Westministenders: Back to School

[RedToothBrush]

No, I'm not referring to the start of a new parliamentary season, I'm referring to the number of politicians who need to literally go back to school. Its embarassing, and worrying.

Anyway, here is a slightly lengthy, end summer news round up for you.

The Brexit Headlines
It seems to be Cabinet Office policy to push for the Chequers Deal or for No Deal Even though Macron has very firm, plainly and clearly said "non" in no uncertain terms. Its significant because its come from the official Brexit Department and not from a sweating Dominic Raab at Dexeu.

He has however delivered the first batch of the Brexit Untechnical Papers which are supposed to advise what to do in the event of No Deal. In reality this is a PR exercise, which makes the assumption that some sort of minimual deal will have been done, rather than no deal at all, combined with a very practical plan for 'a wing and a prayer'. Which is a bit of an issue if we decide that we really are going to stick to the line that its Chequers or no deal.

These untechnical papers are ludicarious shallow, which some having the audaciency to say "plan for the news rules, but we haven't actually decided what the news rules are and we'll get back to you as soon as we've made them up". The completely skirt the entire subject of NI, saying merely, more or less "oh that one will just work itself out". Despite the untechnical papers don't include the crucial aviation one, which apparently was held back because it was regarded as 'too shambolic' which is quite the statement, if you've read any of them. Nor do they include details of the contract for hundreds of portaloos to line our motorways so that lorry drivers can still take a pee whilst they are stuck in queues for days. They might starve and no one else will have any food because all the lorries are stuck, but hell they'll be no exposure on the M20 to offend you.

Its not quite as bleak as it sounds though. The Chequers Deal is a vision of our future relationship with the EU. Its not the Withdrawal Deal. And the Withdrawal Deal (and backstop) is the thing that needs to be done in Oct / Nov. Which then will lead on to talks about the Chequers Deal. You can't talk about Chequers without having ALREADY agreed the Withdrawal. Which is very important to keep in mind as its continuely being lost in the media coverage. Could it be that all the sudden noise from the Cabinet Office, is an attempt to distract in the short term to protect the Withdrawal phrase?

Also as an alternative to Chequers, Macron is reportedly expected to propose something akin to an 'associate member' style agreement for the UK with a vision for the EU and its allies to form a series of "concentric circles", with Britain closely tied to the 27 "core" EU member states. If this sounds familiar it is. Guy Verhofstadt has been banging on about this as an idea since before Brexit. Its also a plan which has long been muted by Barnier too. It will probably go down like a lead balloon here, but there is a political will in the EU for a deal. There just isn't in the UK.

More generally in UK politics
Jeremy Corbyn has had a nice relaxing summer but after the hard upcoming weeks ahead, I think he'll still be looking forward to his holiday plans for the Autumn Break, when he visits Israel to profess he's still definitely not an anti-semite, because look he's visiting the evil Zion and talking to Jews. He will spend the next few month telling us that No Deal is a Very Bad Idea, whilst also trying to get his MPs to vote in ways that are a Very Bad Idea. Meanwhile the rest of Labour will indulge in a very public slanging match which most normal people have long since stopped caring about in anyway because they are so bored and disappointed in how far heads have been inserted up backsides.

Theresa May, has been in Africa, where she is trying to get trade deals with lots of countries we already have trade deals with through the EU. She's also in the midst of a fight with Spreadsheet Phil who has been busy telling her to butt out of the budget and realising information to undermine the 'No Deal' narrative all week. Oh and trying to persuade beg Mark Carney to stay another year at the BoE cos no one wants his job. Rees-Smug has been up to his usual English Gentleman Act where he replicates the MPs of the Victorian Era who were into fucking those from the colonies whilst stripping them for asserts, with impecable manners. Boris Johnson is looking for his next photo op where he can look zany and drop a headline grabbing offensive comment. If it winds May up, so much the better. The Tory Creche outing to Birmingham looks like its going to be a scream.

I should say something about the LDs here, so here's a tumbleweed for you.

