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.

David Allen Green‏
@davidallengreen

A thread about binding.
(Excuse the pun.)1/
The phase "legally binding" is in the news.
The report on "Sufficient Progress" is "not legally binding".
So what does this (common) phrase mean? 2/
In general terms, for a thing to be "legally binding" means the thing is legally enforceable.
You can go to a court and get a remedy if there is a breach. 3/
The remedy you get may not be what you agreed. Indeed, in English contract law you are usually compensated by cash in lieu of the thing you were actually promised. 4/
But in any case, it means you get something from a court to enforce your rights. That is the "bind" which the law provides. 5/
Some things are not "legally binding".
Take, for example, the Brexit referendum result.
The referendum was not legally binding on the government. It was advisory. No court would have provided a remedy had the government not made the A50 notification. 6/
The referendum result, however, was "binding" politically.
The binds were political not legal.
The Good Friday Agreement is also something which is, in essence, politically binding rather than legally binding. 7/
The UK and EU "sufficient progress" report is also not legally binding. It creates no legal rights or remedies. It is a negotiation document, a complex one.
Significantly: it is an agreed document, and it contains (non-enforceable) unilateral undertakings. 8/
The UK and EU "sufficient progress" report is a serious piece of work intended to have serious consequences.
It establishes trust. It allows the parties to progress to phase 2.
It means an "orderly Brexit" is far more likely.
All serious things.
But not "legally binding". 9/
So it is practically irrelevant that a court may or may not enforce the terms of the document.
It is intended to be binding anyway.
To dismiss it as "not legally binding" a red herring. /10
Legal commentators (and lawyers generally) are often told that they over-emphasis the law. "You don't understand the politics, etc"
But here it is politicians who are over-emphasising the law. /11
Politicians did the same with the Brexit financial settlement.
"Not legally binding" they told EU27 - but that was not why EU27 was asking. The settlement was for an "orderly Brexit" regardless of strict liabilities. /12
The law is important in understanding Brexit but it is a massive mistake to think that the only important obligations will be those which are legal(istic).
The law matters, but it is not "anything goes" because you think the law does not apply. Ends/

Tony Connelly‏Verified account
@tconnellyRTE
European Commission: “Formally speaking the Joint Report is not legally binding because it is not yet the Article 50 Withdrawal Agreement, but we see the joint report of Michel Barnier and David Davis as a deal between gentlemen."
European Commission: “And it is the clear understanding that it is fully backed and endorsed by the UK government."
European Commission: "President Juncker had a meeting with Prime Minister May last Friday morning to ascertain that this is precisely the case. They shook hands."

David Allen Green‏
@davidallengreen

A non legally binding document is agreed.
That is not a legally binding document, says Davis.
It is not a legally binding document but it is still contains serious undertakings on which you should not renege, says the EU.
"EU admits it is not legally binding" says the media.

There's a latin phrase which I CBA to recall, but means "where there is no remedy, there is no law" ....

More from the guardian:

No 10 accepts EU withdrawal bill amendment giving Commons new right to demand votes on Henry VIII powers

I’m just back from lobby. And - unusually - Number 10 had a story to announce: the government is accepting the amendment to the EU withdrawal bill tabled by the procedure committee last week giving the Commons the power to demand votes when ministers want to amend the law using secondary legislation.

As I explained on the blog last week, at the moment most secondary legislation gets passed at the stroke of a pen, without MPs getting a vote. This has become a big issue in relation to the EU withdrawal bill because it will give ministers extensive new powers (the so-called Henry VIII powers) to incorporate EU law into UK law this way.

Amendments tabled by the Conservative MP Charles Walker, chair of the Commons procedure committee, would create a “sifting committee” which would have the job of going through all the statutory instruments passed under the EU withdrawal bill (up to 1,000, ministers expect) and identifying important ones which would have to be debated by MPs.

This is not a big surprise. Many Tory MPs, as well as the opposition, have been calling for a mechanism of this kind and if the government had not accepted amendments of this kind, it would probably have been defeated on Wednesday night, when the Walker amendments will be put to a vote.

Will the committee have a government majority though? In which case, doesn't that render it more useless than a marzipan dildo, to channel Malcolm Tucker?

Yes the "sifting committee" (more expense) will just have a majority drawn from the usual loony pot, so that's no improvement on a single minister having the power really.

Although it does say the Commons would have power to demand votes?

I'm sure an incoming Labour government could do a lot with these powers.

Just saying.

This was posted last year in response to trump being elected but it’s horrifying to see how many points are applicable to here too, though it probably won’t come as a shock to anyone on here. And yes, labour eyeing up power for itself has robbed us of an effective opposition and allowed this to happen.

🇪🇺Martin Mycielski
@mycielski
The COMPLETE 4-page Guide to Surviving an Authoritarian Regime, in graphic form
-With love, your Eastern European friends✌️ #LearnFromEurope

So as everyone is occupied with Brexit, the Tories carry in wth their agenda of stripping the country of the NHS.

Fantastic constant distraction (of the population AND the MPs) that means that no one is actually checking any of the government other decisions on a national level..

ben goldacre‏Verified account
@bengoldacre

NEW TOOL KLAXON.

We made an interactive explorer for the costs of drugs in the NHS drugs tariff.

BEHOLD the amazing graphs.

THRILL at the data on when things go out of stock, and rocket prices.

SHARE if you like.

