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.

Much as I can't stand Theresa May, I do think she has done well to see off the ERG. She knows damn well that of one of those headbangers was PM, we would crash out with no deal.

I really don't think she wants that scenario.

Given that she is as stubborn as hell and convinced she is right, I do think she would use the CCA to shove the WA and WAIB through.

To be honest, the fact that the CCA exists is terrifying. But as it does, using it to prevent the nightmare of no deal would be preferable to me. She won't revoke. And I don't think she will crash out. But using the CCA is not the worst of ideas. Parliament are showing no signs of voting for the WA, despite it being the least damaging option.

Or maybe I am just naive.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=EgjrIMb4Cjg

This is worth a watch - Charlie Brooker’s take on Brexit in his 2016 round up. He is brilliant at capturing the total absurdity of it all. And this was 3 months before article 50 was triggered

Oh, and as a former Labour Party member who voted for Corbyn, I cannot believe what an utterly useless waste of space he is being over Brexit.

He is like a ventriloquists dummy with no hand up his arse. Will he ever just DO something?

I honestly can't work out which Party is worse at the moment.

amp.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/04/tory-mps-back-rightwing-youth-group-turning-point-uk?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard&__twitter_impression=true

Tory MPs back youth group with apparent links to US far right

A number of Conservative MPs have praised the work of a new UK rightwing youth pressure group that is said to have links to far-right conspiracy theorists, and has in the US been accused of anti-Islam views and connections to racism.

On Sunday, MPs including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel tweeted supportive messages for Turning Point UK, the offshoot of a controversial organisation established in the US.

The UK outpost is headed by George Farmer, a Conservative donor and son of a Tory peer, who has been pictured (below second left) socialising with Paul Joseph Watson (second right), a senior editor at the far-right conspiracy theory website Infowars, and frequently retweets him.

Much as I can't stand Theresa May, I do think she has done well to see off the ERG.

But she is still trying to appease them. She could tell them that they weren't able to put up, e.g. get enough votes to depose her, so now shut up. Instead she is talking about renegotiating the backstop, for something as yet to be defined, when it's not up for renegotiation.

Wherearemychickens. Well yes I did go early last night so missed your question sorry.
Well I’d like to see some common sense in our parliament but there again I’d like to win the lottery and I’m sure neither will happen in my life.
I would like to see us leave on the 29th without a deal.
I don’t think prolonging anything benefits anyone with the uncertainty already caused by our useless MPs that couldn’t organise an egg shoot in a chicken house.
I don’t disagree that there indecisive ways are helping any one.

I think the only common sense thing is to get on and plan our leave with a no deal exit plan fully instead of wasting time.
It’s like the EU keep saying to us to tell them what we do want but they don’t. Since our MPs have the spine of a jelly fish and commit to nothing and bicker mostly over party politics instead of running the country.
I think the EU want as much as us to get plans in place fully and if we say we are leaving with no deal then all can plan for it better.
I Keep hearing the saying we are going over a cliff on the 29th and it is partly understandable with the way nothing is been decided upon properly so as I say I’d like to see plans and decisions and talks to plan for leaving with no deal instead of waiting for it to just happen.

As you know I voted to leave and yes i voted to leave fully in my mind not to half leave or part leave as I see that worse than staying in.
I voted to leave the EU rubbish (yes my opinion )but in my mind at the time it was what they now call a no deal brexit simply as I believe that a vote to leave is exactly that.
To leave and not be tied to any agreements that hold us controlled by them.

I believe that the money that in principle that was agreed the 39billion will still need to be paid to sort out whatever deals after we leave but I’d pay it when agreements are signed after we are left and not before.

I do think we can agree things better once we are left already simply as the way the EU want to keep control over us if we sign anything before seems nuts to me and for us to agree to such things I don’t agree with.

Well I’m am tired so hope it makes sense and agree or not with me I don’t want to see anyone in major problems after brexit and yes it won’t be plain sailing like any major major change but I think it will be better ultimately and yes there will of course be some issues but I don’t think anything like the scare stories each day.

Just read that Guardian article about the Nissan bung. Greg Clark blaming Labour for not stopping the referendum?? Love this line though:

One of the few that was there was John Redwood, a man whose prime goal in life is never to come across a stick that he can’t find the wrong end of.

Regal mother fish.

Trying not to log in much during the day while all is quiet.

Had a very good friend snap at me today that her and her Argentinian ex can't understand what the big deal is. Things like this happen to countries all over the world, natural disasters included. Just because we have been so lucky here for decades doesn't mean we should just blithely expect that all to continue.

Was quite depressed by that. Calm before the storm indeed.

Re Nissan - I think long term this is a Conservative ploy to increase poor feeling about welfare. Logically this is 7k people voting themselves onto benefits, ergo lots of remainer types in 3 years time resenting paying increasing welfare taxes.
Just a thought...