Back to Brexit
The fishing wars have started. Michael Gove has yet to be sighted in a souwester though (give it time). The Scallop Wars are an insight into why we need a relationship with the EU. It turns out that the French are pissed because we've been using these big fuck off ships which dredge the sea bed and are a ecological disaster and haven't observed a break for a 'breeding season' this year, whilst the French are forced to do so by law. We had been observing an informal agreement where we stick to the same rules, but for some reason this year, some bright spark though it was a bad idea for us to do so. So the French have got a bit shirty in response. Gove is spitting the dummy and saying we will do something. The reality? Well what exactly can we do apart from go to the EU and use the EU courts apart from patrolling the seas with a lot of customs boats and officials we don't have? Cod Wars III here we come!

We've also announced plans for brand new white whale money pit satellite to circle solely over the UK. We aren't in need of coverage for the rest of the world, so we aren't going to waste money on flying over anywhere else who isn't prepared to help contribute financially to its construction. It is going under the draft name of 'Heliocentre'

In other news
If none of this cheers your spirits, then great news; Good Old Nige is making a come back!!! He's dead excited because he's planning his first big Nazi Leave means Leave rally in Bolton where he act out his childhood Hitler fantasy. It'll a cost you a fiver to get in. He's also bored and worried about his income, as he's now considering getting pasted in the London Mayoral Election for the publicity. So soon his face will be back on your TV boxes for Questiontime. Are you all so happy.

I rather suspect the Greens won't be objecting and will be only too happy they aren't getting the publicity they deserve as the 4th biggest party at the moment...

So the Summer is over and normal service is resuming. I hope you have enjoyed the rest and this post brings you a little up to speed. We have Party Conferences to look forward to in the upcoming weeks. Won't that be a joy to behold? And the resumption of shooting ourselves in the face in EU talks.

Oh and don't forget that Trump fellow too. Its all starting to look a bit tasty over there ahead of the November elections. What happens there in the next couple of months might be very important to what happens over here.

Who is excited?!

I am just dancing to the sound of the South African Beats.

On a different note my parents are driving back to the UK today. 2 hour passport queue at Calais made them miss the ferry. Taste of things to come?

This isn't necessarily anything new on the last weekend of the summer holidays. We last travelled Dunkerque to Dover 2 years ago, and passport checks by British officials were taking forever.

Re pensioners and healthcare in France, the difficulty appears to be that on 29th March their existing healthcare rights will fall away, and even if they qualify for healthcare under a different regime, it will take time for them to establish their rights. So they risk having a gap in their cover. And in my experience as a Briton in France, pensioners may have more difficulty than other groups in proving that their residence is "regular", because many spend substantial amounts of time in the UK and the majority have little or no French.

because many spend substantial amounts of time in the UK and the majority have little or no French.

probably also true of Spain, Italy and Germany too ?

The ubiquity of English could have had one of two effects on the English education system. It could have driven the teaching and promotion of a second language (any second language) exactly because of how widespread English is. Or it could have promoted a "why, bother, Johnny Foreigner sill speak English (and if they can't, they jolly well should)" attitude.

We know which won.

Maybe I'm a bit more aware, growing up in a bilingual home. But its still striking how some English people view speaking another language as akin to witchcraft. (My cousins put me to shame, as they had a Spanish Mother, Italian Father and grew up in London. So are fluent in 3 languages, and (like me) can have a passable stab in French, thanks to school.)

While I don't know how much of each language is spoken by folks at the northern border of Belgium they are likely to speak some French, Flemish, Wallonian, Dutch, English and German As you can be in any of these territories within a couple of hours

While I don't know how much of each language is spoken by folks at the northern border of Belgium they are likely to speak some French, Flemish, Wallonian, Dutch, English and German As you can be in any of these territories within a couple of hours

For various reasons, my DF knows a lot of people originally from the North of Italy - mainly Turin. To my ears they are fluent in French, and I know they've got good German too.

How many English people, living in the marches has even a rudimentary clue about Welsh ?

DG, Hazard My understanding is that the dance & the bung were in exchange for a promise

• not written, hence not binding - that those African countries would roll over the present trade agreements they have with the EU,

i.e. May was trying to retain what we already have as part of the EU

btw, the GDP of the entire African continent is only about ⅔ that of Germany

The Withdrawal Agreement contains a clause that the EU would help the UK more in persuading some other countries to roll over their agreements for the UK.

