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.

And FIFA can't even get their name right. The French have misunderstood the essential meaning of 'Association Football.'

It should be Federation Internationale des Associations du Football.

Need cheering up ?
Fancy a tweeted history of the EU & Brexit ?

Lovely funny view‪ ‬by a French tweeter of the latest Brexit shenanigans, but from the EU pov
😂😂

🇬🇧 "That's it, I have a plan for the Irish border"
🇫🇮 "Are you kidding?"
(Finland holds the rotating EU presidency)

It's part of a loooong whimsical thread using ‪#flags ‬on
The story of the EU, from 1950 to a deep dive into Brexit

mobile.twitter.com/Collabblues/status/1179003138881331202

EFTA: "Fuck you, you created me!"

🇬🇧: "I don't know who you are, madam; I never saw you"

It's worse that that:

Europe: We're thinking of forming a club. Would you like to join?
UK: No. Piss off.
Europe: OK. We formed it without you.
UK: Hang on, we want to join.
EEC: You said we should piss off.
UK: How dare you exclude us!
France: Don't let the buggers in. They'll fuck everything up.
UK: We promise not to.
France: Piss off.
UK: Awwww, please!
France: (under new management) OK, you promise?
UK: We'll be good. Can we join now?
EEC: OK
UK: Hang on, we're not sure.
EEC: Look, do you want to join or not?
UK: We're thinking about it: Yes. No. Maybe. Whatever. OK
EEC: OK, you're in.
UK: Hang on, we're not sure. We'll have a referendum.
EEC: For fuck's sake.....

....tbc.

Really interesting article by Umberto Eco Quentin - thank you.
( and, to fit in with the linguistics chat, I learned that Boden means Earth in German...)

Now if we'd all gone to the Chalet School, none of us would have this seemingly insuperable inability to speak German and French with equal fluency.

my French is sound, but German never got off the ground really, bloody vortstellung! Apart from a few words, and oddly 'Es its nicht weit von Garmisch entfernt'

#should have gone to the chalet school

Ist

Bloody autocorrect

I like the flags in that thread

Many years ago, I was given the task of retro-fitting multi-language support into a wealth management suite. Because Microsoft are a US company, and therefore even less comfortable with languages than Brits, the "proper" solution was shit. I ended up ripping every piece of text into a database and writing a tool to aid different translations to be entered ... I was particularly chuffed at being able to store all world flags in the database, to allow the user to choose their language.

In the end we supplied it with French and German and Swiss-german translations.

It was that job that sent me to Germany (Frankfurt ... "Schillerstraße" if I remember correctly).

France "You have been my best enemy and my worst ally, or maybe the other way , but the story goes on, so, next time, my friend?"
🇬🇧 "See you next time, brother."
mobile.twitter.com/Collabblues/status/1179003138881331202 from BCF link above. Like it!

Bloody autocorrect

Actually a good test for "AI" (if we ever see it in our lifetimes, which I doubt).

QuentinWinters

Thanks for the Umberto Eco essay. Though it makes very depressing reading.

Anyone think it's worth sending to every MP?

Loving that Collab blues thread

Miles Kington - l'ecriter et personalitie de sans-câble et inventeur de "Franglais" approuverais !

Lets Parler Franglais was great - I have the book in my downstairs loo next to
The Meaning of Liff

The cod-Latin (haven't seen one for a while) in Private Eye was also quite amusing ...

I have the book in my downstairs loo...

...for emergencies?

Love that thread. 1000 years of history summed up in a tweet

Mockers
Nah, loads of weird books stashed all over my house

Pmk

I love books. At uni I used to have a reading book for bedtime and one in my en suite. I've read whole books on that loo over the space of a week or so (I have an irritable bladder so was in there a lot). No such thing as too many books in my opinion. I prefer books to people. Some people collect friends. I collect books.

DW complains that I've always got a book/Kindle surgically attached tp my hand. If I haven't got a good book/re-read, I start to panic. Books have been my solace and my soul's shelter since I was a kid.

I just feel depressed about it all today. I liked the Lady Hermon for PM of GNU suggestion. I wonder if people in Westminster read these threads - we've had some good ideas.

@BercowsFlyingFlamingo
@Hasenstein

Hello kindred spirits! 👋

Book fanatic here too... I know the link between education and remain, I wonder if there's also a correlation (perhaps not causation) between remain and reading anything and everything...

The Brexiters and BJ are demonstrating yet again they they don't have a fucking clue about the Single Market and the rights and obligations that come with it

Although actually, they probably do, because they are prepared, nay want , to piss all over those obligations - but the Labour MPs who might vote for it are demonstrating their sheer fucking ignorance if they allow themselves to be conned in this way if they do . Corbyn, to give him his due, did fire a shot across their bows by pointing out the issue of workers' rights (part of SM obligations) so that they won't be able to claim ignorance.

That may give a few of them, with the exception of the DUPer in sheep's clothing Kate Hoey , pause for thought. But I'm not confident