Westminstenders: Welcome to 2019

[RedToothBrush]

Welcome to 2019.

Bit of a different thread starter; instead of me speculating what are your predictions for the coming year politically? Will be interesting to see how people are viewing things right now.

How is Brexit going to play out?

Who is going to be framed as the scapegoat for whatever scenario you think likely?

What are going to be the biggest political issues that the media / politicians push (as opposed to what the real issues are)?

What is going to be the most shocking thing that will happen either here or abroad?

What will happen with Trump?

Who will be the next Tory leader and when?

Whats on the cards for the various political parties in general?

We're done for, aren't we.

twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1080864008616529920?s=19

I've already lit our MN unfriendly multi fuel stove. DH is both shopping and doing tea. Dd may well finally do her Christmas holiday Maths homework. Maybe I will have a little glass of wine...

How come Theresa gets as many votes as she likes, but the country is stuck with a 30 month old one ?

.... my, how we laughed at the Irish and the Danes too ....

DG If nothing specific happens to stop it - Revoke / approving the WA / extension agreed by the EU -
then No Deal is what automatically happens.

So May can continue to demand the HoC approve the WA and only she knows - or maybe hasn't decided yet - whether she will blink and Revoke on say the evening of 29 March,
or let the time run out to No Deal.

The ERG were desperate to get rid of her because they fear that as a lukewarm Remain before the Ref, she'll blink.
They wanted a Brexiter PM who wouldn't

I don't know what else the HoC has in their power to do to avoid No Deal, other than approve the WA.
If they vote on an amendment for a PV, or to Revoke, how can that be made legally binding on the PM that she must obey ?

Alternatively, would enough Tory Remainer MPs really vote NC for a GE ? - remembering that the DUP would NOT want one if the Remainers do
A big ask even if the Labour leader were Starmer, but no chance with Corbyn.

The Tories had a 2nd vote on their leader after 2 years

So they are not against 2nd votes
just against letting ordinary people have them.

How come Theresa gets as many votes as she likes, but the country is stuck with a 30 month old one ?

Exactly what I was going to ask. Does she understand the irony and hypocrisy and just have no shame? Or is she really just that thick?

And what exactly does she think the history books are going to say about her? The woman who refused the people a second vote because it would be an undemocratic 'politician's vote' ... but made those same politicians keep on voting on the same thing until they eventually did what she wanted - leading the country into eternal decline.

Maybe Santa has arrived for Mrs May?
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46746312

Unicorns in the 'salvage' museum.
A tragedy about all the other crap polluting the area though.

Helpful words on offer, but no legally binding changed to the WA

Sam Coates Times@SamCoatesTimes

NEW

European leaders Varadkar and Merkel discuss how to help May to get through Withdrawal Agreement in a 40 minute call

"It was an opportunity to kind of brainstorm a bit as to what we could do to assist prime minister May" - Varadkar
...
Varadkar suggests that clarifications, not changes, on the table from the EU side

"We are happy to offer reassurance and guarantees to the United Kingdom but not reassurances and guarantees that contradict or change what was agreed back in November"
....
Varadkar suggests next 2 weeks key

“This is something we will have to see develop over the next week or two.
Bear in mind the UK government has approved this agreement.
The difficulty is UK government appears unable at this point in time to secure ratification from the Commons"

< i.e. your problem, UK >

We see who the ERG have lined up to blame: 🤔
^
Jacob Rees-Mogg@JacobReesMogg

If we leave without a deal the main culprit will be the obdurate Irish Government’s threats about the phantom border issue.^

< no, it'll be the batshit ERG who pushed for a ref and promised that unicorns would carry the UK to a better place.
They didn't mention this place was the 19th century, which is only better for the aristocracy (and only then if they didn't get ill) >

He can fuck off if he's trying to start a blame the Irish thing.

It’s good to hear Varadkar and Merkel are giving our leader coaching.

A twitterer posted this in response to R-M’s blame NI tweet:

He really is an astonishing twat.

Page 29 before I’ve even made it on to say a thank you to Red.

