Westministenders: Slow News Fake News

[RedToothBrush]

Things have been slow whilst we are in proroguation, ahead of next weeks Queen's Speech and the EU summit.

We've been in full spin mode, from the likes of the far right and an unnamed source at No.10.

People seem to be waking up to the reality that its highly unlikely we will get a deal now, unless something significant. And No.10 has worked out the NI problem. FINALLY.

Anyway, if you have a little time this week and you are interested in the history of where technology change and fake news meet and how where we are now is merely things repeating themselves, Ian Hislop's Fake News: A True History, is essential viewing.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00095hv/ian-hislops-fake-news-a-true-history

I really feel strongly this is stuff that should be being taught in schools somehow as its what protects us from extremism.

You know what else is damaged? The idea, stereotypical but fundamentally right, that the U.K. was a pragmatic, reliable, sensible country. A bit boring in terms of politics, but fundamentally sensible, where things were getting done without the interminable chatting of the Italians or the Spanish, or the need to have prima donna and loud personalities.
We’re all gone potty!!
And if we’re gone potty, and a French or an Italian sound sensible in comparison, ffs we’re really into quite something....what can happen to others?
(I can say that because I’m Italian, ok? ;-)

Brussels braced for Boris Johnson walk-out at Brexit summit

Plan B:
Tantrum and say they were mean not to give you the special unicorn cake
All part of the undeclared GE campaign

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/09/brussels-braced-boris-johnson-walk-out-brexit-summit/amp/?

Brussels is braced for Boris Johnson to storm out of next week’s EU summit on Brexit after the expected failure to secure agreementt^ on a replacement for the Irish backstop.

Speculation is rife that the Prime Minister will walk out of the European Council in Brussels as part of a British strategy to “fabricate a crisis”.

EU diplomatic sources warned that the tactic would fail in forcing the bloc to shift its red lines.

cherin The German political establishment - and most of the public - has until Brexit always regarded the UK as the sensible adult who would be a reliable ally in a crisis
(even if a bit eccentric in day-to-day life)

Now we are regarded as potentially a much more dangerous Hungary:
a nuclear power whose democracy is under threat from its PM and governing party.

Every day I drive into work be pass other EU instituons outside which stand the flags of all EU countries. Been my dally sight for over 20 years - will be soul destroying to see them gone if/when Brexit happens.

So many investment projects have been made in the UK and are still ongoing. The EU and remain should have worked harder at publicizing these. It may not have swung the die Hard leavers but may have helped educate the swing voters.

Johnson and Cummings terrify me. I have this dark sense of there being a third party pulling Cummings strings and he in turn Boris’. The thought terrifies me.

Them being the Union Jacks outside the different buildings.

Bercow’s cat picture on page 1 is terrifying.

Question for @red or any lawyers

Part of Plan B:

If BJ, say on the Saturday sitting, manages to get the HoC to pass his non-WA,
(with the support of those 19+ Lexiters in Flint's group)
would this enable him to avoid having to request an extension ?

Would a court accept his probable claim that the HoC has passed an "exit deal" - even though the EU would never accept it ?

It might at least waste a few days after 19 October, then various other tactics could waste a few more in total ....

I think the importance of this has been seriously overlooked...

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/09/tory-mps-react-with-fury-to-talk-of-no-deal-brexit-manifesto-promise

So BJ won’t campaign on a no-deal ticket at the GE?! If not, then what will he campaign on! He can hardly plausibly campaign on getting a deal if one isn’t agreed before an election (which doesn’t look likely!)

No wonder he is so desperate to leave by 31/10 come what may. It really is “do or die” for him politically, as fighting an election on neither the basis of no-Deal nor the credible prospect of a deal would be impossible! I’m attempting to explain he would make Labour’s Brexit position appear childishly simple.

Don’t forget how quickly the Tories’ fortunes plummeted after May’s failure... History looks set to repeat itself if BJ is forced into such an election campaign.

The only reason the Tories are doing well in the polls at the moment is because BJ is able to show the same kind of constructive ambiguity deal and no-deal that previously worked for Corbyn (with leave and remain). This will evaporate in a post-Halloween election if we are still in the EU, and the Tories know it. The desperation of many is showing clearly (Jeremy Hunt’s interview earlier being a good example).

Johnson and Cummings terrify me. I have this dark sense of there being a third party pulling Cummings strings and he in turn Boris’. The thought terrifies me

Putin!

Might not even be Putin. The remaining Koch brother or Robert Mercer or some other libertarian/right wing billionaire who stays in the shadows who doesn't like their activities constrained

Everyone else has nice cats 🐈 and nice houses! ^

Thanks for recommending Ian Hislop's Fake News, Red, I watched it with my teenager this evening, thought it was excellent.

oakenbeach I read that the plan is to purge the Tory candidates of any who won't sign up to a No Deal manifesto
I suspect quite a lot with political careers ahead of them, but poor prospects outside Parliament, would knuckle down

BJ has expelled 22 MPs, including 2 former Chancellors, assorted former ministers and Churchill's grandson
and he's got away with it

If he has to replace say 50 more, who refuse to sign up to No Deal, would anyone stop him ?

