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Brexit

Westminstenders: On An Election Footing

966 replies

RedToothBrush · 25/07/2019 16:22

Boris Johnson has set out his strategy.

He is challenging remain Tories to put their money where their mouth is, or to shut up.

His majority, soon to be just 1, is fragile but he intends to tough it out.

His Cabinet, is to all intents and purposes an ERG take over of the Tory Party, not unlike the Momentum take over of the Labour Party. And Johnson is looking to purge the party of its liberal wing, whilst pretending that he is liberal to make it acceptable to long term loyal Tories who might still waiver and merely vote for the rosette or like the veneer of respectability.

It has been made clear to Tory MPs that they will have to sign up to a No Deal Strategy should a snap election be called - or face the prospect of deselection. Disloyality will not be tolerated as Hunt's Cabinet backers all found out when they were sacked rather than be allowed to resign as Grayling was.

Instead Johnson reaped his revenge bringing back quitters and disgraced MPs as a deliberate 'fuck you' to moderates and remainers.

His message is clear and made all the clearer by the appointment of Dominic Cummings.

Today the Treasurery opened the piggie bank and told all departments to prepare for no deal. That is what is going to happen.

Parliament can not stop no deal. Johnson will drive it through regardless, even if its technically illegal. The default of no deal makes it an impossible juggernaught to stop without triggering a GE before the 31st October.

Technically speaking there are just 3 parliamentary days left this can be done.

And a GE is no guarentee of stopping no deal anyway. Cummings coming on board spells it out. Its a campaign strategy to reinvigourate the Leave Campaign and make all the promises that were made before. Of course there is no way of implimenting any of these before 31st October, so they just sound nice and people will believe them because they want to believe them. They want to trust and have hope for the future.

Yet with no trade deals and third party status, and crippling gridlock at ports and extra red tape for exporters and importers to deal with, it is inevitable that the economy will take a big hit. And Johnson's promises are expensive. His £39 billion he wants to withhold, is peanuts in the scheme of things and given what he is proposing.

The plan might sound nice, but it doesn't actually add up.

If we want a deal we will STILL have to sign up to conditions that Brussels sets out EVEN IF we no deal.

Meanwhile the US is ready and waiting to fleece us, because we aren't prepared to admit this and are too proud to see that this is a better option than have corporate American feast on the bones of the British economy.

Human Rights and Workers Rights are very much in the cross hairs with this. Health and Safety standards that have been set by London and then imposed on the EU will be burnt.

All the while the EU will be blamed for our own folly.

The worst thing is, people will actually buy it too.

Things are going to get a hell of a lot worse in this country, not because we lack optimism and hope, but because our egos are too big and we have been too idealist rather than recognising very real obstacles and finding ways to overcome than rather than just trying to ignore them. We will find out all those Paragraph Cs in good time the hard way because of the lack of attention to detail.

PFI and outsourcing will look like minor hiccups when the shit hits the fan.

I do hope that the puritians of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats and the Remain Referendum Campaign are happy. This is also their mess. They have spent 3 years naval gazing and still don't understand nor know how to respond. This is where a General Election becomes a very real danger because they are clueless as to how to combat a reunited Leave campaign.

Be careful what you wish for going forward.

OP posts:
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LonelyTiredandLow · 26/07/2019 18:36

I wonder if 2 page 'advice' is actually to cover their own arses - taking people to Court on the basis they knowingly endangered lives is a lot harder when half of the potential liability may be lost as "irrelevant" or "not snappy enough".

LonelyTiredandLow · 26/07/2019 18:37

Could obviously work the other way but I suspect anyone attempting to say "this won't work because lives will be at risk due to XYZ" would be ejected as "not patriotic/leaver/positive enough".

prettybird · 26/07/2019 18:43

There are circumstances where a comma after "and" is required for clarity Confused. It's called, variously, the Oxford, Harvard or Boston comma.

I suppose in JRSmug's case, he might accept it if it's called the Oxford comma Wink

ListeningQuietly · 26/07/2019 19:03

mistigri
Complex decisions properly summarised into a clear decision matrix are excellent business practice.
The same applies in government.

TemporaryPermanent · 26/07/2019 19:10

'Grant Shapps' is in the government?? Oh for fucks sake.

LonelyTiredandLow · 26/07/2019 19:13

I'm thinking about how BoJo got off in his recent case - he said he didn't know the real figures, right? So even though other people presented him with them on national TV, if it wasn't recorded that he had read them, this was his get out clause.

