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

Brexit has shown the British Constitution, Parliament, the pageantry .... are just a show covering up that there is nothing useful any more underneath all that just a dark & grimy cellar with rats running around, some of them rabid.

We have become Gormenghast made real.

The name Derek Hatton always reminds me of the Liverpool council gardener that was forced by Hatton's council to destroy his prize-winning gardens for some bizaare reason

The EU already have plan A and plan B for the EP elections. They are embarrassingly more organised than us.

frumpety I listened to Evan Davis being quite confrontational too - and not for the first time either. Although I always sigh when the interview ends with the usual platitudes (but I like to think Davies is just being polite by not saying “you’re a fecking eejit” with an off camera eye roll).

I like "tigger party" too
I immediately think of a big friendly tiger eating his breakfast cereal with a spoon (old ad)

I feel very deflated tonight. Every day it seems another business decides to leave the UK. More infighting, no plan, no way forward. Seems the light at the end of the tunnel has been extinguished.

Every day it seems another business decides to leave the UK

Thats the effect of gravity because no deal is in effect in the absence of anything else. Its not going to get any better from here on in.

I've heard nice things about Evan off screen. No idea what his political views are but heard he's a good guy.

Evan was indeed very cross this evening. Rightly so as the MP for Swindon South (?) attempted to swerve, dodge, avoid answering and prevaricate throughout the interview.

My Leaver friend was much less pro leave today. She's convinced her job is safe even though their branch is the EU connection in the global chain. They've been told they can't do their regulation stuff from the UK anymore, so they have 6 weeks to change the address to their French office. She says it's just a formality, but I have my suspicions...

PMK.

Bcfs, if we don't get a

'TIGGERS they're ggggggrrrreeeeaaattt' meme I'll be sorely disappointed

So far a magnificent seven front page clean sweep

Well my dgd gave up her beloved geography to pursue her passion and hopefully next year she will study cognitive behavioural science and cognitive neuroscience. I can see why anything to do with the mind fascinates her! I will look forward to reading her book when she finishes reading it.
BBC 4 now doing soundbites from the 7.

Here's a fun list before bedtime:

A Definitive List Of Every British Centrist Party That Has And Hasn't Happened Since Brexit
www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/every-british-centrist-party?bfsource=bbf_enuk

That sounds amazing fun for her Sostenueto. I would love to study some proper behavioural science. I've only really skirted the edges and it's so interesting.

Alberto Nardelli @albertonardelli
DExEU statement on today’s Barclay-Barnier meeting:

Was that today? Sounds exactly the same as last week.

Groundhog Day strikes again

And there's more.

I always think that Evan Davies looks a bit like a Harry Potter Gringotts Bank goblin (but in a nice way). I like him - he’s personable and seems way more clued up on his R4 programmes than Andrew Marr or Melvin Bragg (who annoys me hugely - when he’s wrong on In Our Time he either huffs it blames it on the researchers).

Brilliant but terrifying article on why Brexit needs to happen.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/britain-needs-a-day-of-reckoning-brexit-will-provide-it-1.3797754?mode=amp

It was such a big decision for her Bigley. She was top of the year in geography since year 7. Got 99% in her GCSE geography and was expected an easy A in A level. Geography teachers gutted. But she's doing biology, maths and psychology and an EPQ and felt 4 A levels too much especially as she needs AAA for Cambridge which is her aspiration. She is going to Sri Lanka in July for 3 weeks voluntary work assisting to teach English in the morning and turtle sanctuary work in the afternoons. She is a young trustee on the board of a large charity that helps deprived children achieve in education and sport. And she's a raving remainer.

_ Theresa May sets course for Brexit disaster_ (at 21-22 March EU summit)

(Oh no, not another one ! )

https://www.politico.eu/article/theresa-may-sets-course-for-brexit-disaster-no-deal-withdrawal-treaty/amp/?

In European capitals there is now mounting alarm that Theresa May has set Britain on course for a diplomatic disaster,
by fundamentally misjudging how far EU leaders are prepared to bend at the last minute in their summit just a week before Britain’s EU departure date.

< ffs, STILL misjudging them ?! 🤦🏻‍♀️ >
.....
there is skepticism in Brussels about the substance of the current diplomatic flurry.

“There are no real talks going on.
It’s more May speaking to capitals, testing the water and trying to give the impression to her people at home that there are actual talks to gain some time,”
said one EU diplomat.
....
One minister from a major EU power was left so shocked after a meeting with a U.K. counterpart last week
they concluded Britain is now hell-bent on pushing the crisis to the wire in the hope of a last-minute concession from EU leaders, which will not materialize.

The view is shared by some senior members of the U.K. Cabinet, who fear the PM is heading for a repeat of the diplomatic disaster at the EU leaders’ summit in Salzburg last September
....
One EU official said the idea that “something big” would emerge at the last-gasp summit in Brussels is just as misplaced.
“The idea that you can just leave it until the last minute is crazy,”
the official said.
“You’re really into too-little-too-late territory. The work has to be done way before then.”

A second senior official from an EU27 member state confirmed
EU capitals are increasingly concerned May is misreading the situation and heading for calamity
....
The minister from a major power said they were shocked to hear from a U.K. counterpart that London is apparently intent on dragging things out until March 21.

At that point, May would bring a menu of three or four ideas for changing the backstop from which EU leaders would be invited to choose.
If they reject all of them, she would blame EU intransigence for the ensuing chaos.

Steven Swinford@steven_swinford
PM was this afternoon warned by Amber Rudd, David Gauke, Greg Clark & David Mundell she faces resignation of 22 ministers & members of Govt over no-deal Brexit

In a meeting in No 10 they urged her to publicly commit to extending A50 in the event a deal cannot be reached

It's getting boring now...

Yes, well, with Tory resignations - I will believe it when I see it......

Sorry about going on about dgd.