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...

I couldn't see them @1tisILeClerc - do you have a link?

imo a major reason why people don't think very deeply about issues any more, is simply the lack of time:

In my childhood, there was no homework, no special dressing up days, also no activities where DC had to be ferried to - kids just played outside and came in when it was dark or rainy.

Also, although the working day may have been theoretically 30 mins longer or whatever, presenteeism hadn't started and most folk had much shorter commutes than today

The there was of course no Tinternet, iShinys, videos etc and only 2-3 TV channels, hardly any of it kids stuff

So, families had little else to do but talk in the evenings !
Family time was not child-centred:
My parents discussed the issues of the day, the TV news, past stories of what had happened to the country and the world
I listened and asked a few questions, which were always answered fully.

My parents were "elderly", born at the end of WW ONE, so the histories I received in childhood of the suffering in Great Depression etc is probably more typical of earlier generations than most boomers

[email protected]

I signed up to them a few weeks back and every now and again a few plop into my inbox.
That may not the proper link but it is what I receive. Others have linked to it properly before.

bellini With your expertise in prepping, you should be ideal for one of these flash new govt prepping jobs

• or maybe such expertise is a disadvantage ?

Well I'm stood in Tesco at the moment and they are clearing one of the aisles for a new section...

... Bulk buys.

Never seen that before.

That job advert is very revealing. Not clear if three per location or three altogether.

I don't know about all that BigChoc. My DF was also born at the end of WW1. His life was his work, we didn't see much of him when we were growing up. I only felt I got to know him as an adult. It wasn't a question of having to work all the hours God sent to make ends meet, there was a large element of choice about it.

Having said that, we were brought up to question a lot more that DH's family. They barely questioned anything and had very fixed opinions. MIL surprised me by voting Remain!

study for the European Parliament on Brexit and the GFA

Superb info, well-organised, really professional.

I'm pretty sure the UK govt hasn't anything like this detailled analysisn and probably haven't commissioned anything

• other than colour-coding the map of NI green / orange / blue, to show the Secretary of State which are the Catholic, Protestant and water bits

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/596826/IPOLSTU(2017)5968266_EN.pdf

Why should the Govt be advertising such jobs . It was all going to be sunlight and roses, wasn't it?

Bulk buys?
Wartime rations were about 4 ounces of butter per week per person weren't they?
Maybe Tesco's are just rehearsing the 'empty shelf' scenario so people can get an idea of what it looks like? Bulk buys of 'fresh air.

Thank you @BigChocFrenzy . I would prefer to focus my energy on my little family but I'm actually a bit reassured to know that they are looking at it.
I get the impression that all Councils have a general emergency preparedness role but this sounds like they are trying to be joined up about it.

View from Hamburg:_ You do realize we can understand you when you talk, right?_

Seems to be forgotten when govt ministers slag off the EU for being like Nazis or Communists, then demand special treaatment as friends

https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-is-embarrassing-for-the-brits/

I love Britain.
But as domestic power struggles push its leaders into making increasingly outlandish and offensive statements that pander to party hard-liners, the U.K. is getting harder and harder to defend.

When the country’s top Tories compare the EU to the Soviet Union, or describe its goals as akin to Adolf Hitler’s,
that may be music to the ears of a handful of diehard Brexiteers who fantasize about being liberated from a Brussels-controlled gulag.

But to everyone else it’s ridiculous and, frankly, pretty embarrassing.

Listen up, London: Most of us in Europe speak English. We hear you.
And you’re embarrassing yourself and your country.

TM 's strategy when all else fails... blame the Frogs!
That good old blame game and the dear old enemy!
Will the Tories start quoting from Henry V next?

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/theresa-may-at-the-conservative-party-conference-gimme-gimme-gimme-a-deal-in-october-275qcmrhf

@RedToothBrush - that photo is a bit unnerving.
I know that Tesco and other supermarkets have flirted generally with a household only sort of shop but that has fallen away - one in Manchester closed down.
Bulk buys is trying to compete with Costco which they would only bother doing if they thought there was a market appetite for it. Guess they do.

