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.

pretty The cabinet looks nearly all vultures and cuckoos to me
It's not a good situation when Hammond and Osbourne look sensible compared to most other Tories

Apparently in certain areas in Northern England it is difficult to buy a new build that isn't leasehold

Because bungalows - especially large ones - don't grow on trees, we took our home as leasehold with a stated aim of buying the freehold when it was possible (and cursing the slightly thick previous owner who passed up the chance when it was possible).

Imagine our surprise when we had a knock on the door in 2012, and the freeholder was standing there asking if we wanted to buy the freehold. With 51 years left, we bit his hand off. (I think the actual story goes a bit deeper with some intrigue on the way ...).

One thing I did learn, is that compared to leasehold valuations , Fourier analysis, Eigenvectors and values, Quaternary integration and quantum probabilities are elementary school stuff .

Personally, I am surprised that there hasn't been a challenge to restrictive and obligative covenants in the ECHR as preventing enjoyment of personal property.

Some of the covenants mentioned in the fleecehold freeholds (i.e. what the freeholder has to pay, even though they are .... the freeholder) were "admin charges" for any alterations. Including £500 to put up a "for sale" sign.

The R4 programme ended with the presenter saying they had contacted a few people who had bought their freeholds, but none of them wanted to get involved as they had all made internal alterations (i.e. changing doors) without letting the building agents know.

Having been stung out of £200 for failing to insure with the insure of choice for our freeholder, I totally sympathise.

Leasehold houses are more common on the north and north west I think, but the doubling ground rent every 10 years scam and developers such as Taylor Wimpey selling the freehold to companies has been well known for a while - hence the government finally taking action to ban new build leaseholds this summer.

Buying the freehold with less than 80 years to run on the lease gets complicated because you are also paying for the marriage value. - the uplift in value of the property due to the lease extension.

Our house is freehold, but we have a number of covenants, such as not keeping pigs in the garden or hanging washing out the front of the house, which we can live with. We did read all the documents very carefully and got a load of queries checked by the solicitor before signing though.

Interestingly, leasehold is pretty much non-existent in Scotland, even for flatted properties.

Our house is freehold, but we have a number of covenants,

Luckily, the older things get, the less likely anyone is able to enforce the covenants. As my Dparents discovered when they wanted to force the houses across their alley to close all the little gates they had built into the alley - in direct contravention of their freehold.

(They used to open the gate, let their dogs shit everywhere, and slink off back behind).

My DB did some legal-eagle research and discovered where the freeholds had floated down to. However the successor to the 1930s housebuilder had no interest in enforcing the covenants.

(The tale is completed when my DF - who had other suggestions, but who had patiently done things "the English way" - demonstrated how air cannon work when filled with dog shit. It was inspired genius to aim it at their roof ).

Agree with pretty much everything above about the difficulties the Tories will have connecting with the young. I think most people understand that you have to work hard to move on, but the issue is that even if you work hard it's almost impossible to move on unless there is some inheritable wealth in the offing. Agree also with the solution to a lack of houses being to build more houses.

I presume there's another thread somewhere for the Catalonian shenanigans. Lots of talk about Article 7 (use of force on citizens). Now, given everything we now know about the difficulties of leaving the EU, one wonders if suspension is possible (even if there were any will to go down this route, which I suspect won't materialise).

Agree with pretty much everything above about the difficulties the Tories will have connecting with the young

The Tories have no problem connecting with the young as long as they are well off, own their own home, and don't have children....

I presume there's another thread somewhere for the Catalonian shenanigans.

Already on it

Some info on burdens in Scottish land titles: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_Feudal_Tenure_etc._(Scotland)_Act_2000
Looks like most of them have been superseded by more general regulations.

Is there any reason for property owners to not also own the land their property is built on?

Call me thick, but where is the Catalonia thread? I found on in In the News, but it was very short, and a quick flick through Chat and AIBU hasn't revealed anything more in-depth...

Yes Randomly - though the lack of leasehold even for flats and conversions in Scotland can cause problems with insurance . Some of the underwriters can't get their heads around the fact that we can jointly own the fabric of the building (roof, walls and the ground it is built upon) but can own the flats/houses in their entirety within them.

We did have "feudal superiors" until a number of years ago who in theory could charge a tiny ground rent and - in some cases usually English "owners" who had bought the feudal rights and thought that they could act as if they were English leaseholders tried to charge for minor alterations for which permission hadn't been given they got short thrift and that was when the feudal superiors were abolished

We do have restrictive covenants from that time: for example, we can't have a tannery, soap factory or mineamongst other activities on our back garden We also had to have the back gardens walled with 6 foot high double skinned brick walls.

