Westministenders: Deadline Day #1

[RedToothBrush]

We have hit another Deadline Day.

As it stands, the EU are looking for more progress. May is digging in her heels by suggesting there is new a requirement for backstop to a backstop. The backstop to all intents and purposes is the GFA. So May is saying in effect, that the EU are forcing her to put in provisions to protect an international agreement we are signed up to, and if we breech it we risk peace in NI.

After lots of noise it seems that the Cabinet have decided to stick by May. For now.

The EU look like they are talking as if their meeting next month will exclude the UK and just go straight to No Deal planning.

There is also other talk of alternatives to allow the UK to stay in the customs union. But theres not much to that and it still doesn't solve the ERG and the DUP problem.

May is vastly unestimating how much the ERG and the DUP want to break the GFA. Which is a huge misjudgment.

There is also talk of the final final Deadline Day actually being Dec 13. For various reasons its not. Thats 29th March.

So Wednesday is Deadline Day #1. Expect more.

Have arrived in the big city after 10 sleepless hours on the coach!

Robert Peston @ peston
@JeremyHunt unambiguous that @theresamay will never agree to indefinite membership of the customs union. As I pointed out yesterday that almost certainly means there cannot be a Brexit deal. This is very serious

Esther Webber @estwebber
Jeremy Hunt: "Four weeks ahead of deadline to have a couple of outstanding issues is not bad" #BBCR4today

It's not that bad to fall flat on your face without a deal Jeremy?

I’d also like to thank everyone who contributes to these threads. I’ve been here since the start and the wealth of compassion and intelligence is what makes me keep reading.

My family will be on the March - I think of it as an act of dissent just as much as a demand for a vote - and I’m sure it’ll be good-natured, as all the others were. It’ll be nice to know so many of you will be there.

What the 'there's only a couple of points to sort out' tribe really don't get is that most negotiations or deals that fall apart do so because one particular point cannot be reached.

I can't see a customs union flying.

I can't see any deal flying to be honest, too many factions that have different aims.

I might email my MP pointing out that the word “shitshow” that I used about her Government’s handling of Brexit is now being used by her own colleagues on the back benches.

Cheers for the marchers. You are ace ! 💪🏻
I hope you don't get rained on

Seems to be the first day of Autumn here < shivers > finally, so yesterday was my last day in shorts for 2018

I'm embarassed; many thanks to Doctor, Mother, Babushka and everyone else for your kind words.

Doctor I'm so sorry you've still no home.
I hope you've friends in rl whom you can talk to, so you don't feel too isolated socially.

Mum & I sofa-hopped for a year, after losing our bungalow when dad died suddenly.
So, I know how depressing and insecure it can feel.

Although white & male may be privileged as a class, many individuals within that class are very disadvantaged.
It's no more consolation to you to know you are less likely to be stopped by the police etc,
than it was to me to know I was better off than people starving in Africa.

I gather you have qualifications and a job, so this is hopefully just a short period in your life, before you move up to a much better quality of life.

Bit of rain won’t stop us. Umbrellas at the ready!

Delurking. This thread has become my go to source of Brexit analysis. Thanks to all those excellent posters who follow all the pundits who are in the know. It saves me having to. I have little to add to the debate but appreciate you all. Me and mine will be with the Labour and Trade Unionists banners tomorrow which kicks off from the corner of Curzon and Park Lane. I will keep my eyes peeled for the Red Toothbrush Army at the Hilton.

Best of luck to our courageous marchers! Your human rights to free mobile roaming charges, cheap Eastern European au pairs and faster airport passport transit must be protected!

Break a leg!

I’ve never tried tablet - is it hard to bake?

Is anyone bringing tablet to the march?

Other friends have asked to join us now- a teaching assistant and GP. Their predominant concerns being the further economic effect of Brexit on education and the NHS.

Can anyone hear a buzzing noise?

Thanks to everyone who is marching tomorrow!

www.heraldscotland.com/news/16993036.uk-ministers-challenge-scottish-court-ruling-on-brexit/

heraldscotland.com
UK ministers challenge Scottish court ruling on Brexit
Tom Gordon
3-4 minutes

THE UK Government will today mount a last-ditch challenge to an emphatic judgment by Scotland’s highest court about giving MPs the power to block Brexit.

The Advocate General for Scotland’s office will ask the Court of Session for leave to appeal a decision handed down by Scotland’s most senior judge and two others last month.

