't yet realised:

The RoI is a powerful player in the negotiations and will probably be given the final say on whether enough progress has been made on NI to proceed to trade talks

Of course the E27 will decide on the other 2 prerequisites: expats & the bill, but these issues are much more doable, if May has decided to be more flexible

Progress on NI = nil, I fear

Brexit means Brexit
Boris is Boris
Bollocks are bollocks ...

Red But even they've deserted him, haven't they? What with the constituency party leaders writing in to (mostly) condemn him? (At last.)

"transition means transition"
A red, white & blue transition
< I'm writing May's conference speech

I'm honestly more confused than before TM's speech.

Beginning of the week: We're careening wildly towards the Hard Brexit Cliff.

End of the week: We're just careening wildly.

I'm taking myself off to bed with a Regency bodice ripper from the library

Time for an external war ?
It's all that could save them

Aye BigChoc.

Politically speaking its kind of what you would expect for where we are and the direction we are headed.

And that's without Trump big fat fingers and loud gob winding up North Korea and Iran.

A nice war to distract everyone from the cluster fuck at home.

So, all those on this thread who guessed the Florence speech wasn't what was originally planned, seem to be correct.

Observer

It seems Boris Johnson scuppered a longer transition period and a (pleas for) a Norway-style option.

What I can't quite understand is why May caved. And it looks as though Boris Johnson is still threatening to quit.

"Why does the BBC keep creating posh political monsters?"

Boris, Farage, Moggy
No women, no one on the left, built up like these (self-proclaimed) aristocratic rightwing Nationalists

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/23/bbc-nigel-farage-boris-johnson-jacob-rees-mogg

TheCat - He senses weakness and he is pushing hard to see how far he will get.

Bigchoc that's exactly what I said to ds1 yesterday!

Going back to North, I think he's both rude and right.

This looks like a crash out.

The Florentian empty room devoid of senior EU politicians, was both funny and dangerous. They do not have to agree a thing. Not agreeing means one thing.

Another thing being talked about by Green et al is the legal and constitutional implications of government during a 'transition' and the legal status of agreeing to a deal at the end, which seems unlikely. (Deal and agreement)

Will the tories permit an election during a 'transitional period'?

As the tories have broken lib dems, with tuition fees, so they are in danger of doing the same to labour, with 'brexit', this week.

Dunt talked of the need for courage, in his excellent Sky interview following her speech.

Yes I remember saying last year that if there was a major international crisis, it might absolve the Govt from having to carry out Brexit 'for the time being', as in difficult times the safety and security of staying within the EU would seem the wisest option. Imagine being an isolated country outside the EU trying to get Trump's America to be our faithful friend/ally.
It might be the only thing that would bring the divided electorate together in agreement - a threat from outside.
Sad.

Oh no, my final word in that post makes it sound like a Trump tweet!

Hester

The 45th's ragings are peaking as the investigations into Russian links are doing the same.

Good long article in The Atlantic, putting him in some sort of historical perspective: he is the worst of the worst characteristics of a few presidents, seems to be the conclusion.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/will-donald-trump-destroy-the-presidency/537921/

Colin Firth acquires Italian citizenship.

mobile.twitter.com/itvnews/status/911623476104060929

The Brexiteer comments are rather amusing. My favourite being "Mr Darcy wouldn't have done this"

Lucky Colin....also an excellent piece by Will Hutton, apologies if already posted.

Mrs May may have moved, but she remains firmly lashed to the Big Lies that underpin Brexit, propagated by the obsessed right of her party. There is no “opportunity”, as they endlessly repeat, in leaving the EU: the trade deals that allegedly will more than compensate for what Britain is losing do not exist.
*
Brexit is a monumental, self-inflicted wound, delivered by the attempt to build an imagined Thatcherite utopia and “global Britain” that are undeliverable fantasies*. Mrs May’s concessions to realism have yet to recognise this.

For the EU is not the cause of all our ills – from training to infrastructure – as the deluded and vainglorious foreign secretary argued in his 4,000-word paean to Brexit a week ago. Brussels is not strangling Britain with a mountain of red tape, immigration-provoked poverty and emasculating the NHS. Britain’s failings are all minted at home by the very philosophy the Brexiters champion. To rupture our relationship with our largest trading partner and the continent that shares our values based on such epic lies can lead nowhere but bitter division.

........ And, yes, Britain will continue (for two years) to make its budgetary contributions and accept the entire EU framework, even though it will no longer be represented in the European commission, the European council and the European parliament..Britain will have lost control and gained zero.
Nor will it gain anything down the line. Britain will lose and have less control; this is why the pound fell and Moody’s downgraded Britain’s credit rating.
The fantastical proposition is kept alive to try to stop her party openly splitting. The truth that will painfully emerge in the months ahead is that Brexit can only happen on terms the Brexit right want, with years of lost trade, diminished opportunity and fading influence. There is no creative middle way.
.......The consensus, fairly represented by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, is that we will end up with roughly £100bn less trade in services and £100bn less in goods, a decade-long economic depressant.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/23/mrs-may-falsehoods-and-fantasies-designed-only-to-keep-her-party-together