Is there any reason for property owners to not also own the land their property is built on?

From whose perspective ?

Once the great unwashed start owning their land, they have all kinds of weird notions that they are the equal of their former feudal landlord.

And we can't have that.

How much of wealth accumulated by the great estates - Northumbria, Norfolk, Suffolk, etc has been due to the ability of the Lord to have a nice regular stream of tithes, rents, and other dues ?

Once you've sold the freehold, it's gone forever.

Unless you can devise a way to keep bleeding the tenants owners.

I meant from the property owner's perspective, or their representatives in the Commons, I guess.

Have heard about rip off leasehold contracts before - its scandalous.
Our 1990s house is freehold, but (like most of the new builds round here) still has covenants on it to do with what you are and aren't allowed to do. Some of them would be ridiculous if anyone could actually be bothered to complain (no work vehicles etc).
There is no-one to enforce them though in practice, so its fine and everyone does what they like (within reason).
I understood that it was something the house builders did to keep the occupied bit of the street looking naice while they put the next houses on the market.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/01/kinship-carers-denied-thousands-of-pounds-over-two-child-cap

JC, why would anybody vote for the Cons? They are just a shower. The threshold for inheritance tax raised but at the same time taking from the most vulnerable Peters to allow for comfortable Pauls.

The 220% tariffs put on at a time that the UK would probably be a non-member by the time any EU case would see the light of day. If they complained to WHO.

Isabel Oakeshott @ isabeloakenshott
This, from a huge poll by @LordAshcroft, is dire. If Tory party conference isn't messy this week, it should be.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2017/10/brexit-timebomb-uk-left-should-embrace-its-eu-allies

Brexit is a timebomb: the UK left should embrace its EU allies
Our government still has no idea of what the future should look like.

BYSHIRLEY WILLIAMS

Time is running out for Brexit. According to the chief EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, only one year remains to construct a new and acceptable relationship between the UK and the European Union, since six months will be needed for its ratification by the other 27 member states. Any agreement will have to take into account not only trade, but also security, defence, terrorism, crime and much more.
Our government is slowly becoming aware that divisions and deadlock in the negotiation process cannot be afforded. Hence Theresa May’s proposal for a €20bn payment to the EU for liabilities that UK governments have committed to, and for regular budget contributions during a transitional period of two years after negotiations have concluded, allowing British firms time to adapt to the new and still undefined European model.
The EU negotiators want certain difficult issues settled before discussions on the new model can start. These include the rights of the three million EU citizens living in Britain and the rejection of any hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic (with appropriate oversight of immigration, trade and restrictions –if any – on freedom of movement). The Good Friday Agreement was a triumph of common sense over religious and political tribalism. For the future of both Irelands, it must be sustained.
Discussions on these issues are urgent. The opposition parties should submit their own proposals to all-party committees which in turn would put their conclusions to the government, with a deadline of the year’s end. Then the debate on the long-term relationship can begin, alongside the scrutiny of amendments to the repeal bill in the autumn. As Vince Cable pointed out in his leadership speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth, the involvement and commitment of all the political parties represented in parliament is essential.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leader, has long regarded the European Economic Community (EEC) as a capitalist conspiracy. His connections have been with left-wing European parties, such as Die Linke in Germany. But I hope he will consider working with parties of the centre and the democratic left, both in the UK and the EU.
Angela Merkel won the German election on 24 September having supported a legal minimum wage of €8.85 an hour for workers over 18. She has supported EU directives on equal pay for men and women, and promoted workers’ rights to consultation on dismissal and on working conditions in all firms with more than 2,000 employees. Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, has consistently argued for EU protection of workers’ rights, which could be at risk from right-wing amendments to the repeal bill.
The UK government needs to understand that on many issues compromise will be essential, if even the timetable as extended by the transition period is to be met. The British public is becoming impatient with the delays and difficulties in the Brexit negotiations. According to the most recent BMG poll for the Independent, UK opinion has shifted significantly since the referendum result of June 2016. That vote showed a narrow majority of 52 per cent in favour of leaving the EU. The latest poll reverses this with 52 per cent now backing Remain.
Apart from delays and cabinet divisions, the British public is also growing aware of the costs of Brexit. Until a brief recent rally in the value of the pound, in the expectation of higher interest rates, sterling had fallen around 15 per cent against the euro since the referendum. Prices have risen for imported food and clothes, and travel abroad. Wages have not increased to match prices, though the relaxation of the austerity pay freeze of 1 per cent may ease the position of public sector workers a little.
The Conservative government plans to introduce harsher restrictions on immigration, but it cannot do that until after the end of the proposed transition period in which EU regulations and directives will continue to apply. Yet already the number of EU citizens applying to live and work in the UK, not least in areas of severe shortage like nursing and care of the elderly, is falling dramatically. The Prime Minister is sensibly trying to protect common projects with the EU in education, the arts, science and technology, but already our EU fellow citizens feel less welcome and less wanted.
The next stage of Brexit negotiations will be decisive in shaping the future of the democratic socialist left in the UK and in Europe. From US president Donald Trump’s risky rejection of the Iranian nuclear deal, to right-wing British nationalists and Russia’s disregard for international law, the world needs the leadership of politicians committed to democracy, social justice and a more equal society.
The Prime Minister’s Florence speech and her Brexit plans, on which so much media attention has been lavished, are no more than a long-delayed recognition of the inevitable. Our government and our Prime Minister still have no idea of what the United Kingdom’s future should be, nor any vision to offer our young people. After Florence, the UK is still lost in a confused and baffled muddle as, ever faster, time runs out

