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!)

Britain Elects @ britainelects
The Chequers plan is...

Good for Britain: 14%
Bad for Britain: 33%
[Not sure]: 53%

--

The Chequers compromise...

Respects the referendum result: 27%
Does not respect the result: 29%
[Not sure]: 44%

via @YouGov, 08 - 09 Jul

How can MPs be saying the public don't like / will never accept on the basis of this??!!

()()() place marking

Yes, he really is ubiquitous on the telly & airwaves:

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/10/nigel-farage-seventh-on-list-of-meps-outside-earnings

Nigel Farage has earned between £524,000 and £700,000 through TV and radio work in the last four years,
…
The former Ukip leader has the highest earnings outside the European parliament of any of Britain’s 73 MEPs
…
An MEP earns €101,808 a year before tax, although Farage is currently being docked half his pay after parliamentary financial controllers alleged he had misspent public funds.
MEPs receive thousands in expenses for staff, travel and office costs

More on the return of the mighty Jared O'Mara

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5927023/amp/Suspended-Labour-MP-caught-renting-constituency-office-party-colleague.html?__twitter_impression=true
Suspended Labour MP caught paying thousands of pounds of taxpayer cash to rent his office from a party colleague

Mr O’Mara, 37, was reinstated by the Labour Party last week after receiving a formal warning.

Now it has emerged that his Sheffield office is owned by a company whose sole directors are Abdul Khayum, a Labour councillor in the city, and Mr Khayum’s brother, Dr Amir Afzal, a Sheffield GP. Parliamentary records show Mr O’Mara has been claiming £780 a month in rent for the offices, at Redlands Business Centre, in the Tapton area of Sheffield, in a neighbouring constituency to his own.

And

Under rules set by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, MPs’ offices are supposed to be within their constituency, unless based within their home. But Mr O’Mara’s office is just a few streets outside the constituency boundary and he has argued that he had to find an office at short notice.

Asked about why he was renting from a Labour councillor in an office outside the constituency, he said: ‘It was the only office we could find unfortunately.’

I couldn't be arsed to look for anything in my constituency and it was much easier for me to just ask my mates and they were only too willing to help me out.

I despair.

May has scarcely moved her position, but Brexiters are like a religious cult, demanding total purity

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/10/boris-johnson-tory-grassroots-brexit-brexiteer-theresa-may

In the Tory shires, Brexiteer activists are mutinous and ready to tear Theresa May’s compromises to shreds

I don;t know if this has already been linked somewhere

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/10/donald-trump-uk-visit-nato
But I just want to draw attention to the last line.
Trump on Kim Jong Un: I actually do have a little gift for him but you'll find out what that gift is when I give it

It's not just me that thinks 'gift' is a euphemism for 'nuclear bomb' is it?

Place marking

Sam Coates Times @ samcoatestimes
When I dip into @SJAMcBride timeline, I increasingly see signs Northern Ireland - which has no functioning executive - is simply a political wild west

This:

Sam McBride @ SJAMcbride
Startling story in tomorrow's News Letter: Some public servants in Northern Ireland are going beyond the authority given to them by Parliament, threatening criminal sanctions for something which isn't a crime - at a time when public servants are democratically unaccountable.

As Sam Coates suggests, digging deeper you find this from yesterday

www.newsletter.co.uk/news/bradley-wanted-judges-to-let-civil-servants-act-as-ministers-1-8561891/amp?__twitter_impression=true
Bradley wanted judges to let civil servants act as ministers

The secretary of state has expressed disappointment at the ruling of three senior Belfast judges’ which ends the emerging situation where unelected civil servants were taking controversial decisions about hundreds of millions of pounds of public money.

Karen Bradley also suggested to the Commons that she is involved in consideration of whether the ruling should be appealed to the Supreme Court – even though she was not a party to the case and by choosing not to implement direct rule she has no power over Stormont officials, in whose hands that decision is meant to solely lie.

During debate tonight on the second Stormont budget to be set by an act of direct rule at Westminster, Mrs Bradley came under pressure to go beyond such piecemeal steps and implement full direct rule of Stormont departments, allowing her to take ministerial decisions, with Labour’s Owen Smith saying that “we cannot be squeamish about calling it direct rule”.

Raising Friday’s Court of Appeal decision on the Mallusk incinerator – which rules that civil servants have no powers to take ministerial decisions – North Down MP Lady Hermon asked Mrs Bradley if “the government is intending to appeal – yet again – that decision”.

And

DUP MP Paul Girvan said his party was concerned that much of the £1 billion it secured to back the Tories could not be spent due to the ruling: “We have a fear that that money will not be allocated or used correctly if we cannot get decisions pushed through – and the only people who can do it are this government.”

Mrs Bradley’s response suggested that she does not believe that the judgment is as sweeping as it appears to be, saying that at present there is “no difficulty in [civil servants] spending the money that has been allocated so far”.

DUP chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party was alarmed to find that some of the £1 billion which it believed would go “to the front line” in helping strained school budgets had in fact been allocated by officials to plug a huge gap in the accounts of the Education Authority.

