Westminstenders: In the Brexit Lane

[RedToothBrush]

I honestly couldn't think of a better starter to the thread than simply just this tweet

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?

But don't worry, your blue passport will get you an extra special long wait at passport control. And no deal could lead to continued freedom of movement anyway. Something for everyone in there.

If true, this bugging doesn't seem to have done any good

I wonder if the Torygraph are trying to reassure readers that this is why the govt are sure the EU are bluffing

How do we even have elections any more when information available at a distance is so corrupted?

Ban all political advertising and return to the public meeting and hustings?

I would have thought that members of the Road Haulage Association would tend to be Tories, so the comments above are extremely worrying. Although Grayling is not called Failing Grayling for nothing!

View from Germany - Deutsche Welle Opinion: Brexit has reached a dead end

Much better analysis of Tory & Labour than from the UK media:

https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-brexit-has-reached-a-dead-end/a-45084743

Brexit is on the negotiating table yet again in Brussels. With no alternative in sight, the UK is limping toward the day it will ultimately leave the European Union,
…
The basic problem is that Brexit, which was pushed by a dishonest referendum campaign,
has practically no advantages for the UK,
neither concerning trade nor migration
…
What now?
Without a concept, Britain continues to teeter toward Brexit day.

At the moment, there is little hope that anyone will pull the emergency brake and at least postpone the unfortunate event.

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-eu-prices-shopping-food-high-street-store-closures-a8493141.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true
Two thirds of UK shoppers expect high street prices to surge because of Brexit
Consumers expect to see more stores closing down following raft of closures from high street names in recent months

That seems like a big change in numbers...

Did anyone post the economist piece showing that the £ has depreciated against 130 out of 140 curriencies tracked by The Economist since the referendum.

What rarely seems to feature is that if any business, organisation (or country) makes a controversial make or break decision .... if that decision is the right one savvy business wants to invest, shrewd business is attracted, the share price starts to soar. The opposite is happening.

www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/14/as-brexit-day-nears-sterling-is-once-again-in-for-a-rocky-ride

I've had two emails recently, from people who voted Remain and are not happy but have done nothing about it, asking me when the next march is and saying they want to come with me. I also told them to write to their MP with their concerns. I do sense a change...

Two thirds of UK shoppers expect high street prices to surge because of Brexit

If I ran a high street shop, I'd take that as an invitation to raise my prices whether they needed to or not ...

Self fulfilling prophecies and all that.

I think we need to prepare to return to what The Big Yin has dubbed "beige days" ...

The Road Haulage Association has been shouting from the rooftops ever since the referendum. Grayling could have educated himself just by reading their website.

Nice - and accurate - spoof video

www.facebook.com/veryBrexitproblems/videos/838650409675965/

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news.sky.com/story/minister-alistair-burt-canvasses-constituents-on-views-over-eu-deal-referendum-11473514

A senior minister is polling constituents on holding another referendum on Brexit, it has been revealed.

Alistair Burt, an experience Foreign Office minister, has been collecting voters' views for weeks, asking how they would vote in another nationwide poll.

A form on his website asks them: "Do you support a further vote on the referendum?"

Constituents are also asked what the vote would cover.

Four options are offered: A vote on the final deal; a re-run of the original referendum with in/ out choices; three choices - a "soft" Brexit, a "hard" Brexit or no Brexit; or no further vote.

Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt makes a statement in the House of Commons, London, on the latest situation in Egypt.

Alistair Burt said he wanted to make clear he does not support another referendum

Prime Minister Theresa May has categorically ruled out a fresh vote on Brexit and insisted Britain will leave the EU on 29 March 2019.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also confirmed he is not calling another referendum.

Sky News understands activists from the pro-EU campaign People's Vote have emailed supporters who live in Mr Burt's constituency, North East Bedfordshire, to urge them to take part.

A message from supporter and former Conservative MP Stephen Dorrell said: "As a resident of Alistair's constituency of North East Bedfordshire, will you take a couple of minutes to complete the survey and let Alistair know how strongly you feel about why you should have a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal?"

Mr Dorrell added: "I know Alistair well and I know that he is genuinely interested in the views of his constituents on the biggest issue facing our country.

"So please do be polite in your response and do let him know if you have voted for him in the past."

How can ministers be so ignorant about the effects of Brexit? Aren't civil servants advising them?

