Westministenders: Sub-Prime Minister at large

[BigChocFrenzy]

Our Sub-Prime Minister BJ is threatening a govt tantrum strike until he is allowed his Haribo GE on 12 December.

If MPs vote for a GE, he has promised them "more time" to debate the WAB,
but that would only be from 29 October to 7 November

• ridiculously inadequate for such complex legislation -

before Parliament is automatically dissolved for the 25 sitting days before a GE.

The GE debate starts Monday 2:30 pm in the HoC
Corbyn says he'll agree to a GE if BJ takes No Deal off the table

BUT wIth this WA,
No deal cannot 100% be taken off the table whilst the Tories are in office:

they could still No Deal after transition ends on 31 December 2020,
if they don't request a transition by July.

We don't know when the EU will give their decision on an extension, or what it will be:

The EU may decide only after the HoC vote
- in which case MPs would be voting "blindly"

Tusk, Merkel & most other leaders want to grant the Flextension until 31 January,
but Macron & a few others want to give a short extension of only 2-4 weeks, to pressure MPs to pass the WA in November

• in which case the GE would take place shortly after Brexit, which would be a gift to BJ.

A 12 December GE would also cause serious logistical problems for local council officials:

Apart from their poll station bookings clashing with Xmas bookings for church halls & schools,

they are legally required to send out all the polling cards based on the current electoral roll,
then at the GE, check names against the new electoral roll which must be updated on 1 December

The Rebel Alliance want a long extension, so they have time to add amendments to the WAB,
e.g. a CU, the Level Playing Field agreement in May's WA, maybe even a PV
So many may want to vote against a GE before that ..... but what does Corbyn want ?

BJ as PM could still change the date of any GE after he has agreed to it, if it suits him.

What does BJ want ?
Alice Cooper said it:

"I'm your top prime cut of meat, I'm your choice
I wanna be elected
I'm your yankee doodle dandy in a gold Rolls Royce
I wanna be elected
Kids want a savior, don't need a fake

I wanna be elected
We're all gonna rock to the rules that I make
I wanna be elected, elected, elected..."

m.youtube.com/watch?v=cSvy8HpxFxo

• Post edited to correct dates

It shows.
. Feel free to expand.

"there were suggestions that America - or Americans at least - were funding the IRA."

Trump attended at least one IRA / Sinn Fein fundraiser in New York with Gerry Adams present, while the IRA campaign was going on in London in the 1990s
He did so to gain popularity from militant Irish Americans - an example of their political importance and of Trump's complete lack of genuine feeling towards the UK.

Irish Americans sent many millions in donations to the IRA
and even some personnel

• I was reading about a US Marine demolition expert who was involved in the massively expensive London City bombings which forced the UK govt to make concessions and resume talks

You wouldn't worry what people thought of you if you knew how rarely they did ...

I love this quote! I do a lot of women in science stuff and this absolutely encapsulates my favourite "if you had one thing to pass on" response. I waffle on quite a bit and this is a great short sentence that says it all. I'm going to use it in future.

DarkAt / Mship
As DGR rightly links, have a good read here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAID
Due to the large numbers of Irish who fled the famine to the USA and then their cultural tightness, pro IRA anti British sentiment was and is common particularly in New York and Boston.

Re Putting a man on the moon, have a look here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program
then here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab
then here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station
Neoliberalism does not seem to have held NASA back too much.

Then again this is the most important person in the space race
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev

IRA recruiting notices on lamp posts in New York

From memory they also used to pass around a bucket at St. Patricks day parades, and Irish-themed events for "the boys back home".

If you want a smell of the Zeitgeist, then "Derry Girls" has an authentic feel while providing light relief.

"The nightmare scenario for Brexiteers would be a growing US Republican Irish sentiment against Brexit "

A US FTA would be of great benefit to US Big Biz: tech giants, pharma, farming / agriculture
who all have deep pockets when it comes to the vital donations to US re-election campaigns

So long as there is a backstop, as in May's deal, or a "frontstop" as in BJ's,
I'd expect any US administration - Republican or Democrat - to be eager to sign a deal
and that Congress would pass it

Remember, BJ's WA is likely to accelerate Irish Reunification,
which would please most Irish Americans - who are generally unaware of the difficulties that a premature reunification could cause

I didn't realise it was spoken of so openly nowadays, although I meant the 'allegedly' as jest. I always heard of the links muttered in dark corners. Irish famine is well known.

The US is huge. Nevertheless NASA has had to fight for funding.

But I still think a GE pre-Brexit is the best chance of ameliorating this mess. It's also very risky.

I disagree on this... In a pre-Brexit GE, the Tories will get a chunk of votes from those who want to “get Brexit over with”. Post-Brexit, many of those voters won’t be as incentivised to turn out, and some of them won’t actually like the Tories very much anyway......

