Westministenders: Happy Xmas (War is Over) - if only

[RedToothBrush]

When is lying not lying. When you can get enough of your mates to agree it is not lying.

And so we have David Davis, who has made two statements to parliament which deliberately contradict each other and must constitute some sort of lie to parliament at some point however you cut it.

Will the Speaker risk the wrath of his party to uphold democratic values? We watch carefully.

Davis also reveals and exposes May too though. May one way or another is complicit in Davis’s lie, either through not doing her job in reading the reports or by protecting Davis when she knew the reports did not exist. This is gross misconduct in her inability to ensure her staff do their bloody jobs. All so she can keep her own job.

This is where whistleblowers in other institutions pop up.

It has also become apparent that May has not had THE conversation with the Cabinet over what shape Brexit should take. After 18months.
Why not? Is she incapable of consensus building or is she just incompetent?

And then we have the DUP seemingly not being properly being involved in the wording of the all important document.

Vote Leave’s Oliver Norgrove is perfectly right in saying that Hard Brexit is all but dead. Don’t let that make you feel happier. Hard Brexiteers know that there only option now, is No Deal and that’s what they will try and pursue.

There is no deal until everything is settled. Right now, nothing is settled, not even what the UK want out of Brexit, never mind the EU position.

May might well have blown the only opportunity for a deal too, because of her failure over NI and the DUP. Where does she go from here? The idea that she will stand up to anyone, is ludicrous given her track record.

We might all wish we could John Lennon's song was apt when it comes to this Christmas and Brexit, it seems the war for our future post Brexit, it seems it is only just starting.

(paywall) Cabinet Brexit truce threatens to unravel as Leavers ‘told concession to EU meaningless’

Brexiters are saying it is May's "aides" who told them the NI border statement was "meaningless"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/09/cabinet-brexit-truce-threatens-unravel-leavers-told-concession/

A row has broken out between Downing Street and senior Eurosceptics
over claims
Theresa May’s aides told Boris Johnson and Michael Gove that the key concession used to seal Friday’s deal with Europe was “meaningless” and “not binding”.

A senior Eurosceptic with knowledge of the discussions involving Cabinet ministers, including Mr Johnson and Mr Gove,

told The Telegraph that No 10 had said a commitment to “full alignment” between the UK and the EU “doesn’t mean anything in EU law”.

A separate source confirmed that a specific Cabinet minister had been
told by No 10 aides that the provision was “meaningless” and was simply included to secure Ireland’s approval for the document.

The claims are likely to infuriate the Irish government

and threaten to unravel the apparent Cabinet consensus over the deal
ahead of the key meeting of the European Council this week,

at which EU leaders will be asked to confirm that negotiations can now proceed to trade talks.

Hashi - it's got absolutely nothing to do with the EU. I didn't bring it up Woman did.

Someone's a little rattled when Tories get blamed for their policies tonight

"Why blame the people who could have done something to change it when you can blame the EU etc etc"

To be fair and I detest the Tories homelessness in Germany has gone up incredible in the last decade too. It's all over the EU. Many people are poorer than they were ten years ago and immigration from some very poor former eastern bloc countries is very visible in many European as there are a lot of homeless people and or beggars from Rumania etc.

It's not just in Britain it's all over.

So, the "sufficient progress" has not been officially signed off.

I wonder if Tory Brexiter statements could mean the EU27 heads of govt^ - especially the RoI - decide that the agreement is meaningless because the^ Tory govt deliberately plan not to honour it.

The EU might still decide it's worth it to keep talks going - more time for E27 business to adjust
However, they might instruct Barnier not to let the trade talks actually progress meaningfully

i.e. could Tory internal politics bugger up progress. Again

EU leaders will be asked to confirm that negotiations can now proceed to trade talks
Looks like Fibby Mensa Davis is snatching defeat from the arms of their glorious rejoicey victory again then.
Quite a few ill advised anti Irish racist statements from the usual suspects. Oh dear.

the usual suspects in government tories?

Quite an interesting take from David Allen Green

In practical terms - in preventing the UK from leaving the ECHR and in shaping UK's relationship with Ireland and thereby with the EU generally - it is arguable that the Good Friday Agreement is now a key UK constitutional text.

More important practically than, say, Magna Carta.

Those who who decry Tony Blair's attempts to influence Brexit overlook that, by having agreed the Good Friday Agreement, he probably will have more actual influence on the eventual shape of Brexit than any other UK politician.

