Westminstenders: Rebel or Reveal

[RedToothBrush]

The EU Withdrawal Bill made it through the Commons. Though May did not manage it unscathed.

In an attempt to divide and conquer the Rebels, May might have damaged trust. We shall find out. The Grieve Amendment faces the Lords. We also will see if the Lords will back down on their amendments or apply some new ones for the Commons to deal with in Parliamentary Ping Pong.

Aaron Banks has been exposed as being pally with the Russian Embassy in a plot twist that absolutely everyone saw coming.

Meanwhile the EU thinks we have already run out of time and is preparing options to extend talks beyond the a50 deadline. These include having MEPs for the 2019 - 2024 session.

There is also growing talk around Europe that freedom of movement in its current form is unsustainable. Ironically we might see the EU adopt something akin to Cameron's pre-referendum proposals as the EU reforms.

Theresa May has also announced - at a moment when she is looking particularly weak - a new tax for the NHS, cunningly disguised in spin as 'the Brexit dividend'. Of course shareholders don't always get dividends and at times of poor economic performance instead might be asked to stump up extra capital...Expect to see buses with £350 million of the side just in time for the next general election cycle.

And so the Zombie PM limbers on towards the end of the summer session and the relative safety of the summer holidays. More drama, cringing and disbelief guaranteed before we get there.

Your language is execrable.

Why thank you .
p.s. The obsession with policing language is why your side of politics is losing. But feel free to press on into irrelevance.

I do not expect to see any major change in the EU from the focus on the practical humanitarian element of the refugee issue. Accompanying the continued efforts to provide necessary aid and integration as far as possible, I foresee attempts to concentrate on creating better conditions in regions of origin of the refugees, whether political or economic.

We shall see - these threads will probably run for another decade, so there'll be ample opportunity for periodic review.

I agree peregrina

She really did try to tackle that particular poisoned chalice...

It's a conversation that has to happen.

But when?...

@Frankie.
I was making an obscure play on the expression, I know what a 'kill' switch is. Microsoft had incorporated it in many earlier versions of Windows. (Blue screen). It was an early version of AI, it knew when a document was important so would 'crash'.

Turnips might be a bit ambitious.
From the article Icanreachthepretzels mentioned.

Carrying on quizzing the farmer, Tom asked whether Sir James’s continuation to receive grants from the EU was “in tune with the government’s view of farming post-Brexit", but the latter claimed there was no other way

[I receive] two million [pounds], and no I’m not happy with it. Nobody’s happy to be receiving a grant

If we can’t get the grants, we can’t grow food. We’ll have to think of something else to grow on the land,” he added simply.

www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/975598/Countryfile-Brexit-Sir-James-Dyson-Tom-Heap-Adam-Henson-Matt-Baker-farming-EU-BBC

We'd better hope we don't have a need for aircraft actually to fly from our aircraft carrier (singular, as the other one isn't in service yet) in the next 6 months, given we don't have any yet

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/hms-queen-elizabeth-get-first-f-35-jets-year/

And if I recall correctly, we have to stay on good terms with both the USA and Turkey as the contract with the States for the F35d requires servicing in Turkey and not the UK

From a business point of view, if a farmer can't grow stuff and either break even or make a bit of profit then it isn't a business.
What's the grant needed for?

Yes, why should inheritance be protected and services paid for by taxing other people, some of whom don't own homes and won't receive any inheritance

If people really want welfare to be not just cradle to the grave, but beyond the grave, then this requires higher taxes.
The UK is living beyond its means and cuts are being made on those who have almost nothing.

However, this should have been an informed debate and May cocked it up, as is her habit.
She doesn't plan, doesn't think ahead and then looks like "deer caught in the headlight"

The obsession with policing language is why your side of politics is losing. But feel free to press on into irrelevance.

I prefer to hope that continued efforts to educate will make a difference.

Most people take a step back when they realise the provenance of the verbal diarrhoea they are spewing. Obviously there may be some impermeable individuals, or those who have crossed the mental Rubicon into the backwaters where the siren call of simplicity has beckoned them, and they no longer care whose flag they sail under.

Frankiestein

Please explain to me how the nuclear deterrent isn’t independent

Please explain to me how a submarine at sea right now couldn’t fire its missiles within minutes if ordered to by London?

May cocked it up

Servicing in Turkey, one of the countries 'we' are most likely to fall out with. Surely someone in the RAF (or does it class as Navy?) has a suitable size spanner.

