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.

To keep it 'on theme' a PP commented that an acquaintance had been tasked with finding 7 locations across the UK for mass burials.
I wonder how that is progressing.

Apart from eating our pets, forced deportations, mass state body disposal and no freedom of movement, Brexit is going splendidly though.?

Believe!

Here's What US Lobbyists Want Donald Trump To Get From A Post-Brexit Trade Deal

This would REDUCE protection for Britain against globalisation
Globalisation includes the rush to the bottom by giant US businesses

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/us-lobbyists-brexitukk5c5b26c6e4b00187b5579f64/?eccarp=1630229255771237006&guccounter=1&guceereferrerus=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvL0hob0syTlYwMVc&guceereferrercs==gnIizoIoU3fcUagOW1cAA&twitterr_impression=true

Big firms want Donald Trump to play hard ball over the NHS, food quality and consumer rights.

Lobbyists for big firms made more than 130 demands, which include:

	<span class="italic"><strong>Changing how NHS chiefs buy drugs to suit big US pharmaceutical companies</strong></span>

	<strong>Britain scraps its safety-first approach to safety and food standards</strong>

	<strong>Law changes that would allow foreign companies to sue the British state</strong>

	<strong>Removal of protections for traditional British products</strong>

<span class="italic">Weaken data protection for consumers</span>

<span class="italic">^ </span><strong>Slash British cattle farming subsidie</strong>^<strong>s</strong>

The trouble with global manufacturing/business is that unless you really want to drop out you have to keep running and there is no way back.
If you look at global use of materials and power resources if the whole of the UK just stayed in bed and used nothing for a week, it would make next to bugger all difference to the amount consumed in the world.
The Chinese are throwing up power stations about every 6 months or so (I forget details but it seems almost implausible whatever it is).

Still cat -ching up on the thread.

1. If we (as part of the EU) align our regulations covering the hygiene of foodstuffs of animal origin. That is I understand the EU impinging on our sovereignty? This also leads people like my FiL to fear we are being taken over.

What is the difference when..

1. We ( as part of an aspirational US trade deal) align our regulations to make cat and dog meat illegal? Why is that not both chambers of Congress and Trump impinging on our sovereignty?

The BBC website has a report about mining communities in the USA being poisoned by the use of open cast mining, essentially exploding the top off mountains to make excavation easier. This puts many chemicals into the groundwater and streams making it unfit for practically anything. Coming to an area near you perhaps? See also Fracking.

Lonely planet
Cat and dog consumption is a red herring although the point you are making is of course valid.
Isn't English wonderful, cats and dogs are a (non existant) fish!

@DangermousesSidekick

Brexit is going to reduce research into alternatives for fossils fuels and increase our reliance on raw materials/imports/exports from even further away.

We 'll be importing fresh flowers/fruit and veg from other continents in future, not from our nearest neighbours.

Tbh climate change is a far more pressing issue than brexit but few are interested in it, until it is too late that is.

Jas please don't believe I'm defending Brexit. I think close regional cooperation is much better than extreme globalisation.

Mass burial sites?!

Cat and dog consumption is a red herring

Yes thought it's not a red herring in one sense but is in another?

So the govt don't seriously think that food supply will get that bad.. so that is a red herring.

But surely the significant things is that we are aligning more closely to the U S regs aren't we?

If we get the rules about being allowed to include up to 30 insect fragments in a 100g jar of peanut butter; or a11 rodent hairs in a 25g container of paprika; or 3mg of rat or mouse excrement per pound of ginger then we'll know we are being further aligned... and presumably losing our sovereignty?

Gosh, it must be so cost efficient getting one body to carry out all food safety checks for 28 countries.

Location sites for mass burials? Presumably they're looking at NI as they want to dump all their shit there

Ian Dunt @iandunt
This is key. Moderate ministers need to take a stand and do it now, or else what comes next is on them.
m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/theresa-may-no-deal-brexit-fallback-plan_uk_5c617348e4b0910c63f30fc8?ncid=other_twitter_cooo9wqtham&utm_campaign=share_twitter&ec_carp=3463702431971453732

Anand Menon @ anandmenon1
And do what?

Jo Maughan QC @ jolyonmaugham
Resign. If 'Party unity' is the only language Theresa May understands that's the language they have to speak, or it's (also) on them.

Anand Menon @ anandmenon1
But play that through. What does it achieve?

Jo Maughan QC @ jolyonmaugham
It leaves them free to campaign against No Deal and against the PM delivering it, just as the ERG has done, hitherto without serious opposition.

It's like what happened with the Grieve amendment to the Withdrawal Act; he allowed himself to be stiffed because he wasn't prepared to damage the Party. That's how Tory (and in different ways Labour) moderates have allowed this to happen.