(the EU had started to do so already, but iirc gave up when the UK just wanted to fire off memos to the RoW. Dancing appears a new tack)

If there is no WA, this diplomatic effort by the EU on the UK's behalf will not happen

So if no-deal is the plan, we can look forward to May & her entire cabinet dancing around the world. Joy.

The Belgian scientists & engineers I've met speak several languages.
Those from the Netherlands are pretty multilingual too.

All techies I've met from the EU or the RoW have at least spoken fluent English.

Educated people in France almost always have at least one passable foreign language, especially those who have been to engineering or business school where languages are usually compulsory to bac+5 (masters level).

My daughter has come out of the French school system with Spanish at C1 standard (might be close to C2). Languages were very well provided-for with several subjects taught in Spanish by Spanish native teachers.

And France has a reputation for being poor at foreign languages by European standards!

I've only met a couple of Dutch people who have less than perfect English, and many also have at least one other language to a very good level too

An uncle of mine who worked in the agricultural science area as a sort of civil servant/research scientist (for an Irish government agency in an institute in a university - blurry lines here) learned French in order to collaborate with French scientists in west Africa (projects to do with the ever-creeping Sahara) and projects he led for a few UN initiatives. He also learned enough Russian to get the job done when he worked in grassland/environment for some Russian-Kazakhstani government/international agency projects after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Many of his colleagues were in the same boat when it came to learning languages on the hop. My uncle did Irish and Latin in his bog standard Irish boarding school in the late 40s and early 50s. Irish and Latin will set you up for any grammatical quirk you will ever encounter, in any language on earth. Most of his colleagues came from similar backgrounds - farming, national school, diocesan or Christian Brothers or de la Salle boarding schools, university to doctorate level.

My DCs in the US all aimed for university after high school and therefore have four years of a MFL under their belts as most universities that are worth going to will not look at an application that does not include at least three years of a MFL. They all had to pass proficiency tests in university or do a few years of a language in order to graduate. Their degrees so far are in economics, international political economy, and biology with a minor in chemistry. The DDs did French in HS, while DS did a year of German and three years of Latin. In university DD1 tested out of French but did two years of Persian out of interest, DD2 did a year of French and is now fluent, and DS did two years of German (can now read and speak well in German). DD3 also tested out of French and may take up Swedish.

I agree with the observation that speaking another language is viewed almost as witchcraft by some. Even on baby name threads here the reaction to Irish names is bafflement and questions along the lines of 'How will little Niamh/Aoife/Muireann ever learn to write her name?'

newsthump.com/2018/08/29/theresa-may-hoping-to-secure-lucrative-trade-deal-with-nigerian-prince/

Theresa May is hoping to use her trip Nigeria today to firm up the details of a lucrative low-risk deal with a Prince she has been in email correspondence with over recent months...

...“He emailed me out of the blue a few months ago and told me a very sad story about a civil war that was preventing him from accessing much of his vast wealth.

“All I had to do to help him was give him the account details for the Bank of England and he would pay a large amount into our account, which will certainly help with the trade deficit.

BigChoc what's your take on Chemnitz? Looks quite poor, former GDR? Is the march being reported much on German media?

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/tory-donor-calls-for-new-brexit-vote-37273346.html

A Tory donor has called for a second Brexit referendum as left-wing group Momentum said it would consult its members on what stance to take on EU withdrawal.

Former Rolls-Royce chairman Sir Simon Robertson insisted he is “deeply depressed” at the tone of the Brexit debate and wants a new vote on any exit deal agreed with Brussels.

He told the Observer: “I think it is complete balderdash to say the people have spoken, therefore you can’t go back. The people can speak again – why can’t we have another vote on it?

“We had a brilliant deal with Europe. We had an opt-out on ever-closer union.

“We are now going to end up with one where, at the end of things, we won’t have a final say.”

