Westminstenders: Fallout coming to a place near you soon

[RedToothBrush]

Once again not much to report on Brexit itself.

The sideshow of Gavin Williamson lots set to run and rumble on. The scandal further weakens May as she has lost a key ally. Despite his protests of innocence, May herself must believe he is guilty. Whether this is because she is indeed too heavily influenced by Sedwill is the question, but for her to sack him when she has failed to do so with other Cabinet Members so many times means she must feel there is good reason. Every other party has seen it as a good opportunity to put the boot in and demand an investigation. So far this has been paid lip service as the Cabinet Office must approve any investigation and this doesn't seem to be forthcoming from Lidington. This may not hold, if pressure grows. In truth the whole affair is unlikely to damage Williamson's leadership ambitions; he has raised his profile and set up a narrative of a Remainer Victim. Penny Mordaunt has been the other major beneficiary of the issue.

May now seems to have abandoned the idea that there will be a way forward found before the European elections and they are now definitely going ahead. This isn't a surprise as there is no incentive for Labour to have an agreement before the EU elections in which the Conservatives are certain to get a bloody nose. She also seems to be dropping hints they she will give into a customs union.

We have a visit from Trump to look forward to, which will be utterly joyous. There are rumours that he might meet Farage whilst he is here. His visit starts on 3rd June and finish on the 5th.

The Peterborough By Election is set for just a few days later on the 6th June. The Brexit Party have a very good chance of winning their first Parliamentary seat here - so the temptation to have a photo shoot with Trump will be all the more appealing to Farage. The hope must be that the Brexit vote will be split, allowing Labour to retain the seat. The previous Conservative MP, Stewart Jackson might well stand and he's very Brexity, George Galloway is trying to get the Brexit Party candidency though I think it unlikely and he will probably stand as a Pro-Brexit Independent anyway. There is also the prospect of Farage himself standing as its a winnable seat, but this seems unlikely as you can't be an MEP and an MP and its a high risk strategy to go for MP rather than a sure fire MEP. (Plus the pay is better for MEP).

May faces a challenge at grassroots level with an Emergency Meeting called by the Conservative Associations at her leadership. This will be in mid June. After the local, EU elections and Trump's visit this will be difficult for her to survive. Whilst she has survived this long, this will prove to be her biggest challenge yet.

It has to be said that there is no sign that we will get anything but no deal ultimately. There is an admission that May can't pass a Queen's speech with anything meaningful, so as long as she remains as PM parliament is even more paralysed that it has been to date. All things point to a new leader who is very Brexitty or accidental no deal because May can not do anything.

Meanwhile in the real world there are rumours that cancer treatments are now being delayed indefinitely due to Brexit... And so we continue to destroy ourselves and now, it seems, actively kill people in the name of Brexit.

Local Election results will start tonight with the majority tomorrow. Tories are expecting 700 - 1000 losses.

Eric Pickles has just come out in support of a fresh referendum if parliament cannot sort out Brexit.

I did not expect that.

Tories are now on -937.

They’re gonna hit 1000 by teatime, aren’t they?

Labour's Andy Abraham wins Mayoral election by just two votes

Bit close eh?

They’re gonna hit 1000 by teatime, aren’t they?

One can only hope

Waves at @tobee
I cannot shout, because DS is at home, but in my head I am with you.

@borntobequiet Perfect summary of the day from the Daily Mash.

Cos it seems like 'you want brexit cos you voted for a brexit party should have voted for a remain party....oh you have voted for a remain party, oh thats because you are pissed off with no brexit....we'll make sure we brexit then'

I suspect that every single inhabitant of our fair land could individually visit May at home and tell her we would rather remain and she would still hold a press conference saying that it is absolutly clear people just want to get on with Brexit. Some people hear only what they want to hear.

That Daily Mash piece is good, but I liked the lower bit ...

ARE you a Brit who lives in the EU but still wants a no-deal Brexit? Here’s how to convince yourself it’s a perfectly sensible position.

Ignore really fucking obvious problems

Everything from your pension to healthcare will be affected by a no-deal Brexit. So just ignore it. What you don’t think about can’t hurt you, apart from big angry dogs, serious illnesses and in fact everything that can hurt you.

Assume ‘they’ will sort everything out

Forget that ‘they’ are Theresa May’s vindictive, incompetent government, so they’ll probably have you deported from your retirement home in Portugal to a rough bit of Jamaica by mistake.

Fail to see the irony of complaining about immigration

To be fair, you’re really talking about the scary immigrants you’ve read about in the UK press. However if lots of perfectly nice German, Greek or Swedish pensioners retired to the UK you wouldn’t like them either. It’s not right them coming there and stealing all the bus passes.

