Westministenders: The Slow Reveal

[RedToothBrush]

The DUP are playing silly buggers.
The EU are getting nervous and turning down the pressure.
The ERG still want Schroedingers Brexit.
The Budget is coming. So is a government defeat or climb down.
The M26 is closing.

Keep thinking of the glorious freedom your blue passport will give up whilst you search waste tips.

He wants the destruction of the gfa.

It won't be his fault though. It will be the fault of the Irish and the EU. I do wonder why he wants it though. Does anyone know?

Of a particularly inept bunch of politicians, Gove, Failing Grayling and Johnson must be three of the worst.

I've been saying to dh for a while that the word "negotiation" is the problem.

The Greek debt crisis was a negotiation. A trade deal is a negotiation. A house sale is a negotiation.

The Withdrawal Agreement is not. At least, not in the traditional sense of a negotiation where you come and go and meet somewhere in the middle.

It is probably better described as a "statement of account" : this is what is owed and this is what happens to assets/people when the UK leaves (which was its choice when it invoked A50).

The "negotiation" is really only around the UK border in NI as the EU has recognised even if the UK didn't that it was a special case because of the impact on the GFA.

Unfortunately, the WM Gov/Hard Brexiters and the DUP (for their own various reasons) have taken it to mean that the whole exit process is up for negotiation.

The EU has its own set of rules and responsibilities (which we signed up to and in many most cases helped to write). They could just have said when A50 was invoked, "Good night and don't forget to shut the door as you leave", and not even considered a withdrawal agreement and transition period. Instead, they have been more responsible than the UK Government in recognising and trying to manage and plan for the risks of a No Deal, while still trying to agree a Withdrawal Agreement.

To use a different analogy to the usual gold club one of a rules based organisation that usually requires a clean break, a different analogy would be an ordinary tax payer trying to "negotiate" with HMRC about how much tax is due. A good accountant might find ways to avoid paying some tax, but beyond that, them's the rules . Pay up or be sued (with interest).

@faisalislam
FAZ - according to German Government EU offering longer transition period..
And that the UK has asked for a backstop of a permanent UK membership of the customs union - EU only countenancing this as part of Future relationship, not Withdrawal Agreement

woman I came to share the same thing.
I’m wondering what is REALLY happening behind the scenes there.

I recommend the Mary Berry lemon drizzle cake too!. Dc2 makes an amazing cake with that.

^woman I came to share the same thing.
I’m wondering what is REALLY happening behind the scenes there^
It's all happening before the march. Who knows...........

On a different, but maybe linked note, we just had another short power cut. Had one a few weeks ago. Has anyone else had similar?

As seen on Facebook....

LEAVER: I want an omelette.

REMAINER: Right. It’s just we haven’t got any eggs.

LEAVER: Yes, we have. There they are. [HE POINTS AT A CAKE]

REMAINER: They’re in the cake.

LEAVER: Yes, get them out of the cake, please.

REMAINER: But we voted in 1974 to put them into a cake.

LEAVER: Yes, but that cake has got icing on it. Nobody said there was going to be icing on it.

REMAINER: Icing is good.

LEAVER: And there are raisins in it. I don’t like raisins. Nobody mentioned raisins. I demand another vote.

DAVID CAMERON ENTERS.

DAVID CAMERON: OK.

DAVID CAMERON SCARPERS.

LEAVER: Right, where’s my omelette?

REMAINER: I told you, the eggs are in the cake.

LEAVER: Well, get them out.

EU: It’s our cake.

JEREMY CORBYN: Yes, get them out now.

REMAINER: I have absolutely no idea how to get them out. Don’t you know how to get them out?

LEAVER: Yes! You just get them out and then you make an omelette.

REMAINER: But how?! Didn’t you give this any thought?

LEAVER: Saboteur! You’re talking eggs down. We could make omelettes before the eggs went into the cake, so there’s no reason why we can’t make them now.

THERESA MAY: It’s OK, I can do it.

REMAINER: How?

THERESA MAY: There was a vote to remove the eggs from the cake, and so the eggs will be removed from the cake.

REMAINER: Yeah, but…

LEAVER: Hang on, if we take the eggs out of the cake, does that mean we don’t have any cake? I didn’t say I didn’t want the cake, just the bits I don’t like.

EU: It’s our cake.

REMAINER: But you can’t take the eggs out of the cake and then still have a cake.

LEAVER: You can. I saw the latest Bake Off and you can definitely make cakes without eggs in them. It’s just that they’re horrible.

REMAINER: Fine. Take the eggs out. See what happens.

LEAVER: It’s not my responsibility to take the eggs out. Get on with it.

REMAINER: Why should I have to come up with some long-winded incredibly difficult chemical process to extract eggs that have bonded at the molecular level to the cake, while somehow still having the cake?

