Westministenders: KAAAAABBBOOOOOOOOMMMMM

[RedToothBrush]

'Quick' Recap.

Once upon a time, despite warnings to the contrary after previously attempting to recreate a speech from the 1930s, Theresa May triggered a50.

A series of events, which included a disastrous unnecessary General Election and losing seats, ensured that we have Brexit by Timetable in which every piece of goodwill was burnt up a long time ago, and the EU decided to go "see ya then".

Only this General Election, made this politically impossible as well as practically impossible, given how this would destroy our economy.

So May did the only thing she could and agreed to lock us in with sufficient progress deal, which is legally binding, if no deal is agreed. Thus giving us in essence a choice between staying in the Single Market and Customs Union due to NI or breaking an international agreement which would destroy all our international credibility and trust.

Except none of the Brexiteers really grasped what was happening. Until this week.

In the meantime we still have had spectacles of Nadine Dorries asking on the infamous WhatsApp Group why we can't stay in the CU. Any Davis saying that he has now apparently 'changed his mind' on the matter. Not that Labour are any better, with Corbyn saying we can't stay in the Single Market and leave the EU. Except of course, Norway is in the Single Market...

Fast forward through a sex scandal that's swept through Westminster, installing self appointing the vampiric Gavin Williamson as Defence Secretary, we eventually ended up with a reshuffle which was possibly as pointless and as successful as the General Election. And Gavin Williamson is caught up in a sex scandal.

May has managed to drag the Great Repel Bill through the Commons, without breaking the party, but with much back room dealing and compromise with Remainers. Hailed as something of a victory by Brexiteers, this rather is a fools paradise. At what price to their ideological purity did this come? Is there much Brexit left? And there is much more to come in the Lords, with the LDs committed to working with Labour on securing at least 10 amendments. The two parties have a majority in the Lords if they work together.

Away from parliament we have had the glorious demise of Toby Young, who is forever to be remembered for eugenics.

As it has become apparent that we are increasingly looking like we are on track for BINO, the EU have told us, that we should have sucked up a compromise proposal earlier and now the Norway Option is off the table as we fucked that up by taking too long to disagree amongst ourselves and being arses to EU citz. I paraphrase slightly here, but that's about he long and short of it. Instead we get the pleasure of 21 months of the EU interfering in our law without representation. And we are already locked into this. Now Leavers can moan about this, and shock horror, actually be correct about it too! Transition will be up to 31st Dec 2020 at the latest. Which realistically is still too soon, not that any lying arsed Brexiteer is willing to admit to this. Yet.

The only way to get out of this proposal for better terms? Either beg the EU for something there is no way they will give us or revoke / extend a50.

The fall out from May's reshuffle is still going on in slow motion. Rees-Mogg has got a bigger platform to spout shit he knows nothing about, admit that he has never changed a nappy nor wiped his own arse, thinks women should give birth to football teams, and how he has never visited IKEA and has no plans to do so. Johnson has tried to build bridges. And effed that one up again. Gove has made us all be obsessed by plastic straws and turn into environmental maniacs because no other minister is good at press releases and media stunts. Arch Remainac Liddington, got Deputy PM and took over Brexshit even more from DExEU. Hunt is in no way after becoming PM and Greening is really pissed and when straight back to lead from the Naughty Step.

To cut the long story short: they all hate May and think she's shit

There are thought to be nearly 48 letters to trigger a leadership election in Graham Brady's hands. But not quite. And its not about the letters its about needing 159 MPs to no confidence her... but that is starting to sound more and more plausible in the face of Brexshit hitting the fan.

We now have a leaked impact assessment that we really were not supposed to see which is slightly less worse than Project Fear. But not by much. Its supposed to be by DExEU. Its been suggested that its actually by alt-DExEU aka the Cabinet Department (Robbins and Liddington).

Anyway, nothing is decided. May might zombie on forever. She won't, she's in a crowded field of Tories with stakes. But that sub-committee meeting on Wed 7th Feb is crunch time for something or someone.

Tick tock, tick tock, went the Brexit Clock.

Oh yeah and there's going to be a trade war between the US and EU. And there's some stuff about a ex-Belize diplomat. And Trump's coming to visit us.

The YouGov polls and the YouGov model that called most of the seats in the GE are two different things, I think. Though it’s possible their traditional polling has incorporated some of the modelling methodology in the interim.

Judging by my Facebook feed, my impression is that a lot of people only really pay much attention to politics during an election campaign - anathema though that may be to thread regulars.

Some UK govt / civil service prep for hard Brexit has started:

1. The govt is bringing emergency legislation into parliament, using the 1968 Vienna Convention, so that British lorry drivers can still drive in the EU.

Even with this, the 75,000 UK truckers that currently drive into the E27 will need to compete for the 1,200 certificates that are available to the UK under this convention

2. Reports that that, from July, the M20 will start to have the central reservation and the 2 fast lanes converted to a car park for Dover for April 2019. Won't be nearly enough.

The govt is bringing emergency legislation into parliament, using the 1968 Vienna Convention...

But, but, but I thought we were taking back control?

