Westminstenders: Charge!!!!

[RedToothBrush]

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Petition.

We request the stretch of Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets be renamed "President Barack H. Obama Avenue." Any addresses on that stretch of Fifth Avenue should be changed accordingly

Guess which tower is there.

petitions.moveon.org/sign/rename-fifth-avenue-in

From Luciana Berger

This is a national emergency. There is no mandate for an undemocratic no deal #Brexit. Reckless Johnson + unelected Cummings want to gag our democracy. We have written to the PM to demand he recalls Parliament. RT if you believe @BorisJohnson should #RecallNow t.co/VSiLl6sOTw

The letter, signed by quite a few is attached to the tweet but won't attach from my phone 🙄

Pmk sorry for long absence been very occupied hope one and all are well and to those that have not

Listeningquietly imo, no point in hoping SInn Fein voters go elsewhere

What is more likely to happen is that DUP support ebbs away after No Deal, as the small businesses and farmers who support them get badly hit
Some indications, including in the EP elections, that all the Unionist parties have already lost some support to the Alliance Party

No Deal Brexit would just harden attitudes of SInn Fein supporters - England overriding the wishes of NI and causing harm again.

The intentions of some Tory Brexiter politicians towards Ireland has also made Republicans more likely to stick together against the perceived malice & danger to Ireland from Britain
e.g. Priti Patel - "starving out Ireland" - and Crispin Blunt - "use Ireland as a hostage"

Opinion polls and political analysists there say that No Deal would increase support for a United Ireland and make this happen sooner

Bigchoc
I see your logic,
I'd like to hear the analysis of anybody in Northern Ireland
as its an issue I really did not grasp until I stood there

Anyway, Brexit is very probably going to happen before any GE,
as BJ just runs down the clock to No Deal

All these Remainer & soft Leaver schemes to stop No Deal in the HoC

• even in the unlikely event they all agree to vote for the same bill and manage to pass it -

probably won't work against a PM who ignores the normal Parliamentary rules & Constitutional conventions

would the nationalists / non sectarians in Northern Ireland stick with Sinn Fein?
or would they vote for MPs who would argue their case in Westminster?

The Nationalist yes I think they would stick with Sinn Fein - they have done so for just over 100 years, and I don't think will change.

^We have written to the PM to demand he recalls Parliament. RT if you believe @BorisJohnson should #RecallNow t.co/VSiLl6sOTw^

If Johnson says no, this maybe the time for Rory Stewart to convene his alternative Parliament.

The Nationalist yes I think they would stick with Sinn Fein - they have done so for just over 100 years, and I don't think will change.
But that is not the case
the SDLP used to be the dominant Nationalist party in Whitehall for decades
Sinn Fein were part of the flight to the edges

If Johnson says no, this maybe the time for Rory Stewart to convene his alternative Parliament

Nothing would surprise me at the moment @Peregrina!

From Luciana Berger

This is a national emergency. There is no mandate for an undemocratic no deal #Brexit. Reckless Johnson + unelected Cummings want to gag our democracy. We have written to the PM to demand he recalls Parliament. RT if you believe @BorisJohnson should #RecallNow

The letter, signed by quite a few is attached to the tweet but won't attach from my phone

It’s a pity only 25 of them voted to cancel summer recess when they had the chance.

Indeed Babookska, Indeed.

*Babooshka

To be fair, Leave could mean any form of Brexit from BRINO to No Deal

• that's the trouble with such a silly, badly constructed referendum

The Tory manifesto should have stated that they would invoke A50, negotiate a withdrawal agreement and only then hold the referendum on whether to Leave on those terms or Remain

Instead, Cameron played politics, as did Corbyn

Then the Leave campaign promised different - and conflicting - things to different groups.
Their FB data trawling was very good at targeting groups with the messages that would be most effective at winning a ref

However, we don't know if voters would choose this particular form of Leave over Remain

Particularly since more people realise now that Brexit is far more complicated and dfficult than how Leave sold it during their campaign

It is evident that most Tory politicians didn't realise this before either ! 🤦🏻‍♀️
but they should have - it's not fair to expect the voters to find all this out

I was in a large supermarket today and noticed a prominent display of bulk buy 'offers' (although enormous bags of pasta at 80p/kilo doesn't sound that cheap to me), so it looks like the prepping merry go round is starting again.

In other news, I've been wondering why no one's mentioning the ideal GNU leader: Lady Sylvia Hermon? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Hermon I hope the idea has occurred to some of that lot in Westminster too...

The Tory manifesto should have stated that they would invoke A50, negotiate a withdrawal agreement and only then hold the referendum on whether to Leave on those terms or Remain

This sounds really sensible but wouldn’t UKIP and the ERG have cried stitch-up, claiming this was designed to incentivise the EU to give us a bad deal that would be voted down in the subsequent referendum?

I am awake way too early, reading about Brexit.