LEAVER: You lost, get over it.

THERESA MAY: By the way, I’ve started the clock on this.

REMAINER: So I assume you have a plan?

THERESA MAY: Actually, back in a bit. Just having another election.

REMAINER: Jeremy, are you going to sort this out?

JEREMY CORBYN: Yes. No. Maybe.

EU: It’s our cake.

LEAVER: Where’s my omelette? I voted for an omelette.

REMAINER: This is ridiculous. This is never going to work. We should have another vote, or at least stop what we’re doing until we know how to get the eggs out of the cake while keeping the bits of the cake that we all like.

LEAVER/MAY/CORBYN: WE HAD A VOTE. STOP SABOTAGING THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE. EGGSIT MEANS EGGSIT.

REMAINER: Fine, I’m moving to France. The cakes are nicer there.

LEAVER: You can’t. We’ve taken your freedom of movement.

No English language version in FAZ, but Reuters also has the story, but a bit different emphasis:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-germany/eu-offered-britain-extension-of-transitional-period-faz-report-idUSKCN1MQ2JA

The European Commission has offered to allow Britain to remain in the EU customs union and internal market beyond an agreed transitional arrangement until the end of December 2020,
the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Tuesday.

“In a goodwill gesture to Britain, the commission has raised the possibility of extending the transitional period,”
the newspaper reported, citing a German government document.
It did not say what the new date was.

Fair summary so far, Plonky

The European Commission has offered to allow Britain to remain in the EU customs union and internal market

This would be sensible but Theresa May doesn't do sensible.

plonky sounds about right!

Love the cake analogy

@Peregrina Agreed. May has opted for no deal. That cabinet meeting could be read no other way today "we can get through this if we stick together". That's it, it's done. I'd start making personal preparations now.

I would be cautious about talking up a crash out no deal scenario. Yes, that may happen if there is total intransigence on the UK side, despite all the apparent helpful signals being sent out by EU.

I know some will say it's all the EU's fault, but honestly I would like someone to back that up. There has been nothing but courtesy and professionalism from EU, but no reciprocation from the UK except a few headless chickens looking over their shoulders for a beheading or a promotion. And a strangled and silent so called "opposition".

I am very much hoping this is theatre. The Irish Foreign Minister is getting a bit tetchy too, but keeping his cool just the same. Of course ROI will be in the firing line for blame too. What a joke.

Let us see what tomorrow brings, if anything.

Hello.. it might seem a digression but you can see the reasoning I'm sure - my understanding is the CTA between uk and Ireland continues even if no deal... ? Am I getting that right?

@falcon5 The UK and Ireland would need a hard border under WTO rules in the event of a no deal. Two differing economic regulatory countries need customs checks.

The CTA will be unaffected it predates EU membership.

The CTA would (or rather could) still apply as it's do with people rather than goods (ie trade).

The clue is in the name: the Common Travel Area.

CTA is unaffected. Imagine turning away a person from NI who just has an Irish passport! NI people can have an Irish/UK passport or both. Armageddon would ensue.

@GhostofFrankGrimes there would have to be customs checks however.

The Greek debt crisis was a negotiation

It was theft on a grand scale from the Greek people. The banks had the money back already from their insurers. Don't forget, the Greek people voted against the IMF 'deal', and the Troika imposed it anyway. That such an antidemocratic move was trumpeted as a great deal by the MSM is worrying. It's made Greece a poorer place.

As I told my Ex-ILs, the only thing I agree with Farridge on is that the EU parliament is not democratic in the sense that they vote on motions approved by the EU Commission, but I would rather be in the tent pissing out.

Ah. Thanks !

@lisaocarroll
BREAKING: FT reporting that "Barnier has said he is open to the possibility of a one-year extension to Brexit transition in return for Theresa May accepting a “two-tier” backstop to avoid a border in Northern Ireland, according to EU diplomats".

@woman11017

@adamflemming Ok I’ve now heard that @MichelBarnier said EXPLICITLY today that the concept of an extended transition/implementation period was floated with the U.K. but went nowhere. I’ve also heard he mentioned IMPLICITLY that it was discussed and not agreed. Welcome to my life.

If anyone had any wonder as to why we are in this mess

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/irish-passport-england-uk-andrew-bridgen-tory-mp-brexit-border-eu-a8587286.html
A Tory MP has made the bewildering and incorrect claim that all English people are entitled to an Irish passport.
When asked whether he understood the fact Northern Irish citizens will also remain EU citizens after Brexit due to the Good Friday Agreement, he said: “Well, that's the common travel area as well, isn't it? We do have the right to go over to Ireland, don't we?”

And these are the people who are allegedly deciding if the cutwhat Reid the country, a country they know so little thatbthey have no idea what the GFA is and what are the Irish/british relationship....