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.

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

Corbyn would be a fool to try and vote him down straight away.... Plenty of people would give him the benefit of the doubt in the ensuing GE. He needs to show how his bluster and bravado are based on thin air, and that we’re either heading towards a no-deal (which was a million-to-one shot apparently!) or he’s putting lipstick on the pig of the WA (which he’ll get blasted for by the likes of Farage and the DUP, even if his Tory Brexit ultras fall in line (and that’s a very big “if” indeed)).

Returning to Airmiles Andy, I see the victim has alleged one offence took place In London.

No need for extradition - the Met can stop blowing innocent peoples heads off, and do their job here instead.

I'm sure nothing will come of it for Prince Andrew but I do like to think of him feeling more and more rattled as the Epstein case gathers momentum.

Corbyn would be a fool to try and vote him down straight away.... Plenty of people would give him the benefit of the doubt in the ensuing GE.

Not this one I think. I'm afraid Gordon Brown and Theresa May did for any sense of giving an incoming PM any benefit of any doubt. Ironically their dithering may well have closed off the "win a snap election on the grounds of fair play" avenue.

Andrew was the only member of the Royal family not to have any close bodyguards at the Buck House event I went to
as nobody wanted to talk to him

I'm sure nothing will come of it for Prince Andrew

If he has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear, I'm sure.

There is very little time left for a VoNC, if the HoC want to stop No Deal
AND
avoid the resultant GE running over BrexitDay

We can't assume that BJ or even May would ask the EU for an extension for the GE, to avoid this automatic No Deal

Looks like the VoNC would have to be tabled on 24 or 25 July:

Not had a chance to skim today so someone else may have spotted this typo (or is it?!) on the bbc news page...

"Just outside Kuntsford, in the village of Rostherne,"

Hunt v Johnson: The business view https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48838988

I believe it's more commonly known as Knutsford, but apparently stuffed full of Brexiteers...

New name for Knutsford 😂😂😂😂😂. I work near there and passed near it today en route to somewhere else.

Screen shot in case it's corrected!

Bearing in mind Parliament passed a bill last time which compelled the PM to seek an extension, I'd imagine they'd do that again to be voted on at the same time as the VoNC, if not slightly before, once it was tabled, to make sure it wasn't no deal by default.

I can't see anything other than a coalition as a result of a GE. It's just the flavour which is uncertain.

Pulse of Perfumery is just around the corner on Princess Street. Melanie Seddon co-owns the scent shop with her partner.

"I'd like a prime minister who considered how we could regenerate the High Street

I know Knutsford pretty well and all I can say is WTF is that article and what us the point of it?

Knutsford has one of the best high streets around. I can only think of Altrincham in the NW which is notably more successful and good for independents.

How much perfume does she think she can sell in a small town?!! Yet, even in footballer belt. Does she think you drink or bathe in perfume? It's not a shop I could ever see myself going into. Ever. Her problem is her crap business model. (Just asked DH he says Pulse is crap too) In fairness the business rates are crippling, but no amount of help from government is going to save that business.

weeps with laughter

I believe it's more commonly known as Knutsford, but apparently stuffed full of Brexiteers...

Wahahaha!

I know it's Tory Central but there's lots of Remainers too. LOTS. DH just looked at me in disbelief at the idea that they didn't seem to be able to find a single Remain leaning Tory in Knutsford for that piece.

Perhaps they've all gone closet LD...

Oh dear. That was bad.

Had a really bizarre dream last night, Theresa May appointed Boris Johnson the new ambassador to the USA. That couldn't actually happen could it ?

Lo ! Did someone mention Philby (yes, I did ...)

and here's bad news for Fromage ...