SixInTheBed - I think as the inflammatory statements keep on coming in Britain the vulnerability of NI as a result of the agreement will be exposed. According to certain British politicians, it is all still to play for. The folly of trusting the Westminster government to do the right thing will come back to bite Fine Gael. The cabinet meeting on Brexit is still ahead. I think the mood will change in Dublin.

The failure to pass Sylvia Hermon's GFA amendment was extremely significant - just how significant will become apparent as the weeks and months roll on.

SF are polling low right now, do you think they could get in math?
If the contempt for Ireland continues, I can see SF making gains in border counties and in Dublin. I think they will control the agenda no matter what. FF will rediscover its republican soul, with SF breathing down its neck too. I would think FF might rethink its policy on coalition with SF, though I suspect SF is happier in a confidence and supply arrangement, maintaining its independence and ability to make statements critical of a government.

(paywall) Christopher Booker - Theresa May is gambling that she can get a good trade deal with the EU. But she can’t

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/10/theresa-may-gambling-can-get-good-trade-deal-eu-cant/

All that happened on Friday was that both sides bought extra time to prepare for the massive disruptions to trade which Mrs May’s decision to leave the EEA has still in due course made unavoidable.

< I agree, hence expect heads of govt to agree to proceed to trade talks.
Talks will indeed be meaningless, just to distract the UK public, while business frantically puts its contingency plans into action - or develops them, in the case of some UK companies
What are (partially owned by French govt) Nissan planning ? And all the other foreign manufacturing companies in the UK >

Anyone see the development yesterday that Grenfell is going to the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Committee not the ECHR)?

amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/09/human-rights-commission-to-launch-own-grenfell-fire-inquiry?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true
Human rights commission to launch its own Grenfell fire inquiry
Dramatic intervention will examine whether government and local council failed in duty to protect life and provide safe housing

The EHRC inquiry, which will involve a panel of legal experts, will pay particular attention to the UK’s obligations to the tower’s residents under the Human Rights Act and international law. At a time when some want the act scrapped, the inquiry’s actions could be viewed as provocative.

“Human rights are for everybody,” Isaac said. “This is political and I know there is a view among some politicians, but also among society more generally, that human rights only protect extremists and terrorists but that isn’t the case at all. I always talk about Hillsborough as a really good example of where the Human Rights Act and the human rights lens has been used effectively to ensure justice prevailed.”

Where do you go once you’ve embraced the afd, trump etc? A man who sexually assaulted 14 year olds of course

Judge Roy Moore
@MooreSenate
I'm honored to have the endorsement of Brexit leader @Nigel_Farage, who'll join us in Fairhope on Monday >>> [breitbart link]

@corcory - go look at deficit figures before spouting that blair/Brown borrowed and borrowed - until the crash they never approached the borrowing levels of the governments that gave us monetarism, the EMS fiasco and burnt our north sea oil.
we now have yet another failed idealistic policy - austerity - there isn't a single conservative economic policy since heath that could be called a success.

Sam McBride @ sjamcbride
North Antrim DUP MP Ian Paisley boasts that the DUP, Brussels & the British Government have "done over" Leo Varadkar on last week's deal & claims WTO rules would "cripple" the Republic's economy #Brexit

inews.co.uk/essentials/news/politics/ian-paisley-boasts-weve-done-varadkar-brexit-deal/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Juliet Samuel @ citysamuel
There’s trouble ahead. At this rate, European Council might even reject Commissison’s recommendation to progress talks on Friday

Chris grey @ chrisgreybrexit
I'm beginning to think this is a real possibility. Not so much because of what the DUP are saying but because actual members of the govt, like DD, are openly saying that the phase 1 agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on.

@CitySamuel
There’s trouble ahead. At this rate, European Council might even reject Commissison’s recommendation to progress talks on FridayJuliet

@SJAMcBride
North Antrim DUP MP Ian Paisley boasts that the DUP, Brussels & the British Government have "done over" Leo Varadkar on last week's deal & claims WTO rules would "cripple" the Republic's economy #Brexit inews.co.uk/essentials/news/politics/ian-paisley-boasts-weve-done-varadkar-brexit-deal/ …

^Amnesty coming tomorrow too
I wondered when our human rights breaches, and prisoners of conscience would start to hit the amnesty radar.
I used to work with amnesty, and it was always places like Turkey, Chile and S Africa. Our turn now.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/grenfell-families-left-homeless-christmas-11656790

Grenfell families left homeless for Christmas as Theresa May fails to keep promise

Almost half of all Grenfell families – 103 households in all – are still living in hotel rooms, including 29 families with children, and have no idea when they will be lifted from "limbo"

Thanks math it's what I wondered with SF. Adams has retired, though?
I've got 'watching in case it goes a bit Yugoslaviayitis' for this area, including us.

xpost

(paywall) Fascinating Inside story !

