Westministers: Happy New Year?

[RedToothBrush]

And so we enter a New Year full of hope that things might just be about to recover from our national nervous breakdown... or perhaps not.

As we have Damien Green ejected from his role as Deputy PM over allegations of inappropriate conduct towards woman and use of porn at the end of last year, 2018 sees a bright new progressive dawn with the appointment to the role of universities regulator of Toby Young. A man who has deleted 20,000 tweets including many which are inappropriate and offensive to women, is a fan of eugenics and hates the working class and disabled.

Meanwhile the NHS is facing a crisis which is totally unexpected to the government and couldn't possibly have been planned for by a man who has over seen it for over five years. Which naturally bodes really well for Brexit planning.

We are apparently planning to join the TPP. Never mind geopolitics we can move the UK to the Pacific region.

We still are not ready for trade talks because the Cabinet can not agree on anything. Not that it sounds like they have actually discussed anything along these lines yet.

Rumours are that the Cabinet - including arch leavers such as Gove - are leaning towards supporting May and a softer option, despite the disgust of Johnson, who once again is the subject of malicious chatter about his sacking in a forthcoming Cabinet Reshuffle.

There is talk of further Tory Party war with the revelation that membership of the party has dropped to a core of just 70,000 hardline authoritarian men, most of whom are over 60. Tory HQ now wants to (perhaps with some good reason to prevent the loons) rewrite the constitution and limit the power of local associations to select candidates. The Tory party is now lining up to be a power struggle between internal authoritarians, who don't like democracy voices or structure.

Meanwhile the Labour Party membership now apparently overwhelmingly looks upon staying in the customs union and single market favourably and is in favour of a second referendum. In opposition to the leadership who are utterly committed to Hard Brexit. Much to the annoyance of Lord Adonis who is pitching a fit about government corruption and incompetence and being accused of being elite because he going skiing. Unlike of prominent Leavers who are in touch with the working class.

And finally Nigel Farage has got a meeting with Barnier. Farage, unlike Clegg, Clarke and Adonis, will not be accused by the Right Wing Press of undermining the government's negotiating position because...

It appears that we are in for another year of Brexit nonsense then.

We've not even heard mention of Gibraltar yet.

Beth Rigby @ bethrigby
Jo Johnson from universities to new transport minister

Quicker than you can say Toby Young.

Laura k @ bbclaurak
Perhaps as many as 10 MPs from 2015 intake to be promoted today, jobs likely for Suella Fernandes, Nusrat Ghani, Rishi Sunak, Jo Churchill, Ollie Dowden, Lucy Frazer, among others

Oh and May is looking to silence Dominic Grieve with a job... he's at no10

Beth Rigby @ bethrigby
Just saw Dominic Grieve who assures me he was in for a meeting not a job!

Really? A meeting at no 10 in the middle of a reshuffle and it had nothing to do with a reshuffle?

lazy as a sun-kissed toad

That is a beautiful turn of phrase you have there Tanith! Excuse me while I make a note of it for later use

May has struck another good blow for equality so far today by promoting Alok Sharma (employment minister); everyone's favourite, Dominic Raab (housing); Jo Johnson (minister for London and transport) and Sam Gyimah (Universities).

Margot James has become a minister in the cuddly fluffy DCMS dept, and Caroline Dineage in the DoH.

Just to mention Dominic Raab's book, Britannia unchained which doesn't have an altogether positive view of his fellow countrymen (according to the 1* reviews on Amazon anyway). Best bits below:

The authors seem to have a very poor opinion of the average British working person; chapter 4, which is all about work ethic, starts, ‘Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world’. The only ‘pockets of work ethic’ which the authors are able to locate in the British population are ‘among the industrious cab drivers or in the culture of the City of London’ (page 111-112). Shockingly, these MP authors seem to think that it’s a very good thing that a Polish worker (somewhere in Britain, they do not say where), after commuting two hours to work, puts in ten hours each day fruit-picking, for a meagre £7 per hour (page 64). Far from having anything to say about whether it is desirable to have an economy which relies on people working long hours for such low wages, the authors (who, at the time of writing, were on salaries of at least £65,000) go on to contrast the work ethic of the Polish worker with the fecklessness of the British, by quoting an interview with two jobseekers from a BBC documentary, an interview which is so stereotyped that it is almost beyond belief. These two jobseekers, one of whom ‘opens a can of beer’ at the end of the interview, represent no jobseeker, or any British person for that matter, other than themselves, but the authors hold them up as representatives of the whole British population (page 64).'

Just the man to put in charge of housing. Trebles all round!

This is a handy guide to teh new Cabinet from the Beeb

Is it me - or was that an almost criticism from the beeb? Headline 'how diverse are they?'
followed by a wall of white men.
I assume they were going for irony.

