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

barristerblogger.com/2019/02/17/can-the-home-secretary-prevent-shamina-begum-returning-to-the-uk/

Long discussion of the Begum situation by someone who knows what they are talking about.

Conclusion: she probably can't be prevented from returning to the U.K. and even prosecution for membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation might be more complicated than I thought.

And then there were Eight....

Henry Zeffman @hzeffman
EXCLUSIVE: Joan Ryan tonight becomes the 8th MP to quit Labour, accusing Jeremy Corbyn of “presiding over a culture of antisemitism and hatred of Israel”. She told @thetimes she couldn't “be part of a party that allows racism to flourish”

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/exclusive-joan-ryan-in-eighth-labour-mp-to-quit-blaming-corbyn-culture-of-antisemitism-dk7zwx8w3
Exclusive: Joan Ryan in eighth Labour MP to quit, blaming ‘Corbyn culture of antisemitism’

MP for Enfield North and WAS the current chair of the Labour Friends of Israel

Henry Zeffman @hzeffman
Ryan, who joined Labour in 1983 and first became an MP in 1997, also told @thetimes Mr Corbyn was “a danger”, compared him to Donald Trump and said she found it “hard” to say he is not an antisemite

Wow, stinging criticism of JC

Not that I've done ever done anything wrong under current laws - but given that I am naturalised British, this Government could strip me if my citizenship if it so wished.

Technically, I can apply to get my South African citizenship back because that citizenship was renounced when I was a minor and became a naturalised British citizen.

What a wonderful set of values this country is demonstrating. I can only see it get worse - and this will only accelerate the decision to leave the nasty European institution of the ECHR

And yes, I know the ECHR is nothing to do with the EU - but it has long been in the sights of May and the ERG with its pesky insistence of universal human rights interfering with their right to do what they like.

Joan Ryan @ joanryanenfield
After 4 decades, I have made the terribly difficult decision to resign from the Labour Party. It is the greatest honour of my life to represent the people of #EnfieldNorth. I will continue to represent and speak up for them as a member of the @TheIndGroup of MPs

Hmm is her letter appearing? It's not on my phone. Try again...

I feel the same way Hazard - it’s really not my place to cast any judgement. I don’t have enough knowledge of the subject (excuse the pun). However, I would naturally feel drawn to protect a teenager with a newborn and would also prefer due process to be consistently applied.

Thank you BigChoc, perhaps I shouldn’t have used the word immense. Our plan has been to travel Europe in our motor home for the early years of retirement - keeping an address in the UK to return to occasionally. I think Brexit puts a stop to that plan. We also have an apartment in the French Alps (yes, elitist remoaners, but it is small and pokey and in a very unfashionable area). Another plan was to divide our time between UK and France but I don’t know how Brexit would affect that either. To be honest we haven’t looked into it in any detail as it’s years off. This is not my reason for opposing Brexit (but it doesn’t help).

If the Independent Group appears to be gaining support and donations, more will jump ship, possibly from both parties (that’s not meant as criticism - it just wouldn’t make sense to join a movement that was gaining no traction). My Corbynista colleague was disconcerted when I suggested that the reason their website crashed might be because of a great deal of interest, rather than that it was merely a crap website as he was claiming.

Newspaper time

I - Tories on alert for senior MP walkout
Guardian run with Javid legal issue story
Torygraph go with more on the Green story, but tucked in the corner is the news that May might bring the meaningful vote forward

I'm guessing she has worked out she has the numbers, thinks that no deal brinkmanship has run as far as it can with the news about the car industry leaving or there's an amendment that's about to fox her into a uturn anyway. Or all three

stilltalks imo, you can probably keep your retirement plans intact, with just some extra forms to fill in

• IF you can sort out private health insurance

It may be a couple of years before EHIC and S1 are negotiated

Thanks BigChoc, not wishing to derail

Laura Kuenssberg @bbclaurak
@joanryanEnfield becomes 8th, now former Labour, MP to leave for @TheIndGroup - continuing speculation a small number of tories may walk tmrw, maybe just before pmqs for impact - let’s see

Salman Anwar @ _salmananwar
massive yikes, @YoungLabourUK just tweeted and deleted this...

They did something not dissimilar yesterday.

Dimwits.

DG EU citizenship:
If granted, it would exist, with all the rights and privileges in the EU regardless of any sour grapes from the UK govt

Other than the special case of health insurance for pensioner expats, what could the UK government do to actually stop UK citizens moving to the EU, if the EU lets them ?
(assuming we don't become the NKorea of Europe and build a wall to keep people in)

btw, several EU countries are trying to attract more non-EU workers, so EU citizenship won't even be necessary for those who can find a job there.

Jane Merrick @janemerrick23
An awful lot of people seem to be leaning in to their antisemitism since yesterday - quite unashamedly.

Dimwit? Na it's starting to look like a plan to deliberately purge the party of unwanted Jews.

I expected the new independent group might shake things up politically

They've certainly revealed what nasty creepy-crawlies are under Labour rocks

Only the most dedicated JC groupie could deny now that Labour have a serious and institutional anti-semitism problem.

On Newsnight, chappy saying HMH can't make someone stateless. Good to see a fact being used to challenge govt position for once.

Interesting point on citizenship - remember the hoo hah with Australian MPs who turned out to have New Zealand citizenship by birthright that they had never taken up .... Bangladesh may be the same

But its astonishing how racist and anti Muslim Sajid Javid has turned out to be

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/john-major-conservative-party-brexit-independent-group-tory-eu-labour-split-a8787266.html

Another speech by John Major. Saying both parties are basing policy too much on fringe opinions.

I do think the more support the independents get, the more may jump.