In September's landmark decision by the Court’s Inner House, a group of Scottish politicians won permission to ask Europe’s highest court for an authoritative ruling on whether MPs can halt Brexit by revoking the Article 50 withdrawal process.

The Lord President, Lord Carloway, said the idea, dismissed by UK government lawyers as “hypothetical and academic”, should be referred as a matter of urgency to the European Court of Justice before Westminster votes on a final Brexit deal.

If the ECJ rules Parliament can revoke Article 50 without the permission of the other 27 EU states, it could in theory result in MPs stopping Brexit.

A one-day hearing at the ECJ in Luxembourg has now been scheduled for November 27.

The UK Government will today ask the Court of Session to reconsider and refer the case to the UK Supreme Court on appeal, with the aim of recalling the ECJ reference.

The case could be decided in Edinburgh today or continued at a more substantive hearing.

The fight for a definitive ECJ ruling has been led by Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, SNP MEP Alyn Smith, SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC and Scottish LibDem MP Christine Jardine.

They asked the Court of Session to ask the ECJ whether parliamentarians could instruct the UK government to revoke Article 50.

Their case was initially dismissed in June by Lord Boyd, but in September they won an appeal heard by the Lord President, Lord Menzies and Lord Drummond Young.

Mr Wightman told the Herald: “The reference [to the ECJ] has already been made. I don’t know why the UK government is wasting more time and money opposing a fairly resounding decision of the Inner House.”

Jolyon Maugham QC, whose campaign group the Good Law Project has helped coordinate the politicians’ case, said the UK Government’s arguments were “hopeless”.

He said: “The Government is scared witless at the thought of MPs and the public learning we was still Remain. If Theresa May can’t get her Brexit through Parliament we need a People’s Vote because she doesn’t have a mandate for driving the country off a cliff.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: "We were disappointed by the decision of the Court of Session and are seeking to appeal it in the Supreme Court.

“But it remains a matter of firm policy that we will not be revoking the Article 50 notice, and we will not comment further on ongoing litigation."

."

Talkstotrees - tablet requires 45 minutes standing over a pot stirring

First to bring it all up to the boil (can leave it occasionally), then 12 minutes stirring almost continuously so that the sugar doesn't catch and then 9 minutes hard beating before pouring into a Swiss roll tin to leave to set. Only after setting will you know whether the necessary micro-crystals have formed

Sorry I can't make it to the march. I'll be there in spirit.

RedToothbrush Army Not fair to use my name on this as its others making the effort not me. Don't credit me for something I'm not doing. Its the Westminstenders rather than me.

DH has spent much of the last two weeks away working in London, so is sick of the place and the travelling. It would have gone down like a cup of cold sick if I'd suggested it.

What the 'there's only a couple of points to sort out' tribe really don't get is that most negotiations or deals that fall apart do so because one particular point cannot be reached

I’ve hear a few people saying “oh these things always go to the wire, it will be alright in the end”

It’s like they are watching a film. The U.K. is the “goodie” who will be up against seemingly insurmountable odds. But you know they will win because the “goodie” always wins.

Thanks to all those marching tomorrow. Really means a lot.

Singapore is signing a trade deal with the EU today. So much for not trading around the world.

I will be cheering on the marchers from the west country. I would love to go but it wouldn't be fair on DS to take him because he doesn't cope well with crowds (ASD) or coaches and the train is too much money. I will be with you in spirit. I think this march will be the important one as it's coming at such a pivotal time when the whole thing is going to shit.

Sorry Red I think I suggested it, on the grounds that the colour stands out and it can’t be mistaken for anything else...I think?
But without your driving force I don’t think these threads would be the wonderful resource and space for discussion that they are. So in that sense, they’re yours.

Thats really nice, but I feel rather guilty for not being able to attend when you are all going and making the effort! I want everyone to get the plaudits they deserve really. But yeah the red thing is a cool idea!

I'm definitely there in spirit and will be watching on twitter.

Sam McBride @SJAMcBride
Arlene Foster's trip to Dublin doesn't seem to have healed the DUP-Irish Government rift. Sammy Wilson this morning describes the Taoiseach as "vile Varadkar" whose behaviour is "despicable, low and rotten".

You can almost touch the hatred coming off this.

Nice to see some old friends in other threads ...

AFP news agency @AFP
#BREAKING: Erdogan to host Syria summit with Macron, Merkel, Putin Oct 27 in Istanbul: Turkey

Anyone missing?