Westminstenders: The Final Week

[RedToothBrush]

Our final week in the EU...

Tbh I no longer feel particularly sad about Brexit because it's been obvious for a long time that it was going to happen. I know I speak from a relatively privileged position though - my own rights are about to get trashed but my children's are unaffected.

There is plenty to look forward to as fantasy and reality finally collide brutally. Starting with the reshuffle, no doubt the first of many.

Thanks, red 💐

The last week is sad, although it being my first week in retirement means I am mostly cheerful
We should all try not to let Brexit rob us of the delight from celebrations and achievements in our own lives

Meanwhile, we have to try to hold this govt to account for their cockups and hostile acts
Westministenders is part of our way of doing that, exchanging information, analysing, discussing what may happen
It helps to be prepared

Never let the bastards get you down
For me:

🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺
🇪🇺 #IAmEuropean 🇪🇺
🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺

and always will be
no matter how much the Brexiters demand I move on and help fix their Brexshit

Still, we’ve all got a lovely new 50p coin to look forward to

And that Brextival is going to be A-MA-ZING

I would hope that eventually we become part of the EEA, which is probably the 'best fit' for us. Johnson can't say this, because a) he still has to see off the ERG, and b) because he doesn't really know what it is because detail passes him by.

What about the 50p coin? I really don't want to use them, but I was thinking if they came my way, I would put them in my charity box. Then at least they get taken out of circulation for a while, but some good comes from it, in that the charity benefits.

Thanks red

What about the 50p coin? I really don't want to use them, but I was thinking if they came my way, I would put them in my charity box. Then at least they get taken out of circulation for a while, but some good comes from it, in that the charity benefits.

I like this idea, I'm going to do this.

What about the 50p coin?

Hasn't that been quietly forgotten, after the date being wrong twice ?

If it ever gets struck, I suspect it won't have a date, nor indeed anything about Brexit. Following the theme that the ground is being laid for a Mandela effect Brexit.

No Big Ben. No Church Bells. Fireworks anyone ? (If you can distinguish them from delayed Chinese New Years. Or Burns night )

Incidentally, there's a thread in AIBU about probabilities. I was amused to see some of the posters who are struggling with the facts and keep thinking I've seen that poster elsewhere ... don't know if anyone else noticed ?

I might do the 50p thing too. Or half to charity, half towards a city break in the EU later in the year.

Just seen the news about the 50p. Then remembered we hardly ever use cash .

I honestly can't remember the last time I had a 50p in change. Maybe 2017 or 2018 ? We don't have any in the house, and only a couple in the car.

If it had been a pound coin things might have been different. Odd that wasn't used ...

It's 50p because there was a commemorative 50p when we joined. It's like Hitler and that train carriage at Compiengne.

(Yes, I just compared Brexit to the Nazis. But I think I got away with it.)

Relaxed cat.

I'm feeling very detached from it all.

Long conversation on the phone with ds last night (he wouldn't let me get off the phone to go to bed as he "wanted to talk" - for nearly 2 hours - first 40 minutes was as he walked home from the rugby club so wanted the security of someone on the end of the line plus he was drunk ) He (like me) thinks that BJ is doing Nicola's job for her and will increase support for Scottish independence. Thinks that if BJ had any nous then he'd allow the request now, as the vote would probably still fail (but only just) but by putting off, it will win next time.

I think there is a lot of mileage to be had in calling anyone who refers to this coin as "50p" as dirty Brexit traitors and insist they call it "10 shillings". Each and every time. They are not going to win the peace. Not while I have breath.

We also need a concerted campaign (the sort of thing social media does so well) to push for decimalisation to be reversed as another legacy of the UKs time as a vassal state of the EU (we all know it's not true, but we also know Brexiteers don't really have a grasp of reality at the best of times). I want to see that pasty faced prick Francois either having to denounce the idea as "unworkable" or (more likely) making a bigger tit of himself agreeing with it.

Feel free to share from next Friday ...

Bring Back Good Old British Farenheit.

Bring Back Good Old British Farenheit.

Never really went away as far as local radio is concerned.

