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.

The civil liberties that DD and those with the rightwing libertarian views defend to the death

are those that affect the more privileged and powerful
not those which most affect the poorest or most vulnerable in society

"We are not opposed to creative solutions, we just haven't seen any".

"We are not opposed to creative solutions, we just haven't seen any".

That's just it though, isn't it? They aren't going to be as a result of bright ideas coming out of thin air. They are going to be, like the GFA, a result of a lot of people sitting down together, working into the night, and having some willingness to find compromises, to find a solution. The amount of effort required has just not been seen from the Government, who are utterly clueless about simple things.

[the red box is The Times’ daily political newsletter]

Red Box
@timesredbox
What has been May's biggest mistake? What Red Box readers think, so far...

The thing is, Big, I'm not sure Damien green is being treated better than a member of public in analogous situation. In any other public institution, you couldn't just sack someone over an allegation from 9 years ago where the only evidence was something someone had written down on a notepad at that time. There would have to be an investigation, and in the universities I have worked in, this would likely go in favour of the employee because the evidence is just not strong enough for dismissal. Are there witnesses? Do they have the computer or hard drives? I have yet to see anyone sacked from a university on the basis of allegations from one person without some hard evidence to back up the complaint (e.g. Emails).

I don't think anyone should have the right to watch porn at work but they do have the right to a fair investigation.

In other news, I can't believe I'm defending a Tory. It just smacks of a witch hunt though, especially when you consider all the things that BoJo has done (particular in relation to finances when mayor of London) and he's still Foreign Secretary.

Sam Coates Times
@SamCoatesTimes
Former MP Bob Spink convicted of Ukip electoral fraud

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8147d5c2-d6de-11e7-939b-cd6b722b9d7e

Bolshy It's not party political at all for me, but I feel strongly it's about fairness between the rulers and the ruled.
Also, it is more important when people actually in govt use that rank to threaten to e.g. derail Brexit negotiations, to protect their mates.

Written down in a police notebook would be treated totally differently to any old notebook from say a manager, in any place I have worked at.
People can be convicted of serious crimes years later, i.e. guilty beyond all reasonable doubt, using written evidence from police notebooks
Unlike the 58 Brexit fag papers, there are legal specifications about the content of these notebooks

I accept that those working in some parts of the public sector may be much more difficult to sack than those in private industry

• I've spent all but 2 years of my working life in the latter.

However, the threshold is far below that of criminal conviction, or even police investigation:
Bringing an organisation into disrepute is often sufficient for sacking, e.g. posting perfectly legal but embarrassing posts on social media.
Something by a higher-up , that might otherwise be swept under the carpet, can become sackable when it becomes public.

Remember too, Green would just be downgraded in rank to MP.
He wouldn't lose his Mp's pay, pension, 1st class rail travel & accommodation, subsidised bar perks etc
Quite different from what the the normal bod would face

May might decide she can't cope with sleaze scandals while carrying out the most difficult negitiations - with the EU and the Tory Party and the public.
Or she might decide she has to buy off her cabinet, with free passes for what she has previously condemned as unacceptable.

Boris is a different case: gross incompetence, plus just skirting the legal edges of racist speech.
However, in most organisations, any bigwig would have long been sacked for being such an unprofessional and embarrassing liability to his employer.

Let's hope Kipper Spink receives more than a slap on the wrist.

It's not surprising that Dark Money thought it an acceptable risk to interfere cheat during key votes, when the potential gains are so huge and the usual penalties are laughable.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/01/jacob-rees-mogg-held-meeting-with-steve-bannon-in-london

Jacob Rees-Moggg^ had a private meeting with former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon in London on Thursday to talk about how conservative movements can win in the US and UK
Rees-Mogg, a favourite among Conservative members to be the next party leader, spent more than an hour at the meeting in a Mayfair hotel with Bannon, who was at one point seen as Trump’s most influential adviser.
The American also met Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and another Conservative MP during a short trip to the UK.

The meetings took place on the day of the diplomatic spat between Trump and Theresa May, after the US president retweeted anti-Muslim material from the far-right fringe group Britain First.

Rees-Mogg confirmed the encounter, saying Bannon was “an interesting man to have met” and they talked about US and UK politics.
Farage also confirmed he had met Bannon, who is a friend.

Jacob Rees-Moggg had a private meeting with former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon in London on Thursday to talk about how conservative movements can win in the US and UK

At the moment, the best way to win would not to be conservative

However a second best way - given the electoral toxicity that conservatives have amongst the rapidly growing no-home owners, is to ramp up the "look ! foreigners !!" rhetoric to try and convince the less well off to vote against their own interests.

