Westminstenders: Operation Shock and Awe

[RedToothBrush]

The government is launching its get ready for the end of transition campaign which has been dubbed a 'shock and awe' campaign.

In this campaign we will learn all about what Brexit means and what amazing opportunities lie for having increased customs and borders, beaucracy and increased costs. Bet you are all really excited and looking forward to this.

We will also get a 'Farage Garage' in Kent to cope with these wonderful opportunities in traffic jams. This will be something that businesses throughout the country will be super excited to plan for in their socially distanced Zoom meetings or across warehouses with their face masks on. And banks will be delighted to see an uptick in applications in CCJs and debt reconstruction plans.

It will be a super fun time for the under 30s who have zero hours contracts, worked in retail or hospitality. Or should I say 'worked'.

Meanwhile the right to a jury trial has been binned due to 'long covid delays' which are shorter than they were several years ago. The NHS isn't getting the funding it expected, and waiting lists are longer than ever with no way to clear them. The plan to build more hospitals seems to have disappeared with the Nightingales. Many councils are about to go into insolvency and be taken over by accountancy firms. The civil service is being dismantled and conservative loyalists with no experience being put in charge of important functions of state. Communications with the press are being 'streamlined' to make them incredible of holding power to account and only able to repeat government public announcements.

Anyone looking forward to Christmas? When you write a letter to Santa remember to add 'visa application form', 'a sleeping bag for use at Dover', 'tinned tomatoes' and 'packets of seeds to grow your own' to the list.

....and of course your two posts are absolutely connected Sabrina

Three posts

Stewart Hosie, ISC member:

The report reveals that no one in government knew if Russia interfered in or sought to influence the [Brexit] referendum because they did not want to know

OK - so now that the ISC report is public the Mail online headline is 'Putin's Gangster State' - that's referring to UK just to be clear.

The Telegraph live headline is currently 'Govt failed to protect Brexit vote from Russian interference'

Bit of a change around from earlier.

It's a good example of how a dampening 'line' has been put up and spread across the press. Hearteningly the fire of the real report has burst through into the headlines - even the loyal Telegraph. But still - most people will have seen the heads this morning and now the story is framed that way in their minds. Roll on tomorrow's front pages.

The broad conclusion of the report is that the Cameron, May and Cummings-Johnson governments knew about Russian interference in British polls (IndyRef) and knew Russian meddling possible in Brexit vote - but took no known action before 2019 elex. Indeed they blocked the release of this report.

Take away line : They knowingly failed to protect our democracy from a hostile state.

Farage's response to all this follows that same no evidence of interference line.

No evidence? More like wilful blindness.

And the govt has said it will not hold an inquiry.

Tweet with an extract from report stating Govt should have known of the Russia risk from 2014 (following Democrat party Clinton hacking).

For those interested the full Intelligence and Security Committee report is here

And the full government response is here

Who remembers our then Foreign Secretary sneaking off to a Russian oligarch’s party?

amp.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/26/boris-johnson-security-evgeny-lebedev-perugia-party

I particularly liked this bit:

When he was walking out to the plane, he did this curved walk. I really thought he was going to be sick on the tarmac

UK press starting to properly wake up to the challenges facing manufacturing

• not enough compliant (heat-treated) pallets to go round
• businesses can't have their products certified to the new UKCA standard because the government won't tell them what it is

And that's just in the last 24 hours!

Clearly the Government’s overriding priority since early in the year has been dealing with Covid.

Clearly nothing. Back in January they could have seen what was happening in China. They could have been making enquiries of the NHS as to how well they were stocked with ventilators and PPE and if necessary order more. They did none of this, it was Bang a bob for a Big Ben bong for Brexit. Which was complete and utter claptrap.

and even today in Ikea I was one of about 10% of customers wearing any sort of mask .....

people really are that pig headed

PS I regard Ikea very differently to my local supermarket ....
catchment for Ikea is 50 miles across
catchment for the supermarket is about 2 miles across

All the likes of Farage and Banks have now is that this is all part of some Remainer "plot" to #StopBrexit when in reality most of us are resigned to it happening. We just wanted to prove who was behind it and why and a bit of "told you so" from me at least

They now have to suck up what they voted for.

Fromage is also apparently waving the report about and demanding an apology from Remainers for saying he and Leave.eu had ties to Russia He's doing a Trump and hoping none of his followers actually reads it I presume.

@JeSuisPoulet

Fromage is also apparently waving the report about and demanding an apology from Remainers for saying he and Leave.eu had ties to Russia He's doing a Trump and hoping none of his followers actually reads it I presume.

If he feels slighted, he is more than welcome to take anyone he feels libelled him to court.

Otherwise the frog faced cunt can STFU.

@Mistigri

UK press starting to properly wake up to the challenges facing manufacturing

• not enough compliant (heat-treated) pallets to go round
• businesses can't have their products certified to the new UKCA standard because the government won't tell them what it is

And that's just in the last 24 hours!