Conservative Home not overly impressed either www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2018/01/we-ask-nicely-but-what-exactly-was-this-woe-plagued-reshuffle-designed-to-achieve.html

The mood of the comment section is interesting. I've read the first page which seems very much "weary resignation" to the mid--90s style death spiral.

In other news, the government may be breaking the law with the Withdrawal Bill. Friends of the Earth have asked a UN committee to rule on whether the ability to change large sections environmental laws without public consultation is in breach of international law.

Michael Mason, associate professor at the London School of Economics, says the government remains legally bound by the Aarhus convention after withdrawal from the EU, and by abolishing laws relating to Aarhus provisions the UK would be in breach of the treaty.

He says: “The UK would not be able to cherry-pick provisions in the convention: the UK is either fully in or would have to pull out from the treaty. To stay in, the UK government will have to retain all EU-derived law implementing Aarhus obligations.

On a separate note, I am fuming that Corbyn won't even attend a meeting on remaining in the SM .

There'd be a certain irony in the Beeb being sarky on the diversity front given they're embroiled in their very own gender pay gap ruckus and forbidding those who have spoken out in support of Carrie Grace from reporting on it, which given that lots of the supporters are women has meant silencing women further and allowing men on the whole to be the unbiased voice.

artisan it's the first comments page I've enjoyed in a long time - thanks for that!

‘Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world’.

Clearly taking their lead from their betters then.

Talking of comments, there was a reply to a tweet yesterday on some news about Brexit, I can't remember what exacty now, from someone saying that they weren't worried abut Brexit because none of the European footballers were on the TV screens panicking about not being able to work etc so everything still had to be alright and any fuss being made was disproportionate.

I'm hoping when the moment comes, the Beeb will bite the biter ...

In other news Virgin Trains stop stocking the Daily Mail

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42621425

James O'Brien was saying it's a strange time to do it given they may need the support of the rightwing press as the bailouts/renationalisation rows continue.

And we still have this to look forward to!

Boris Johnson refuses to consider cancelling Donald Trump's UK state visit, saying Queen will take it 'in her stride'

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-donald-trump-uk-state-visit-queen-elizabeth-theresa-may-us-president-labour-a8149601.html

The queen make take it in her stride (subversive hats aside - I bet she wears one that looks like the Donald's hair!) but what does he think the British people will do?
DT is not going to be happy if he's greeted by angry crowds and rotten tomatoes - might put a dent in the special relationship that we are so desperate for.

Seriously, the disingenuous reaction to the natural consequences of a decision this gov't are pushing is too much. Vis a vis the outrage on the EU giving advice on what rules will apply to the status of the UK as a third country. In the absence of a new agreed outcome, this is/was the intended destination of the UK by the present gov't on triggering article 50.

Fifi, Nicky and Tess decided that Single Market, Customs Union and EEA were what people voted against. Not just the EU. Their red line was ECJ and thus it was projected as the voters' red line. Never mind even the DP presenters continually had/have to have the Single Market and CU repeatedly and patiently explained to them by a very patient Nick Clegg. Quite a while after the referendum itself. I don't buy for one second every voter checked what SM, CU and EEA are and had them particularly in their intentions on voting.

Bustard gov't and Fromage ilk have to own the devastation to UK business. They wanted it by making it happen. Pharma's EU central will soon be Amsterdam. They have to explain to the UK industry what being a third country means because the British gov't won't. What rules apply.

Soz. Really, really, really sick of them and their primeval bs now. And bloody hell. Eugenics coming into the conservation. And they are still trying to blame others for a course of action they choose to instigate.

I've read the first page which seems very much "weary resignation" to the mid--90s style death spiral.

The big difference is that Labour looked like a Govt in waiting then, whereas it doesn't now. It's just able to hide its own divisions behind those of in the Tory party. Major also seemed reasonable and honest - qualities almost totally lacking in May's Govt.

You might want to avert your eyes callieach. This isn't along the faux outrage at natural consequences lines, but just as infuriating, IMO here are even more empty and obviously false promises being made to us all.

Chuka Umunna
‏*@ChukaUmunna*
Big promise by @LiamFox just now in the HoC in answer to my questions: the UK will reach new trade agreements with all 65 of the countries we currently trade with through EU agreements by the end of March 2019 #TradeBill

Apologies, spelt your name wrong cailleach

Nigel Farage
✔
@Nigel_Farage
We are heading in a worrying direction. Banning things because you don’t like them solves nothing

Yes Nigel quite.

UK Prime Minister
‏*@Number10gov*
Suella Fernandes MP becomes Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Department for Exiting the European Union @DExEUgov #Reshuffle

Reshuffle sees most diverse Government ever, including shits, pricks and total knobheads - From the Daily Mash...

Cans someone translate please:

PARLY
‏*@ParlyApp*
.@BarryGardiner Labour Party “are focused on achieving the benefits rather than putting red lines around the structures” of single market and a future customs union