Westminstenders: Game On?

[RedToothBrush]

Johnson has had prorogation approved by the Queen.

There has been widespread outrage and horror both in the UK and in Europe. Johnson has ripped up the principle of Liberal democracy even if constitutionally what he has done is legal. In shredding convention and the 'gentlemans agreement' of understanding we teeter on the edge of democratic collapse.

Talk is tha Dominic Cummings is persuing a game theory principle of deliberately putting us on collision course with the EU. The idea being that they will blink first because the alternative of what will happen is just too awful for them to allow. The idea is to force others to make the moves whilst Johnson appears principled and strong, even without a proper strategy and plan for a deal.

And there is the rub. Despite all the Talk of no deal, at some point a deal MUST be made, regardless of whether its before or after 31st October. There is no sense of what that could be and how it could be done. And then there's the prospect of a US deal which suffers from the same lack of tangibility.

All there is, is how things look for a General Election. Nothing else.

Johnson is pitching for an election with no sense of what's needed for Brexit - including the legislation needed for no deal. Not to forget that Cummings, strategist that he is, apparently isn't here for the long haul, only being contracted until 31st October, when he goes for surgery he postponed to take on this job.

So what's the plan for Johnson Post Cummings? Or is he going to do even more 'winging it'.

Meanwhile there's an awful lot of moderate Tory MPs getting very nervous and already failing to stick to the Cummings script.

Johnson, until there is an election is going to firmly blow hot and cool, trying to play to the hopes and fears of leavers and remainers to keep them hanging on to hope and the notion that x or y will happen, when x and y can't possibly both happen because they are completely opposing strategies. Hope leads us blindly to stumble like fools into his trap and to win his reelection.

Next week looks very bumpy indeed. Chances are this thread won't make it past Saturday...

Yep.

I saw this on Twitter , petition to make the revoking of article 50 the default action in the case of no deal
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/253647

Have you posted on the wrong thread, Hoooo?

I can tell you that, last year, my 9 year old was expected to ask permission each time to use the Y6 toilets because they were the only ones with bins.
In actual fact, they didn't have bins in the Y6 toilets either, so she was expected to wrap up her sanitary rubbish and carry it across the playground, in full view of the children playing, to dispose of it in the bins there.

Fucking hell tanith thats awful. How can that be deemed acceptable?

Not the wrong thread btw.

I'm livid and want to share my lividness with you all you lucky things

If you have worked in business, none of Cummings approach is revolutionary. It has always swung between a macho impose approach to change and one that engages hearts and minds and helps people own and embrace change

Totally agree Emily. My old colleagues are enduring a macho “leader” (he specialises in micro management).
Moral is in the toilet and sickness is up.

What ! Tanith

My last five years at my old employer were working for a bully boss like that . It was a toxic, toxic environment . The last two years were ameliorated slightly by a lovely boss in between me and him, so that she shielded us from the worst of his micro-management and bullying. What made matters worse was that the two levels above him were bullies too But eventually even my lovely immediate manager cracked under the pressure, so it was a relief when the company was taken over and we were able to take redundancy packages.

I don't think primary schools are very well prepared for girls starting their periods. I remember a similar lack of facilities when I was her age so I asked them especially for some sensitivity to avoid the kind of teasing from the boys that I had to put up with.

That was their response.

I have supplied DD with the means to bring her rubbish home in a bag with her. Not ideal, but most certainly she's not going to humiliate herself in the way they suggested.

Watching BlowJob being interviewed today, I am yet again struck by how he is smirking during the interview. I don't like using this sort of language, but he is positively creaming himself at how clever he is being and about how he is getting one over those that oppose Brexit/No Deal (no real difference to him )

Where was Bj interviewed? I never see him or anyone in government give many interviews these days.

🤮at creaming himself

I've just had an email from the local LDs. We now have a protest in my town tomorrow afternoon, jointly organised by the LDs and Labour. The Greens have been invited to join in too. I think I'll go along.

Tanith I would read them the riot act and cause a lot of fuss until they put bins in all the girls’ toilet. If that doesn’t work I’d change schools. I know it sounds extreme but fuck that. Not respecting female human rights.

Is the head male or female?

Not so much interviews as talking to (I think) groups of journalists (or they have group rights - there is a proper term for it that evades me ). Both Sky News and the BBC gad similar footage of him talking to one of them after his "press conference" to school children.

He justified prorogation by blaming those that are opposing prorogation because they don't want No Deal and want to be able to have time to debate it, saying that the very act of opposing it makes No Deal more likely because the EU needs to know that we're serious about No Deal and prorogation makes it clear that we're serious Or something like that Whatever it is, he essentially said that No Deal is the fault of those opposing No Deal

In my school marching to the incinerator with your scrunched up bag was in no way a humiliation- why should it be? But a triumphant rite of passage.

Entering the sisterhood, so to speak.

Alas I was a very late developer, and my mother thought differently and urged me to shred my pads and flush them down, bit by bit.