MaryJoyce
So you think no deal is synonymous with your desire to leave, shut the door, never return... as long as there are plans in place.

Given that there are virtually no plans in place and the government couldn't organise a dog fight, how do you feel about no deal?

And what do you mean when you say (several times) that the EU controls the UK?
Can you give examples of the UK being controlled by the EU.

LonelyandTiredandLow I imagine if one is used to the rollercoaster that is Argentinian economics and politics then Brexit could indeed look like small potatoes.

However, I think the jaded Argentinian is about to be surprised.

Morning all 
What are these plans you speak of Maryjoyce ? In what way does the EU control us?

PMK

I Saw this old vote Leave poster doing the rounds on Facebook.It makes me want to rant.

How can the Leave voters in Sunderland still support Leave? According to the press they do? What - so a now unemployed Leave voting car worker can sit at home on the sofa counting their benefits of 'control'? Can he (or she) now derive comfort from the fact that they may be jobless but yippee the Tories in Westminster can set their own ( lower) food safety regs. It's so fucking absurd.

Is there anything vote Leave said that was actually correct? What one thing did they say that was right?

Why aren't Leave voters up in arms about the broken promises?

• We will not leave the CU/SM- well we are.
• We will have an arrangement like Norway -well we don't.
• No businesses will leave- well they are.
•We will have £350 million more. Well we don't. . The 0.7% of GDP was a splash in the ocean of NHS needs anyway. Plus the expenditure on Brexit dwarfs this by billions. Even a 0.1 % fall in growth would see tax receipts £36 billion lower over 50 years.
• Not a single job will be lost- Well these ones have been lost already ( https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTIPx0lI6pb-3Tn-3D6uNJNyKcCd-A8uPMxViagyJAR9T87ZmnSdAEPCzp5ljlNYoUNdxJiJqQdBm7b/pubhtml)

How can any MP, journalist or voter still support this ? The whole campaign was an immense fraud the like of which we have never seen before. It was the worst case of the Emperor's new clothes- yet they still believe.

Rant over- it was that poster. It sent me over the edge.

lonely - rant away! It’s perfectly justified. I too am completely baffled as to how it has come to this. It’s as though the country has been, probably for the last 40 years, like a person suffering some terrible psychological disturbance but keeping going through habit and routine, and keeping a lid on the problem. Then something happens and it all falls apart.
God knows how we recover from this. It’s a shame the UN or some other body don’t offer counselling services for self inflicted woes.

This clip of Corbyn talking at a Lisbon Treaty rally in Ireland 10 years ago removes any doubt that what we have now is exactly what he has wanted all along:
twitter.com/TheRedRoar/status/1092522416591519745?s=19

doesn’t

This is the ‘solution’ I’ve been proposing since the WA and PD were published:

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-rebels-to-demand-meaningful-vote-on-post-brexit-trade-deal_uk_5c58884ce4b0871047567023?ncid=APPLENEWS00001&guccounter=1

No one really listens to me - will anyone listen to these MPs?!

I’m so grateful to everyone for posting and keeping us updated. I feel so powerless and frightened about the future. Have started buying in extra supplies - enough for the three days and probably a week but that seems so inadequate. This is such a nightmare.

Sorry if this has been discussed already - I’m loosing track atm.

So, as we are heading to a No Deal, and the government is getting ready to deal on WTO terms, can some one reminds me if:

• there is indeed any agreement on WTO? I thought a few countries had put some objections in and I’m not aware of any solutions on that front.

• if we have any customs system in place to deal with all the new customs system (I’m thinking pragmatic stuff here aka computer system and agreement on the differebtbtarriffs to be applied)? I know there are some talks about waving through any products coming in. But how are companies going to know what charges they face? (So. they can charge us for it too)

And of course, if we don’t have a WTO terms agreed, what are we trading under?

Sorry you are feeling stressed JaneAustensPen . I know it sounds a bit of a feeble notion but have you tried yoga. Adrianne on YouTube is good. Helps to build up your strength and gives you an approach to difficulties.
I also find swearing helps . I'm serious on both.

Square these elements all sound sensible:
^ •MPs having a meaningful vote on the trade deal May negotiates with the EU^
•a joint committee of MPs and peers which would set the UK’s “red lines” on trade with Brussels - all but guaranteeing a customs union and strong single market relationship
•a separate UK workers’ rights bill which aligns UK workers’ rights and environmental protections with the EU’s
•and a multibillion investment fund aimed at leave-voting areas.

But why would Labour force the Tories to do that, thereby saving the latter and killing the chance of a GE?

That's the eternal problem isn't it May needs either the ERG or Labour. Pandering to the ERG ultimately implodes the Tories. Getting Labour on board makes a Labour GE victory less likely.

Even a Brexit cult devotee must be able to see the timing and constitution of Parliament just isn't right.