Westminstenders: May plays Sale of the Century

[RedToothBrush]

Theresa May is currently in the midst of a campaign to sell her deal to the public. Unfortunately she appears that there are only 649 people she needs to sell it to, and that's not going so well.

She attempted a sales pitch to potential Labour rebels and succeeded in getting them to actively decide to vote against her.

There are currently 100 backbench tories who have stated they will vote against it, which makes parliamentary maths very difficult.

There is a rising support for plan b in the form of Norway Plus. This may make Remainers less likely to vote for a deal but persuade some leavers to back May.

The ECJ A50 Court case has been heard. Judgment has not been given yet. Its due 'soon'.

Next week the Withdrawal Agreement will be debated in Parliament with the vote due at 7pm on Tuesday 11th December.

Expect a rough couple of weeks.

J McD says Labour would back a Peoples’ Vote (if you believe him)
www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/28/labour-seize-second-brexit-vote-option-john-mcdonnell

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/02/controversial-ukip-leader-gerard-batten-backed-by-national-executive

Ukip’s leader, Gerard Batten, has been strongly backed by its national executive.
The move will prevent yet another civil war for the party, but possibly hastening the exit of Nigel Farage, who has publicly despaired at the current hard-right stance.
< that's the man, who as a student, marched around Dulwich college chanting "gas the Jews" - and has never apologised - just thinking of electability now, imo >

Batten, a vehement proponent of anti-Muslim policies, who has described Islam as a “death cult”,
has sparked significant internal dissent over the direction he has taken the party and particularly over his decision to appoint the far-right street activist Tommy Robinson as an adviser.

An urgent meeting of Ukip’s national executive on Sunday to discuss the issue had been billed as a possible precursor to moves to remove Batten.
However, members “voted overwhelmingly against a motion of no confidence” in the leader, a Ukip tweet said.

A later statement from the party, however, said
the national executive “does not endorse the appointment of Tommy Robinson in any advisory role”, adding that he remained banned from joining Ukip.

< I wonder how long that will last - UKIP with their tiny membership are ripe for complete takeover by the hard right.

Robinson, with maybe Ann Marie Waters rejoining and merging her For Britain party,
maybe BNP joining them too, to form a united larger far right party >

Sums up Labour's shameless weaseling to date:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/02/everyone-needs-to-be-prepared-for-speed-chess-brexit-especially-labour

There is still significant resistance to another referendum among some in the shadow cabinet and elements of the Labour leader’s inner circle.

Their preferred – if never declared – outcome has been for Brexit to happen and the Tories to be held culpable for it

Or, the scenario where the Queen gets involved. Well... anything seems possible right now.

Voting down the Brexit deal could lead to the Queen forming a new government of Remainers – here's how

www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-deal-vote-no-theresa-may-jeremy-corbyn-queen-remain-mps-new-coalition-government-a8655586.html

The Independent is now in la la land of delusion
the Queen does NOT get involved

Selective anti Labour quoting there.

How about this one?

By my reckoning, a majority of the shadow cabinet either want Labour to come out in full-throated support of another referendum or think that they will have to end up backing one because there will be no other viable positions for the party

Labour is split over brexit, just as the country is, its not realistic that you expect them not to be, they ve got to manage it as well as possible or May will use it against them.

Pls remember who got us into the mess.

Labour is split over brexit, just as the country is, its not realistic that you expect them not to be

I have a friend who works doing research and stuff for the party. She has said since 2016 that their strategy (of course with a view to forming the next government) is to watch public opinion and stay just a tiny bit ahead of it.

So as opinion starts to turn eg to being in favour of PV then the leadership start echoing that too..

It strikes me that this strategy actually means being just a bit behind shifts in public opinion rather than being slightly ahead, but it's all about winning hearts and minds. To my view that could never have happened fast enough, certainly not within the two year time frame.

The Labour leadership are behaving disgracefully. I blame Corybn and those behind him for this mess as much as I blame T May (and I blame her a lot). They are providing no proper opposition. If they are aiming for a hard Brexit (and I believe they are) because they think it is best for the country (I don't think they do think that though) then they should come out and say so.
I don't believe for one moment that they genuinely think that they could or would negotiate a better deal. The preferred option of the leadership is probably No Deal.

That’s interesting because it confirms my belief that a) Corbyn is a follower not a leader and b) he goes whichever way the wind blows.

