Westministenders: Talks Walk Out?

[RedToothBrush]

We are now on the countdown to whether we get a backstop Withdrawal Deal. May is hoping to get the EU to backdown on this saying that we will stay in the customs union until a deal is agreed on NI. That would mean come 29th March, we'd have no transistion period, but we'd still have a hard border in NI because we were out of the single market. And if the EU don't agree to it we are into the chances of accidental Brexit being sky high. The only way out would be revoking a50. May has hinted that if Tory MPs don't give her support we could end up with no brexit at all - whether she means revoking a50 or Beano isn't clear.

So onward to 18th October...

@faisalislam
NEW: First Minister of Scotland @NicolaSturgeon tells me at SNP conference “it would be my position “that Northern Ireland backstop on single market being negotiated right now should also apply to Scotland

twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1049272166888497154

Christopher Hope @christopherhope
BREAKING Arlene Foster flies to Brussels tonight for 3 days of intensive talks with EU negotiator @MichelBarnier. She says she wants to see the UK to "exit the EU in a sensible manner "but also importantly in a way that works for our nearest neighbour in the Republic of Ireland".

With regard to young folk, in work, but who can’t afford to buy a home.... my DC have worked hard after Uni, lived with me to save on rent, saved as hard as they can, but still have nowhere near enough for deposits on flats. And massive student loan debts.
So they think ‘sod it, this is unachievable, I’m going to spend it on some fun.’ And off they go travelling or some other hedonistic pursuit (music festivals, shopping etc.)

I think there’s a mindset of ‘society’s not investing in me, caring about me, providing for me; so I’m not going to invest in society.’ So they quit their jobs and off they go. Can’t say I blame them really. The demise of patriotism in a certain demographic?

There’s a very ‘temporary’ feel to it all. And I think this is repeated with many others.
Sad.

Megan Lucero @ megan_lucero
.@bureaulocal reveals a year of counting homeless deaths - 449 people across the UK. We began working w/ locals to collect these deaths because no official body did. Today the @ONS announced they will start producing official figures. #makethemcount

The invisible who beaucracy does not deem worthy of counting. They do not exist to government. This is why we have investigative journalism. Without it, more people will simply disappear through the cracks in our society:

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-10-08/homelessness-a-national-scandal
HOMELESSNESS
“A national scandal”: 449 people died homeless in the last year

We found out about the deaths of hundreds of people, some as young as 18 and some as old as 94. They included a former soldier, a quantum physicist, a travelling musician, a father of two who volunteered in his community, and a chatty Big Issue seller. The true figure is likely to be much higher.

Some were found in shop doorways in the height of summer, others in tents hidden in winter woodland. Some were sent, terminally ill, to dingy hostels, while others died in temporary accommodation or hospital beds. Some lay dead for hours, weeks or months before anyone found them. Three men's bodies were so badly decomposed by the time they were discovered that forensic testing was needed to identify them.

They died from violence, drug overdoses, illnesses, suicide and murder, among other reasons. One man’s body showed signs of prolonged starvation.

The average age of the people whose deaths we recorded was 49 for men and 53 for women.

Average life expectancy is 79 for men and 82 for women. That's 30 years more.

Jennifer Williams @ JenWilliamsMEN
Ahead of #Dispatches, which looks at the state of policing under austerity, here’s my piece on the picture in Greater Manchester: a fourfold rise in violent crimes not investigated - and most burglary, arson, shoplifting and theft screened out too

This is having a huge impact on communities across Greater Manchester and is something people are telling us about almost daily. Austerity certainly ain’t over yet

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/most-theft-burglary-arson-criminal-15254960.amp?__twitter_impression=true
Most theft, burglary, arson and criminal damage is no longer investigated by police
Every week the Manchester Evening News newsroom gets calls and emails from victims of crime mystified that the police are not investigating - and today's figures seem to bear out those concerns.

A staggering 17,000 violent crimes were not followed up by officers last year, with police chiefs blaming stark budget cuts for the pattern.

Every week the Manchester Evening News newsroom gets calls and emails from victims of crime mystified that the police are not investigating - and today's figures seem to bear out those concerns.

The only two categories of crime to have bucked the trend since 2014 are murder and drugs possessions offences

Well there's a pretty plausible explanation for the rise of people desiring authoritarian governance and the return of the death penalty right there.

Yes, how to cut public services and increase the authoritarian vote
A win-win for the hard right

Vast majority of Tory & NI Leavers would sacrifice the NI Peace Process to have Brexit

Bastards
Shows what they are like
The DUP voted Leave partly to wreck the GFA and become top dog again over the Catholics / Nationalists
The Tories would sacrifice everyone outside England, to get their hard right dream

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/brexit/shock-poll-finds-87-of-northern-ireland-leave-voters-say-peace-process-collapse-price-worth-paying-for-brexit-37395306.html

The Future of England Study' from the Universities of Cardiff and Edinburgh found that
87% of NI's leave voters would see the collapse of the peace process as an acceptable price for Brexit

It also found that
75% of English Conservatives would support the collapse of the peace process as long as Brexit is delivered.
...
Northern Ireland voted against Brexit by 56% to 44%

Also,
"in none of the UK's nations are a majority of taxpayers happy to see their taxes spent in other parts of the UK."