It's an odd thing
I grew up poor
From the "wrong end" of the village 😁
I now live in the "posh bit" of said village
Some of the eyebrow raises and "oh I didn't know you lived here!!" Comments are really very sad funny

...and sorry, but I resent this narrative that people who never wanted - and still don't want Brexit, are somehow obliged to dig the fucking arseholes who did a stupid thing out and still let them have their way.

Fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off.

Indeed LH
They can fuck right off

Some of the eyebrow raises and "oh I didn't know you lived here!!" Comments are really very sad funny

I have long felt that our little plot of land is far too nice and well situated for scum like us ...

• Doctors surgery (with online booking), dentist and pharmacy (all in one building) 3 minute walk away
• selection of bus stops within 3 minutes going into town, or to the neighbouring town
• parade of shops with chippy, One Stop 2 minutes walk
• a selection of open spaces within 10 minutes walk
• open countryside 5 minutes drive (or 15 minutes walk)
• local school 4 minutes walk (not our concern anymore)
• state of the art new hospital 3 miles away, plus specialist clinics for rehabilitation, and womens hospital.
• local library 4 minutes walk (not such a bonus since the vandal-scum-cuntbags smashed the wheelchair lift)
• 100MBps broadband
• 1,500 sq. ft of bunglalow in 5,000 sq. foot of land

As quality of life goes, I really don't think we could find a better spot anywhere in the UK. Which is quite a thing to say.

As the local Tory parliamentary candidate said ... "It's too good for poor people"

Yep
Send the likes of us to the workhouse!!
How long til we see them return I wonder??

Have spent the last 24hrs out of phone signal and wtf!!! Just catching up.

Ian Dunt @ iandunt
Just caught up with May interview on Marr. Staggeringly bad, even by her standards. They should teach it as an example of what not to do.
Hard to imagine worse situation for Article 50. A petrified PM following unclear strategy w/out confidence of parly or respect of Cabinet.
Any negotiating partner would look at that interview and think: We can take them to the cleaners.
Dangerous section on new EU laws during transition. She was unclear on this. Is therefore walking back offer to EU in Florence speech.
That takes us back to stage one, where transition impossible and new dynamic of talks, cited by Barnier, put under threat.
But actually it's worse than that, because by offering and then prevaricating when Boris attacks, she loses trust of negotiating partners.
They'll never be able to know if she'll stick to promises she makes. May must urgently stand up to BJ or it'll derail the talks completely.
She won't, for same reason she couldn't stand up to hard Brexit wing this time last year: She's weak. Dangerously weak.

Catalan looking really bad. Mayor of Barcelona reporting 460 injured as riot police storm polling stations. Riot police have been filmed attacking Catalan fire men.

J.K. Rowling on form ...

inktank.fi/jk-rowling-destroys-brexit-cheerleaders-breathtakingly-bad-brexit-analogy/

May must urgently stand up to BJ or it'll derail the talks completely

Here's some Tennyson

"Too late, too late, the awful cry ..."

(or rather, I thought it was Tennyson. From "The Charge of The Light Brigade" - the analogy being too much to resist. However, a cursory Google suggests I was wrong. Anyone recognise that as a quote ? I know my DM used to say it ...)

Dawn Foster @ DawnJFoster (guardian)
Are you shitting me