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.

{5G will be needed for driverless cars}

And cities will be the only place where 5G will have decent coverage and simultaneously have no space for yet more cars, driverless or not.
Great plan!

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

On that:

The cult of optimism got us into this mess. It’s time to embrace pessimism - David Olusoga

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/14/brexiters-blind-optimism-pitiful-dose-of-pessimism-realistic

Conflicting claims about how many Lexiters would support BJ / Brexit - 5 or 40

Also depends on what the vote is - Labour rebels may take loyalty in a VoNC more seriously than for the WA

STILL talking of a "new deal" - the only deal is the WA, unchanged
(The EU would update the dates and change the font, though)

Pippa Crerar@PippaCrerar

This is really interesting from ⁦*@StevenSwinford*
⁩
The Labour Leave MPs I speak to are currently less likely to ride to the rescue of a Boris Johnson govt than they were to a Theresa May one.

And she managed to get only five_
_
Boris Johnson opens Brexit deal talks with Labour rebels after their party backs Remain

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-opens-brexit-deal-talks-with-labour-rebels-after-their-party-backs-remain-qf92j58pf

Boris Johnson and his team have already opened informal talks with Labour MPs over his plans for a new Brexit deal as he seeks to win their support.

Allies of Mr Johnson say they believe that he can win the support of as many as 40 Labour MPs
after Jeremy Corbyn’s decision this week to back Remain in a second referendum.

“This couldn’t have worked out better for us,” a senior ally said.
“We have Labour MPs in Leave seats who have been left completely isolated by Corbyn.
Labour has become the party of Remain.”



I saw Kinnock Junior on Daily Politics last week saying he would vote for the WA because "democracy"

Welsh MP Guto Bebb to stand down at election over Tory concerns

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48980318

Good for him. I'm shocked that more MPs aren't doing that. The extent to which they put their jobs before the country.

I know that it's always been said here that the chances of a big republican - with a little r - wave being on of the next political movements in the UK on here on numerous occasions (and I know there's a few republicans here)

Well the Epstein case looks like it's already delivering on its promise to cause political shock waves in the uk

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6f73416-a597-11e9-95c3-8511e62f8ecb
US judge unseals files in case of girl, 17, ‘forced to have sex with Prince Andrew’

Documents from a 2015 libel suit linked to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a friend of the prince, are to be made public

Buckle up.

It's also a perfect dead cat for Brexit shenanigans for new PM Johnson...

@bellinisurge Israel was created in 1948 under a British and American jurisdiction to give a country to Jews displaced by WW2.
Part of the country of Palestine was renamed Israel and the Palestinian Arabs who lived there were removed from their homes and lands.
Israel treats Arabs as second class citizens. Further land grabs have been done, and are still being done on Palestinian land. I don’t believe it would be wrong to describe the situation that exists, and the way Palestinians are forced to live, as very similar to the apartheid that existed in South Africa.
I would describe anti-Zionism as opposition to what is happening in Israel. Many Jewish people also oppose this and wish for equality for all in the lands of Israel and Palestine.
AntiSemitism is disliking people because they are Jewish. It is a racist term in the same way as Islamophobia.

"I would describe anti-Zionism as opposition to what is happening in Israel"

Would you? Good luck with that.

anti-Zionism is now - and probably always was - a campaign to abolish the state of Israel,
not to improve its human rights

It's a bit sad to see (usually) students suckered into saying they are anti-Zionists because they disagree with Israeli foreign and domestic policy.
It ONLY means disagreeing with the existence of the state of Israel.

That "foreign royal immunity" is something I didn't know about

Does Prince Andrew have a diplomatic passport ?
That would be automatic grounds for immunity
If not, he'd better be very careful, as most countries won't grant immunity merely for (minor) royals

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2019/07/10/jeffrey-epstein-friendship-prince-andrew-explained-amid-sex-trafficking-case/1692505001/

Lawyers dismiss the possibility that Andrew could face criminal charges in the U.S.,
partly because of the statute of limitations
and partly because he likely would have immunity as a foreign royal.

Britain ‘facing highest risk of recession since 2007’
Or "The pain and cost will be worth it

I've just skip-read the report - it's not a Brexit-bashing report, e.g;

"Technical recessions (where economic output contracts for two consecutive quarters) have come along roughly once a decade in the UK.With the current period of economic expansion now into its tenth year, there is therefore concern that we are nearer to the next recession than we are to the last."

