Westminstenders: A photo opportunity

[RedToothBrush]

Johnson likes publicity.

Any attention is good attention. Whilst you are talking about how crazy his idea is, the less you come up with your own.

And there it is. The lack of plan to stop no deal. Just a bunch of idiots who argue over who is more right about politics without offering up a practical solution.

Unable to see their own flaws.

And leading us ever closer to the cliff edge and operation Yellowhammer.

erm, cafe = film. I must need coffee. Or covefe.

BoZo looked utterly out of his depth next to Merkel.
Good.
I hope that once parliament returns in twelve days time the UK's MP's wake up and look after the country by passing the WA.
Once the WA is through there is the chance of BINO

I can dream.

I hope that once parliament returns in twelve days time the UK's MP's wake up and look after the country by passing the WA

Never going to happen. Before anything else there will have to be some time given over to the backlog of BAU (whatever that is - your guess is as good as mine) and then all the party games the opposition want to play.

With no-deal still the default, it's where we are headed. There is now nothing in history or precedent to suggest any other outcome. That's before you consider there's also fuck all in the current composition of parliament that might suggest a unique or revolutionary way forward.

Many years ago, I worked for a company (household name, as it happens) that had a new director appointed. His (yes, a man ...) first Big Idea was to look at all the overtime the IT operations team were claiming (because upgrades could only happen at weekends) and decided that the solution was to change all contracts to annualised ones. Which in itself caused a lot of bad feeling (as you can imagine). But they rammed it through - as they always do when it's the bosses idea. All the while, everyone warned that such a massive change was highly risky, but mysteriously every project update was green.

(Experience MNetters can see where this is going).

So January 1, employees were started on the new contract. By October every single one had used up their annualised hours and discovered they could have the next 3 months off. In fact not only could they have them off - they weren't allowed in under the new contract. So the whole company was facing 3 months of no IT support. And it was only on the second day, when a system went down they realised they'd fucked up. They had to re-employ the operations team on higher rate contracts (I suspect with a lump sum for goodwill) and Never Talk Of This Again ....

The point being that despite clear and repeated warnings - "the change it had to come ...."

Since we're rocking the "foreign" vibe, here's a Danish magazine cover ...

Can't speak for others, but I'd be happy to hazard a guess at the meaning

Oh good, just as Johnson gets out of the car, he & Macron are making a statement before their talks, in which Macron launches straight in with the withdrawal agreement being closed, no chance whatsoever of ditching the backstop, and it's the UK's problem to find a way forward - or words to that effect!

BJ now saying we just need 'energy and creativity' but we're going on 31st October deal or no deal.

Great.

DGR sadly nothing to do with elephants (although I’ve heard if you have an elephant then Trump will want to sell you a box for it).

It’s bull in a china shop.

Oh good, just as Johnson gets out of the car, he & Macron are making a statement before their talks, in which Macron launches straight in with the withdrawal agreement being closed, no chance whatsoever of ditching the backstop, and it's the UK's problem to find a way forward - or words to that effect!

PMSL

I really had hoped that all of Europe would have been on holiday until September, when Boris came-a-calling. Leaving him with the option of meeting a deputy (that would get zero recognition in the UK press) or waiting. It's clear on the world stage who's putting the effort in here. And it's ain't the blond bombshell

I guessed that "elephant" and "glass" in the same sentence would be something like that. Or something about people in glass houses.

Speaking of bulls in china shops (complete digression) has anyone seen the Mythbusters take on it ? It will leave you speechless.

www.dailymotion.com/video/x2m6ayt

This just about sums it all up...

I thought the bit with the pound was excellent made me lol

Merkel used the neutral "man" construction, which is much more common than in English It can often mean "one" rather than "we"

A bit like ‘on’ in French, but not quite same. I think the poster’s point was that Merkel didn’t say ‘you’ as in Boris.

The papers have reported she told Boris to find a solution in 30 days, which is false.

Seems reality is biting about the no-deal no-foreigners pledge ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49433027

However, I fear "Oxford University's Migration Observatory" haven't quite got the point yet, as they state:

employers will have no way to tell whether EU nationals have arrived after 31 October.

as if it's a problem. No problem if you simply hand anyone who can't prove their right to work in the UK a P45 (ideally a blue one). And believe me, there are plenty of Brexiteers for who that would not only not be a problem, but a positive boon. It's the Brexit they wanted.

I think the poster’s point was that Merkel didn’t say ‘you’ as in Boris.

Yes. Exactly. Nor did she say "we".
I was really noting that, although some of translations for "man" in that sentence include "we" and "you", it is probably more disengaged than that.
(AFAIK "man" is less of a synonym for "wir" than "on" is (increasingly) a synonym for "nous" in French.)

She wasn't telling him to do something, nor was she suggesting she or the EU would help him find a solution. It sounds very speculative - "If (some)one could come up with a solution..." as compared with the "wir" in "then we'll have made considerable progress."

Personal pronouns can be a nightmare for nuance ... which is why they pop up a lot in insults.

Personally, I have to say I miss the fact that the second person singular/plural distinction withered away in English (the fact there ever was one will be news to some).

blog.esl-languages.com/blog/learn-languages/thou-thee-youye/

Tha doesn't live in Yorkshire then DGR! I tell thee, the 2nd person singular is alive and well there.

.

Merkel deliberately used "man" in order not to say who was going to do it

I'm fairly sure she does not believe in fairies or unicorns,
so she's really letting BJ - or his potential successors - know that any U-turn will receive a friendly reception from the EU, with generous offers to help camouflage it

There have been some commentators on both sides eaying the EU was so fed up with the UK govt behaviour that they just want us out

Merkel's aim was to signal that's not true - just in case anyone intelligent in the HoC is actually listening.

