Westministenders: May's Turd Way covered in Donald's Glittery Tickertape from his Parade

[RedToothBrush]

Where next?

Auditions for chief turd polisher to Mrs May are in full action, whilst those who don't believe in the turd, wade about knee deep in their own shit, still searching for that illusive plan for Brexit which doesn't stink to high heaven of crap.

After the dual resignation of Davis and Johnson, amongst the stench there is an air of uncertainity and expectation of all hell breaking loose.

In the last 48 hours we have been told that

1. May is more secure having crushed the brexiteers,
2. May about to be ousted by a no confidence vote, triggering a leadership election,
3. The Tory Party are about to split,
4. Brexiteers are in disarray fighting amongst themselves,
5. We will remain in the EU,
6. We get an EEA deal,
7. We will get no deal,
8. A People's vote is inevitable and
9. There will be a General Election.

Which only serves to merely highlight just how little of a clue ANYONE has about what happens next.

What bothers me now, is that Johnson seems not to have surfaced yet and there are rumours that Gove has gone to ground, whilst Donald Trump is practically on the plane and is stirring the pot praising Johnson.

Instead we seem to have a series of junior ministers and Tory HQ figures quitting in a long drawn out coordinated toy throwing out of the pram exercise, to try and get what hard brexiteers want.

If I had to hazard a guess at the general silence from key figures, I might be tempted to say that someone is going to use Trump's visit to throw a political grenade and actively invite him to endorse them.

That might sound ridiculous given that the public hates Trump, but that loses sight of the fact that the people who will vote for the next leader of the Tory Party are overwhelming authoritarian leaning and likely to be those who like Trump and would be impressed by such a move.

I note this tweet today from the wise Sarah Kendzior:

Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior
"There are parallels to past authoritarianism, but what's happening with Trump, in the digital age, is new and transnational. The president's loyalty is not necessarily to a state but to foreign leaders and multinational criminal alliances. The state is just something to sell."

It is clear that others in the parliamentary party will be very alarmed at the prospect. There were Tory MPs who were openly tweeted how please that disgusting Johnson had gone and are no fans of Trump.

May still seems to think that she can get her plan through and approved by the EU in its current form. The White Paper is due on Thursday.

Much speculation is that it will be significant if she fails to produce this on time, as she will have capitulated to the Brexiteers. And this will lead to the EU just giving up on us anyway.

She also announced to the Cabinet today, that preparations for No Deal were to be stepped up significantly.

We still are left wondering who, she is stitching up; the Brexiteers whose heads are currently exploding or the friends she keeps closest to her (friends? or ideological enemies).

The problem is that there just no other viable way forward at the moment, as the country is divided, both Labour and the Conservatives are divided and are more interested in their own future than that of the party and there are far too many ambitious 'celebrity MPs' who want to make their mark. No one gives a shit about ordinary workers or business. Plus there is the divine observation that DGRossetti made at the end of the last thread: The biggest obstacle to Brexit has been Brexiteers

The grab for post-Brexit power shows the whole of Westminister up as the cess pit of self interest it is, with Boris Johnson merely its biggest figure head.

Wait until the GFA officially has its head put on the chopping block awaiting its fate. Perhaps we can flog NI to Donald and get a Brexit Dividend afterall.

I must admit to finding it hard to have a view that is altogether different to this:
James Patrick @J_amesp
There is no way back from all of this. The next seven days simply decide how badly - on a scale of fucked to smouldering crater - it is going to end.

One final predictation, which I am DAMN certain of: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are all going to be grim for political watching if you are into democratic values and principles. It will be a 4 day sales pitch for Brand Trump in all its All American Overblown Horror that Brits tend to find utterly distasteful. Expect the red carpet of full of turd glitter to be rolled out for Donald Trump Show. Expect May to embarass herself in her fawning all over him, as if she's star struck. Expect that hideously cringeworthy photo thats totally inevitable.

