The Brexit Arms: Are We Nearly There Yet? 🇬🇧🚗↩️🇪🇺

[SingingLily]

No, not yet, but soon. Just 24 more sleeps until we legally leave the EU at 11pm on 31 January and finally enter the transition period after what seems like centuries of argument, dither and delay. We do so with hope, optimism and a determination to be a good friend and neighbour to the EU, but for now, no one said it better than Winston Churchill.

“This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.”

The Pub Rule is the same as it always was: all welcome but only if you leave goadery outside. The first drink is on the house.

Barry Gardiner has the most 'menacingly' soft voice I have ever heard - he should voice over for Disney (evil villain).

Just a quick hello.
Thought I would stay away till now, as I tended to cause a few upsets before Boris got Elected.
Looking forward to E- Day.

Hi all its dry January so I have been away from pubs for a while. Will stick to water please.

Anyone watched Andrew Neil's interview of Clive Lewis? He is adamant that people who voted to leave the EU were right wing racists and if he gets elected leader he will change Labour to be a fully remain party.

He went on to give a 'deeper analysis' that the election disaster was all Tony Blair's fault. The system is rigged so Labour will never win an election on their own and a coalition is needed with other parties.

He also wants to keep the majority of the manifesto that has just done so well for them.

"Get on your knees, bitch"

I know walking - see my pp

Fortunately I don't think he stands much chance but may be deliberately deflecting on behalf of Sir Keir. Keir is the only other man and very closely tied to the past 4 years of strategy and defeat.

Theory is that Clive runs the extreme argument making Keir look as if he was attempting to be a moderator all this time. Keep Keir in the background while "the women" squabble publicly and Clive draws the flack. Sir Keir rides in at the rescue with his best Mr reasonable cloak and Angela Rayner as his Deputy for added street cred.

Barry upsets the applecart somewhat as only he knows how. Suspected for a while that he and Keir really really really don't get on.

And the clincher per twitter:

We could look forward to Gardiner's QT every Wednesday when he becomes PM.

Just a quick poppin in, not staying but saying hello. As far as Brexit is concerned it looks like the UK and the EU are pretty much singing from the same songsheet - obviously there will need to be lots of re-arrangements as these 'choral compositions' are very complicated indeed. As we all know.

With regards to who Labour elects as their next Leader, I give as much interest to it as to who the Tories elect, it's Party Political and I'm not, so it's each Parties' business and I'll deal with whoever or whatever arises out of it.

Thanks for the Pint poured without asking, I drunked it down real quick. If I had any wish really it would be that The Arms delivered breakfast to my door.

Morning, all,

The withdrawal agreement bill should complete the committee stage today in the HoC. So far, all Opposition amendments have failed. It is scheduled to move to the HoL on Monday.

In other news, Mark Carney has suddenly found reasons to be cheerful about life in the City after the EU and even George Osborne managed to say something vaguely positive about Brexit, raising what appeared to be a smile. Gripe water needed, clearly.

Welcome back to Walking, Mummmy, and Clavinova.

There are still lots of fresh Dungannon eggs left over so today’s speciality is poached egg and avocado on toast. Relax, no air miles involved. The previous Landlady had green fingers and successfully cultivated an avocado tree in the sunny courtyard at the back.

Sorry, Hate, no delivery service as yet.

Kettle’s on ☕️☕️☕️

Morning. I think politics will be sidelined for a few days now as everyone goes mad over the royal story.

Morning and thank you Lily for my favourite breakfast. Just a short strong coffee to go with it , please.

Stopping by to keep my place, but Walking and PPs are probably right in saying the Sussexes have crowded everything else off the media horizon for a while. There's not a lot else on R4 Today!

Most impressed about the avocado plant in the pub yard! Ex-LLady must have been Mrs Percy Thrower.

Most impressed about the avocado plant in the pub yard! Ex-LLady must have been Mrs Percy Thrower.

😂 Zing good old Percy.

I had originally typed in my previous post that I also do a cracking Blue Tit call and then remembered just before posting that was Percy's Edwards and not Percy Thrower

On the other hand, Time, there could just be no end to your skills...

