Westministenders: The Art of the Deal

[RedToothBrush]

Well Trump seems to have put his foot in it.

Not that this should come as a surprise. For all the talk of closer ties with the US that was never going to happen. All that was need was for Trump to over step once too many.

By chance (?) Barnier also raised questions about our commitment to working with the EU on security.

Its almost as if we are being asked to choose whom we look to for security.

Meanwhile it sounds like the divorce bill is sorted - though this may not be as settled as that, if it comes with conditions. The deal might also be backtracked on, seeing as that appears to be the done thing presently.

Talks on Ireland are stalemated with Ireland threating to veto. No sign of a breakthrough here yet.

Talks on EU citz rights are reportedly going backwards (again) rather than going forward.

All of this is theatre for a British audience though, with the UK agreeing to everything. Because they gave again their cards when a50 was triggered.

The crunch is coming on whether we move to stage two before Christmas. We have no time to lose.

I hadn't meant to raise your hopes, woman I meant "pear-shaped" for May & the govt
They have lost control of every aspect of Brexit: negotiations with the EU, DUP, RoW, internal Tory party ...

Never has it been truer of a PM:
"in office, but not in power"

Still far from the stage when cancelling Brexit looks likely
Looks 50/50 whether we get an EEA / EFTA type Brexit or a near-WTO Brexit
Depends on whether Barnier & co can gently shepherd back a hallucinating UK from the cliff edge

@AidanKerrTweets

.@Peston says May will go to Cabinet tomorrow and call for ministers to back regulatory alignment for the whole of the entire UK.
10:50 PM - 4 Dec 2017

Let's hope he's right.

She didn't even have cabinet approval. So it was posturing.

Don't know what to believe. Was it the cabinet or DUP?

Isn't there some sort of concept of a tipping point where bad news can't be digested before the next item ?

LH, your comment made me think of this quote from Jonathan Coe’s “What a Carve Up”:

‘The trick is to keep doing outrageous things. There’s no point in passing some scandalous piece of legislation and then giving everyone time to get worked up about it. You have to get right in there and top it with something even worse, before the public have had a chance to work out what’s hit them. The thing about the British conscience, you see, is that it really has no more capacity than … a primitive home computer, if you like. It can only hold two or three things in its memory at a time.’

I might have quoted this before - it often comes to mind as I’m reading the news/these threads

Martin Fletcher‏
@mfletchertimes

My profile of #Boris Johnson in the latest New @NewStatesman - 'a chaotic, mendacious, philandering, egotistical, disloyal and thoroughly untrustworthy charlatan':

How well put.

Never has it been truer of a PM:
"in office, but not in power"
Entirely self-inflicted, all because of a desire to stick it to Labour and Corbyn.

I have said this before, but some Commentator, I can't remember who, said that when authority drained from a PM, it drained away suddenly and didn't come back. Which happened with Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron and now May. Mostly self inflicted although I think probably May, Cameron and Blair are first second and third placed for this happening.

Arlene Foster does not have a mandate to urge any kind of Brexit. She can say what she wants on the topic of the DUP fixation with Union, but she does not speak for NI when it comes to her party's pro-Brexit stance.
NI voted Remain.

@SamCoatesTimes
NEW: At 4pm Gavin Barwell and Steve Baker are going to address Tory MPs in a committee room about the EU negotiation. (I suspect the Speaker would prefer it was a statement to Parliament but hey)

What is Steve Baker up to?

How long will Theresa May last now that she has been (purposefully?) exposed as a PM with absolutely no authority, nothing but Arlene Foster's incompetent errand girl?

Even Arlene's own constituency voted remain.

Of course Arlene doesn't have a mandate to speak for NI, especially as she's not even FM. She does have the right to speak for her supporters, as the head of the party with most seats at Stormont and Westminster. And she couldn't realistically have done otherwise.

I think Sturgeon is biding her time too.

Even Arlene's own constituency voted remain.
Traitor

Arlene probably wouldn't win a FPTP election in her constituency hashi. Or if she did it'd be very narrow. Tight margins. Stormont system suits her as she can storm it in first round.

If TM can't get this stage of negotiations sorted then is there any alternative than the government falling?

TM wants to have regulatory alignment in NI - DUP (and some Tories) won't allow it.

The alternatives are to implement a hard border in NI - Ireland/EU won't allow it and the negotiations can't go forward.

Or to commit the whole of the UK to regulatory alignment - many Tories (on behalf of "the people" ) won't allow it.

TM will have to do some very careful sums and see if see if she can get the third option through counting on the support of moderate Tories and opposition parties - but why should the opposition support her in this ridiculous fudge?

It's got to be another election, surely?

Opposition have every incentive not to. I did just see somewhere on moderate unionist twitter (ie not DUP) someone mooting the possibility that there'd be regulatory convergence between ROI and the whole of the UK but only on the areas mentioned in GFA. Hadn't thought of that.

lala now the budget has been passed, can they not just bumble on as a minority government, barring a no confidence vote?

Hashi they must give it a go surely?

Hope there is a proper debate about regulatory alignment. Hope my MP speaks in it.

Hashi - I agree under normal circumstances they could just mark time squabbling and failing to pass any legislation but I can't see how they can't do that with the EU negotiations going on.

can do that

This is the Tory party, they have a god given right to power you know? They'll carry on still fucking it up for as long as they possibly can.

To be positive, at least the phrase ' regulatory alignment' is seeping into the public consciousness, which is so much more accurate.

I posted endlessly with the exit brigade explaining that shared regulatory powers with the EU were for mostly for food and drug standards, agriculture, and a bit of employment. To try and show this did not equal sovereignty or significant control. We always retained exclusivity over defence, health, pensions, education, fiscal policy, policing, inheritance laws, property and family law etc etc etc anyway.

At least regulatory alignment is a more accurate phrase which moves away from the false, flawed disingenuous sovereignty sound bites manipulated by Johnson, Loathsome etc.

Chaotic government provides opportunities for extremists. Doubt that's been lost on a few of the usual suspects.

They can try hashi...