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.

Am currently veering between rage, fear, disbelief and despair at the situation. I am still struggling to comprehend how our government has allowed us to be in this situation. The sheer incompetence of it makes me want to scream.

The worst of it is that like so many others, we are stuck. I am pretty sure I'd be entitled to an Irish passport if it came to it (half the family are Northern Irish, unfortunatrly the half I'm estranged from but ho hum), but that won't help DH or DS, and I'm obviously not going to leave them, so we're fucked. We're a single income family at the moment who ate managing ok but we don't have that much wiggle room if things go super tits up. DS is currently going through the assessment process to see if he has autism, and I am horrendously worried about his future prospects in a country that has already abandoned anything but the most shallow pretence of caring for anyone even slightly disabled, no matter how young or old or frail they may be. If I think too hard about it, I just want to cry for him.

We have some supplies put by but once they're gone, we'll be in as much trouble as anyone else. The one blessing is that we're currently physically healthy so at least we aren't reliant on medication. But that's about the only one I can find.

I don't know what to do any more. This is screwing my mental health up hugely, and I hate every single fucker in Parliament and beyond who have put us here. Including the Leave voters in my own family. Thank god I don't see much of most of them.

Fuck fuck fuck.

.

Ah, you have my sympathy pointy 💐. At least good to hear you have a good redundancy package. Hope something good comes up soon!

TM has had lightbulb moment because business leaders have had enough of it, and will soon be speaking out regardless of NDAs.

for pointythings

And for spudlet. DS has autism and I worry about all those things too. I look at dd, super bright, hoping to train as a doctor or medical researcher and see her being able to leave and work abroad if necessary.

I look at DS, also very bright, but terrible mental health, hasn't managed a full year at school in four years, don't know how he will manage in his GCSEs as he's missed so much and possibly will struggle to work full time as an adult. Stuck here with hostile environments for the disabled. Its utterly, utterly shit. And all we can do is hope that things turn out ok.

Sorry pointy

Well done on the foodbank funding Dest

I should find my shocked face over the TM revelation but I'm to busy laughing and crying

This vote on tuesday...I was under the impression that they could only hold another vote on something that has already been to vote if there are significant changes. Have there been significant changes or is the tuesday vote not on the WA but something else?

pretty, bosscastle No, that rather foolish MP asked the Polish govt to veto, but Poland will consider an extension depending on the plan / grounds given

Jakub Krupaa@JakubKrupa* (Polish Press Agency, UK corresp)

A Polish govt source shots this down immediately saying Britain's withdrawal from the EU without an agreement is the worst possible scenario for Brexit

Adds Poland would evaluate any A50 motion if/when it comes from the UK govt, but would need to have a clear plan of what's next
...
Daniel Kawczynski**@DKShrewsbury (the idiot MP)

Any attempts by Remainer MPs to delay or obstruct #Brexit must be opposed.
Today I have formally asked Polish Government to veto any motions by EU to allow extension of Article 50.
We are leaving 11pm on March 29th as promised @StandUp4Brexit

destial its because I couldn't bear her to go to foodbank. Its my pride not hers. I feel that even though she's grown with a DC I'm still her mum and must help her. She, too works full time there are so many desperate. But I will ask her to pop in to see what other help she can get and thank you

pointy and susan

spudlet If you are entitled to an Irish passport, then if you wish to move to Ireland, or anywhere else in the EU,
your DH and DC should be entitled to accompany you, under EU rights regs

e.g. typical example:
In Germany, non-EU family of an EU citizen have a simple 1-page form to apply for residence.
Main thing is to show they have means of support, you and / or DH

Congratulations on the new job, rebel
Always a great comfort to have a steady income coming in

Great achievement on the lunch funding, Dest
You are helping so many of the most vulnerable 💐 and you deserve a gong🏅

spudlet Hence it's well worth applying for the passport - probably some backlog so I recommeny applying now, to expand your options and safety net

Theresa May has had, in the last few days, "a lightbulb moment as to the impact of no-deal on British manufacturing."
WTF 🤯

After 2.5 years, the bloody penny drops ? 😡

red you are pulling the plonkers that most of us don't have

Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn

Now this is interesting.

Graham Brady's new amendment - backed by all 1922 officers, Murrison and Green - calling on the PM to demand the EU scraps the backstop as their price for backing her deal.
Will she?

< only if she wants to be told NO again >

And there ideas for the alternative are.....?

GFA = no new barriers between IRL & NI (says IRL, correctly) That seems to be the popular consensus.
GFA = no new barriers between NI & GB (will say NIrls, even DUP - correctly) Really? I've not heard that claim before. I know it would be extremely unpopular but I can't see how it touches the GFA at all - other than upsetting a lot of shouty people.

sos please don't let your pride get in the way.
We are nice folks, honestly 🙂
And we even provide biscuits 🍪

Hardline Tory Eurosceptic Lords Set To Derail Cross-Party Bid To Stop A No-Deal Brexit

UK Lords to be antediluvian to the bitter end .... of the UK ?

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/brexit-yvette-cooper-lords-filibusterukk5c49ef04e4b0287e5b88db3e?guccounter=1&gucereferrerrus=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvL0ZCWDdNclBrNGsYW1wPTE&guceereferrercs=rqyTVXpwIICZgzqSWU77nw

Hardline Tory Eurosceptics in the House of Lords are planning to derail cross-party moves to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

Senior government sources and MPs have told HuffPost UK that a clutch of die-hard Brexiteer peers is ready to ‘talk out’ or ‘filibuster’ a radical new bill that seeks to solve the Parliamentary deadlock.

The bill, proposed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, is set to win official backing from Jeremy Corbyn and Tory Remainers as a key weapon in the battle against the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal in March.

If Cooper’s amendment succeeds next week, it will create a day in February when the Commons will fast-track the bill and effectively force Theresa May to delay Brexit by three months or more.

But her critics have spotted that the private member’s bill could be blocked in the House of Lords by just a handful of Tory Brexiteers,
because the second chamber has no means of ending debate and a bill could be ‘talked out’.

In the House of Commons a ‘guillotine’ motion is often used to end debate,
but tradition dictates that peers are self-governing and can speak for as long as they like.

“People in the Lords may be happy to talk about it for several weeks,” one government insider said.

“It’s inevitable.
With these old, long established institutions, you can try to break them but they will break you back,” one senior Conservative added.^
“They will find a way.”

If you would like a minute or two respite, this might do the job.

It has some Brexit jokes!

I've heard something about it before Fishes, but didn't really understand what was said.

Simon Cox, who was saying it, is a reputable migration and equality lawyer.