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/from-darkest-to-finest-hour-mays-big-dipper-brexit-week-39nrpmm5v

They say the darkest hour is the one before dawn but for Theresa May it came at lunchtime on Monday
when the deal she had sought to negotiate with Brussels and Dublin unravelled over a lunch of turbot in Jean-Claude Juncker’s office.

It was a little after 1.30pm UK time when the wording of an agreement to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the republic — painstakingly thrashed out last weekend — imploded after opposition from the DUP.
…
In part, it was a comedy of errors
…
There was nothing comic about the scene which then unfolded in Juncker’s office.

The European Commission president and his aides retreated to his study while May was patched through on her mobile to Foster, watched by David Davis — the Brexit secretary — and her EU sherpa Oliver Robbins.

The call lasted more than an hour while an increasingly frustrated Juncker was stuck in the room next door.
< cold turbot ? No, greedy bugger probably ate hers too ! Humiliatig or May though, showed she is not in control >

Juncker’s team had made it clear to Downing Street that May should not come to Brussels unless she was ready to do a deal.

When she still could not get Foster’s agreement, Juncker accused her of “failing even to speak for her own government”, < ouch >
one EU government source revealed.

Juncker told May: “You can’t come here to negotiate if you don’t have a mandate.”
No 10 denied the exchange had taken place < "they would, wouldn't they" almost quoting the late Mandy Rice >
…
“There was no one on the political side of May’s team who had any experience of these types of negotiations or a political brain to foresee any of the dangers,”
…
Robbie Gibb, May’s director of communications, told his staff they should not seek to firefight every crisis and was happy to let the row play out in the belief that it would be quickly forgotten.
That meant the coverage on 24-hour media was shaped by the Irish government, the DUP and commission sources, while No 10 appeared paralysed.

One special adviser said: “There’s no grip at all. There’s a complete inability to make decisions.”

In the cabinet there was despair that another set piece had descended into chaos.

On Tuesday a cabinet minister texted a prominent backbencher: “She’s f@@ing useless.”

That day a small group of MPs who had defended May after the conference setback
openly discussed whether they should submit letters to the backbench 1922 committee demanding a vote of no confidence in May, the precursor to a leadership election

“The incompetence and duplicity of No 10 have pushed the Brexiteers to breaking point,” one said.
“We won’t do anything until Christmas because we’ve got to get the withdrawal bill through, then it’s going to kick off.”

On the day when it emerged that two men were facing charges for plotting to storm Downing Street and kill May,
one MP said: “MI5 has not uncovered all the plots to bump off the prime minister.”

What Paisley said doesn't make sense... Why does Paisley assume that ROI exports into UK will be subject to huge tariffs? Only if UK sets huge tariffs against whole world, which WtO discourages & won't be in UK interest. ROI can export to rest of EU, too.

I thought ROI was mostly a services economy; that's why they are so primed to take over UK's role in the EU.

This poster on Grenfell is an absolute sweetheart. They all are. But the compassion and grace they are showing is humbling.
Think I'll do this little gesture and send it on. They are keeping it together on their own. The residents are just not being listened to.

Please post this about Grenfell on the day woman, so that we don't forget. Then let's make it go viral on twitter. Would it shame the Govt into action? Almost certainly not - the word doesn't figure in their vocabulary it seems, but let's make the rest of the world take notice.

Because he is an idiot and an idiot who hates Ireland!

www.ft.com/content/b48e4f3a-dc0e-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482

Paywalled, but :

The anticipated date for the EU-Japan deal to take effect will roughly coincide with Britain’s official exit date from the bloc in March 2019.

Published: European Council draft guidelines

https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-12-08-08-37_01.pdf

First, it states is that sufficient progress has been achieved to proceed to phase 2

Para 3 says the UK becomes a "third country" with no representation or MEPs
BUT
Para 4 says that during the transition period,
the UK will remain within the Single Market and Customs Union, "with all 4 freedoms" so with FOM