PHARMACISTS and GPs will enjoy.

ebmdatalab.net/new-openprescribing-tool-drug-tariff-viewer-with-added-price-concessions-back-to-2010/

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre's pay jumps 50% to almost £2.5m

Editor-in-chief of Mail titles earns £1.45m in salary plus £856,000 payout from company’s long-term investment plan

amp.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/11/paul-dacre-pay-as-daily-mail-editor-jumps-50-to-almost-25m?__twitter_impression=true

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre's pay jumps 50% to almost £2.5m

...and I thought the Fail's profits were down anyway?

I was thinking about the role of the tabloids. Following the announcement and May's second letter, it now seems clear that EU citizens who settle before the exit date, can come wait for 5 years and accrue settled status, if they want it?

There will be some brave or foolish people (not many surely) who perhaps had been thinking of relocating anyway and who still are prepared to try it here despite the low pound. For any people who arrive before the exit date how are the tabloids going to deal with this? Will we get all that flood vocabulary again?

Just thinking of the predictions up thread that immigration is going to raise its head again.

@SebDance
Great Christmas Card from @maryhoneyball!

I don't understand what part of "regulatory alignment" TM doesn't get:

Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative, says May with her “calm, true grit” has shown that Brexit can be done.

Will May confirm that after Brexit the UK will have “full regulatory autonomy”?

May says that is the whole point.

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, asks how what May said to Leigh about regulatory autonomy is consistent with what the deal says about regulatory alignment in Ireland.

May says the point is that the UK parliament will get to decide what it wants to do.

Dacre's Brexit Bonus

An Enema of the People 'His fat cat pay package makes me sick!' claims average earner

If it weren't for the EU and celebrity jailbait pix we'd sell 20 copies and I'd be sacked, claims grateful subsidised farmer

Dacre accused of emotional abuse by previous Mail employees

And other headlines you won't read while looking at the sidebar of shame.

May says the point is that the UK parliament will get to decide what it wants to do

So she has at long last realised that passing the buck to Parliament is a smart move, so that the blame doesn't all stick to her. But how can we have full regulatory autonomy whilst staying aligned with the EU, because of the GFA? I really wish she would tell the headbangers to shut up, and mount a challenge if they can do better.

"I have said it before but I really do think that we, as a country, have never truly faced up to what we did when we were colonising the world. "
Oh absolutely and totally. Interesting how The Crown seems to take a less sentimental approach to representing the exploitation of former British colonies. Watching the Crown really takes the shine of any sentimental patriotism.

Has the Beeb stopped questioning, and confronting controversy?

1st story on BBC1 News: coldest day, snow, schools closed, rush hour travel conditions very difficult etc.
1st story on Channel 4 News: coldest day, people sleeping rough, numbers of rough sleepers have escalated in recent years, is this really an impossible problem to solve in 20th century GB? And interviewing the mayor of Manchester about how they're tackling the issue etc.

Stark contrast in the slant of the story.

Sadly, this doesn’t seem to apply any more (it’s from the spring)

Nick Robinson: the referendum is over - now the BBC must fight a new Brexit bias

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/e846de20-eb41-487a-804a-3cec4299630e

Meanwhile in the even more dysfunctional USA,
the vile Ray Moore is expected to win Tuesday’s special election
despite:

• twice suspended as chief justice of Alabama for refusing to implement parts of the US Constitution
• claims the last time America was strong was when they had slavery
• speaks of "reds and yellows" - referring to races, not politics
• his core support is from anti-abortion fanatics who justify murders of doctors and from white supremacists who want to bring back the Confederacy
• even more batshit than other Repugs on womens' tights, abortion, gay rights etc
• several allegations by teenage girls that he molested them

BUT
the Republican party & senators will overlook all this, because he'll vote big tax cuts for very rich people & corporations

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/11/the-prospect-of-a-roy-moore-victory-should-make-your-stomach-churn-with-fear

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/08/politics/roy-moore-slavery/index.html

Corcory honest questions , do you remember YTS schemes and the massive unemployment in the UK in the past ? Do you remember the miners strikes ? Do you remember interest rates being in double figures ?

But Farage has endorsed him big so it’s fine!

Strange also that some people now think the 3-day week, rolling power cuts across the country etc in the 1970s were under Labour !
(no, they were under a Tory govt)

I remember unemployment shooting up to 3 million, about 12% of the workforce then, when Mrs Thatcher decided to let many industries go to the wall.
The jobs were mostly replaced by much lower paid lower skilled McJobs.
The North didn't recover

That was when I first went to Germany; like many other 1980s young workers - mc professionals and brickies alike - heading to mainland Europe for work and opportunities.

BigChoc whilst you were in Germany , do you remember Germans blaming the EU for your predicament ?

I hit the job market at the end of the 80's , straight into low paid service industry jobs , I honestly don't remember anyone blaming the EU at the time . I do remember people blaming the government , something that seems to have rather fallen out of favour

Thought this was really interesting-the rank hypocrisy.

The UK is – perhaps was – notorious within the EU for banging on and on (and on) about impact assessments.….. they are a necessary part of good government. Impact assessments are what stand between wild, ideologically-motivated proposals and actual legislation affecting people’s lives. One has to ask, why isn’t David Davis a fan of impact assessments, and in particular why does he not see a need for impact assessments when it comes to ripping the UK out of the European Union?

blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2017/12/09/britains-insistence-on-impact-assessments-helped-wrap-brussels-in-red-tape/