Westminstenders: Competitive Stupidity

[RedToothBrush]

A week of wondering which MP is going to be the most dumb.

There is stiff competition between parties and remain / leave.

Expect incredible bids of ignorance and incompetence to curl your toes, with a bit of constitutional craziness thrown in for good measure.

Valentine's Day beckons...

... And so does the No Deal Divorce.

Didn't you see earlier posts about the UK-Japan negotiations on trade ?

Japan is refusing to roll over the EU-Japan trade terms,
because they are demanding better terms from a much smaller & weaker UK

We can expect most countries to do this, because the UK doesn't have the clout of the EU, which is an economic superpower

The UK LOSES all the 40 EU FTAs which cover 70 countries
and also loses 700-800 other kinds of trade arrangements which smooth trade
e.g. there are about 50 with the USA alone

Members of the US Congress are threatening to block any new UK trade deal
if Brexit causes any NI border infrastructure to be added, or harms the GFA in any way

Step The EU is not going to break WTO rules and endanger its Single Market
just to rescue Brexiters who made ridiculous promises in the referendum

and to rescue the Tory party from tearing itself apart

Not going to happen.

The EU is standing by its member country Ireland and won't dump them to rescue a disfunctional Tory party in a country that is leaving

Out of the loop today but whilst waiting for an apt at hospital I saw some rolling headlines. One was tm saying that the eu are irresponsible for saying no to her new plan without giving an alternative. They have given one ffs, she agreed with it at one point. She's lost the plot hasn't she???

A change from cats, vegetables are equally calming ....
here is what to do with a 99p tray of live lettuce

Step a precis and link would do just fine.

Members of the US Congress are threatening to block any new UK trade deal if Brexit causes any NI border infrastructure to be added, or harms the GFA in any way

AS Bonnie Greers piece on Saturday notes, baked into American DNA is a visceral antipathy towards tyrants. The UK would do well to remember that, as the very existence of the US is a testament to British tyranny. The unfortunate news of the UK seemingly bullying smaller countries into blind trade deals could spark a US backlash that would make any trade deal politically impossible - especially if (as I can see happening) Trump decides that Brexit is a Bigly Bad Idea.

It's hard not to characterise Brexit as Lloyd-Georges definition of attempting to cross a chasm in two steps ....

tm saying that the eu are irresponsible for saying no to her new plan without giving an alternative.

The EU said from day one, it's not their job to "do Brexit". 450 million people know that.

Merkel and the EU will help out the UK as much as they can - without damaging their own SIngle Market.

That means the EU will make lots of encouraging statements about wanting to negotiate a good future trade relationship rather than falling back on the backstop.
However, this will be expressions of friendship and goodwill, not legally binding

The UK can choose later to have frictionless trade - and no additional NI border infrastructure or checks - if it negotiates to join the Single Market and a new Customs Agreement

The EU explained even before the ref that the UK can't keep all the bits it likes and get rid of all the bits it doesn't.
We are in this mess because too many Leavers still believe the EU is bluffing

Unless the EU has decided to dismantle its Single market, it's not bluffing

@StepLadders007

Interesting read but the EU have said they will reopen negotiations if May lifts her redlines... she will not.

May signed this deal in December, it is the UK that cannot agree on what it now wants....the WA cannot be re-opened as a; it opens all the european competing demands and b; to what end? May cannot say what will pass the HoC.
The real issue here is TM, her priority is her party not the EU or the UK.

We could leave the EU on a EFTA + style agreement that would protect NI and still allow us to seek FTA's.... but that would split her party, so it cannot happen.

That article by the editor of Das Bild (wasn't clear if it was an editorial or just a Comment piece) is just about as credible a position of the official German status as the Sun is of the official UK position.

OK, at the moment, the UK Government (and the opposition) seems to be led by populism and what the papers want . But that is not (and should not be) the case around the world.

It's like saying that what the National Enquirer wants should be Government policy complete with attempted blackmail

Also to any lurkers, we were emphatically told on another thread that there is a 500-page Brexit White Paper, which we had apparently all forgotten about, answering all our discussion points, and thus that concerned conversation about Brexit details was therefore hysterical and unnecessary.

I won't say which poster confidently informed us of this incredibly important fact, but I will say that despite repeated pleas for this Tome Of Great Knowledge, the link has not been forthcoming.