This outrageous convention is an obligation on signatory countries to reciprocally recognise the legality of vehicles from other signatory countries. How dare the other 70 countries require Our great and powerful country to do this?

There are loads of requirements that must be met :
• Cars must display their registration number at the front and rear, even if the country’s own jurisdiction of registration does not require front reg plates.
• Motorcycles need to display their registration number only at the rear.
• Registration numbers must be numerals or numerals and letters in capital Latin and Arabic characters and numerals (plus optionally a different alphabet too).
• A distinguishing sign of the country of registration must be displayed on the rear of the vehicle. Either separately from the registration plate or incorporated into it.
• If the distinguishing sign is part of the reg plate, it must also appear on the front reg plate.
• The physical requirements for the separate sign are defined in Annex 3 of the Convention and must be in black on a white background in the shape of an ellipse with the major axis horizontal.
• The distinguishing sign should not be affixed so that it could be confused with the reg number or impair its legibility.
• When the distinguishing sign is part of the reg plate, it must also appear on the front plate and may be supplemented with the flag or emblem of the national state, or the emblem of the regional economic integration organisation to which the country belongs ( if any).
• The distinguishing sign should be displayed on the far left or far right on the registration plate.
• When a symbol/flag/emblem is also displayed, the distinguishing sign must be placed on the far left on the plate.
• The distinguishing sign shall be positioned so to be easy identifiable and so that it cannot be confused with the registration number or impair its legibility.
• The distinguishing sign shall therefore be at least a different colour from the registration number, or have a different background color to that reserved for the registration number, or be clearly separated from the registration number, preferably with a line.
• In practice, the requirement to display a distinguishing sign, is mutually waived between some countries, for example within the EEA for vehicles with license plates in the EU format (which satisfies the requirements of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic) and are also valid between Canada, the United States, and Mexico
• The vehicle must meet all technical requirements to be legal for road use in the country of registration. Any conflicting technical requirements (e.g., right-hand-drive or left-hand-drive) in the signatory country where the vehicle is being driven do not apply.
• The driver must carry the vehicle's reg certificate, and if the vehicle is not registered in the name of an occupant (e.g., a hire car ), proof of the driver's right to be in possession of the vehicle.
• The convention also addresses minimum mechanical and safety equipment needed to be on board and defines an identification mark to identify the origin of the vehicle.

I thought we were moving away from all this rubbish. We are Little Britain, the great and powerful.We don’t accept ( or help make) international co- operative rules in return for our mobility and trade. All people who wish to take back sovereignty must rip off their number plates immediately.

DUP already calling these figures, "No more reliable than astrology."
DGRosetti Of course, discarding evidence in favour of "feeling" is straight out of the "religious nutters guide to ruling"

It is a very specific choice of words by the DUP.
Astrology is considered an abomination by the Free Presbyterian Church.

This is a raising of the stakes. Supporters are asked to hold figures on the impact of Brexit in the same scorn as astrology.

How, how. how can this be? [Tory gains in the polls]

The Tory party should send a box of Milk Tray to the trans lobby, I suspect.

Does the GFA discriminate between EU citizens then ?
DGRosetti

The GFA addresses specifically the rights of Irish people in NI, including people born in NI who claim Irish as their national identity.

It concerns only relations between Ireland, NI and the UK. It addresses issues arising in a very specific historical and political context.

I do like positivity. I don't do twitter but #fbpe seems like a good idea gaining ground.

What does #FBPE mean and could it stop Brexit?

www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2018/02/what-does-fbpe-mean-and-could-it-stop-brexit-history-hashtag

@50 challenge folks are normally very measured. Even in US there is recourse to law to challenge what is going on. What @50 is suggesting here is fundamental.

‏ @A50Challenge
This government is arbitrary. That is oppressive and destabilising for people who want to lawfully test against established norms.

This arbitrary injustice or complete disregard for the law has become standard practice in health, social service, and education for the last 7 years or more.

Some of their tweets this morning have been even more strongly worded than that, talking about threats to democracy.

Tom Newton Dunn
@tnewtondunn
Excl: New Brexit compromise bid by Theresa May to keep Britain half in the Single Market is rejected by Cabinet Leavers;

[the sun link] t.co/qrQ9r0E5V2?amp=1

Linda Helen Green
@LinHelenGreen
Very clear Labour front bench want to go in same direction as Govt. although this leaves a big split from many Labour MPs who support CU and SM.

Anna Soubry MP
@Anna_Soubry
Given growing support for #EFTA on @Conservatives backbenches think Govt more likely to get there than #Labour

You can't be half in the single market. You are either in it or out of it. Wtf is she thinking? Is she tone deaf?

Trying to please everyone and dismally failing on all fronts, expect.

*I expect

Hang on. I'm getting really confused now....

1. TM said we were going to turn the economy around by becoming world leaders in AI , especially driverless cars etc. (Presumably this will replace our 80% reliance on services, plus any remaining manufacturing or agriculture -all of which will be decimated by our EU departure. )

1. We have doubled the visas available to skilled tech workers from outside the EU, ( we don't want nasty EU types but outside the EU is fine) to boost to British start-ups including computer programmers and IT experts.