So that's what I did.

Don't know about ds' old primary school but his old secondary school has got an LGBTI (Alliance?) Silver Award and only needed to turn its visitor loos (2 separate cubicle ones) into gender neutral toilets (which iirc still have sanitary bins in them) and still has male and female multi toilets

fluffy that is lovely. I think and hope there will be a lot of cross party, groups meeting up tomorrow.
Looks like no one is going to be far from a protest tomorrow, from Shetlands to Dublin to Riga in Latvia!.

In my school marching to the incinerator with your scrunched up bag was in no way a humiliation- why should it be? But a triumphant rite of passage.

At primary school when you are one of a minority, maybe the first in your class where a lot of children still probably don't know what periods are? In a school building not geared up to children reaching puberty? At secondary school, yes definitely a rite of passage.

Tomorrow:

31st August
Bangor Clock Tower
Berlin Unter den Linden
Newbury Market Place
Ledbury, High Street
Windsor, Eton Bridge
Usk, Maryport St
Dundee City Square
Tonbridge Big Bridge
Aberystwyth Promenade, Constitution Hill End
Bristol College Green
Newcastle Monument
Exeter Bedford Sq
Nottingham Brian Clough Statue
Sheffield Town Hall
Manchester Cathedral Gardens
York Saint Helen’s Square
Leeds Art Gallery
St George's Plateau Liverpool
Durham Millenium Square
Bournemouth Square
Newport IoW Saint Thomas' Square
Birmingham Victoria Square
Glasgow George Square
Brighton The Level
Swindon, 29B Wood St
Leamington Spa Pump Rooms
Worcester Cathedral Square
Clitheroe
Buxton, The Slopes
Plymouth, Armada Way
Cambridge Guildhall
Darlington, High Row
Newbury Market Place
Oxford Broad Street
Saffron Walden King Street
Aberdeen Castlegate
Kirkwall, Castle St
Lancaster Town Hall
Kendal Town Hall
Chichester Market Cross
Belfast City Hall
Stroud Subscription Rooms
Hitchin Market Place
Edinburgh - foot of The Mound
Preston, Harris Museum
Inverness, Falcon Square
Doncaster Mansion House
Devizes Market Place
Derby City Council Offices
Bishops Stortford Market Sq
Lerwick Market Cross
Ipswich Cornhill
Cardiff Westgate St
Middlesborough Centre Square
Downing Street, London
Colwyn Bay Clock Tower
Haverfordwest Castle Sq
Hull, Queen Victoria Square
Bodmin, Mount Folly
Cirencester Market Place
Winchester Butter Cross
Hereford Greyfriars Bridge
Lewes Cliffe Bridge
Romsey Palmerston Memorial
Northampton Cobbler's Statue
St Albans, The Clock Tower
Amsterdam Dam Square
King's Lynn High St
Riga, in front of the British Embassy
Perth High Street
Llandrindod Wells
Chippenham New Road
1st September
Newcastle Assembly Rooms
Bedworth Town Hall
Bath, Abbey Churchyard
High Wycombe Church St.
... 4 more
2nd September
Sandbach Crosses
Manchester Peterloo Massacre Memorial
Milton Keynes Central
Macclesfield Market Place
Copenhagen British Embassy
3rd September
Cardiff Aneurin Bevan Statue
Reading Town Hall
Bristol, The Fountains
Whitehall, London
Dublin, British Embassy
Portsmouth, Guildhall Square
Southend, Victoria Plaza
4th September
Whitehall, London

Women and girls who want privacy and prefer not to let everyone know when they are on a period ought to be catered for, regardless of whether they are at primary school, secondary school or work.

There is even going to be a protest in Copenhagen now. I don't think I have ever seen such a countrywide or international protest about something which is primarily a domestic political issue (prorogation, not Brexit).

Things like the Iraq war were international, as were anti-Trump protests.

Latvia too Peregrina : RIga and Berlin.
The map looks so cool from the Shetlands to Riga.

Unfortunately I don’t see my country on the list but I am sending DH and the children. We attended the last march and it was so positive and empowering 💪💪

I hope it's slowly sinking in to the unelected Cummings and Johnson that they have bitten off more than they can chew. Even though they will never admit it.

Boris Bounce is turning into the de Pfiffel Flop
yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/08/30/half-leave-voters-doubt-johnson-can-secure-new-bre?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=website_article&utm_campaign=boris_brexit

In a rare demonstration of unity, both sides of the Brexit spectrum almost agree, with 55% of Leave voters and 84% of Remain voters thinking a new deal is unlikely to some extent. Half of Brexit Party supporters think it is at least fairly unlikely that the UK will be able to get a new deal

Misery is the only thing that really brings this country together.

Anger takes up so much energy, tbh.

Upholding 'democracy' for 17.4 million people means suspending democracy for the remaining 42 million who make up the rest of our country. Not the actions of a despot, honest guv...