Westministenders: Teetering on the edge

[RedToothBrush]

12 weeks to go.

There is rising confidence in the Extreme Brexiteer camp as well as open comments about how they can deliberately force through No Deal. Remember No Deal is the default. Every political crisis that takes up time makes no deal more likely and the ERG can just be obstructive to facilitate a political crisis. Parliament DO NOT have the ultimate power to stop Brexit - unless the government effectively allow an option to do so. And there is no sign May will let this ever happen. No Deal takes us back to pre-industrial revolution Britain in many social and economic ways. Which will please Jacob Rees-Mogg no end.

No Deal prep is now costing us a fortune - and is no where near sufficient in its scope. Won't someone think of all the extra that could have been put into the NHS.

Parliament returns next week. I hope you have enjoyed your Christmas break. What will happen in 2019 no one knows; the only certainity is turbulance and lurching from crisis to crisis. If we don't get hit by Brexit, maybe it will be the US shutdown crisis or the collaspe in the Chinese economy that will get us. Economists are nervous and thats generally not a good thing for the average person on the street.

Time to get in the euros, stock up on the tomatoes, invest in books and otherwise batten down the hatches financially whilst we await the coming storm in the hope that the forecasters are as good as Michael Fish in 1987.

I had the misfortune of listening to JRM and Nick Ferrari this morning- hire car radio was set to LBC.
Actual lies. As well as "it's prudent to make a few plans for unforeseen difficulties which, as we know, in life may happen from time to time".
Interesting how many versions of "you fucking wanker", I actually know.

Good lord, Bellini. I don’t think I’d be safe to drive whilst listening to JRM.

Sadly @1tisILeClerc , a shitty maternity experience can floor the "strongest ".

I am having my own rant this morning .... with my local women’s group for our local Labour Party. There are never posts on Facebook about Brexit to the extent I think the moderator is a Lexit. My post was essentially saying I didn’t think the leadership was doing a good job at the moment and should publicslly join the group now pushing for no deal Brexit even if that means revoking Brexit.

The best bit was being told by the moderator that the group are “unashamedly Corbyn supporters who are ready to stand by his back at all times. “ Someone else has already replied asking if the group does not permit any criticism of Corbyn.
I have used some of the information and links posted on here so thanks Guys.

Luckily @Somerville , it came on as I was pulling in to a parking space. I actually stayed in the car to listen to see if I was getting it all wrong. Turns out, I'm not swearing enough.

Yikes, 2bees. That kind of personality cult is disturbing. No one should be above criticism. No one.

Returning to morning radio, DD1 will only allow radio 3 on school run these days... She says I need calming down while I drive.

As an observation, women take a different view of life. The best overall outcome is when this is recognised and both 'play' to their strengths.
Ignoring what might go on in their bedroom, people are people.

I don’t have a fuck what you’re on about there (10.40 post) leClerc.

@1tisILeClerc - I'd recommend you stop digging.

Mrsr8 those are very sexist comments tbh and undermine your more constructive contributions to these posts. Whilst implying that men would have less need for nhs funding because they dont have a uterus is bigoted and misinformed, those of us with mothers, daughters (×3 in my case) and wives might say nothing could be further from the truth

Yep, agree with Bellini, don't dig and dont lower yourself leclerc

Indeed.
Back on planet 'crazy' how is the lorry convoy coming on?

It was a bit late getting started . Luckily, just in time systems don't mind if you are a bit late. Nor do border controls. It's fine.

I specifically mentioned maternity care, because it's the one area where predominantly healthy and young or younger members of the population interact with the NHS. I had my children in my twenties and apart from maternity care, I hardly ever went to my GP. In fact, I think I went a few years without being registered for one local to where I lived.

I specifically mentioned maternity care, because it's the one area where predominantly healthy and young or younger members of the population interact with the NHS.

And don't we know it . Despite the NHS having spunked £10 million on a refurb at the Birmingham Womens hospital in the mid 90s, and DW pointing out every visit that they didn't seem to have any disabled facilities (the condescension was breathtaking) come DS birthday, there still were no accessible showers.

Having to wash the blood off your partner less than an hour after birth is certainly a bonding experience.

Anecdotal evidence since suggests we were lucky. Seems people are still amazed/shocked/puzzled/disgusted that disabled women can - and do - choose to have children; and provision has got worse.

No doubt post-Brexit we'll put a stop to that nonsense, and just abort as a matter of course (which was what DW was expected to to). Except in NI, naturally.

Back on planet 'crazy' how is the lorry convoy coming on?

Tom Peck went to Maccas to write up his report after being abused by a lady in a fiat 500.

@RKWinvisibleman and @lisaocarroll are still tweeting every now and again about it.

lisa o'carroll @lisaocarroll
Trucks lining up for second test run ... but it isn’t rush hour so no simulating real life says one driver

So 10 mins late for 79 lorries, outside rush hour and the problem could apparently be up to 6000 lorries.

and just abort as a matter of course (which was what DW was expected to to)

I had two amazing staff who helped me no end with my mental health through my pregancy. One was a male midwife the other was a disabled midwife.

She was a midwife before she had an accident which left her disabled before she had children. She continued as a midwife despite it and her own experience shocked her with regard to how disabled women are treated in maternity. She has won lots of awards and has fought the system on behalf of a lot of disabled women who had assumptions made against them without thought or respecting their dignity.

