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.

Trying to legislate with a gun to your head and the stopwatch ticking is a really bad idea.

Which is why a long extension is the only sane option. May does not of course have her sanity.

Could it be that whoever is administering the Home Office applications is being paid a bonus for the number of rejections?

No, absolutely not.

This is an automated process - it will have to deal with 5-10k applications a day. The way it works is that applicants sign up using the app, which is supposed to read their ID documents then automatically access their government records. Applicants with a 5 year history of NI contributions are granted settled status automatically - in theory.

The problem is that the app does not seem to reliably communicate with other government records, or perhaps that there are glitches in NI records which show a break in contributions where none exists.

It is only once settled status has been refused and further documentation has been uploaded that a human being gets involved - and I am told that until this has happened, it is not possible to get any information on your specific application because the HO employees working on settled status cannot even see your application on their system.

By the way, I can easily see how this sort of stuff can happen. This morning my employer sent me a new contract to sign which says I have been in continuous employment since 2015. In fact I have been continuously employed by the same employer since 1989 but HR has "no record" of my prior employment because I previously worked for a subsidiary that no longer exists. They don't even seem to know that I worked at the company head office in the 1990s. You'd think I would be on a computer somewhere but apparently not ...

Eurovision is the highlight of my year!

It helps if theres a lot of alcohol involved. Best year was when Sweden presented it. Mans and Petra were hilarious. Normally the presenters are deathly dull.

This year is going to be rubbish. It's in Israel for starters and we are bound to get nil points. Usually we can rely on at least Ireland to vote for us but they're pissed off with us too this year.

....that sort of discrepancy would be a real issue in redundancy situations

pmk

Morning campers... what fresh delights will today hold I wonder?

- My brexit face.

Another contender for Eurovision song contest.
Peter Bone, the Bercow/Beethoven version.
twitter.com/rhodri/status/1111254719777914881

Well done Hugh Merriman.

(Apparently that was his voice saying "Dont go Nick" when Boles resigned).

I thought Huw Merriman was rather dishy til I read he'd fathered a child with another woman whilst still married to the mother of his 3 kids. Ugh!

I don’t bother listening to the songs on Eurovision but I like to tune into the voting. Good history lessons there. Yup we are llikely to get nul pointe.
Do you remember “Flying the flag “ ......all over Iraq about 15 years ago. Think we got nul then too or maybe just came last?

So today and tomorrow are crunch arent they? We will be able to tell the likely mood for an extension and whether any country will veto it probably today despite all the optimism in the press. Really hoping that May just wants the EU to do her dirty work and they tell her that she must take a year with a PV or leave on Friday. That way she has an escape route : taking the extension plus conditions and blaming the EU. This the escape route is important to both. I don’t think the EU want BJ or JRM in charge either .

@Mistigri - was there some kind of TUPE arrangement when you went from one employer to another? Make a subject access request under GDPR (ask www.ico.org.uk if you don't know what this is)

Bellini - I'm not anticipating a problem (both my boss and my boss's boss have known me for 30 years) - the point being that digital records can be incomplete and proving continuous anything can be a headache even for privileged people like me.

For the U.K. - which needs to register at least 3 million people in a short space of time while also managing other disruptive changes - this is going to be a major problem.

Under GDPR, which is UK law before any Brexiteers go nuts, there are requirements to have adequate records about individuals. I wonder if anyone has gone to the Information Commissioner about this.

The settled status process has a GDPR exemption I believe.

Under GDPR, which is UK law before any Brexiteers go nuts, there are requirements to have adequate records about individuals.

That's Data Protection - and predates GDPR by decades.

GDPR is about consent to hold and use personal data - chiefly ensuring the subject has given informed consent.

JRM has just stuck his oar in again.
He is trying to unsettle the EU to make no deal more likely isn’t he? Trouble is they have to take him seriously and will just make sure if there is an extension it will be tied down somehow?

JRM has just stuck his oar in again
SM media monitoring thingy site reporting that 60-70% FB interactions for Leave yesterday.
Lots of money being spent to get their 'brexit'.
Sky has on Chloe Westley right now.
Adam Boulton asking her who funds Tax payers alliance
Adam Boulton asking her why they want to avoid EU tax.

I couldn't imagine watching Sky 10 years ago, I now rely on it.

Leave are grinding/ funded into action for these EU elections too/ or this Crash Out Friday, which is still on the cards.

JRM has just stuck his oar in again. He is trying to unsettle the EU to make no deal more likely isn’t he? Trouble is they have to take him seriously and will just make sure if there is an extension it will be tied down somehow?

I doubt he's that scary now. We know he's never going to get to be PM.

In other news, looks like a fresh US-EU trade dust up could be in the offing ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47862622

@andrew_lilico It was naive of the monarchy to imagine that not intervening was the uncontroversial option here. I'm afraid it simply demonstrates to supporters of constitutional monarchy that we do not have one any more. When we finally win, the monarchy will have to be abolished, alas.

As stated on these threads weeks, if not months ago ...

I have enjoyed the ERG outrage this week. I am also coming to the fast conclusion that the more times the PM denies something, the more likely it is to happen. On that basis, cobbled deal +PV, then Revoke.

That of course depends on Europe allowing us the time. But as they have some semblance of sanity, they probably will allow it, just to dampen the effects of No-Deal. They are probably praying for a GE and someone adequate to take over.

Whilst we're waiting for today's outcome, here is Betty Boothroyd on Brexit. I loved her speech.

Interesting YouGov / UCL poll reported in the Huff Post:

here

Leavers now prefer no-deal to all other Brexit outcomes: 53% of Leave voters ranked it number one.

However, support for no-deal is being disproportionately driven by those who would probably be least affected by its consequences. The more financially secure Leave voters were, the research suggests, the more they supported a no-deal outcome and the less they worried about its impact on the economy.

... the top priorities for those who voted Leave are now all about sovereignty which was ranked above ensuring strong economic growth and limiting immigration.

Is that the same sovereignty that the Government said we had never lost?

However, support for no-deal is being disproportionately driven by those who would probably be least affected by its consequences.

Democracy being a lion and a lamb deciding on dinner ... and the role of the state to protect the vulnerable at a most basic level.