Westminstenders: Showdown

[RedToothBrush]

Big week ahead.

Johnson has until Tuesday Afternoon to get his shit together for the EU.

He thinks it can be down, but still lots to do in that time.

This week we have the Queen's Speech too, which is going to be misused as a party political broadcast.

Remember if the government can't pass the QS, there's a crisis that gets generated as a direct result. Sticking in proposals that any liberal or leftie will struggle with, is deliberately provoking a crisis of that nature. A proposal of that type would have to be anti democratic in nature, like... Ermmm... Voter ID. Hell, well what do you know.

Johnson is still after his election because as it stands he's a passenger stuck in the runaway train of his own creation.

Talk of a deal breakthrough is still overstated too. The DUP and many of the usual ERG suspects have poured water on the idea. And many on the opposition benches are pushing hard on a confirmary ref being needed for a deal - they don't have the numbers yet, but talk is that they are close. We also have loyalist military making threats about an Irish Sea Border solution.

Time for Project Shit Meets Fan.

I don't know why @ChiOnwurah is surprised to be writing about possible internment camps in the UK.

Internment without trial occurred in NI in the early 1970s.

@Somerville I agree with your posts on the deSouza ruling and that it flies in the face of the GFA. There is no requirement to renounce British citizenship when claiming Irish citizenship under the GFA.

I fear for my relatives and friends in the UK in light of that word 'generally' wrt right to remain in the UK for Irish citizens. The Common Travel Area agreement provided a basis for many rights of Irish people in the UK and vice versa. The veiled threat to the Irish is yet another example of the very ugly side of Britain's approach to Ireland. All of this will have an effect on public opinion in Ireland and in the nationalist community in NI.

I agree with Somerville therefore - reunited Ireland here we come. The alternative is indeed a return to the old days of loyalist hegemony. This government envisions the destruction of the GFA as its legacy, and Priti Patel spoke for the cabinet when she hinted at criminal treatment of Ireland. I see a desire for revenge on Ireland in all of this.

It will backfire. Ireland has won every single confrontation with Britain in the last century and there is no reason to expect any change in his one.

Just a word of something about the reference to internment camps. The working of the FOI Act can produce some brutal sounding responses particularly when you ask for information about law enforcement or national security type stuff. I've read a few and it seems they often use "neither confirm nor deny " as a kind of standard response to protect the fact they haven't actually got anything but don't want to tell you. If they only used "neither confirm nor deny " only when they had something it would kind of defeat the purpose of keeping the law enforcement or national security thing secret. So they say it whether they actually have it or not.

Thanks for the replies re the internment camps.

Flouncy I’ll see you there for Christmas then, they’ll be gruel on the menu, replays of “mistletoe and wine” on the tannoy and not enough loo roll. Fun times!

The veiled threat to the Irish is yet another example of the very ugly side of Britain's approach to Ireland.
It’s not just IReland. It’s a certain way of doing things where pushing and imposing your POV at all cost is ok. And the feeling that everyone else is underneath them.
Britain is treating most non BRITISH (or is it english?) people that way. Just look at the current immigration rules, the way immigrants are treated, the ‘detention’ centres (which are very close to internment centres btw) etc....

Saw the story int he guardian that Trump orders Turkey to ceasefire and am actually enraged. How dare he pretend he didn't give Turkey the green light, allowing dangerous ISIS members to be released (the timing of which is very suspicious) and leaving the Kurds out to dry? He has had DAYS of the world's media telling him he shouldn't do that and mocking his Normandy comments. It's clearly just another way to perpetuate the hatred; those ISIS terrorists will strike giving him the ability to distract and use force and have another war. I'm so done with these short men with tiny gonads forcing them into the worlds collective face.

Wrt the "DWP spending millions on ‘intelligent automation garage’ to develop welfare robots to replace humans"

If true it would suggest a gov dept getting its act together on IT - which is unlikely?

Its over a year since I had any contact in this space but I am aware that robot software was being investigated - however those 'robots' were just a fudge to allow new Web/mobile front ends to drive old, often green screen style, systems - sticking plasters basically.

Much of government IT is hobbled by ancient systems that no-one understands any more because any expertise has been lost through various tranches of outsourcing. 'millions' don't go far in this space!

ARoomWithoutADoor

No, you were quite right and I agree that Patel is an absolute arsehole. I wasn't trying to excuse her smug smirking mien, as that expression reflects exactly the type of person she is. I just thought it was hilarious that Andrew Marr chastised her for all to hear as if she were a spoilt brat (which again is probably spot-on).

