Westminstenders: Red Squirrels are British. Groundhogs are not.

[RedToothBrush]

Well the good news is we haven't got a GE yet, and it looks unlike one will be called this week. Purely because we haven't got a crisis point looming this week.

May has officially confirmed plan A is plan B. But says she will try and get more on the backstop whilst working with the DUP. Barnier and Ireland have said 'no'

We now prepare for the Meaningful Vote II.

And a week of speculation about amendments.

Here's a quick summary of likely ones:
Guardian Article on possible amendments

I think the Labour one will struggle to gain Tory support. The big thing about it is leans the party line firmly towards a customs union.

The Grieve one is handicapped by talk of a minority of 300 taking control of Parliament. Otherwise it might have support.

The two most interesting are:

The Benn 'Indicative Vote' as its reflective of the Brexit Select Committee recommendations.

The Cooper-Boles Block No Deal amendment which is cross party and seeks to place a final date on May passing her deal by 26th Feb, after which Parliament will take control. This I believe is being supported by Labour as a whole.

Bercow of course gets to say which amendments are debated and voted on but Benn and Cooper-Boles have broad support so are unlikely to be ignored by him. The two together seem to compliment each other.

The rest of this week is likely to be lobbying on this but otherwise fairly calm. Though someone is bound to throw a few curveball in there with leaks.

The only other thing to watch out for is talk of up to 40 ministers quitting if they are not allowed a free vote on some sort of indicative vote motion. This seems to be being lead by Amber Rudd. But I don't expect this to come to a head until the weekend at the earliest.

In other words, we have a couple of days of calm before the storm. Expect it to ramp up again at the weekend in craziness.

^ “constitutional outrage”^ must surely be trying to shut down Parliament
to pass a slew of bills without MPs' consent to drive us into a blind Brexshit
for which we are hopelessly unprepared

An outrage against democracy

In fact classic fascist route to power:
con the public into voting for something once, then force it through, without allowing further votes or democratic process, or 2nd thoughts
and demonise & intimidate any opposition with bully boys & violent nutters of course

< peers under fake moustachios >
mrsr8 / Destiel After the warning, I shall NOT Google the new handle !

I googled. I am mildly surprised at mrsr8s shipping preferences but my eyes did not burn from their sockets.

I keep thinking this Brexit is like what would happen if you rip up your old job, home, finances
.... and let your toddlers have complete authority & responsibility to organise the new:

e.g. organise disposing of your old home, finding a new one,
organising cleaning, packing removal transport
cancelling utilities, wifi, phone contracts, Netflix etc and organising new ones
new bank accounts, ISAs, brokerage accounts
new car, train season ticket
......

How niche?

I'll go there. I'm brave.

I googled too, it's fine!

Canada got prorogued not too many years ago. It wasn't popular...

You might want to read this
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008–09_Canadian_parliamentary_dispute

I note this passage
In his book Harperland, published in late 2010, columnist Lawrence Martin quoted Kory Teneycke, former director of communication for the Office of the Prime Minister, as saying that, in the days preceding Harper's meeting with the Governor General, the option of appealing to the Queen was considered, should Jean decline prorogation. Such a series of events would have been a first in Canadian history. Constitutional scholar Ned Franks said to The Globe and Mail in September 2010 that the Queen would likely have refused to intervene in such circumstances

Look what happened in 2010:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Canada_anti-prorogation_protests

Now we are being told that frustrating the will of the people and not delivering Brexit would bring civil unrest by the same person who is advocating prorogation given the recent history of it in Canada. Add in the heat if brexit and you got a lovely recipe for disaster there.

Ewwwww!

I keep thinking this Brexit is like what would happen if you have a mid-life crisis, rip up your old job, home, finances etc
.... and let your toddlers have complete authority & responsibility to organise the new:

e.g. in between tantrums, the toddlers must:
organise disposing of your old home, finding a new one,
organising cleaning, packing removal transport
cancelling utilities, wifi, phone contracts, Netflix etc and organising new ones
new bank accounts, ISAs, brokerage accounts
new car, train season ticket
......
The toddlers would be as out of their depth even thinking of such things as our current politicians

DD said Brexit is more complicated than a moon landing
That took 10+ years of planning ....
By brilliant experts who knew exactly what they were doing

Just been to the 48% Prepper and one of the admin mentioned that the tone of the media will change by Thursday next week. We shall see....

Change how @nuttynutjob?

This is highlighting the democratic deficit in the U.K.

The legislature and the executive are combined and the executive is working to limit the legislature with no clear checks and balances. We have a second chamber with no power and a Supreme Court still finding its way.

This is a significant threat to democracy and the democratic process and no one cares. All the bleating about a second referendum being undemocratic and the EU being undemocratic and then when a leaver proposes something that is a genuine threat nothing.

JRM's suggestion to 'close parliament' is genuinely shocking and no one is in the least interested.

Sad and strange times.

Within the next few weeks, I'm expecting first businesses to panic, then Sterling dealers and the other markets,
then finally the public ....

with the former deniers screaming & threatening the most

Unless No Deal is replaced by something else, even an extension

Thursdays the next vote.

Yes the tone will change.

Panic is going to start setting in at some point soon.

I reckoned we had two weeks before it started to get crazy at the end of last.

It's too many people with big decisions or things that are dependent on facing uncertainty over it. The current 'oh it'll work out fine' is only sustainable to a point. Then there will be a dawning realisation of where we actually are and where we need to be.

Totally baffled why even remainers don't seem to be reacting to JRM's threat to basically do away with Parliament until Brexit has happened.

He either has a fuck load of personal money riding on this, or his innermost political aims are far murkier & nastier than we suspected.

As someone retorted, her patron and employer Lord Ashcroft must also have a flimsy attachment to the UK seeing he neither lives nor pays taxes there.

BBC tv news headlines seem to be totally ignoring JRM threatening to shut down democracy.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/8265001/no-deal-brexit-esther-mcvey/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Top Brexiteer Esther McVey launches new ad campaign explaining why No Deal is nothing to fear

God. More brainwashing.

This was Andrew Neil's response to oakenshott

Andrew Neil @ afneil
I would suggest their attachments are pretty strong or they wouldn’t be here and since we’re the ones who changed the rules we should pick up the tab. But it’s just my suggestion. Other suggestions are available.

I must admit there is a noticeable change in tone coming from Neil. Never one to hide his own views very well, there's definitely frustration and annoyance at other leavers creeping in which wasn't there previously. It's fascinating.

Shutting down parliament.

No news there. Nothing going on. Move along people nothing to see. Nothing important has been suggested.

I just want to STOP DEMOCRACY but only for a short while.