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.

4/ Behind the scenes, also evidence that UK has reneged on guarantees for citizens that it initially signalled it would make

I think the sense is that the UK has reneged on other EU citizens rights. Not the rights of rightfully-anointed UK citizens

Either way I wouldn't trust this wunch. So I'd be surprised if the EU27 did either.

LH, (Yet another) stick the EU27 have to beat the UK with.

That is not the reality, though, is it? It is more the gov't and Brexiteers have got rope and are forming it into a noose. EU not has no responsibility to create any special new trading relationship when the UK is a third country. That is not beating it with a stick. If the UK decides to leave, it leaves. Anything else is a gift which the other potential trading partner or org can grant if it wants, not an entitlement. The gov't (and Brexiteers and their facilitators) will have to own and accept responsibility for the path the UK takes, without trying to say it the EU's fault.

Cailleach1

Rushed and clumsy wording on my part ... I was trying to highlight that this was another (totally self inflicted) imbalance between the UK and EU in favour of the EU.

I already know the answer, but I'd love to know how all those leavers who were telling us all how the EU would have to bow to all UK demands, or would happen are explaining the distinct lack of .

Please miss, please miss

"Is the magic word that @jonlis refers to please ?"

The word we teach toddlers - but it seems that the intellect and thought processes of this government is about at that level

Hello you lot. Bastarding return to work has got in the way of MN lately but I've just caught up on this thread.

So much going on that my head is spinning, so thanks for pulling it all together Red.

Things in NI in interesting state of flux, too, with Brokenshire about to bring forward a budget.
I wonder if Math and Crone would agree with my analysis - that the current situation seems to be playing right into the hands of SF, and helps their very long term strategy (United Ireland)?

Oops sorry by Crone I mean Cailleach

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41887404?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_politics&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central
Brexit impact studies not what you think, David Davis tells Labour

Laura Kuenssberg‏*@bbclaurak*

He could always publish them and then people could make their own minds up.....

Kevin Schofield‏*@PolhomeEditor*
Downing Street spokesman: “The Prime Minister thinks the Foreign Secretary is doing a good job.”

So essentially, they are back of a fag packet calculations, based on assumptions of "everlasting cake", Empire 2.0 and "the EU will kowtow to us because they need us more than we need them so the impact won't be that bad" and we (as in the Westminster shambles of a Government) have been negotiating blind but don't want to admit it

Things in NI in interesting state of flux, too, with Brokenshire about to bring forward a budget. I wonder if Math and Crone would agree with my analysis - that the current situation seems to be playing right into the hands of SF

If a united Ireland made Brexit easier .... seeing as the alternative option of forcing the RoI out of the EU hasn't really gone as we were promised. I am vaguely reminded of Aesop, the wind and the Sun ....

How it became a crime to be poor – especially black poor - in America

Let’s not go there in Britain - I think it's where the hard right want to take us

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/06/how-poverty-became-crime-america

Once incarcerated, impoverished inmates with no access to paid work are often charged for their room and board.
Many debtors will carry debts to their deaths, hounded by bill collectors and new prosecutions.
.....
Meanwhile, white-collar criminals get slaps on the wrist for financial crimes that ruin millions of lives.
Though wealthy scofflaws owe a cumulative $450bn in back taxes, fines and fees from the justice system hit lower-income people – especially people of color – the hardest.

Downing Street spokesman: “The Prime Minister thinks the Foreign Secretary is doing a good job.”
In footballing terms, he'd be sacked in the morning.

Brexit impact studies not what you think, David Davis tells Labour
They are written on unicorn hide.

Boris Johnson refuses to retract error about Briton detained in Iran

Protecting his ego is more important than a British woman receiving an extra 5 years in an Iranian jail.
Sociopathic narc

www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/nov/06/cbi-tells-may-that-business-needs-clarity-over-brexit-transition-by-christmas-politics-live?

