Westminstenders: Stuck in the twilightzone

[RedToothBrush]

Just want to remind everyone if what really matters and what the priority if Theresa May is.

May isn't interested in a new referendum. There is barely time to hold one, and anyone remotely interested in one, isn't named Theresa May. Forget it. Its not happening.

Nor are Brexit talks the most important thing. Whilst Jeremy Corbyn seems finally to be playing with some sort if EEA type solution he's not the one named Theresa May. If she doesn't want one, then it won't happen.

May does seem to favour something along these lines but she has to sell it to her party. If she ends up relying on the support of Labour to push it through against what her party want, then that doesn't end well for her or her party. So Corbyn seeming to squeeze her here isn't necessarily a good thing. It could push her to no deal.

Why?

Cos petty party politics.

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING, and don't forget this, is the EU withdrawal Bill. As it stands, May has to concentrate her efforts on this. If it doesn't pass by the art 50 deadline then we have legal chaos. May isn't big on the courts, but I'm not sure she would want that situation either. It would be even more unthinkable than queues at Dover coupled with food shortages.

If it doesn't pass, and the Lords will do all they can to delay and obstruct as long as they can, May's only option is to beg for an art 50 extension. Which the EU might not be inclined to give. Which might leave us in a situation where our only option is to revoke a50.

The only predictable thing, is this will be last minute brinkmanship.

All the talk of a second ref is a distraction. Talk of Labour's position at this point, is all about positioning for the next election and not about Brexit at all.

So try to keep your eyes on what really matters and what battles are May's big ones and which are merely side shows.

I wonder who Side Show Bob will turn out to be.

Lonely job loss spreadsheet is interesting reading.

And we can't have overseas doctors now because they don't earn enough even though the EU ones aren't coming to the UK any more

Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving.

Not sure how much I believe that spreadsheet. Recognising one of the firms, I found that the number quoted referred to employees approached for voluntary redundancy and was basically all of them. Since the company is still trading with a sizeable workforce I expect the actual number of redundancies was somewhat less. Also I have no feel for how many jobs are lost in a normal period - jobs come and go all the time.

That’s not to say that I don’t expect an overall downward trend, but just that quality data is going to be hard to obtain and difficult to interpret.

Bloody hell, lurking how scary for you.
If the drugs are available in an EU country, are you able to fly over and stay long enough to register with a doctor there ?

Would EHIC be applicable for you ?
On previous jobs in Germany, when I was no longer eligible for EHIC, I either said at reception that I'd pay cash or showed that I had UK private insurance and they posted me the bill at my German address .

Cor luv a duck! DP is beyond dire. JoCo not up to asking any difficult questions. Balanced guests of two Cons. Literally .

Rees Mogg saying he is for unilateral free trade. Take all the tarriffs off. I am reminded of Pascal Lamy looking disbelievingly at Leadsom and saying 'what will you have left to offer in a trade agreement, then? Everyone will already have access to your markets?'

amp.ft.com/content/075d679e-0033-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5?__twitter_impression=true
Sexual misconduct allegations
Men Only: Inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show
FT investigation finds groping and sexual harassment at secretive black-tie dinner

Anti-Trump protests in Zurich before the World Economic Forum:

www.google.co.uk/amp/metro.co.uk/2018/01/23/thousands-take-streets-protest-donald-trumps-presence-davos-7254757/amp/

I came on here to see if anyone had posted that FT article. I read it last night - bloody hell. Courageous bit of journalism from the FT, the UK's only quality newspaper.

Jeff Sessions has been interviews by mueller, we learned yesterday as was James Comey. Trump looks likely to have to testify soon AND rick gates, a former trump campaign aide, is thought to be cooperating with mueller, all also revealed yesterday. Hopefully trump’s presence won’t be an issue soon (although there’ll be furious attempts to stymie any findings and who knows whether the gop will finally act on any new information in any other way than to impede it)

The FT have now apparently removed the paywall from the article.

Im now even more impressed.

fox just on R4, arguing we might do better trade deals with China outside eu. I might hope interviewers would challenge this common brexit trope. If a "good" deal were to be negotiated - would it be with the EU or the (desperate) UK?
Who has the best negotiators - eu or UK - which market would China prioritise in negotiations - eu or UK.