Politics is going to get worse. It may never get better.

(But yay football gets to cover it all up... Come on England!)

No mention of the chaos of the contents of the Brexit White Paper in the BBC 6pm news headlines

•Trump visit
•Trump NATO
•Thai cave rescuers
•England football team
•World's youngest self-made billionaire

They are now doing a proper piece on it - bit it wasn't in the preliminary headlines.

They were doing a big piece on R4 about 5pm. Interestingly it was rather non partisan. Mostly just reading out chunks of the white paper with some commentary.

.

We are gonna need a LOT of tea. Maybe we could stockpile it.

They repeated 80% of our economy is services several times on radio 4.

This is beginning to sound like "When The Wind Blows"

Yes the Beeb have caught on to our 80% services in peril. Finally. So why is a mirroring arrangement for services not in the White paper??

a) Because the cabinet / DexEU believe a compromise on services will probably be impossible so may as well concede now? (unlikely?)

b) Because we have our eye on dodgy services business outside the E.U. and want unregulated shady tax free business?

c) Because in fact it's a done deal and the E.U. have already categorically said no to any services arrangement as they've already seen the benefits of the banks, insurers and Lloyd's exodus setting up their Paris,Frankfurt and Dublin satellites?

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/11/central-europe-lesson-liberals-anti-nationalist-yugoslavia-poland-hungary?__twitter_impression=true
From the article posted by RTB, authored by Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria; and permanent fellow at the IWM Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria:

Liberals may dream of defeating nationalism just as nationalism itself helped defeat communism. But that hope is fast turning into political tragedy – because while communism was a radical political experiment based on abolishing private property, nationalism – in one form or another – is an organic part of any democratic political scene. Acknowledging this must surely be part of addressing its growing influence.

The liberal horror of Russia under Putin is well explained by this article, which also suggests very strongly that it is misjudged and misplaced.

They held hand again. Theresa has what looks like a plaster on the back on her left arm. See third picture.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-uk-visit-live-updates-theresa-may-protests-latest-queen-brexit-us-president-blenheim-press-a8443426.html

.

Theresa has what looks like a plaster on the back on her left arm. See third picture.

That must be to cover up where they're plugging her in at night to refuel her zombie powers.

I've been watching these threads for a few months - and am very grateful. There are some really spectacular thinkers on these threads that generously share their research and analysis. I am feeling increasingly worried - does anyone think there is a way we can democratically stop Brexit?

Missed this 7hrs ago

order-order.com/2018/07/12/whips-ask-mps-to-withdraw-letters-as-no-10-fear-theyre-approaching-48/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
WHIPS ASK MPS TO WITHDRAW LETTERS AS NO.10 FEAR THEY’RE APPROACHING 48

Point: Some ERG types are also trying to get withdrawals because they want a leadership contest AFTER the summer not before, because May will have to concede more before then, and they think it will be easier to oust her and get their own man (and it will be a man) in instead.

The fact that nothing has materialised in the last seven hours suggests, May might just have survived this week. But we still have another 24hrs with Donnie in the country before the weekend.

