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).

howabout You can expect UK media jubilation over several EU "concessions" over the next couple of years
but it's just skilful stage-managing on the EU side, probably orchestrated by Barnier.

He is trying to give the impression that the UK is winning a few small battles,
to avoid a humiliated Uk walking out of talks and making an early Brexit on WTO terms, or even an accidental / disorderly Brexit - the worst outcome for both sides.

To keep May in power and to keep Brexiters - politicians & public - onside,
he and the E27 leaders deliberately plan concessions that are meaningless, unimportant to them, or that they in fact want
e.g.

• E27 leaders applauding May = costs them nothing
• An exit bill around the amount they intended - they unofficially floated 100 bn, so May had a "victory" in apparently slashing that
• bringing forward transition talks = something the E27 needs, to give sufficient time to adapt to supply chains etc without the UK and reduced trade with the UK. The RoI especially needs this time.

Barnier also seems to be spoon-feeding, guiding the UK into realising that only a Norway-type deal allows the Uk to Brexit without damaging its economy significantly, while keeping its GFA commitments and avoiding a hard NI border.

However, that may be beyond even his talents.
imo, chances are about 50:50 for Norway type deal vs WTO / no deal

On reflection, I also expect the EU to magic up some means for their FTAs etc with other countries to be continued for Britain through this "transition" period and maybe even beyond.

Some EU countries / businesses / sectors probably need more time, beyond 29 March 2019, to adapt to the new situation.
So, that can be another "concession" the Uk would win from the EU

The downside is completely unjustified praise for DD as the instigator

Crikey, I thought pain was having Christmas fun with us:
Deadwood really tweeted that

He's never risen above his own standard of miming to the Welsh National anthem as their Sec of State and revealing he cba to learn the flaming words.

Speaking of Christmas fun

Guy Verhofstadt
@guyverhofstadt
If we had known in advance that blue was so important to the UK, we could simply have replaced our passports by this one 😊

Some more fun still inshock that redwood shit is real

I've dug my old passport out. I've analysed it as a scientist. My one is chromotomically black.

Liney, are you sure it's not just very very very very dark blue? (Father Ted joke).
I loved the forge-able hand writing spaces on the old one. I hope we get that again. And you could smile in your photo. Such lovely happy times.

I googled world rankings of passport power.

Power is of course more interesting than colour, interesting... we will fall from top ten ( I didn't know we were) so could be closer to Mexico in terms of ability to travel freely.

I am increasingly thinking that losing a seat at a powerful table is what we deserve. After all that post empire exaggerated sense of our own importance and decades of hubris, perhaps the time has come to learn true humility.

money.cnn.com/2016/06/29/pf/uk-passport-europe-brexit/index.html

Theresa sets out conditions for Santa to give presents

@Frankiestein401
I stuck my head up from lurking to explain how my family in the North West perceived the vote ... Yes of course they use NHS, Police etc - but those are under threat from austerity and the government agenda let alone Brexit. Of course change can be negative - but if the remainder South gets disproportionately hit then perhaps there is more of a chance of 'all in it together'?

We can rail against what was done to industry, the North, in the 1980/90/00, but (as others have said) 'we are where we are'. The city pays a vast amount of tax and if/when Brexit occurs the tax revenues will be slashed. The south east will be worse off, but the rest of the country will be hit even more. The EU is not the cause of this divide, that is down to our own national govt in Westminster. Supporting Brexit to bring about change will make the divide greater and bring no change to Westminster. The Tories are not listening, they care about power and themselves. Look at how much the EU spends in your region fullfact.org/europe/how-much-do-regions-uk-receive-eu-funding/. The tories will not replace this money. The issue of the North, South West, being ignored by Westminster will not be changed by leaving the EU but by changing government. Moving the seat of government out of London whilst Westminster is rebuilt would be a start .

@gaspodewondercat yes the city pays a lot of tax - however that tax has not yet repaid the bailout let alone the QE. economists expect a crash every 10 years will the city ever be in credit?

My main point is that talking about problems for the city is preaching to the remainers and is counter productive when talking to leavers - we need other arguments - funnily enough the passport farce seems to be having more impact than the shambolic negotiation - perhaps we should look for more of the same own goals.

