Westminstenders: Break Up or Make Up?

[RedToothBrush]

The next week or so appears to be yet another crunch point (not that any of these crunch points have actually resolved anything so far).

The EU is set to outline the plan for Ireland. Which everyone thought had already been outlined and agreed already. And it had been admitted was legally binding.

Except apparently we don't want to do that, and we are now crying about how the EU want to break up Britain (nothing to do with England wanting to leave the EU and Scotland and NI wanting to stay in it of course).

Jeremy Corbyn has now apparently decided that the customs union is a good idea. David Davis and Liam Fox have responded by saying that this would stop us making our own trade deals. Yes this has obviously stopped Turkey, and why aren't we doing as much trade with China etc as Germany anyway? A vote in the HoC looms before Easter. Will Tory rebels support.

Will Jeremy Corbyn bow to pressure over the single market too? The customs union alone does not stop the border issue in Ireland. Nor does it stop ridiculous queues at Dover. I'm not sure Corbyn is one for listening though. He's got a whiff of power and democracy and reality is just a hindrance to utopia.

As for the Great Repeal Bill. Word has it, its not going too clever in the HoL. The conservatives had something of a show of strength with an unusual number turning up for the debate. But few on the backbenches were willing to speak in favour of...

It all feels like we are making no progress at all. We are still bleating on about cherry picked deals as if this is a negotiation. Its not.

Jacob R-M cuts me up with his concern for 'those less well off'. Wants zero tariffs (and I presume tax) on things for the less well off. From China for instance.

But then I look at his voting record.

Voted against tax on banks and bankers bonuses. Also almost voted for an increase in VAT.

www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24926/jacob_rees-mogg/north_east_somerset/votes#taxation

Thanks for the new thread RTB!

That is interesting. Both Richard Ashworth and Julie Girling had the Con whip withdrawn in October for voting in the EP to put a hold on Brexit talks. Because not enough progress had been made.

There are some Conservatives with principles who put country before party unfortunately very few

JRM will cry crocodile tears about the need for cheaper consumer good for the plebs less well off.

He'll then blame their fecklessness when they end up unemployed due to the imports killing off what little UK manufacturing we have left. It's the underlings' poor people's fault that they end up unemployed: they are not working hard enough or for little enough or are expecting too safe a working environment to compete with the entirely reasonable child labour and working practices on other countries

JRM shows his true colours with his voting record.

I agree that there are some Tories who have principles, but they seem to be few in number.

I won't be reading it this morning but for anyone who is interested - the EU position paper:

European Commission Draft Withdrawal Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community

ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/draft-withdrawal-agreement-withdrawal-united-kingdom-great-britain-and-northern-ireland-european-union-and-european-atomic-energy-community_en

Sorry, but if anyone knows anyone left who could sign this, thanks:

@remain_central
Another 1,500 signatures since yesterday. Now just 7,500 more signatures needed to get a debate in Parliament on a #Remain option.

Keep driving this to 100,000 and help to #StopBrexit.

Please RT, share again and ask someone to sign.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/205169 …Remain Central #FBPE added,

Thank you mother !

Remind me again when the people voted to leave the European atomic energy community?
Maybe I got a faulty ballot paper because I don't remember seeing a remain/leave option on that.

Thanks for the new thread red

Another 1,500 signatures since yesterday. Now just 7,500 more signatures needed to get a debate in Parliament on a #Remain option.

You think that's going to happen ?

What we will get is a brush-off that "parliament will have the final say" which will be treated as answering the question.

Apparently at PMqs Theresa May just said the government is giving people optimism.
... sometimes there are just no words...

And sometimes the words are FUCKINGCUNTTHUMPINGWANKSHAFTINGDELUSIONALEVILLIAR

woman signed, but as it will be only “considered for debate in Parliament” I won’t be holding my breath.

We can have numerous internal EU and non EU boundaries if they are so simple to implement, including one surrounding London with separate administrations, shopping and travel permits and trade rules.

Boris, Gove,Rees Mogg etc would be banished to one of the Leave zones outside the M25.

Sounds good to me. Get on it, Boris. Presumably it's so easy it can be done and dusted by about Friday?

Thank you, Red, for continued services to sanity.

May has rejected the EU plans, but I assume that this is for public consumption, and that quietly she will capitulate. I fail to see why they can't understand that legal agreements need to be properly drafted, signed and sealed.

