Westministenders: Its Really Not Getting Any Better Is It?

[RedToothBrush]

We are STILL on collision course for no deal.

Christmas is here, and whilst we might appreciate the respite from Brexit News, its really a luxury we can't afford.

The meaningful vote is scheduled for January.

Chaos is scheduled for shortly after.

I wish you all a happy and enjoyable Christmas.

Whilst I don't believe that the chaos at Gatwick is conspiracy related, it does show an interesting perspective of what it would be like should flights be grounded for a significant period of time, does it not ?

DH suggested it was French air traffic control operatives, flying the drones from cross channel ferries so to avoid detection

Personally I see it as a step up from the old supermarket blackmail scam. There will be a ransom somewhere in this situation.

Olennas I missed that, too much going on.

One problem with getting an HoC vote to over-rule the PM is that Labour have lost quite a few MPs from the Whip - who are STILL sitting MPs

(in contrast, the Tories UNsuspended 2 MPs facing sex pest allegations to vote in their NC vote on May)

Jessica Elgott@jessicaelgot*

Labour now has six MPs who have quit or been suspended since the 2017 general electio^n

John Woodcock - quit
Jared O'Mara - quit
Frank Field - quit
Fiona Onasanya - sacked
Ivan Lewis - quit
Kelvin Hopkins - suspended^

< 7 MPs really: Kate Hoey still has the Labour whip, but would probably support the DUP or ERG line in a vote >

That sounds like a good move.

We know in theory the numbers are there to get an amendment passed. That would be legally binding.

HOWEVER no deal is still the default option for doing nothing thus could be 'accidental' (so that's another reason the government will never announce no deal as official policy)

If Parliament has to vote to revoke, you could end up with a situation where legally we can't deal because Parliament don't have a majority for that, for revoking OR revoking.

So even if we have a legally binding block on no deal, I still don't rule out no deal.

Just saying.

When you look the chaos that can be caused by a small commercial electronic device at our second largest airport, you have to think it's a jolly good thing we're not splitting up with our major security, trade and travel partner in the next three months.

lonely Exactly the conclusion I just reached, time to bin toxic friends and move on.
My row today stemmed from her Christmas card ffs yesterday, containing some very nasty remarks.

You could bin your Leave Mum;
she's adding nothing but grief to your life and you can't cure stupid - although duct tape can muffle the noise ! 😂

red " even if we have a legally binding block on no deal, I still don't rule out no deal. "

Aaargh, I was afraid that would be the legal position

Yes, I want a written constitution, because our UNwritten one is just 💩

What sort of person puts nasty remarks in a Christmas card BigChoc ?

The sort of person I've just binned, frumpety

Well, we can all have a pretty civilised Westministender Christmas
Threads on Christmas day, of course, red

Yes but, if MPs voted against no deal you would have a case for it not being included on a public vote....

This illustrates that the HoC can attatch Brexit amendments to any bill that they are allowed to amend,
so depends on the Speaker sometimes

Yvette Cooperr@YvetteCooperMP*

The Government should rule out “no deal” as the risks to our economy & security are too great.
If they won’t, then Parliament must find different ways to avoid “no deal” cliff edge instead

• starting with this cross party amendment I’ve tabled to the Finance Bill for Jan 8th

Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn

Latest from @ONS this morning: 597 homeless people died in England and Wales in 2017, an increase of 24% over five years.

Jo Maugham QC Retweeted Adam Wagner@AdamWagner1

From what I have been told by people close to the processes (has also been widely reported) Labour disciplinary process is almost completely broken.
Understaffed, politically manipulated.
So one of UK's biggest membership organisations can't comply with its equalities obligations

< pardon my lack of faith that they could run the country, or renegotiate brexit, if they can't even run their party

• or a bath, probably Note "politically manipulated" >

GOTCHA ! So now we know who's behind the drones !

Just checking BCF , given the length of time you have known this person, you don't think there could be some early dementia kicking in?

BCF who could be arsed to send a Xmas card with nasty things written? You sound well rid.

Life is to short for nastiness esp when it's calculated like above.

I'm in the NC club due to DV and have been for half my life. Never realised how common it was till MN!

I don't think so, frumpety
tbh, she's never been a pleasant character, often spiteful, but her mum was my mum's best friend, so I just put up with her for years.
However, mum's been dead nearly 7 years now, so I'm movng on.

Sorry to hear about your DH @bovril . Somehow uncertainty is worse... hope you don't let it ruin your Christmas too much.

I ended up having a really hectic day so only just caught up with the news. So surreal! It's almost like the whole Gatwick incident has been a 'lesson' in disruption, ... very upsetting for passengers obviously.

She strikes again, on TV with Peston ...

Damon Evans@damocrat

.
@NadineDorrie providing more weapons grade ignorance:

“It isn’t going to be no-deal, it’s going to be leaving under a framework of WTO rules [um, no-deal].

There won’t be customs checks, in the transition period, on the border..”

@Peston “There is no transition period!” 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm still working through today's updates as I'm 5 hours behind (in NYC this week) but in terms of Brexit planning for big companies...

Most of my work is done with large commercial insurers in the City. They've all had Brexit programmes underway for 12-18 months.

Most of them were writing all EU business via an European or EMEA head office in London. Now they've largely split the business in two with UK business written from London and EU business written from a subsidiary based in Europe (Luxembourg, Frankfurt or Paris mainly).

What I don't know is what this means for UK tax income?

If £1bn of business used to go through a UK company but now goes through a subsidiary based in Luxembourg - What is the impact to the UK treasury?

Sums up Ulster Unionists shouting out for Brexit for the rest of us, while making sure they personally can avoid the worst

Mark Simpson@BBCMarkSimpson
In the unionist constituency of North Down ...

Yvette Cooper's amendment is cross party with Conservatives in there too....Nicky Morgan, Nick Boles and Oliver Letwin as well as Hilary Benn etc. There are some joint concerted efforts happening to try and divert from a no deal - that will disappoint quite a few people who genuinely seem to want it.

I remember something in a Bill Bryson book once about how farmers in the US had lots of bits of fingers missing! Bryson's theory was they were just so bored and stuck their fingers in machines out of curiosity to see what happened !
I think. for some no dealers the same applies. Just wanting to see how bad it is. There must be some sort of psychological syndrome.

I was quite bemused that the JC 'stupid woman' thing made it on to the news being played on the radio of my New York taxi!

Seemed ridiculously irrelevant to be considered trans-Atlantic news. I think Brexit is getting a fair amount of air time over here though as they love political drama and we're providing some that is different to their own 💩

Faisal Islam@faisalislam
No Deal no longer “unlikely” - Government

Government has in past 24 hours quietly edited every No Deal technical notice to take out word “unlikely” from the sentence “in the unlikely event of no deal...”

Now says “in the event of no deal”.