Westministenders: High Drama at The Ok Coral

[RedToothBrush]

3:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 26, 1881, Tombstone, Arizona.

After months of death threats from the Cowboy Billys, their long simmering feud with the law thing came to a head. The Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday faced the criminals down in a shootout.

Tomorrow's 'sleepover' is starting to feel like the Gunfight at the OK Coral.

The outcome of the real story was three of the outlaws were killed. Another two claimed they were unarmed and ran from the fight. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded, but Wyatt Earp was unharmed.

How many Brexiteers can we expect to roll over and resign from the Cabinet and how many will surrender to May and the Pro-Business lobby? ONly time will tell.

Please place your bets for the number of resignations and the number of 'I support the PM' comments.

But don't get too excited. The showdown wasn't the end of the matter.

One of the outlaws who legged it, filed murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday. It took them some time for them to be acquitted.

Then Virgil Earp was ambushed and disabled in the arm later that year in December and Morgan Earp was assassinated in March 1882. Wyatt Earp, then thinking he had no other option, went on a personal vendetta to kill the outlaws and then fled the state.

Given the Tory Cabinet and the perchant for stabbing each other in the back and settling personal scores, a repeat of a wild west gun fight, really doesn't sound too wildly off the cards now does it?

Buckle up. Its time to play at Chequers.

Britain covers NI - Great Britain wouldn’t.

No, the British Isles would cover England, Scotland, Wales, the island of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

To be absolutely specific, “Britain” is just England and Wales, as it derives from the Romans.

The Government should be using the term “United Kingdom”.

The Government should be using the term “United Kingdom”.

Ironically, presumably ?

Well, Disunited Kingdom is probably more accurate.

Maybe they will change it by the time the new blue passports come out. Your new English passports (well London mostly and some other bits outside London but we're not sure).

Britain would not cover NI, not under any definition of the term 'Britain'..

The only term that covers NI is 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.

I think it's probably a good guess that the cabinet forgot about NI, as usual. It's probably a good guess that most of the population of Great Britain won't notice.

A thread that was started earlier today on the topic of 'NI' v 'Ireland' and rampant confusion on MN about these terms was pulled very quickly, apparently for being a TAAT.

Russia and Croatia still playing - Russia 1 - Croatia 2 at one minute into injury time.

Thanks Peregrina... I would have thought they would have something to say about yesterday. Though when I checked the brexit headlines a few hours ago the express was oddly quiet, as well. Like they don't want to come out with the full 'Brexit has been betrayed' rhetoric, but they can't bring themselves to celebrate a seemingly soft brexit

HAH - penalties! Russia scored in injury time.

Boris has no genuine preference for Brexit or Remain, just for Boris.

He wrote 2 articles before the ref - one for Leave and one for Remain - flipped a mental coin and decided that Leave gave him more chance of becoming PM

All his aggressive "F@@k Business" stance hides the fact that it was only ever about his personal career.

Remember Boris was sacked twice for lying:
by the Times - when he was a journalist - and later by Michael Howard (a previous Tory leader) - when he was a Shadow Minister

At a push I would have said that "Britain" covers mainland England, Scotland and Wales, but not the Inner and Outer Hebrides, not the Orkneys, nor the Shetland Islands

But what does the Westminster Government care? only England matters

Actually I think it's more like only parts of England matter.

So Croatia v England, Belgium v France.

Seeing a good deal of potential irony here.

Nick Eardley @nickeardleybbc
I hear some real concerns are being raised among Brexiteers about PM's Chequers deals. More soon.
NEW: Many eurosceptic MPs are waiting to see what PM says on Monday. But a damning briefing is circulating among ERG members which warns plan amounts to “worst-of-all-worlds Black Hole Brexit”

Laura Kuenssberg @bbclaurak
All we heard from Cabinet Brexiteers today was a supportive tweet from @andrealeadsom - what will they say publicly, when they eventually comment? PM has made it pretty clear they have to support her compromise or else ..but does she have the chops to act if they break the pact?

and the sunday papers?

