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

Both Young Labour and Young Tory organisations seem to have been taken over by extremists.

Long overdue for Raid

Kate McCann @kateemccann
All those who’ve been clogging up my mentions for the last 24 hours saying Young Labour were just “quoting the party’s traditional song” when they tweeted about traitors after seven MPs left, want to try explaining this one?

This the tweet from young Labour yesterday

Young Labour @ younglabouruk
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we’ll keep the red flag flying here.

Sorry if this has already been linked.

www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/tom-watson/news/101976/excl-tom-watson-no-longer-being

Tom Watson has not been invited to recent brexit meetings even though he's meant to be there as deputy leader. (For some reason I have a vision of pigs sitting in a farmhouse, whilst Tom Watson looks on through a window)

Yes, there was a time I believed the papers were just jumping on the anti-semitic bandwagon...but those tweets. Undeniable now.
I'm also not saying it's wrong to 'support' Palestine - it's seemingly yet another nuanced topic that has become polarised with little actual discussion but a lot of name calling and bad feeling.

I heard a rumour Hammond is suspected of potentially jumping ship - was that here I read it or somewhere else? I think he is too high up personally, but some of the vocal remainers could jump. It would be nice to mix it up and not just have more discussions about Labour coming from another supposedly new party!

Both Young Labour and Young Tory organisations seem to have been taken over by extremists.

The Radical Association for the LDs isnt much different either. And the Greens full stop had a problem.

They all deliberately drove out people who did not tow the line and didn't have a face that fitted. It's only possible if there are not enough people and a small group with too much power and influence.

Democracy is a series of checks and balances which have definitely broken down at party level.

Begum is being used to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria - and she is a good choice for this:
I do see her as wicked, not a victim and feel no pity for her whatsoever, just disgust.

Being attracted by beheadings and running to be their groupie is sheer evil, of the Myra Hindley sort, imo
She does not even admit the enormity of what she did

As pp upthread said, just like someone in the 1940s attracted by the Nazis and their concentration camps, running off to be an SS groupie

If she returns to the UK, she must legally be let in, if she has British citizenship
But I would want to see her charged with everything possible, remanded for trial and hopefully sentenced to several years in jail

What have we become?

A country that needs protecting from a 19 year old girl. Apparently.

When Decca Mitford ran away to the Spanish civil war, Anthony Eden sent a naval ship to rescue her.

Javid uses Begum as a political tool and popularity boost for his ambitions to replace May.

I heard a rumour Hammond is suspected of potentially jumping ship - was that here I read it or somewhere else?

Hammond was getting grief for doing exactly the opposite and not threatening to resign.

I didn't realise Ruth George was the MP whose vote of no confidence was filmed by Iranian TV. No wonder she's gone.

red I think I viewed the larger parties much more seriously,

partly because these are our 2 parties of government and we may be seeing ideas of future Labour & Tory MPs being formed,

but mainly because they are mass membership, especially Labour

So the youth wing being so badly infected is much more serious than with a much smaller membership party that is comparatively much easier to take over.

How old was the Manchester Arena bomber? No much older than Begum iirc.

Well we did let Unity Mitford back in.

I'm not desperate for Shamima to come back but things need to be done by the book. I think it sets a bad precedent to rush into stripping someone of their nationality and palming them off on another country, which morally bears no responsibility for her at all.

Sky news @ skynews
^
news.sky.com/story/labour-to-consult-on-extending-voters-rights-to-force-out-quitting-mps-11642391
Labour to consult on extending voters' rights to force out quitting MPs

The party will look at whether constituents should be able to oust MPs if they resign from a party under which they were elected.

Under current laws, constituents can petition to recall their local MP if they have been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to a prison term; if they are suspended from the House of Commons for two weeks; or if they are found guilty of having made false or misleading expenses claims.

An MP will lose their seat if 10% of eligible constituents sign a recall petition, although they are not barred from standing in a resulting by-election.

Labour now want to look at whether the right of constituents to petition to recall their MP should be extended to cases where an MP resigns from a party under whose banner they were elected to parliament.

People's Front of Judea
Judean People's Front
splitters

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/exclusive-joan-ryan-in-eighth-labour-mp-to-quit-blaming-corbyn-culture-of-antisemitism-dk7zwx8w3?shareToken=af9814f5b7b23c0593524852f157d923

Tatiana People weren't being murdered in the Uk by any side from the Spanish civil war.
During and after WW2, British people who worked for the Nazis were hanged for treason

Of course, the fascist sympathisers in the aristocracy mostly escaped this, but then I'd expect any IS collaborator from the upper crust now would be treated better than Begum
Same as for other crimes, being upper class can help avoid ever getting into the justice system

Javid is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't (re revoking Begum's nationality)

If he does, there is the real possibility that it will backfire legally (though he may not be the Home Secretary at that point, given how long it could take to bring an appeal against the decision)

If he doesn't, he has an array of critics waiting to use it to prove that he isn't tough / he's a closet Islamist / he's no true Brit etc etc etc. And of course, he has a boss who made decisions like this a bit of a trademark of her stint at the helm of the Home Office

Meanwhile, JC is surely fucked as leader of the Labour Party? How long can he cling on?

Ignore my previous post. Just realised o got Joan Ryan and Ruth George mixed up. Too much going on!

Let's just point out the stupidity of Labour trying to force by elections for MPs who resign the whip or have it removed, six weeks before Brexit.

They have already complained about splitting the vote and letting Tories in.

So they are actively trying to give May a majority, given that view point and that many of these MPs will continue to take a Labour line on other matters.

In addition to the 8 TIGGERS we also have Frank Field, Ivan Lewis, Jared O'Mara, Fiona Onasanya and John Woodcock. That's thirteen in total.

O'Maras seat would almost certainly go LD and Woodcocks Tory. Plus several of the TIGGERS are also vulnerable.

Maybe Labour should just try harder to keep it's MPs. Just a thought.

Re Begum it is possible to be both groomed and unpleasant, damaged and dangerous. However as a UK citizen she should be dealt with as such. She should not be a political football, it is also notable that none of the male fighters have attracted this amount of attention.

How long can he cling on?

Too long.

I've been talking to a few members of my local Labour Party recently and they are very much of the view there is an anti Semitism problem within the high ups. And it's costing them round here.

The Shamima Begum thing worries me about how it's being used to shore up anti Muslim sentiment too. I struggle with the entire thing, her complete lack of upset over beheadings makes me feel worried too. But that's not how the vast majority of of Muslims feel. Or most people. Most people would be horrified by a beheading.