Westminstenders: Off he pops to Brussels

[RedToothBrush]

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex
There's no way Johnson has not already decided whether or not to concede on Level Playing Field. Which makes the trip to Brussels dressing. Whether it will dress a concession as "I have saved us" or No Deal as "I tried my best" remains to be seen. But the choice is already made.

Amanda Cole @amandajanecole
What's your gut feeling, will he put his job ahead of the country? Given his past self serving form?

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex
I think he is so cornered - and has done so badly on Covid19 - his instinct will be one last, double-or-nothing throw of the dice. Only no deal does that.

The issue is that coming back with a deal will earn him much heckling and zero back-slapping from his peers. But no deal will earn him just as much heckling, but also plenty of back-slapping. What I don't know is just how ominous the departmental briefings he's getting are.

Its also worth noting the following:

Mujtaba Rahman @mij_europe
I understand @BorisJohnson wanted @EmmanuelMacron & Merkel to join his phone call with @vonderleyen last night, but she rejected the idea

So even yesterday he was STILL looking to undermine the EU and split its leaders. After all this time and the number of times he's tried this on.

Have no doubt that a) everything will be blamed on Macron (probably personally, with Conservative hardliners coming out calling for the public to boycott French cheese and wine - I'm serious btw) and covid b) covid provides a handy distraction at least for the moment. It will be used accordingly - that means its possibly now not in Johnson's interest to stop a spike in January. All efforts will be put into the vaccine rollout for PR but thats going to hit the breaks fairly soon. No doubt the EU will be blamed for that too.

What I'm not anticipating is another full lockdown. I think at least parts of Greater Manchester will now get out of T3 on 16th December. Traffords numbers look exceptional and I think it politically impossible for Johnson to keep it in T3. Its Graham Brady's patch and Manchester as a whole looks far far better than T2 London.

Anyone who gets out of T3 before Christmas won't go back into it. I'm not anticipating London to go T3 unless No Deal turns really ugly and its useful to quell civil unrest.

I think if we head into no deal then tight restrictions won't be used for covid reasons no matter how bad the hospitals get - it will only be about civil unrest, it will all be about keeping the economy going - backbench revolts are what scare Johnson most, and he's already said no more Tiers after the start of Feb.

We shall see what the day brings...

@borntobequiet, you have given us a break from the Brexitshow.

I always find micro-tribalism hilarious. Everything depends on context! Using the Birmingham example...
If your opponent is from Solihull, you are a Brummie
If your opponent is from London, you are Mercian.
If your opponent is from Wales, you are English.
If your opponent is from France, you are British
If your opponent is from America, you are European
If your opponent is from outer space, you are Human. :-D

I nourish a quiet conviction that the only reason Star Trek managed World Peace is because we realized there were other buggers out there to fight.

@Peregrina

It saddens me to see that standards we have worked hard to improve like food standards are likely to be trashed in the name of Brexit. Some of these standards that we also encouraged the EU to adopt.

UK has a choice -

Either maintain regulatory alignment and keep selling the same products to EU, tariff-free.

Or diverge, e.g. use banned pesticides, remove labelling, import non-EU-compatible food from US, India, China, etc. and then customs either refuse entry for or seize those goods and punitive tariffs/quotas are imposed via the joint dispute resolution mechanism.

Great innit.

UK has a choice

Yes @TatianaBis. And the EU are so unreasonable for making them choose. Do they not know who they are? This sort of nonsense was never an issue in the days of the empire.

What about those proud Yorkshiremen from Barnoldswick, who found they were turned into Lancastrians when the boundaries were redrawn? The Wars of the Rose's are still alive there.

[quote TheABC]@borntobequiet, you have given us a break from the Brexitshow.

I always find micro-tribalism hilarious. Everything depends on context! Using the Birmingham example...
If your opponent is from Solihull, you are a Brummie
If your opponent is from London, you are Mercian.
If your opponent is from Wales, you are English.
If your opponent is from France, you are British
If your opponent is from America, you are European
If your opponent is from outer space, you are Human. :-D

I nourish a quiet conviction that the only reason Star Trek managed World Peace is because we realized there were other buggers out there to fight.[/quote]
What about the Black Country !!!!!?

Also, I noticed a lot of non-Londoners thought "cockney" was an insult to a Londoner. Can't speak for all, but it's not to me (born in Paddington )

It's not unique to the UK though. Italians have varying views on Neapolitans or Romans or Milanese or Calabresians or Sardinians or Sicilians. (Notes that Etna is going off again ...)

Calling someone a Cockney is surely pejorative and a bit 1950s. It’s the kind of thing you can say if yourself but not of others. I wouldn’t use ‘cockney accent’ either. Although cockney accents are being replaced by MLE (multicultural London English) in my lifetime.

@TatianaBis

Calling someone a Cockney is surely pejorative and a bit 1950s. It’s the kind of thing you can say if yourself but not of others. I wouldn’t use ‘cockney accent’ either. Although cockney accents are being replaced by MLE (multicultural London English) in my lifetime.

I can only speak for myself - it may have been meant as perjorative, but I didn't take it that way.

There might just be a lesson for some there.

Bear in mind I was called a lot worse at school (being called an Eyetie by a teacher possibly being the high water mark). So my experiences and responses may not be typical.

