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!)

Presuming this magical white paper is the one proudly presented (a week or so late) with 12 'intentions'. For a start the EU will dismiss at least half of them out of hand, no discussion. There may be a bit of 'wriggle and fudge' available for some other parts.
OK Teletubbies was too low, how about the Muppets? I think 'Big Bird' presenting would be just the job. C.A.T F.O.O.D,,,Catfood.
This is a hardware store, there is no cake here.

It is depressing because it’s a such a mess; wherever you look things seem to be unraveling. Lies and more lies seems the default position in politics today.

Bring it on Fox. The more the Tories tie themselves in knots, the closer we get to an end to this sorry saga.

Andy Bell @ andybell5news
PM says advice of #Trump was that she should sue the EU #Brexit

About that.

What type of legal cases do you think we are going to get suing the British government after a botched brexit?

Trump has it arse-backwards, as always

Foreign Investors could sue UK govt over Brexit losses

Fox has acknowledged this risk:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-trade-fox-idUKKBN1A52NB

"Asked if the government could face dispute settlement cases from companies whose investments are damaged by Brexit, he said it was preparing for any eventuality."

This law lecturer analyses in detail and says there is legal precedent (Spain) -

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2017/07/how-protest-brexit-investment-tribunal

The hot legal topic of 2017 is
whether an investor feeling aggrieved by Britain’s decision to leave the EU could
bring a claimm* in an investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunal.

Let us consider the case of foreign financial firms that established themselves in the City of London to take advantage of the UK’s much lauded position as the centre of European finance

The government’s decision to interpret the Referendum result as a mandate to leave the single market heralds a fundamental change to the regulatory environment under which firms were established in the UK.

As I argue in my recently published paper,
foreign owned financials could seek legal redress,

arguing that the changes brought about by Brexit (from the point of exit onwards) will
violate legitimate expectations protected by Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT) the UK has signed with their country of origin.
......
A state is deemed to be allowed to regulate
so long as it does not fundamentally and abruptly alter the whole regulatory environment causing major losses to the investor
....
One could argue that leaving the single market,
losing the financial passport, and losing market access,
is an abrupt, wholesale upending of the entire regulatory background of an investment, rendering such investment practically worthless.

The message for those thinking of pursuing claims against the British government for Brexit is clear:
the more drastic the policy change, the better the chance of success.
Call your lawyers.

I read that the Chancellor has kept a few billion in reserve for this eventuality
but sionce the UK is running at about a 5% annual deficit, he'll probably just borrow more

btw, it'll be interesting to say how the National Debt has changed in say 10 years

Ironic that the Uk ancouraged / pressured various countries, e.g. india, to sign Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT
but now faces being hoist by its own petard

So Mr Trump thinks that someone can sue the local gym because THEY wanted to leave? Can't see that working. So the UK can't sue the EU. The EU has simply pointed to the 'club rules' and have waited patiently for over 2 years for the UK to read and properly digest them.
On the other hand the EU could well make claims for reparations for the time and money wasted by this farce, that would definitely outweigh the £350 Million a week. I may well be incorrect but I have a feeling that and country departing 'covers the departure bills', which would be over and above the £39Billion that are due as part of ongoing liabilities.

The government is going to find "good faith" is a real thing.

Also, who would adjudicate such issues ? The ECJ ? Isn't that a bit like marking your own homework ?

The BBC news service is important because it is free.
People struggling to make ends meet are not going to afford subscriptions to sites such as the FT, however accurate and unbiased they may be.
That means they rely on an ever diminishing source of free outlets - many of which are very biased. If the BBC loses impartiality, then you have a state-controlled press spoonfeeding the public what the Government wants them to hear.

Squealer, wasn’t it, in Animal Farm?

Trump MO is to threaten to sue and to hire lawyers, because that's what bullies do. It relies on him having deep pockets and those he goes after not having big pockets. It relies on intimidation and brinkmanship. And having important powerful friends in the media. In the majority of cases it never gets near a court because the other party backs off or signs an agreement against their interests.

How does that work with the UK against the EU?

I think for UK news that in many ways the BBC has not 'lost impartiality' but watered down the reporting to 'bland' so it is effectively failing to report.
The EU doesn't need a huge amount of 'adjudication' as I would anticipate most eventualities have been covered, in up to 27 languages so any contentious issue the UK might bring up the EU can simply (?) point to the relevant rules.

Trump thinks like a real estate wheeler and dealer,
where in his (ghost-written) "art of the deal" there is a winner and a loser, the seller or the buyer winning or losing.

