Westministenders: Another Thread, another Shit Show. Its Trump Week

[RedToothBrush]

That is all.

I feel a bit sorry for Sajid Javid.

Home secretary Sajid Javid was snubbed from attending the lavish state banquet in honour of Donald Trump at Buckingham Palace.

Mr Javid, the son of Pakistani Muslim parents, was the only holder of a great office of state - which include prime minister, foreign secretary, home secretary and chancellor - not to be invited to the opulent dinner hosted by the Queen.

His allies were unconcerned by the snub, joking that he may have been left off the list because he had been confused with Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, who is also of Pakistani heritage.

"Maybe Downing Street was worried the president might confuse him with the other son of a bus driver," a friend told the Daily Mail.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-uk-visit-sajid-javid-state-banquet-muslim-pakistani-sadiq-khan-gove-queen-a8942921.html

Beginning to think you lot are trolling me. I have just found my college photo ID and a contractors photo ID from the BBC.

In what way? That we're making up that some people have no - acceptable - ID? Because that is the absolute reality for some people.

I still have my first passport and guild of students card from when I was 20!

Leadsom is certainly more erudite than May. Interested in prevention which is refreshing.

Tbh all I remember May talking about for any length of time is "Brexit means Brexit", "No deal is better than a bad deal" and "Citizens of Nowhere". May the catchphrase Queen.

2.16mins in and it's cakism suggesting EU will drop WA and agree to UK demands

I actually can see a complete Groundhog Day experience. Leadsom becomes PM:

1. She was one of the closest runners up before.

2.We are still tumbling down a cliff so glasscliff theory would weigh heavily in favour of another woman.

I can't bear listening to the LBC interview with her- what's her magic wand for NI?

NoWordForFluffy
No, just the weirdness of talking about ID and happening to find a couple of photo cards from over 30 years ago while looking for something I need now. It is perhaps highlighting the fact that the UK needs a discussion on ID and security if banks etc now need ID confirmation above what is 'freely' available for the general population.
The information you carry, and who is entitled to 'demand' to see it is becoming an increasing issue.
It is possible to put the point that one of the 'reasons' for Brexit is that some are disgruntled that 'foreigners are flooding into the country and stealing jobs and houses'.
There are of course many holes in this line of thought, but Brexit is 'progressing' on the back of it.

I can't bear to watch Loathsome. My vegetable patch has a higher IQ.

(I've started gardening again, not really Brexit related, but it's a good anti-stress activity and I can do it with a dodgy knee).

Just got the Radio Times. Noticed that Susannah Reid felt the need to pop over to Texas to gawp at a death row prisoner on UK televisions behalf.

Don't worry, it's all done with sensitivity and understanding, and at all times respects the sanctity of human life.

It's called Death Row: Countdown to Execution

Softening us up for another US (re)import ?

Of course once the UK is free of the EU shackles, it can start supplying the US with it's lethal injection chemicals again.

3 step managed exit - see Sun for more details apparently - roughly typed text of her Brexit plan from LBC:

1. To introduce legislation in Commons and Lords to put in place sensible measures like on citizens rights, future of Gibralter and future for goods in circulation at the point of exit. Introduce those bills before the Summer recess in the expectation that the EU will want to ratify their side of that - those things were already agreed in the WA and they would be sensible steps.
2. Ramp up preparations for No Deal, ramp up preparations for the NI boarder (ambiguous meaning and little substance here) and really importantly to really consider a temporary free trade agreement with the EU that we would propose that they would have to agree to which would perhaps last a year while we sort out permanent arrangements and really importantly to communicate that widely to the public to businesses and of course really importantly to Parliament, so that we don't have this kind of Secret Squirrels thing where people don't understand what is going on.
3. Lead a ministerial delegation to talk to some EU heads of state who themselves have been clear (Macron on no extension) so they know that we are now facing a hard deadline and taking it to them suggesting here are the measures that we can put in place if the EU agrees, culminating in a summit in Belfast and Dublin in September to which the proposed new Commissioners can be invited, they won't be in place yet, but we can invite all colleagues in the EU to agree what steps we want to put in place to manage our exit at the end of Oct so that it is a much smoother experience for EU citizens and UK citizens.