I am still hoping that we will see Brexit wreck the current incarnation of the Tory party, and personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Labour getting a good shake up.

But May must rue the day she called the election and forced herself into dependence on the DUP. Otherwise, they would be the first candidates to be thrown under Boris's bus.

Bet May must rue the day she called the election and forced herself into dependence on the DUP.

Here is the worlds tinest violin.

Fuck her. And the arrogance she rode in on. Then fuck her some more.

If she had just got on with delivering Brexit - totally possible with the the majority Cameron abandoned - it would be done by now. Certainly we'd know what to expect when.

One thing I know is she will have a very, very long life. It's the only punishment fit for the crime of hubris.

May has rejected the EU plans, but I assume that this is for public consumption, and that quietly she will capitulate.

Of course. We've capitulated to EVERYTHING so far, after a lot of huffing.

@bbclaurak
Just when May trying to hold uneasy Tory truce, Sir John Major wades in - saying MPs must be able to reject final Brexit deal or order a second referendum

John must have been reading the thread; his intervention should be good for another 6000 votes on the petition to get us over the 100 000 mark.

The libdem MP who held a village meeting last week was keen to emphasise it wasn't a second referendum but a referendum on the terms of the deal. Less "let's-keep-going-until-we-get-the-result-we-want" and more "the people have started this so let them vote on how it's concluded, now that it's not endless possibilities but a defined deal". Semantics I know, but may be a useful way of pointing out why it's not undemocratic to give The People a further say.

Tom Newton Dunn‏Verified account
@tnewtondunn
Break: Sir John Major calls on Theresa May to give all MPs and ministers a free vote in the Commons on her final Brexit deal. From a former Tory PM, that's a huge challenge to her authority.

Jack Maidment
‏*@jrmaidment*
Sir John Major says of Brexit: "Of course we will get through it: life as we know it won’t come to an end."
Brexit bar keeps getting set lower and lower...

This is an unbelievably punchy speech from Sir John Major. Quite something.
"Over many years, the Conservative Party has understood the concerns of business. Not over Brexit, it seems."

Sir John Major has gone Full Rambo.

And

Faisal Islam‏Verified account
@faisalislam
Sir John Major: simply cannot move forward with leaving the EU, the Single Market, the Customs Union and the ECJ, whilst at the same time expecting à la carte, beneficial-to-Britain, bespoke entrance to the European market. It is just not credible.

Major: “our self-imposed “red lines” have boxed Government into a corner.

They are so tilted to ultra Brexit opinion, even Cabinet cannot agree them –and a majority in both Houses of Parliament oppose them. If maintained in full, impossible to reach a favourable trade outcome.”

And

Laura Kuenssberg
‏*@bbclaurak*
Major - ‘let Parliament decide - or put the issue back to the people’

Major says govt approach is ‘not only grand folly - it’s also bad politics’ says it’s ‘so tilted to ultra Brexit opinion, even the Cabinet cannot agree them’

Major speaking now at Creative Industries Federation - his words will be derided by some Tories no doubt but he says ‘it not my purpose to stir-controversy but the truth must be spoken- the ultra brexiteers have been mistaken in nearly all they have said or promised’

And (don't hold your breath)

Alastair Campbell
‏*@campbellclaret*
If John Major does not figure very prominently on the @BBCNews today it will be a further sign of their pro Brexit bias

John Major does at least have a vested interest in the GFA. It was his and others' hard work which helped to bring it about. I too would be furious if a bunch like BoJo, Fox and Co wanted to rip up my work, without having any idea of what to replace it with.

I don't really think a second Referendum is a good idea. Most people didn't give two hoots about the EU before either the 1975 or the 2016 ones, but they voted the way the Mail told them - yes the first time, no the second. Unless there is legislation to prevent false claims applied across the board, then the result would be the same again, which at the moment, for the Mail is hard Brexit.

We should all have a vested interested in peace in the UK It's utterly depressing that people don't give a shit. I watched this James O'Brien clip about a Leaver's insistence that "they could just get on with it" with regards to the Irish Border and it was just so infuriating

www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/james-obrien/massive-row-with-caller-over-northern-irish-border/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

Major's on fire: conversation with Brexist:
Brexist: "I am a really Brit, I'm an Anglo Saxon"
Major: "Where do you think Saxony is?"