In fact, thanks to all of you. I’m in awe of everyone’s ability to not only keep up with the threads but to do enough reading, dissecting and brilliant analysis of both SM and MSM to make such meaningful contributions whist also, apparently, working, running homes and looking after families...today I’ve just about managed to catch up with the thread (though not managed to read all the links), one short hospital appointment and a very half-heated attempt to tidy. I really need some help with time-management .

Picking up on the point about current shortages of medication, I’ve been having problems getting hold of my HRT patches. The last time the pharmacy rang around the country trying to source them and had to have some sent from a pharmacy in Birmingham to Kent. This time they couldn’t get them at all. I’ve been given an alternative but the hormone make-up is close to the oral HRT I had to be taken off due to some very bad side-effects. I know if I can’t get this it’s nothing compared to others who might not receive life-saving medication, or people like DH who are dependent on medication for any real quality of life but, nonetheless, it’s a worry. If DH doesn’t get his meds he will be dependent of me for, I imagine, every little thing. That’s not the time I need to be morphing into a crazy, crying wreck due to lack of HRT (imagine Brexit might do that to me anyway without any additional help!)

In terms of the immediate and personal effects of No Deal, DH’s medication issues continue to be at the forefront of my concerns. I’ve manage to build up a buffer but with no idea of the extent of any shortages and how long this might last it’s impossible to know if I’ve done enough. We’re looking at getting a private prescription as well, which led me to look into the costs various drugs. DH takes five different drugs for Parkinson’s, plus two non PD drugs. The one he takes the most of, I’ve found, will cost almost £140 for a month’s supply. In the USA it costs $1600 a month. Quite how people like us will cope when the NHS is a distant memory and private insurance will be impossible for pre-existing conditions beats me.

Still, who’s to say medication will be in short supply? After all, Grayling might have some ships.

Has anyone else seen this? Lowri Turner is an imbecile and how did she know where the workers were from behind the counter of her bank?! The caller was great and sums up the fears we have and effects Brexit will have on us.

twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/1080832863174647808?s=19

Bloody hell, Babooshka so sorry you are yet another worried about meds.

Whenever I think "sod it, these idiots need to experience No Deal as a reality check"
I remember that meds are a clear example of where the better off will probably be ok, but the poor ... may not

re Graylings contingency ferry service:

I've not much faith in a firm without ships or experience of ships with this on its website:

“It is the responsibility of the customer to thoroughly check the supplied goods before agreeing to pay for any meal / order,”
...
“Delivery charges are calculated per order and based on [delivery details here].”

I couldn’t get Naproxen in any pharmacist today. I’ve also heard about a problem with weekly HRT patches and had to have bi-weekly.

I've not much faith in a firm w^ithout ships or experience of ships with this on its website:

Oh it’s all such a pile of feckin nonsense isn’t it? Did anyone else see Grayling on C4 News yesterday? Justifying giving the contract to a company without any experience or, as yet, any ships, by presenting it as the Government ‘supporting a British start-up business’. FFS give them a grant or something so they can employ a couple of people but a multi-million pound contract to keep vital supplies going in the face of a major crisis the like of which we’ve never seen in peace-time? Really? Really? The man’s a feckin idiot.

I enjoyed Jame’s O’Brien’s description of him as

‘Chris Grayling, a man for whom no catastrophe is so bad he cannot make it worse.’

Singing so sorry you have already been messed about. Hope the new patch your on works out okay.

I've half hearted DP's med stockpile, have a month of some, 6months of one but he's a pain in the butt and highly likely to have multiple meds added in or swapped between now and March. I can't plan or prep for that obviously, so these twatbadgers better revoke.

best sorry your being effected (I is it affected?!) as well.

I want to go tell someone off for doing this

Reality is now worse than an episode of black mirror....

BestisWest:
There was a shortage of HRT gel in May both in UK and on Continent.
Manufatured in Belgium but active ingredients imported from other side of globe. Your shortage of patches might not be due to Brexit.

However , as a precaution, I was able to see a private GP last week who luckily prescribed me one year's worth 'of stock' . Are you able to do the same just in case?

Also when asked when Seaborne would have ships his answer was basically ‘well, we leave the EU on 29 March so I would expect them to have ships by April’.