Westminstenders: Crisis. What Crisis

[RedToothBrush]

October is slowly rolling into November.

Your eyes, rightly, will be distracted by events the other side of the pond.

It won't be good and it won't be pretty and it will have an impact on what happens here in relation to Brexit in one way or another.

May seems to have headed off trouble makers for now. But that means nothing if she can't get a deal through parliament.

And if you think we are in anyway prepared for No Deal I'd like whatever drugs you are taking. That way lies only disorder and to put it bluntly, deaths.

We MUST find a deal, any deal to prevent that. Desperation is the final ingredients in this mess. Who will blink as they realise what's at stake?

The problem is though, is too few MPs have grasped what's at state, such is the quality of our elected representatives. And that's the truly terrifying bit.

If they can't work out the risk of no deal, they certainly not equipped to handle the fall out of no deal.

If you want to shit yourself anymore, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that the minister responsible for hauling all your food and medical supplies in the event if no deal, is Mr Christopher Grayling.

Start praying.

I tried sending a signed for letter to my previous MP. She cracked on it was never received. Yeah, right I thought. As I said though, when May called her election, said MP woke up to the fact that if you want to get elected constituents might need to be considered.

Depending of course where they are. At the moment, people like Raab and May think they are untouchable with their huge majorities, but you only need to look to the example of Scotland and Labour, where another party came along with an alternative and whoosh the huge majorities they took for granted disappeared. I don't see signs of the alternative yet, but the signs of the Tories having nothing to offer nothing to a generation under 40 are certainly there.

A numbers game can work though. It worked with the Poll tax e.g. people going along and paying their bills in the smallest denominations of coins which were legal tender, thus gumming up the works as the clerks counted out bags of £1 coins and bags of 50ps. Even if they had scales to weigh coins a procession of people trooping in with cash, rather than a nice direct debit would be a pain.

A signed for letter campaign could be quite effective but it'd need numbers and coordination. At a minimum you might imagine that 700,000 people could be roped in.

I increasingly think that some form of civil noncooperation that does not go as far as civil disobedience could be what we need (I do not think the sort of polite remainer who turns out to march peacefully is going to be up for civil disobedience).

Peregrina's poll tax example is a good one: legal but disruptive. Is there something like that we could do?

"Peregrina's poll tax example is a good one: legal but disruptive. Is there something like that we could do?"

I'm wondering if I should send in one letter per point to make. Their attention span seem to have trouble with multiple arguments and it would keep it all nice and simple for them

loving the idea of sending multiple letters with one point in each letter, it's very kind of you tanith to be adaptive to the gov's extra needs.

While having everything turn up on the 9th will be visually effective I think a continuous trickle of letters across 8-10th would work to if it was hundreds if not thousands per day. It'll keep the staff busy.

How depressing Singing to wake up and find your dream wasn’t true! I remember having bad dreams around the time of the Ref.

I think I’ll write to my MP now, and a similar one to Theresa for the 9th.

Mike of Scientists for EU says these 3 points are good to make in letters. And to make it personal.

1. What worries you about Brexit?
2. How would you like the UK to be?
3. A personal story that illustrates it.

He explains it on this video previously linked here.
www.pscp.tv/w/1LyxBQXDoOWJN?t=1m53s

My MP is a Tory ex-Remainer now Brexiteer, but if someone can change their mind once, maybe...

"Peregrina's poll tax example is a good one: legal but disruptive. Is there something like that we could do?"

Worth noting that ASBOs were designed to criminalise legal behaviour.

#justsaying

Worth noting that ASBOs were designed to criminalise legal behaviour.

Yes, but if we think the cause is worth fighting for, we have to accept that and take the consequences. Some people felt strongly about the Poll tax and went to prison for non payment. I agree it can be a tough decision, but I very much feel we are in a situation akin to 1930s Germany and taking no action is to be complicit.

I was on the march last week. They were distributing cards to send to our local MPs re the People's Vote, though as I didn't receive one I don't know exactly what they said.

I do know that there are plenty of people out there who didn't march but who were with us in spirit and might be willing to send a card to their MP if they received one. We have an LD team of leaflet distributors who could post them through letterboxes and I imagine there are similar teams up and down the country. All we need is stashes of cards.

I emailed my local LD councillor and she's going to try to set it up here. I tried emailing Vince Cable with the idea but got an automated reply from "Leader - Archive of Re-directed Mail" to say he was very busy but I would get a reply "in due course". I won't hold my breath.

I'm not at all sure how a People's Vote would work, or whether it's actually the way ahead. But it seems to me that we need to capitalise on the momentum created by the march and not just let it dissipate. The protests need to be getting louder.