C4 to broadcast claim ex-ministers offered Brexit help to Chinese
Dispatches episode on Tories Andrew Lansley, Peter Lilley and Andrew Mitchell initially pulled

amp.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/24/c4-to-broadcast-claim-ex-ministers-offered-brexit-help-to-chinese?__twitter_impression=true

DUP and Tory politicians accuse the BBC of REMAIN bias

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/21/bbc-boss-defends-news-coverage-after-mps-claim-brexit-bias

Yet one reporter admitted that the political pressure could have an impact as it “adds more pressure on us to parse every line for signs of bias”.

Wow, just read the FT article. All that faux shock and outrage from the club and sponsors as if everyone doesn't know full well this sort of thing goes on. Has rather put me off reading dd any of David Walliams books though. I am not sure I will ever get past the line "spice up your wife" as if their wives are objects that should undergo surgery merely for their enjoyment. Yuck!

Every man at that event and every staff member at that event. They all saw nothing?

If not guilty, they were complicit.

I wish the BBC would stop the shit about the NHS getting the Brexit dividend which will not happen.

A thorough investigation into Remain/Leave bias might be a good thing as it would probably show that Farage has been given disproportionate screen time and the QT audiences have been stuffed with kippers.

I presume these tories are simply complaining about the fact the bbc has dared to criticise them.

I think the BBC bias is interesting as it depends which bits of the BBC you mean. The news has a different bias in my view to something like comedy. R4 comedy is definitely more to the left for the most part and people on it are often openly remain. The news is a difference story. So if you are going to measure the bias of BBC you need to first decide what you mean by the BBC and how much weight you give to the different aspects of it.

BBC news is often criticised as biased, by those who feel farage et al are given too much airtime through to those who don't like negativity attributed to brexit. Whilst I think they're definitely failing in impartiality, there is an element of never being able to win.

Good points both. The thing is I’m not sure the argument that all the drama/comedy/etc output has a left bias should then be cancelled out by a right bias in the news reporting.

The point is that there even if the impartiality requirement on the corporation as a whole, the public has a reasonable expectation that the news and current affairs output specifically should be as free of bias as is reasonable (impossible to achieve in practice of course). Which means being equally critical of both sides of an argument and not letting one side dominate. One can find many many examples where this has not happened. Overall it might all cancel out but it can still lack impartiality if one sides arguments are presented without challenge.

As dh said to me yesterday (I think it came from Twitter): there is one seat that UKIP are guaranteed to keep......

The Question Time seat

the public has a reasonable expectation that the news and current affairs output specifically should be as free of bias as is reasonable

The BBC comedy and cultural output seems clearly Remain-biased (perhaps not surprising). The BBC news and current affairs output seems pretty Leave-biased (again perhaps not surprising, considering who the presenters are).

But as Eeeeeowwwfftz says, the difference is that I would hope the news is as factual and accurate as possible. This is vitally important, not because of Brexit per se, but because the public ought to be able to trust that correct facts in all areas are being reported. How are we to trust news on cancer research, or climate change, or council tax, or even bloody cat cafes, if we see blatant lies being allowed to stand unchallenged on the news?

But if you go down the equally critical route then you get into the climate debate situation. Here you have 95% or whatever of climate scientists who absolutely state that man made climate change is real, but by giving equal weight to both sides of the argument you end up making the 5% who are working in oil or just deluded seem as if they have an equal case to the 95% of actual real scientists.

I'm not saying you are wrong or that there isn't an issue but it is not as simple as just finding two sides to an arguement and presenting them equally. In fact you could argue that it was a misguided attempt at giving equal weight to both sides that lead to Farage getting all the air time he did before the ref. They couldn't put someone seen as remain on without having equal amount of someone who was leave, but by making them equal they gave UKIP exposure and legitimacy they did not deserve.

Agree Bigly! Avoiding "bias" is not as simple as presenting "both sides".

Definitely agree with regards to news content should be factual. They are undermining themselves currently.

The werrity sniffer was on BBC breakfast this morning. He quickly let slip that they were aware the us don't see us as a priority for a trade deal but it was easily missed as he went off on how easy it should be apparently.

Very true bigly. I suppose the rules in the run up to general elections mean they sort of have to do that, but it doesn't apply at other times or to things outside that scope.