Westministenders: Canada Plus and the Transition Phase

[RedToothBrush]

As we approach the 31st January, we slowly tick towards exit and transition.

Things are not yet signed off though the No Deal planning has quietly been stood down with no press release and the government have said they won't talk about trade deals post 31st Jan because the public are bored of them and don't understand.

The new EU president has said that the UK doesn't have time to make a full deal with the EU before 31st December with a deadline which isn't flexible.

We still have no idea what the government plans are. We still have many EU citizens feeling very vulnerable.

Perhaps we should start talking about this rather than Royals for a couple of weeks...

I think they’ve got a random mad ideas generator - bridge to NI, HOL in the North, civil servants to be replaced by people who can write an email disagreeing with all conventional wisdom, tunnel to the Orkneys anyone?
Oh yes it’s called Dominic Cummings.

Moving the upper chamber to York whilst cancelling the HS2 link to Leeds. Very good.

So these Lord are all going to move house, are they?

One of the arguments for Brexit was the EU's absurd trek from Brussels to Strasbourg, and now we are going to replicate it. Very Good.

Another gobbet of Boris fwwwwarrrrrr! that's just spaff up a wall, all he's good at.

What is the rationale for moving them to York? York is the most un-northern northern city in the North.

A pleasant place to live and visit, if you avoid the hens and stags on a friday and Saturday night. Some more deprived areas, but nowhere I would want to avoid walking after dark and nowhere near on the same scale as other cities. I have lived in both Clifton and Tang Hall and whilst there are a few streets where you get the definite whiff of weed, have never really encountered any significant, sustained social problems. The most you get is a few ten year olds hanging round the shop asking if you can buy them some ciggies..

It has also spent many millions of pounds trying to develop the land that seems to have been earmarked for the new house of Lords. It's been an ongoing fiasco for many years - I think they were finally getting to an agreement.

Good train links, though, I'll give them that.

Looking at the comments on the local site, York doesn't particularly want the Lords here either.

This report is from several months ago,
but studied the effects on crime, the last time that Tory ideological policies de-industrialised swathes of the country

Political ideology and policies can have such far-reaching and long-lasting effects.
We can't just look at policies in isolation or their planned effects
"The law of unintended consequences"

Industrial collapse of Thatcher years led to crime rise, study finds
[[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/27/margaret-thatcher-industrial-collapse-led-to-crime-rise
www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/27/margaret-thatcher-industrial-collapse-led-to-crime-rise]]

Research quantifies link between offending and economic factors
.......
“The radicalism of the early phase of Thatcherite economic policies created quite profound and immediate economic problems
which fell disproportionately on those communities which had relied on heavy industry

• mining, steel work and the associated industries such as railway yards and locomotive depots

.... “The substantive message that our research delivers is that the background structural causes of offending at the individual level may rest as much with a country’s politicians as they do with ‘street-level’ actors.”

Move the Lords to York? I suppose distance from the electorate doesn't matter, so it would be what pleased the hereditary peers most. They are just as likely to have lands in the north as the south east - possibly more so.

Another thought I had, to take away my profound depression - each business which had added costs as a result of Brexit could itemise it on their invoices, like they do with VAT, e.g. Brexit tariff - £xxx. Would it make people wake up?

How about this for a Cummingsy wheeze: Move the House of Lords to cyberspace. Don't have a chamber. No more £300 daily 'subsistance' money.

If that works, we can put every MP in a glass box in their local shopping centre and everyone can see what they do all day.

With the Lords in York does that mean when her maj opens parliament all the mp's have to get on the train to stand at a new bar? Greener to have black rod switch on a TV I guess.

I suspect the whole "Move the HOL to York" suggestion is a squirrel to distract from bad/unwelcome news elsewhere.

Like the consequences of Javid's statement which is effectively another "Fuck Business" approach

mathanxiety
Is there no anger about this insulting disingenuousness?

Not so you'd notice, apparently.
Leavers, rather than noting that the uncertainty is above all a result of the undefined nature of Brexit from the outset, blame the MPs in the HoC who voted against the WA and others.
They don't notice that if those actors had merely been delaying an already defined Brexit, businesses could have got on with preparing in the meantime and even appreciated extra time to do so.
Instead, it's all the fault of Grieve, Gina Miller, the Supreme Court, etc.

Javid's huge U-turn, like Nicky Morgan's, goes uncommented, as does the mendaciously offensive nature of his remarks.