Retweeting the news of Boris' words 're Nazanin
@barneyfarmer
Judging from his remarks on Priti Patel I think @BorisJohnson has a confused notion of what is 'work' and what is 'a holiday'.

@BigChocFrenzy - this is happening in the U.K. too but on a smaller and less targeted scale.

A lot of cities are making ‘public space protection orders’ which allow for fines for people drinking in the street, sleeping rough etc (even when the council admits there are no hostel places). The penalty is a fixed penalty fine and prosecution follows if it’s not paid...

Britain is embracing “an introverted irrelevance”

New York Times’ departing bureau chief, Steven Erlanger:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-06/brexit-bulletin-back-to-business-please

Britain is a “modest-size ship on the global ocean.”

“it is unmoored, heading to nowhere, while on deck, fire has broken out and the captain – poor Theresa May – is lashed to the mast, without the authority to decide whether to turn to port or to starboard.”

Renowned for its “pragmatism, its common sense, its political stability and its unabashed devotion to small business,” Britain is now “unrecognizable to its European allies.”

How it became a crime to be poor
and MN thread on schools fining parents for lateness.
Not private schools.

artisan The Tory hard right see Brexit as their chance to copy the US in a pitiless all-out assault on the poor.

As with the US, they have subjected the white poor to years of hate stories against foreigners, immigrants, refugees.
They hope the white poor will be as gullible as the equivalent in the US and vote for policies to make their own lives worse, so long as they think people of colour will be punished more.

They hope that an impoverished population will be even more docile towards their betters, with "the other" as the scapegoat for the country's woes and anger.

Adam Beinkov @ adambeinkov
May's spokesman tells me the PM didn't know about Priti Patel's meeting with the Israeli PM until Friday, three months after it took place.
The only reason May found out about Patel's meetings was because of the Guardian. How is Patel still in the job?

amp.ft.com/content/19ceac54-c2d9-11e7-b2bb-322b2cb39656
Beware the global Britain con trick
Free trade evangelists are wrong in big things and small

Ft piece about the latest legatum paper.

Good summary of twitter threads on subject

George Peretz, a lawyer, points out that two fundamental premises of the report’s policy advice are simply asserted without justification: first, that the UK is in a hurry because other countries will lose interest in talking trade unless Britain urgently proves that it is a “global leader” in trade liberalisation; and second, that the EU can be convinced to accept the UK’s product and services regulation even as, and after, the UK substantially drops or dilutes EU rules (which Legatum recommends).

Richard North devotes a blog post to explaining why that will not work — including that the EU regulatory union includes an essential element of unified enforcement of standards — and that “Legatum is asking for a free pass” by assuming the UK can have its mutual recognition cake and eat its regulatory divergence.

Peter Ungphakorn, a World Trade Organization veteran, points out a number of plain misconceptions about how the WTO works, which makes it “questionable how solid the rest of the paper is”. Steve Peers, a professor of EU and trade law, ridicules a number of contradictions and the “big orange blind spot” of assuming that the non-European world, in particular the US, is waiting with bated breath for the UK to lead them on liberalising trade.

That does not exhaust the list of bizarre claims made by this report.

In continues in the same vein.

Trafalgarxxx Am i the only one to get really scared?
Nope. Is why I'm doing what I can.

If you're not scared, you haven't been paying attention

Renowned for its “pragmatism, its common sense, its political stability and its unabashed devotion to small business,

What ? The UK ????? Fuck off. None of those is remotely true - nor what the UK is renowned or abroad. Certainly not by my overseas correspondents.

That sounds like what someone in the UK would like the UK to be renowned for. I'm surprised they didn't include fair play, warm beer, and cricket.

@StevePeers
Essay crisis!
*airlifts shipment of Red Bull to Whitehall

@guardian
Speaker gives government until Tuesday to publish Brexit assessments trib.al/gQgEm81

Shall we do it for them, for a modest fee ?