Westminstenders: Dear Santa for Christmas I'd like...

[RedToothBrush]

The ERG to be the grinch that stole the Tory Party Christmas who ultimately get what they deserve.

To remain in the EU

Donald Trump's impeachment

For politics to be boring again

A trex toy for my son

Deirdre hipwell @ deirdrehipwell
Oh dear think it is going to be a tough Christmas for UK retail.. mike Ashley said it had endured the “worst November on record. It was unbelievably bad. No one could have budgeted for that.... retailers cannot take that kind of November it will literally smash them to pieces”

Mike Ashley says he is very cross with Ian Cheshire and Debenhams for losing “£150m of sports direct money. He says management ignoring him even though he offered to lend them £40m

^He says Debenhams is going to run out of money and said the management can save Debenhams but won’t. Says debs should be cutting the dividend and retaining cash
^

Oh dear

Unless Labour get a decent leader and sort themselves out, then we will be stuck with a Tory coalition for a long time. As it stands the Tories are giving the DUP what it demands.

amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-exports-to-britain-plunge-by-20-and-sales-to-republic-rise-by-16-37619643.html?__twitter_impression=true
Northern Ireland exports to Britain plunge by 20% - and sales to Republic rise by 16%
Republic 'remains Northern Ireland's single largest export market'.

Sales to GB dropped for the first time on record by £2.9bn to £11.3bn in 2017.

Loving that ed milliband card

Bit bored of JRM whining this morning about how the vote couldn't possibly go the way they wanted as some of the voters are on the 'payroll'

Democracy innit mate...

www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/7969228/tory-brexit-rebels-theresa-may/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Tory Brexiteers publicly fight over whether to finish off Theresa May with ‘kill zone’ plot after she was wounded by confidence vote
Jacob Rees-Mogg called for the PM to quit immediately but other rebels insisted they are now behind Mrs May

David Allen Green@davidallengreen Summary of current Brexit position from law and policy perspective:

No deal - nothing needed

Deal - one thing

Amended deal - two things

Extension - two huge things

Revocation - at least two huge things and a fundamental change in policy

The path of least resistance...

Am I right in thinking that if Ed Milliband hadn't changed the system for choosing the Labour party leader we wouldn't be in this mess now? He can sod right off.

You would be right @Donnnerbox

Lizzie dearden @lizziedearden
The number of people referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme over suspected far-right extremism has rocketed by 36% in a year.

Referrals over Islamist extremism fell by 14%in the same period, new Home Office figures show

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prevent-extremism-figures-far-right-terrorism-islamist-statistics-isis-referalls-a8681221.html
Number of far-right referrals to counter-extremism programme Prevent rockets 36% in a year

Otoh if the PLP had got behind Andy Burnham and not nominated Corbyn ....

Cards still funny though...doesnt matter how much of a twat he is

Theresa May Personally Insisted That The Words “Ending Of Free Movement Of People” Be Added To The First Page Of Her Brexit Deal

Brussels viewed the prime minister's unusual and personal intervention on a cosmetic detail of presentation as a clear sign of what drives and defines her Brexit.

www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/theresa-may-ending-free-movement-first-page-brexit

The path of least resistance...

That was how I viewed yesterdays non-event. For May to lose and a new leader be chosen would be like water running uphill.

Brexit was a boulder pushed down a hill (old Celtic trick to smash Roman lines). Once it started, it's in the lap of Newton now.

That reminded me how May used to claim - I don't know if she still does - that ending FOM was only ending it for E27 citizens, not Brits going the other way !

We've seen in polls that British voters support this - retaining their FOM is very popular - while wanting to stop E27 citizens coming to the UK.

A classic example of what makes getting a "good" deal - that contains what the public want - so difficult

www.euronews.com/2018/11/29/they-do-to-us-what-we-do-to-them-theresa-may-grilled-by-an-mp-about-brexit-reciprocity

Peter Wishart, a Scottish politician, faced May at a Commons Liaison Committee .... where she was answering questions on the UK's draft Brexit agreement.
....
May confirmed the UK would be "ending freedom of movement,"
but denied that this would apply vice versa to British people in the EU 🤦🏻‍♀️

I've just seen a post on social media suggesting that the Yellow Vest movement is coming to the UK now too.