Hilary Benn @ hilarybennmp
1. First impressions of the Brexit White Paper. Welcome that the Government has at last set out its proposals on the future UK-EU relationship in the face of economic reality.
2. Having taken so long to get to this point, however, we are desperately short of time to sort everything out and many questions remain unanswered.
3. On the Facilitated Customs Arrangement for goods and agri-food, the key questions are: will the EU agree to it; how will it work in practice; how much bureaucracy for businesses will it involve; and can it be put in place by the end of the transition period in December 2020?
4. We have also yet to see a full proposal for a backstop arrangement to maintain an open and frictionless border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
5. Despite having a trade surplus with the EU in services - which make up nearly 80% of the UK’s economy - the Government admits that we will lose current levels of access to EU markets because it is not proposing to follow EU internal market rules.
6. No case is made as to why this would be in the national economic interest. The Government has said it wants an agreement with the EU on mutual recognition of professional qualifications and it has finally set out proposals for financial services.
7. While committing to end free movement of people, the Government has said very little about what will replace it. Many witnesses from business and services have told us that free movement is the most important issue for them and we urgently need clarity from ministers on this.
8. The commitment to continued participation in as many elements of foreign, security and defence policy co-operation as possible is welcome and very important for our future security.
9. Given the proposals, the Association Agreement model and governance seem sensible. However, it is clear that the CJEU will continue to have a very important say, if indirectly, in resolving any potential disputes about the proposed "common rulebook".
10. The Brexit Select Committee looks forward to taking evidence from the new Secretary of State, Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, and Mr Oliver Robbins on 24th July.
PS There is a very long way to go on this and precious little time. We must get an agreement that helps all sectors of the British economy and all parts of the UK. No Deal would be disastrous for our country.

Could the plaster be something to do with diabetes? If memory serves I thought May was type one. I could be wrong.

Putin is a fascist dictator, nationalist, misogenyst, anti-semitic, homophobic
running Russia as a kleptocracy for himself and his billionaire mates - he's probably go a billion (dollars, not rubles) stashed away himself by now

Liberals - any democrats - are right to regard him and his regime with horror

Yes I thought diabetes too- probably exacerbated by stress too. White paper and Trump not an easy week.

Yes, I think it's a glucose monitoring patch for TM's Type 1 diabetes

does anyone think there is a way we can democratically stop Brexit?

Theoretically Parliament could decide to stop Brexit. But I don't think that they will, because there is a complete lack of coherent Remainers who would be willing to do what was necessary to make that happen (including getting public support)

Yes, she's T1.
I'm wondering is she is OK - stress can affect blood sugar control.
Maybe she has had to have more monitoring

There's been comments this week about 'how much can she take, and she can just choose to end it if she wants' which smacked to me of a gleeful promise to act in a way to cause her maximum stress until she mentally could not carry on, in an almost toturous manner.

If her health is being affected, that comment seems even more unpleasant.

Parliament can block bills, but can't - with exceptions like Private Members bills - initiate them.

Keep remembering that no-deal Brexit happens automatically on Brexit Day, unless a deal is specifically approved by the UK & EU

So, Brexiters can run down the A50 clock
and / or the govt can present Parliament with a CETA-type (hard) Brexit, which if blocked leads to no-deal

does anyone think there is a way we can democratically stop Brexit?

Well, Parliament are democratically elected - so if in the event of rejecting the deal/ no deal they took control and forced a remain, that would technically be democratic - as they would be acting in the interests of their constituents, as they are paid to do. If there is a deal (any deal) i don't see that this will happen, but I guess they might force the issue to avoid a crash out.

As to whether we the people can stop brexit? Only if Westminster lets us... so that means keeping up the grass roots pressure so parliament realise we won't go away and we demand that are voices be heard. I posted this last night - but for anyone who missed it:

www.peoples-vote.uk/petition

it's current goal is to get a quarter million signatures - but there's still over 30 000 needed to reach it. We really do need people signing this in droves.
But there are lots of other things you can do to help stop brexit - join your local remain group, go on any marches that are nearby, email your mp, write an actual letter to your mp, email support to the tory rebels and labour mps like Chuka Umuna and David Lammy, write to your local labour party and tell them you can't support them if they continue their current brexit policy, wear something pro-european out in public just to make it part of the background noise, keep banging on about it to anybody who will listen - and especially to the people who won't, always click on pro-remain articles on newspaper websites - as more clicks means more articles like it will be published - just keep on pushing that overton window.

So, yes - there are democratic ways that brexit can be stopped. But I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing came crashing down of its own accord, screeched to a halt and then just ... vanished. Everything is such a mess I really think anything could happen at the moment. though that anything might be godawful

Maybe TM is paving the way to be able to resign on health grounds? (I know I would if I were her)