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.

May’s imaginary NHS dividend is farcical – Brexit has broken the Tories

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/19/may-nhs-brexit-dividend-tories-brexiters

We are witnessing the absurd spectacle of fiscally responsible Tories having to back up financially reckless Brexiters who overpromised

Quite a good point about Christian values there, BigChoc. No wonder Trump hates her so much.

The truth about Germany's crime rate

https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-crime-rate-lowest-since-1992/amp/?twitterimpression=true

Not quite what Trump said, when he claimed that the crime had increased dramatically, blaming migrants What do you mean, what he said was false news?!

Two Tories have rebelled so far over the withdrawal bill. Ken Clark and Anna Soubry.

Ken Clark is hailed because of his speeches yet he still supports the government on most issues. Soubry still gets villianised.

She might be a hypothetic who is proping up May but the difference in how she is treated is depressing. I also don't think it's necessarily as simple as that. Particularly if she views proping up May as better than the alternative. Which at this juncture has both merit and disaster written on it as a policy.

That she speaks out at all given the abuse she's getting from left, right and centre is a feat. She's commented that she knows of MPs who are staying silent because of death threats to their family.

Honestly, such is the political dynamic at the moment, that whilst it offends me that she doesn't vote the way she speaks, I'm willing to cut some slack, because quite frankly it's all the other gutless MPs who are keeping their heads down for survival who deserve to be called out for the cowardice and weak will over and above the hypocrisy of Soubry.

@54321 my understanding of the hit to the eu27 is that its far from a stupendous amount of money?
www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=IPOL_STU(2017)595374

"In terms of % shares of GDP, the EU27’s exports to the UK amount to 2.5% of GDP, whereas the UK’s exports to the EU27 amount to 7.5% of GDP. Looked at from the import side the proportions are even wider, reflecting the UK’s large trade deficit with the EU: UK’s imports
from the EU amount to 11.9% of GDP, whereas the EU27’s imports from the UK amount to only 1.5% of their GDP."

bearing in mind that the eurozone gdp has increased by 2.7% since the vote then the gdp impact on the eu27 really is minimal.

if you were referring to the 40bn then that reflects our debt to the eu in the current budget period - despite what the brexiteers say, if we attempt to walk away without paying we can hardly expect to trade with the eu afterwards.

Italy want to cleanse themselves of Roma now. That and Trump's child cages and leaving the UNHCR is utterly terrifying. Fascism is bold as brass and it's only going to get worse.

Barnier has also made strongest signal yet that the rest of the EU should prepare for no deal.

I really am starting to worry

Barnier is still polite, but getting blunter:

"They want to maintain all the benefits of the current relationship, while leaving the EU regulatory, supervision, and application framework.

And they try to blame us for the consequences of their choice."

Merkel was quite clever to take in refugees, especiakky the first wave from Syria.
Remember that Syria was a pretty well-off country. The first refugees were the richest and most highly educated. Germany needs immigration to keep their economy going ( as do all European nations!).
Now is the hard part of allowing people to integrate and adopt the German / western values. In the long run, it will show to be very beneficial for Germany.
In short, I don't think the decision was (purely) about Christian values.

There was certainly some self-interest too:
Germany's current population of 80m+ was predicted to drop to 55 million by about 2050, which means a dreadful ratio of workers: pensioners

"Christian values" that lead to a diminution in the relative proportion of Christians in a country are the definition of self-defeating.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/19/may-nhs-brexit-dividend-tories-brexiters

the official forecast is for Brexit to weaken the public finances by £15bn a year, rather than grow them, and the £9bn we nominally save by leaving was already mostly earmarked for other things.
But still,

cabinet remainers are obliged to pretend in public that Santa is real,
because to do otherwise would embarrass those charlatans who won a referendum partly by pretending otherwise.
…
being explicit about the difficulties would require admitting that the Brexit dividend doesn’t really exist.
This is a truth so unbearable to leavers, who won partly by claiming otherwise, that it can’t be voiced in public.

