Westminstenders: The gall of the french

[RedToothBrush]

We are full steam ahead with European Parliamentary Elections! Something that seemed unthinkable a few weeks ago.

May still remains adament that they will not happen, but the die has been cast.

May is off to beg Macron and Merkel to back an extension but the French are already stating they want assurances we won't screw thing up for everyone else.

May still is pushing for a deal with Corbyn and a Not a compromise.

Still there is no sign of a breakthrough either for an extension nor over a cross party deal. It drags on, but at least no one has mentioned the WA for ten minutes.

We might yet be in Europe for another Eurovision. Psychologically this feels important.

The ERG are not happy.

Rather than keep advertising the loons who have led us to a cliff edge, how about celebrating MEPs who have done their bit to safeguard the UKs interests.

Like the Progressive conservative MEP Julie Girling (SW and Gibraltar) www.juliegirling.com , who was thrown out of her party for clashing with the leadership over Brexit. So she became independent, switched from the eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) to the less far right group the European People's Party (EPP) (which Tusk heads).
She stands up for the rights of Gibraltar especially.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/01/julie-girling-pro-remain-tory-mep-brexit?CMP=share_btn_tw
Having been a MEP for 10 years, she knows the ropes and has earnt the right to floor time.

Advertise some of your MEPs here and get the sane ones noticed.

Euro elections are going ahead? Haven’t seen that confirmed anywhere.

🏅 for Red

I hope the ERG are no longer ascendant.

Boris & Dunce & Has Been
One cat, one mat, one bream
Those horrible crooks
So different in looks
Were nonetheless equally mean

Oogie It's very unlikely on 12 April

However, we can't keep having extension after extension,
so the PM / HoC will eventually have to make the choice Revoke / WA / No Deal

No Deal is what happens by default,
if at any time the EU refuse the next extension and the UK refuses to choose Revoke or WA.

Here's a snippet from the BBC informing steps are being made to allow EU elections to take place.

You missed a trick - The Gaul of the French...

I think every Eurovision entry will just be Bucks Fizz in different languages.

But soon you will find that there comes a time
For making your mind up

I thought Gaul too! Are we old?!

I also thought Gaul!

I did some back of envelope calculations (well, I think they're interesting).

265 Tory MPs voted for No Deal Brexit (so I reckon they can be called firm Brexiters).
10 x DUP, Kate Hoey, Gisela Stuart, Frank Field -> 13 more firm Brexiters.

278/641 MPs firmly supporting Brexit = 43%.
Probably there are more supporting Brexit, tbh, those are just the easy to count ones.
Yet it's still said how Parliament is "massively" pro-Remain, and this is why Parliament keeps 'sabotaging' a successful Brexit. Is 43% a small %? is 56% other/remain = "overwhelmingly" pro Remain?

*641 to exclude the Speaker, 7x Sinn Fein & Norman Lamb who keeps abstaining.

We are full steam ahead with European Parliamentary Elections! Something that seemed unthinkable a few weeks ago.

Hooray! This makes me happy.

We might yet be in Europe for another Eurovision. Psychologically this feels important.

I love Eurovision. I hope it isn’t psychologically important for the U.K. to do well in Eurovision. Our song is extremely beige!

The ERG are not happy.

Hooray! This also makes me happy.

It's not 'massively' in my eyes. Significantly, maybe, but not massively.

Pmk

On the subject of good MEPs.
What about Molly Scott Cato ( Green) PPE from Oxford.

Amongst other things she wrote a book Environment and Economy on the need to resolve the tension between economy and environment.She knows about both finances and Green stuff so taxes and regulation; pollution and resource depletion; globalization vs. localization and climate change.

When leader of the Green Group on Stroud council agreed with the Labour and Liberal Democrat groups to take overall control of the council.She promotes constructive co-operation and rejects tribalism on party politics in favour of a more inclusive approach.

Plaice cat king

I have been trying to be an ostrich as Brexit has been affecting my sense of empathy. Shed a tear at the article of Peter Obourne because even if we revoke- Brexit has caused so much anxiety and hatred. Furthermore, the lost of EMA, jobs relocating to mainland Europe, the impact on the car industry will cause an effect even if we revoke.

Also re-read another article made by the late AA Gill about Brexit. He was such an eloquent writer www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aa-gill-argues-the-case-against-brexit-kmnp83zrt

David Cameron should hang his head in shame.

Thank you to all the poster.

@Pesty here's mine on Twitter. She's done really went and was actively anti-brexit in her manifesto. She actually reminded me that Labour were clear about wanting the single market and customs union on their manifesto. They were clear that they would "reject no deal". So really they are following their manifesto when I think about it, albeit some in the party more than others...

We have the lovely Alyn Smith as an SNP MEP - he of the "chers amis" address immediately after the Referendum and the plea to "leave the light on so that Scotland can find its way back" at the last EP session

Catherine Stihler of Labour is also impressive: I saw her speak at a Nordic Horizons event in Edinburgh.

The "good" MEPs get shockingly little coverage. There has still not been a single one on QT - compared to c40 appearances from UKIP QT has now had Mairead McGuinness on (twice?) in the last few months - but good though she is, she is an Irish MEP, not a UK one

*really well.

@faisalislam
First mainly ERG attempt to resist the Lords amendments to Cooper Letwin Bill heavily defeated by 396-83.

Division now forced on Cash-Baker amendment seeking to rule out EU elections that were just announced in law by Government this morning...

Defeated 85-392 ( I think)

David Allen Green wrote earlier of the irony that we are reliant on the kindness of France and Ireland to survive the next few days.

What goes around etc.

Lonely love Molly Scott Cato, she sat with DS on the Brexit Express on the way to the march.
mollymep.org.uk
She also writes quite well www.theguardian.com/profile/molly-scott-cato

Nutty don't suppose you could c&p that AA Gill article could you? I think it's behind a pay wall thank you 😊

I am not celebrating until Brexit is a bad memory, talked about as 'what on earth were we thinking?'

Thanks BCF (and Red too)

Finally the ERG star is fading ?

I know Molly Scott Cato. I used to go to a women’s group with her when we lived in the same town and were studying at the same university.
She did her PhD before me.
Haven’t seen her for years though except on TV.