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.

Humphrys ..... but when ?

Well the independent seems to have the explanation to the main story in the Mail!

Humphrys is leaving? I hope he was persuaded to leave. Don't feel cheery about much right now but can still manage a mild hurrah for this. He won't be missed and the Today show is forever dead to me.

Humphreys quitting ..... but not this week

Another large company with dodgy foundations about to collapse ?

Helena Leee@BBCHelenaLee*

Financial Times: Interserve talks close in on deal to avert Carillion-style collapse #tomorrowspaperstoday

Ireland and EU discuss emergency funds to offset no-deal Brexit

Handy to have a big powerful mate to bail you out

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/05/ireland-and-eu-discuss-emergency-funds-to-offset-no-deal-brexit

Sources say Ireland will be looking for ‘long-term fix’ to offset hit to food industry

I received a reply from the BBC to my complaint about Humphrys' interview with Helen McEntee, Irish Minister of State for European Affairs, where he suggested Ireland might leave the EU and join up with the UK. I get the feeling they had a lot of complaints on that one.

“Thank you for getting in touch. We are sorry to hear you objected to John’s interview with Helen McEntee on Saturday. However we do not agree that John’s questioning was unfair.
Our job is to put arguments to interviewees to test their opinions and to see how firmly held they are. We’ve done this with guests responsible for the UK’s role in these affairs too. We take the same firm but fair approach to each interview.
It can be useful to approach an issue from an alternative point of view - the question about Ireland ‘throwing its lot in’ with the UK was an attempt to do just that. We think it is a legitimate question to ask, as a different way to discuss the importance of the trading relationship between the nations.
John also queried the position of the Irish Government, as stated by Leo Varadkar at Davos. This wasn’t a challenge to Minister McEntee personally. At Davos, the Taoiseach said: “I think we’d end up in a situation whereby the EU and Ireland and the U.K. would have to come together and in order to honour our commitment to the people of Ireland that there would be no hard border, we would have to agree on full alignment on customs and regulations.”
Perhaps at some point Ireland may choose to prioritise its desire to avoid a hard border over its obligations as an EU member. We have to ask to find out. A question like this doesn’t reflect a presenter’s own personal view. Part of their job is putting other peoples’ views forward. Presenters have to be impartial and it is their job to play devil’s advocate.
John put it to Ms McEntee that even though the UK voted to leave the EU, and thereby its rules and regulations, the Taoiseach’s position suggested that the UK was expected to abide by those rules after all. His remark, ‘and it sounds a bit arrogant to a lot of people on this side of the Irish Sea’, reflected the argument that the Irish and the EU are not acknowledging this.
Minister McEntee made the point that the Irish want to avoid a hard border with Northern Ireland, that the UK’s red lines include leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union and that the backstop is there to protect the peace process after two years of negotiations.
Today is required by the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines to be duly impartial and accurate, we believe we achieved that here. We think this kind of robust questioning is well within the bounds of what our listeners expect.

Of course this is relative and I still don't like or trust the creepy fucker, but he genuinely seems doing better work than 80% of the rest of the Cabinet atm.
DH and I had a similar conversation the other day. We both left it terrified

So the BBC is acknowledging that its own guidelines demonstrate acceptance of imperial/colonial arrogance

EU elections: a Brexit game-changer?

www.ft.com/content/7c45b71a-293a-11e9-a5ab-ff8ef2b976c7

An Irish woman living in England notes that the UK has not officially joined the many Irish celebrations to mark the 20 years of the GFA - I hadn't realised this.

She describes anti-Irish racism and the British demand for superiority

http://crookedtimber.org/2019/01/31/leaving-do/#more-45895

Britain’s leaders hated the EU not because of “sovereignty” but because it’s not designed to make them feel special.

There is no woolsack in Brussels and Strasbourg. There is no cavalry.
The constitution is something you just pull down from the shelf and read.

Britain’s leaders despise international institutions because in those spaces they’re a generic Minister for Justice or Head of Government among many, not The Home Secretary, not The Prime Minister.
They can’t bear to feel generic and interchangeable, distinguished only by their knowledge and ability, hamstrung by their limited language skills

Perhaps at some point Ireland may choose to prioritise its desire to avoid a hard border over its obligations as an EU member. We have to ask to find out.

That's just outrageous. I agree with you Prettybird

Britain’s leaders hated the EU not because of “sovereignty” but because it’s not designed to make them feel special.

But they have no problem with organisations like NATO or anything else American led, which of course, the lack of language skills might play a part.

