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.

Hah! Wrt the open skies report. The US is playing hardball. What will the price of open skies be, I wonder?

So much for the 'special relationship'...

I am finding the whole “Italy is the latest embracer of populism/the far right” spin amusing. FFS have these people heard of Berlusconi, the original populist who was in coalition with the previous heirs to the fascists for years when John Major was still Uk Pm?

Before we had brexism, I was in blissful ignorance about Berlusconi, Bananagio , and about so much else.
Italy is now the fourth EU country not to vote for an anti EU gov though.

It may be a pickle but not an anti EU pickle.

Fascinating article about fabulously named Drummully Polyp. Now, that's a border issue to sort out.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/borderline-nationality-disorder-1.1530942

swedish
Ooh, I just had a VERY happy time looking at the maps of that !!

Blissful ignorance of Berlusconi is a good place to be woman

Another UK retailer has gone into administration:

East, the fashion brand with 34 stores and 15 concessions, went into administration at the end of January for the second time in two-and-a-half years. Last time it was bought out of administration in a pre-pack that closed 15 stores. There are 320 staff.

www.retailresearch.org/whosegonebust.php

Womderful place names … to hold a Brexit planning session:

Great Cockup is a fell in the northern region of the English Lake District,
one of the four Uldale Fells (the others being Longlands Fell, Great Sca Fell and Meal Fell)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Cockup

agnes
Pre pack administrations are funny things - they often tell you little about the current underlying viability of a business

Liquidations are a different beast

Imagine living in that little area.

And they could also meet in Crackpot and Barking?

SwedishEdith
And there are no roads in the "neck"
so to tend their fields the farmers would either have to go through customs once (if they lived in the North) or twice (if they live in the south)
surreal

Talkin I noticed our local East store is closing down today, no idea if they will get a reprieve.

Peter Mandelson & attempts at services deal

(this comment may be what IDS wanted to drown out, with his fantasty trillions)

“I talked to officials in China. I said, what about a free trade deal between China and Britain?

They looked at me.
“Why do we need a trade deal? Britain’s already open to us, why do we need more?

And what’s more if you think you’re going to come and land your services into our market, no thank you because that would mean our having to open up to everyone else.

Before that I went to India – It’s the same story in India.”

I don't understand what's happening to East - they keep emailing me with offers. Are they just selling the stuff off? It's a pity, I used to buy loads from there, usually in the sales. I thought the writing was probably on the wall for the Oxford shop when they moved to a shop half the size and more out of the way.

John Bruton (Taoiseach in the 1990s): response to May's speech

http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2018/03/04/4152878-bruton-on-brexit-uk-stance-will-stir-up-a-world-of-trouble/
…
The UK is going to put itself, and all the other EU countries, to a lot of trouble,
so that it can it can leave EU, and then simultaneously rejoin it in selected areas.

It wants a partnership with the EU on Customs, on state aid and competition, on transport, on energy, broadcasting, financial services, atomic power, aviation, on the enforcement of court judgements and on a long list of other fields.

As an EU member today, it already has a partnership with the 27 countries of the EU on all these things.

This was worked out painstakingly over 45 years of UK membership of the EU.
It now wants to tear that up,
and negotiate a new partnership on all these different questions.
And it wants to get the job done within two years.

All this is being done in the name of “taking back control”,
but it looks to me that, in many areas, control is being taken back, only to be given away again immediately.
A lot of work, for very little product!
…
The Brexit Referendum was a crude exercise for English power, to satisfy a purely English political agenda
…
But the fact that the UK has not come up with a legal text of its own for the Withdrawal Treaty,
to reflect the agreement Mrs May made in December ,
but is still criticising the EU version virulently,
shows that we have long way to go on this unproductive, time wasting and tragic road to Brexit.

Peregrina maybe it’s just some stores closing? Ours definitely says closing down / all stock must go, but nothing on the website to suggest it’s all the stores.

They should consider assembling in a building provided by Havering council, my DF for some time thought I was just making a joke whenever I mentioned it, having moved very close to it. He took some convincing that it was a real place.

It wants a partnership with the EU on Customs, on state aid and competition, on transport, on energy, broadcasting, financial services, atomic power, aviation, on the enforcement of court judgements and on a long list of other fields.

It would be one thing for a country wanting to join to harmonise bit by bit, but for a country leaving - well, do we or don't we want to leave? I suspect that Theresa May and Co genuinely didn't bother to think through just how many areas would be involved. Why they didn't is a mystery because Greenland left when there were only nine EC members and had only one major industry to contend with and that still took three years of negotiations.

MrsR, It is indeed a terrible thing that the ground can be swept out from under the feet of people who have done nothing to deserve it, and would never support that outcome for anyone else.

It's shocking that your rights and those of your descendants depend on a stroke of luck. Rights should be permanent and unalterable.

John Bruton was also EU Ambassador to the US from 2004 -2009.

This confirmation is partly old news I think.Sadly, it is not fake news.

I guess it doesn't matter if our 'phone roaming is expensive as our own ability to roam will be hassle, restricted and expensive too.

"Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed that the UK will not be part of the European Union's Digital Single Market following the completion of the 'Brexit' process, removing recently- and soon-to-be-introduced benefits including the abolition of mobile roaming fees and restrictions on retailer geo-blocking.

The European Digital Single Market - the digital equivalent, if the name weren't clue enough, of the EU Single Market for physical commerce - has brought a range of benefits including the abolition of mobile roaming charges and rules designed to prevent 'geo-blocking' due to go into force this December. Unfortunately, it appears that the UK will not be benefiting from these or any other Digital Single Market regulations going forward.

'On digital, the UK will not be part of the EU’s Digital Single Market, which will continue to develop after our withdrawal from the EU,' confirmed Prime Minister Theresa May in a speech made late last week.....
(This) 'domestic flexibility,' is likely to hit consumers right in the pockets: Activated only in 2017, the ban on mobile roaming charges allows users across the European Union to use their mobile call and data allowances in any other EU nation without additional charges, while out-of-allowance usage is charged as though they were in their home nation.

The impending rules on geo-blocking, meanwhile, prevent companies operating in more than one European nation from redirecting customers elsewhere - meaning that if a product is cheaper in France than Italy, the company's French website mustn't force Italian visitors to the Italian site.

In the same speech, May committed to 'a United Kingdom which is a cradle for innovation; a leader in the industries of the future; a champion of free trade, based on high standards; a modern, outward-looking, tolerant country, proud of our values and confident of our place in the world,' though failed to detail exactly how this would be achieved."
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/tech/theresa-may-confirms-eu-digital-single-market-exit/1/

I think I'm becoming paranoid...this morning on the news Govt apparently wanting to reduce calorie intake (because of obesity crisis) to 400 cals breakfast, 600 lunch and dinner.
While I agree that many of us eat too much, my first thought was - are they preparing us for rationing?

Hello borntobequiet

That is really weird as the Yougov survey yesterday was all about snacks - biscuits, ice cream and crisps.

I thought it was possibly a health thing monitoring sugar and salt consumption, or possibly to do with manufacturing as biscuits are one of the few things we can still compete with making internationally.

But you are probably right, aggghhhh that info about printing ration books is true!

I watched that earlier born. I said to dh it's to help condition us for the after brexit food shortages.