An awful lot of whatiffery there. Basically it's a deluge of words designed to hide the fact that the UK is still telling the EU what the EU has to do.

I doubt they even need to have it translated.

Incidentally, the EUs plan is clear: Wait for the UK to sign the WA. Either before or after 31st October.

Agreed - cakeism and ambiguity but LOTS of words - which marks her as very different from May and possibly fools people into thinking she has an actual plan

Well that's a 3 out of 10 from me for that plan, and I am being generous.

Which elements warranted the 3?

Alex Wickham@alexwickham

Matt Hancock the only Tory leadership candidate to defend Sadiq Khan re Trump tweets.

Says he is “proud we have the first Muslim mayor of a western city”.

Others not getting involved

Yep, I'd say -3

Daniel Ferrie@DanielFerrie (EU Commission Press Office)

@MargSchinas @EUCommission says “@HMcEntee is right:

the Withdrawal Agreement will not be renegotiated." #Brexit
.......

Helen McEntee TD***@HMcEntee* (Irish MP)

The mood had not changed. _
_
The Withdrawal Agreement will not change.
The Backstop cannot change.

Much of what is in the Withdrawal Agreement was asked for by the UK.
They were not bystanders in the two years it took to negotiate.
Bit of realism needed #Brexit

lonelyplanetmum
I said I was being generous. The WA is mentioned, as is citizens rights and something about goods in circulation. I rounded it up a bit to show goodwill.

There's always marks for correct grammar too I suppose.

My vegetable patch is highly intelligent. It has very cleverly produced a radish for me to have with my lunch today. Far more useful than your average politician, clearly!

Peregrina with regards to Brexit Party splitting vote I imagine it will quite significantly as things stand.

I disagree.... As I see it there are 3 possible scenarios, none of which would lead to any significant splitting of the vote.

1. GE is triggered by NC vote caused by moderate (ex) Tories voting against a Government on the path to a no-deal. In this scenario the remaining Tory rump would be a no-deal party like the Brexit Party. In that instance, I think it would be extremely likely there’d be an electoral pact. It’s hard to see the BP campaigning against the likes of Rees-Mogg, Francois and Baker when they will be in total agreement! No split vote here.

Or

2. GE triggered by NC vote resulting from a Government led by Gove or Hunt somehow successfully extending the deadline with a forlorn hope of getting a deal, or realising a deal isn’t possible and, with no other option available, pushing for a referendum instead. The Tory rebels this time would come from its Brexiteer wing who’d inevitably join Farage, boosting his ranks. In this scenario, the eviscerated Tory remnant would fight on, doomed to electoral disaster.... but any loyal voters who continued to support it wouldn’t be no dealers and would never have voted for the Brexit Party anyway, so there would be no split vote

3. A disunited and chaotic Government is brought down by a handful of Tory rebels (6 would probably be enough, possibly as low as 4) who calculate its time to pull the plug to minimise the risk of a no-deal, but enough moderates don’t join them, convinced there is still hope to pull the Government away from the precipice... Some Brexiteers defect to the BP in exasperation, but the bulk of Tories remain stubbornly tribal and nominally united but are, in reality, a bunch of headless chickens who can’t agree anything concrete, but cannot face the reality of their own inevitable demise and fruitlessly battle their own corners as they spiral into a vortex of futility. There may be enough nostalgic residual support for the Tories for some Brexiteer voters to remain loyal, but they’d be polling in the single digits by this point.

On the bright side, I doubt any of us here will be having tea with Trump.

Small mercies!

BJ apparently turned down offer of meeting with Trump - correct reading of political tea leaves, methinks. Not too many gaffes from Trump, maybe Ivanka & Melania sitting on him.
Let’s see if he meets Farridge, not much NF in news, lately.
(Also, looks like Harry skedaddled after banquet reception - smart man!

With any luck Trump will have seen that 'LedByDonkeys' video, that will (or ought to) make BoJo a little nervous.