Westminstenders: It's oh so quiet...

[RedToothBrush]

It's oh so quiet // It's oh so still // You're all alone // And so peaceful until

You ring the news // Bim bam // You shout and you yell // Hi ho ho // You broke the spell // Gee, this is swell you almost have a fit // Brexit is fab and I got hit // There's no mistake get on with it

'Til it's over and then // It's nice and quiet //
Shh shh // But soon again // Shh shh // Uh oh let's start a big riot

You blow a fuse // Zing boom // The devil cuts loose // Zing boom // What's the use
Wow bam // Of leaving the EU

It's gone quiet.

May was supposed to go on a tour of the EU to get concessions. She hasn't.

Instead we are currently stuck in an internal never ending debate about Alternative Arrangements (which is being abbreved too A. A. by less convinced souls) and how Germany got all the money from Marshall Aid (it didn't) and how navy ships can suddenly sprout front opening hulls to become roll on roll off ferries to emulate the spirit of Dunkirk. One of our greatest ever military defeats, which merely had good PR.

The idea that there is going to be any shift in position between now and 14th Feb seems unlikely. It suits the EU and it suits the ERG to be blunt about it. It does not suit the UK national interest though.

Instead our livihoods and futures are slowly drip, drip, dripping away. Invisible to those loved up on the idea of Leaving. But like a newly wed, how long does that feeling last? 42% of British marriages end in divorce after all. When do people fall out of love with Brexit?

The revelation of the need for the WAIB is scary too. The WAIB is the Withdrawal Agreement Implementation Bill. You can read more about it here:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1091734003265224708.html
Well I say you can read about it, but from the thread you can see that the WAIB hasn't been published yet. And for us to Brexit without a legal and constitutional nightmare parliament needs to pass both the WA And the WAIB. And if you thought it was difficult to get the WA through just wait until you clap eyes on the WAIB details.

With this in mind there are noises from the ERG about an A50 extension. Y'know the one we can't have unless the EU think it's it their interests too.

mlexmarketinsight.com/insights-center/editors-picks/brexit/europe/the-uk-rips-out-its-eu-law-drip,-only-to-hook-up-to-another
More on the WAIB.

Of course there is a more sinister explanation: May does indeed intend to no deal and or use civil contingency law to pass the WAIB in whatever form she sees fit without parliamentary scrutiny.

Tick, tick, tick.

A friend told me today not to worry about brexit as "we survived before and we'll survive again". I didn't say much. My history lessons were rather grimmer in reminding me, that the ones who didn't survive don't get to be so optimistic.

Customs and Excise dept. who will not now be checking goods coming and going from the ports for a year or so.

They don't check them now so how is not checking them in April going to make any difference?

I think it was fishes who thought there'd be more?

I've not mentioned people, apart from people smuggled in trucks still being checked for. I was talking about freight.

What I'm interested in fishes is what we gain by all this overhaul ... given that more control has apparently been a significant factor for many MPs and members of the public too.

I'm looking for a controlometer.

From what HMRC and you've said it seems to me re goods there will be either the same or less control.

So Fishes if they don't check them now, on who is the onus that the import isn't faulty or out of date, for example?
If it leaves the EU checked to the "usual" standard, but then isn't checked our end, does that mean the UK Boarder is liable for not ensuring the item isn't faulty (legally with no deal, even before we get into the mind boggling vortex of WTO)?

I'm assuming that under the EU bloc cover we would have been able to contest it/bring a legal case. Now we have no cover as onus is on us, right?

What I'm interested in fishes is what we gain by all this overhaul ... given that more control has apparently been a significant factor for many MPs and members of the public too.

Well obviously we gain nothing. That's Brexit.

Remember though that the clouds-and-unicorns Brexit would be a situation where the border's as open as it as now, we have full free trade and full equivalence of standards - just without the membership fees, control and FOM. This situation is no less secure and controlled than that would be - or than the current situation is.

So Fishes if they don't check them now, on who is the onus that the import isn't faulty or out of date, for example?

At the moment it's exactly the same situation as if the faulty goods were made in Wolverhampton.

