Westminstenders: Distract and divert. Just close your eyes.

[RedToothBrush]

This morning Jeremy Hunt declared that, 'With vision on both sides we can find a way through that has the support of Parliament and also works for the EU'

Of course this is 18th February 2019 and the UK has yet to demostrate they understand the problem, much less have the vision to solve it. And we leave the EU next month.

It needs to be stressed at this point: DON'T FORGET TO FOCUS ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS

Everything else is a tactic to make you close your eyes and miss what is really going on. Everything. Brexit looks increasingly like a hypnotist making their subject do ever increasing acts of ridiculousness on stage. Except I do not know if the public or the politicians are that poor sod. It is the magician who uses tricks of slight of hand to make you look the wrong way, whilst they makes all the big moves out of your vision.

There are so many stories that are coming out to try and make you miss what the government are failing to do. Stay focused. We can't ignore all these stories, but understand whether they are really important to the end game too.

A labour split, a march on the 23rd March, talk of a PV, the Brady amendment, the Malthouse Compromise, Cooper-Boles halting no deal?

No we need more than that.

The time for fantasies are gone. Its time to face reality and be pragmatic. The only thing that matters is the approaching cliff. Which we will go over not on the 29th March but in the next couple of weeks. We might not realise the ground disappearing beneath our feet at first. Our momentum as we go forward will carry for a short while before gravity kicks in.

But we can not defy the laws of physics and suddenly be able to fly because we develop magic superhuman powers of vision.

And no one will come to save us either.

Our national humilation will be total, if we don't acknowledge what is coming and stop.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/3492426-Westministenders-Abbreviation
Brexit Abbreviation Thread

As someone with feet in both Germany (family) and Japan (DS lives there with Japanese wife), I've often been struck by similarities between the two nations, above all the pragmatic approach to business.

A few years ago, I went to a German trade fair in Yokohama showcasing German products (I was only there on a visit, but there was lots of beer and sausages on offer, so ...). It was a brilliantly and attractively organised affair and I wondered where the equivalent event for British products was. Maybe there was one, but DS never found one. The best stand was for Stihl garden machinery, where they let you loose with a chain saw on a log.

Interestingly, Oktoberfest has also been heavily promoted; Japanese beer is very similar to German beer, because after the war the Japanese went out into the world looking for beer recipes/production methods they could copy and eventually plumped for German Bier. In fact, in a further display of Japanese pragmatism, Oktoberfest became so popular that they now hold it twice a year, the original October and the spill-over now held in May.

The Japanese do love their beer, although they have a problem that many people have an adverse reaction to alcohol which makes then go red in the face if they drink too much (apparently they're missing an enzyme for processing alcohol). The police don't use breathalysers, just a Dulux colour chart. (I made this up ).

Ok, just caught up with the thread...
Just to restore the balance (because the Russian interference in our democracy is not the only one) I will repeat my statement here in English: you (as in The dark lords of extremism of any shade) shall not pass.

We should not squabble in any language because frankly that doesn't help.

The Japanese do love their beer

Their Whisky is supposed to be quite good too ...

From that 'lectern moment' in Salzburg with May and the Japanese PM (?) even my very limited knowledge of Japanese etiquette there were several howlers. A bit like if you were going to your company CEO to ask for a pay rise and you start by insulting their family, swearing and being generally abusive.
Saying that, almost the whole of this Brexit fiasco seem to be the tourettes family on tour, virtually no diplomacy anywhere. That is almost the most unfathomable part about it all, deliberately insulting people and country's leaders that the UK will have to do business with now or very near future.

Thank you red.

virtually no diplomacy anywhere

I hunk that’s because not a single one of the current government has actual experience in having to be diplomatic - esp not from the perspective of being the weaker party.

*think

I could also hunk if necessary, I suppose

Their Whisky is supposed to be quite good too ...

As with the German beer, it's clear why there were so many Japanese visitors to Scottish distilleries over the past few decades. It's a familiar pattern, decide what stuff you like, then go to where it's made and find out how they do it. Then come back and start producing the best you can find.

From that 'lectern moment' in Salzburg with May and the Japanese PM (?) even my very limited knowledge of Japanese etiquette there were several howlers. A bit like if you were going to your company CEO to ask for a pay rise and you start by insulting their family, swearing and being generally abusive.

Yeah its been painful to watch it unravel.

Little englanders do not make diplomats.

Can I ask some of you a favour on the ‘is anyone leaving labour with chukka’ thread I’m being accused of being anti Semitic could someone please read through my posts on there and tell me if I have, il starting to obsess over it (the joys of a mental illness) sorry

"Saying that, almost the whole of this Brexit fiasco seem to be the tourettes family on tour, virtually no diplomacy anywhere. That is almost the most unfathomable part about it all, deliberately insulting people and country's leaders that the UK will have to do business with now or very near future."

DH has an interesting theory that it's all quite deliberate so that the only country that will do business with us - and clean up handsomely - is the US.

Kevin Schofield@polhomeeditor
Huge round of applause from Labour MPs as PLP chairman John Cryer pays tribute to their seven colleagues who resigned from the party this morning.

Pmk

As I predicted to myself, when I saw the news, there are posters saying that the Honda news isn’t to do with Brexit because it’s not moving to an EU country.

I do, however, apologise for an off day, must be that pesky pain in my gut again.

Not really Sost but I’m long past caring tbh.

I'm not squabbling.

Next we will be hearing Brexit is not because of Brexit.

Huge round of applause from Labour MPs as PLP chairman John Cryer pays tribute to their seven colleagues who resigned from the party this morning.

That made it sound like their all dead.

Another boat full of migrants bought into the port of Dover. Why they want to come here to such a divided country is beyond me.

*they're

Pernille Rudlin @ pernilleru
Of course Honda Swindon closure is not just about the 3,500 jobs there. Other Honda suppliers in the UK include G-TEKT production in Gloucester, Tredegar, Ebbw Vale employing 800 people. But also plant in Slovakia starting 2019. 1/

Honda Logistics employs a further 1200 in Swindon. What will happen to the >1200 employed by Honda Motor Europe (European HQ in UK) in Bracknell in sales and marketing of not just cars but motorbikes, power products etc? 2/

Or the 235 employed by UYS in Cowley making exhaust systems? Honda is their sole customer... There's another 70 people in Aberdare making shock absorbers for Honda - their only production in Europe. 3/

Other suppliers not so dependent on Honda (also supply Nissan & JLR so that's OK 😟) like Sanoh employing 300 making brake and fuel lines in Bristol, or Hi-Lex employing 160 people making linear control cables in Port Talbot. 4/

I suppose it will be like Musashi Auto Parts after Honda shut down UK plant for 4 months after Lehman Shock in 2010 - shut its production in Gwent down, 150 jobs, shifted to Hungary. 5/

There's also Piloax in Accrington, supplies Honda & Nissan with fasteners, produced in UK, 120 employees. Kasai employing 800 people in Washington + Merthyr Tydfil supplying Honda & Nissan respectively. Already has plant in Slovakia as of 2017. 6/

NP Automotive Coatings manufactures paints for Toyota and Honda in Swindon - 60 employees. About to start production in Czech Rep. TS Tech employs > 700 in Swindon makes car seats for Honda. Has production in Germany+Hungary as well. 7/

Unipres employs around 1400 in Sunderland making car body press parts. Initially only for Nissan, but diversified to supplying Honda too. There's a sister plant in France. 8/

So in total, as well as the nearly 4,000 at Honda Swindon, there's another 6,000 jobs in the UK at risk over the next few years if Honda winds down UK production. 9/9

PMK