Westminstenders: Blue Passports

[RedToothBrush]

Yay for the blue passports.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all

May next year bring us £350 million for the NHS, cake, unicorns, financial passporting, access to the single market, Irish love and of course control to the people.

(Apologies been up to my eyeballs. Normal service will resume after Christmas).

Happy new year, dear invisible friends! Wishing you all a very happy 2018.

Happy New Year.

Time for bed.

Yes. I am that dull.
Proudly dull.

Happy new year everyone. I've just left drinks at the neighbours where everyone was hoping for BINO... let's hope 2018 is the year....

Happy New year! Waiting in the car for DD3 to finish up with her babysitting job so we can all go to bed. What an exciting time to be alive.

Happy New Year everyone! I have a feeling things are going to turn in 2018.

Got up and looked at twitter. This is the first one that appeared on my feed.

If there was a tweet to give hope for the new year, then this is a good start.

Accountability is everything.

We have a Great Accountability Deficient.

Sam Coates Times @ samcoatestimes
Some good news for 2018: local community newspapers springing up - their website suggests they recognise need for local accountability for big decisions - this one in south east London

The Lewisham Ledger @lewishamledger
We are a new free local community newspaper called the @lewishamledger and are aiming to launch in spring 2018. Details about who we are and what we hope to do can be found here:
lewishamledger.tumblr.com/post/168753426546/coming-in-2018/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Not just DD thinking Brexit might not happen:

Brexit will never happen, according to the only analyst to call the last general election correctly
He thinks the "vassal" transition state will just be extended indefinitely

http://uk.businessinsider.com/brexit-will-not-happen-samuel-tombs-pantheon-macroeconomics-2017-12?r=US&IR=T

< I still think there's only a small chance of no Brexit ..... but then I've thought for over a year that Brexit was 100% certain
If this guy is right, I'd expect no MEPs - the EU will not risk Kippers in the EP again - but I'd expect full representation at heads of govt level >

Have a great 2018, you lovely people!

Agreed, Red. For another message of positivity, determination, community, humanity and challenging authority, you can't do a lot worse than this from Artist Taxi Driver on Twitter. Gotta like the guy:

mobile.twitter.com/chunkymark/status/947748384038965249

The exclusion of women's voices from the proposed changes on foot of the GRA was mentioned upthread. I thought the following excerpt was so ironic. Certainly on foot of the backlash and attempts of shutting down discussion by women. And my emboldened bit maybe could explain the trolling and vilification of women such as GG or MB. Not saying Monroe is involved in that. Just that it could so easily apply to online hate directed towards women.

The reception was great for two weeks, then L’Oréal’s PR department told me that the Daily Mail had a screen grab from a Facebook post I’d written, and the paper was running a story saying I think all white people are racist. Rather than allow me to explain my position, I was dropped.

The fallout was awful. People said they wanted to rape, kill and dismember me. The response just proved my point: if these people didn’t already dislike black people why would they react with such violence ?

L’Oréal’s decision to hire me would have been a big deal if it hadn’t been just an exercise in tokenism. They wanted a black girl and a trans girl to sell their product, but they didn’t want my history, my thoughts or my voice.

www.theguardian.com/global/2017/dec/31/2017-eyewitness-our-summary-of-the-defining-images-of-the-year

Soz. Munroe Bergdorf, not Monroe.

And you only have to look at the last article re Saudi Arabia to see what women have to deal with. Even being imprisoned for wanting the same rights as men.

(German press) Not So Great Britain Grows Increasingly Hostile to EU Citizensns*_
[[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/as-brexit-nears-harrassment-of-eu-citizens-in-uk-rises-a-1181845.html?#ref=recom-outbrain
Grim r]]eports of horrible hostility especially to EE citizens, including longterm residents in Britain

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/as-brexit-nears-harrassment-of-eu-citizens-in-uk-rises-a-1181845.html?#ref=recom-outbrain

*Ever since the Brexit referendum in June 2016, European Union citizens in the UK have felt increasingly unwelcome.

Harrassment is on the rise and the government itself has fed the hate.
…*
"This is England, speak English," said one woman to Agnieszka as she was speaking Polish with her children.
"Go back to your own country," Diana was told in school.

Then, this spring, her neighbor mounted the first of the cameras on the wall and said:
"I'm going to take care of this damn Polish problem!"

After several instances of intimidation, Agnzieszka called the police.
She was told: "If you don't like the cameras, maybe you should move away."
…
In Stockport, a car dealership wouldn't let a German who had lived in the town for 20 years to test drive a car,
arguing that the man's driver's license was no longer valid due to Brexit < dim alert >

Universities are refraining from hiring professors from Spain or the Netherlands in anticipation of Brexit.

Banks are refusing loans,
landlords are illegally demanding to see British passports.

Across the country, people with Romanian, Lithuanian or other accents have had their windows smashed
…
"You know what you slut, if you don't like it here you can go back to frog land!"
When the local paper, the Kentish Gazette, reported on the incident, the comments started coming in by the minute.
One reader wrote: "I'll even help pay to get you out of my country."
…
…prompted a group of European parliamentarians to write letters to Theresa May and the Home Office several months ago.

