Westminstenders: Beano or Bust

[RedToothBrush]

The last week has seemingly been eventful but not in the way that's on the surface.

It's what's going on behind the scenes and the little comments in less high profile speeches that's more telling.

On the one hand the Norths think the May speech is a laying down "an offer" that the EU can not accept, in order to set up a no deal situation.

On the other hand Telegraph Journalist Peter Foster thinks there things going on in Brussels with the EU set to compromise in someway and help May present a deal acceptable to the British. You have to wonder whether the "presentational" stuff is about a deal to essentially be in the EU but not in the EU. A Brexit Existing in A Name Only. Beano.

It's difficult to tell, and it will come down to brinkmanship over timing. For both a deal and for the Repel Bill as the two sides in parliament try to push things to their limit for their own ends.

In this vacuum of uncertainty CBI and their "arch enemies" the TUC have put out a joint statement saying no deal is nuts and will screw every one and the way EU cits have been treated has been dreadful.

As it stands it does look like May is serious about a deal and Davis is also acting in this way. Johnson and Hannan have launched their Institute for Free Trade (at the foreign office breaking ministerial code, but hell there's no consequences these days anyway cos May dare not let Johnson off the Brexit hook) in retaliation to try and retell the Brexit story as always being about free trade rather than racist. Unfortunately leavers seem to have bust that by admitting they are considerably more racist than Remainers by their own admission.

Then there's Trump and Bombardier. Just as Brexiteers are pushing for this closer relationship with the US in trade, despite May personally lobbying Trump he fucks her over slapping 220% tariff on Bombardier and putting the future of 4000 jobs at risk. This was inevitable as Trump fucks everyone for his own gain. The US won't ride to the aid of the British capitalists. They'll just eat them alive.

This week sees an important vote by the European Parliament on Brexit red lines. One of the votes states that the UK has to either stay in the customs union and internal market or NI has to have a special arrangement and stay in the customs union and the internal market in order to protect the EUs border integrity. Neither is compatible with what the Cons and the DUP have said they want.

It's also the Tory Party conference.May's big speech, in which she must throw red meat to the swivel eyed loons on right, is on Weds. There are of course, no debates at ConParty because, well, they can't behave like good little children without supervision. Instead the conference is to, erm... yeah we'll find out next week.

Sooooo.....it appears that at least one line in May's speech was taken from an episode of the West Wing. Video in the tweet. I can't decide whether to , or as this all progresses.

twitter.com/D_Raval/status/915618207343480833

Watch: Amber Rudd orders Boris Johnson to stand up during ovation for Theresa May

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/amber-rudd-filmed-ordering-boris-johnson-to-stand-up-during-ovation-for-theresa-may-a3650496.html

Amber Rudd calling Johnson's many poisonous insults and remarks wrapped up in a fake bonhomie as 'colourful'.

Henry Mance‏*@henrymance*

My take on Theresa May's speech

www.ft.com/content/5169d9ac-a918-11e7-93c5-648314d2c72c
Theresa May dares to dream and shows she is only human
Coughing fit and prankster add a dash of slapstick to Tory leader’s vision of British aspiration

There is certain element of hate speech to him. He gets away with it because of the wrapping. Well in a lot of the UK anyway.

Newsnight: commentator saying that May was two disasters from going, and that's one down, one to go.

Also hinted that the 'men in grey suits, nor the 1922 committee but the outside suits, might have a chat to her and tell her to go'.

Another guest has just said that he is reliably informed that someone IS going around getting signatures for Graham Brady.

A poem for Boris Johnson: mobile.twitter.com/lukewrightpoet/status/915565388284547072

So if signatures are being sought, what are people's opinions that
Boris should be allowed to have a crack at being PM?

As prime minister, Johnson would have to decide whether to carry on playing wrecking games or face up to the responsibility of being a politician whose words and actions determine the nation’s future. He could choose the disastrous route of hard Brexit, or grow up and deliver soft Brexit, free of serious foes on the right. Either way, he could not hide from the consequences of his actions.

I have just been watching 'The Apprentice' - to use Alan Sugar's words - It's a blardy shambles.

Selbstdemontage = self-destruction.

Larry Elliot: Labour has a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and the Tories know it

< has the 18 months of incompetence, following years of callous austerity, finally swing the oendulum back ?
Tory politicians & online posters alike do seem to have a strong whiff of panic >

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/05/labour-opportunities-tories-radical-change-corbyn-marxist-throwback

James Callaghan, 1979
“There are times, perhaps once every 30 years, when there is a sea change in politics.
It then does not matter what you say or what you do.
There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of.”

