Westministenders: A LOOOONNNGGGGGGGG Hot Summer

[RedToothBrush]

May has officially demoted Raab and the Brexit Department to just being responsible for practical implimentation in the UK and not negogitions.

This shouldn't be a surprise, its been the case in reality for some time, much to David Davis annoyance.

The official government position now seems to be scare the shit out of everyone about the possibility of No Deal in order to force the EU to make a deal. Jeremy Hunt has been dutifully spelling this out, by talking about an 'accidental' Brexit.

The government are already outsourcing responsibility for this potential eventuality to industy and business by telling them they need to stockpile food in order to keep supply lines going. This WILL mean price rises will start to happen soon. It also means there is no coordinated government plan and if businesses can't afford to do this as its heavily dependant on having sufficient cash flow in reserve to be able to do it, or don't want to, then you, me and everyone else is going to be well and truly on their own. Whilst the public are not being told to stockpile, its hard to justify not doing so, if this is the current government line.

The government has also done a u-turn on when the repeal of the European Communities Act will come into force. They fought hard to have it fixed for 29th March 2019. Thats now been rolled back to Dec 2020. This is fine, but in practice, makes no difference what so ever if we have no deal or the EU refuse to honour a transition deal on the terms the UK want. The ERG will also go nuts at it and try to get May to roll back on it.

Raab has also made a point of saying that if we don't have a deal by October (rather than midnight 29th March 2019) we are going into No Deal land by default.

Parliament has now broken up for the summer, with May surviving, so things are likely to be a little quieter for a few weeks, but come September this is all going to blow up with avengance.

If you think the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster, just wait for the Autumn.

I take my hat off to posters trying to engage on that AIBU thread. It’s a pageant of —almost— all the talents.

But as I said, I think it does actually reflect the accelerating loss of faith in the cult. That’s why they’re doubling down on the shit-flinging.

@TheElementsSong if you look at the GFs on those threads they are always the same prolific posters who are out to answer no questions and deride posters with genuine worries.

I don't think they are real, either that or they are complete weirdos as who has that much time to continually post taking the piss out of people? Nobody I would respect the opinion of.

They are out in force as more and more posts appear on main parts of the board, not hidden away here. There is a real sense of more people waking up.

And remember, many more people lurk than post. Leavers who are worried and scared and regretful are far less likely to post, but will be reading and taking it in.

I am incredulous that we are having these conversations, I was unhappy at the leave vote but never envisioned conversations about stockpiling and drafting in the army.

Like PP said, when the public wakes up and sees the potential disruption to their day to day lives they will engage.

I think we'll see a lot more extreme shill posting in the meantime though

That AIBU thread is something to behold isn't it?

It's always the same few posters going 'it'll be fine!' without anything to back it up and then resorting to name calling.

I see the magical 350 million has already been quoted.... I thought even leavers had by now accepted that there will be no 350 million extra a week?

There are the longstanding usernames I recognise, but I agree Friday that many of the unfamiliar names are possibly shills. There's at least one ex-Remainer "convert" who is incredibly prolific and has a very obvious avoidance/deflection act, plus has accidentally given themselves away with namechange fails whilst posting to back themselves up on the same thread. I've been careful not to mention to them that I've noticed. (Hello if you're reading, you know who you are!)

I know exactly who you meant Element, they are clearly not genuine!

Friday

The way I see it, there's a real air of panic and anger.

It's hardly surprising that Remainers are angry and worried, but it's rather puzzling why Leavers are so belligerent and panicky, when their Sunlit Uplands of No Deal medical shortages and food stockpiling that is exactly what they say they voted for are rapidly approaching.

elements If you spot sock puppets, do report the posts

I take my hat off to posters trying to engage on that AIBU thread. It’s a pageant of —almost— all the talents.

It's a microcosm of where we are now. Shouty posts. Fuck all proof or evidence, along with a nasty sideline in implying sinister motives to dissenters.

Seem familiar ? It should do. It's happened before in history.

And now we're seeing the inevitable payoff: talks of "banning" fake news. Of course, in reality, you know the only news that will be banned is the news they don't want you to know.

Who can imagine the UK government (backed by the Home Office) passing a law making it a criminal offence to read fake news ? (They would know, because of course you shared it ....).

Chilling effect ?

We already know that MNHQ would immediately pull any thread that someone grumbles about "fake news" on. Which leads to the question as to how much of an honest broker has MNHQ been in the past two years ? Which is all the better if you have mischief in mind. If you can't shut down a media outlet, you can render it's content useless.

It's already happening in Scotland. They've tried to shut down Wings Over Scotland for years. Now the BBC are clamping down on pro-indy YouTubers but not unionist ones.

Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, it has worrying implications.

Good interview yesterday on Sky News with Ashley Frawley from the University of Swansea about the DCMS "Fake News" report.

She made the point that politicians and the Establishment are getting very angsty about the fact that they can no longer control the message and their lies because people, especially young people, are now using a multiplicity of sources.

....which ties in nicely with the BBC shutting down pro-Independende You-Tube channels but not Unionist ones, who were guilty of much more blatant "Fair Use" copyright infringements.

https://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-bbc-just-launched-chilling-attack.html?m=1

Govt warnings planned to all be issued on a single day in late August.
Probably hoping for a royal birth - or death - so they can choose that day to bury bad news.

