Westministenders: Reality Bytes

[RedToothBrush]

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.

British arrogance has not won friends or influence.

Quite. We could get away with that when we had an Empire, but it's long gone.

Much of this is I feel due to Theresa May's totally unsuitable personality as a PM. I actually think that Cameron would have made a better job of the negotiations, if he hadn't run away so quickly.

@michael_chessum
^BREAKING: Momentum has released the results of its Brexit consultation.
What they show is that a majority of Momentum members back a fresh referendum on #Brexit if no election happens, with the largest group wanting one "in all circumstances".
Just 17% oppose a public vote^

Do we have a gunship DGR?
Think we might have to rely on fireworks and Mr Farridge's angry eyes.

Don't we share an aircraft carrier with the French? Maybe we could use that.

Tbf, at his place I would have run away too. Negociating brexit is an impossible task if you want to keep everyone happy.
Maybe at least he had realised the complexity and the feasibility.

Red I’m not sharing my boat with you lot

Heather Stewart @GuardianHeather
NEW: results of Momentum's poll of its members is out - 92% want Labour MPs to vote down Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Likely to increase pressure on waverers in the PLP.
Momentum spokesperson, Becky Boumelha, said: “propping up a destructive Tory deal will be kryptonite to Labour members, and any Labour MP who votes with the government will have a hard time explaining themselves back in their constituencies.”

Party before country. Well not even party cos momentum aren't Labour

We definitely make aircraft missiles jointly with the French, maybe if we build a big catapult?

Is that your name on the email, Kenn?

Laura Kuenssberg @bbclaurak
Lots more on today's cabinet later on @bbcnews but a quick thread of what was discussed
1. Cabinet agreed horror of missing a November deal deadline - not impossible but deeply undesirable
2. Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General, said there as a spectrum of what was possible for mechanism for escaping the backstop - ie not being trapped in neither in nor out limbo for ever - ministers say he softened his position from last week which has made a difference
3. Some ministers did urge PM to be hardline on need for limit to backstop +ability for UK to get out of it on its own, but s no big confrontation - ministers were presented a paper that set out difference btw November deal or waiting til December - it was confiscated at the end
4. In short term, ministers told be ready for another Cabinet meeting, maybe even at end of this week, because there might be enough movement by then to push button on a deal

Peter Foster @pmdfoster
Stand by for a cabinet meeting on Friday, maybe, to "push button" on a deal, Cabinet told.

Sounds wildly optimistic given briefings by Team Barnier to @tconnellyRTE @JenniferMerode and others.

Clear signals, it seems, that TF50 not that keen in a rush job

Want us all to report, if so, so that it gets deleted quickly?

Fuck! Hope to many didn't see that!!! I feel a name change!

Please all wipe from your memory!

This is what I meant to post.

peoplesmomentum.com/2018/11/06/brexit-consultation/

@SamCoatesTimes
NEW
Leaked Whitehall notes reveal how parts of government seeking to "sell" Theresa May's eventual brexit deal
Number 10 could seek the endorsement of Japan's Shinzo Abe, CBI's Carolyn Fairbairn and even Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Manchester

It's gone, didn't see your name ken and I have no memory. You're OK.

Party before country. Well not even party cos momentum aren't Labour

A difficult one this. But the LibDems trashed their reputation by going in with the Tories even though they felt it was for the good of the country.

I think in this case that they are right, no deal that Theresa May can make will be any good, except Norway ++ and she's not even contemplating that, so I think they would be right to vote down the legislation, and force a GE. In an ideal world there would be no clear winner, and the more grown up politicians among them would realise that the only solution was a coalition as the war time one was - with genuine cross party membership, filled with the best people, not just placemen and women. I do still think there are some grown up politicians around who have a conscience.

It is a crisis and I think that would be the only solution. The EU would I think allow us a stay of A50 to hold a GE.

New term for you all to learn

REVIEW MECHANISM

Peter Foster @pmdfoster
SO. #Brexit boils down to how - or if - the UK can ever leave the dreaded Irish backstop.

There is talk of a "review mechanism". So what might that be? How might it work?

