Westminstenders: Operation Yellowhammer 1q

[RedToothBrush]

Boris Johnson is clearing the decks for a leadership challenge.

I guess that means that the Brexit we get all depends on what George, Michael and Boris decide over lunch and how good Operation Yellowhammer is.

Arj Singh @singharj
DD has just said we should call ERG plan “free trade plus” rather than “Canada plus plus plus”. I’m struggling to keep up

Free trade with borders.

Sam Lowe @SamuelMarcLowe
ERG report on NI much closer to UK's preferred position than previous papers.

- checks away from the border;
- relies heavily on mutual recognition of standards;
- data sharing and customs cooperation.
- leaves open possibility of agri-food checks on GB-NI trade being done in ports. - seeks to build on intra-EU system for dealing with cross-border VAT (which, upon hasty reading, it doesn't mention ceases to apply once we leave the EU)
I should note that when you talk to the PSNI, they are just as worried about carrying out checks away from the border, in towns and villages, as they are about checks on the actual land border. Everyone always seems to forget the second bit.

Peter Foster @pmdfoster
Just seems to be a re-tread if MaxFac ideas already rejected. Or am I missing something? Or Is hope that impending no deal (which does confront EU with bad choices) forces an EU reconsideration?

Sam Lowe @SamuelMarcLowe
No, you’re on the right track. Max fac revisited

Arj Singh @singharj
Mogg accuses @christopherhope of “lowering the tone” by asking if the ERG want to oust Theresa May
DD and Mogg repeat backing for Theresa May despite reports of ERG plotting. Andrea Jenkyns, who has already submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM, is sat in the front row here. Brexiteers split?
Mogg says Tory MPs plotting against May are not doing it in their capacity as ERG members, which is “very policy based”

Noting here, that the ERG position (close alignment with agrifoods) does not seem to be compatible with the Liam Fox position (US Trade Deal).

Is this just my eyes (I am visually impaired) or does that photo from red's post reveal an ugly extra-terrestrial monster behind JRM, instructing him what to say !

ERG plan is rewinding back 2 years to Day 1 of May's Unicorn plan

"Everyone one agrees in NI ..." ?

Yes, when your own party's NI "discussions" consist merely of obeying DUP orders and giving them bungs

Mogg has no shame accusing others of "lowering the tone" when he is allied with Boris

(& when assorted fascists are sniffing the ERG's undercarriage, ready for a bonk)

OhLook Good to hear your gynae problem was solved so well (& shocked it was so basic to solve)

Oh please no! @BCF, some of us have only just had their lunch! (Ref Mogg).

JRM happily gets into bed with a serial adulterer then gets sniffy about lowering the tone. LMFAO.

Thanks bigchoc. I'm happy but also get a bit angry about it - for the years I suffered, was told I was just unlucky/making a mountain out of a molehill, etc and for the wasted money for something so relatively simple. And for all the other women who get put through similar. It did need an operation to solve it, and there's a slight likelihood it could recur but at least now I have a proper diagnosed history if it does.

More on topic - is it possible to lower the tone when the tone is flagrant bullshit?

OhLook
I expect so but the Gov press office are still working on it.

Nigel Dodds @NigelDoddsDUP
Dodds responds to ERG paper

The DUP are supporting the ERG 'no border - except its a border' plan.

That's no surprise. Dodds is even stupider and lazier than most Tory back benchers.

Faisal Islam @faisalislam
PM throws a bit of red meat to ERG...
suggests UK could withhold 38bn Brexit Bill if there is no deal...”Without a deal the position changes”

rolls eyes

If there is no WA, there will be no transityion period.

So, the UK can withhold that bit of the exit bill that covers the transtion period
but - if it ever wants a deal with anyt other country - needs to pay the current obligations, estimated at 25-30bn

On a completely different note, there's a very thoughtful bit of analysis from Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic today - looking at how authoritarianism developed in Russia, and drawing parallels between Lenin's application of it to Poland today and - increasingly - the US.

Those of us following Brexit will recognise many of the topes she identifies, too.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/poland-polarization/568324/

They dislike foreign investment and criticize privatization, unless it is designed to benefit their supporters. They undermine meritocracy. Like Donald Trump, they mock the notions of neutrality and professionalism, whether in journalists or civil servants. They discourage businesses from advertising in “opposition”—by which they mean illegitimate—media.

And the ERG's end game:

If you believe, as my old friends now believe, that Poland will be better off if it is ruled by people who deserve to rule—because they loudly proclaim a certain kind of patriotism, because they are loyal to the party leader, or because they are, echoing the words of Kaczyński himself, a “better sort of Pole”—then a one-party state is actually more fair than a competitive democracy. Why should different parties be allowed to compete on an even playing field if only one of them has the moral right to form the government? Why should businesses be allowed to compete in a free market if only some of them are loyal to the party and therefore deserving of wealth?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45487695
Workers are £800 a year poorer post-crisis

Kamal Ahmed @bbckamal
Remarkable - people who are aged between 30 and 39 now are earning £2,100 a year less than people of the same age group in 2008. @TheIFS study for @BBCNews reveals the persistent effects of the financial crisis, 10 years on #10thanniversary

WHY IS THIS REMARKABLE????
Tell people in this age group, something they don't know.

The remarkable thing is that BBC journalists find this remarkable.

I'm no economist, but all of this money being slowly sucked out of the system can't be good for the few capitalists there must be left in the UK.

@DGR
I think you will find it is special Tory 'unicorn' money, infinitely elastic.

From The Grocer:
Ms Frexit: an idiot's guide to the possibilities of Brexit

…Perhaps that’s a touch unfair. After all, there’s no evidence BoJo and his dwindling band of supporters have any plans whatsoever. So, once again, Frexit rides to the rescue with an idiot’s guide to the many attractive options offered by Brexit. I’m sure you’ll find it useful.

No Deal Brexit: An instant return to 1973, with the reintroduction of 9% inflation, Fine Fare and compulsory rickets. We can buy branded John Player Specials duty-free, subject to confiscation during a strip-search at Benidorm airport.

Hard Brexit: As above, but Jean-Claude Juncker concedes to allow us to buy luxuries such as food, clothing and electrical power from our principal trading partner, albeit with a 50% markup.

Chequers: That isn’t going to happen. Move on, please.

Brexit in Name Only: Theresa May calls in brand experts to take ‘membership of the EU’ and redesignate it ‘Brexit’, albeit with all the rules made by tiny evil gnomes living underground in Strasbourg.

Kick the Can Brexit: This is the one that will happen. The balance of stupidity between Tory in-fighting and the inability of Corbyn’s ‘opposition’ to tie its own shoelaces results in nothing happening at all. Everyone claims victory, and we pay £40bn for the privilege.
www.thegrocer.co.uk/opinion/bogof/ms-frexit-an-idiots-guide-to-the-possibilities-of-brexit/571468.article

Mere mortals like you and I can only spend a five pound note once. The Gov has a way of spending each fiver many times.

Mere mortals like you and I can only spend a five pound note once. The Gov has a way of spending each fiver many times

Andy Zaltzman has a nice routine about homeopathic money that gets diluted and diluted until it comes out of a cashpoint with a memory of what money used to be like ...

Nothing to do with Brexit, or maybe it is, if we could get some help from these folks to fix us.
Peace has broken out in Ethiopia/Eritrea. Nice footage.
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45475876?intlink_from_url=www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cen5x5l99w1t/ethiopia-and-eritrea-peace-agreement&link_location=live-reporting-story" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45475876?intlink_from_url=www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cen5x5l99w1t/ethiopia-and-eritrea-peace-agreement&link_location=live-reporting-story