Westministenders: A week in politics is a long time....

[RedToothBrush]

Lost track of politics in the last week or so?

Someone asked how do I keep on top of this? I’ve struggled this week there is so much going on.

Brexit seems to be on a bit of a back burner and we have become utterly swamped in mud and sleaze and corruption allegations

So here is a summary of the last week:

1. Government defeated over the impact reports due to an ancient parliamentary protocol. They must release papers to the public though this is likely to be heavily redacted.
2. Currently we are holding talks about talks with the EU. Instead of speeding up talks. They are annoyed at us for this.
3. Baroness Anelay, the minister responsible for getting the Repel Bill through the Lords, quit citing an injury caused by jumping out of a helicopter several years ago. She was the second person to quit this role. Lord Bridges quit saying it was impossible task.
4. Michael Gove has joined the Brexit Cabinet, which now has a majority of Leavers.
5. There is currently no one employed at the Brexit department for strategic planning.
6. Brexit Bill likely to face even more opposition in the face of Williamson’s self promotion. More Remainers who have been loyal to May talking of joining the Rebel Forces.
7. The has been a threat to rig the Lords to pass the Repel Bill according to Lord Adonis
8. Clegg, Adonis and Clarke went to see Barnier. Farage got jealous.
9. Talks for Stormont broke down. No direct rule but not home rule. Who is ruling is a mystery, but the same can be said in England at present. DUP are not getting their dosh.
10. FTA may not be possible on lines UK want as it would be better than Canada and South Korea and that’s not legally allowed. The real problem for the UK is services.
11. EHCR related issues – prisoner voting rights and letter to Romanian which brings into question whether the EHCR is deliberately being flouted.
12. Clause in the data protection bill which allows it to be ignored ‘cos immigration’.
13. The Electoral Commission are being sued for allowing over spending by Vote Leave
14. Arron Banks is being investigated by the Electoral Commission over how he donated to political causes
15. UKIP whistleblowers reported donations they thought were odd and not declared but only just has come to light
16. Arron Banks is winding up a charity under investigation by the Charities Commission
17. Arron Banks paid for Kate Hoey to go to Washington DC.
18. Lord Ashcroft apparently exposed by the Bermuda hack, like Robert Mercer
19. Steve Baker reported for taking money from the mysterious donor to the DUP
20. Priti Patel breaks ministerial code with an undisclosed trip to Israel with lobbyist. May says she has done nothing wrong, despite it being clear breech of the rules.
21. Michael Fallon quit over multiple incidents
22. Damien Green embroiled in accusation over Kate Maltby. Also having a fight with former counter terrorism copper who he has history with over ‘extreme porn’ found on his computer during a raid. Copper previously said he had been set up in the paper but dropped the accusation. Green is denying everything
23. Charlie Elphicke has had the whip removed and case has been referred to police. Says he has done nothing wrong and isn’t even aware of what he has been accused of.
24. Steven Crabb under investigation for sexting. Has apologised.
25. Michael Garnier under investigation for dildo buying. Has apologised
26. Daniel Kawcyznski allegedly tried to set up dates with aides and wealthy friends
27. Dan Poulter reported by fellow tory MP Andrew Bridgen for allegedly putting hands up skirts. Whips told in 2010.
28. Chris Pincher alleged pound shop Weinstein who attempted to untuck the shirt of former Olympic rower and tory activist Alex Story.
29. Gavin Barwell former whip and May’s special adviser. Broke special advisor code by tweeting politically controversial things. Is accused of being complicit in hiding the bodies and not taking action.
30. Gavin Williamson gave himself a promotion and pissed everyone off. As former whip knows all the dirt but is vulnerable as a result of that, as he didn’t report or discipline offenders.
31. ‘The Lift Lunger’ – as yet unnamed Tory MP said to have ‘attacked’ Labour MP in taxi. Date rape drugs possibly involved.
32. Boris Johnson, Alok Sharma and Tobias Ellwood all named as having contact with the mysterious Maltese professor named in the Papadopoulos indictment.
33. Farage makes anti-Semitic remarks on LBC. That’s Farage, a person of interest to the FBI.
34. Three indictments in USA for Trump Russia. Which implicate a whole load of people by association.
35. Some stuff is going on in Saudi Arabia which should have half an eye kept on it.
36. Jared O’Mara, Clive Lewis, Ivan Lewis and Kelvin Hopkins on the Labour Shit List. Also a rape allegation against a Labour activist which was shut down by a senior Labour figure

This week the Repel Bill and the Budget. Plus no doubt, lots more scandal.