I'm trying to post a copy of today's Matt but have to admit defeat so you'll just have to imagine it.

It's about Harry and Meghan's intention to be "financially independent" of the Royal Family (if you ignore his inheritance from his mother, stipend from the Duchy of Cornwall, and her own earned wealth, of course) and suggests a possible career for them.

A waiter is putting up a sign in the window of a fast food restaurant saying "We're hiring ex-Dukes and Duchesses".

Yes, it's the Pizza Express in Woking.

Morning all.
It's all going on isn't it?

Such a relief to watch PMQs yesterday after the shenanigans we've had to endure since the referendum. Glad to see the back of the one-man show that was Bercow and the understated control of the new speaker.

Watching aghast at the Labour leadership contest. Clive Lewis on Andrew Neil? It was so bad, it was funny, especially when he said he hadn't voted for himself yet and CL responded with are you sure you want to after this interview? (or words to that effect) I have to conclude that howabout has it right: there's some serious deflection going on here.

Harry would have been much better off "resigning" before he got married.

Clive Lewis. It's so hard to take him seriously as a potential leader that even his fellow MPs are not rushing to support him. So far, only one has - and it's not even himself.

I'm more concerned about Barry Gardiner. According to the Spectator, he "appeared on Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC show this morning. Asked what he could bring to the table that the other leadership candidates lack, Gardiner responded: ‘I can win a general election’. He hastily reassured the audience that the other wannabe leaders aren’t doomed to failure – then went on to praise his own ‘ability to communicate’."

Who said upthread that he has a voice like an evil villain? I've met quite a few of those in my time and trust me, they didn't sound anywhere near as scary as this man.

I'm actually beginning to feel quite sorry for Keir Starmer - and that's not a sentence I'd ever thought I'd write. So far, he's the front runner in terms of securing nominations, although there is the obvious caveat that the members and supporters have yet to be canvassed and they aren't all Keir fans. However, whoever takes up the leader's mantle will be spending a disproportionate amount of their time fighting alligators in their own backyard. It's not the next leader of the Labour Party we should concern ourselves with. It's the one after that.

Watched a little bit of Parliament channel. I remember massive shrieks from Labour that they couldn't cram debate about the Brexit Bill into three days. But there is hardly any MPs in the chamber debating it now, they are either a bunch of liars or lazy bastards.

The drama is elsewhere, Walking. They're off fighting the fights they think they can fight, not the one they know they've lost.

So essentially Brexit is actually of no interest to them. They are only interested in the self publicity of winning?

I think that is probably it in a nutshell Walking

Is the vote on the final reading before it goes up the line expected to be about 5pm?

"the debate on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill will begin at 1.15pm on Thursday and last until no later than 5pm."

Better for Labour MPs not to be in the chamber opposing the inevitable. They are damned whether they support or resist the passage of the bill.

3 days weren't long enough to debate in the HoC prior to GE because there were more opponents than supporters among MPs. We have now had a GE. The public picked a winner. The new 360+ Tories all agree. The Gaukward squad is no more. The supreme hubris of the period prior to the election was Jo and Jeremy squabbling when actually they were always at the behest of Tory Remainers and Anna Soubry.

So while I think Clive is riding shotgun for Sir Keir, Lloyd Russell-Moyle implied on Politics Live that he is also doing the same for RLB. I wonder if Barry is really being talked into trying to give an opposing flank for Lisa Nandy.

walking 👍

Hello all
Just catching up after 24 hours offline (sounds like a TV show).

Not a royalist but the vitriol directed at Meghan proves their point I think. Plus, through it all, I’ve discovered that a very distant cousin is a rampant racist. This being one reason my parents worked hard to keep me away from extended family abroad.

Do we think Brexit is still on track for 31st?

I do, Autumn. Boris currently has stacks of political capital with those who voted for him. At some point he will have to spend some of that to bring in less popular policies. This is not the time. Not with the very first manifesto commitment he promised to deliver.

We will leave in 22 days.