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.

DD clearly lied when he said that there were 50-60 impact assessments
that they were in "excruciating detail"
and that the PM had read summaries

If they don't exist, then May is lying by omission - she can'5 have read summaries of assessments tha5 don't exist

Is this the most obviously lying govt since some time in the 18th century ?
I struggle to remember a govt whose lies about simple facts were so obvious
Previous crooked pols were at least sufficiently competent & organised to mostly cover up / fudge while in office

This lot are bare-arsed liars
as distinct from competent liars

I hope Bercow shows a little more respect for Parliament (and the country) than the Tory lickspittles who signed off that motion .

"I feel like this awe inspiring leap of logic has caused my mind to transcend into a higher state of consciousness and I can now see through time. Everything is one and the orders of the universe are meaningless to me as I have achieved a 2001 Space Odyssey style state of godhood."

Unfortunately I think David Davis has been in this place for quite a while...

Lying to the HoC reaches the criterion for contempt
It seems even a minority govt can hang on to power by sheer numbers - hence why the DUP has veto power over Brexit deals atm

And I hope Jo Maugham and DAG are correct and there really are impact assessment reports which no amount of semantics will stop DD being shown to be a big fat liar.

Yep bigly I agree.
Good thread:
@ChukaUmunna
Thread: To briefly turn away from the controversy surrounding David Davis this morning, the @NatCen have carried out a new raft of polling on what voters currently think on Brexit. Here are some of the key stats they uncovered. 1/
twitter.com/ChukaUmunna/status/938431328479047680

We've come such a long way since the Referendum.

This is making a mockery of Parliament.

How awful.

If this is taking back control its clear we aren't ready for it.

"David Davis would end up paying full price for a sofa from DFS" - Frankie Boyle

The fact that there are no Sinn Fein MP at Westminster doesn’t help either.

I thought of a good wheeze the Sinn Feiners could try. Called the Zak Goldsmith move. Resign their seats, stand as Independents (but everyone will know that they are Sinn Fein really), go to Parliament to take their seats as Independents and swear the oath as such, and then announce that the will form a party called Sinn Fein. I thought about this when reading a Don Camillo story where the Priest couldn't marry a young man who had got his girlfriend pregnant, because they were Communists. Simple - get them to renounce Communism, perform the marriage and then they re joined the party.

The Tories would say it was extremely cynical, but the opposition benches need only shout Zak Goldsmith to them.

Robert Peston
@Peston
.@ChukaUmunna has written to the Speaker to initiate contempt proceedings against @DavidDavisMP for telling MPs in October Brexit impact assessments were being made, when in fact - according to Davis’s testimony today - no such risk assessments have been made

Peregrina - quick, write to Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill! Brilliant idea and clever.
Goodness knows whether it would be acceptable to SF but it would be acceptable to me...

It is extremely worrying that the govt is not sure whether the GFA would survive a vote.

If I were Leo Varadkar I would be picking my jaw up off the floor right about now, and looking at security scenarios in anticipation of the very likely event that the GFA will be repudiated once the Brexiteers remove TM and force a hard Brexit by walking away from the negotiations.

Robert Peston‏
@Peston

Strong statement from @Number10gov against @realDonaldTrump on Jerusalem. She has very definitely taken her hand back

Peregrina- good plan on the Sinn Fein front, except that when Zac Goldsmith stood as an independent I think he didn't get elected.Sarah Olney (LibDem) beat him.

It was only when Zac returned to the Tory fold that he got re-elected.

I'm being picky on the detail, but I do think your wheeze would work!

Is it too obvious to say that with moves like Trumps today, more Leavers might be less comfortable with a Brexix predicated upon closer ties with the US.

As most Leavers don't give a rat's arse about NI, I can't imagine that they'd be overly bothered about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

The nationalist community of NI - and actually the Unionist community too, if only they would accept it - do in fact have representation wrt Brexit and their interests in general. The Irish government is very much speaking up for them. Westminster has deaf ears but Brussels does not.

There is no need for SF to come to Westminster to do the dirty work of the Labour Party and the Tory Remain rebels (who should switch sides, or resign and force by-elections).

I'm donning the tinfoil hat now.

Handy how Trump is causing issues that may affect the peace which is totally overwriting the Tories causing issues with the peace.

Trump's got ya baby TM

With the current clusterfuck going on (both today's and yesterday's goings on combined), this definition of Brexit seems all the more appropriate:

"Brexit (n): the undefined being negotiated by the unprepared in order to get the unspecified for the uninformed"

.....if only that were funny rather than true

On a tangent, did anyone watch Philip Rycroft, Permanent Sec at DexEU speaking after DD this morning?

Towards the end of his submissions he was thanked by Hilary for all the work his team were doing. He said something like, if we are asked for anything we will do our best to deliver, and if anything needs expediting we will do what we can to deliver as fast as possible.

Reading between the lines he was either saying , look these non impact assessment documents in the reading room were cobbled together very quickly, or he was saying look if anyone ever asks us for impact assessments we will do our best.

www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/exiting-the-european-union-committee/news-parliament-2017/david-davis-sectoral-analyses-negotiations-evidence-17-19/

Jess Philips is trying to start a #thingsiwouldntaskdavidsavistorun.
So far, for a bus, a bath and a school pta stall have been suggested