Sam Coates Times‏ @SamCoatesTimes
Exciting: In our Times / YouGov poll today Jacob Rees Mogg is now the favourite amongst current Tory voters to replace May. Boris 2nd.

Though worth point out he comes behind, don't know and none of the above!

Faisal Islam‏
@faisalislam

Govt wants to legislate to leave 11pm UK time on 29/3/19...
European Commission said since May out midnight CET 29/3/19

• 24 hours earlier?

Either

1. we’re trying to stay for an extra day.
2. Midnight means something different in Europe.
3. Dexeu got the wrong day

My own feeling is that something trivial, I don't know what, will be the straw which breaks the camel's back.

A vote May thinks is a shoe in and isn't on her radar for the whips, and the DUP and a few rebels unexpectedly jump ship on because someone has taken their eye off the ball on it as they've been so consumed by Brexit?

That type of thing?

Actually, I hadn't realised May has already personally posted her self to the mast over the brexit date:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/09/determined-give-country-best-possible-brexit/

11pm uk time is midnight in brussels

I note she says its cross party.

That type of thing?

Possibly, or just something utterly trivial which wouldn't get a second mention normally. Or just "Events, dear boy, events".

Tuned out she was 96 ... her eldest was killed during the war. He was a pilot in the RAF

This would make her 19 in 1940. Assuming "the war" is the Second World War, wouldn't she have been a bit young to have had a son in that war?

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/10/gender-pay-gap-widening-for-women-in-their-20s-data-shows

Gender pay gap getting worse. Time is ripe for a new wave of feminism.

Well, May be determined to give the country the best possible Brexit, but her judgement hasn't been the finest so far. She sensed the country was behind her, but the Opposition weren't. Despite the name, the Opposition were behind her, but the country wasn't. Whoops, a few tears had to be shed and an attempted stitch up with the DUP.

Or did she mean No Brexit, which will be the best possible Brexit?

Midnight does not exist in the armed forces. For example midnight on the 29th - is that between 28/29 or 29/30? To avoid error there is 23:59 on the 29th and 00:01 on the 30th.

The minute in between is a 'free' minute and savoured by those of us standing guard duty on a freezing cold winter night in that nothing can happen and you can't get into trouble for anything because the time does not exist. It is a space/time continuum thing (timey/whinney) and you had to be there ...

Theworldisfullofidiots
No worries.
Israel is a secular state, though.

There is a very strong anti extreme religion feeling amongst many Israelis. Israel has not been immune to an influx of right wing 'religious' eastern Europeans, Americans and Russians upsetting the political balance.

An Israeli Jew is not influenced by their experience of an alternative identity if they don't have one.

'Alternative identity' is what an Israeli is. Very few Israelis are there by desire or design. They have all been forced there due to anti semitism. Alternative identity is by default what Somali, Indian, Chinese, Ashkenazi, Turkish, and Russian Israelis live every day.

You can never escape this with your identity.
That's the really peculiar thing about being 'Jewish'. Being a diaspora religion or culture one is never sure what one's identity is. Which is kind of intellectually and culturally liberating. But upsetting for those who regard themselves as indigenous. (Should we return these lands to the Celts? ) Many Jews, including my old man argue that being a Jew is a cultural phenomena rather than religious. He dislikes all religious practice, including Jewish.

It's a tiny country, and the range of views there is huge. This hard hitting and very good film questions firmly the role of the IDF in Lebanon.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_(2009_film)

More anti war Israeli films:
www.israelfilmcenter.org/israeli-film-database/?ifdsearch=Anti%20war%20Israeli%20films&viewablefilms=False

Compulsory service in the IDF is a question which troubles many Israeli families. But in a country surrounded by those who seek its destruction, the choice is not easy.

That article I posted is informed on answering some of the charges levelled at Israel. Google searches for anything Israeli are cumbersome as most searches come up with ultra right conspiracy theory. BBC, Channel 4 and even Guardian coverage is nuanced to say the least. Quite rightly sometimes, not so much at others.

Israeli joke:
"How many players are in an Israeli football team? 12. 11 players and 12 managers."

I'll shut up about it now.

Tuned out she was 96 ... her eldest was killed during the war. He was a pilot in the RAF

MIL is 94, so 16 when the war started. She lost a cousin in the war and a BIL was taken prisoner at Dunkirk and left, I believe, with lasting health issues as a result of his incarceration. MIL voted Remain, despite being a Daily Mail reader and going on and on and on about immigrants.