1. One of the reasons why we're are in a good position to become world leaders in self driving cars is because we are not signed up to the Vienna Convention.(See article below? May be fake news.)

1. BUT We are leaving the EU because we no longer want to participate in any existing regulatory alignment mostly in food, environment, some transport etc.

1. BUT we are embracing that Vienna Convention so that British lorry drivers can still drive in the EU. ( Even though the 75,000 UK truckers that currently drive into the E27 will need to compete for the 1,200 certificates that are available to the UK under this convention.)

1. But that convention will be a handicap to driverless cars etc, on which our new economy depends.

To summarise -we will now just have 1,200 Lorry drivers who can leave these shores, the rest will be driverless lorries and all parked in the middle of the M20 - is that right?

For some reason that song " There's a hole in my bucket " is going around in my head"

Like Trump I always had a grip on my sanity but I think Big Choc's post about the Vienna Convention and the M20 has tipped me over the edge.

www.ibtimes.co.uk/britain-lead-race-self-driving-cars-due-blind-luck-not-signing-1968-vienna-convention-1505782

uk.businessinsider.com/the-government-wants-self-driving-cars-on-uk-roads-by-2021-2017-11

www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/11/14/theresa-may-doubles-visa-numbers-tech-workers/

Jim Waterson @ jimwaterson
Labour has launched a new online campaign widget about increasing the diversity of names in the House of Commons. Although it doesn’t seem to have a list of banned names, which is unfortunate.
[[https://t.co/DAwaZ1brdV]]

Labour identity politics really is starting to loose the plot. Give your child a wacky name to increase diversity in the HoC.

They might also have thought about testing how this worked too.

It gets ridiculous

Lots of people having fun with this one.

More to the point, the disclaimer on the thing about giving your details and email address breaks data protection law.

By filling in your personal details, you are opting in to allowing the Labour Party and its representatives to contact you via email, text, phone, websites and apps.

Opt ins are prohibited.

I once kicked off Probability with a sweet but rather flakey Y8 group by asking them what they thought was the probability of their getting to the Moon today.
Their response was "about 10%". Their reasoning:
If they got out of school quickly, avoiding the rush, and hurried home, and
If their Mum let them have their tea early and go to Heathrow
and (this was a long time ago)
They got a Concorde flight to America
and (this was the best bit)
They met an astronaut
Then, yes about 10%.
I was thinking about this earlier on and realised it's the sort of thinking that characterises that of people who think Brexit will be a success.

Theresa May's Father: The Serial Killer, The Traveller's Daughter, and the Cover Ups

V interesting background on May's father and his going into the church, not the armed forces (like nearly all other men aged 18-40), when WW2 started
Then he seems to have been around some horrific crimes & people, without noticing or reporting

I wonder if the Heil or the Tory bigwigs who installed May as PM did so believing they could sink her with a big family scandal
(unfair, imo, we are not responsible for an irresponsible parent, but politicians have been destroyed before over dodgy relatives)
…
https://theswamp.media/theresa-may-s-father
…
"just after Theresa May took over at No.10 her campaign team started to request the deletion of web addresses linked to Hubert Brasier [her father]
…
If you were to go to Wikipedia and type in Hubert Brasier there will be no results.
I first realised that he had once had a Wiki entry when I found a version of it in French, and then one in Spanish.
…
[via Wayback Machine] You will see Hubert’s Wiki page in all its former glory from a snapshot archived on 17th July 2016.
For some reason the people around May, or May herself, do not want you looking into the history of Hubert Brasier.
…
On investigation of Hubert’s Wiki entry there is nothing damning present.
It’s not a large entry, it covers only the basics, so why would you want it removed?

The only important information it seems to contain is Hubert’s placements within the Church of England, and that he’s Theresa May’s father."

Waves to borntobequiet

That's interesting,unfortunately that 10% thinking applies not only to the electorate but our learned leaders too.

I've read about Hubert Brazier before due to Sussex connections. I don't think we can pin any of that on the PM and horrid to be anywhere on the peripheries of all that.

. . .Hubert was Chaplain All Saints at Eastbourne Hospital in Sussex and would have known ( and had to give last rights to those killed by) the serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams. He was an earlier Harold Shipman targeting elderly patients, over 130 are alleged to have put him in their wills. Bodkin Adams gave them lethal injections and an astonishing 165 + deaths that Dr Bodkin Adams oversaw were seen as suspicious. The suspicion was well known amongst staff at Eastbourne Hospital, most of the nurses had voiced their concerns, so presumably Teresa's Dad knew the rumours too.Lord Gwynne was supposed to be the murders secret gay lover, and protected him.

lonely If the Tory / media Ultras wanted to get rid of May, they might make something of that, as part of the booting out, destroy the vicar's daughter image.

Or even hold it over her head if she gets out of line - some folk might do a lot to prevent a family scandal being emblazoned across the world press

So if the Heil / Torygraph suddenly headline that, I'd expect her to be on the skids

Ha ha, how ironic if pages have been deleted (no idea/opinion on that story). Because the right to do that is down to EU legislation following a ruling in Treeza's beloved ECJ.

www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10827005/Google-must-delete-your-data-if-you-ask-EU-rules.html