Part of me kind of agrees with Nissan man, although not to the extent that I would ever have voted to leave.

The trouble with Nissan man's smug vote to teach his ignorant work colleagues a lesson (whilst being alright Jack with a German passport) is that he also voted to deprive cancer patients of their chemo and diabetics of their insulin. He voted to remove the birthright of millions of children born EU citizens who didn't get a say in the referendum because they were too young. He pissed their future away and taught them a lesson as well as his ignorant colleagues.

His moral high ground is looking pretty fucking shaky from where I'm standing.

@RedToothBrush
Just caught up with the thread and wanted to say I really enjoyed reading about your dad and how he helped shape the current EU guidelines on pesticides. It's a great, simple but effective way to explain why we have so much to lose from leaving. Thank you.

I've had lunch with one of the EU 'officials' who was behind the 'bendy bananas' myth. The struggle to fight the Banana 'barons' and their literally deadly farming practices and the WTO nearly caused a mental breakdown.

The struggle to fight the Banana 'barons' and their literally deadly farming practices and the WTO nearly caused a mental breakdown.

This is where Cameron let us down. The booklet which came round about Remain was remarkably thin - a success story could have been told detailing the above, or about clean beaches and a thousand and one other things where the UK led the way. Would it have made enough difference with a rabid right wing press determined to talk down the EU and lazy politicians who found it a convenient excuse? I don't know....

Place marking
too depressed to read the detail

About the guy on JO'B. Absolutely no sympathy for anyone who voted Leave. Reap what you sow. Preaching to others whilst he just swans off into the sunset, having helped create this mess.

Ditto the people who may be made redundant in Sunderland. They were quite happy to inflict all this on others. This is just one of their dividends. I wasn't privy to a different set of newspapers or internet. Don't buy into the 'feel sorry for the people who believed what the campaigners/newspapers told them'. I stick with the view that you can tell if the usual suspects and their fellow travellers are lying if their lips are moving. In the case of Penny Mordaunt, a falsehood got repeated 3 or 4 times in a single minute or two on a Sunday current affairs programme. Repeated over and over that the UK does not hold a veto on Turkey joining. This was a lie. A baldfaced lie. Not a matter of opinion; a lie.

I am in continental Europe at the moment. I went into a shop today and the people behind were having quite the laugh about Brexit. Perfect English, but cracking up with the B word.

It would have made a huge difference if our politicians and culture had been focused on actual facts and information rather than consumer sensationalism and propaganda for the last 30 years, Peregrina. Complete lack of anything resembling ethics has been led from the top - anything goes in order to get a bit higher up the pecking order or win an extra point in some game. Brexit is the direct result. That's my belief. I do think a one-off information-based campaign around the EU might have made the difference because of how close the vote was, but far better to have an entire culture that is led that way.

A barefaced lie, even. The people behind the counter were laughing.

Genius. T May as Lady Lavery.

Steve Bell, Guardian.

James Rothwell @ jameserothwell
Exclusive: Chris Grayling has been banned from Calais by port officials who are furious with his 'no deal' Brexit plans. The port's chairman refers to him as "failing Grayling." My latest:
www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/02/05/chris-grayling-banned-calais-brexit-row-ports-chairman/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Chris Grayling banned from Calais after Brexit row with port's chairman

The chairman of the port of Calais has told Chris Grayling not to darken his shore again, as he accused the Transport Secretary of showing "disrespect" by planning to divert sea traffic from the French town in a 'no deal' Brexit scenario.

Jean-Marc Puissesseau said Mr Grayling gave no warning about the proposal to effectively bypass Calais, despite attending a meeting with port officials who assured him that they were ready to cope with post-Brexit red tape such as customs checks.

It seems he asked Calais if they would be ready in the event of no deal. They said yes. He ignored this and made alternative plans anyway after they'd spent a load of money to meet their promise. And they are a big pissed off at it.

Loletta, my Dad's a strange fella. He's fairly politically aware but rarely states his own opinion. The TV only gets that treatment when someone says something nice about Margaret Thatcher. I think there will be lots of people out there whose entire life work will be erased one way or another in the aftermath of Brexit. And history will be rewritten to say that the EU forced everything upon us. Its a scary prospect tbh. Pure totalitarianism.

