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.

Jim Pickard@pickardje
meanwhile I’m told that Seaborne Freight is still trying to secure its first ferry

I know this will come as a major surprise

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

I suspect it’s because he’s such a twat that no-one takes him seriously.

Maybe we should just take up opposite sides of the swinging bookshelves in the bunker?

Sure, but if it comes to it I’m burning his books to keep warm.

The situation is bad but I'd say that's a tad excessive.
Which civil wars have you lived through?

So, the BBC did talk about Brexit in the end, even thought they didn’t flag it in the headlines, what with it not being as important as, for example, the Oscar nominations...

They mentioned that JRM had talked about suspending parliament in the most casual, throwaway manner. And then moved on.

Anyway I can't stare at this shit any longer tonight. It feels like the start of a tsunami of bad Brexit news.

Night all. Don't have nightmares...

I agree that investigative journalism has been near non existent on brexit. I'm speechless now as to what's going on. I miss the country as I've always known it. I really miss it...

It is going on, it's just not on mainstream tv.

Opendemocracy have been doing good journalism. As has Carole Cadwalldr of course.

red i understood "additional security" to mean enabling staff and families to reach the school through logjammed roads,
possibly pollution issues for a school in the middle of a perpetual logjam
Also of course being able to source and transport school meals and other essential supplies

Esther McVey? In the Sun? Ha, ha, the irony.

Andrew Neil voted Remain. I'm sure he's said that. He's extremely arrogant and I wouldn't ever engage with him online but I do think his pre-election interviews are equally grilling of whoever he's questioning.

The WA - the treaty dealing with past & ongoing obligations - is fixed
The PD - defining the future relationship - could be modified

Barnier, stressing again that if the UK drops red lines, then the PD can be changed, not the WA

"If the UK red lines were to evolve in the next few weeks or months the Union would be ready immediately and open to other models of relationships which are more ambitious.

We’re ready to rework the content and ambition of the Political Declaration.'"

oh, this thread disappeared for several minutes from the Brexit list 😱
I could see all the others, just not this one
Testing ....

Hope your (discerning) cat is ok now Born.

Do not click Esther McVey's WTO links.

Jim Cornelius 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 #WATON
@Jim_Cornelius

No joke, Esther (McVey)'s link goes through several redirects before taking you to a random scam site, telling you you've won a competition or something!

Data harvesting?

Well I have been thinking for some time that extra security will be needed in Kent. All those lorries sitting parked on the sides of the motorways filled with food and other goods. Sitting ducks. And if I were a lorry driver on my own and was targeted I would be saying help yourself rather than risk getting attacked.

Rather ww2 black market I know but possible. Especially if there are food shortages.

Is it bad that I read the JRM headlines didn't even flinch and thought of course he would and just moved on?

Read all the headlines in the independent and was taken aback by the sheer number of businesses leaving or planning to. On the bright side that'll free up loads of warehouses...it'll be to late to stockpile in them but it was the best silver lining I could think of.

It's been a day today but it hasn't really registered.

I do need to empty all my bookcases and sort my books into sets. I'm currently reading along with the all about Agatha podcast and have to keep hunting for the next book as they are all over the place. That will give me something to do as we bunker up.

In fact my main problem will be entertaining the kids. I could keep myself occupied for days if not weeks. There's decorating to do (supplies already in the house), books to sort, reading, sewing, knitting, crochet. Weeks I reckon.

Ivan Rodgers’ piece in The Spectator tomorrow should raise a few eyebrows.

JRM has been angling for this kind of power all along. His tax havens and dodgy views on relaxing regulations on imports are indicative of his vile profiteering. It does make you wonder why they present the idea UK is a great nation when they so merrily shaft it.

I found this link which is useful to note the key areas we are loosing/having to renegotiate with EU (although most just seem to be going up in a puff of smoke without replacements).

Which made me wonder if any of you know whether we have even begun setting up our parallel version of EMA? Seeing as their move to Amsterdam has likely caused/contributed to the shortage of medicine supplies experienced by Health Professionals and Veterinarians...do we not think this might be somewhat urgent? I know, there is so much to be worried about, but...medicines

All reassurance gone now about Parliament not shutting down. seems it could be possible unless Mogg said it cos he thought TM would do it. Aaargh!

Worried lurker here.
May I ask, who would shut parliament down? I mean can TM do this on her own or would she have to ask the queen for permission? And would this be just to run down the clock?

Some one could ask a question about JRM on the web chat with Jonathan Portes ,Catherine Barnard and Anand Menon today at 11.30.! There haven’t been very many questions so far.

I think that given the dangerous hostility and disdain shown by the executive towards experts -we should show that expert views are respected and pop over ask them something?

Interesting that Anna Soubry’s views were more sought after than expert views? Whilst Anna’s great (for a Tory MP) surely one reason we are in this mess is by ignoring experts?

Thank you lonely, cat is fine. Fussy eater but sometimes bolts her food, consequence throws up. She was sitting on the arm of the chair so conveniently threw up in bin...had she been facing the other way, would have been on me. I like to think she’s discerning though!
Reading Trump threads so struck by parallels with here, wasting money (or proposing to do so) on things that have no need to exist (walls/ferries), states of emergency, outright lies and blatant manipulation of democratic mechanisms (US govt shutdown, proposal to shut down Parliament)...too many variables to make either the inevitable outcome of any plan, but given the limited range of possible outcomes - functioning state (unlikely under the circs) semi-functioning state, non functioning state (likely), worth a punt for anyone wishing to destroy both the UK and US. Or maybe I need to go back to sleep, my day off this week so can do so...