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.

Caught a bit of the world at 1 on radio 4 inn the car earlier and they were talking about brexit and they had iain dunkedinshit on, that man gives me the rage and apparently the EU trade on WTO and that theyve already said they wont be checking anymore lorries than they do now, I had to turn the smug bastard off before I drove into a wall while raging so not sure what other bollox hes sprouting but the bbc really do need to knock this false equivalency bullshit off

@Mrsr8 - I still can't think about my shit without pain starting up.
@Somerville has wise words.
I'm sorry about the flapjacks. You know when I say flapjacks I mean more than flapjacks.

dh suffered...but more so because he couldn't deal with the idea ds1 was brain damaged due to medical negligence.

DW was tormented for her entire pregnancy by being addicted to the benzodiazepine she had been casually prescribed for her MS aged 17, and the fact that no studies had ever been done on it's effect in pregnancy (because taking it was a contra indication to becoming pregnant). There was talk of a club foot, absolutely no idea if it was expressed in breast milk, and zero information in the world on any effect on fetal and post natal development. This was why he was in neonatal being carefully monitored. Obviously not quite the mother-and-baby experience we'd all like.

I had just signed up to the internet (this was 1995) and canvassed as much from doctors worldwide as I could. It was 2 sheets of A4.

After all this, it was assumed (again) that DW would want an abortion.

Thankfully DS was perfect and healthy and "normal". But DW had to give up breast feeding after the uncertainty of whether it might harm him. (Which is why I really have to bite my tongue around the Breast/Best nazis at times).

All of that said, God Bless the NHS. Every day, and every one. God bless, God Bless, God Bless.

Justanotherposter After your post, IDS will forever be "iain dunkedinshit" to me

((({ Mrsr8, MrsDG })))) 💐
Dreadful traumatising experiences at what should have been joyful times for you

Anna Soubry getting justifiably annoyed on both BBC and Sky Newd at the EDL/Brexiter protestors outside Parliament who are trying to drown out all the interviewers, calling her a traitor and a Nazi, calling Faisal Islam racist epithets and all the interviewers liars amongst other things .

She says that the police won't intervene because they say that it is "free speech".

This is in contrast to the Pro-EU supporters who over the months have been present and visible (even when they built the two storey platforms ) without feeling the need to drown out the debate

mrsr8 DGR 💐💐💐

Anna Soubry getting justifiably annoyed on both BBC and Sky Newd at the EDL/Brexiter protestors outside Parliament

Reminds me of a P.J. O'Rourke zinger a few years ago, when he was being interviewed on LBC. After espousing his "Republican Party Reptile" views to a phone-in audience of being polite sceptics, the interviewer joking asked:

"P.J, I wonder where all your supporters are ?"

to which the reply was:

"They've all got jobs."

(Tx all )

Is Labour finally making a stand? Will JC make a statement promptly contradicting the below?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/07/labour-backs-cross-party-amendment-to-block-no-deal-brexit

Masses of love to you.

In fact, to all of you.
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Its so sad
the recent discussion on this thread about Maternity care shows that Austerity is damaging the very very fabric of the country.

I am struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Is Labour finally making a stand? Will JC make a statement promptly contradicting the below?

I wonder if JC is playing an even longer game, and lulling the really moronic Brexiteers into a false sense of security that he somehow "has their back", and at a critical point will suddenly pull-back-and-reveal he's following the partys lead and committing to a PV. by which time, any alternative strategy simply won't have time to percolate into the already-proven thick noggins of billy Brexiteers ?

My MPs reply albeit a stock reply was very carefully drafted ... it's impossible that the entire Labour leadership aren't aware of such sentiments.

The bottom line is whilst I may be unhappy and unimpressed by Labours current stance, it's not actually doing them any harm in terms of votes - after all there's no vote to be had. And as long as Corbyn is nodding sagely and giving the impression of "following the people", he's pretty much immune to MSM criticism. Which might be part of the "plan" ?

Hope. It's a human flaw.

Mrsr8 MrsDG

Sorry you had those experiences.

I know what you mean about BF. I was a great fan and loved successfully BFing DD1. Then immediately after DD2, I was diagnosed with (the least malignant form of) skin cancer and was told to stop BF in advance of treatment. Then in the end the consultant cut the cancers off and said " Oh sorry, you could have carried on BFing after all" . I felt a bit cheated but the whole thing makes me a little more understanding over the breast is best mantra.

John Rentoul@JohnRentoul

How Brexit identity is stronger than party identity:
(NatCen)

Belatedly PMK and to posters who have had / are having a tough time

Meant to say to Mrsr8 and Mrs DGR mine was nothing compared to what you went through.

I'm a bit behind with threads but I am sure everyone knows that Ian Dunked-Inshit has promised not one single job loss will result from a No Deal. Not a single one apparently.

This is another illustration why many leading Tories are not worried by the political consequences of No Deal.

Despite heading the most disfunctional, incompetent govt since probably the 18th century,
May has actually been more popular over her 30 months in office than Gordon Brown during his 1st 30.

She is even more popular than MrsT at that stage in her premiership
(people forget how unpopular Thatcher was originally - she owes General Galtieri a huge debt. Indeed the entire rightward swing in British politics might never have happened without his stupidity)

John Rentoul@JohnRentoul

And here are PMs' personal ratings (average) for 1st 30 months:

But surely the Theresa May halo effect is constrained by the fact that she's not standing at the next GE

DH has always thought that JC was a Tory mole.
After reading over my shoulder last night, he is now convinced that JC is an ERG mole - making their wildest dreams a possibility

How Brexit identity is stronger than party identity

or, to phrase it differently (and better)

Brexit is a religion bordering on a cult

Mrs8 and MrsDG

Sorry for what you went through. I’m a perinatal mental health nurse and I sadly hear stories like these all too often. I cared for a young woman years ago who had severe CP as a result of a massively mismanaged birth and her parents were still fighting for compensation 17 years later.

I have done a total 180 degree turn on JC - from thinking that he was a breath of fresh air to feeling quite murderous towards him. The Tories have presented him and the Labour Party with the biggest open goal ever and they have done absolutely nothing to capitalise on it