Learn to love paperwork

In a best case scenario, Brexit will force you to do a shitload of tedious paperwork. Train yourself to enjoy it by spending every evening filling out forms for an HGV licence or permit to import machine parts to China.

Just keep saying ‘Project Fear!’

Repeating the mantra ‘Project Fear’ is a form of magic that protects Brexiters against the effects of their own stupid decisions. And if you do find yourself up shit creek, just blame someone else, maybe Theresa May or, hilariously, foreigners.

Maybe everyone who does not want brexit should send our PM a hand written note saying just that: NO BREXIT PLEASE!

What will it take for the Labour party to get rid of Corbyn??

Hmm. That'd be a waste of paper sadly Songs.

👋🏻 @ElenadeClermont !

Maybe everyone who does not want brexit should send our PM a hand written note saying just that: NO BREXIT PLEASE!

Brexiteers will just claim it was rigged by foreigners or something.

The human brain is an amazing, wonderful, truly fantastic organ. But we need to remember it's also the thing that makes people believe they can wrangle poisonous snakes, and live by eating air.

If May is a zombie is Corbyn Rasputin, Irene?

Obviously Rasputin was an imperialist

Arun DC - now 14 Con, 12 LD (doubled) & 2 Green. 4 Indpendents, which may be swivelled eyed, although I think 2 are from a Ward heavily impacted by development proposals, so probably 1 issue candidates.
A good result for LDs who can now form an alliance with Greens on local issues. Cons will now have to negotiate! Turn out ranged from mid -20s to mid-40s.

They’re gonna hit 1000 by teatime, aren’t they?

Maybe a bit longer. Ours hasn’t declared yet, didn’t even start counting until late morning.

I suspect that every single inhabitant of our fair land could individually visit May at home and tell her we would rather remain and she would still hold a press conference saying that it is absolutly clear people just want to get on with Brexit. Some people hear only what they want to hear.

I have come to the conclusion that in the next election 90% of the electorate could vote for the revoke party - standing on a manifesto of joining the Euro and Schengen, dual language sign posts and getting rid of the union jack in favour of just having the EU flag - and labour and the tories would still come out and say 'yes yes, message received loud and clear - protest vote that brexit isn't happening quick enough, we'll get right on it.'

There is some reason - whether stupidity, collective insanity, dark money and greed, just wanting brexit for themselves ... whatever - that means the people in power cannot see beyond the slender win of an advisory referendum three years ago. And anything the electorate tries to do to tell them they don't like what they're doing (like taking away the government's majority in 2017 - or giving a huge boost to remain parties in the locals) is twisted beyond recognition so that it still seems to support that most sacrosanct of votes.
At this rate Lib Dems/ Green/ ChUK could win every MEP seat going in the English regions in a few weeks time - and Corbyn and May would still claim that this showed we supported brexit - because Jupiter was in the 11th house and the milk had turned sour.

This collective madness and sheer pigheadedness will, one day, make a fascinating study into the psyche of British politics and a nation in it's death throes ... but for now it is just infuriating.

On -992 now ... my district hasn’t declared yet either.

On -992 now
Ooh, I'm looking forward to 1000.

@CER_Grant
Having just returned from Brussels, a short thread on how EU and member-state officials view Brexit. They do not expect cross-talks to go anywhere and think Parliament incapable of choosing any model of Brexit by Oct 31. So they expect UK to ask for further extension. /1

Both the Commission and the members remain divided over wisdom of granting a further extension, as they were at last summit. The predominant view - most govts, Tusk, Juncker - is grant it, in the hope that sceptics will fear losing Brexit & so finally vote for May's deal. /2

CON -1006

There goes the 1000 mark!

Yay - now -1006 and Cons lose control of my council (to NOC).

This collective madness and sheer pigheadedness will, one day, make a fascinating study into the psyche of British politics and a nation in it's death throes ... but for now it is just infuriating.

Just infuriating ? It chills me to the marrow. This isn't "like" how wars start. It is how wars start. There was less difference between Protestants and Catholics at the start of the Reformation than Brexiteers and Remainers now. If we accept the pace of life has generally sped up, there may not be a century before it all spills into conflict. Maybe not even a decade.

Only takes one veto
and except for maybe Tusk, they seem to have long given up on Revoke - publicly anyway, but I bet we'd get an extension if they thought it likely

Bloody hell! Has this ever happened before?

CON -1006
Woo hoo!
🇪🇺🎈