Westminstenders: The Final Week

[RedToothBrush]

Our final week in the EU...

Gàidhlig isn't an optional spelling of Gaelic.

It's the name of the language in that language just as Deutsch is the name of German, in German,

BJ chose another ticking clock with only 11 months, in practice now about 8 months for negotiations

I really think that most of Johnson's Tories really do want to be a vassal state of the USA so would dearly love No Deal. At the same time they have a dilemma because they don't want to be the ones to be seen to be destroying British Industry. Doing it by stealth - absolutely fine - especially when you can blame the Opposition, but with an 80 seat majority, this isn't likely to happen.

The deadline is not 11 months or 8, but 5. An extension, if one is needed, has to be agreed in mid year. So we need to know by about June whether a deal is achievable.

It's important to see the three camps as separate and distinct.

Except that anyone who is not trans-obsessed and who has read a few Mumsnet feminist board threads knows that these are not distinct groups at all. There has been a wholesale infiltration by people with a very anti-progressive agenda, and a complete failure of perspective among gender critical women on the centre/left. The "trans in prisons" issue is the one that gets me: of course keeping men out of women's prisons is important but the really critical issue (which no one cares about any more) is keeping non-violent female offenders out of prison in the first place.

That's a good point Mistigri , of course Boris is adamant that no extension will be sought. If the UK government accept a lot of concessions, go large with alignment, there is the possibility that a basic FTA could be achieved by the end of the year.
Will the vast majority of the leave voting general public notice if such alignment and concessions are agreed ? Will they actually care ?

RL was hectic yesterday so I missed all the debate about MFLs, owls and plates.

Just popping in before work to say:

Will the vast majority of the leave voting general public notice if such alignment and concessions are agreed ? Will they actually care ?

If Johnson could find a way to shaft the eurosceptic in his own party, there would now be a fine BRINO opportunity, because people (a) don't understand the issues (b) don't mind being lied to as long as they can have a Brexit tea towel.

I don think this is what will happen though, because even with a large majority he still has to keep his party onside.

I feel such a sense of unreality today.
Most of my relatives in Kent will be 'celebrating leaving Europe' :(
I heard there is a group organised on FB to line their cars up on top of the White Cliffs of Dover and parp their car horns at France 'just to show them we're boss of our own country again'. Prob all tosh, but lots of people seem to think its a 'ruddy good idea' - so sad.
Yesterday I was in a charity shop and heard a customer and a member of staff chuckling about 'when it used to be okay to call them chalky and darkie and they took it in good part - maybe it will go back to 'common sense' now'. I KNOW I should have challenged them but I've been having a difficult time in RL and I scuttled off, ashamed.

i just feel we are all being diminished today.
Sorry for the personal downer - it doesnt contribute much I know.

The backlash against 'woke' isn't just about trans issues though it's about identity politics in general. It's a backlash against politics/people who put others into categories with no room for nuance, context or question. For example the idea that all criticism of Meghan Markle is linked to her being mixed race. I agree with Red that this is a major problem for the left and the liberal. I've just started reading 'Identity Crisis' by Ben Elton, it's a satirical novel about cancel culture and is well worth a read.

pinboard I'm in Kent, hotbed of racist leavers I'm afraid - well, where I am anyway.

Feel very down today, just heard some idiot spouting about how Farage deserves a knighthood. And Ben Shepherd on Good Morning Britain has just wished everyone "a great Brexit day". FFS.

yolofish
I was recently in both Whitstable and Canterbury, in shops cafes pubs
earwigging away as is my wont. I found both generally quite 'mixed' but my family are virulently racist and always have been sadly.

