Westministenders: Gin O'Clock

[RedToothBrush]

After disaster after Salzberg and a very predictable humilation over the Chequers Deal which the ERG reject, moderate Brexiteers reject, Remainers reject and the EU reject....

May does a press conference...

...which is delayed by a power shortage inside No. 10.

And....

Ugh, that’s an ugly link - sorry I don’t know how to embed. It’s Prof D and Mike G at the Labour conf, chatting about current state of Brexit.

Hi folks. Checking in to this little oasis of sanity in a sea of madness - I see the government is still gleefully driving the country off a cliff, most voters are utterly clueless and just hoping everything will be okay in the end, businesses are quietly panicking and it's now hate speech to say that a woman is an adult human female.

I'd like to came back out of the looking glass now, please.

Experts, Lonely, experts. They’ve had enough of them...

Yes but if you substitute the word expert with " trade industry specialist with a lifetime of experience " . Then the advice or warning has more gravitas. Don't you think the word expert almost has come to have air quotes around it.

I'd like to came back out of the looking glass now, please.

Me too!

OTOH, I am quietly amused by all the angry (well, they're always angry) Leavers around recently. Their slogans, interestingly, haven't changed one jot since before the ref. Still with the "Project Fear" "pull together" "just believe" "let's make it a success".

The only progress is that some of them are beginning to urge actual mobilisation in the form of riots, until now they're been more keen on slumping passively like a stranded jellyfish in the baking sun, because it's "boring" and "have faith" and "nobody has a crystal ball".

inews.co.uk/news/brexit/brexit-mp-daniel-kawczynski-shrewsbury-lemons-tesco-twitter-trade-tariffs/

I saw that twitter thread yesterday - brilliant. It really needs wider circulation.

www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107332
This is Thatcher's speech from Bruges in 1988.

Its been floating around the twittersphere over the last couple of days as a point of reference.

I certainly think its worth reading and reflecting on.

It contrasts hugely with anything being said politically from any quarters today.

Don't you think the word expert almost has come to have air quotes around it.

You’re probably right. I just know if the time comes I have to contemplate how to go about anything with serious consequences - say tooth extraction, structural work on the house, major (come to think of it, even minor) surgery, I shall always be happy to talk to an expert in that field. I certainly won’t be giving equal weight to the views of Dave from the local boozer .

I get your point. How this sort of advise/opinion is framed and presented to the public is key to how much they will engage.

How this sort of advise/opinion is framed and presented to the public is key to how much they will engage....

Yes it's the language and presentation - it's so powerful.

Brexit- sounded new exciting and has the X in it. Like X factor- collective harmless entertainment the nation can vote upon.

Leave- implies there's an element of leave in it .It was like the go home vans. It encourages a belief that some people aren't at home already. It annexes secret hopes that likely terrorists might just leave and create a nice safe community.

Experts- implies self appointed preaching not real practical nous and experience.

Don't you think the word expert almost has come to have air quotes around it.
When you live in a world of alternative facts, anyone and everyone is an 'expert'

Tom Watson @tom_watson
It has been suggested that in the run up to the referendum the PM as Home Secretary declined at least one application from the security services to investigate Leave.EU Arron Banks and others. There needs to be an investigation; it is the time for the truth to out.

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla
Warning: THREAD. Because this was a big deal. Labour's dep leader asks why no investigation into Russian interference in UK. It is completely BAFFLING that Trump-Russia is THE story in the US. But here, we're in total denial about our own role slap bang in the middle of it. Why?

Why has govt refused to answer @DamianCollins & @CommonsCMS questions about what NCA is doing? What intel services know? Cross-party group of MPs called for urgent investigation into source of @arron_banks' £££. But NCA told @BenPBradshaw, nothing doing. What is going on?

Hello! Carole!

Why are you not asking about this:

Bill Browder @billbrowder
BREAKING: Bosses at UK’s NCA ordered most senior money laundering investigator in the country NOT to investigate $30m of Russian money laundering in UK banks from Magnitsky case. This reeks of a full scale cover-up

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/22/national-crime-agency-ordered-stop-investigating-russian-money/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Russian money laundering investigation was ordered to stop, says former head of corruption unit

Or questioning the stuff about Abramovich. And why the Home Office were not asking bigger questions in the past.

Carole asks what the NCA are doing. But we know the NCA were previously blocked from investigating money laundering. The question that needs chasing up is simply, who blocked it and why?

The finger points directly at the Home Office at this moment in time....

And why is that an issue?

Oh yes.

What a mess.

