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

news.sky.com/story/tory-minister-blasts-brexiteers-for-tarnishing-party-amid-claims-conservative-mps-could-quit-11642101
Tory minister blasts Brexiteers for 'tarnishing' party amid claims Conservative MPs could quit
Tobias Ellwood attacks the European Research Group and adds to speculation Tory MPs could defect to join a new independent group.

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood attacked the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative Brexiteers for their actions, which he claimed were threatening to "poison" the party.

and

Mr Ellwood suggested it would be difficult for him to remain in the Conservative Party if the ERG's "viewpoint" took prominence.

Hint to Mr Ellwood; it already has.

Missbel so tough for you & DP, I wish you both well💐

missbel
All the muppets who tell folks to go vegan go quiet when you ask them about hill farming.
You will not find this article cheery, but everybody should find it interesting
www.economist.com/britain/2019/02/16/brexit-could-put-britains-lambing-industry-to-the-slaughter

I sense panic and hysteria from the right wind press....anyone else?

Not yet. A few rattles from the wheels maybe.

Assuming the newspapers and MSM generally aren't as incompetent as the government (which is a given really ... the scene from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" where Sean Connery goes I should have mailed it to the Marshx brothers keeps going arounf my head) I'd be fascinated to know what their "out" strategy is, if they need to pull the plug ????

They can't really go with the "nasty EU stopped us having our Brexit" theme - it would merely encourage rabid Brexiteers to dig in harder.

However it would be easier to simply spin a line that the Tories have fucked up Brexit so badly, it's got no hope of ever working out. I could see a lot of people buying into that ....

Nothing useful to add but DRG, your post about all the bad feeling that has bubbled up and wanting your country back has brought a lump to my throat. I don't think things are ever going to be the same. My parents voted Leave (though they've gone very quiet about it in recent months) - I have to totally avoid the subject of Brexit around them as otherwise I would say an awful lot of unpleasant things!

I just feel foolish.

All this shit didnt come from nowhere.

I obv just didnt/couldn't see it.

I sense panic and hysteria from the right wind press....anyone else?

Nope.

Tom Newton Dunn has been relatively pro-May's deal (and thats now The Sun's official editoral line). Harry Cole is perhaps more pro No Deal but he's generally in touch with reality over the EU - UK position. He's Mail on Sunday anyway (which editorial line again isn't miles off what May's position is).

When the Telegraph starts to shift to supporting May thats when I'll be interested.

I see lots of people still in utter denial / oblivious.

A friend said to me that she's planning to get the Eurostar to Paris for Easter.
I asked her if she'd checked that her insurance would cover for Brexit.
She assured me that Brexit would not affect her.
She is a teacher.

Another friend is working in Spain on a house where all the materials are being taken by van from England.
Again could not see why that might be tricky in April

Another friend works all over Europe training business people and voted leave "but they will sort something for people like me"

These threads are a small bubble of awareness in a sea of closed ears and eyes.

I think Eurostar have said they will run regardless?

Thank you Talk - as you say, interesting - I didn't read it all because of the paywall. DP was astounded that so many farming areas voted "Leave" - we were both always firmly for Remain. The vegans I come across don't care about hill farmers!

Peter Apps @PeteApps
The government has just released its overdue housing needs assessment which says, in summary, we needed 598,851 homes over the last three years and built 679,738.

So you can stop worrying about that housing crisis you've all been going on about

www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-delivery-test-2018-measurement?utm_source=2960bc90-8416-4d62-87e8-6911d797332f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate
Housing Delivery Test: 2018 measurement

The 2018 Housing Delivery Test measurement by local planning authority and a technical note on the process used in its calculation.

I ::think:: the methodology is far from foolproof though. In Redditch, the government says we needed 37 homes between 2015/16 and 2017/18, including -28 in 2017/18. There were 748 built over that time, so Redditch is recorded as delivering 2,046% of its target.

Presumably this will be of some comfort to the 1,334 households on the housing waiting list in Redditch

The actually significant news line from this is that 87 areas are below the threshold which means they have to identify land for 20% more housing than anticipated in local plans.

A further 22 need to come up with action plans.

