Brexit Arms

[DustyDiamond]

Welcome to the Brexit Arms!!

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#PrayForSally
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We have many jackdaws Continuity, they come with the rooks. They are beasts at the bird feeder, so I have to give them their own bowl away from the tits, finches and robins 🙄 (costs me a fortune), but I love watching them anyway, they are so intelligent! Especially when they bring their young!

It’s a lovely book about Woolfson’s life with birds, and you will look at every rook, crow, jackdaw and magpie in a different way. Particularly good for the Scots amongst us.

I counted 27 corvids at my feeder one day...

Then, the starlings arrived. And the squirrel we have nicknamed terry nutkins.

The other poor birds have a job to get a look in without my umpiring them all day.

Luckily no gulls. Yet.

We have a charm of goldfinches that love next door’s feeders. And a sparrow hawk that loves the goldfinches.

Our squirrel is nicknamed Fatso Epic DD3 had to be persuaded that being considered rotund is in fact the highest compliment one can pay a squirrel.

He is also lightening quick so he can avoid Mr Fox.

I wonder how many people will vote for an MP based purely on Brexit ? Is it a single issue GE do you think Dusty ? It feels a bit like that to me, people trying to figure out who to vote for to get their preferred outcome with regards to Brexit.

I agree with Dusty on this, Frumpety.

It shouldn't be a single issue GE. No GE should. However, Parliament has made it so by navel gazing and bickering and time wasting for the last three-and-a-half years over its own Brexit dysphoria. It has made Brexit into a logjam even though there are other huge concerns that the country would like tackling.

Break the logjam and perhaps we could then have a government that could actually get on with the task of, erm, governing.

Why all the attempts to keep derailing this thread with wildlife anecdotes, by the way? Or is this just business-as-normal in the Brexit Arms? I'm genuinely puzzled.

Morning all

Am up at an UNGODLY hour as I'm re-entering the workforce today after 4 years twatting about being a student 😩😩😩

So depressing that I've another 23 years of this

I'll likely be an even shitter landlady than usual so apologies in advance...
With you all in solidarity & spirit though as ever

✊🌹🙏🕯

Why all the attempts to keep derailing this thread with wildlife anecdotes, by the way? Or is this just business-as-normal in the Brexit Arms? I'm genuinely puzzled.

Was a nice little ceasefire during Remembrance Sunday I think - sometimes this thread is full of goady trolls & gets combative, mostly we all chew the fat over Brexit & politics in general, often we have daft meme plopping & flights of fancy wrt Sally, Dave & the toxic family setup, every now & then there's a side chat about such varied things as (in this case) ornithology (?!)

In the spirit of general twattery & business as usual, please enjoy my latest shit photoshop of Nicola & Jeremy - a seasonal romance...

(I know they're beyond awful but I really crack myself up doing them - it's the faces that get me every time 😂)

The problem with a single issue GE is you are also voting for a party and policies , that will be in place for the next 5 years.

I agree that Parliament has caused a Brexit logjam and to be fair both sides of the debate have done that, but you have to ask yourself why ?

You could argue that those in Parliament are also trying to take into account the views of those who voted remain, given how close the vote was, fairly sure this isn't the ERG's motivation for voting against the deals ?

You could argue that those in Parliament have better access to information Brexit wise and are more aware of the impact it will have on their various constituencies ? Some may even have a genuine desire not to see any harm befall their constituents ?

Some want a harder Brexit and others want no Brexit , I think the split in Parliament is quite akin to that in the country, with regards to the subject of Brexit.

Brexit is still a poisoned chalice politically. The next couple of months are certainly going to be interesting.

Good luck on your first day Dusty , don't forget your glasses ! That's the thing I forget most , spend the rest of the day squinting and looking pained , don't be me

Good luck @DustyDiamond .

Good luck, @DustyDiamond! You'll be fine.

It was a pleasant ceasefire - thank you for explaining. And for the meme, of course.

Good luck @DustyDiamond!

I agree that Parliament has caused a Brexit logjam and to be fair both sides of the debate have done that, but you have to ask yourself why ?

Frumpety, I agree a GE should not be a single issue. Jo Swinson has made it one by forming the Remainer Alliance - you will see further upthread that I pointed out that by depriving Remain voters in the target constituencies of a choice (mine is on that list), she is forcing them to sacrifice other legitimate concerns. It's particularly pernicious for Welsh voters who may be pro-Union Remainers because they can't express that view when the only real Remainer choice they are being given is Plaid Cymru. I think her strategy is divisive - I think it's certainly fragmenting the Remainer vote - and it is arguably undemocratic.

I also ask myself why - if MPs are so much better informed than us - they offered us a referendum in the first place, voted overwhelmingly in favour of offering it, voted overwhelmingly in favour of triggering Article 50. Why did both Conservative and Labour Party manifestos in 2017 specifically say they would honour the referendum result?