Hazard

Just heard back from my MP. He should have saved his breath so he can kick the can further down the road:

"Thank you for your email. I was sorry to read about your health problems and sincerely appreciate the concerns you have about access to medication.

As you mention, stockpiling plans are being put in place to prepare in the event of a no deal Brexit. I have written directly to the Department for Health to see if they are able to answer your specific question and shed more light on the preparations. I will be in touch once I receive a response."

So he's written to the DoH to "shed more light on the preparations". Surely these must be common knowledge within the government, particularly at Junior Minister level, which he unfathomably is.

Even more galling when 'ordinary' people have to faff about to take a few grand out of the country.

You do have to beware of giving experts more gravitas than they deserve. By this I mean, just because they are experts in their field doesn't mean they are experts in others. For example, you may have an absolutely brilliant dentist, but you wouldn't want him to do brain surgery on you.

Just realised, that I do have regular medication - prescription toothpaste. I doubt whether that is going to be on anyone's list, and TBH it really isn't of the same priority as e.g insulin, or Parkinson's meds. However, mine supply will probably run out at the end of March, so I must see if I can get some a bit earlier.

Hasen

Thank you for the update and well done for getting a response

If I'm honest I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't know much more than he said, my conclusion over the past few years is that while people like to bang on about equality and caring, people mostly just like empty phrases and consider ill/disabled people to be someone else's problem like over there somewhere. Death by passivity not actual cruelty. (Lol sorry if thats dramatic having a bad day!)

Also it could be the first time the bellend has thought "actually these plans are quite shit, better check further up if they really are this shit".

Honestly I think yours is the fourth response and it's one of the best. Take a kicked can if the can comes back with more info

Thanks again your a

TL;DR - anyone on meds can get fucked, as far as the government is concerned.

I wonder how this will translate into Labours Brexit strategy when they decide what it will be ?

Lurking I know what your MP can do to help, STOP BREXIT IF IT'S GONNA BE THIS SHITE. Be the fucking hero we all need and stand up and declare the shiteness that is happening.

Thank you for putting yourself out to contact your MP and I'm sorry she couldn't clarify your meds.

I read that letter (although I am probably biassed) that the MPs
??? are almost attempting to blame the NHS for Brexit so THE NHS
should be doing all the running around and preparation.

I have emailed my MP again - my Mum got a cancer diagnosis last week, so on top of the list of medications she needs, I now have to worry about her radiotherapy treatment. I have asked him for an update on our progress making alternative arrangements to Euratom.

I have also asked him to assure me that her treatment will not be affected by Brexit, and if he cannot, how he justifies to himself supporting this government on its current path...

I was also going to go to a surgery to make my concerns known in person, only to find out that he operates 'virtually'... phone or email only, apart from 'street surgeries' that he only appears to advertise after the event on Twitter, saying what people have talked to him about (which never seems to be Brexit)... He is also obsessed with the frigging Council of Europe. Maddening.

So does he want the UK to leave the Council of Europe too ?

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/26/eu-holds-emergency-meeting-amid-fears-labour-would-vote-brexit/
And
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-negotiations-latest-trade-deal-angela-merkel-theresa-may-a8555521.html

What’s going there?
It seems that the EU is starting to put quite a bit of pressure on the U.K. whilst been worried that Labour is going to fuck up and agreement they finally manage to get.

The comment about making sure the WA is quite clear in which way the whole thing is going to go is interesting. The EU seems to be keen in ensuring that the government can’t back out again (as it has done with the December agreement) or protect themselves from a change of government (ie Labour coming into power)

And In the mean time, an analysis of what JC is actually up to (If this is true, I can actually get behind him in that)
www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/jeremy-corbyn-real-brexit-strategy

Take a kicked can if the can comes back with more info grin

Unfortunately, judging by previous replies I've had from him, the can will be composed completely of recycled materials

I would discount any tone of EU panic when reported in the Telegraph. Or mail. Or Express.

However, it's sensible for the EU to nail down any agreement given to it by the UK, since - as a sovereign nation - the UK parliament is unable to bind it's successor parliaments, so any subsequent UK government might not hold to any agreement given by a previous one unless it had the force of international law. Which makes the whole obscenity even worse. At the same times as preaching about "taking back control" the Brexiteer camp are actually prepared to set Brexit in aspic, to try and frustrate future governments. All of this while bellyaching about the GFA.

There really isn't enough contempt in the universe for these people. Brexiteers, not leavers.

I'm thinking any "crossover point" in the future will come when there are only Remainers, and Brexiteers, and all the Leave voters have given up in despair. Because that's the point where Remainers are the majority by - guess what ? - 2:1. As close to the 1975 result as you can get.