An alternative fable:

Richard Elwes
@RichardElwes
Once, there was a boy called Union Jack, who lived with his family on their farm. They sold half their produce at the market in the nearest town, and one morning Jack was sent to pay the rent on their market stall. On his way, he met John Redwood. 1/11
“Do not waste your money on that stupid, worthless stall!” said John Redwood “Who needs a stall to sell vegetables? You can do it anywhere! Instead, buy these sovereignty beans. Plant them, wait two weeks, and a magic beanstalk will grow. It’ll solve your problems, guaranteed!” 2
“The beanstalk will fertilise your soil - your farm will become the most productive in the county! Your Grandmother is sick – beanstalk extract has the most amazing medicinal properties! You like curry? Beanstalk makes incredible curry – the very best! ” 3/11
Jack thought it over. Maybe a market stall was a waste of money. He did want to help Grandmother. And he did like curry. John Redwood seemed a trustworthy man, so he bought the sovereignty beans and took them home. After a furious argument with his family, he planted them. 4/11
And that, boys and girls, is where we have reached so far in this fairytale (although John Redwood was recently overheard advising agricultural investment funds to look ‘further afield as Jack’s Farm hits the brakes’). 5/11
There are two possible endings to this story, and neither involve a giant beanstalk miraculously solving the family’s problems. In the first, they leave the weird beans for two weeks, during which time they do nothing but poison the soil and make farming harder than before. 6/11
Having lost their prime location in the market, sales are hit badly, and Jack is sent to trudge the byways in search of customers. Jack’s family blame him for their misfortune. He hates his new job and blames them for not having believed hard enough in the magic of sovereignty. 7
Most evenings, the farm sees bitter arguments, name-calling, and vicious recrimination. The family farm has become a poorer, nastier place. Several of Jack’s siblings decide to leave for nicer, more successful farms elsewhere. Jack works even harder, and hates it even more. 8/11
In the second version, the family assess the situation the morning after the beans have been planted. They unearth one and examine it. There is no beanshoot. It has leached toxins into the soil. They agree that nothing good is going to come of leaving them there any longer. 9/11
No-one really blames Jack– his aims were noble and true: he wanted to save money, to help Grandmother, and to enjoy some good curry. All the same, they agree that the best course of action is to dig up the beans, and try to save their space in the market before it’s too late. 10
There's no fairytale ending either way. But it’s your choice, boys and girls, which version of the story shall we have? Merry Christmas! 11/11 #FBPE

The world is as it is
Not as you - or your friends & family wish it to be

The City - and wealthy mc professionals - will be protected from loss, regardless of the harm this causes to anyone else
They will not suffer
You and your friend will pay for that

City firms and the wealthy will receive large tax cuts to stop them leaving

• paid for like all the previous tax cuts - by cutting benefits and cutting infrastructure projects in the North

And after all those tax breaks, City firms will still send some of their staff and their profits to E27 countries
So there will be even less tax

but govt will always look after London first in times of trouble

• it's where the govt sits

perhaps we should look for more of the same own goals

Well the Tories are an unending source of own goals .. keep reading Westminstenders for updates .

Thatcher aide dismisses blue passports as a ‘nostalgic’ Brexit stunt

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/23/blue-passport-brexit-pr-stunt-says-former-thatcher-aide-charles-powell

Margaret Thatcher’s key foreign policy adviser has mocked commentators rejoicing over the decision to change the colour of the British passport, describing it as nostalgia driven by ageing Eurosceptics.
Confirming it was Thatcher’s government who “chose” to ditch the blue passport in the 1980s
– under no pressure from the European Unionn* –

Charles Powell said the clamour for the old-style travel document was
“part of the nostalgia on which the predominantly elderly Brexit constituency thrives”.

Rather than looking for trivia ..

We need to tackle the fundamental stupidity of thinking that the rich will suffer more than the poor in hard times

In what world is that ?
Certainly not in the Disunited Kingdom

Bigchoc I broadly agree with you

EU27 (and UK) both laid out easy wins for the other side as I would expect in any negotiation. Lots of examples. The 3 tricky areas the EU singled out for sufficient progress were pointed out by the UK's Art 50 letter in the first instance. I think the 35bn divorce bill includes the 2 busloads we would have been paying in transition / till the end of the budget period anyway. It is semantics whether we end up in or out of CAP during transition as UK has already guaranteed farmers payments on same basis till then.

I also agree Norwayish will be the final outcome. However I think there will be adaptations to FoM probably through the EU "clarifying" to reflect concerns in EU27 as well as UK and UK making changes to immigration criteria / work permits / access to services to allow it to operate FoM more like EU27 already does.