If folks want to know how the "Special Relationship" is viewed in the US, start to look at the home pages of the high circulation US Newspapers like USA Today
or even the broadsheets like the New York Times.
US TV news barely covers anything abroad that does not have US troops in it.

No, the report is realistic, not "Brexit-bashing"

Brexit is just adding another big problem that Britain will have to cope with,
in addition to the expected US-China trade war and global recession that will also hit everyone else

Brexit would have been easier in a period of global boom, everyone spending & buying, not when heading for global bust

There are unusual factors that could make this a bad global recession:

climate change, effect on aviation industry,
the car industry - a key sector in many countries - having to cope with the expensive move to electric cars,
water wars (already low-key fights between Indian states), climate refugees
Trump picking fights - trade & possibly military - whenever he has a tantrum ....

BJ advisers telling The Sun that the first 72 hours of his premiership will be critical

(they don't include a possible VoNC attempt to stop him ever becoming PM - has Corbyn tipped them the wink not to worry ? )

If his cunning plan really is just hoping the EU blink .... the UK is screwed

If it's to sell a WA with cosmetic changes only, then he is the one snakeoil merchant who could get away with that

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9498113/boris-johnson-first-72-hours-downing-street/

Boris is convinced putting the threat of No Deal on the table will lead to the EU making concessions.

This is the biggest gamble of his premiership.

As one of those advising him admits:
“He really needs the EU to give him something, or he’s going to get trapped on the tramlines to No Deal.”

US judge unseals files in case of girl, 17, ‘forced to have sex with Prince Andrew’

She might have been working undercover for British police though ?

Israel was created in 1948 under a British and American jurisdiction.

False. Israel was created by a vote of the United Nations, disposing of an inherited League of Nations mandate.

Part of the country of Palestine was renamed Israel...

Also false. There has never in history ever been a country called Palestine. For some reason you forgot to mention Jordan.

....and the Palestinian Arabs who lived there were removed from their homes and lands....

begs the question. Much historical debate over who ordered them out in what numbers and for what purpose.

Israel treats Arabs as second class citizens...

This is sadly so, but nothing whatever to do with the Palestinians who are not Israeli citizens. The Israeli Arabs, discriminated against by Netanyahu and his allies as never before, seem to have mysteriously appeared in the country after all the Arabs were driven out according to you. They include the Bedouin who are treated far worse in all Arab states, and Palestinian-Arab Christians who are being slowly erased under Fatah and Hamas rule. It is complicated.

Nothing like South Africa. Jews are indiginous people exiled then returned, including black Ethiopian Jews. Israeli Arabs are discriminated against but have access to independent courts under the rule of law, more than any Arab population gets anywhere else.

Now, in truth, the creation of the state of Israel was a cynical move made by governments that fully expected the infant to be strangled at birth by the armies of seven Arab nations who objected to partition not because they wanted more but because they wanted it all, and as the pro-Nazi Palestinian leaders of the day explained, wished to finish the job Hitler failed to complete. (Those wealthy Palestininan families who sold land to incoming Jews in the first place from under the feet of their Arab tenants, and who continue to dominate in the councils of Fatah.

Now just how come did that Seven Nation Army fail against a rag-bag of half-starved death-camp survivors? Because when you can answer that question, you will begin to have a handle on the whole godforesaken mess.

I'm not constitutional scholar (which presumably makes me a candidate for High Office) however I have a sneaking suspicion that any "royal immunity" that Prince Andrew may enjoy (and you can consider me as having one eyebrow permanently raised until it's confirmed by someone I can trust) would not be intrinsic, but a gift of the Queen. Bearing in mind Princess Anne had no claim to immunity in UK courts a while back.

If Her Madge really does want to make the House of Saxe-Coburg Windsor the last British Monarch, then shielding an alleged sex offender might just be the "ticks all boxes" way to do it.

No such thing as 'Royal Immunity.'

There is sovereign immunity for all serving heads of state, and diplomatic immunity for anyone on official govt business.

Will Prince Andrew avoid ever visiting the US again?

Will Prince Andrew avoid ever visiting the US again?

He may well have to. Bearing in mind the US-UK extradition treaty doesn't need niceties like "evidence". Just an allegation is sufficient for a Club Fed booking.

Also depends on what the vote is - Labour rebels may take loyalty in a VoNC more seriously than for the WA

Of course they’d take a VONC more seriously. Rebelling against your party whip is one thing. Actively supporting the Government remaining in power when your a member of the opposition is quite another.

I can quite imagine a few dozen Labour MPs supporting the Government to pass a WA.... But only perhaps Kate Hoey would countenance supporting them in a VONC.