Westminstenders: Waiting for Sanity

[RedToothBrush]

We could be waiting a long time, but that's what we have to wait for as that's what the EU is waiting for.

The EU has requested we expand on our plans for 'alternative arrangements' with regard to the backstop.

We need to do so before the next HoC vote on 14th Feb. The EU see no point in shifting their position before than. And the UK will struggle to provide the info the EU want before then. So there is now some doubt as to whether the vote will go ahead as planned.

About a third of the Cabinet now believe that Brexit will have to be delayed due to legislation not being ready for exit date. However we don't have power over this and we might still exit without it.

There is no Brexit related business next week in the HoC to prevent pesky amendments. The recess has been cancelled but MPs have been told its OK to go on their ski holidays so it's just a PR stunt.

Meanwhile No Deal is in full effect as businesses trigger their exit strategy in the absence of certainty. No Deal is reality for many even if we do have a last minute deal...

We are all about to get poorer. As that's what we voted for.

I completely missed the last thread. Probably the best thing for my nerves.

Small extension to Brexit timetable could be acceptable: Rees-Mogg

Looks like an extension might be on the cards then.

Down thread the NHS was mentioned..... I passionately believe the NHS needs retire - the country can't afford it BUT having lived in the states and seen the corruption in the medical field, and the way the poorer citizens are screwed (tbf I lived there before Obamacare) it is so not the answer.
Nz has a really good system where private and public sit hand in glove and the most vulnerable in society pay nothing. I am sure it's not perfect - but you can see a doctor, there are not huge queues in winter and vulnerable and sick patients are not hurried out of the hospital before they should be.
The sad thing in all of this is I hear again and again how brilliant the nhs is - but my experience and people I know who have recent experience did not receive what I would call first world care.
But the nhs is a sacred cow - which politicians will not debate.
As a footnote - as a family we see a private GP- he used to be in the nhs . His feeling is that because the nhs is so sacred no politician will bring is up as an electoral issue - so the plan (I am guessing Tory but he didn't say that) is let us fail, collapse and then reinvent it. That is just so sad......and evil......but given how the ERG have been carrying on I believe it.

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/labour-finances-plunge-into-the-red-for-first-time-under-jeremy-corbyn_uk_5c547ef6e4b09293b203bb5b/?__twitter_impression=true
Labour Finances Set To Plunge Into The Red For First Time Under Jeremy Corbyn
“For a party that wants to manage the nation’s finances, being in deficit is not a good look, is it?” said one MP.

The party had ‘millions’ as recently as the autumn of 2017, but has since gone on a major spending spree that has wrecked its finances in just one year, one insider claimed.

“They’ve blown the lot on community organisers, LabourLive and extra Loto [Leader of the Opposition] staff.”

JezFest the gift that keeps giving.

Sorry - not retire - reform

Red - that is scary

Grassroots Tories warn May that Brexit delay would be a betrayal

And as May herself said many of the people who voted in the ref had never voted before. Oh yes Their views must never be betrayed ... but it's fine to Betray the views of 16 million people who have voted loyally and faithfully year in, year out.

Yes it's fine to betray us. Offering no reassurances, no input, no consolation prize - just a dismissive "80% voted for a Brexit party - shut up."

The regulatory thing is what makes me want to leave the country to be honest. I see Mogg rubbing his hands at the imported cheap but cancerous products and meds... I'm imagining the CE mark won't be on it even if the same item is approved in EU, so there will literally be no way of knowing?

Faulty dodgy electrical items?

Think of the employment opportunities. There will be loads more house fires, so we'll need more firemen. Probably private firemen coverage. Live in a tower block? Bad luck.

Electrical, food, toys - all of the plastics you aren't meant to put through the dishwaster! Cosmetics (ones in USA have chemicals we won't allow here). It's a complete minefield. We have no regulations in place, no list of what to check or why. I bet the insurance firms are going mental.

There you have swathes of unemployed, poor, men, easily stirred to anger - for all intents and purposes radicalised - with a dangerous mission to show that their vote was RIGHT.

