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Brexit

Westministenders: Reality Bytes

985 replies

RedToothBrush · 01/11/2018 22:39

Tonight the Corbyn and McDonnell Labour Party supported the Tory Party in improving the tax allowance for higher rate tax payers.

Yes you read that right. Did you even blink?

You've been so conditioned into seeing non existant opposition which seems to go against everything the Labour Party stand for that you no longer are shocked.

That's what 2 and a half years of Brexit has done to you.

You no longer care that Boris Johnson got £14,000 from the Saudis a couple of days before the Khashoggi murder. You know longer care that the former Defence Secretary is employed for £75,000 a year to advise a major Saudi Investor.

You are just happy that Trump hasn't started a war with Iran or North Korea yet. And hasn't started a civil war. (Though he's trying hard and next week is his best opportunity to stir it all up). You aren't surprised to hear that predictions are that the Democrats will fail to make gains in the mid terms.

You've suffered the 4657 story about how Therea May is just about to be challenged for the leadership.

You've heard about the squad set up at the Home Office to clear up all the cases the media get their hands on as the latest burning injustice. You are hearing that EU nationals who have been promised they are 'safe' are being subjected to questions about their right to stay. And you just shrug and say, "Yeah well thats the Home Office for you. The Bastards". And you do mean it, but you are so jaded by it all. And you worry that another 12 months from now, you won't even be interested in another story like that, and the press will stop printing them as they no longer interest the reader. What happens to your friends, your family, or even you then? Who is going to care then?

And then you have today.

A day where you hear that Bannon is being investigated by the Senate Intel Committee, Farage has been upgraded to the FBI's Really Naughty List and Banks has (FINALLY) been refered to the NCA. (We were only speculating on the possibility, on the 26th March...)

And you go 'Ooooooooo maybe there is hope'.

Maybe we COULD remain in the EU and avoid Turnip Soup and wiping your arse with leaves because of the national bog roll shortage. Or at least get a decent deal which suits us as a nation. Maybe, just maybe!

And that lasts for about 2 minutes before you log into twitter and the very first thing you see this:

Tom Newton Dunn @tnewtondunn
Excl: David Cameron tells friends he’d like a return to frontline politics, and fancies Foreign Secretary
www.thesun.co.uk/news/7639377/david-cameron-return-to-politics/

And you let out a high pitched screech as if you are were a dying cat as you remember this is 2018, and it just wants to beat the life out of you.

On the plus side, it shows you do still care enough to think 'Don't let that fucking bastard anywhere near power ever, ever again.'.

Ho hum.

Keep on, keeping on. Don't let the bastards win.
Keep caring. It matters.

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RedToothBrush · 04/11/2018 07:36

May's deal is not really a deal. Its a sticking plaster to prevent no deal. Whilst commuting to precisely nothing but getting past 29 March and leaving the EU.

Beyond that it doesn't resolve anything.

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lonelyplanetmum · 04/11/2018 08:13

This Brexit is unclear, imprecise and unstable. We’re going to be talking about it for years and years to come.

My first thought was it's a ground hog day Brexit.

Then I looked up what a ground hog actually is. It's Marmota Momax.A member of the family Sciuridae... you know where this is going.A groundhog belongs to the large group of ground squirrels.

It's an oh look a squirrel Brexit. I just hope the Treasury manage to bury some nuts. Although we'd have been better off voting to leave them growing on the tree in the bloody orchard.

RedToothBrush · 04/11/2018 08:23

Christopher Hope @christopherhope
Significant

Lawyer finally joins Brexit cabinet.

Hmm....

Westministenders: Reality Bytes
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Mrsr8 · 04/11/2018 08:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Peregrina · 04/11/2018 08:24

But May ruled out a CU as one of her red lines. An awful lot of Leavers would have been perfectly happy with it.

All I can see it doing is kicking the can down the road for a couple more years. I still think there will be hundreds of issues not solved by a customs union. The only potential benefit is that it might just get the opposition to get its act together.

lonelyplanetmum · 04/11/2018 08:27

All I can see is it kicking the can down the road for a couple of years

The next general election is scheduled to be held on 5 May 2022.

Peregrina · 04/11/2018 08:29

Do you think May/The Tories will survive that long?

Motheroffourdragons · 04/11/2018 08:29

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on behalf of the poster.

Motheroffourdragons · 04/11/2018 08:31

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on behalf of the poster.

Peregrina · 04/11/2018 08:35

The thing is, most MPs have behaved like a bunch of sheep, and will do a lot of bleating, baa, baa, baa, and then blindly follow.

I agree with BorderIrish - all it does is put mini borders all over the place.

Motheroffourdragons · 04/11/2018 08:39

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on behalf of the poster.

WorriedMutha · 04/11/2018 08:56

I have been feverishly checking twitter to assess leave reaction but it's eerily quiet. Fraser Nelson, a leave leaning Spectator journo has just intimated it's a sellout.

lonelyplanetmum · 04/11/2018 09:00

Lawyer finally joins Brexit cabinet

No -really? A lawyer being involved to help unravel a complex legal relationship. They'll take advice from proper economists next ( not the IEA).