I've spoken on MN before about how my male midewife was amazing. Since I had DS he has moved more into being an advocate for women's mental health and women's rights in childbirth. His influence has not been insignificant. But I've not spoken so much about my other midwife, who I find equally as inspirational though her field of expertise is perhaps less relevant to my own experience.

DH was amazing during my pregnancy and with him advocating for me I would never have got the help of either of the two people above.

So yeah. I'm kinda hearing all of you on here.

Hmm...I'm not sure I put my point across well about women and brexit. I wasn't denying that women support brexit, but that doesn't stop it from being an endeavour that primarily benefits white men and is driven by patriarchal values. Women are as subject to the ideology and culture they live within as men and there have always been a large proportion of women who perpetuate values that primarily benefit white males for many complex reasons.

Not to mention the fact I also cited race as a large factor in why people continue to support brexit and women can, of course, be as racist as men.

When DS was a day old, in his little neonatal incubator and DW was (finally) sleeping, I sat by him as he slept, and a grey day broke over Birmingham (didn't really need that last, did I ?).

I vowed to protect him, look after him, bring him up as best I could with DW, and for a happy life for him in the bright new future I imagined.

Kinda hard not to feel I let him down And even harder not to want to go postal in a Brexiteers conference to make them pay.

(Just in case anyone felt like spouting some "we need to come together" greetings-card type of shit ...)

there have always been a large proportion of women who perpetuate values that primarily benefit white males for many complex reasons.

Well, look at Arlene ...

Sorry, I realise I am sidetracking now quite a lot and will sidle off again.

I made the mistake of trying to reintroduce lentils into my diet (nasty IBS so low fodmap) and am still in quite a lot of pain today, which is making me grumpy and argumentative.

Going back a bit to catfromjapan's comments on pg 17, yes I can see where you are coming from. But what you also have to accept is that yours is the view of the middle classes who have been steadily pulling away from the lower classes for decades. There was only 2 or 3 decades of not doing so before you get to the poverty of the early 20C.

This is why I say I'm off to one side yelling at both sets. The middle/ upper class version of 'listening' is not in fact listening, hasn't been listening for 30-40 years. 30-40 years ago is when the damage was done, and it's been brewing ever since, not now! Or alternatively the damage was done in the last century.

And there are links in to all sorts of unpleasant attitudes at the bottom too. I don't like them either. But I know how they've become entrenched due to a systemic class system and widespread poverty in a fundamentally exploitative system which has seen just two decades of difference in a society which was always fundamentally divided and has recently been encouraging, not just allowing, inequality to grow.

It is complicated and nuanced, the term 'intersectional' might come in useful here. Remember there are women at the bottom of the pile too.

To be honest it's bringing me to the point of despair, I can't see any of this ending well.

Hmm. I disagree. I'm with @FemiSorry, this narrative hasn't come from the people themselves, living week by week, who know things can get worse, and fast. It's put out to support the Brexit Resisters = middle class elite. It's poison.

Hey, people, please be happy together - this thread = sanity space.

In other news, Reuters is reporting that the EU have issued a statement saying May's Deal = the only deal available.

So much for Lexit Deal. So much for May renegotiating a Deal.

Poster with problems with Labour FB group - I feel your pain. ☹️

Well, well, well ... look what just hit my Inbox. This is being presented as a personal communication direct from my MP.

Thank you very much for taking the time to write to me, and for sharing your views on Jeremy Corbyn's position on Brexit.

Firstly, I would like to say that I believe that the deal that Theresa May has negotiated is a miserable failure after two years of botched negotiations. It is a template for a blind Brexit – and a deal that won’t protect jobs, rights or the economy. I don't believe that any of my constituents voted for this deal, whether they voted to leave or remain during the 2016 referendum.

Theresa May’s “deal” is in two parts – a withdrawal agreement that includes half-baked proposals for a backstop, and a political declaration that is incredibly vague and opens the gate to a hard Tory Brexit. Taken together, this deal failed Labour's six tests, and I will vote against it. It is asking MPs to leap into the unknown, and it does not reassure anyone.

Many of my constituents have written to me over recent months in support of another public vote, or the revocation of Article 50. Assuming that Theresa May's Brexit deal is voted down this month, I agree that both of these options must be strongly considered and I am in regular conversation with Kier Starmer to ensure that he is aware of my views on the matter. Given the disarray that Parliament and the Government are currently in, I believe that the people should be given a chance to have a clear voice, especially given that so many people did not participate in the 2016 referendum.

Please be assured that I will never vote for a bad Brexit deal, and that in the aftermath of Theresa May's deal being voted down I will always respect the fact that my constituency voted to remain in the EU in 2016.

A number of constituents have written to express views similar to yours, and I have shared all of these with the Shadow Frontbench team to ensure that they are aware of the strength of feeling within the constituency. As your elected representative, I welcome your views and thoughts on the Brexit process as it continues. Thank you again for getting in touch.

Helen Lewis wrote a good article in the New Statesman about sex and Brexit (And 'austerity' too) if anyone is interested.

I can't link because I've used up all my free views.

Seriously, this thread is an alliance, accepting differing viewpoints goes with the territory.

I'm happy to read your viewpoints, LeClerc and also all others. We have enough trolls and other problems without borrowing hurt and conflict.

Goodness knows, this thread is a tiny space in the middle of a nation that is hurtling to catastrophe. It's worthwhile looking for what we can do to support each other through that rather than anything else, surely?