Some thoughts after chats with both sides + experts 1/Thread

Let's start from the point of agreement. Both sides say backstop is a) necessary b) temporary c) should be superseded by future relationship So there does need to be what one EU source calls an "unwinding" mechanism. /2

The problem (before we get to the detail of that mechanism) is that no-one can see what version of the Future Relationship can deliver on UK commitment to no return to a hard border in Ireland. May's dual tariff or 'MaxFac' unicorns are dead. /3

Some argue for keeping them alive as theoretical possibilities; other that that will only create confusion. Technology (MaxFac) can only work if the bar is lowered. For now UK has agreed to "no additional infrastructure" on the border. With that stricture it's impossible /4

So we're really actually only talking about an agreement to go unicorn hunting "unless and until" the politics changes enough to enable a deal that allows the UK to leave the Customs Union + do trade deals...WITHOUT putting a border in the Irish Sea. /5

As the Brexiteers are well aware, if UK are settled in backstop, it's hard to see where the political impetus for that kind of change will come from? Why would Dublin, Sinn Fein, Brussels bureaucracy be motivated to create unicorns then, if not now? But we digress.. /6

For now, the game is hammering out a backstop review mechanism that the bucaneering variety of Brexiteer can - with a bit of squinting - agree provides a bridge or a pathway to the sunny uplands. What are the options... /7

First the "unilateral pull-out"... @DominicRaab tried this, going in studs up with @simoncoveney last week as we reported...but it didn't work, as he knew it wouldn't. Who knows what the real game was...softening up for a more realistic deal? Maybe. /8

So then we get to the 'review mechanism' which Geoffrey Cox has pitched to cabinet today....what might that look like? Well, we have one template, which is the Ukraine-style governance mechanism that, per sources, the UK has already agreed for the Withdrawal Agreement /9

What does that mean in practice? Well we understand it's pretty close to what was set out in the UK white paper on the future relationship here... /10

I read it without noticing, my multi tasking is rubbish! Have a name change.

Sam Coates Times @SamCoatesTimes
NEW

Leaked Whitehall notes reveal how parts of government seeking to "sell" Theresa May's eventual brexit deal

Number 10 could seek the endorsement of Japan's Shinzo Abe, CBI's Carolyn Fairbairn and even Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Manchester

There will also be visits to the four nations of the United Kingdom and potentially a PM interview by David Dimbleby, the BBC veteran, leaked Whitehall notes say A gvt spx: "You would expect the Government have plans for all situations — to be clear, this isn’t one of them.”

Laura Kuenssberg @bbclaurak
Leaked notes sketch out detailed govt timetable for selling Brexit deal to public and parliament - inc speeches from PM, other ministers, biz groups and others coming on board - more on @BBCNews in a min
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46116368
A plan for presenting a Brexit deal?

Sam Coates Times @SamCoatesTimes
Leaked notes seen by The Times conclude:

"HISTORIC MOMENT, PUT YOUR OWN INTERESTS ASIDE, PUT THE COUNTRY’S INTERESTS FIRST AND BACK THIS DEAL."

In full: The notes of apparent plan to sell Brexit deal

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46109889

What a piece of s
It's like the rehearsal schedule for the Archers xmas panto.

BACK THIS DEAL.

No the only backing I will do is either cancel brexit, which is now the will of the people, or at a pinch, accept Norway ++.

I will believe that Theresa May and her Government put the country first when they start tackling austerity, the NHS, education starved of funding, the housing crisis. Until then it's put us first but con us plebs into believing that we are on your side.

From the plan:
Trying to get Varadker to support

Stop right there. But nice for England, because they can blame the Irish again.

25th - Theme is global Britain. We can strike trade deals with RoW (rest of world) security in this one too.

Ha, ha. People voting with their feet tell you that it's not.

It's a ridiculous 'plan' Peregrina . Looks a bit Nick Timothy to me.

@GuitarMoog
UK MEPs from Labour, Conservatives, LibDem, SNP, Plaid and Greens write to colleagues in the EP asking them and EU capitals to be ready to allow an Art50 extension for “cooler heads, and warmer hearts, in the UK to prevail”