Peter Ungpharkorn @coppetainpu
Expect to see/hear a lot about “SPS” in the coming months on UK trade talks with the EU, US, etc, and on trade across the Irish Sea

What is SPS?

1. It's FOOD SAFETY, and ANIMAL and PLANT HEATLH.

Most attempts to shorten it are wrong or misleading.

www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/sps_e/sps_e.htm

1/4

What is SPS?

2. SPS = sanitary and phytosanitary measures.

“Sanitary” covers FOOD safety and ANIMAL health (in this case)

“Phyto” means plants, so “phytosanitary” is PLANT health.

All three are the reason for checks/paperwork on Northern Ireland-Great Britain goods trade

2/4

What is SPS?

3. Are all food “standards” in SPS?

Health standards eg fat, sugar, salt limits, or rules on alcohol and formula milk for babies, or health labelling — aren’t usually SPS but “Technical barriers to trade (TBT)” (maybe a grey area)

www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/sps_e/spsund_e.htm

3/4

What is SPS?

4. Is SPS only about food?

Absolutely not.

The “animal” part includes pets and racehorses.

The “plant” part includes packing crates, wooden furniture, cut flowers, etc.

These are all under SPS regulations

4/4

Linky to that Ode to Joy:

www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Movement-Symphony-No-9-Op-125/dp/B07VZ36W4D

Dmitry Grozoubinski @DmitryOpines (former Oz trade negotiator)

Regulations, alignment and the level playing field in the upcoming EU-UK FTA.

A dummy's guide by me, an even bigger dummy.

https://www.explaintrade.com/articles/2020/1/18/explained-simply-regulations-alignment-and-the-level-playing-field

I hate to inflict the Daily Mail on you, but even Dan Hodges has finally noticed that this government Doesn't Have A Fucking Clue.

Last week I spoke to a Minister who told me about the confusion and contradiction that, according to his account, is starting to spread like a political coronavirus through Boris Johnsonn^^'s administration.
'I think the problem is that they had a clear plan to win the Election and get Brexitt^ done,' he said. 'But now that's been achieved, they're struggling to define how to move forward.'
Which was a polite way of saying what has seemed increasingly obvious to many in Westminster. Having secured a decisive 80-seat mandate from the electorate, Boris and his team don't know what to do with it.^

50p coin? I feel it would be like handling 'dirty money' but I do like Peregrina's idea re the charity box so would go that route.

Going back to pre-decimalization might be a step too far... and how far back should we go? Pity the leave voters who would need to learn that one third of a pound is six shillings and eightpence, and about farthings and guineas and florins.

Perhaps we should push for it?

Thanks for the thread, Red and contributors.

Talking of coronavirus, I hope Johnson is taking notes on how to build a hospital in a week from the Chinese. He could have all forty built within a year!

Mujtaba Rahman @mij_europe
Govt all over place. Barclay tells Marr we're not going to diverge for the sake of it; Javid said same in Davos after backlash from biz (a day after saying UK would diverge). Big row with business groups looms - cars, food & drink, aerospace, chemicals, pharma. & the new Tory MPs

Anand Menon @anandmenon1
Whether we do or not kind of isn’t the point though, is it? It’s whether we reserve the right to.

David Henig @davidheniguk
All manner of issues in regulation ranging from what we commit in treaty, what we decide to do domestically, regional or global initiatives, how business adjusts, what trade partners ask from us etc. Hence why phase 1 Brexit was the easy bit.

Johnson wants an easy life as PM...

www.cer.eu/insights/flexibility-does-not-come-free
By Sam Lowe

'We reserve the right not to take rules, but realise we are fucked of we don't' is probably where policy will end up in most cases if the trade experts are right.

...Groats! Bring them back. And Dubloons and Pieces of Eight (Squwark!)

In other news, Priti Patel, who once wrote a paper saying lazy British workers should work Indian hours for Indian wages now says we cannot rely on cheap labour to build the post-Brexit economy.

(This is the Priti Patel who says when she says she wants to bring back the death penalty it does not mean she wants to bring back the death penalty.)