Prof Minford, the Brexiters' economist said the UK should be opened up to global competition,
but also that this would mean the end of farming /agriculture and manufacturing industry
That's 8% of the workforce written off there, but he regarded that as acceptable

Yes, in an ideal world, where all countries had about the same wages and conditions of work, we'd have totally free trade
BUT
As it is, globalisation has hit the Western working classes very hard
and is increasingly hitting the middle classes - the millions of graduates coming out of Indian and Chinese universities each year, including STEM

If you really want to see fascism rise, then uncontrolled free trade would be a good way

Can't keep up!

As has been said before, I am more scared of the people who say they 'fear' immigrants, than I am of the immigrants themselves.

One of the reasons WM is so desperate to keep hold of Scotland is so that it continues to have a port for Trident

Apparently, no English port is suitable . Devonport is "too close" to Plymouth and therefore the risk is unacceptable. Glasgow is in the kill zone instead but is expendable . Nuclear convoys travel through the centre of Glasgow in secret of course

I read an article a few months ago...cant remember the source, sorry...

But apparently we will all be eating insects soon...

Duggee At the moment, London could fire missiles (if it isn't worried that the country will be wiped out in retaliation)

However, if the UK falls out with a POTUS

• whether it be Trump taking serious offence at protests when he visits / another president being angry when the UK refuses troops for another of their wars / demanding Britain withdraw from Ireland / …
• then they can stop servicing and supplying spare parts

The UK nuclear deterrent is only feasible with US support and the capability would wither away were that support to be withdrawn
Probably not in 2 years, but what about in 8 years ? (2 POTUS terms)

Sounds too like the UK nuclear deterrent could be controlled / abolished by Scotland's voters, if the English are really too chicken to house it at English ports !

In the meantime, the rest of the military - the kind we need for normal defence and power projection - is run down

The reason we have a nuclear deterrent (as stated in Yes Minister) is because the French have it. All you need to know really ...And it keeps our seat on the UN security council. That way out politicos can look all bigly on the world stage.

Fried locusts are a delicacy on a par with a packet of crisps in many places. Probably more nutritious. Not sure Walkers do them yet though.

Well...

I'd give them a go....

Big choc

Re nuclear deterrent- what you are really describing is supply chain breakdown. That could happen in all sorts of spheres never mind the deterrent

It doesn’t alter the fact that right now - and into next week/ next year/ 5 years hence we can hit any nation on earth with multiple warheads within minutes if we are threatened by another nuclear power

If that isn’t independent I don’t know what is

gaspode You are right about the UN security council - nukes are also the only reason Russia is still on it.

Seeing as the Chinese and many other people from 'that side' of the world will eat practically anything 'for fun' if they are starving then they really are in trouble.

I'm partial to pork scratchings - they fit with my HFLC Way of Eating Deep fried locusts might fit the bill too!

BTW - thanks for the suggestions for my plethora of egg yolks. I can make some low carb creme brûlée using a Tom Kerridge recipe so that's one idea. I'd already been planning on rich scrambled eggs so that's a few more used. Carbonara (spaghetti for dh and ds, courgette strips for me) deals with a couple more. Some home made mayonnaise and I'll only have a few left!

I am more scared of the people who say they 'fear' immigrants, than I am of the immigrants themselves
Exactly, Hester

We have had 3 children separated from their parents who have committed suicide here this week.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/17/suicides-raise-alarm-about-uk-treatment-of-child-refugees-eritrean

And the post brexit trade and security partner does this to children:

Inside an old warehouse in south Texas, hundreds of children wait away from their parents in a series of cages created by metal fencing

^One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets.
An advocate who spent several hours in the facility on Friday said she was deeply troubled by what she found. Michelle Brane, the director of migrant rights at the Women’s Refugee Commission, met a 16-year-old girl who had been taking care of a young girl for three days. The teen and others in their cage thought the girl was two years old^

^She had to teach other kids in the cell to change her diaper,” Brane said.

Brane said that after an attorney started to ask questions, agents found the girl’s aunt and reunited them. It turned out that the girl was actually four. Part of the problem was that she did not speak Spanish but K’iche, a language indigenous to Guatemala

She was so traumatized that she wasn’t talking,” Brane said. “She was just curled up in a little ball

Brane said she also saw officials at the facility scold a group of five-year-olds for playing around in their cage, telling them to settle down. There are no toys or books. But one boy nearby wasn’t playing with the rest. According to Brane, he was quiet, clutching a piece of paper that was a photocopy of his mother’s ID card

The government is literally taking kids away from their parents and leaving them in inappropriate conditions,” Brane said. “If a parent left a child in a cage with no supervision with other five-year-olds, they’d be held accountable

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/17/separation-border-children-cages-south-texas-warehouse-holding-facility?CMP=share_btn_tw