Right, the Uk is no longer a functioning country

www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/oct/08/labour-and-tory-mayors-unite-to-demand-they-take-back-control-of-regional-spending-after-brexit-politics-live

"Most English Tory voters would be happy to see UK break up as price of Brexit, survey suggests "

"Nearly half (49%) of English Conservative voters do not think Scottish MPs should sit in the UK cabinet
and, in worse news for David Mundell [the Scottish secretary] as the SNP gathers in Glasgow, 24% of Scottish Conservative voters agree with them"

WTF ! The UK is in serious danger - it's from the Tories, from the Leavers and their bloody English Nationalism
They just want England to rule - and so do many Scottish Tories

Right, the Uk is no longer a functioning country
It's as if it's under attack. From within and without.
This channel is good. Watch while we can. Just about to discuss the thingy.
www.euronews.com/live

All the police problems can be laid at the feet of our inglorious prime minister. She cut the budgets and forced tens of thousands of police and ancillary staff out of work. Her fault, all of it, other than the editor of The Standard, Gidiot.

I'm lucky. I'm not street homeless, I have a roof over my head due to a Guardian scheme. When this ends I at least have a car I can live in. In the university city I currently live in I see dozens of street homeless people. There is absolutely no need for this, it's just neoliberal policy.

The Tories wouldn't be in power now, if the Scottish Tories hadn't done so well at the last election. Don't they now have 13 seats as opposed to one before?

Oh, and I didn't NC because why should I feel ashamed about a government policy from a government that cares not a jot for people like me. They're alright Jack. The rest of us can just fuck off and die.

DoctorTwo I'm so sorry - and so angry - that you may be faced later with living in a car
What a bloody awful society that accepts this, rather than pay a bit more tax

87% of the 44% who voted leave in NI feels too many to be believable, 75% of tories even less believable.
If you were a russian operation trying to disrupt the EU and make the uk an irrelevance for a while, then apart from influencing elections and the referendum surely you'd also seek to control the polls.

if you did that then you couldnt really adjust all results significantly, you'd have to choose your moment to make a big impact - this has the feeling of such a moment. too many of those voters will have lived through the troubles and the mainland operations to throw it away.

i'd suggest yougov has been hacked.

So sorry about your situation DoctorTwo I was ranting discussing today with dh about the supposedly serious analysis about the reasons behind the slow rate of recovery since the 2008 financial crash compared to previous recessions. I was shouting at the TV that it's because of fucking austerity and the fact that fucking "trickle down economics" DOESNT. WORK.

And breeeeaaaathe

Peregrina is correct: this is one of the very few occasions where the Scottish MPs have made a difference to the colour of the government. Although it should have come into the same category as the "unstable" governments that didn't last the course or limped ineffectually through their term that may still be the case - but with the lack of a decent Opposition, they've pretty much had a free reign.

Frankie That number sounds like the DUP vote plus some hardliners from other unionist parties
The polling company is reputable enough

The Tory Leave figure also fits in with the multiple comments on phone-ins and online

Brexit is based on militant English Nationalism, but we have seen for years before this in polls that English voters resent the (higher epr head, they think) amounts spent on the other 3 natuons.

Read what the DUP and Tories like Gove say about the GFA - they alway opposed it as surrender to the IRA and they want it abolished

Gove wrote a pamphlet in 2000 called "Northern Ireland: the Price of Peace" in which he compared the agreement to the appeasement of the Nazis in the 1930s and the condoning of the desires of paedophiles.

It was published by the Tory think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies,

This is rather a late afterthought - or did someone in post quit in despair ?

Ad for Head of EU Exit Office (veterinary medicines)
By the time they find someone and that person gets up to speed, Brexit will be upon us.

https://m.hays.co.uk/Job/Detail/head-of-eu-exit-office-surrey-en-GB3442974?q=head%20eu%20exit&location=&applyId=JOBB_1926224&jobSource=HaysGCJ&isSponsored=N&specialismId=&subSpecialismId=&jobName=jobs/5994368224526336

Posted upthread by RTB
Christopher Hope @christopherhope**
BREAKING Arlene Foster flies to Brussels tonight for 3 days of intensive talks with EU negotiator @MichelBarnier. She says she wants to see the UK to "exit the EU in a sensible manner "but also importantly in a way that works for our nearest neighbour in the Republic of Ireland".

The snake...

If the GFA goes tits up then there will be a return to the Troubles, and immense anger in Ireland because Ireland voted on the GFA at the same time that NI did. Ireland voted to amend its constitution, and could vote to amend it right back. The territorial claim to NI that was enshrined in Bunreacht na hEireann (the Irish Constitution) was repealed. ...the territorial claim was replaced with an aspiration for a united Ireland to be achieved "by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island". [Wiki]

That wording presupposes two jurisdictions on the island, not one jurisdiction on another island and one consisting of 26 'southern' counties. The existence of a devolved government in Stormont is assumed as opposed to direct rule. It's possible the changed wording could stand, to offer hope to those in NI who have been spat at in the face and to reiterate that a peaceful process is preferable. But the territorial claim would have a lot of appeal.

The idea that DUP scum would make idiots out of a massive majority of Irish voters as well as the majority in NI, on the question of the GFA and on the question of Brexit (majority of NI voted Remain) would definitely stiffen opinion on reunification both north and south of the border.

Foster is an idiot. I'd say "I hope she gets her arse served to her on a plate with ketchup " if it didn't have depressing consequences for everyone.
She lost the poll in NI but gets to win because of English and Welsh leave voter stupidity.

@bigchoc - reputable companies are the ones that get hacked :)

• i just see them as a valuable target.

Farming Today: batshit UKIP MEP says RoI should leave EU. Also climate change.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000nnq