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

Pmk

Jessica elgot @jessicaelgot
Lavery tells PLP meeting he refutes entirely the idea that Labour is an antisemitic party and urges the MPs to now pull together. But one MP suggests dark mood in the room - “absolutely no new effort or action.”

Jim waterson @ jimwaterson
If you want an example of UK electoral law loopholes: The Independent Group, which looks/swims/quacks a lot like a political party and is asking for donations, is actually a private company. So it isn't subject to electoral law rules requiring them to declare financial backers.

This is - and always has been - about the ERG and Tories turning the UK into the 52nd state of the USA.

Or Singapore on Thames.

Take your pick.

It's only ever been about the "bonfire of regulations".

They've been quite open about it.

Why aren't people paying attention??

When is a party not a party...

This is - and always has been - about the ERG and Tories turning the UK into the 52nd state of the USA.

I agree here, and when for example you ask Leavers why they are not concerned that we have no say in how NATO is governed, they are quiet.

I sincerely hope I am dead before we become the 52nd state and we really will be a vassal state then.

I'll try and be gone by then.

...but I doubt dh will join me.

Single and in my 50s.

Cosmic.

Pmk

www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/30-mps-labour-independent-group?__twitter_impression=true
30 MPs Discussed Quitting Labour, But The Chaos Of The New Independent Group Turned Them Off
The original plan for a far larger breakaway didn't happen after a series of behind-the-scenes differences of opinion between rebel MPs.

Senior Labour figures involved in the breakaway plot confirmed that the original plan, conceived at a series of meetings last year, was for several dozen MPs to quit in one go. Only seven went ahead with the plan on Monday.

and

One source involved in the talks conceded that the Independent Group had “fallen short” of the numbers they originally hoped would join, pointing to a series of fundamental differences between key personnel. A second source insisted that today’s resignations were only the “first wave” and promised “there are more to come”.

The fundamental divide between the Labour splitters is over the new party that will emerge, the sources said. Several MPs including Chris Leslie and ringleader Chuka Umunna hope to be at the forefront of a new “centrist” party modelled on Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche.

The Leslie-Umunna faction is being challenged by a rival splinter group led by a number of former advisers to Tony Blair, including his former chief of staff Jonathan Powell and speechwriter Philip Collins, who have been holding meetings with the aim of forming their own party.

According to several sources familiar with the workings of the two groups, there have been clashes over personality and image. The Leslie-Umunna faction has alienated MPs because of the determination of its two figureheads to be the faces of the new party, a direction opposed by others thinking of quitting Labour, according to one source.

A second source said the Powell initiative, which has been linked to Countdown presenter Rachel Riley and Harry Potter author JK Rowling, has been ridiculed as “Cool Britannia 2019”, a reference to New Labour’s wooing of celebrities in the nineties.

A third source who has attended presentations by both factions said: “They are both a shitshow but Powell’s party is even more of a mess”.

Another group of anti-Corbyn MPs does not agree with either faction that forming a new party is the way forward. This view is said to be held by Luciana Berger, who appeared at the Independent Group event on Monday. “Luciana is not one of Leslie’s guys,” said a source. Berger told BuzzFeed News: "We are all in complete agreement".

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

😂🤣😂🤣

I’ll lay anyone a tenner that in the next few weeks we’ll hear T May say “let me be clear, I’ve always said that Brexit doesn’t mean Brexit.”

Jessica elgot @jessicaelgot
Stella Creasy tells PLP she is going nowhere but also sounds furious about the state of the party. Says there should be no more “constructive dismissals” and MPs still in the party must be good comrades to each other and support each other.

Faisal Islam@faisalislam
At a recent meeting of car execs with MPs one of the top execs asked what he should tell the board meeting in Japan (making plans for new fiscal year) the next day about what was happening re Brexit - don’t know they shrugged.

JustAnothePoster00, I just looked at the thread, it's a right old mess and peppered with deletions and I think MNHQ are going to delete it by the looks of things.

Kevin Schofield@polhomeeditor
Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth breaks down in tears in PLP meeting as she accuses party leadership of not doing enough to tackle antisemitism.

So it isn't subject to electoral law rules requiring them to declare financial backers.

Now in a way, I liked that - this was beating the Tories at their own game. They channelled money via NI or the DUP, I can't remember which, not a penny of which was spent in N I but was spent in England.

Raab realises the EU have made no deal plans, by reading the Sun. FFS he is talking about stuff published in December. He calls it secret how can MPs be that stupid oblivious?

@DominicRaab
Feb 16
Welcome offer by the EU Commission of reciprocal arrangements to allow the flow of lorries and airplanes to/ from the UK and EU, if we leave on WTO terms. Why so little coverage?
EU chiefs agree secret deal with Britain to maintain links

PMK

I was assuming the Independent Group were waiting for a few rouge Tories to join their numbers before becoming a political party, otherwise they are just a breakaway Labour group.

Sebastian Payne @ SebastianePayne
The Labour split reflects the dislocation of British politics - @FinancialTimes View on The Independent Group and the challenges they face
amp.ft.com/content/a14e8fb0-3375-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5?__twitter_impression=true

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 sometimes think that we will be living in caves, wearing animal hides & holding bone clubs before anyone says 'you know maybe Brexit might have something to do with losing my old life'.