Thanks RTB.

Bloody Chris Grayling.

Forgive me if this has been posted already - have not yet had a chance to read the full thread.

The Transport Secretary insisted the UK government had done all it could to strike an agreement, and it would be down to EU intransigence if time runs out.

www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/news/101615/chris-grayling-brussels-will-be-blame-if

I want to scream.

It's inverted totalitarianism. Been happening for a while.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
kittysjones.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/inverted-totalitarianism-and-neoliberalism-oh-dear/

_ Exclusive: Secret No-Deal Brexit Plan To Slash Tariffs On All Imports_

Full-blown Minford !
Bye bye to much of UK industry and farming, if true

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exclusive-secret-plan-to-slash-tariffs-on-all-post-brexit-importsukk_5c587b08e4b00187b553da30?

Ministers are secretly planning to unilaterally cut tariffs on all imports to zero in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a move that could flood the market with cheap goods and “ruin” industry,
HuffPost UK has learnt.

Trade Secretary Liam Fox wants to use executive powers
– reserved only for ministers –
to make a last-minute change to the Trade Bill which would allow the government to dramatically slash tariffs on all foreign goods.

It has been described by manufacturing union the GMB as “the ultimate Brexit betrayal”.

Fox revealed his strategy to industry leaders in behind-closed-doors meetings this week,
blaming fears that inflation could see prices sky-rocket if Britain crashes out of the EU on March 29.

Business and chiefs are “deeply concerned” the Brexiteer minister risks “wrecking” homegrown industry, including farming and potteries, in one fell swoop,
but Fox claims consumers will benefit.

Labour, meanwhile, said unilaterally switching all tariffs to zero would be an act of “sheer lunacy” which would give Brussels no motive to negotiate a future trade deal with the UK.
< or any other country ! >

Baroness Smith, Labour’s leader in the Lords, said:

“Ministers have long insisted that the Trade Bill is just a technical piece of legislation.

But at this late stage, with a bizarre proposal to try to remove all import tariffs, they have revealed an ulterior motive that would flood Britain with cheap imports and decimate our businesses

“If the government intends to pursue this course of action, it should have revealed it to MPs first.
But be very clear, such efforts to betray British industries will be met with resolute opposition in the Lords.”

A few hours behind but just catching up with Sky news at 9, good grief, the 'no border, border' with NI/RoI will be a smugglers paradise. I'd be fairly sure that criminal gangs have already set themselves up ready to go in just 7 weeks time, waiting to take advantage of the chaos.

What an absolute mess, turning the clock back years and years. If the 'alternative arrangements' are actually not to bother and just waive everything through...

Honestly, what a bloody disaster, I feel closer to no deal than ever.

Tick tock, tick tock

I'm hoping that's just Fox floating the idea to test the reaction, not that it's already mainstream policy

Maybe it's May threatening - genuinely - what the govt will do if the WA doesn't pass and we Brexit with No Deal

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/05/uk-believes-isil-hostage-john-cantlie-still-alive-minister-says/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
UK minister branded 'genuinely irresponsible' after claiming British Isil hostage John Cantlie is alive

The security minister was accused on Tuesday night of being “genuinely irresponsible” after he claimed a British hostage held by Islamic State was still alive.

Senior Whitehall sources said Ben Wallace, the security minister, may have put John Cantlie’s life in jeopardy by commenting on his status.

The source said Mr Wallace had “massively undermined” his own department. Mr Cantlie, a British photographer, was kidnapped six years ago by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

His whereabouts and status are not known, according to well-placed sources inside the Government.

But Mr Wallace went off message at a meeting with foreign reporters at the Home Office this morning, insisting Mr Cantlie was alive when asked.

Within hours, the Home Office was urging media outlets to show sensitivity in repeating the claim.

Ben Wallace MP who just a few days ago, was saying it was OK for MPs to make mistakes because they do lots of research and only occasionally get it wrong, and defended a fellow MP who lied, got caught and refused to correct himself.

I'm sure this one is an okay mistake to make too.