FWIW, I think some MPs are generally well informed, some are well informed in just a couple of subjects and some are too busy feathering their own nests to worry their heads about what they think, never mind what their constituents think.

I'm also aware of the Burkean view of representative democracy but Burke didn't allow for a direct question to be handed over to the electorate as a binary choice. Neither, it seems, did our own MPs. They are really not a uniformly first class bunch so I am not about to take everything they say as gospel.

I wonder what delights we will have this week??

After the peoples vote campaign falling out with each other spectacularly, (albeit hardly mentioned in the media. )

We now have the public twitter spat between Jolyon Maugham and Gina Miller.

twitter.com/jolyonmaugham/status/1193442934466777089?s=21

twitter.com/jolyonmaugham/status/1193437860118052864?s=21

“#classicgina”

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

Good luck today @DustyDiamond!
Comrades with you in spirit 🚩🌹🚩🌹😊

Thanks for all the good wishes!
Starting slightly later than originally planned now - half 8 🙄

So all dressed up with nowhere to go & nervous toileting 😳

don't forget your glasses !

I bought a 'work pair' last week frumpety!
So I can just leave them there.

I swear - after being glasses resistant for so long it's been a revelation to actually be able to see without effort!!
I've barely taken my gegs off since I got them 😂😂

Yeah sorry about the bird brained derail @SingingLily . Posters on other threads keep banging on about finding “common ground” with “people like” us ‘lot’. Among other lovely things that they say )

So the same as Dusty, I figured (now that I have finished that shower ) that I would join in with the spirit of remembrance sunday. Why that was birds, I don’t know! but there you are.

Normal service has now resumed!

Tbh Frumpety I'd have voted Tory anyway this time regardless of Brexit - Brexit is the kicker though this time obvs

I'm not a loyal Tory by any stretch, I just think they're the best of a particularly shitty bunch at this time.

Corbyn's Labour I detest & the Lib Dems have lost the plot in almost every way.
If I was still in Scotland I'd have voted Tory over SNP as I'm not in favour of independence & the SNP are obsessed with it to the exclusion of all else 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also agree with PPs re the 'electoral pacts' being profoundly undemocratic - that's why I've come round to being ok with Brexit Party standing candidates all over even if it means splitting the leave vote (although from what I can glean they're actually sucking up labour votes so those votes may not have gone Tory anyway)

''Twas nice, Epic. I just didn't understand, being a newcomer.

We now have the public twitter spat between Jolyon Maugham and Gina Miller.

😂 Reminds me of the comment Ian Hislop made when Neil Hamilton and Mohammed Al Fayed took their spat to court.

"It's a pity only one of them can lose".

I'm expecting to see more candidates fall by the wayside this week due to unsavoury views expressed on social media. The closing date for candidate nomination papers is this Thursday. Brexit Party candidates, as I understand it, have to stump up their own deposits and I'm guessing the comms lines between Nige and the rest of the party hierarchy will be hotting up as a consequence.

I also ask myself why - if MPs are so much better informed than us - they offered us a referendum in the first place, voted overwhelmingly in favour of offering it, voted overwhelmingly in favour of triggering Article 50. Why did both Conservative and Labour Party manifestos in 2017 specifically say they would honour the referendum result?

Those are really good questions SingingLily , I would love to know the answers too

Morning all, Good luck Dusty. Just a quick missive from me this morning will catch up later, hopefully.
I agree with Dusty re my voting Tory, and as I'm in Scotland I vote Tory every time to see off the SNP. Have voted LD in the past re our very good local MP who lost to SNP in 2015, the seat had been Liberal for over 40 years. It's now Tory and I want to keep it that way.

“I'm expecting to see more candidates fall by the wayside this week due to unsavoury views expressed on social media.”

Probably no bad thing tbh, dare I say “draining the swamp”? On all sides though, not just one. I don’t want that shit in the tory party any more than I want it in the opposition!

We are still in least worst territory here, but going forward, after the brexit ball finally starts rolling. I want to see a strong and decent opposition, because it helps to create a healthy democracy and UK for all, rather than extremes that always seem to negatively affect one side of the demographic unfairly. Women, poor, entrepreneurs, students, ethnic minorities etc... the current state of play is just not good enough. And in the future, I would like to see a return to a more balanced and fair political structure.

I want to see a strong and decent opposition, because it helps to create a healthy democracy and UK for all, rather than extremes that always seem to negatively affect one side of the demographic unfairly.

^This.

Jezza has failed us all, regardless of our political affiliation, because the only way to ensure we have a decent government for the whole country is by having a credible government-in-waiting nipping at their heels and holding them to account. Jezza is just not up to the task.

I’m probably going to dip in and out of here less often now, because like others, I already know who I am voting for and I have sooooo much RL stuff to get on with. Being on here all the time isn’t really helping that tbh!

I’ll lurk still, and pop on occasionally until nearer election time, when I will be back to fully indulge in the nailbiting experience of it all!

See you soon comrades! ✊🌹

I will leave you with this fine meme.