Fool me once, etc.

www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/british-people-were-asked-to-draw-the-irish-border-and-the-results-are-confusing-816289.html

Bannon and R-M is a scary combination....

The DG stuff is very curious. I can't really tell where it is going to end up. It feels a little as if the allegation about his computer emerged during a time when there was a real media appetite for such stories, but as our media has such a fickle attention span, the heat has passed and the investigation has clearly not found any slam dunk stuff that would merit DG being forced out. I also find it interesting that he has given categorical denials about it all: not political weasly words, outright "I did not do it". Either he really didn't, or he is painting himself into a corner with nowhere to go if there is found to be any hint of substance to the allegations.

But also, we're all focussing on the 'was it DG or not?' question. Are we forgetting that this appears to mean that someone, either him or someone in his office with access to his computer, was downloading huge amounts of porn at work. Not just any workplace, but public servants whom we pay and entrust to debate issues and represent our best interests (hollow laugh) and make good decisions for us. Are our expectations of politicians now so low that we're not hugely disappointed by this? Someone was prepared to waste huge amounts of work time doing something which could bring Parliament into disrepute. It disgusts me. A really rigid code of conduct should be enforced.

Britain Elects‏*@britainelects*
US President Donald Trump's state visit to Britain should...

Go ahead: 31% (-18)
Be cancelled: 55% (+19)

via @YouGov, 30 Nov - 01 Dec
Chgs. w/ Jan 2017

If a unicorn someone else really was downloading porn while Green was sending Emails from his personal account and reading documents,
then that would be a HUGE breach in HoC security

which would have sparked a thorough investigation into this other person - first to identify whether they were a civil servant, or a paid lobbyist, a foreign hacker, spy, a terrorist .....

but there is no such security investigation, because no one seriously believes it was anyone but Green.

Indeed, if he is innocent, he would be sounding the klaxon to investigate the security breach

Instead, he and his chums are trying to shut down any further investigation
Pretty bloody obvious who was wanking off to porn

It is coke snorting, dominatrix visiting GO doing the major finger pointing though.

no parliament can bind its successors ? Well ...

Of course no Parliament can pass a law that its successor can't repeal. In theory
However ...
Any Parliament - or government - can take decisions which are difficult or impossible in practice to reverse
e.g.

What IDS and other Ultras are desperate to avoid wrt Brexit:

• Rolling an exit bill into a formal debt or bond - which Britain has historically always paid - rather than an annual payment or subscription which could fairly easily be revoked

• Binding into any A50 framework for a future trade deal the agreements on the 3 stage 1 issues - expats rights, NI border, exit bill into any future trade deal -
  so that if any successor Parliament wishes to say reduce an E27 right to residence / appeal, or to play silly buggers with the bill payment schedule,
  then all the trade arrangements collapse too.
  So: customs checks on British goods, British services shut out, maybe even access to Open Skies, Euratom etc. So no planes or nuclear fuel supplies either. Suicide for any govt.

Other ways to bind Parliaments :

• Poisoning the well, e.g. Brexit
  If it happens, then probably not reversible in practice by the next Parliament - they can't pass laws to force the EU to readmit us.
  It could be 25 years before any future UK govt / Parliament who wants to rejoin the EU would have an application even considered

• Massive capital projects, selloffs, PFIs:
  They usually have expensive cancellation clauses or other means - like deadly political fallout - to prevent reversal without scorched earth.
  e.g. Cameron couldn't stop Labour's political boondoggle of building an aircraft carrier that doesn't have planes to hurt the enemy much, but has hammered the defence budget.
  e.g. if the NHS is ever privatised, it would be far too expensive and complicated for the next govt to recreate

• Squandering non-renewable assets
  e.g. Thatcher using the North Sea oil to buy a generation of voters with tax cuts, also privatisation windfalls and above all the windfall of selling council houses at knock-down prices
  Without that, the Tory party would probably have died off years ago, or become centrists, like EU Christian Democratic parties
  However, it cost the nation much of its family silver

Classic defence when found out ... Divert !
Pick on and attack the most unpopular accuser

Ignore the issues. Ignore all the other accusers

GO is out of Parliament, another has-been

Jacob Rees-Moggg had a private meeting with former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon in London on Thursday to talk about how conservative movements can win in the US and UK Rees-Mogg, a favourite among Conservative members to be the next party leader, sad spent more than an hour at the meeting in a Mayfair hotel with Bannon, who was at one point seen as Trump’s most influential adviser.

Obviously, our 'lord and master' Trump (as he sees it) wants Theresa May replaced by Rees-Mogg.

"Other ways to bind Parliaments"

Join the EU apparently.

Oooh been a while since we've had a bit of DM rhetoric