Mrs Bradley again appeared to suggest that her department could intervene in the matter, despite having no power over Stormont officials. She said that she “would be more than happy to have officials in my department speak to the officials in NICS and establish what has happened because we are very clear where the money needs to be spent”.

Sam McBride @ SJAMcBride
Constitutionally, this is far from insignificant.

The impression which the Secretary of State gave in the Commons last night is that she wants to influence what Stormont civil servants do, but doesn't want to be accountable for what they do. If she implemented direct rule, she'd be the one making the decisions & carrying the can

Perhaps inadvertently, Karen Bradley has now put herself in the firing line for those opposed to the Mallusk incinerator. SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon says the NI Secretary has no authority to decide on an appeal to the Supreme Court & shouldn't be wasting public money on it

Karen Bradley was also asked sharply - by a Tory former NIO minister - about her refusal (against NIO's own advice) to cut MLA pay. He was unimpressed by her "dismissive" response. It is another occasion on which Mrs Bradley has failed to provide an explanation for not acting.

Henry Newman @ henrynewman
Yesterday plans were afoot to dismember the Brexit department, taking functions away from new Secretary of State @DominicRaab & leaving him responsible only really for domestic preparations. That’s not right decision & they should be urgently reconsidered

Stewart Jackson @ brexitstewart
It’s all part of the plan. Robbins et al blocked the publication of the White Paper from at least March because 1) they’d lose policy control and 2) Ipso facto it’s contents might not be the Hotel California Brexit they delivered at Chequers

Ersatz Brexiteer @RobbieGibb almost blew the gaff on Monday 2nd by sounding off to his BBC mates about the “3rd way” customs option - forcing PM to explicitly deny it. 24 hours later on Tues pm it appeared in a detailed presentation in 9 Downing St by HMRC. Quick work guys!

Uhoh we have a disgruntled former MP who lost his seat at the GE and got a job as a spad who is now looking like he'd love to dish dirt and further stir shit.

.

.

Have we had this yet?

'Boris Johnson lied about EU safety regulation in his resignation letter'

www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-boris-johnson-lied-about-eu-safety-regulation-in-his-resignation-letter

Evening all. I'd followed at the beginning and then become too depressed and couldn't bear it...!now it's unavoidable 😔

In football news - there's no way in hell England are beating this French team if they get through Croatia.

On NI too... remember it's almost the Twelfth. And in the midst of this drought and water shortage (hosepipe bans already in place for whole of island of Ireland), loyalists are attempting to get their bonfires bigger than ever. m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/high-court-rules-out-of-control-belfast-bonfire-must-be-reduced-in-height-37102364.html

Christopher Wylie @ chrisinsilico
The findings of the UK criminal investigation into Facebook come out tomorrow. All I can say is, Facebook is going to have a bad day 🔥🔥🔥

I bet they are all newly converted soccer fans.

In football news - there's no way in hell England are beating this French team if they get through Croatia.

That was my next post.

Runner up at best. If we lose tomorrow we get to play Belgium. Again. Joy.

Priti Patel MP@ patel4witham
This is no longer an argument about whether Brexit was a good idea but is about democracy & standing by the democratic decision made by the people. The public want to know that their political leaders will stay true to the promise made to them that Brexit means Brexit.

TSE @ TSEofPB
Brexiteers no longer pretending Brexit will be any good.

This is still relevant and funny

I see the 'American Idiot' plan is working. Green Day are no 1.

I am almost loving the way Brexit is like one of those double glazing cons that ropes in nice, honest pensioners, only in this case the perps are insisting that keeping on with the con is the only truly moral action "because the customer is always right."

A part of me is enjoying seeing the Tory melt down, but another part is anxious as to how it will all work out in the end.

This is no longer an argument about whether Brexit was a good idea but is about democracy & standing by the democratic decision made by the people

Maybe David Davis needs to take her to one side and dust off the old 'a democracy which cannot change it's mind ceases to be a democracy'

If Priti thick Patel is tacitly acknowledging that brexit is a bad idea, then she ought to be explaining to the electorate that in a democracy you always have a chance to vote again, if you are not happy with the outcome.

But it's good that she is publicly admitting that brexit is a terrible idea and the only reason to do it is because on one day over 2 years ago, and for many different reasons, 33% of the electorate said they would like to give this undefined idea a try... it might wake more people up to reality.

A part of me is enjoying seeing the Tory melt down, but another part is anxious as to how it will all work out in the end.

Considering that a meltdown was always inevitable, and that without this meltdown our options were so dire anyway ... I say sit back and enjoy it.

All bets are off, no one has a plan. It's all just reaction and firefighting. Generally I hate fatalism, but in this case - what will be will be. Aint nothin anyone can do about it - because no one is driving this brexit bus. And the bus doesn't haven't wheels.

If we do go over the cliff edge - well, we were gonna do that before, anyway.

So enjoy watching them tear themselves apart. They deserve it.

And maybe - something better will rise out of the ashes. British politics may end up being a phoenix- going into its death throes of facism and reemerging a shining beacon of democracy and fair play... it is literally as likely as anything else right now. The Chinese curse is truly upon us.