There's another irony in the fact the the men who really won WW2 (not these moronic, knuckle-dragging, bottom-feeding cunts of Brexiteers) would probably have immediately picked up Merkels meaning. Playing (as they did) a vital part in ensuring the British knew what was going on at all times.

In fact if we'd started testing all these "we won the war" Brexiteers on their German skills before they were allowed their time in the press, things might have been different.

(My DF once surprised us all by knowing a little bit of German. But that's what happens when your country is occupied ...)

No problem if you simply hand anyone who can't prove their right to work in the UK a P45 (ideally a blue one).

This makes no sense! If the issue is about not knowing whether someone arrived before 31st October, that’s a problem for new hires, not existing employees. Because if you have employed someone in this country before 31st October, you know that they’re here. So, perhaps employers will be reluctant to hire EU nationals, but no P45s should be required.

This makes no sense! If the issue is about not knowing whether someone arrived before 31st October, that’s a problem for new hires, not existing employees. Because if you have employed someone in this country before 31st October, you know that they’re here. So, perhaps employers will be reluctant to hire EU nationals, but no P45s should be required.

I am more than happy to be corrected on my understanding (mighy have been quicker to just say "I'm not a brexiteer" ?) but come 1st November, then employers will no longer be able to rely on an employees proof of right to work in the UK if it was an EU passport.

And employers are required to hold such details - at all times - or face eye-watering fines.

Much easier to let go than get fined.

I'm not saying this is what will happen, by the way. But I am saying if it did happen, there wouldn't be much grumbling from the Bad Boys of Brexit.

Remember, it's already an accepted fact that businesses going bust is a price worth (other people) paying. The press reporting on that wasn't intended to create a backlash against Brexit. It was meant to ensure we all know what's coming down the track.

Incidentally, the same goes for landlords. No proof of right to be in UK ? No let.

Seen elsewhere ....

Sent in to the page and shared anonymously with permission:

The UK will fall not with a bang but as a whisper...

The three options on the table:

1. No deal
2. Brexit deal (as negotiated previously)
3. Stay

No other alternative actually is possible for the parties involved. The Brexit deal as negotiated is the only deal that makes sense to the EU.

And the EU needs the UK less than the UK needs the deal or the EU. Meanwhile, further concessions to the UK might actually jeopardize the integrity of the EU.

Brexit deal is unpalatable to the UK because its a crappier version of stay. But that is because stay is the only option that actually makes geopolitical and economic sense.

The issue is the Brexit is the default. And since no one in the UK has the political mandate to swallow deal, or force stay... its going to be no deal Brexit...

Which is literally a disaster for the UK. They might lose Scotland (and maybe Northern Ireland). London's stature as a global financial center is jeopardized as it no longer has easy access to European markets. Furthermore, once it loses its status there is no guarantee it will get it back.

Its status as a global financial center is based on its historic position at the center of an Empire that no longer exists and as an English speaking window into EU markets. Additionally, it has infrastructure to handle trade and finances built up over centuries of being one of the most powerful cities globally.

Once it loses its infrastructure as people move their trade and financial services to places like Frankfurt which will have access to the much larger EU economy, there is no reason that this infrastructure will ever return.

With no deal, the UK might be reduced to an isolated England and Wales - even Northern Ireland might want out and into the EU. A small isolated 60 million person, 2 trillion (for now) whose claim to fame is the tourist trap that is the royal family.

And so an Empire breathes its lasts gasps. Felled not but by a new young rival, war, natural disasters, or disease. No, felled by its own apathy, hubris and small mindedness. Its carcass left for its former colonies or former vassals like the US and China to pick clean.

It was not a Spanish Armada, of a German Blitz, a Soviet Nuke or climate change that felled the beast. No, it was a pig head fucker, old racist ignorant xenophobes, some internet trolls, a younger generation who couldn't be bothered to vote and finally a power court jester with wannabe Trump hair.

It is fitting the Bojo the Court Jester presides over the last rites of the end the farcical tragic comedy.

dgrossetti
Please may i ask, you posted a yougov questionnaire, is there somewhere i can see the votes?

Fwiw I'm in a EU country, I have really been rooting for you, by now I just want you to be gone.

I do not hope the EU leaders will enter any further negotiations with you, as I don't think it is fair that we (EU members) should be dragged around, because of your inadequate domestic politics. It is not for others to solve, it is for uk to find common grounds before talking to eu, imo.

Please remember that uk leaving the EU (deal) was thought to be the easy part (haha), it was the following negotiations everybody thought would be difficult.

I definitely understand your desperation in not being heard, having little influence on this shit show. I can see it happening with our politicians at times. But please leave, it will cost us a lot of money, but I have had it.

(Btw I'm sure, if in the future it turns out to be good for the uk, we will never hear the end of it).

I'm so so sorry some of you didn't want this, but please don't export your problems for us all to pay.

DGR Hence my rant about the English attitude to languages above ... if nothing else, a serious programme to ensure all children learned at least one foreign language (and personally I couldn't care less which one) might imbue us as a nation with a little more comprehension skills. (Which is probably why it will never happen).

Completely agree, we should all learn languages effectively. (We’ll probably need them more in future.)

Learning a language apparently develops your brainpower, and although it’s hard, it get easier the more you learn. You hear of these polyglots who can speak seven languages; well it seems the sixth was easy and the seventh a doddle. Maybe something to do with enhanced neural pathways or something scientific which I don’t understand.

It makes us ‘cleverer’. A good reason why it should be happening. Another one is to help stop the U.K. isolating itself more and more.