The Sunday Times has printed a leaked document about the likely effects of a No Deal Brexit (not a worst case scenario, mind!)

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/operation-chaos-whitehalls-secret-no-deal-brexit-plan-leaked-j6ntwvhll

The revelations include:

● The government expects the return of a hard border in Ireland as current plans to avoid widespread checks will prove “unsustainable”; this may spark protests, road blockages and “direct action”

● Logjams caused by months of border delays could “affect fuel distribution”, potentially disrupting the fuel supply in London and the southeast of England

● Up to 85% of lorries using the main Channel crossings “may not be ready” for French customs and could face delays of up to 2 1/2 days

● Significant disruption at ports will last up to three months before the flow of traffic “improves” to 50-70% of the current rate

● Petrol import tariffs, which the government has set at 0%, will “inadvertently” lead to the closure of two oil refineries, 2,000 job losses, widespread strike action and disruptions to fuel availability

● Passenger delays at EU airports, St Pancras, Eurotunnel and Dover

● Medical supplies will “be vulnerable to severe extended delays” as three-quarters of the UK’s medicines enter the country via the main Channel crossings

● The availability of fresh food will be reduced and prices will rise. This could hit “vulnerable groups”

● Potential clashes between UK and European Economic Area fishing vessels amid predictions that 282 ships will sail in British waters illegally on Brexit day

● Protests across the UK, which may “require significant amounts of police resource[s]”

● Rising costs will hit social care, with “smaller providers impacted within 2-3 months and larger providers 4-6 months after exit”

● Gibraltar will face delays of more than four hours at the border with Spain “for at least a few months”, which are likely to “adversely impact” its economy

Despite Johnson repeatedly saying during the Tory leadership campaign that there will be “clean drinking water” in the event of no deal, the document raises the possibility that a failure in the chemical supply chain could “affect up to 100,000s of people”.

So a government document is confirming 'Project Fear' is actually 'Project Reality', just what Remoaners have said all along. Whodathunkit...

Petrol import tariffs, which the government has set at 0%, will “inadvertently” lead to the closure of two oil refineries, 2,000 job losses, widespread strike action and disruptions to fuel availability

It's when I read things like this that I start to think that all those rabid Leavers shouting "Project Fear" might actually have a point.

The import tariff on petrol is already 0%. Nobody is 'worrying' about the UK being flooded with cut-price petrol.

Logjams caused by months of border delays could “affect fuel distribution”, potentially disrupting the fuel supply in London and the southeast of England

Bollocks. We're talking about a potential southbound queue of trucks in Kent. This might effect local deliveries around those congested routes but London's fuel doesn't come from (or through Kent) anyway. 'Logjams' could effect local distribution of anything by road equally, so why focus on fuel?

Up to 85% of lorries using the main Channel crossings “may not be ready” for French customs and could face delays of up to 2 1/2 days

Yes, 'up to 85%' and 'may not'. Up to 100% of statistics may not be true.

Wasn't all this leaked earlier in the year anyway?

The gov are made up of headless chickens, it's not project fear, its project feckless fuckers.

@FishesaPlenty are you old enough to have been an adult driver during the last fuel strikes? Doesn't take much for things to go tits up. And I am sure you will have noticed that petrol prices aren't just about import tariffs.

cabinetofhorrors.org

when I read things like this that I start to think that all those rabid Leavers shouting "Project Fear" might actually have a point.

Fishes, with all due respect I imagine that the UKPIA has more expertise than you with regard to petrol imports, and they say "the full liberalisation of tariffs on imported oil products, without any guarantee of UK exports being treated the same way, could seriously damage UK competitiveness with potential to lose highly skilled manufacturing jobs and long-term security of fuel supply."

Up to 85% of lorries

Last I heard only a third of exporters had even applied for an EORI number (and this is only the first, and by the far the easiest, of the steps required). And remember that this one-third figure is only for U.K. lorries. Trade works both ways. How many of the lorries used to transport U.K. imports have the necessary registrations? The U.K. govt has no control over this.

If you object to this number (produced by government officials with access to expert advice) what do you think this number should be? Even if it's 50% (which does not seem unreasonable to me) then that's a recipe for chaos.

As for fuel, the knock-on effect of lack of fuel deliveries has the potential to be quite serious, although I can't claim to have any expertise in this. However, imagine that fuel isn't available in Kent: what will Kent drivers do? Stay at home. Well, no. If they can, they will drive to somewhere that has fuel...

Yes, I was a driver during the last fuel strikes, I was also running a transport company.

They're talking about the 'border logjam' affecting fuel supplies into London - which is mainly supplied from Hertfordshire and Essex. There is no possible mechanism by which a queue in Kent could have any impact on fuel supplies except in the immediate vicinity of the queues.

Petrol prices weren't mentioned at all. The claim was "Petrol import tariffs, which the government has set at 0%, will “inadvertently” lead to the closure of two oil refineries". This is clearly untrue.