Turns out it’s intentional.

So why can’t they stay ‘ahead’ of the swing to Remain...

Party and conf policy is to force GE, if that fails, then a PV, what isn't clear about that?
Is there some division? of course, even the LibDems have arguments!

Labour never wanted a referendum, they never campaigned for one.

Their opposition to Mays behavior would have changed exactly nothing at all, just as their opposition to all her other policies hasn't changed anything either, they are not in power and can only voice opposition,
May can and does ignore all advice.

As Churchill once said ' you can't bargain with a tiger when your head is in its mouth' ( or words to that effect) and this whole brexit shit deal May has bought back proves it.. We are in EU too deep which should never have happened and unless someone with backbone comes to the fore to fight for a better deal we will be decapitated! Of course we could have another referendum with multiple choices just to confuse the electorate even more...after all there's always an alternative

May may not lose the vote on her deal.....it will depend on how many MPs abstain in fear of losing their jobs if they vote against it. This Parliament is the most spineless in history. Maybe I should correct that to this Government.....nope both!

The Labour party are supposed to stand up for UK citizens if they believe that the government are not acting in their best interests. So what are they actually doing, other than pretending that they would get a good deal if they were in power, but without being prepared to give any clue as to what that deal would be and how they would achieve it? Their whole position is a sham. They want a hard Brexit so that they can try to force a "socialist revolution" on a country that doesn't want it. And they don't want to be held responsible for that hard Brexit. Complete Tossers, and I for one won't play their little game with them. They are as responsible for the situation we are in as the Tories are. For one thing, if Corbyn had actually wanted Remain to win the referendum, he could, with a bit of work, have achieved that.

Your living in cloud cookoo land if you believe that rubbish. you've written.

DC, May, ERG, theTory party are all to blame but ultimately, its us, the UK voters who are the reason we are in this mess -we voted for a party that wanted a vote and then we duly obliged.

You need to stop reading the 'Express! Corbyn isn't Stalin and Starmer, Lenin lol!

And while parliament fiddles the NHS burns ...( from the US)

www.wsj.com/articles/eu-doctors-quit-britain-as-brexit-looms-1543755600

if the labour party significantly changed its stance then they'd provide relief for the tories in that the mass media would pillory them - relegating May's clusterf*ck to sub headings.

as it is they have very little to attack apart from May.

Unfortunately the only time labour can raise its head well above the parapet is when election reporting rules give them a fair crack.

Its astonishing how many people subscribe to the belief that corbyn is leading an extreme left party - wilson was elected and returned on a far more radical manifesto in 70 & 74
www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/lab74oct.htm
(read it and weep, for what we've lost as they say)

Yes, I find it hilarious whenever someone implies that Corbyns Labour is anywhere near radical.

Try googling for Attlee's 1945 manifesto if you want to see something radical. I would do so myself, but it's late.

I want politicians on all sides to take responsibility for this, do their jobs and work together to sort this mess out

If they were willing or able to do that there wouldn't have been a referendum in the first place.

This entire mess was the result of lack of political leadership, lack of intelligence, and lack of integrity.

This entire mess was the result of lack of political leadership, lack of intelligence, and lack of integrity.
this, with bells on

Farming Today: shellfish exports to the EU.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001cyp

Who knew, we already export to the Far East - by air freight. Being in the EU doesn't seem to have stopped us...

None of our deals are made without reference in the deal to us being in the EU. They become null and void once we are no longer in the EU. Not saying they couldn't be reactivated but the terms may not be the same.

Thanks Jas, but I read the Guardian, not the Express, and am an anti-Tory voter. I find your frequent posts insisting that Corbyn and his clique are blameless to be, at the very best, disingenuous. He has done nothing in opposition other than support the right wing Brexit agenda.
He should be making a big noise about the likely effect of a hard Brexit on the majority of Labour voters.

www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/03/brexit_satellite/

Space policy boffin: Blighty can't just ctrl-C, ctrl-V plans for Galileo into its Brexit satellite

Space policy expert Dr Bleddyn Bowen, of the University of Leicester, has told The Register that the UK faces considerably more hurdles replacing Galileo than just coughing £92m of "Brexit readiness" readies for a feasibility study on a homegrown version.

(contd)

If they had done their homework before hand, they would have known about the potential problems with satellites, and fishing, and medicines, and isotopes.........