I think it is the UK which is Santa. The EU was on the "naughty step" and chose to say it wouldn't change even when DC asked very nicely. Now it is saying it won't miss all the presents from our net contribution and access to our overconsuming / importing market anyway. (My DC never behave and Santa still keeps the faith so I am optimistic)

The richest 1% pay more income tax than the poorest 50%

The wealthy and the mobile mc professionals can also easily move abroad.

Those 2 uncomfortable facts are why govts always protect the richest - at the cost of the poorest

the govt doesn't care about the bottom 50% anyway - they are net takers
So throws them some patriotic drivel to keep them quiet, to avoid riots

the passport farce seems to be having more impact than the shambolic negotiation

I agree Frankiestein401

Everyone sees the growing army of UC caused homeless.
Everyone knows what's being done to the NHS.
Leavers and especially those increasingly doubtful leavers don't want to be insulted (further) by a patronising stunt.

When £500m (albeit 'earmarked') could feed, house and heal so many.

howabout That is typical egocentric UK arrogance, a hangover from when much of the world had to do what the UK demanded

The fundamental problem is that the UK wants to rule the roost, but no longer has the economic clout to do so

Countries are no longer on the "naughty" step when they refuse UK demands

The UK kept getting optout after optout from the EU, but was never satisfied
Now it is leaving, because it wants to fundamentally change an organisation, which won't agree

For the UK, a Norway-type deal, joining EFTA would be the best option -economically
It would not be the best deal for EFTA, where the UK would continue its "divide & rule" strategy that it always employed throughout the days of empire

The UK desire for dominance could ruin EFTA

• if it is allowed to join, I hope it is under strict conditions, that it is forced to acknowledge & obey EFTA rules, including FOM

I also don't want the UK to have a special EEA bloc all to itself
Too much opportunity to stir up trouble across Europe
Britain's foreign policy aims in Europe for about 200 years have been always to keep the continent divided, so that the UK is dominant.

I am coming to support the WTO option if there is to be a Brexit

The UK needs a hard reality check, like Suez
to make both politicians and the public realise the UK has nowhere near the power they think

Only after British arrogance & nationalism have been tamed by harsh reality will the UK be a fit partner for anyone

• EFTA, or even the EU if a genuinely realistic UK wishes to rejoin

However, Fox and his Atlantic Bridge chums may have converted the UK into a full US subsidiary by then

Yes, I'm bitter when I keep viewing the violence & chaos that British colonisation and meddling has caused in my late mother's country, in the ME
The UK will find how many countries can take the opportunity to settle old scores - Brexit is a once in a lifetime opportunity to give back a good kicking.

However I think there will be adaptations to FoM probably through the EU "clarifying" to reflect concerns in EU27 as well as UK and UK making changes to immigration criteria / work permits / access to services to allow it to operate FoM more like EU27 already does.

The EU chose to say it wouldn't change even when DC asked very nicely.

Yes but the problem is that DC asked too quickly, throwing his weight around expecting a rapid shift. As always the U.K. doesn't play EU diplomacy properly, it a long slow co- operative process requiring considered unanimity.

Was it a little 'we pushed for a wider EU, 'cos we didn't want deeper'? Now we've decided we don't really want the wider either. Gimme, gimme, gimme what I want. Now.

I wonder why the UK didn't/couldn't do the soft diplomacy wrt the EU?

The UK needs a hard reality check, like Suez

From my reading, the "reality check" was just the US pursuing it's stated foreign policy ....

The US had (and has) made it crystal clear (only a moronic fact-evading Brexiteer could miss the point) that US military might is not now, and never going to be used to allow the UK to retain any part of it's Empire. If this is news to anyone now - or in 1956 - then perhaps a little more reading and a little less talking is in order.

See also: Falklands war (which the US had the UK pegged as losing, initially) , Greneda. Also see the post VE-day race between US and UK forces in the Pacific where US forces liberated captured islands, and the UK "restored" then to the Empire.

If any Brexiteer thinks that cosying up to the US will help Britain maintain whatever world influence we have left, then they are ignorant of the history they so love to talk about.

Funny, really. Ignorant of history = use to to justify arguments. Ignorant of geography (by not possessing a passport) = worrying over passport colour.

I wonder how many Brexiteers have actually read the US declaration of independence. It's not very nice to Britain ...

The empathy lobotomy programme worked well

Unfortunately I think this is deeper than just the refugees.
The U.K. is now the most individualistic country in the EU. With that comes this sense that anyone else problem isn’t yours and you don’t have any responsibility in it, nor should you want to be involved. The NIMBY feeling but extended to everything really.

That’s something that has always been there tbh but yes has got so much worse since the Tories have come in. :(:(