(contd)

Many years ago my df worked out in Quebec. I was studying at uni at the time and spent a few weeks for a couple of years out there with him. I remember talking to a woman working at a bar and she was saying how she was trying to stress to her parents how important it was to keep on at her younger siblings to learn English and not just quebecoise French apologies for spelling. The vast majority of English in the bar agreed, all saying how little we tend to care about other languages and how its real shame.

I hope my dcs take to other languages. I certainly won't discourage them for taking them up in school.

In Luxembourg, the first year of school is taught in Luxembourgish, the rest of primary is taught in German, and secondary is taught in French. So children are trilingual. English is taught from age 12, and from the first lesson it is taught in English. So before long the children speak excellent English too.

It appears that the EU 'preference' for the necessary border is in the sea so that the whole of the Island of Ireland can be treated as one entity in terms of customs. The concession would be that no control would be exercised with NI goods traveling to or from Ireland. I think the report says the DUP objects.
Surely taking the word Democratic from their title, and accepting that NI voted remain, (democratically) this should be possible?
Mr Raab has to quantify the amount of goods likely to be traveling across the Ireland 'non border'.

Boris gets serious with Lynton Crossby and Corbyn to get no confidenced and a party split.

Would Labour support a limited deal with sea border? If the alternative is no deal? After all, Corbyn is in favour of a united Ireland.

Wrt summer time/winter time and turning the clocks back - so many people have such long commutes now that it makes no difference whether the clock says 4.30 or 5.30 when they leave for their job, and depending on how far north in the hemisphere they live it's dark by the time they get on the train or the second bus home again too.

Looking at the Times there and their double coup. Is it a case of we'll keep throwing the dice and eventually one of us may come up with double sixes?

Mother It would not affect people at all,
because the Common Travel Area would remain

• and that's between the RoI and Britain, so certainly there would be no documents for NI either

It would only be for goods & services and Ireland is already treated as one island for many things now:

. electricity, meat (remember during BSE old Paisley Sr loudly proclaming NI beef was Irish beef so was safe for continentals in Europe to import)
. emergency health services, cancer treatment etc
. many small businesses like farmers, dairy businesses, plumbers, garages, vets are currently cross-border and depend on frictionless tavel

Wen Barnier asked the RoI to list the cross-border activities that treated Ireland as one, they came up with a list of 142 things

But its still striking how some English people view speaking another language as akin to witchcraft.

I grew up bilingual, too, and picked up English well enough to get by since my teens. Languages were seen as something practical you learnt when you needed to. I think the attitude in the UK must have limited many people in their choices, or their perceived choices. Eg. ever since the mid-90s, any UK citizen could have moved into my (perfectly decent, if a bit cold, with perfectly decent universities) country of origin and had a completely free university level education. I know plenty of people from there who came to study in the UK (me included), but have yet to run into a British person who went there for the purpose. And mine isn't the only country without university fees. It just doesn't seem to be a perceived option for the majority of people starting their studies in the UK? (You could actually even do some degrees fully in English in my country, I believe.)

It looks like the alternative to a sea border is no deal.

It's not bullying for the EU to say they won't wreck their treaties & their SIngle Market - on which their prosperity depends -
just because the Tory govt can't accept a Norway+ type deal, which would remove the need for a new NI border anywhere.

For the EU, that would be worse than no deal.
So, if a sea border would be worse for the UK / Tory party than no deal, then no deal it is

Mother Haven't you said before that your objection to a special deal for NI was that it was unfair for Scotland not to get the same ?
I remember posting a few times why NI is a very different case to Scotland

It has been reported that the SNP would raise a stink if NI kept frictionless trade with the EU while Scotland didn't,
so I appreciate it is something that puts Stottish noses out of joint

My compromise would be that the UK stays in EEA/EFTA until a referendum in NI votes to leave the UK, possibly as an independent state in the EU

This would be easier for some unionists to accept than an immediate United Ireland and would also avoid putting a financial burden on the RoI.

gone Germany has free uni education too; also some courses in English
(I don't know if students can do a completely free degree course entirely in English though - certainly only in limited subjects)

The suggestion of change from the routine of turning clocks back and forward underlines the ridiculousness of the Irish border - Belfast and Dublin clocks might end up telling different times.