You also have the smug complacent well off Tories, who have an enormous sense of entitlement, and don't ever seem to stop to think "there but for the Grace of God go I." They aren't the ones who will go out and protest, but will be more than happy to bankroll the extreme right wing.

Peregrina - you do, however they aren't likely to get their hands dirty in strikes or riots...

The betrayal narrative is started to lose it's edge surely? It's become a joke..

my peas are touching my sweetcorn BETRAYAL!
Extending article50 - BETRAYAL!
Revoking article50 - BETRAYAL
Soft brexit - BETRAYAL
No deal - BETRAYAL
My biscuit broke off in my tea - BETRAYAL

Everything is now - BETRAYAL! It's a betrayal to stay in the CU because that was supposedly not what leavers voted for. I've also read its a betrayal to NOT stay in the CU because thats not what people voted for. Betrayal has become a meaningless word....that I find fun to shout randomly

Operation Yellowhammer details leak, insane....

twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/1091613737923067905?s=19

Dominic Grieve: The Conservative Party has a problem—it’s no longer conservative

That is the cause of this clusterfuck
It's been taken over, root & branch, by Bannon-type "Leninists" who want chaos and revolution

Hence why I want it it destroyed - it's not salvageable - and replaced by a complety new center right party with a social conscience at its core that is business.friendly

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-conservative-party-has-a-problem-its-no-longer-conservative

It is impossible to look at what we have done over Brexit without astonishment

@GD12 I can't see anything when I use that link, could you copy & paste?

Excellent summing up by that Washington Post Article linked upthread:

"There was a weird, and very un-British, quasi-religious undercurrent to all this - a sense that things would work if you just believed in them hard enough.

Also discernable were a hatred of practical judgment and a bubbling tide of chest-beating jingoistic nationalism.

Brexit was a political project based on the idea that identity politics could answer technocratic questions.

If the technocratic question keeps proving problematic, you just need to have more faith in your identity."

Umpteenchanges

Times EXC

37 page “Operation Yellowhammer” no deal planning pack for staff leaks. Marked “official sensitive” t.co/lytAqTr5Fm

Times EXC

Key Yellowhammer slide on no deal consequences

• “Operation is potentially enormous”
• “Impacts ... could grow exponentially as issues impact upon each other and capabilities of responders at all levels decrease or become overwhelmed” t.co/p0iBoostfq

Times EXC

Government creates war-like structure with 24 hour, 3 shift a day “battle rhythm” all reporting to cabinet office / Cobr

• Here for the first time are the details t.co/ultb1DuXOx

Times EXC

Government admits it only has facilities to cope with “two concurrent events to be managed” t.co/Vv0sVAS50S

GD12's Link works for me:

Times exclusive with photos of leaked Yellowhammer document:

"Times EXC

37 page “Operation Yellowhammer” no deal planning pack for staff leaks. Marked “official sensitive”

Key Yellowhammer slide on no deal consequences

• “Operation is potentially enormous”
• “Impacts ... could grow exponentially as issues impact upon each other and capabilities of responders at all levels decrease or become overwhelmed”

Government creates war-like structure with 24 hour, 3 shift a day “battle rhythm” all reporting to cabinet office / Cobra

• Here for the first time are the details

Government admits it only has facilities to cope with “two concurrent events to be managed”

"Battle Rhythm" they call it ! 🤔

Someone said in that Twitter thread that "Battle rhythm" is a military term so it comes from military planning.

It's a term that has been used by the civil service in times of crisis for ages. I worked on the recovery efforts after the big 2007 floods and when I joined the team they were just coming off battle rhythm - it meant somebody was on call at all times.

C3 is also classic military speak

'Battle rhythm' is a very commonly-used military term to describe the daily routine of briefings, meetings and assessments undertaken as the 'battle' progresses......

C3= Command, control and communications.

Maybe we can post that leak with the first few screenshots to answer the next "Millenium Bug" that claims No Deal is no big deal