Grinchly · 26/07/2019 19:15

C4 reporting Johnson has categorically ruled out a GE before 31 October

Icantreachthepretzels · 26/07/2019 19:17

I know it makes absolutely no odds but - if anyone does feel like signing.

stop ministers who breach ministerial code from serving in the cabinet

borntobequiet · 26/07/2019 19:17

Soon there will be demands for a return to £sd. Mark my words.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=JFV7ZuUBNk0

Mistigri · 26/07/2019 19:22

Complex decisions properly summarised into a clear decision matrix are excellent business practice.
The same applies in government.

I don't disagree with this. But there are decisions and decisions. I'm thinking about the sort of background papers that senior people in my industry would require before making capital decisions costing tens or hundreds of millions of pounds and with 7-10 year delivery timescales. I think this is a reasonable analogy: Schapps is minister of transport, he'll be involved in major infrastructure decisions. An arbitrary limit of two pages is just silly, as most arbitrary limits are.

Alsohuman · 26/07/2019 19:23

Johnson can say what he likes. He’s pissed off enough of his own MPs to ensure that the timing of a GE isn’t his decision.

Mistigri · 26/07/2019 19:26

'Grant Shapps'

Good post. Those quote marks Grin

AKA Michael Green and Sebastian Fox. Backstory here for those who missed it/ had forgotten it:

johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/grant-shapps-hides-the-evidence/

Songsofexperience · 26/07/2019 19:28

Soon there will be demands for a return to £sd. Mark my words.

Anything to NOT trade with the neighbours eh?

Grinchly · 26/07/2019 19:31

@Alsohuman I know, but I understand the window for the alternative is very narrow, isn't it?

ListeningQuietly · 26/07/2019 19:32

Its bad enough that the tabloids are quoting the heatwave in Fahrenheit Sad

Grinchly · 26/07/2019 19:37

And as far as 'the rules' go, some I agree with, but surely esq is appended thusly:
A Foolish-Numpty Esq
Rather than
Another Foolish-Numpty Esq?
This was hammered home to us at school...

LonelyTiredandLow · 26/07/2019 19:40

I thought it was ended esq.
Facetious and I'm terrible with spelling and grammar at times so lighthearted Grin.

ThereWillBeAdequateFood · 26/07/2019 19:47

C4 reporting Johnson has categorically ruled out a GE before 31 October

This means absolutely fuck all given that it’s come from Johnson. Not saying there will be an election before 31st just that you can’t trust a damn word that falls out of his mouth.

borntobequiet · 26/07/2019 19:49

I think the media like using Fahrenheit in heatwaves because of the magic 100 degrees. Sounds very hot! But odd when you consider that many find the metric system too forrin because of its pesky sensible use of 10 and powers of 10.
Lots of my learners cannot operate confidently in either system (metric or Imperial) and frequently get them mixed up. Many find all the zeros confusing and are very tentative in their use of the decimal point.

prettybird · 26/07/2019 19:56

Re the 2 page limit no matter the complexity of the subject and insisting on no annexes is really useful for the Minister in avoiding responsibility if the shit hits the fan at a later date. Hmm

"It was the civil servants' fault. They never told me" Angry

Peregrina · 26/07/2019 20:00

I think it's pretty clear they couldn't give a toss. Although it does put Unionist Scottish and Unionist NI Leavers in an interesting position ....

So like the independence of India/Pakistan from British rule - the Unionists move to England and we migrate north? I think I could live with that.

Peregrina · 26/07/2019 20:03

If a process is too complex to be summarised into clear decisions it needs to be broken down until it can

When I first started working for the Inland Revenue, one of the first exercises we were given was to explain its purpose in a sentence. The sort of answer they were looking for was 'To assess and collect the correct amount of tax at the due time.' Simple idea and statement. In order to execute this we had shelves and shelves of manuals.

howabout · 26/07/2019 20:05

If you feel in need of an Oxford comma then you are missing a full stop imho.

bellinisurge · 26/07/2019 20:06

"So like the independence of India/Pakistan from British rule - the Unionists move to England and we migrate north? I think I could live with that."
Sorry, @Peregrina . I can't get with that even in jest. Moving people around to solve problems is a bad idea. A really bad one.

Grinchly · 26/07/2019 20:06

Yes I know nothing he says can be trusted. What an appalling state of affairs. It is worth referencing and flagging some of his utterances however.

And to satisfy my fellow pedants yes agree correct form is:

A Grinchly Esq.,