To add to my list from earlier. This was only a matter of time.
Argentina to seize the chance to "enhance" efforts to pull the islands away from the UK and towards Buenos Aires. After Brexit, all EU treaties cease to apply and member states would no longer have to support the UK's claim over the territory.

www.smh.com.au/world/europe/argentina-eyes-falklands-as-brexit-removes-eu-support-of-uk-treaties-20181026-p50c2f.html

Farage has already called for civil disobedience if the hardest possible brexit isnt delivered. He has asked that petrol stations and motorways be blockaded. He has the ear of EDL, Britain First and that football supporters racist group and the wind is in their sails. Very dark times. I fear March 29th.

surabayajenny

Letters in envelopes are much better, envelopes have to be opened, very time consuming. If 700,000 people were willing to March hopefully at least that many would be willing to write a one line letter, its much less effort. They just need to know about the campaign. The letter could be as short as 'stop Brexit' or 'people's vote. Also, nothing stopping people sending more than one letter.

But it seems to me that we need to capitalise on the momentum created by the march and not just let it dissipate. The protests need to be getting louder.

Yes, we need to give the lie to 'the will of the people'. One reason for doing this would be to give May an out - she's tried but she can now say that the mandate as such, if it ever was, has expired.

KennDodd - I agree. But I'm thinking about people who might not know about the letter writing campaign but would respond to a card through their letterbox. We don't have a leaflet, readily available, urging people to send letters.

envelopes have to be opened, very time consuming

They have machines for that ...

One reason for doing this would be to give May an out -

she doesn't want one.

There may well be machines for opening letters but I'm pretty certain that most constituency offices don't have them. They'll generally be doing well tohave a kettle.

DG Does sellotaping the flap still foil the machines ?

I have no idea about the innards of envelope-opening machines, other than they have rollers that whizz the envelope through (what I imagine) are some spinning blades.

Funnily enough, I've just had a call from my local MPs office, to call them back when I get a chance . Not about Brexit though ....

Given the Anthrax attacks in NY a while back (or were they hoaxes ?) I'd hope offices have more than slitty-knives to open correspondence ?

Rather that letters, maybe postcards ? Give the local tourism industry a boost at the same time. You could even say that on the postcard - showing how patriotic Remainers are. Unlike the fleeing Brexiteers.

Hmmm, what a great title for a much loved artwork in the Tate in 2050. "The Fleeing Brexiteer". We could even adapt a Victorian classic (a version of which can be seen in Birmingham Art Gallery) ....

Sorry, it's all a but stream of consciousness today. TFI Friday and all that.

They'll hopefully have procedures for dodgy looking post, as do most public and civil servants. However most constituency offices are literally a one person and their dog operation.

Oh look ... another reason not to trust the UK.

If this is how the UK is prepared to treat allies while inside the EU, it's pretty obvious it'll have even less respect for them out of the EU. If anyone thinks this isn't going to feed back into the discussions, they're probably a Brexiteer, so impervious to facts.

www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/26/belgium_finds_evidence_gchq_belgacom_hack_proximus/

GCHQ’s rumoured hacking operation against Belgacom came back into the spotlight yesterday after a local newspaper revealed more tantalising snippets from a Belgian judicial investigation into the attack.

Originally having come to light thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden’s disclosures from American spy agency files he swiped from the NSA, the UK's signals intelligence bods are said to have hacked into the Belgian telco in order to monitor private communications flowing over its networks.

Belgian newspaper De Standaard reported yesterday that a judicial investigation had found proof that the hack, traces of which were found by Belgacom, “was the work of the GCHQ, an intelligence service of ally Great Britain”.

(contd)

nerd alert - even though Ford Maddox Brown is closely associated with the Pre Raphaelites, he did not form part of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood that was established to champion their values. He was Franco-British, echoing the Italian-British heritage of the Rossetti siblings who formed the core of the PRB (Christina isn't counted as a member, but personally I think that's more the way of the age than a reflection on her input).

The fact that the PRB then went on to produce some of the art considered archetypally "British" is not an irony lost in these quarters.

For those who like a human side, Ford Maddox Browns daughter, Lucy, went on to marry William Michael Rossetti, and continue the very private Rossetti family tree (my namesake DGR did not have any known children). Their family plot in Highgate cemetery is still tended, and well worth a visit, for those who like such things. Although the horrific story of Elizabeth Rossetti's (née Siddall) exhumation probably remains the reason for the draw for most.

I'm wasted in IT.