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.

Thanks Red.

Strong stuff from Barnier-

www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/mar/01/brexit-tony-blair-says-eu-might-change-immigration-rules-to-stop-uk-leaving-politics-live?page=with:block-5a982022e4b092021077b086#block-5a982022e4b092021077b086

Even the presence of Ken Clarke on Question Time does not persuade me to watch, and tolerate Farage.

My maiden name came from the Scottish Lowlands/northwest England - there's still a hotspot between Carlisle and Hawick, and another in Fermanagh. My married name is pure west Yorkshire, with a hotspot in north east Scotland too, north of Dornoch. My mother's maiden name is native Irish and her mother's maiden name was Norman. My paternal grandmother's maiden name is probably from the Scottish lowlands, north west of Newcastle-on-Tyne. I know for a fact though that some of her forebears with this name came from North Norfolk. I believe my great grandmother's maiden name was Norse. All of the English names made their way to Ireland with RC refugees.

named.publicprofiler.org/ Interesting site.

Absolutely.Do not watch QT.

Viewing figures dropping are the only way to stop the media giving Nige oxygen.

Watching Tusk and May again in that photo call: when he talks about his trip not being frictionless , she thinks that he is making a joke; the fact that he was making a point goes totally over her head

Pretty much sums up the level of UK Government self-awareness

I agree lonelyplanetmum : I commented to dh that I can't watch QT any more and only watch it vicariously via Twitter. He said he won't even do that any more - and he is more into Twitter than I am

#BBCQuestionTime is dying due to its blatant bias and pre-selection of audiences to fit its agenda although they don't always succeed

I have traced my family tree back on three sides for 3-4 generations. We all come from the Midlands and the Skipton area, apart from one great great grandmother who came from Essex. My dad always used to say his mother who was from near Skipton was descended from Vikings. She was nearly 6 foot (very tall for a woman born in the 1910s) and had lovely blond hair all her life.

My maternal grandmother always said we were descended from the Duke of Wellington but on the wrong side of the blanket, but who knows.

I've traced DH's family back on every line to 1800 bar one line. Every line is English. Not a sign of Irish, Scottish nor Welsh.

I believe there are lines that go back to the Norman Conquest.

This is not helpful to getting a possible dual EU citizenship!

I can quite happily bore people to death over mine and DH's family history. He has a considerably higher number of child rapists (1), murders (3), petty criminals (given up counting), bigamists (3) and alcoholics (most of them) than my family.

Which admittedly isn't hard, since I can't find any in my family.

My family has Irish and Scottish in it. By my completely non-scientific anecdotal bollocks I conclude that the more English you are the more likely you are to be related to a rogue.

That sight named.publicprofiler.org/ is really funny. I'm not in a hot spot for my surname and didn't grow up in one. DH also isn't in a hot spot for his surname.

When you put both our surnames together it hotspots to a small area. Which ironically IS where we met, although neither of us have a connection there and neither of us have ever lived. We just happened to be doing something there one day. Its several hours drive from where I live!

May's big speech tomorrow:

David Allen Green @davidallengreen
Leak of May speech:

"We have made it absolutely clear that the UK is crystal clear on putting forward a clear negotiating position so that there can be clarity on the issues of a customs union and single market so that people can be clear, and we have been clear about this."

I watched QT for the first time in ages. More than half of it devoted to Brexit.
I was shocked to see the young man in the audience shaking his head in denial at Ken Clarke's fairly simple illustration of how we become bound by trade agreements. Why won't they even listen to the truth?

Was it this young man?

twitter.com/AlpineJoe33/status/969354854979309569

A quick google of my surname showed it was either Scottish, Irish, North Ulster or English, well that helps narrow it down then. I have discounted the Arabic suggestion that popped up.

Place marking . Thank you Red

Yes it was Edith.

Sorry, missing comma. Yes, it was, Edith.

Is it tin foil hattery to worry this could be related to article 127?

Esther Webber
@estwebber
Something a little bit interesting happening in the Lords today. The govt is putting down this motion, which enables them to change business on Thursdays at short notice
(Thursdays are usually for backbench debates, plus some secondary legislation, and this gives govt more power to determine business on Thursdays)
It's not unprecedented for govt to take back time on Thursdays, but it's unusual and it's very unusual for it to apply for so long - in this case until June
It shows that the govt is in a bit of a tight spot when it comes to getting the Brexit bill(s) passed before the end of the session (caveat: it's not just the govt which has an interest in it being passed sooner rather than later)
Remains to be seen if there's a fuss over this, but I'll try to keep you posted

Yes it was Edith.