Will the Tories start quoting from Henry V next?

And if they did, who'd know ?

Has anyone asked their councils what they're doing to keep services going post crash out? I have. They're doing nothing. And it's one of the ones listed on the mad max job list. It's not 'preparedness' it's something else. Reading up on the Civil Contingencies Act is pretty bracing. It's what replaces our rights under The European Convention on Human Rights at 11pm on 29.3.19.

'Resilience' is what the 450 poor souls who died on our streets this year didn't have. 'Resilience' is also not what the Nuremberg prosecutors would have called it.

Hats off to the SNP today, Sturgeon appears to be the leader of the opposition.
To everyone who has chosen to make Scotland your home. We value your contribution. We are better for having you here, and we want you to stay^ First Minister @NicolaSturgeon

@DGRossetti - sadly, I might because I am in a gilded cage of knowledge without any grasp on reality. Like all Remain voters.?Or I'd ask my dh who is similarly afflicted (and loves Henry V)

What are we to make of our Arlene's dash to Brussels ?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/09/brexit-dup-leader-dampens-hopes-of-irish-border-compromise

Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, has dampened hopes of a Brexit compromise by insisting Northern Ireland cannot be treated differently to the rest of the UK.

The DUP leader delivered an uncompromising message after meeting the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, on Tuesday morning, as Brexit talks head for a showdown at an EU summit next week.

(contd)

Just out of curiosity and to sound like a lawyer , what exactly is Arlenes standing in this situation ? Even if she were part of the UK government (she isn't as far as I know) then she's not been tasked with anything to do with Brexit, surely.

Or is she appearing in her role as part of the currently out-for-lunch devolved Stormont assembly (which she's not part of either).

Or is Barnier willing to see anyone that isn't May or Raab ?

@woman11017 - if you dig around onthe website there will be a general Emergency Preparedness thing. Nothing on Brexit on mine, anyway

dgr
Both of us have sometimes mused that this whole nationalistic and ultra liberal endeavour was the Tories' attempt to take us back to a feudal system.
Reading this article I just thought it's not the Dunkirk spirit they're after, it's Azincourt!

@OFOCBrexit
"Never has so much been lost by so many, to satisfy so few"

• Nicola Sturgeon on the impact of Brexit

Has anyone asked their councils what they're doing to keep services going post crash out? I have. They're doing nothing.

Simply because they haven't got the money. In fact, ultimately, they are paying for Brexit.

Yep Bellini most LAs, organisations have contingency plans for natural disasters and terrorist attacks, but none for a self inflicted crisis. Exam boards have set up a 'brexit contingency day' in June to mop up, I have to hope it is enough. If anything is sure to make keeping the peace more difficult it will be the mass closure of schools.

Meanwhile with less than six months to go, Mordaunt can't back Chequers and Davis warns of dire electoral consequences for the Tories if May doesn't rethink. My first thoughts were "Grow up, it's time to stop fighting now, and think of the country". Although not quite so polite.

I think there may well be dire consequences, but I suspect not because the Brexit they want isn't delivered, but because any form of Brexit will damage most people.

Yep Bellini most LAs, organisations have contingency plans for natural disasters and terrorist attacks, but none for a self inflicted crisis.

Business continuity/disaster recovery (yes, I know) should really be as generic as possible. After all, no power to a building, is no power to a building. Whether it's due to weather, terrorist attack, network outage, or alien invasion.

That said, generally, I notice that a lot of business continuity glosses over the reliance of an organisation on it's IT. My last employer were convinced that they could survive 3 days without their systems. They never tested that assertion, but (mysteriously) it was what they were being given a budget for. Personally, I worked out that 3 hours would have built up a backlog that could never be cleared.

For many processes, there's simply no manual alternative. Or - being precise - any manual alternative is untried and untested, and probably looked on as dark magic by the youngsters. ISDN ? Not today, thank you.