"It's obvious that the authorities have been instructed to reject as many applications [to remain] as possible,"
said one of the authors of the letter, Sophia in 't Veld, from the Netherlands:

"The British government is deliberately instilling fear in people < that's why racists feel so bold >
What have these people done?
Where does this hatred come from?
It's a mystery to me."

Loved your speech bigly but this bit:

don't know if 2018 is going to be the year we sort out all this mess and can move on, pretending it never happened

We mustn't pretend it never happened. There are reasons people voted brexit and they need addressing. Brexit isn't the answer but the problems do exist. Sometimes I think the reason the govt is so hell bent on brexit is because that's easier than dealing with the actual problems and after they can just say well we gave you what you wanted so tough. If (and I really hope we do) stop brexit then the DexEU and their budget should be turned over to addressing inequality of all kinds across the UK and bringing in the change people want.

A solid start

Ministers Cannot Name A Single Country That Asked UK For A Post-Brexit Trade Deal

'We all procrastinate from time to time, but Liam Fox is taking it to another level.'

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/fox-nodeal-ministers_uk_5a3bc79ae4b06d1621b2589c

Samuel West
@exitthelemming
One minute past midnight. This takes burying bad news to new heights

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/01/toby-young-universities-regulator-office-for-students

Things that slipped past me last year....

The poorest students leave with the most debt
Great way to stop the poor from accessing higher education and climbing out of poverty

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/05/poorest-students-will-finish-university-with-57000-debt-says-ifs

Students from the poorest 40% of families entering university in England for the first time this September [that was 2017] will emerge with an average debt of around £57,000, according to a new analysis by a leading economic thinktank.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies said the abolition of the last maintenance grants in 2015 had disproportionately affected the poorest, while students from the richest 30% of households would run up lower average borrowings of £43,000.

BigChoc’s Spiegel piece: these people always have been hateful and embittered. Those that don’t have “foreign” neighbours to torment take it out on their home-grown ones. Ukip, Brexit and May have emboldened and justified them and given them an excuse for their horrible feelings. I don’t know why we have so many nightmare neighbours in the UK.

Slightly OT, but I enjoyed Henning Wehn hosting "Live At The Apollo".

BBC News may be muzzled, neutered, and impotent. But it's hard not to interpret the choice of a German comedian (of all nationalities) to host a primetime BBC1 show as a "fuck you" to the barmy Brexit brigade. If the war will be fought with weaponised light entertainment, then we know who the winners will be ... fascism and fun are like oil and water.

I also enjoyed Lucy Porter (doing a routine about everyday sexism) and Guz Khan (doing a routine about everyday racism).

Or was it too much Prosecco ? (Is there such a thing ?)

www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/boris-johnson/news/91734/excl-boris-johnson-frustrated
EXCL Boris Johnson frustrated by fellow Cabinet Brexiteers over push for hard exit

Pals of the Foreign Secretary say he is becoming increasingly frustrated at other Leavers in Theresa May’s top team “hiding behind his skirts” when the issue is discussed.

Relations between Mr Johnson and Michael Gove have also worsened in recent weeks, despite the pair appearing to have patched up their previous differences.

Interesting...

Boris Johnson frustrated by fellow Cabinet Brexiteers over push for hard exit

So is he in favour of a Hard Brexit, and the others less so ?

Or is he not in favour, and the others are mad for it ?

Quality headline ....

Ah, so he feels no one is behind him when he speaks of a "clean break" and he has to do all the running.

Christ, how much would the fucker have whinged if he hadn't got what he wanted ?

The one thing becoming clearer daily, is how the murmur of unhappiness from the winning side is growing. They need to be reminded - with a fist to the face, if needed - that they won, so should get over it.

Happy New Year
Trafalgar Square, today, just before dusk.

My Twitter stream is full of leavers whinging. It’s almost like that’s all they know how to do.

The Boris Story is:

1. Hard Brexit no longer has political mileage and everyone else is beginning to think that nailing themselves to the mast might not be too bright. They don't see their careers benefitting from pursuing hard Brexit.

2. Boris still wants to be PM, and he still sees that he personally, can use Hard Brexit as a stick to beat the PM with because there is still public support for a Hard Brexit from many. He, of course, only has to say it - not do anything about it - in exactly the same way Fromage shouts a lot and he knows this.

3. Point one and point two add up to point three. Johnson is a spent political force and has no where viable left to go. He is no longer the Party's Eccentric Icon and has been replaced in that role by Rees-Mogg.

There are growing rumours that Johnson is about to be sacked from the Foreign Office too.

I would take this to mean that a) May is going nowhere b) Leavers are quietly realising that Hard Brexit is a crock of toxic shit c) not a realistic option.

Remember Gove is the arch opportunist. If he's distancing himself from Johnson and sucking up to May, then its for a reason. He's generally regarded as doing a good job at DEFRA, whilst Johnson is seen as being shit and done for.

There were rumours that he might be in line for Deputy PM if Green went, which he now has.

Why would Gove want to be associated with Johnson now?

There's a couple of alternative possible career opportunities there for him. He may think his only way to PM now, lies in first proving his worth in office given his reputation in the last leadership election.

And Gove isn't stupid - if anyone has a dawning realisation that Brexit is Brexshit, it'll be Gove and whilst he might say he's still a leaver, if he can worm his way out of being blamed for it, he'll do so.