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.

I want to watch it myself," he said

ffs

He’s useless. Fucking useless.

I will watch the debate (if it happens). But all we are going to see is May doing her best for the Tory party and Corbyn doing what he thinks is best for Labour.
Not a single one gives a flying fuck about the country. Bastards the lot of them.

mother Norway++ seems the HoC Plan B, with much cross-party support;
even the DUP could tolerate it

So, I expect after the WA has been voted down - maybe after a the 2nd time in January - that's what they'll go for

Labour have said they will only try for the PV if all else has failed
I would hope by then that enough Tory MPs would join

Curently, not one MP is advocating Remain, afaik, so currently it is the least likely outcome
Even Ken Clark is reportedly voting for the WA and has not advocated Remain

Aren't the 35 SNP MPs still advocating Remain?

I know no-one in the Government cares what they think

Which reminds me: Theresa May illustrated the waste-of-time that is PMQs yesterday when she used as part of her answer to Ian Blackford (leader of the SNP in Westminster) that Scotland's interests were being respected because "Scotland voted for 13 Conservative MPs" She obviously isn't very good at - or doesn't care about - Maths , as Scotland returns 59 MPs and there are more SNP MPs than the rest put together

The WA can't be tweaked,
but I gather there are Parliamentary tricks to be able to bring back the same bill later,
especially if it is an emergency, because sterling and shares have fallen off a cliff

iirc, There is precedent in the US for this, when the TARP bill was thrown out, to be followed by shares tumbling and then the bill being brought back

I've just completed a questionnaire that my MP has asked his constituents to complete.

www.stewartmcdonald.scot/news/news/brexit-survey---glasgow-south-constituency/?fbclid=IwAR3B95EMJ3SiJJXxx1eEkp4UoOSi1TC091UTdMhf5dHbrLx-8mBabINnXO8

Not relevant for most of the posters on here - but illustrates that at least he is asking for opinions (albeit in a constituency that voted 70% and growing Remain )

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46383066

Shares in the owner of shopping centres including Lakeside and the Trafford Centre have plunged after a £2.8bn takeover bid was abandoned.

The consortium bidding for Intu Properties blamed economic uncertainty and market volatility for walking away.

(contd)

Some MPs were complaining that the WA bill might be brought back for a 2nd or even third time

Like being presented with porridge for lunch & dinner, because you wouldn't eat it for breakfast

imo, the 1st rejection would be time for Plan B,
which will be whatever MPs agree it should be

That's currently Norway++, but if the polls change a lot by January, then who know - PV, Remain, .... some new contraption we haven't yet thought of ?

From Nicola Sturgeon's Facebook page

Not much support for the Prime Minister in this excellent CNN report from the streets of Glasgow.

www.facebook.com/181002789063255/videos/353142008782742/

Includes a good Glaswegian "Fuck off" when asked what he would say to Theresa May

Mother I explained before that Barnier's Norway++ means adding all the goodies requird to give frictionless trade for a large highly complex eceonomy like the UK

Specifically:

+The base Norway is theSM with a large number of bilateral treaties (Norway has about 50)
+For frictionless trade we would need a CU as well

• And to remove aall NTBs (Non-Tariff Barriers) for farming / agriculture / food products (Norway doesn't have an agreement for those) +The City would need passporting +The UK wants access to all the main agencies and ERASMUS, but I think Norway has access to these

May's visits to Scotland remind me of MrsT's trips there
which were described as a colonial governor touring some remote rebellious province of his realm

Spitting Image put its finger on Maggie's attitude to Scotland.....

When one of her ministers mentioned Scotland, she didn't know where they were talking about. It was only when it was called "the Testing Ground" that she knew where it was

The Poll Tax was introduced in Scotland first. She might not have lost her premiership if she'd listened to the vehement protests then. It was only when it was rolled out in England that she belatedly realised what a dreadful mistake she had made

It was only when it was rolled out in England that she belatedly realised what a dreadful mistake she had made

Did she ? I have a sneaking feeling she went to her grave convinced she was right.

Remember her steamrollering the leadership election after losing the first round - announcing she'd stand for the second without consulting anyone (she was in Paris as I recall ...) ?

"Testing Ground" 😂
I'd forgotten that gem !

Sorry, shouldn't laugh
Must be shitty to know the nukes are considered too dangerous to have near English towns & cities, but OK around Glasgow & Edinburgh 🤔

I remember the poll tax too - I was very young with a small family and I remember wondering what I would do when they were all grown up and still living at home!

At the time there were quite a few guides on civil disobedience ... Every single instalment I paid - by cheque - had to be resent at least 3 times as I forgot to sign the cheque, or the words and figures didn't correspond. Or I just forgot to put the cheque with the slip. Then there was the tatty scruffy (with bootprint) envelope which was a day late, triggering a flurry of overdue warnings.

I'd have to check, but my brother just played his Uni council off with our home one.

It was as a result of the poll tax we discovered that census results are most certainly not confidential.

You're probably right DGR - I should amend that to "she belatedly realised what a dreadful political miscalculation mistake she had made"

As it happens, where I was at the time (in Bolton) I, as single person in a house on my own, paid less under the Poll Tax than I had been paying for rates. I still thought it was wrong though.

prettybird

I really don't think she ever thought she'd ever done anything wrong. Unless she explicitly stated so in her memoirs (you can tell I've not read them ) then I will believe that even when it all went pear shaped, she would have blamed someone else. "It wasn't done right", "if only I'd let Cecil handle it" (oo err missis ) that sort of thing.

Returning briefly to the poll tax, wasn't that the start of the thinning of local government finances ? I have vague memories that to ensure local councils collected it, central government refused to make up any shortfall between what should have been collected and what was ? And that shortfall was never made up - even when Labour took power ?

DGR - again, you're probably right. But she was deposed in a large part because of it as the Tory grandees realised her association with the Poll Tax was too toxic for the Conservative Party. So it was her political miscalculation, even if she never acknowledged it.

Bit weird to think that the Poll Tax is making some of you 'nostalgic'.
'Eh I remember Brexit when we had to eat next door's cat'. (2040)

How do you do a 'Northern' accent on a keyboard?