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/trump-leak-scandal-engulfs-brexit-party-2w7dn3hrm

The chairman of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party was last night embroiled in the “Trump files” leak scandal as it emerged that he is in a relationship with the writer whose story brought down Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

Richard Tice, a Brexit Party MEP, is dating Isabel Oakeshott, who last week published leaked diplomatic cables in which Sir Kim Darroch branded Donald Trump “clumsy and inept”, forcing Darroch’s resignation when the president announced he would not work with him.

Security sources said a suspect had been identified for the leaks amid “panic” in Whitehall that a “pro-Brexit Kim Philby” figure has been trying to undermine officials not deemed supportive enough of leaving...

(contd)

As I said, a ready made, pre-packed reason for the US to freeze the UK out of the charmed circle ....

Not all batshit Brexiters are rightwing

• Lexiters who support the hard right to get No Deal Brexit are even more batshit

Why would they expect the rightwing to be kinder to the poor if given even more power ?


Jo Maugham QC@JolyonMaugham

#SocialistsforBoris
......

Giles Fraser@giles_fraser

We need someone with the temperament to drive full speed towards No Deal without any thought of using the break. The person most suited to this is Boris.

I assume he means "brake" not "break"

The break / brake confusion drives me a bit bonkers!

And what he's suggesting is the very last thing we need, thanks all the same!

Shock news, the far right disproportionately targets female politicians with misogynistic abuse www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-48871400

I quite used to like reading Giles Fraser's pieces on Saturdays in the
Guardian, but anyone who talks about we need to drive full speed over the cliff and this person is the one to do it, is an absolute fool IMO.

Fox said potential complications could include different rules across American states and the start of the presidential electoral cycle. He also stressed that no deal could be agreed before the UK formally left the EU Another 'shock news' story from the Guardian.

From the sniffer of Wherrities:
{“One of the things you have to remember about the US is that not all trade policy is actually done at the federal government level,” he said.}

And it has taken him 3 years to discover this?
Californian trading laws are significantly different to those of many other states and presumably raise the bar considerably higher than most.

Next week is going to be interesting. Remember that Parliament is sitting for longer than usual to usher in the next Tory leader, so we have a lot of pissed-off MPs who are sick of the way Brexit has paralysed everything. On top of everything else, Corbyn needs something (anything!) to distract from the anti-Semitism row in his party and a way of actually appearing relevant to his party.

The more I think about, the more it feels like the final two candidates have been set up like sacrificial ducks for the incoming shitstorm. There is not going to be a honeymoon period.

{so we have a lot of pissed-off MPs who are sick of the way Brexit has paralysed everything}

It is the incompetence of some of them that has created and lengthened this mess.
I feel relatively little sympathy with most of them.
Those wanting to remain should be holding protests and making it known. Even publicly calling out the lies told by the 'Leave' parties would be a start, but 3 years down the line they are by and large grumbling into their socks.

It's fascinating how the populist part of the BBC - the bit almost everyone sees, has been so rabidly pro-Brexit as to be an embarrassment, but the less populist part - BBC4 and it's cousins - has been subtly trolling Brexiteers early doors.

Finally watched all of the Charles I downfall doc - typically overblown - but the parallels are frighteningly eerie. Out of control personalities going head to head against a backdrop of rising extremism. But who is todays Pym ? Who is todays King ? and who will triumph ?

I notice the British Press have suddenly forgotten who Prince Andrew is. I wonder how long that will last ...

@1tisILeClerc, totally agree. I don't have any sympathy left for them. I was simply noting it as larger events often turn on smaller human factors (especially the "fuck it" factor). Rationality is not something humans are good at.

I think it was around the time of May's third attempt to get the WA passed, and I saw a few hours of the Wednesdays Parliamentary question time and you could tell from the inane and basic questions that MPs were putting to Theresa that a significant number had no damn clue what the WA was about and hadn't read it, but they were in the process of voting it down for the third time.
Yes, it is legalese and very complicated, but it was so obvious some members just couldn't be arsed to make an attempt. The fact that the likes of the ERG were still stating things that are impossible without being challenged just added to the mess.