I think Remain voters are almost as likely to turn out pre and post Brexit given the current Government and the contents of the WA.

A pre-Brexit election is therefore more likely to deliver a Tory majority Government I believe.... this may be what’s behind BJ’s GE tactics.

I do a lot of women in science stuff

Did you see Jim Al-Khalilis "Inventions that changed the world" recently.

Big up for Hedy Lamarr and Mrs. Benz. I am ever happy to have my history corrected. Bearing in mind at one point I could actually program in ADA .

And Marie Curie remains the only person to have won 2 separate Nobel prizes, I believe ?

Shamelessly stolen from a friend.

www.businessinsider.com/trump-ireland-resort-100000-security-bill-2019-10

Certainly didn’t stop Trump charging the Irish people for his visit.

^^President Donald Trump's golf resort in Ireland slapped extra security hired during his June visit with a bill of over $100,000 for items ranging from $975 for extra coffee and over $15,000 for snack packs.

The Irish Times first reported last month that the Doonbeg resort in County Clare in western Ireland was paid over 100,000 Euros ($111,000) for the extra 3,820 police officers hired to protect the president over his two-day state visit. The large contingent of security officers working overtime cost the country over 7.4 million Euros ($8.2 million).^

Donald Trump has golf properties in Ireland and Scotland.

Your point BCF is flimsy. You underestimate the very special relationship between Ireland and the USA.

Canada was the favoured destination for Northern Irish, especially the Protestant working class, plus Catholics too, during the famines of Ireland.

PMK
www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/the-bbc-vox-pop-morons-guide-to-the-general-election-20191025190122

Hmm our new MP is a hard brexiter .Think that and the fact she has no local connections (probably the latter affect the vote more) may mean finally not tory strong hold

I remember the unsuccessful extradition attempts of IRA terrorists from the USA

The frequent condemnations of British policy in NI by many US politicians, including on visits to NI

e.g. Senator Ted kennedy visiting and a British soldier saying "why don't you sod off back to your own country"
And Kennedy replying "why don't you go back to yours"

How most US politicians would refuse to be photographed shaking hands with any NI Secretary of State visiting the US

Apart from IRA / SInn Fein, the Irish govt also played a propoganda blinder and lobbied widely in Congress and across the USA, to get support for their policies,
rather like they completely outdid the Uk in getting EU support before the Brexit negotitions even started

The US is huge. Nevertheless NASA has had to fight for funding.

I think they've worked out how to play Trump. It took a while, but they are well used to the games needed to play the "Federal Funding lottery".

Something DB has had to get immersed in (great US scientists are also great US businessmen ...) as he's working in a very high tech area that's receiving a lot of Federal Dollars.

And Marie Curie remains the only person to have won 2 separate Nobel prizes, I believe ?

Linus Pauling won 2 Nobel Prizes in 2 different disciplines (chemistry and peace).

Frederick Sanger also won 2 Nobel Prizes (both for chemistry) as did John Bardeen (both for physics).

Someone asked down thread how to get no deal off the table - I think (and am prepared to be corrected) it's either via revoke or by signing the deal. Both Bozo could influence. 1via actually revoking - pretty simple, secondly by allowing his deal to be scrutinised via parliament - something he seems VERY keen on preventing - because it's a shit deal, but also it would allow amendments to be added and voted on.

I think he is finding being PM v hard and it's not going as swimmingly as he thought it would...... which is often the way, the disruptive thinking it's all so easy from the cheap seats.

Not quite sure how this treasure trove of laughs passed me by - I think I need to rejig my twitter feed ...

Plenty there to enjoy for the weekend

placemats The comments from the US Ways & Means Committee & Congresssional leaders on a US FTA always said such a bill wouldn't pass "if the GFA / peace in NI were endangered"

Either WA would ensure no border in Ireland

There are no signs yet that Ireland would wish to oppose a US-UK FTA provided either BJ's or May's WA has been passed

if there is No Deal, of course a completely different situation
and the US would demand a backstop or frontstop

However, the GOP in particular has been very keen on Brexit because of the commercial opportunities it give,
both directly from the UK
and also their wish to break up the EU, in order to diminate the individual countries in ztrade deals

There are potentially hundreds of billions in profit to be made from the UK alone, over the next decades

.

Michael Spicer's a bit of a genius

Beat me to it, Oubliette
I was thinking of Linus Pauling
He was a hero of mine, a scientist who won the Peace prize as well as one in his own field

Getting stuck in a trade war between the US and EU what joys we have to look forward to in this country......whilst Liz Truss negotiates our way through this tricky path. What could possibly go wrong.