< and he at least managed to avoid obvious presentational pratfalls, was still a consistently competent public performer. Unlike May >

The problem is that labour are too obsessed with Corbyn to take advantage of it, which frustrates me no end. I'm not at all convinced that labour would win in a snap election, I think we'd end up with another hung parliament.

labour are too obsessed with Corbyn
Corbyn has been saying what labour old guard has been saying about dismantling of the welfare state and traditional industries for 4 decades. This constituency is big. They're socialist enough to know that when Corbyn goes, another Joanna or Joe Hill will just take his place. 'Not doing personality politics' is part of the ethos.

Anyone got any feelers out on lib dems grassroots? Their membership is fantastic, the tory conference should have been awful enough to put on several seats for them too.

@BrexitBin
Imagine the economic boom we'd have if Brexit was cancelled tomorrow.

I'm sure that's not gone unnoticed in labour.^

I'm a lib dem member but in the last election my local party annoyed me (and I think it was mutual ). They are very quiet too. Don't seem that well organised. It's a shame.

UK trade with Germany already hit by Brexit

Article on German hauliers describing how German business - and the hauliers that transport goods between the 2 countries - have not waited for the negotiations, but instead are already disengaging as part of their Brexit strategy

It also notes that although German exports to the UK have fallen slightly since last June

• because German business has already found other markets -

UK exports, measured by weight not price, have surprisingly fallen more, despite the lower pound which should have boosted exports:

http://www.zeit.de/2017/41/brexit-achim-junker-eu-spediteur

< sorry, in German only>
Die Ausfuhren von Deutschland nach Großbritannien, die nach 2012 deutlich gestiegen waren, sind seit Juni 2016 leicht rückläufig. Damals stimmten die Briten für den Exit.
Besonders markant sind aber umgekehrt die Ausfuhren aus dem Königreich Richtung Deutschland gefallen, von 1,65 Millionen Tonnen im Juni 2016 auf 1,48 Millionen im Juni 2017

Very wittily written article in the Independent,echoing this thread yesterday about the potential of hitting rock bottom with BoJo .

" This is my rationale for a Boris premiership.
We all know in our bones that something is drastically wrong with our politics, as it is with our country. The challenges – unaffordable housing, underpaid and insecure work, food and fuel poverty, lack of social mobility, an NHS in steep decline and the trivial matter of Brexit – are immense. And the people elected to conquer them are pygmies.
Theresa May would have been lucky to be appointed Under-Secretary of State for Urban Sheep-shearing in a Thatcher or Heath government. In David Davis, she chose a Brexit negotiator so inept at negotiating that if he tried to haggle with a Cairo taxi driver, he’d end up paying six times the requested fare.
Liam Fox, Jeremy Hunt, Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove… these are pastiche politicians mystically misrouted from the lower rungs of the Camberwick Green parish council."
www.independent.co.uk/voices/boris-johnson-conservative-party-conference-theresa-may-brexit-david-davis-prime-minister-a7980901.html



Sorry if that article was linked to previously ,I only just read it?

I can't remember reading it, lonely
anyway, few of us can read every link first time round - these threads are fast

It's best to ask before using someone's music as your theme

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/florence-welch-scolds-tories-for-using-her-music-at-party-conference-a3650841.html

Osbourne relishing this, listing the best comments on "that speech"

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-mays-calamitous-conference-speech-the-funniest-reactions-a3650776.html

Stuck for Christmas present ideas?

I really liked the "these are pastiche politicians mystically misrouted from the lower rungs of the Camberwick Green parish council."

Also like the fact that the article looks to the study of the Classics for an analogy, as happened on these threads too.

It's what has always mystified me,it seems that the quality of politicians here has declined compared to the statesmen and women of the past,and compared to politicians in other countries.The only think I can think is that the growth of City and City salaries following the Thatcher era meant that individuals who may previously have contemplated politics were tempted by the different power of money and City careers.So the standard of the pool from which politicians were drawn became diluted,if you see what I mean.

Or perhaps it's just that the EU exit has put more of a magnifying glass on everything and the standard hasn't deteriorated.

Bank of England says Brexit transition deal needed by Christmas

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-banks/bank-of-england-says-brexit-transition-deal-needed-by-christmas-idUKKBN1C92MR

Britain’s banks need a watertight Brexit transition deal by Christmas to avoid a potentially disorderly shift of people and operations to the European Union,
a top Bank of England official said on Wednesday [BoE Deputy Governor Sam Woods ]

returing to this :

God help me I feel sorry for the poor woman

Did anyone else hear an apology to the nation for her fucked up election ? Or do just Tory grandees count these days ?

That's what she thinks of the country ... fuck all.

It's best to ask before using someone's music as your theme

From signs to security to songs. If they can't organise a conference ....

Honestly, is this part of some new reality TV show ?

(Anyone remember Bruce Springsteen tearing the republicans a new one for using "Born in the USA" at a rally ? Although, as he pointed out at the time, it was clear they had never actually listened to it. There's something about the right wing and art ...)