For him, the aim is to be a winner and destroy the loser, for maximum profit

He has no experience or talent in negotiations were both parties need the other to remain reasonably healthy
He cannot see that negotiations between neighbouring countries, with trade heavily connected, are different

Trump is totally ignorant outside his small field of (not great) expertise
and has no talent other than demagoguery

The link from the New York Review posted last night described beautifully why and how the BBC has lost credibility.

It is a long read but one that warrants the effort. It outlines how the BBC has abbrogated its responsibility for investigative yet impartial reporting in favour of not challenging the Establishment (essentially becoming no better than Pravda).

It's something that I had sadly come to realise during the Indyref campaign back in 2014, when the BBC, in its misjudged attempt to provide "balance" ended up reporting 3:1 in favour of Unionist v Independence Parties PLUS the UK Government getting airtime. What has now happened is that the rest of the UK is getting to see how it has become nothing more than an Establishment mouthpiece and no longer worthy of its reputation for impartial and insightful reporting 😟😡

I can see exactly why this Brexit fiasco is so under reported because if many of the items we have discussed here (hats off to RTB/BCF and others) were put onto the main news slots with proper background information, the fact that many of the 'deals' Mrs May 'expects' to get from the EU simply won't or can't happen then with only a very small push afterwards there would be mass panic.

Just looked at the 'news' on BBC website. Yet again Mrs May is spouting stuff that can never be achieved. She is acting like the persistent bluebottle, not appreciating the window preventing her moving forward.
Have any other significant companies announced intentions to either seriously downscale or move to the EU or elsewhere? It seems to have gone a bit quiet on that front, or is it just not getting reported?

www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1770s/pprinttoryloyal.html
This is about the press in the American Revolution:

Even those printers who wished to keep aloof from politics would have found it difficult to do so. The printer's income derived from those who sponsored the newspaper (for example, the government in the case of loyalist printers) or from the advertisers and readers. (Benjamin Franklin offered a humorous but serious argument that printers should not necessarily be held responsible for the opinions expressed in their publications in his famous "Apology for Printers") However, advertisers and readers became unwilling to support the production of papers that presented views antithetical to their own. As printer Isaiah Thomas later explained:

"It was at first the determination of Thomas that his paper should be free to both parties which then agitated the country, and, impartially, lay before the public their respective communications; but he soon found that this ground could not be maintained. The dispute between Britain and her American colonies became more and more serious, and deeply interested every class of men in the community. The parties in the dispute took the names of Whigs and Tories; the tories were the warm supporters of the measures of the British cabinet, and the whigs the animated advocates for American liberty. The tories soon discontinued their subscriptions for the Spy; and the publisher was convinced that to produce an abiding and salutary effect his paper must have a fixed character. He was in principle attached to the party which opposed the measures of the British ministry; and he therefore announced that the Spy would be devoted to the support of the whig interest."

This shift in the nature of newspapers and other forms of print in America helps us understand why Jefferson would one day write: "I would rather live in a country with newspapers and without a government, than in a country with a government but with out newspapers.”

Cannabis set to be legalised:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cannabis-decriminalisation-oil-uk-cigarettes-alcohol-bmg-research-poll-a8445631.html

After all, 51% is THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, isn't it ?

Remember: no matter how stupid. No matter how dangerous, THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE must be obeyed.

I believe it was Jefferson who stated that it was a citizens duty to disobey bad laws.

Suing the EU fits entirely with Trump's world view which is definitely hostile to the EU. With friends like these who needs enemies! The UK irrevocably burning any bridges left with the EU would isolate the country (ruin it in fact) and weaken the EU. In the ensuing chaos caused by a kamikaze brexit, the US possibly pulling out of NATO (not such a stretch of the imagination anymore) would leave Europe, and especially former Eastern block countries, very very vulnerable indeed. I see only one winner here...

Yes DGR.

I luffs Jefferson.

Ironically, Trump leaving - or continuing to threaten to leave - NATO - and the uncertainty that that generates - might actually increase the likelihood of an EU Army.

Then who would the UK align with?

If cannabis is to be legalised then I presume some tightening up of the penalties for 'being offensive to others' should happen simultaneously.
The numbers NEEDING cannabis to relieve severe medical symptoms are pretty small and of those very few are likely to be out driving for example where they would present a hazard to others. Whilst legalising it for 'recreational' use the penalties for 'misdemeanors' must be swift and harsh.

Prettybird , I agree with you but the question is would a hypothetical EU army be functional quickly enough? It's a huge and costly undertaking, isn't it? Also, by the time it happens, it might be too late for the UK to have a choice of who to align with... i might be overly pessimistic here though.