How can Rees Mogg and Boris be 1st and 2 nd Tory favourites? How can this be ? How, how?

Why isn’t there some statesmanlike candidate with a shred of social conscience? Even the Tories have, in the past, produced skilled intelligent politicians with a shred of honesty and decency.

In Caroline Lucas’s words...

Boris Johnson - the story:

1. Calls Commonwealth citizens "flag-waving piccaninnies".

2. Describes people from Congo having "watermelon smiles”.

3. Calls Barack Obama "part-Kenyan" with "ancestral dislike" of UK.

4. Uses his Telegraph column to cast doubt on climate change.

5. Suggests Papuan people are cannibals.

6. Ran a magazine which accused Liverpool fans of ‘wallowing in it’ after Hillsborough.

7. Jokes about clearing away dead bodies in Libya to turn Sirte into the next Dubai.

8. And now endangers the freedom of a British citizen in Iran.

These aren't isolated errors and they are not 'gaffes'. They are the actions of a human wrecking ball. Boris Johnson must be sacked. Now.

That list doesn’t even include the Darius Guppy and pregnant mistress past deceits.

fact is, no one wants 2 step up because I think they fear they will be assassinated. It's a legit fear. They have form. And the nutjobs are all in the leave camp

Where's Spartacus when you need him?

We could also do with some people who understand marketing and brand identity: I would love to see some of Simon Cowley's wonderful thread go viral #missingEUalready

How can Rees Mogg and Boris be 1st and 2 nd Tory favourites

Favourites with which of the shrinking tory demographic?

So many of the tiny local parties are desperately unhappy with brexit.

Including members of our local remain group.

I wonder if tories have a tooled up populist demographic which is pushing for big name 'aristocrats' in the Oswald Mosley and Edward 8th vein.

This group is attending training camps in Europe.

Designating Scottish Dawn as a terrorist group alongside another National Action faction called NS131, Amber Rudd said it was a “vile racist, homophobic and antisemitic group which glorifies violence and stirs up hatred while promoting poisonous ideology

Unlike HO policy, Amber?

Methinks the lady protests too much.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/generation-identity-far-right-group-training-camps-europe-uk-recruits-military-white-nationalist-a8046641.html

Boris Johnson - the story:

He sounds like another exemplary Brexiteer

I read a comment on Twitter which made me realise that being old is a virtue and has an attendant duty.

The person pointed out she was old enough to remember when this was not normal . Old enough to remember when we expected a lot more from politicians than this routine and blatant mendacity.

So, it's kind of a duty for any of us who are oldsters to keep insisting that this is not normal.

A few weeks ago (or was it months ?) I said that everyone is jostling to be the next Tory leader but one. The next one has to be a sacrificial lamb.

It's deliciously ironic that for all their expectations that others suffer for their comfort, it appears there is not one Tory MP willing to give up their own (political) life to save their fellow Tories. We can at least enjoy that thought.

the identity issue is very interesting. one will certainly have be aware of a broad environment with people in same country. can have very different nurture environment. among particular influences can be in the home, peer, mentor, particular religion\religious sect. can turn out a very different experience. which can again change when exposed to other perspectives, realities and 'truths'.

www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2017/1110/918933-coveney-north-border/

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said that more serious and credible answers on the Irish border issue are needed from the UK in Brexit talks with the European Union before talks can move to consider trade relations.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Coveney said that Ireland has had "fantastic solidarity" from the other EU member countries in its approach to the talks.

He said that while everyone would like to move on to talk about phase two, "a scepticism remains" about how the UK will deal with the key issues in relation to Ireland and Northern Ireland.

He refused to say if Ireland would attempt to block talks proceeding to phase two without sufficient agreement on this part of negotiations.

(contd)

I see the BBC is summarising the NI/Ireland part of the Barnier-DD press conference as "both side say that Brexit should not affect the GFA"

But - crucially - having listened to the full press conference and I love the way that Barnier chooses which language to speak in - DD and Barnier have irreconcilable views as to how that can be achieved. Barnier was talking about something approaching the island remaining in the Single Market whereas DD was emphatic that nothing should affect the constitutional integrity of NI within the UK and again wittering on about requiring "imagination"

Maybe they want an imaginary border but one all those pesky forrin types can see so they don't sneak in?

Elements I can now only ready your comments in Darth Vader's voice now.