It’s absurd that (finally) including a lawyer in the process is an unexpected development which is worthy of comment.

Nearly all the main Tory rebels continuously opposing Brexit are legally trained. With a doctor thrown into the mix with Sarah Wollaston.

Dominic Grieve
Anna Soubry
Nicky Morgan
Jonathan Djanogly
Bob Neill
Ken Clark
Antoinette** Sandbach
Oliver Heald

All lawyers who understood from the start, that the Withdrawal Bill was an embarrassing mess with unprecedented executive powers extraordinarily being grabbed by the government circumventing parliament.

May should have listed to the party's own logical legal voices from the start rather than the ‘creative’ fictions of Boris and Gove who mock specialists.

It is also snortingly ironic that David [schrodingers-secret- yes we have them/ no we don’t-impact - assessments-]Davis is insisting on open availability of legal advice. Although to be positive perhaps he's learnt his lesson and has noticed that May isn't a fan of legal advice either.

boldlygoingsomewhere · 04/11/2018 09:05

My favourite game is being ruined by all this...every Dixit card I get makes me think of a Brexit scenario. Ship blindly sailing over the edge of a waterfall...large dice rolling down a hill about to crush a town below...

lonelyplanetmum · 04/11/2018 09:23

But May ruled out a CU as one of her red lines

I know it's absurd as she's an intelligent person but I always about her initial unilateral attempts to hastily trigger Article 50 and the early (Nick Timothy) declarations of red lines. Was it possible that at that stage she saw the the CU and SM as indivisible because her advisors didn't fully understand the difference. That's absurd I know but sometimes it feels like that.

Peregrina · 04/11/2018 09:26

she saw the the CU and SM as indivisible because her advisors didn't fully understand the difference.

I think you are right; some of the remarks she has made would suggest that.

Buteo · 04/11/2018 09:50

Raab is a lawyer.

Dominic started his career as a business lawyer at City law firm Linklaters, working on project finance, international litigation and competition law. He also spent time on secondments at Liberty (the human rights NGO) and in Brussels advising on EU and WTO law.

RedToothBrush · 04/11/2018 10:10

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46089019
Ex-civil service chief Sir Jeremy Heywood dies

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ElenadeClermont · 04/11/2018 10:15

That was so quick. Jeremy Heywood has only just resigned and he was only 56.

BigChocFrenzy · 04/11/2018 10:27

Hurricane Your reaction is encouragement that some Brexit MPs may also fall fo this and vote for it in the HoC !

If the reports are true:

  • May has now agreed to a "Turkey+" Customs Union, which was on Barnier's famous slide of the EU "leave menu," but which she had previously ruled out, because it stops the UK doing its own trade deals. This is what the hardcore ERG will vote against

A CU solves most of the NI border issues and basically has checks like the current SM ones, to satisfy the remaining issues.

  • there is still a backstop if the UK leaves the CU later on

  • we avoid a crash out Brexit, which was the worst option for the EU and also avoid crossing their red lines

Remember, it was the RoI who have insisted on making no hard border a prerequisite, so if they are satisfied on this, then the EU would be too.

The main issue for the EU would be if the SM is damaged.
This should be OK, since the UK won't be doing new trade deals, e.g. with the US; hence the goods they are worried about won't get into the UK in the first place

Westministenders: Reality Bytes
BigChocFrenzy · 04/11/2018 10:34

Police predict rise in hate crime as Brexit approaches

Unfortunately, whatever Brexit we have or don't have

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/18/police-predict-rise-in-hate-as-brexit-approaches

Figures released this week showed a 17% rise in hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, to 94,098 in the 12 months to March.
The annual total has grown by 123% since 2012–13.
While better recording is a factor, Brexit as well as terrorist attacks in 2017 are thought to have contributed to the increase.

BigChocFrenzy · 04/11/2018 10:38

Liverpool makes a stand and far-right marchers give up

Liverpool shows how to do it, peacefully too

The tiny number of marchers gave up the idea when they saw how heavily outnumbered they were.
Would have been pretty pointless, as the march would have just shown everyone along the route how unpopular they are in Liverpool.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/03/liverpool-runs-far-right-marchers-out-of-town

TheNumberfaker · 04/11/2018 10:39

The Marr programme is a shambles. “Rock Services.”
“It’s a shell.”
“Rock Services.”
“It’s a shell.”
“ROCK SERVICES!”

lonelyplanetmum · 04/11/2018 10:43

was on Barnier's famous slide of the EU "leave menu

Maybe the last minute plan is to incrementally dip the UKs toes into the options on the slide- sort of ascending the steps in reverse. Testing each one to see what reaction it gets.

Talkstotrees · 04/11/2018 10:58

Awful interview. But I did like the final comment.