Anand Menon @ anandmenon1
But if they want to avoid no deal they can just support the deal, surely? Isn’t it time to end the unicorn hunt for a ‘better Brexit’?

Jo Maughan QC @ jolyonmaugham
They are supporting the deal. But it's not getting through absent significant softening and May isn't budging.

Ian Dunt @iandunt
Yes, quite. I don't think this is complicated. Resign and vote to request an extension of A50. After that several options are on the table, incl altering future relationship to make backstop less likely and People's Vote.

Jo Maughan QC @ jolyonmaugham
No Deal causes immense harm in the short term, of course, but it also opens Pandora's box, right? A country that could do that to its people, is there anything such a country would be incapable of?

Anand Menon @ anandmenon1
Absolutely. Which is why I think they'll ultimately vote for the deal as it is.

Jo Maughan QC @ jolyonmaugham
I understand that argument but I don't see enough Labour MPs rebelling without a significant softening.

Sadly I think there are two camps here, the outright chicken shit and the terminally dense. Amber Rudd has threatened to quit before but definitely falls into the chicken shit category. And as Peston pointed out most MPs are still saying that they don't think no deal likely and they fall into the latter camp.

At this point I can not see anyone resigning.

The Single market means we have - and must have - common rules about food hygiene, as well as common standards for every other product.

That's how we can have frictionless borders:
all EU countries know goods from other EU countries fulfill these common standards

Hence, no need to check goods at internal EU borders

Rather ashamed to admit that a lot of what I know about open cast mining in the US (aka blowing the tops off mountains) is via John Grisham
www.jgrisham.com/books/gray-mountain/

red That Huff article is depressing as fuck.

May has been giving in all the way
and I can believe she's now decided that Remainers will always shy away from harming the party

However, the ERG are the suicide bombers of UK politics - and it's never a good idea to give in to such demands
What would be the next demand, the day after No Deal Brexit ?

Remember we had a ferry company without a ferry so Seaborne lost the contract.

But on 3rd Feb we were talking about naval vehicles being converted to ferries cos we didn't have enough.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6661795/amp/I-order-Navy-replace-Channel-ferries-Defence-Secretary-Gavin-Williamson.html?__twitter_impression=true
'I will order the Navy to replace Channel ferries': Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson invokes Dunkirk spirit for a No Deal Brexit

This stemmed from an idea floated in October in a government report.

The Royal Navy could be pressed into action to ferry vital supplies across the Channel in the event of a No Deal Brexit, Government sources have told The Mail on Sunday.

And

It is understood that Mr Williamson, whose offer to provide military contingency planners to Mr Grayling was turned down last July, has said that he can provide whatever ships can be spared by the Navy to help Mr Grayling.

It turned out there are just four vehicles currently suitable as ferries in the navy. And then the navy said they couldn't convert other ship in time, and something about health and safety and bugger off Gavin.

Well today I bring you, this gem from Gavin. We will instead convert all those ferries we don't have and no one seems to be able to get hold of into... Er naval strike ships.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/defence-secretary-gavin-williamson-says-mod-will-convert-ferries-into-warships-xfkvdwfdh?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1549887201
Defence secretary Gavin Williamson says MoD will convert ferries into warships

The Ministry of Defence is to procure two civilian passenger ferries or cargo vessels and convert them into warships, the defence secretary has announced.

I. Just. Don't. Know. What. To. Say.

This thread is aptly named alright.

borntobequiet
Despite it being a novel you probably get enough of an idea.
It is similar to 'The pelican brief' where vast scale industrialists destroy the environment and people.
You could argue that it makes life a bit safer for 'miners' not working underground, but it certainly destroys huge swathes of the environment and through careless contamination of natural resources. It has happened globally of course but to continue now seems so wrong.

I should be happy that the main boards are waking up to what is coming down the track
but am sad because the politicians seem so determined to balls the country up

Andrew Neil @afneil
The worst part of the poor Q4 growth figures is that biz investment fell by 3.7% — the steepest fall since 2010 and follows previous 2018 falls. In my judgment there can be no question prolonged and continuing uncertainty of Brexit process hitting private investment (bigly).

Andrew Neil...

Nick Gutteridge @nick_gutteridge
UK Government spokesman on tonight's dinner between Steven Barclay and Michel Barnier: 'The meeting was constructive and Mr Barclay and Mr Barnier agreed to further talks in the coming days and that their teams would continue to work in the meantime on finding a way forward.'

And the EU spokesperson said?

Can they hear themselves?
'I'm going to get the navy in to ferry vital food supplies for this thing we don't actually have to do and can stop at any moment'

I think the time has come to have the entire cabinet sectioned.

Actually I agree with Jane Austen that anyone who has no pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid...Grisham is a good writer (albeit far from literary) and has a social conscience. That’s enough for me.