I worked with a Wearsider for a while (everyone called him a Geordie though ) and he once commented on another colleagues origins as "a Damn Mack'em" - possibly ironically ...

@DGRossetti - even "Black Country" is subject to disagreement. I've been burned by that one before (hence, Mercian).

If that's the way you rock, it's fine by me!

8 years ago today I became a UK and EU Citizen.

I had always expected that I would keep the purple passport and let the Blue one lapse.
Soon they will both be blue.
But hopefully the other country has a competent incoming government.

The sun is shining but I feel very, very sad.

PS
Operation Brock tests
They are doing it at night and not letting the press watch.
Says it all.

Thank you LQ for answering my question about Operation Brock. It is as I thought - but didn't say as much as am not as politically savvy as regular WM posters.
I'm sorry you are feeling so sad. It's rubbish isn't it?

I think JRM fathers book has been covered here....
But found this article/review by Aliaster Campbell genuinely interesting

www.tortoisemedia.com/2020/12/15/alastair-campbell-the-23-year-old-book-that-explains-brexit-and-beyond/

Listening - my commiserations . Was so excited when the kids and I became EU citizens - never thought it would be removed. So both my passports will be become blue - but the NZ one is fairly much welcomed with open arms..... I can't say I am optimistic that the warm welcome for the UK one will remain the same....

I noted that Adern had a prominent seat at the OECD meeting in Paris (via Zoom), whereas Johnson didn't bother (he was apparently meant to have a pre-recorded message played)

I guess at least I have the consolation that I voted for Biden
and his
The BBC .... I'm Irish
line saved the GFA with one smile
and thus pushed the idiots in the Cabinet towards compromise with the EU faster and more thoroughly that anything that has been said in the UK over the last 4 1/2 years

Amused that the Farage Garage is a swamp that needs draining
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/15/kent-lorry-park-to-miss-brexit-day-deadline

I guess at least I have the consolation that I voted for Biden and thus pushed the idiots in the Cabinet towards compromise with the EU faster and more thoroughly that anything that has been said in the UK over the last 4 1/2 years

Is it just me, or does every step the US presidential election takes towards being complete, there's an incremental advance in Brexit talks ?

I was listening to this (How to Invent a Country)

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p071qllm

today, which reminded me that even the countries of the UK have historically had very fluid borders

Thanks for that born I will listen to it.

I notice "U Turn" is trending ...

Amused that the Farage Garage is a swamp that needs draining grin
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/15/kent-lorry-park-to-miss-brexit-day-deadline

You couldn't make it up, could you?

Inching closer to a deal?

twitter.com/nicktolhurst/status/1338885124390313984?s=21

I believe we still will have several weeks of no deal?

LQ Biden I’m Irish, was a highlight in a very shitty year.
I’m sorry you are feeling so rubbish💐

I'll be OK.
Its just depressing to have no family to see over the whole season
and nothing to put under the tree yet.
On the other hand I do have some FAB decorations

"No" is a complete sentence.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/15/access-eus-100bn-research-fund-erasmus-student-exchange-risk/

Access to EU's €100bn research fund at risk after Brussels rejects British 'pay-as-you-go' demands

The EU insist Britain commits to paying seven years of membership to be part of schemes such as Copernicus and Erasmus

(contd)

Brexit Border Chaos Prompts Warning Truckers Will Ditch U.K.

Europe’s largest truck owner warned it could turn away deliveries to the U.K. if Brexit triggers chaos at the border, a move that could threaten supermarkets’ supplies of fresh produce.

With a little more than two weeks until the U.K. leaves the European Union’s single market, Kristian Kaas Mortensen, an executive at Girteka Logistics, said he expects queues at the border that could stretch as far as 50 kilometers (31 miles). Hold-ups could force his firm, which owns 7,500 trucks, as well as its rivals to limit bookings to the U.K., he said in an interview.

The U.K. has told businesses to brace for disruption at the border next month regardless of whether it signs a trade deal with the EU. In its worst-case scenario, it expects a queue of 7,000 trucks at the port of Dover. The government blames companies for not doing enough to prepare for the new customs checks and paperwork that will be needed after Dec. 31.

“What does it help to be prepared when you can’t even reach the territory?” Mortensen said. “Both the small guy and the big guy will in that case say ‘this looks like a situation it’s better to avoid for the next three to six months.’”

Girteka Logistics isn’t alone. The Road Haulage Association, an industry lobby group, says a number of EU hauliers aren’t taking bookings for deliveries to the U.K. in January. The cost of keeping trucks and their drivers waiting in line for 24 hours may not be worth the value of their contracts, according to the RHA.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-15/europe-s-top-trucker-says-brexit-chaos-threatens-u-k-deliveries?sref=2jpp91Sh

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-15/europe-s-top-trucker-says-brexit-chaos-threatens-u-k-deliveries

Europe’s largest truck owner warned it could turn away deliveries to the U.K. if Brexit triggers chaos at the border, a move that could threaten supermarkets’ supplies of fresh produce.

With a little more than two weeks until the U.K. leaves the European Union’s single market, Kristian Kaas Mortensen, an executive at Girteka Logistics, said he expects queues at the border that could stretch as far as 50 kilometers (31 miles). Hold-ups could force his firm, which owns 7,500 trucks, as well as its rivals to limit bookings to the U.K., he said in an interview.

(contd)