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.

Ah, I shouldn't compare.
We were poor, so each term all my worldly goods went on a huge rucksac on my back, bus-tube-bus

I like to hear kids today have some aspects of life that are better:

I had all fees paid, plus the full maintenance grant
What with getting summer jobs, I left uni with zero debt, then a paid annual PhD internship meant some savings to tide me over until my first real job

Anna Soubry Interview

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/20/anna-soubry-accuses-theresa-may-of-capitulating-to-tory-forces-of-darkness

Former Conservative minister says Jacob Rees-Mogg’s faction is ‘now running Theresa’

The Conservative rebel Anna Soubry has accused Theresa Mayy* of capitulating to “the forces of darkness” in her party
and warned that, as a result, she and her fellow soft Brexiters may not back the final deal the prime minister obtains from Brussels.

< but if it has been agreed with the EU, the alternative is no deal, surely ? >

I think there is change in the air, mrhoolies.

I think I'll write to my MP again, plus leaders of other parties.

It'd be interesting if MPs returned to Parliament in September to a markedly different public atmosphere than July. It might force the party conferences to actually debate some changes.

Never give up! We can't have this, for example! (Party activists out of step with the mood of the country...?)

Boris Johnson has emerged as the favourite to succeed Theresa May for the first time in two years.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-conservative-leader-theresa-may-brexit-cabinet-tory-poll-members-a8472341.html%3famp

Kids like me would never have gone to uni if it meant taking out loans.
It was enough of a mountain to face not getting a proper job to start earning right after school.

So that's what saying F##k business does for your career nowadays in the Party of Business

Thanks for clarifying that BigChoc

It may be just my area , but has anyone else noticed that houses don't appear to be selling ? The ones that seem to be still selling are those that developers usually go for or the ones at the higher end of the market. I have a little look on rightmove at a place we often go on holiday and nothing seems to moving there either. I know the Summer holidays are often a quiet time, but most of the properties have been on since the early spring or before. Not that I will ever be able to afford my own place.

Robert Peston @ peston
We’ve got an official opposition tearing itself apart over antisemitism, the founder of the EDL running rings around the judiciary and a government negotiating a Brexit plan that its own MPs and ministers tell me is dead. When will we pull ourselves together, as a nation?

Opened up twitter. This is the first tweet I see.

www.ft.com/content/722039cc-9579-11e8-b67b-b8205561c3fe
Michael Gove discusses backstop UK plan to stay in single market
Eurosceptic in private talks with Tory MPs on ways to avoid no-deal Brexit chaos

Michael Gove, the Eurosceptic UK environment minister, has privately discussed a backstop plan that would keep the UK in the EU single market if Theresa May’s Brexit strategy failed.

Lots of people on the Property board talking about stagnant markets.

Well, last time I looked - I don't very often.

Borntobequiet, first time buyers have disappeared off the face of the earth in our area. No-one even viewing. Which leaves us a bit stuck. Things are moving in the second tier but then anything about £400 unless its exceptional isn't shifting either. We dropped the price and that hasn't seen any interest either.

Estate agent hasn't known anything like it.

Our dream house on the perfect street at the right price came up last week. DH got a pay rise two weeks ago.

We can do fuck all but wait.

House has been on market since April. We've had several of viewings, all of whom have loved it, but decided to move elsewhere or not at all.

I have mixed feelings. I'm glad on the one hand with the uncertainty. But dream house and living on top of each other on the other hand.

As a nation we are terminally divided

I agree, there's a deep and fundamental divide that isn't going to heal for at least a generation.

Just thinking about yesterday's ridiculous Sun article. Anybody who even slightly entertained the thought that other countries "forcing post-Brexit Brits to queue with other non-EU citizens" was even microscopically unreasonable, is not somebody with whom I'll ever be able to see eye-to-eye.

And that's just one trivial example of a far greater gulf in worldviews that colours almost every aspect of life.

As a nation we are terminally divided

I think we really are. Between those with liberal attitudes and those with authoritarian ones.

I think liberal values have been quite prevalent in my lifetime (I’m 40). Maybe this is an unpleasant but inevitable swing towards authoritarianism.

As a nation we are terminally divided

Which nation ?

I can definitely sense change in the air.

I so hope this is right but I think it’s too late, like someone described the unstoppable ball plummeting downhill.

I met with a leave-voting friend the other day. We only meet every six months or so and have studiously avoided discussing Brexitb, aside from one brief conversation shortly after the referendum, when she told me she had been undecided until the last minute about which way to vote. When we met the other day I broached the subject and asked if she would change her vote now, given all the developments since the vote. She thought for a moment and then said ‘No, I don’t think so.’ I was really taken aback and asked her why not. She said again that she’d been undecided all along, that her head said remain but her heart said leave. She had gone with her hear and she would again. I really didn’t know what to say. She is an intelligent, educated woman and definitely not racist. I found it depressing beyond words. I would have staked the farm on her saying she’d change her vote.