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

Hugo Gye @ hugogye
A lot of Tory MPs pouring praise on Anna Soubry - much more than the others. Seems to be a feeling that Allen & Wollaston were already on the way out...

Why didn't Nick Boles jump ship?

Guido reporting that the TIGs website is blocked at Parliament....

Very metaphorical

Loletta, give it time.

He has an amendment to table in the meantime.

I just emailed all three Conservative ship-jumpers saying well done

I email Anna Soubry last year, in support - and got a reply.

BBC news tells me TM is off to Brussels later to negotiate the backstop

Yep that's right.

"Brighter future" my arse.

The house of cards commons is starting to fall.

This time last week, it could have been me

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-47294794/brexit-what-do-birmingham-s-number-11-bus-passengers-think

When I look at Begum, I see only someone who volunteered to join those committing genocide against people like my mum.
I want due legal process for Begum, all the way, but fuck any compassion for her.

Of the leading politicins, Javid is the most openly racist and anti-Muslim

He must stay within international law, even for the disgusting Begum - and she should face the maximum penalties available in law
Crimes against humanity are tried in the ICC with all due process
If there is evidence she has participated in such crimes, that is probably the best court

However, evidence of specific crimes is very difficult to obtain when they murder all the witnesses.

Reports are that foreign women - identified by their accents - are used as enforcers against women in conquered territory:
whipping any woman they claim has transgressed, pointing out those for beheading

However, these enforcers are masked & covered from head to toes to fingers.
So even if it were possible to bring out survivors, they couldn't identify a specific enforcer, merely that they had an English accent

To explain to Scottish MNers how I feel:

Imagine a Nazi death cult invaded Scotland, enslaved & raped all the girls like your daughters,
Beheaded or burned alive your sons, your partner, your parents.
Destroyed your museums, your art, erasing millenia of culture

You might not feel compassion for an English teenager who was thrilled by the beheaders and rushed to join them

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/20/jeremy-hunt-urges-germany-to-rethink-saudi-arms-sales-ban

Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, will visit Berlin on Wednesday after urging Germany to exempt big defence projects from its efforts to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia, or face damage to both its economic and European credentials.

Stefaan De Rynck @UKandEU

11th hour negotiation logic doesn't apply to a member state leaving the EU.

Respect for Anna Soubry - she has been seething with fury at the Tories and seemed utterly bewildered by their conduct.

Arms that Saudi Arabia uses both to keep down its own population in a theocratic dictatorship
and to murder Muslims in neighbouring countries who don't follow the Saudi interpretation of the Sky Fairy

So what does this 11 person Independent Group mean for Brexit exactly?

RTB that's what I was hopi ng to hear!

I nipped put for a walk and when I return three Tories have acquired spins. It's going to be interested watching how this is reported and now May handles it over the next few days, particularly if we see more going.

I thought Soubry was the most likely Tory defector, because she has been so outspoken
and has been one of the few Tories to actually stand up and vote for her beliefs about Brexit

imo, a big bang of all defectors leaving together would have been more effective than a continual trickle of defectors over the next few weeks

However, I suspect these first ones from both parties are necessary to give courage to the others

Arms that Saudi Arabia uses both to keep down its own population in a theocratic dictatorship and to murder Muslims in neighbouring countries who don't follow the Saudi interpretation of the Sky Fairy

Of course outside the EU, the UK is much more susceptible to pressure from countries (like Germany that are inside a big fuck-off trading bloc) that have a different approach to ideology. As we known from the way the US throws it's weight around demanding certain policies before it does business with countries.

So what does this 11 person Independent Group mean for Brexit exactly?

We don't know yet. It will depend on whether we get more leavers and whether it changes May and/or Corbyn policy. It could mean nothing or if could change everything.

By leavers I meant MPs leaving their parties not people wanting to leave the EU...sorry for the terms confusion there.

May and Corbyn are so dull at pmqs. Same arguments week after week.

If only I had a pound for every time May says 'the only way to stop no deal is to vote for my deal.'

bigly I suggest we keep the term "Leavers" for Brexit and "Tiggers" for the Independents

So many people have said Soubry will always fall in line when it comes to the crunch. Well today she’s put her money where her mouth is and good for her. Principles have seemed in short supply in recent years in Westminster.

If only I had a pound for every time May says 'the only way to stop no deal is to vote for my deal.'

You could buy a bus ...

The advantage of a steady trickle is that then there is heavy pressure on the party leadership to do something to stem the tide. You could argue that once they have left there's no reason for the leadership to change their policy to keep them on board so a big jump could have proved less effective in actually changing policy.

But hey, who the hell knows anything anymore...