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.

ContinuityError

The Cash for Ash appears to have been a total money making scam for the DUP and its supporters.

But can anyone tell me why there has been no investigation up to now?

Maybe it is a thing in the negotiations now. Honestly, will this kind of behaviour be rewarded?

Continuity I'll take any comfort I can get at this point, and that MF looking miserable will do.

DUP statement after 90 minutes meeting in Number 10 -
'We respect fact negotiations are ongoing therefore cannot give a detailed commentary but it would be fair to indicate gaps remain and further work is required.'

I really really don't want this deal to happen if the level playing field is eviscerated.

"can anyone tell me why there has been no investigation up to now"

DUP still wield too much power in NI to be subject to the law
and since 2017 they have been able to exert power in Westminster too, to prevent some things they don't want in NI

Outsomnia Cash for Ash brought down Stormont in January 2017. It was an absolute scandal, and I’ve only seen clips of Arlene having memory problems when it comes down to what went on.

It’s a huge issue that’s been brushed under the carpet. Maybe now that the DUP no longer have the whip hand in Westminster there might be some answers.

MP Mark Francois aka "Pot Noodle" deserves to be miserable every day

Peter Foster@pmdfoster

How this thing gets sold - if it does get sold - is gonna be studied on politics and media courses for years to come

Darran Marshall@DarranMarshall

DUP leader Arlene Foster tells @BBCNewsline that some of the speculation about a proposed deal is "so far off the mark, that you cannot even see the mark."

so BJ is afraid of Benn ... plausible

Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn

Having spoken to Cabinet ministers and No10 figures, it's clear now that the intense fear of a Benn Act extension is what is driving Johnson to get a Brexit deal in place this week.

So will the Rebel 21 have been the key to an Oct 31 deal or just a worse one?
We will see soon.

"so far off the mark, that you cannot even see the mark."

Combining the posts... being far off the mark would be a positive if it was Mark F we couldn't see.

Will the Rebel 21 have been the key to an Oct 31 deal

Wouldn't we have seen them coming and going? Sounds like the DUP are still seen to be key -but all it usually needs is a ransom payment to them. Cash for ash. Cash for Slash?

If this deal Johnson is trying to sew up is worse than May's deal surely the Opposition won't vote for it?

The deadline of midnight tonight ... is that midnight our time or European time? And has Bozo thought to ask...?

If the deal involves slashing workers rights - how can any Labour MP vote for it?

But maybe that's the plan - not to get the numbers......

The deadline is 11pm UK time but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of flex, all the rules seem to be being broken!

My pregnancy and child rearing years are behind me, but my children’s are not. For the possible loss of the rights I benefited from and the loss of their freedom of movement among the many, many other downsides of this shitstorm, I will find it hard to forgive those who voted leave.

Perhaps one hour to go.
Dunno whether to go to bed now and just ignore it all.

Regarding the Cash for Ash scandal, I find it bizarre that Sinn Fein has been so quiet about it all along.

Maybe they believe the DUP will be the architects of their own misfortune and will self destruct. Or something.

Strange, but maybe it is tactical. I dunno.

No need to get particularly worried tonight:

I'd expect another extension - that's the nerve-wracking bit - and then we again get to waste nearly all the time and have a mad panic at the end.

The extensions will stop eventually, as the EU won't want us disrupting the serious 7-year budget negotiations from about June
Hopefully by then the Uk have decided what it can accept

There has to be a decision from UK now.

Why are we dithering for the last 3 and a half years?

Some obviously want lots of cake and wish to eat it too. It doesn't work like that though. There is a lot of humility and reality in the mix.

Get a feeling that reality is biting now.

But sincerely hope whatever happens there is no triumphalism anymore.

If the deal involves slashing workers rights - how can any Labour MP vote for it? But maybe that's the plan - not to get the numbers......

Firstly, I’ve never really understood the workers’ rights issue. If the UK population wants them, it can vote in a Government that will deliver them - that’s democracy! Personally I absolutely do want them.

Secondly, a deal that fails in the HoC would be a disaster for BJ. If he gets a deal done and through the EU by Friday, it will be because he has compromised massively and essentially agreed to a form of backstop. If he fails to get that through, he’ll be seen as May mk2, made worse by the fact he’ll (ultimately) have to sign the Benn Act and eat his “dead in a ditch”
comments a million times over..... And he will have to sign it as otherwise if he’ll be dragged through the courts in contempt charges which he would know would stick (whereupon he’d be forced to resign as PM at the very least). I don’t see how he could recover from that.

It was cash for ash which brought down stormont. Sinn Fein wanted Arlene to stand aside while the enquiry carried out its scrutiny.

Poor pathetic pfeffhole, thrashing around desperate to sign anything that would allow him not to have to ask for that extension. The EU have played him like the one-note punctured party blower that he is.

When he tried to make his booming speeches framing them for the brexit failure they avoided the temptation of getting angrier and more confrontational, took a breath and made themselves look as helpful and open as possible while dragging him further and further over the line.

Cash for Ash
Pleas get hold of back issues of DGRosetti and my favourite Magazine Private Eye
Its in there in glorious detail

If the UK population wants them, it can vote in a Government that will deliver them - that’s democracy!

O the innocence. But we don't have democracy in Britain. We have a system of repeatedly jury-rigged constituencies and FPTP.

...and a very limited set of party policies to choose from. I would like lower house prices, as would most people, and higher wages. Have they appeared, or is that mismatch getting worse?