... imo, the mundane issues like pallets - which are obscure and not sexy enough for tabloid headlines - will hammer exporters nearly as much as the more well-publicised ones

UK Withdrawal from the UPCA - European Patent Court

That will not help a trade deal;
looks part of the UK "race to the bottom" and "Bonfire of Regulations"

https://www.unified-patent-court.org/news/uk-withdrawal-upca

Today the UK made its final preparation to withdraw from the Unified Patent Court project.
A deposit of the withdrawal notification of ratification has been deposited with the Council Secretariat. In addition, there has been a parliamentary written statement in the House of Commons by Amanda Solloway (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation ):

"UNIFIED PATENT COURT
I am tabling this statement for the benefit of Honourable and Right Honourable Members to bring to their attention the UK’s withdrawal from the Unified Patent Court system.

Today, by means of a Note Verbale,
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has withdrawn its ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court and the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the Unified Patent Court (dated 23 April 2018) in respect of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man,
and its consent to be bound by the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on provisional application (dated on 6 July 2017) (collectively “the Agreements”).

In view of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union,
the United Kingdom no longer wishes to be a party to the Unified Patent Court system.

Participating in a court that applies EU law and is bound by the CJEU would be inconsistent with the Government’s aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation.

The Agreements have not yet entered into force.
However, in order to ensure clarity regarding the United Kingdom’s status in respect of the Agreements and to facilitate their orderly entry into force for other States without the participation of the United Kingdom,
the United Kingdom has chosen to withdraw its ratification of the Agreements at this time.

So how will UK patent holders enforce their rights ?

And moreover, how will non-UK patent holders trust the UK ?

"becoming an independent self-governing nation.'

Fucks sake. head desk

"Frog faced cunt" did make me laugh though.

I also chuckled to myself about "sounds of tentacles slapping" whilst discussing academies last night with a fellow school governor.

I keep thinking I'm missing something really obvious.

Does Johnson
(a) not understand what he's about to do to the country
(b) not give a shit
(c) still think the EU will blink

and if B, where do we think he'll emigrate to PDQ ?

@ListeningQuietly

I keep thinking I'm missing something really obvious.

Does Johnson
(a) not understand what he's about to do to the country
(b) not give a shit
(c) still think the EU will blink

and if B, where do we think he'll emigrate to PDQ ?

(a) not understand what he's about to do to the country

The problem is Johnson's Britain isn't our Britain. He's not doing any harm to his Britain is he ? His Britain is a land of posh dinners, pleasant tennis games, and where poverty is measured by having to wait a week for the latest Ranger Rover.

... Government’s aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation.

I presume that means that the UK will be withdrawing from participation in the UN (since it has to sign up to the UN Charter), the ECHR, NATO (since it has to commit to a "attack one, attack all" approach), the WTO () and the ICJ.....

All of which involve other countries having a say.

I go for option b) myself.
I think his headbangers will go for option c)

Eventually harming the country will rebound on the posh diners and cricket and tennis players. Just think of Wimbledon and the jobs currently done predominantly by immigrants - no one to pick the strawberries, no cleaners to clean up after folk.

It makes you think of the upper classes in the 1930s lamenting their servant problem, and not giving a stuff about people starving in other parts of the country.

prettybird - they are desperate to withdraw from the ECHR - even though British judges were key movers in setting it up and it's not an EU body.

NATO - no problem because it's American led, and we do what the Americans tell us to do.

UN - they probably think that's a bit toothless, so they needn't bother with that.

So everything will rely on the WTO

Candidates here www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/dg_e/dgsel20_e/dgsel20_e.htm

Odds here
news.ladbrokes.com/politics/liam-fox-priced-33-1-world-trade-organisation-leader.html

Must not snigger

prettybird - they are desperate to withdraw from the ECHR - even though British judges were key movers in setting it up and it's not an EU body.

Many years ago, when Dinky David dead-pig-fucker Cameron was blathering on about a "British Bill of Rights" (what's wrong with the 1689 OG flavour, by the way ?) a few more learned commentators called "bollocks" and noted that being signed up the ECHR was part of being in the EU.

If you work backwards you can join the dots.

It's worth noting the egregious decisions against individuals and in favour of the state that have managed to get through even when we've been in the ECHR (and previously under the 1689 BoR, and before that under Magna Carta).

No amount of rights are worth a gnats fart if you have no agency to assert them.

So everything will rely on the WTO

Isn't Trump pretty much letting it seize up ?

I know they're desperate to withdraw from the ECHR. But it would also mean withdrawing from the Council of Europe. And iirc (caveat: I haven't re-checked), there is a link with a link with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so if we withdraw from one we still have to remain signed up to the other - or we can no longer be a UN member.

And toothless as it is, if we're not in the UN, we can't be on the Security Council (the anachronism of the permanent members and their vetoes is a whole other debate) and we would no longer even be able to claim that we are a "world power" that in itself would be no bad thing as many of our current problems stem from still thinking we have an empire and can lord it over others