Most local Tory parties & the Tory membership are overwhelmingly in favour of No Deal

@BigChocFrenzy

No, that ruse wouldn’t work.... The Benn Act leaves no room for such shenanigans and requires that a minister lays ”before each House of Parliament a statement that the United Kingdom has concluded an agreement (I.e.the Withdrawal Agreement) with the European Union under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union and a copy of the agreement”

Moreover it requires that. “the agreement has been approved by resolution of the House of Commons on a motion moved by a Minister of the Crown”.

If there is to be a Tory rebellion, it needs to be in this Parliament, while we still have probably 100 moderate Tory MPs
plus the 22 rebels

However, they probably haven't the strength to topple BJ, only - as some anonymous Cabinet ministers were saying - to bring back May's WA and pass it.

The next Parliament will probably have a purged party on the Tory benches, so too late

Nikki Da Costa has just left to go on maternity leave.

Huh. Not only did I think Heidi Allen was already a Lib Dem I also always thought Nikki Da Costa was a man

I think I might be bringing the thread collective IQ down by several points.

oakenbeach I've read Benn's bill.

My concern is whether the courts would uphold it in full, if BJ's lawyers can point to a (non-) WA which has passed the HoC, possible on that Saturday

and that he is trying to pressure the EU into agreeing - because that would be the "only" bit missing.

Even if they do, more grist to BJ's mill when it comes to the GE

pretzels Brexit is like one of those books with hundreds of characters and a fiendishly complicated plot & subplots,
where you still find you've missed things after the 10th read through !

Off topic but also on topic in the sense of this idea of a growing lack of humanity. I felt I had to share as its so important. It has shades of Srebrenica and the Dutch to me and its truly awful.

The role of leaders who see it as all a game which they are superior to.

These soldiers want to be involved not stand and watch helplessly.

Just awful.

Jennifer Griffin @jengriffinFNC
I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the SDF Kurdish forces. It was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever taken.

"I am ashamed for the first time in my career."

This veteran US Special forces soldier has trained indigenous forces on multiple continents. He is on the frontlines tonight and said they are witnessing Turkish atrocities.

"Turkey is not doing what it agreed to. It's horrible," this military source on the ground told me.

"We met every single security agreement. The Kurds met every single agreement. There was NO threat to the Turks - NONE - from this side of the border." "This is insanity," the concerned US service member told me. ""I don't know what they call atrocities but they are happening."

^This American soldier told me the Kurds have not left their positions guarding the ISIS prisoners. In fact "they prevented a prison break last night without us."
"They are not abandoning our side (yet)."
The Kurds are "pleading for our support." We are doing "nothing."^

Troops on the ground in Syria and their commanders were "surprised" by the decision Sunday night.

Of the President's decision: "He doesn't understand the problem. He doesn't understand the repercussions of this. Erdogan is an Islamist, not a level headed actor."

Acc to this US soldier on the ground tonight in Syria: "The Kurds are as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone. "It's a shame. It's horrible." "This is not helping the ISIS fight." Re: ISIS prisoners: "Many of them will be free in the coming days and weeks."

This US Special Forces soldier wanted me to know: "The Kurds are sticking by us. No other partner I have ever dealt with would stand by us."

Disappointed in the decisions coming from their senior leaders.

Nicholas Watt@nicholaswatt
Hilary Benn tells me that a cross-party group of MPs may rain on the PM’s parade by taking control of parliamentary business during emergency Saturday sitting to push for EU referendum

@hilarybennmp

Brexit is like one of those books with hundreds of characters and a fiendishly complicated plot & subplots, where you still find you've missed things after the 10th read through !

No kidding.

"Never you mind what sort of plant. Muddying waters. Poisoning wells. That sort of thing. If you hear so much as a peep out of Rikki Tarr, young Peter Guillam, you come straight to one of us grown-ups."

Said by Karla's unwitting dope, who of course believed he'd risen to head of the Circus through his own cleverness – and had no idea his way had been smoothed and that he was just a convenient front for Karla's double-agent sitting one rung down.

Quote is off the top of my head so not verbatim... but it's been in my mind a lot recently.

Also

Steven Peoples @ sppeople
Trump is asked whether he’s concerned about the release of ISIS fighters:

“They’re going to be escaping to Europe.”

Active policy of wanting to destabilise Europe...

My concern is whether the courts would uphold it in full, if BJ's lawyers can point to a (non-) WA which has passed the HoC, possible on that Saturday

I think the Act is clear and unambiguous on this. There needs to be a statement be presented to Parliament that the WA has been concluded by the EU as part of approving it.

I suppose it’s possible that a palpably fictitious statement is presented to Parliament... but I can’t imagine this would go unchallenged by the Tory Rebels and potential Labour supporters. The minister doing so would clearly be guilty of misleading Parliament, and doing so in a brazen and contemptuous manner.

Srebrenica is a good comparison
It's maybe even worse: these are our allies, who have fought alongside us

The Kurds are the closest to Western values, rules of war, treatment of women etc

Meanwhile Erdogan has been turning Turkey from a secular to an Islamist state

Oh god, RTB. That's...

I don't have words.

We know this story.