< imo, the so-called "party of business" does contain some disaster capitalists & US poodles, but mostly they don't understand international trade and they completely miscalculated.
Now the whole party is bricking it >

Jesus didn't preach that Christians should just help other Christians
He was just another virtue-signaller, I suppose:

e.g. Book of Matthew:

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

Funny how Christianity is only praised when it colludes in its own abolition, isn't it?

Did we miss this earlier? I did clearly.

@bpolitics
BREAKING: Trump administration plans to announce its withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, sources say

Gonna make separating those kids a lot easier to deal with

Why did you suddenly pop up common?

These threads have been running for months. And you choose now to spout gleefully about fascism. Pretending, of course, that you are not.

Give it a few months and you'll feel bold enough to admit it though, with what's happening in the us.

I'm so, so sorry to have inserted unapproved opinions into your echo chamber - I promise never to do it again!

Wait a minute, this is a public forum, and you're not the Queen, so I'll post as I please, thank you very much.

I'm posting now because there are seismic changes happening in Europe and the US that these threads often gloss over in their frankly indecent haste to shit all over Britain.

I've not got a problem with different views. Just fascism.

More on US withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-un-human-rights-council-leaves-trump-withdraw-nikki-haley-a8407151.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1529443241

Ignore it and maybe it will get fed up of not getting attention.

Jeremy Hunt @ jeremy_hunt
Really pleased @sajidjavid has announced a review of medicinal use of cannabis. Any parent would do anything to relieve their child’s pain – Government needs to support them in that.

Tim Montgomerie @ Montie
The dynamics of the Hunt and Javid relationship are going to be fascinating to watch....

Steven Hawkes @ steven_hawkes
PM and Chancellor?

Beth Rigby @ bethrigby
Javid went for chancellor on the Stephen Crabb/Sajid Javid ticket in the 2016 leadership race. Now @sajidjavid has eyes only on one job - the top one

One of the reasons May has not been challenged for the leadership, was the lack of a credible alternative candidate.

That is changing. Hunt has long been on the radar as someone whose power within the cabinet has been under estimated and not taken seriously. There's been flashes of it - like when he refused to move jobs, but for the most part it's not really been noticed by the press when all eyes have been on Johnson, Gove and Rees-Smug.

The party know they need a liberal candidate to win young voters though.

Today Javid has been meeting with Verhofstadt in a nice little photo op. It's not the first time. A month ago he had a secret meeting with him and tried to avoid the press getting wind of it only for there to be a cock up

Joe Barnes @ Barnes_joe
Home Secretary Sajid Javid quite literally run away from the British press pack in Brussels after meeting Guy Verhofstadt. Very ‘The Thick of It’ when one of his entourage failed to operate the lift, leaving the Home Sec to shy away from questions as doors remained open #liftgate
May 16th

James Crisp
Believe it or not but this is Sajid Javid being bundled into a lift by his panicked minders, who were not best pleased to see the gentleman of the press arrive outside his behind closed doors meeting with Guy Verhofstadt in the European Parliament. 1/
2. Hilariously the lift doors opened again seconds later to reveal the even more stressed delegation, who had pressed the wrong button.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THIS.

www.standard.co.uk/liam-fox-stands-firm-as-fears-mount-over-india-trade-links-on-visa-hit-a3866706.html?amp&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true
Liam Fox stands firm as fears mount over India trade links on visa hit

Remember who blocked an EU trade deal with India. It was, oh yes it was us.

Going back to NHS cards, I still have mine from nearly 40 years ago, but it's out of date, because the numbers have been changed. They used to be alpha-numeric, (and I used to know mine off by heart), now they are just a string of numbers. No one wrote to communicate the change.

A factoid that some will know but most won't, the original NHS numbers were the same as those on the wartime (and post war) identity cards. DH, who is a hoarder, still has his post war ID card. Mine was lost sometime during the 1960s.

Christian values, like British values, are neither exclusive to Christianity nor Britain. They are similar to the values of other major religions and to the values of people from other countries. Pretending otherwise is a pretty piece of anti-virtue signalling, showing someone is out to cause trouble.

Well said Borntobequiet!

What's happening in the US is utterly utterly terrifying