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Confirmed. There will be no Brexit talks at the 20th September EU Leaders Summit.
As expected by every1 outside of the UK Gvmnt. TM the PM will get a few minutes (literally) to tell other leaders as to how A.50 is progressing. Then the EU are back to business as usual.

mobile.twitter.com/JasonJHunter/status/1029986688771272704

The EU are getting on with their priorities while the UK argues amongst itself? ('United' Kingdom? Never was a country more inappropriately named.)
The UK becoming more irrelevant? People had better get used to it - it's the shape of things to come.

DGRossetti this is very interesting re. the polling on a new referendum. It's quite similar to the survey on Mumsnet a few weeks ago. I've also heard rumblings from friends and colleagues, some of whom voted Leave, on how badly it's going, and whether we need a new referendum.

I've kept quiet, other than agreeing that it's not going well, probably best to let them reach their own conclusions...

I'm still not massively keen on another referendum. The temptation to rig it, by making it Hobsons choice is too great, and the stakes too high.

Even the dimmest leavers (which is quite a contest) have twigged that a 3-option choice (do nothing/chequers Brexit/No deal) would gift the result to "do nothing".

So we're likely to get a 2-choice: Chequers Brexit/No Deal. Where "no deal" will have to win, since the Chequers plan is bollocks impossible.

The Tories have form for this too. They nobbled the referendum on electoral reform by managing to invent a form of PR (which many said at the time wasn't actually PR) that nobody wanted in the first place, which almost guaranteed it would be rejected.

*So we're likely to get a 2-choice: Chequers Brexit/No Deal. Where "no deal" will have to win, since the Chequers plan is bollocks impossible.
*

In my opinion the last 2 years, and the last few months in particular, have been geared around giving us the choice between an emphasised-as-obviously-impossible 'no deal', a fudged deal which the EU won't accept anyway and staying how we are.

I agree with Fishes, I think there will be a three-way referendum, not sure how I feel about it given the experience of the last one, but we are at an impasse, and a GE won't solve anything. I think the momentum towards having a new referendum will be unstoppable come October (the march in October will probably be huge).

DGR my German friends were posting that baked beans pic on their Facebook, many of their friends liked it but some did do a sad face too.

On a separate note on the day A level results come out we do know that UK universities have already lost £121m in EU funding and Brexit hasn’t even happened yet. The government pledge even if honoured won’t stop the long-term damage to UK’s universities according to the co-chair of Our Future Our Choice at Oxford University.

But this is a good thing yes? As we want less University types saving education for the few-only the Rees Mogg's etc should receive a higher education - is that right?

Farage is skating on thin ice calling doctors 'an absolute disgrace'. But most of the comments here are pro-doctors and anti-Farage.

mobile.twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1030004635510231040

DGR my German friends were posting that baked beans pic on their Facebook, many of their friends liked it but some did do a sad face too.

Well, that's the Germans for you. No sense of humour .

In a way, the fact that the UK has sidelined Brexit might be another driver away from no deal. It means the UK media has absolutely no reason to mention Brexit now until December. (Which we can see from MN itself, suits them fine.).

That might make the cliff-edge shock the more real and palpable - and the pushback stronger.

Ban all political advertising and return to the public meeting and hustings?

I think in the face of Cambridge analytica and leave.EU posting adverts during the time they all agreed to stop campaigning, and the specific targeting of certain voters (having illegaly mined their information) ... there is a definite argument for banning all internet political advertising.

Party broadcasts on the T.V worked fine for years - and presumably had to be up to some sort of code in order for the broadcaster to air them.
Billboards should also be OK (but, after Farage's dog whistle Syrian refugee one, should also have a standard that they have to meet - they must be positive about you and not inducing fear (or hate) for the other side) Ditto leaflets through your door (though, as they can be more long winded than a billboard they could be allowed to list the wrongdoings of the current mp if they were factual)
I suppose we can keep the live T.V debates ... but I'm not sure they really add anything.

I suppose we can keep the live T.V debates ... but I'm not sure they really add anything.

I think a cross between a series of live TV debates and a judicial inquiry, where representatives are required to provide proof of any 'factual' claims, is the only way to go in the case of a referendum. If we're being asked to replace Parliament and make actual decisions then we need to have all the lies removed from the arguments.

Any statements of fact to be scrutinised rigorously and treated as perjury if found to be false.