As for moving the HoL to York, what's the point? It needs reforming, not relocating.

Lord Dubs on BH this morning - doesn’t sound like he is going to back down on his WA Bill amendment. Said he’d had assurances from Ministers but he wasn’t convinced. Conservative peer Baroness Helic not saying whether she would support the government on this either.

www.lcdviews.com/2020/01/18/united-kingdom-wins-darwin-award/

The Darwin Awards are always funny to read about, how some idiot leaned over the edge of a cliff to take a selfie and fell to their doom, or forgot to put the safety catch on while cleaning their gun and shot themselves in the head. But this year’s ceremony will feature something a little different.

This year an award will be presented to an entire country. Specifically the UK will be receiving a Darwin Award for Brexit.

Awards chairman Stu Pidkunz had this to say on the matter:

“We couldn’t overlook the stupidity of an entire nation democratically voting to deprive itself of all its human rights for possibly generations to come. We thought about making 17.4 million individual awards but that wouldn’t work as voting is anonymous and many of the people who voted for Brexit have since died – in some cases as a consequence of their vote already, so those ones should really get special mentions.”

(contd)

That Darwin award is going to go down well with a lot of people with no sense of humour !

The cynic in me suggests that the blame game has started ...

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/18/boris-johnson-warns-cabinet-shape-up-or-be-sacked

Boris Johnson is to tell cabinet ministers that they must focus all their energy on developing policies for post-Brexit Britain – or face the sack in a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle within weeks.

(contd)

Now, at the risk of triggering Godwin, I have to say this smacks of how Hitler ran his government ...

Boris Johnson is to tell cabinet ministers that they must focus all their energy on developing policies for post-Brexit Britain – or face the sack in a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle within weeks.

Given that so many people who wanted to leave are convinced the past was better ( except the past where we were members of the EU ) , could the cabinet just rustle up some old policies and give them shiny new names. The Government sounds a bit like all those businesses they have blamed for not getting their act together, all this time to prepare for the inevitable and still no idea, who should they blame ?

So if they don't beLeave, don't think positive thoughts and point out the reality that the emperor has no clothes, they'll get the sack.

Riiiiiight

Actually, they might be well advised to avoid continued association with the Clusterfuck Brexit so they might be grateful

So if they don't beLeave, don't think positive thoughts and point out the reality that the emperor has no clothes, they'll get the sack.

So there is an incentive for each individual to try and "out-Brexit" their neighbour, so to speak.

It's a hothouse for extremist policies. Again anyone who knows their history can now imagine what sort of policies will be dreamt up.

The arms crowd, who claim they are all about having a laugh, will be furious about the darwin award.

The arms crowd, who claim they are all about having a laugh, will be furious about the darwin award.

Best thing to do with the arms crowd is ignore them. Better off saving resources for dealing with the real masters of Brexit - which ain't them.

Here's a thought per @rolandmcs. Remainers should make lots of noise to promote the idea that Brexit is done and dusted, to make a return to no deal planning more politically difficult.

twitter.com/rolandmcs/status/1218874773482151936?s=19

Also that Darwin award is gold.

Special mention to leave voting Brits in Europe.

Hi - just popping back in to share this:

www.eucitizenship.org.uk/

Not sure if it's been posted already as I've not been checking the threads since Armageddon the election, but it's well worth a second share . It's a site to register your intention to retain EU citizenship after brexit. It's been set up by the man who is going to the CJEU to fight the case that under EU law EU citizenship can't be taken away no matter what your nation state chooses to do.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/uk-citizens-to-launch-legal-action-to-keep-eu-citizenship/17/01/

I'm not getting my hopes up - but it's worth signing up just to show strength of feeling if nothing else.

The thing about the Darwin award is it signifying a move from pity to mockery - these awards have a huge global following - which I suspect overlaps very little with the brexiteers - so they won't notice - but it hurts.

Could I get this clear - the Government wants trade deals with the US above all else. Is the Government going to start state owned manufacturing business to promote such trade? I ask because the Ceramics Industry wants Trade deals with the EU because those are their principle markets. If they don't especially have a market for their goods in the US, then would it matter how many trade deals Johnson dreamt up?

It rather reminds me of the scheme the Tories had a few years back where employees could by shares in their companies firm in lieu of sacrificing holiday. Absolutely no one was interested and the scheme was quietly dropped.

Loving the Darwin Award!

Incidentally, you need a lot of critical faculties to read the news about the Darwin Awards. #Justsayin'