One bit of heart-warming news: DW went to the Post Office to pick up a parcel which needed an extra £3 paying. The postie on duty at the collection office noticed her very German first name and said he hated the whole Brexit thing, was aghast at the way this country is going and regarded himself as a proud European.

This is a very Leavy area, so it was good to hear that there are kind and open-minded people around. Said he unfortunately had to work on Saturday, but would be there in spirit.

That's made my day

flouncy even LauraK has noticed - I suspect this time-span is pivotal and we will look back and say "oh we should have done a VONC then!" or something.

Has anyone else noticed that HMS Leaky 10 Downing Street has become tighter than a ducks arse over the last few days?

Yes the commissioning editor of the Spectator Mary Wakefield (Mrs Dominic C) has not authorised publishing anything from her husband's phone for at least 48 hours.

Puts a whole new spin on the relationships board polarised response to checking of the DHs phone.

lurpak That's an adorable little hamster

That's encouraging Hasenstein that he felt able to speak up
Even in the most Leave areas, only about 60% of the 70% actually voted Leave, i.e under 50% of voters,
but Remainers do seem to feel constrained

Pmk

I'm in Germany and I only heard a brief report here, which sounded like both sides chanting

Well both sides probably were. It's what they were chanting. However, at least Bulgaria's racists are confined to the football stands. Ours are sadly in government.

Jailing the independence activists in Spain is shocking. Jailing political prisoners? Still a hangover from Franco then.

As for internment camps, they already exist for non-EU citizens. Just not called that.

"oh we should have done a VONC then!"

If - with extension - this WA actually goes through, we'll be saying "oh we should have done May's WA then!"

If reports are accurate, then the EU has conceded on the level playing field, maybe in desperation to protect Ireland / show they are.
A major concession - which affects ordinary people in GB far more than the EU

May's WA in practice prevented a bonfire of workers & consumer rights, a US FTA or a Canada-type FTA,
the Mombai-on-Thames which the ERG have been after all along
Few in the ERG give a shit about NI either way; it's all about making loadsa money, for them

This new WA would protect NI, protect expats on both sides, would give time in transition when the UK retains all EU trade & agency benefits
and
postpones a disorderly crash-out which throws the UK economy over a cliff

• BUT not much else for rUK, other than transition giving time for sanity to return to politics.

It's definitely better than No Deal, but it's much worse than May's WA.

but football has a poisonous atmosphere worldwide

yes and it sadly starts at grassroots level. Go to any kids' football match. Some of the parents are so horrible. And the coaches and club management can be too - not racist but winning at all costs. My son had a bad experience with a football club he was a member of between 6 and 9. Anyway if I ever met any of the a*holes again I'd take great delight in telling them that he's represented England at athletics.

Continuity has raised an issue that I've posted / asked before:

afaik, a PV has to be with govt agreement, because only they can legally authorise the expenditure on a PV

I don't think an opposition bill can allocate money without govt consent or that the courts can change this ?

However, there is only time for BJ to agree a WA with the EU in principle

• no time for legal text of an actual WA and for EUCO to scrutinise this, even if they have an additional 30 October meeting,

no time for the EP Parliament to do so no time for the HoC

So a WA still looks 99.9% impossible before an extension
(which may itself change the situation wrt BJ / Tory positions)

Re. the football. Reports say that the England fans were chanting back at the Bulgarians "You racist bastards, you know what you are".

England fans are known for their own thuggish right-wing chants "No surrender to [the IRA]" and so on. Just imagine how bad it must be in Bulgaria when England fans are on the right side of the divide. If even England fans can't stomach this shit, at least this seems to provide a base-level for our own racist attitudes below which even our own idiots won't sink. Cold comfort, I know, but you takes your positives where you can nowadays.

Wrt the "DWP spending millions on ‘intelligent automation garage’ to develop welfare robots to replace humans"

So replace racist humans with the racist machines they trained:

www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/11/ai_black_people/

Jailing the independence activists in Spain is shocking. Jailing political prisoners? Still a hangover from Franco then.

Better than executing them.

The "best" thing about the football is the team supported by racist morons lost 6-0. Maybe there's a message there.

Ultimately, wherever facism has been fought, it's been defeated. You'd think someone might have suggested following a different path ...

I suspect if Bulgaria had been winning, then their fans wouldn't have been trying to wreck the game

It might have been quite a deliberate tactic by some

I suspect if Bulgaria had been winning, then their fans wouldn't have been trying to wreck the game It might have been quite a deliberate tactic by some

As if the world needed more proof that racists aren't the sharpest of tools.