Neil Henderson @hendopolis
INDEPENDENT DIGITAL: Britain demands election if plotters oust May #tomorrowspaperstoday

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Disastrous Brexit deal will cost Tories power, warn MPs #tomorrowspaperstoday

SUNDAY TIMES: May tells Brussels ‘now get serious’ #tomorrowspaperstoday

THE OBSERVER: May’s EU deal under fire from business and hardline Brexiters #tomorrowspaperstoday

Laura Kuenssberg @bbclaurak
And the one that pushes the new tory Cabinet discipline the most, including something that’s too impolite to say on the tv

TSE (It's not coming home) @TSEofPB
Andrew Bridgen has dumped all over Boris. He's never going to be leader.
Pic via @hendopolis

I note shit being level at Johnson and not Gove.

Jim Pickard @PickardJE
the turd way

OFFICIAL WESTMINISTENDERS ANNOUNCEMENT: May's Brexit Plan is now officially named 'The Turd Way'.

How quickly can we will up this thread so that you can use that as the title for the next thread?!

Have millions been betrayed? I recollect Hannan, Farage and Boris himself talking about staying in the Single Market, which will be what many people did vote for.

A significant number of Leavers on these threads, when arguing why there must not be another Referendum, always discount the first one on the grounds that was a Referendum to stay in the EEC basically for a trade agreement. Arguably, this is the nearest thing still available to that, so they should be pleased. The ones betrayed are potentially the ERG, but in two years they haven't been able to put forward any proposals.

I think it's a bit rich for Theresa May to tell the EU to get on with it - if the Tories hadn't messed around for two years and presented this in say September 2016, we would have had ample time to have sorted out some major areas of agreement.

BTW just looking at booking some flights for next year. Airlines are not taking bookings to Spain after 24th March. Fancy that!

For some weeks I have been looking at some flights on 6 April next year, neither airline nor destination in the EU. Nothing available yet.

I am pretty sure that last year when I booked flights they were available for about a year ahead. Also note that the cut off date now is 24th March, not the end of the month, (or even 29th).

Some arlines are allowing bookings from / to UK airports after Brexit Day
BUT
look in the small print and you'll see that they indemnify themselves for cancelled flights without actually mentioning Brexit

Ditto travel insurance
Hence, doubtful if you'll even get a refund if the plane can't fly

To me Britain is synonymous with the United Kingdom; Great Britain is the land mass that is England, Scotland & Wales; and the British Isles includes all the islands in the area.

Slightly taken aback by being so out of step with the other replies so I googled Wikipedia says Britain is widely used as a common term for the sovereign state of United Kingdom, but most other places suggest it means either England and Wales or the island of Great Britain. So while it’s a bit of a grey area, on balance I’m probably wrong.

My interpretation is no doubt informed by being a Northern Irish Catholic who identifies as British (but would never in a million years identify as/vote unionist!)

Legally
GB = England + Wales + Scotland
UK = GB + NI

Geographically
British Isles = UK + all of Ireland + all the little surrounding islands

However, RoI govts tend to dislike the idea of being part of the "British" Isles; so suggested names I've heard include "North Atlantic Archipelago"

• however I've never seen anything other than British Isles actually used in practice

Legal analysis of the Chequers agreement by the Brexiter org "Lawyers for Britain" < not UK ! >

They hate it.
Such an agreement would go against key "Britannia Unchained" / Unhinged aims, all while losing the UK's ability to vote for / against new regs

http://lawyersforbritain.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Chequers-Briefing-Memo.pdf

A view from France. I wish my French was better. Although the title is fairly self-explanatory.

Brexit : « Le “fuck business” de Boris Johnson risque de se retourner en “fuck Britain” »

mobile.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/07/06/brexit-le-fuck-business-de-boris-johnson-risque-de-se-retourner-en-fuck-britain_5327111_3234.html

I believe British is a corruption of Pictish. So we are all Picts really.
(However as soon as I make these sort of statements, I wonder if I made them up. Someone else can Google, I CBA.)

Torygraph fuming: Brexit deal will condemn Tories to landslide election defeat, MPs warn

Probably just the ERG group of 60 MPs

• most MPs quietly want Norway+, i.e. far more UK concessions, in order to avoid no deal

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/07/07/brexit-deal-will-condemn-tories-landslide-election-defeat-mps/

Theresa May is facing a furious backlash over her plans for Brexit,
after senior Tories said the scheme signed off by her Cabinet will put the Conservatives on course for an election defeat akin to John Major’s landslide loss to Tony Blair, and could split the party.
< a WTO / no deal, with shortages, rationing, unemployment spiking … could destroy the Tories for a generation, not just the next GE >