Westminstenders: The Slow No

[RedToothBrush]

Have to make this quick.

Johnson has made an 'offer' to the EU. Let's stress this isn't a deal because they haven't agreed.

The EU have made kind noises about it but will say no thanks.

The UK are expecting this, and despite what's been said apparently are expecting more negotiation on this.

The DUP and the ERG seem to be on board with the proposal meaning in theory Johnson might have numbers to get through parliament. Except its not a deal so this is currently meaningless.

Parliament is prorogued again from next week with the Queen's Speech the following week.

I wonder if we'll see a bung to Hungary, like to the DUP

Hmm. Don't they need money from Germany more? Especially if it's on an ongoing basis?

George Peretz QC
@GeorgePeretzQC
·
2h
NB: I hope this is purely academic, but any encouragement by UK ministers or officials to Hungary to veto an extension would be unlawful under the Benn Act and probably misfeasance in public office. And any note of such a conversation would be disclosable in court.

Meanwhile I haven't seen this mentioned:

"Peter R. Neumann
@PeterRNeumann
So here's @michaelgove
standing next to Luftwaffe band on Day of German Unity, telling German audience that decision to leave EU on par with fall of Berlin Wall and East Germans' quest for freedom. Shouts from audience: "Nonsense""

Embarrassing, shameful... Fremdschämen doesn't even begin to cover it.

As always, lurking and trying to keep up here.

As another big reader and buyer of books (not quite the same thing!) I have been wondering for a while if anyone would be interested in a book suggestion thread? I am currently reading the Travellers in the Third Reich book after seeing it mentioned here a few times, and have bought/borrowed from the library a number of others.

Also interested to hear the title and author of Red’s former lecturer’s book as that sounds interesting...

Not sure I can recommend many though. History and politics are still relatively new to me... Literature, languages (did A level Latin after doing Cambridge Latin - DHR might be pleased to know they started teaching dative, genitive etc at some point), Chalet School more my thing...

A sinister PMK...👺

Bruiser Tuxie Cat (as mentioned many pages earlier) celebrated today's events by chucking up a furball on my desk. I understand his pov.

Still not understanding why anyone in their right mind is still thinking Brexit needs to happen. It doesn’t. It would be much better to say a terrible mistake has been made, there is no deal better than the one we have, and we should now revoke and remain. It is not good enough to say get it done...the consequences will be too catastrophic.

The thing is angry that Leavers think it's all scaremongering.

It is not good enough to say get it done...the consequences will be too catastrophic.

This needs to be repeated as often as is possible, those who are encouraging Brexit DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES!!!!

Its not going to affect them in the slightest

missinnocentface yes the Cambridge Latin Course was definitely using the nom, voc, acc etc terminology by the 1980s!

I have also just picked up “Travellers in the Third Reich.” Recently finished “Night falls on the city” (Sarah Gainham) about the occupation of Vienna. Slow to start with but really stayed with me.

Always happy to get recommendations!

It's interesting the sheer number of times the Chalet School has been mentioned on these threads over the years and by a variety of posters. I'm another Chalet girl (and will be even when I'm 86 and a great grandmama!)

I wonder what the actual correlation between chalet school readers and remainers is... but I bet it's a real thing.

^I have at least 20 books in every single room in my house except the utility room
and am probably sponsored by the bookshelf manufacturers^
I wouldnt get away with putting books in the bathrooms.

One of the big reasons we needed to move was cos we ran out of space for books. Someone suggested I should get rid of some when I moved... Nope, I packed every one of the damned things.

My mum always said, that books as gifts are always a good bet, you just have to find the right one.

Re chalet school: series of 60 books published over 35 years and you wonder why it seems everyone read them? Don't think I did tbh, but then I was born after 1970 too.

Newspapers are largely predictable

Times on Tom Watson.

Independent on MEPs saying no.

I was wondering just how brain dead someone has to be to read the Daily Express and who can’t see the utter absurdity in their reporting....

No Deal for the UK - No problem! Any concerns are dismissed as Project Fear. We’ll all be rich - just ask Mr Wetherspoon!

No Deal for EU - Disaster! Leaders in complete panic at the prospect. Economy will crash and burn.

Red The Chalet School in Exile is the one I think of most when on these threads. They're fascinating books. The early ones, anyway.

DGR
One annoyance from my (Cambridge) latin days was we never learned the forms as dative, genitive, accusative etc etc, but "A form, B form ... E form". Obviously we never studied English in any detail at all (why would you) so I had to learn about the "-ives" from my DM

My DCs in the US learned a good deal more English grammar than I did in Ireland. However, learning Irish requires a solid grasp of grammar, and that is why I only know grammatical terms (dative, accusative, nominative, and all the rest of it) in Irish. If they ever had an English grammar question I would pause and translate a term from Irish, or translate their sentence into Irish before I could help them. Irish is a great vehicle for learning grammar as nouns and adjectives all undergo changes according to whether singular/plural, regular/irregular, or m/f/n (not many n), case and much more.

Shouts from audience: "Nonsense""

Well done those Germans.

Michael Gove et al really do not see themselves as others see them.

Interesting note on lamb cuts. The US isn't much of a lamby place.

They only sell shoulder lamb chops in the area where I live. These bbq well if you marinate them for a good few hours.

I can buy minced lamb and delicious halal lamb sausages at my local supermarket, year round. I buy a boneless half leg of lamb from NZ in Aldi for New Years Eve.

Lamb shanks are available year round and I frequently make a vaguely French lamb shank, white wine, garlic, rosemary, and white bean stew recipe that involves many hours of simmering and almost burning caramelising the beans at the end. I tried to buy lamb shanks in Dublin many years ago and was asked if I needed them for dog food .

For those even vaguely curious - I had a response from Dmitry (the trade guru) about my CE nightmare. He reckons CE will continue for all things even in the case of no-deal for a transitional period, until someone can organise the UK regulatory bodies. So that’s reassuring! Thanks for the suggestion to contact him (he produced links to all sorts of obscure paragraphs) what a great person

This is great. He's one of my all time favourite twitter follows.

Speaking of good twitter accounts to follow, I don't know if anyone else here follows Leonardo Carella (politics doctoral student at Oxford) - he had an excellent thread about potentially surprising outcomes in four way split elections under the FPTP system:
twitter.com/leonardocarella/status/1179383517094072321?s=21

Morning.

Even the Guardian front page offers a comfort cat now.

M'y poor cat can't be photographed today as he's in the cone of shame. The poor lamb kin got a grass seed in his eye and has tipped his third eyelid trying to get it out... at least there are animal antibiotics at the moment...

In lighter news, it seems that BoZo's dog is a chip off the old block!

I'm too depressed to talk Brexit; it's just SNAFU.

@BlueEyeshadow - that tweet about Micheal Gove ....... it's beyond embarrassing. It's plain insulting..... on many many levels.
I am really just so astounded that he thought that was a good idea.

Its right up there with Ann Widdecombe's excrspeech at the EU saying we were slaves. Fottfsof