Westminstenders: It couldn't get any worse... Until today

[RedToothBrush]

We are trapped in the tailspin of the end of the UK. Firmly headed downward and getting more and more frenzied and desperate.

Even the most sensible of types like David Allen Green have finally noticed that Brexit isn't about leaving the EU it's about the frenzied and wilful destruction of our state instutions and structure. The collapse of the civil service, of our justice system, our democratic institutions and social order. All in the name of rule Britannia, a warped sense of taking back control to preserve an ideal that never existed and an idea of sovereignity that simply was a fantasy.

We move ever closer to Johnson becoming Prime Minister and a life under President Trump.

Joy.

Ode to Joy really isn't that bad.

Peregrina
The article is a blatant attempt to name the EU as a 'baddie'. It was the Trading Standards people in England that flagged up the use of a tradename that can be construed as misleading as the product does not really do as it should.

In other news, the independent ran an article about the Conservative majority this morning. They have a working majority of 4 at present with the DUP and even without the Brexit mess, you would expect by-elections to happen anyway over the course of Parliament. Johnson won't hold out to 2022. He will be lucky to last to the end of the year, given how many MPs are fed up.
I am filing this week's abysmal performance of politics under "collective breakdown". It really feels like the adults have left the building and the dregs are left..

Civil servants sign the Official Secrets Act to hammer home the law and the penalties,
but in fact, everyone in the country is subject to this law - and its penalties

https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7422

"It is not necessary for a person to have signed the Official Secrets Act in order to be bound by it."

Rob Powell @robpowellnews
NEW: Former Cabinet Minister Priti Patel says it is "not acceptable" for un-elected individuals to "derail" the delivery of Brexit by going to the courts #Ridge

MORE: Priti Patel says it's for MPs to deliver Brexit and it shouldn't be "sub-contracted out to the courts... telling elected Government's what can and can't be done".

She seems to be suggesting that govts should operate without interference of courts (above the law?!) #ridge

I'm sure plenty of lawyers and judges would point out that it's exactly the role of the courts to tell govts and everyone else for that matter what can and can't be done.

Full quote from Patel:

"A govt that is determined to deliver Brexit. It's not something that we subcontract out to the courts basically now to intervene or have court judgements telling Parliament and elected politicians on what can be done and what can't be done".

😳

#ridge

Quite a remarkable statement from Priti Patel, courts should not "intervene or have court judgements" telling elected politicians what can and can't be done regarding Brexit #ridge

Patel seems to be unaware of the pillars of democracy and the checks and balances of the executive, the press and the courts...

Many Lexiters and some SNP members that I know believed fundamentally that the EU was a threat to the NHS and other public services. It was their justification for being anti-EU and that the EU was a capitalist threat.

This was partly because initial drafts were a risk and a) our government (unlike other EU countries) was making no attempt to put in safeguards and b) the UK government had said it was happy to sign it as it stood

Fortunately other members of the EU balked at the terms that the US was demanding (which included too much access to public services and ITDR which would have allowed US companies to sue sovereign governments for changes in policy which affected their profits) and the whole TTIP negotiation was put on hold.

Doesn't bode well for the content of a US-UK trade deal

I'm sorry for being a bit slow with this one, is Isabel Oakshott 'the leaker' or is the the 'journalist' that published the information that had been leaked to her by 'somebody?'

That's it isn't it prettybird? The UK Government has copped out at least since 2010 from having any constructive input into EU law. But then using it to blame their own failings on.

I think Isabel Oakshott is 'the journalist'. As someone said, what is in the public interest is not the same as what the public are interested in. What the Ambassador said about Trump was common knowledge.

The bit that's come out today about Trump withdrawing from a deal with Iran to spike Obama to my mind does come under public interest and wasn't common knowledge.

Tokyo, the leaker is supposed to be someone who seems to have 'crudely' grabbed a bunch of files. It was then arranged for Oakshott to publish them. The Police and GCHQ are looking into how all this happened.

Priti Patel, who went on her own unauthorised trip to Israel to attempt to sign up to some kind of deal? They really think we're stupid.

TTIP was blocked by Wallonia. Because the EU is just sooo undemocratic. The UK loves TTIP and will sign us up to something similar. You only have to read Giles Fraser's tweets to see how empty the Lexiters are.

Someone should tell Priti (was ever a name so not appropriate? ) that if the Government doesn't want the courts to "interfere", then they should try to do things that are against. the. law.

If they don't like the law, then they have the power to change it.

Oh wait , at the moment, they almost definitely don't have that power as Parliament would stop them.

Thanks @Peregrina and @AutumnCrow - super helpful as always!

What the Ambassador said about Trump was common knowledge.

True, but derided and brushed away as Remain Project Fear by Brexiters.

At least papers like the Torygraph have had to report it, and it might finally dawn on the Torygraph demographic that all is not sunlit uplands.