It also means that on current delivery rates 58 councils could be operating a 'presumption in favour of development' by 2020

Let me translate. If a developer says "I want to build on Green Belt in this area which is below its target for building houses", they pretty much are going to get build and there is fuck all local politicans and protesters can do about it.

The policy of blocking anything vaguely sensible for years for NIMBY reasons is about to backfire massively.

I don't think many of these come as a shock. The 87 areas which are not building enough houses are:

Adur, Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Basildon, Basingstoke and Deane, Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bracknell Forest, Bradford, Brentwood, Brighton and Hove, Broxbourne, Broxtowe, Bury, Calderdale, Castle Point, Chesterfield, City of London, Christchurch; East Dorset, East Cambridgeshire, East Hertfordshire, Eastbourne, Elmbridge, Epping Forest, Epsom and Ewell, Erewell, Gateshead, Gedling, Gravesham, Great Yarmouth, Guildford, Hackney, Haringey, Harlow, Havering, County of Herefordshire, Hounslow, Ipswich, Isle of Wight, Islington, Kingston upon Thames, Kirkless, Lewes, Medway, Medway, Melton, Mid Suffolk, Mole Valley, New Forest, Newham, North Dorset, North Hertfordshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Oldham, Pendle, Poole, Redbridge, Rochford, Rossendale, Rother, Sandwell, Sefton, South Cambridgeshire, South Holland, South Kesteven, Southend on Sea, Southwark, Spelthorne, St Albans, Staffordshire Moorlands, Stockport, Swale, Tameside, Tandridge, Tendring, Thanet, Three Rivers, Trafford, Warrington, Waveney, Waverley, West Devon, Wigan, Wirral.

But I'm not sure which of these are the 58 which are going to just get everything rubber stamped.

John Crace
@JohnJCrace
It’s extraordinarily bad luck for the government that so many pieces of bad economic news just happen to be occurring at the same time it is mishandling Brexit

DGR You know how it's said that there's often an eerie silence before earthquakes - as if birds and wildlife know somehow, and clear the region

Just catching up on thread but wanted to say this also happens - at least with birds - as I've observed, before a total eclipse of the sun. And then they all fly in silence to the west.

Birds and animals flee when's there's a tsunami too reportedly.

My dog acts weird before a storm as well

Steven Swinford on Twitter

“Richard Harrington, business minister, says Parliament will ‘take control’ if PM fails to get a deal & force extension of A50

‘I do not believe there will be a no deal Brexit. I think PM’s deal will get though. If it does not Parliament will take control, we will extend A50’.”

Sorry if already posted - and for lack of IT skills.

Pound has climbed...

They want to build 4000 houses on green belt in Stockport. MP William Wragg has both said he will protect greenbelt but voted/signed to use greenbelt for housing. Greater Manchester has plenty of brown belt land that could be used instead. There isn't the infrastructure to cope with extra housing in this area. Wragg doesn't care. He lives with his mum

Oh dear

@Mij_Europe

Discussions with Cox, Barclay and EU side aren't going well. EU side feel they're being used. Think next week's showdown in Commons and March European Council are more critical signposts than anything that happens this week t.co/sjO3Tr9aHr

I don't really recommend rewatching Blackout kind of wish I hadn't done that.

Ok guys. I’m confused. How is the first paragraph describing anything but the existing backstop?

What is Blackout?

It's a bit broad saying that 'Sefton' isn't building enough houses. We're in north Sefton and it goes from here (Southport) right down to Bootle in north Liverpool. We've got loads of houses being built here; so many they can't shift the bloody things. But if it's Bootle where they need the houses, or even Crosby, they're not going to come here to live.

But it explains why everything gets the green light, however!

I rewatched it a couple of weeks ago. Scarily relevant.

Mojo it's a short (1hr 11 min) film on netflix and I think on youtube. Made when Cameron was pm. It's a fictional account, using real footage of what could happen in England if the national grid went down across the whole country.
It's not a pretty account.

They want to build 4000 houses on green belt in Stockport. MP William Wragg has both said he will protect greenbelt but voted/signed to use greenbelt for housing. Greater Manchester has plenty of brown belt land that could be used instead. There isn't the infrastructure to cope with extra housing in this area. Wragg doesn't care. He lives with his mum

Couldn’t agree more, SparklySneakers, we need more schools here before we have more houses