A few people have already turned up in Canada, apparently. (Edmonton - in the province known for being the most libertarian of the entire country.) Which lends credence to the theory that the same far-right dark money is behind fanning the gillet jeune movement as it did the angry that's lead to Brexit and Trump. It's all looking for ways to channel anger into ripping apart the post-war democratic order.

Pain I saw that too.
My first thought was that she is completely out of touch. She is pursuing HER Brexit, one where the FOM is stopped wo a care for what the country actually wants.
One big issue of course is that no one knows what the country really wants (see the latest poll saying that actually the end of the FOM might be quite low down). And that there is a huge discrepancy between what the parliament wants and what ‘the people’ wants.

I’m not quite sure what the EU is going to make out of that request....
She wants the end of FOM but doesn’t seem to care about the backstop.
MPs have a major issue with the backstop.

So no solution still. For probably a month until the vote happens (as late as possible) on the 20th january, the WA is rejected and then ???

Drew Hendry SNP MP: "In Scotland the vote to Remain has hardened."
Julia: "I hate to tell you but Scotland is only 10% of the UK population and if you guys had voted for independence you wouldn't be part of this debate."

And there in a nutshell is why I don't want Scottish Independence. Imagine Indyref1 had gone the other way. England and co would still have voted 53% Leave and Scotland would have no influence. Therefore the Court of Session route to bring the ECJ revoke case would not have been able to be brought.

Does no-one else vote tactically?

...which makes this recent news from Canada look all the more timely. It will be interesting to see if it's enough:

"Legislation aimed at preventing foreign interference and constraining the influence of big money in Canadian elections has been approved by the Senate"

www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-election-reform-bill-passed-in-time-for-implementation-in-2019-federal/?fbclid=IwAR0XIFlDV38ijzXIvB3nOJqiKzLJJSirU2J7m4NZi6Ueq8hXgiPuY1jCMV4

Unless anyone can prove otherwise, I will carry on believing that most Leavers equate FOM with brown faces and stop there.

Does no-one else vote tactically?

You sure don't.
You voted for the shit we find ourselves in today.
Tactical. slow hand clap.

I will carry on believing that most Leavers equate FOM with brown faces and stop there.

This is 100% true of the Leavers I know including FIL.

The timing of the ref coming promptly after two major fatal terrorist attacks encouraged these inappropriate false linkings based on feelings. The Paris and Belgium terrorist attacks just fed into the fear that somehow terrorists 'came' from the EU and that by disassociating ourselves we would be protected.

Even though this is illogical- it's back to feelings not facts.

In fact between 1999 and 2009, 119 men and women were convicted of terrorism offences. More than two thirds (69 per cent) of those convicted were born in the UK.

Even though this is illogical- it's back to feelings not facts.

Sadly people would run a mile if we based policies on facts, rather than da feelz. Generally, certainly in the UK, it's a question of whose feelz you think are closer to yours.

The war on drugs, and paedosteria spring to mind. I'm sure there are other examples.

'if labour was electable'
what this means is a new 'blair' - i'm old enough to remember what the media did to kinnock and the sense of despair when the tories got voted in again.
hammering corbyn, positioning him as extreme, is part of what keeps him unelectable. On the rare occasions he manages to get on air and what he writes seems reasonable to me.
on the occasions when ive heard/read directly what the media/social are frothing about then the bias is vicious.

But @frankiestein401 , I'm also d enough to remember what the media did to Kinnock and old enough to remember Corbyn shaking hands with Adams just after the Brighton Bomb. And subsequent attempts to take credit for what Mo Mowlem achieved.
And his recent performance at the antisemitism in Labour report launch where he let an anti Semitic nutter rant unchecked against a Jewish MP.
Was speaking to a US relative last night who has always followed UK politics. She described Corbyn at PMQ as "a bit poor". She's a liberal with no "skin in tbe game" as it were.
Corbyn is an extremist. He's also shit.
Kinnock had his flaws. He was neither.

On the rare occasions he manages to get on air

Frustrating as it is, I really can't fault Corbyn for keeping his mouth firmly shut - and out of the media spotlight - when he has no need for it. Even if it was for the fact that it treats the MSM with the contempt it deserves (and they don't like it up'em) it would be enough. But also it does keep the powder dry, and leaves opponents shadow boxing.