(I hope HMQ & HM Hubby are being careful what they eat and going down stairs etc
Hell, the bloody corgies could cause a disaster on the stairs - they are reportedly rather rumbunctious)

In the meantime, the Heil joins the papers on no-deal stockpiling and using troops - looks like these stories are too big for even the Brexit press to hide (the Sunday Heil is still more sympathetic than its sister to Remain)

Army on standby for Brexit chaos: Troops will deliver food, medicine and fuel if Britain crashes out of EU without a deal as supermarkets issue warning to stockpile essential items

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6003837/Plans-drawn-troops-deliver-food-Britain-leaves-EU-without-deal.html

•	Plans have been drawn up to use helicopters and trucks to deliver supplies
•	The revelation will provoke fresh claims from Brexiteers of 'scaremongering'
•	Supermarket have warned suppliers to start stockpiling fuel, food and medicine
•	 Brexit secretary Dominic Raab insisted there would be adequate food supplies

medium.com/@MrWeeble/who-actually-trades-solely-under-wto-rules-1b6127ce33c6

Haven't fact checked this, but it appears that the answer is...

Mauritania 🇲🇷.

And that's it.

I believe that a significant element of the leave vote came about because people did not understand what the EU did and didn't do.

If we end up with a hard brexit, it will be because of a similar misunderstanding about what WTO rules do and don't do.

And our so called leaders being utterly incompetent in the first place, of course.

Something I forgot to add to my previous post about why I think there will be a change in people’s attitudes - stockpiling requires one to think ahead and actually do something. Lots of people don’t like that. Think of all the things Mumsnet considers “a faff”, such as washing one’s feet, emptying a bathroom bin and using a washing up bowl (real examples as far as I remember). I expect stockpiling would fall into that category. I shall now look out for the word faff in this context.

twitter.com/botanygeek/status/1023514370058465280?s=21

James Wong

3 years ago a TV company pitched me an idea for a show that explored a future scenario in which U.K. food imports were compromised & we had to struggle to become self sufficient.

I told them this was just too far-fetched.

I hate to be a pessimist borntobequiet but I think for a large number of people that attitude change will only come when they find themselves in difficulty ie too late.

Just look at all the posters on various threads on the subject, shouting about project fear and insisting there will be no difference, that everyone should just get a grip. That's in spite of the fact the UK government has said stockpiling will be necessary! Of course I've also seen posts from two people just today stating they don't watch the news or read a paper so they don't know what it's all about . So no, I'm not convinced that enough people will take their heads out of the sand in time to help themselves.

That Daily Mail stockpiling article has had 6500 shares.

If the government think they will be able to bury a story that's generated that much interest (clicks) they are kidding themselves. The sensationalism of such stories is gold dust to the press. They will run as many of them as they possibly can.

Stockpiling like replacing bogroll and surviving childbirth appears to have been another lovely job allocated to us. If we choose to take it.......
DM is predominantly female readership?

Can I solicit opinion here?

Given that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been in talks with Steve 'proud to be a racist' Bannon - who is on record as saying he's here to lay foundations for a Far Right, anti-EU Party - do you think we could start a 'withdraw the whip' campaign for these two?

I think destabilising your party is good ground for withdrawal of the whip.

It would be good to have the two of them no longer cloaked in the legitimacy of Conservative Party membership.

I think that most constituency members of the CP are too far-gone along the 'swivel-eyed' spectrum to do it themselves, so they need a helping hand - pressure from outside public opinion.

I also think it would be good as a consciousness raising exercise for the general public - so far, the silence on this is deafening. Two supposedly mainstream politicians in talks with someone who is the new BNP/NF? There should be outrage.

It goes without saying that our supposed opposition is caught up tackling each other in the mid-field , leaving the goal wide open for the Far Right. Scary.

Anyway, your thoughts would be welcome.

You'd think all media outlets would be thanking their lucky stars for stockpiling ... it will certainly shift newspapers.

Daily Mail readers might need to stockpile their ignorance too.

I'm going to say something really horrible here.

In these times of despair, a little light.

It occurs to me that, with the DCMS report, Aron Banks has been transubstantiated: from asset to liability.

A thought which, for all his bluster, cannot have failed to occur to Banks himself.

I realise he is someone's child, is loved by some people, is a human, etc. But I can't help but smile.

Cat, i don't think that would get the whip removed. It'd win them MORE support not less.

I agree that Banks has, for the time being, become more of a liability than an asset. But it depends on how the politics go. If they head right, he'll be just fine and straight back in there.

Re: Media outlets, at what point do they pull cookery shows and luxury recipes for '101 things you can do with jacket potatoes and tins'.

I'm not thinking that showing Jamie Oliver whilst people are rioting over food, is really going to work.

Perhaps someone smart can get themselves commissioned to do a show, on whats left at the back of the cupboard in anticipation of no deal.

Red I was wondering about all those 'Place in the Sun' type programmes.

BTW, Cat when it comes to Arron Banks as far as I am concerned he has already reserved his own special place in hell.

I'm not really too concerned about being nice to him, given what he dishes out to other people. He can't really play the victim (though given have the chance like all these arseholes, he will).

red it'll quite possibly be packaged as clever 'food Jack's, you know, luxury on a shoe string budget or some such.
Property shows will most likely focus on idealised rural UK locations and the other more exotic ones will look further afield (Oz, which has always been popular, US, Canada, Caribbean etc)