Astonishing that an ex-minister can demand that the govt be above the law
and it is not headline news in all media

It should be career death, on a par with supporting PIE

"taking back control" = "unlimited govt power over the people"

I don't think TTIP ever got as far as needing Wallonia to block it .....but Wallonia did successfully delay (and extract changes?) CETA

Iirc, both France and Germany expressed significant concerns about TTIP, so it was nowhere near being signed.

Ironically, that "failure" was part of the justification used by the Brexiters, both before and after the Referendum, that the EU was "stopping" the valiant and entrepreneurial UK getting trade deals and doing more business with the US

That's it, prettybird. I need to look up details properly.

Here's what "control" looks like ...

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/07/13/us-tells-britain-fall-line-china-huawei-no-trade-deal/

Donald Trump’s negotiators have signalled that the next prime minister’s hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal with the United States rest on his willingness to fall in line with tough American policies against the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

Whitehall correspondence seen by The Sunday Telegraph reveals that British officials close to transatlantic trade talks believe allowing Huawei to ­provide equipment for new 5G mobile networks could be a deal-breaker.

(contd)

TL;DR: The UK can only have 5G if uncle Donnie agrees.

I’ll take you to court to block a no-deal Brexit, Gina Miller tells Boris Johnson

Personally, I've more hope in Major's plan to demand a judicial review - courts would give an ex-PM a serious hearing

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/14/gina-miller-legal-action-block-no-deal-brexit-boris-johnson

Activist is reassembling team of top barristers to stop parliament being shut down to push through Brexit against wishes of MPs
.....
Last week the former Tory prime minister Sir John Major said he would be willing to go to court to seek a judicial review to stop Johnson proroguing parliament.
....
“Let’s strip away the jargon of proroguing and contemplate what this actually means.

What it means is that a prime minister – prime minister Johnson, presumably – because he cannot persuade parliament to agree with his policy,
will close down parliament so that he can bypass it until his policy comes into operation.

Suspected leaker of Kim Darroch cables identified

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jul/14/suspected-leaker-of-kim-darroch-emails-identified-report

The suspect behind the leak of confidential memos from Britain’s ambassador to the USS^ has been identified, it has been reported, as fresh details of their content was published.
.....
“They think they know who did the leaking,”
the paper quoted an unnamed government source as saying.

“It’s now a case of building a case that will stand up in court.

It was someone with access to historical files.
They went in and grabbed a range of material. It was quite crude.”

Britain ‘facing highest risk of recession since 2007’

Even more worrying, we've not much left in the tool cupboard that we're not already using

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/13/urgent-planning-needed-to-combat-looming-downturn

Britain is facing the highest risk of a recession since the financial crisis and needs urgent plans to combat the next downturn,
...
It raises the alarm over the potential impact on living standards, warning that
the five previous recessions have produced an economic shock equating to a £2,500 loss for each household in the UK.
......
There are also concerns that the government and Bank of Englandd^ have already used many of the tools in their armoury that could curb a future recession.

Cutting interest rates to stimulate the economy is hard, as they are already at historically low levels,
while quantitative easing (QE), in which more money is pumped into the economy, is likely to have less effect than in the past.

Had those weapons not been deployed during the last recession, in which interest rates were cut from 5.75 per to 0.5 per cent, QE amounted to £375bn and VAT was cut to 15%,
the downturn would have been 12%.
That is the equivalent to £8,000 for every UK household.

Or in 'Leaver speak' It will all be fine as we won the war you know.

Incidentally, not having a functioning 5G network rather pisses on any chips the UK may have had about being a trailblazer. We might end up having to send nerds, geeks and techs to countries which do have a decent network in order to have the skillz for the brave new AI-IoT world that is "just 5 years away" ...

You can't serve two masters as the lone remains of the UK (basically England).

Anyone else want to play a game of "guess where the dial is." ? If we take that 2016 was one extreme of travel, and we are now swinging back in time ... parts of it are starting to look like the 14th Century ? Scotland very fragile in relations with England. Wales has just been subjugated, and it's all about to kick off in Ireland.

Next stop 1066 - and full on feudalism ?

Or "The pain and cost will be worth it as it won't be me paying it, just the "little people and who cares about them?" because of Sovereignty that we never lost and blue passports that we could have had anyway "

Having 4, or even 3G that works reliably across the UK would be a good start. Even broadband if you live more than 5 miles from a large town would be good.

Having 4, or even 3G that works reliably across the UK would be a good start.

you forget this is the UK - building inequality since 1066. It's entirely possible - and probably desirable - to have 21st century 5G in cities, and lucky-if-you-can-get-GSM in the sticks.

5G will be needed for driverless cars - y'know - the ones the government was telling us the UK would lead the world in. Mind you a lot of what the UK was going to lead the world in has gone quiet of late.