The charity shop was right up in Berwick upon Tweed (on the border with Scotland) - It's everywhere :(

I wonder if NS will announce the date of a 2nd IndyRef today?
I lived in Scotland until recently and have been saddened by what has happened to education and the NHS whilst the SNP have been focussed on Independence but I can see a 2nd IndyRef going Yes and Scotland trying to rejoin the EU

Yesterday I was in a charity shop and heard a customer and a member of staff chuckling about 'when it used to be okay to call them chalky and darkie and they took it in good part - maybe it will go back to 'common sense' now'. I KNOW I should have challenged them but I've been having a difficult time in RL and I scuttled off, ashamed.

Fucking hell.
Racism has become so normalised and legitimised because of this, and Johnson. Huge problem in football recently, too
I hate the word woke. I think RedToothbrush talks sense above but then I hear stuff like pinboard and I just don't bloody care.

I remember the day after the referendum and one of the nurses at work was so furious at the leave result, he could barely stand still he was so angry, and this adorable little ward clerk who was about 65 years old, the sweetest thing, just piped up "well I voted leave because I didn't want my grandkids to be the only white kids left at school" (this was not in my city, this was in a rural hugely white area)

Then the other nurse who was from the EU calmly told us she was leaving the UK, and the first nurse was like "SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!" Oh my god, it was like the entire of the last four years in microcosm.

I'll be shedding a quiet tear later on.

💐 to you all x

Sorry to have derailed the debate with my ignorance of the word "Gaelic". It was the word used by the gentleman in question and said the same way I've heard "Gaelic football" is the business.

Regarding trans/woke/whatever, my personal view is that it is a concerted effort to completely undo any advances the past 50 years have bought in terms of levelling the playing field for women and ethnic minorities. And it's being made easier and faster by the willingness of those under attack to immediately splinter into factions on contact with it (Judean Peoples Front anyone ?) rather than group and stand as one. No one is going to laugh harder or longer at the very public sight of the various colours of the rainbow alliance attacking each other than a gammon faced product of privilege, knowing he is safe for another generation. Pastor Niemöller still applies.

DW and I aren't doing anything today that we wouldn't on any other Friday. Personally I think the best way to piss on Brexiteer chips is to treat today as yesterday and as tomorrow. It's just a Friday. Let them make tits of themselves. They don't need our help.

BBC this morning for the first time I can remember clearly spelling out the potential pitfalls in FTA negotiations. Look forward to increasing indignation and fury as these manifest themselves in RL.

I heard there is a group organised on FB to line their cars up on top of the White Cliffs of Dover and parp their car horns at France 'just to show them we're boss of our own country again'.

Would it be wrong to hope that they all get pissed and then forget to put their cars in reverse before driving off?

Spent the last month trying to be brave, but Led By Donkeys have made me shed a tear today.
It just feels so pointlessly sad and wrong.

mobile.twitter.com/bydonkeys/status/1223175366421946369?s=12

I heard there is a group organised on FB to line their cars up on top of the White Cliffs of Dover and parp their car horns at France 'just to show them we're boss of our own country again'.

I'm sure they'll be just as massively successful as the groups organised to barricade the motorways last year.

Regarding trans/woke/whatever, my personal view is that it is a concerted effort to completely undo any advances the past 50 years have bought in terms of levelling the playing field for women and ethnic minorities

agree

I thought I was past sadness Hester , but that Led by Donkeys thing has got a tear in my eye too

Led by Donkeys thing has got a tear in my eye too

And me

And me.

Thanks, Hester for posting that - me too.

My overall feeling is of immense sadness.

Even IF it transpires that leaving the UK is the best thing for our economy - a new 'golden age' (it won't be), the horrible 'little England' mentality it has re-legitimised (?) would not be worth the price of that.

The UK played a huge part in the fight to liberate Europe from extremism partly because it recognised that we are all human and all deserve respect and equality. Those men and women lived through that, and it wasn't SO long ago. What is happening to those values?

I heard there is a group organised on FB to line their cars up on top of the White Cliffs of Dover and parp their car horns at France 'just to show them we're boss of our own country again'.

If anyone hears it in France, they'll probably think there's a big traffic jam at Dover, shrug and say "bof."

Led By Donkeys have made me even sadder.