The comma comment made me laugh.

I haven't met Edith, but that Tory activist QT plant doesn't look like an Edith to me.

BBC QT’s extreme rightwing bias - it looks as Alison Fuller Pedley, the audience producer, who was widely exposed in 2016, is still promoting this. It is quite extraordinary the BBC, which we all pay for, is allowing this to happen.

twitter.com/GHNeale/status/962327917152886785

www.opendemocracy.net/ourbeeb/tim-holmes/is-question-time-s-audience-producer-really-fascist

bellacaledonia.org.uk/2016/12/05/bbc-question-time-fake-audiences/

They are moving the tone a bit further. After referring to K. Clark as 'Old Clark, here', NF ironically goes on about wanting to be shown respect. On the QT panel. Mind you, he was talking about guns before.

"But if they don't deliver this Brexit that I spent 25 years of my life working for, then I will be forced to don khaki, pick up a rifle and head for the front lines."

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-brexit-rifle-pick-up-uk-eu-withdrawal-ukip-leader-liberal-democrat-a7741331.html

IDS also repeating F Field's comment about remainers 'ratting' on the referendum. Oddly, about CU or SM, which wasn't in the referendum. This is a turn which brings 1930's Germany propaganda to mind. IDS looking very smug after associating people talking about CU and SM with rats. It is a step further and disturbing.

I was shocked to see the young man in the audience shaking his head in denial at Ken Clarke's fairly simple illustration of how we become bound by trade agreements. Why won't they even listen to the truth?

There are a number of key similarities between Brexit rhetoric and the classic Advance-fee scam IMHO. It's the only explanation I have for this degree of denial in the face of logic.
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam ).

"An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and one of the most common types of confidence trick. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster requires in order to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim or simply disappears. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), "An advance fee scheme occurs when the victim pays money to someone in anticipation of receiving something of greater value—such as a loan, contract, investment, or gift—and then receives little or nothing in return." "

Some extra snips:
Estimates of the total losses due to the scam are uncertain and vary widely, since many people may be too embarrassed to admit that they were gullible enough to be scammed to report the crime.

The elderly are particularly susceptible to online scams such as this, as they typically come from a generation that was more trusting, and are often too proud to report the fraud.

Victims can be enticed to borrow or embezzle money to pay the advance fees, believing that they will shortly be paid a much larger sum and be able to refund what they misappropriated.

The international nature of the crime, combined with the fact that many victims do not want to admit that they bought into an illegal activity, has made tracking down and apprehending these criminals difficult. Furthermore, the government of [country] has been slow to take action, leading some investigators to believe that some [country] government officials are involved in some of these scams.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/01/british-citizenship-test-meghan-markle-brexit-reform

A few gems:
In the Citizenship book-a typical Christmas dinner and some of the items you must know

Ah, I had missed the new Westminenders thread as distracted by Snowmageddon!

Sure we are all waiting with bated breath for May's speech...

Andrew Adonis
‏*@Andrew*_Adonis
So Mrs May can’t do her speech where intended (Newcastle) because she can’t get there. A new destination is being sought but not yet identified. Like Brexit.

Here's the leaked text for those who can't wait

Faisal Islam
‏*@faisalislam*
PM’s Big Brexit speech in London at 130pm... she will set “five tests” of the Brexit deal

1. Respect the referendum
2. An agreement that endures
3. Protect jobs and security
4. Consistent with open outward-looking European democracy
5. Strengthen the union

These are a pretty high level non-specific five tests, - for example in these headline self-imposed “tests” of the deal - there isn’t a reference to eg no hard border in Ireland - though that will feature elsewhere in speech...

“Five Tests” and British policy on the EU has history of course - Gordon Brown’s on euro membership designed on a napkin by a pre-Gangnam @edballs - were far more specific detailed and “economicky”

... and it might be worth noting that the original Five Tests helped prevent happening the major constitutional policy change that was being tested...

[it's not allowing me to attache the text but it can be found here: twitter.com/faisalislam/status/969478522174656513 ]