Barnier very early on showed a slide of all the alternative future relationships the UK could have
BUT each has benefits and legal responsibilities
^

It is the UK's red lines which ruled out so many of the options

Then, as I posted, the EU made concessions to give May the all-UK backstop she requested, instead of just a NI one

Barnier very early on showed a slide of all the alternative future relationships the UK could have BUT each has benefits and legal responsibilities... It is the UK's red lines which ruled out so many of the options

THIS^^ needs repeating. Again, and again, and again.

In case anyone is interested. here's a link to the piece Step quoted in it's original Daily Mail setting (and English). The fact it was written in English, for an English audience does raise questions about why a German version wasn't written for German people.

Incidentally, pay me £20 a word, and I'll write a fucking trilogy on how amazing Brexit is, and how the whole world owes the UK a debt. make it £200 a word and I will add a 5 novel backstory about how the English are really descended from Gods.

DGR
Incidentally, pay me £20 a word, and I'll write a fucking trilogy on how amazing Brexit is, and how the whole world owes the UK a debt. make it £200 a word and I will add a 5 novel backstory about how the English are really descended from Gods.
DAMN somebody else has cottoned on to the get rich quick scheme

So it looks as though the world is heading for recession, partially driven by the US/Chinese trade war, Trump's tax cuts and unreliable tech growth.
www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/paul-krugman-warns-of-a-possible-global-recession-this-year-or-in-2020.html
What a good time to cut our ties with our nearest and biggest trading partner, abandon very favourable trade deals we already have and swap them for worse ones, and contemplate eating our pets. Not.

I'm staggered by the complete rubbish posted about the Uk being able to do trade deal and the EU can't^

Did you miss the recent EU-Japan FTA, which - with all the other FTAs - creates a free trade area covering ⅓ of the entire world GDP ?

In contrast, Liam Fox has been unable to get countries like Japan to agree trade deals on the same favourable terms they gave the EU

Fox has only managed trade deals with minnows like the Faroe Isles, our joint #192nd trade partner,
where UK exports are only £3 million, compared to the many billions we export to major trading partners

or the very limited trade deal with Switzerland, that doesn't cover most things.

If we are heading for a Global recession then thank god we managed to keep hold of our own currency. £

I feel sorry for countries like Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain who will be at the mercy of the EU technocrats.

"When Greece went through its debt crisis, trying to avoid a punitive debt bailout from the EU, it held four national elections and one referendum. Each one gave the country a "mandate" to secure a better deal for Greece. The EU ignored each one, and forced the country through an economic crisis worse than the Great Depression to get its money back.

This was described in 2017 by Duncan Robinson, the Brussels correspondent for the Financial Times, as the Greek fallacy — the false belief that a domestic vote somehow gives a national government a stronger negotiating position than before"

unreliable tech growth.

Can't really argue that one. Most recent tech is shite. I mean really shite.

If we are heading for a Global recession then thank god we managed to keep hold of our own currency. £

And that is to do with Brexit and the EU how, exactly ?

That Bild article by suggesting that BoJo is a staunch brexiteer puts a bit of a question mark over it as he is a staunch 'BoJo opportunist' and blows whichever way he thinks can advance himself.
The rest may have bits of truth about them but a bit of 'name dropping' does not necessarily make it authentic or accurate.

{If only European leaders would take a step back and acquiesce to London}
Given some time for the UK to actually disentangle from the EU why is that so important that the EU have to compromise? The UK mentality at political level has always been 'imperial' and isolationist (unless it can shoot the locals) so not ideally suited as a true EU partner unless it has a change of heart and mind, a feat that in the realms of technology and other cooperative activities has been achieved.
The stuff about WW2 is distinctly peculiar with not a great deal of accuracy.

And that is to do with Brexit and the EU how, exactly

Ask the poster to whom I was replying to.

The EU risks some trade with the UK, which takes about 12% of EU exports

• but it is doubtful if the UK could replace the 30% of its food imports that come from the EU and the 70-80% of fresh fruit & veg at some times of the year

The EU keeps all its other trade deals with the rest of the world:
the 40 FTAs with 70 countries, the 700-800 other trade ageements

The UK loses all those deals
The UK risks 45% of its exports - that's what the EU imports from us

No Deal for the UK has no comparison in modern history;
a highly intergrated developed economy suddenly cutting all its formal trade ties with its regional bloc and the rest of the world

No Deal is taking the UK to Year Zero
(Why are the Brexit revolutionaries trying to emulate Kampuchea ? It didn't go well)

technocrats fact bias opinion

with not a great deal of accuracy

Go on.......