I also think the idea floated in the New European is a good one - except for one thing: Brexit is not and never was about what the country wanted to do or even about leaving the EU, as such. That was just a means to an end. Brexit is a project for disaster capitalists to make a killing by stripping all the assets of a country in meltdown. And nothing - no matter how sensible or reasonable or easy to pull off - is going to get in the way of that. Especially as our own dear leader's husband is one such disaster capitalist.

Doesn't matter what the people want, how many have changed their minds, what the experts tell us ... the disaster capitalists are going to have their pay day. The fact that they have conned a bunch of ignoramuses into supporting them - and threatening the kind of violence that the likes of JRM are too genteel to actually put their hands to - is just a bonus.

HesterThrale, that's the same stock response I got to my complaint about that interview.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/8361505/brexit-secret-high-tech-irish-border/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
DRIVE-THROUGH BORDER Brexit ministers to study secret high-tech plan to keep Irish border open
A leaked blueprint created by Japanese firm Fujitsu reveals plans for a tracking system that will monitor vehicles passing through the Irish border

They've got 100 lorries to test it before 29th March...

The ERG are not going to NI as planned. Alex Wickham reporting they kicked off at May's speech today so decided they didn't want to understand any of the sensitivities of the border region.

Matthew O'Toole @ matthewotoole2
TND always well sourced. This story hints at it, but the words 'tech' and 'solutions' in are euphemisms for an enormous programme of surveillance on the island of Ireland.

Could I get this straight - supposing Fujitsu has got a tacking system which works, what does that mean for the ERG? That they will say no anyway, because it's not about the backstop? ( I think I have answered my own question.)

Peter Foster @pmdfoster
ERG leaks “secret high-tech plan” to create invisible border in Ireland...that needs number plate cameras and tracking devices.

Where to start with this....1/thread

Am told this was “at the bottom” of a stack of the ropiest tech proposals being hawked round by PRs...

^No doubt the ERG thinks it was cleverly hidden away by evil mandarins who didn’t want to make it work...which it won’t. /2
I had a go at explaining why here earlier tonight.^

Shorter: leave aside the cameras, these schemes only work if Everyone co-operates. Tracking a van doesn’t tell you what’s IN the van. Doh! /4

Leave aside gangs and smugglers, do we think white van man in the Irish borderlands is going to submit to trackers in his van and spot inspections?

Do we really think that if worked someone in Whitehall, Dublin or Brussels might have spotted it??/5

It kind of speaks for itself that we are now onto the Rwandan model?!

Remember @michaelgove and the “Albanian model” in the 2016 campaign?

I can already picture the scene now Robbins and co have to take everything Steve Baker says seriously. /7

Robbins?

Yes Prime Minister?

What about the Rwandan model?

Sorry PM?

The Rwanda model? Baker’s boys say it cracks the border issue.

Ah yes, of course, the Rwandan model. Very well.

Exits. Closes door, weeping: “Anyone in this madhouse got a clue what the Rwandan model is?”8

But enough madness for one day.

I am to bed. Perhaps I shall awake to discover the whole thing has been a terrible dream. 9/ENDS

(and no he can't count and I didn't miss a tweet in this thread)

Alex Wickham reporting they kicked off at May's speech today so decided they didn't want to understand any of the sensitivities of the border region.

No trade deal pressure then from the USA, New Zealand and Canadian Irish lobbyists.

supposing Fujitsu has got a tacking system which works

Peregina no need to go past this part in your thinking.

It doesn't work.

See Peter Foster's two threads about smuggling and organised crime.

That BBC response is a disgrace. It is so patronising to explain their reasoning like that, as if you couldn't figure that out all by yourself, while completely ignoring your actual complaint.

Hope they're looking forward to the BBC budget being decimated and losing all credibility world wide.

I wish I hadn't read that the inverted totalitarianism links, as they are so depressing, but it's good to know the name of things.

How has it come to this?

That BBC response is a disgrace. It is so patronising to explain their reasoning like that, as if you couldn't figure that out all by yourself, while completely ignoring your actual complaint.

For balance can we now look forward to Humphrys asking a DUP spokesperson about Irish unification? After all, if Ireland opting out of the EU is one solution, so is a United Ireland.

BTW do people think Irish unification will happen? I do, DH thinks not for a long time.

Sam Coates Times Retweeted Allie Renison@AllieRenison

Interesting, but this only seems (at least from the writeup), to deal with customs-related checks and controls?
Not the remaining three-quarters that are related to regulatory compliance, many of which always require human intervention?