Westministenders: The Beginning of Negotiations

[RedToothBrush]

Transition has a few hours left.

Then negotiations start and trade stops.

Far from being over, there are huge numbers of issues that lay unresolved.

And businesses both now in the UK and EU will cease to trade with each other just because the red tape is such a pain.

So whilst people will celebrate and think things are 'done' that just shows how much people are paying attention.

It will be interesting to see people gradually realising what has been lost...

Exceptionally belated thanks red

PMK

Just seen this. A lovely gesture from the EU ❤️

How many Brexiters actually sat down and thought through the consequences of removing the rights of half the population?

Just imagine how pissed off they'll be when the blue passports start arriving.

@MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

Re Kate Pickett and ‘The Spirit Level’, the authors also set up the Equality Trust www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ , always worth keeping tabs on.

Re Brexit this is so stupid and unnecessary .

Thanks for the link!

LQ I thought the same when I saw Larry Elliot's pro-Lexit article today ..."why no comments?"

Twitter has just informed me that the New Year official #1 single is a pro-immigration number by Asian Dub Foundation featuring Stewart Lee rapping about Poles "coming over 'ere and ... mending things" , and on further inspection it appears that at # 4 in the charts is a ditty subtly entitled "Boris Johnson is a fucking cunt".

Maybe we shouldn't give up on Britain yet.

I wrote a snotty letter to the Guardian about Larry Elliot's article. Asking why no comments, for a starter. They won't print it, but it felt good.

But since Elliot is a Lexiter and he can see that Brexit doesn't look like it's going to be a rip roaring success, he has to try to justify his position/salary. So much of the tosh he wrote about are actions which a Government could have dealt with had the will be there.

I particularly noted his comment that farmers would either pay better wages or automate. No mention that they might just pack up altogether.

This is then followed by a list of countries that don’t have tax on sanitary products, a list that includes Ireland

This error may possibly be explained by the continued inability of some writers and editors to wrap their heads around the notion that Ireland is a separate political entity in every way. Ireland seems to occupy an odd place in the British imaginary.

Are there any other countries which have internal customs borders? Have we achieved a world first?

There are some who would assert that this was first achieved by a British government in 1920 by means of the Government of Ireland Act.

So continuing in a British Tradition then!

@Mistigri

Twitter has just informed me that the New Year official #1 single is a pro-immigration number by Asian Dub Foundation featuring Stewart Lee rapping about Poles "coming over 'ere and ... mending things" , and on further inspection it appears that at # 4 in the charts is a ditty subtly entitled "Boris Johnson is a fucking cunt".

Maybe we shouldn't give up on Britain yet.

Posted upthread

@Peregrina

I am waiting with interest to see which European country Biden visits first. My betting would be Ireland. He might then stop in London, but might skip straight over to Paris or Berlin.

Thinking further, maybe Dublin, Belfast, Paris ...

Ah well I'm late to the party as usual

Obviously I had never heard of either ADF or the Kunts before tonight, as I am not very down with the kids.

Isn’t our oldest ally Portugal?

I believe Portugal is our oldest ally. I don't think we've ever been to war with them either, but I may be wrong on that. It might be that because we were at war with Spain, we allied with Portugal.

So glad everyone's still here.

I really feel that what is needed now is an organised pressure group, to organise the disaffection that is going to arise around the various stress-points that are inevitably going to arise with Brexit, and focus pressure on Opposition parties to renegotiate a closer relationship.

That five-year review is both opportunity and danger. I'm quite sure the extreme Brexit people aren't going to fade away, or relinquish their grasp on the Conservatives.

Is any such group emerging?

Oh dear, oh dear Adrian Hill writing for Conservative Woman is not happy with Johnson. Will we hear the sound of knives being sharpened soon?

He's also busy refighting the last war but I am pretty sure that he is much younger than 93.

Do you think Johndon will get shoved out?

The extreme Brexiters aren't going away, but as I have just posted, they are still busy infighting.

We have to take a leaf from Barnier's book, bide our time and keep our cool, but have a clear objective. I think strong pro re-join groups will emerge soon.

Sooner or later, I think he will get shoved out. Not sure how soon. Maybe six months time?

Johnson isn't the problem though. I would never and have never voted Tory, I was a teenager when Thatcher was in her pomp. I hated all she stood for but she was in politics for reasons of principle. This iteration of the tory party are completely beyond the pale and are not Tories in any way shape or form. Just like Trump and the republicans They are a rag tag group of boot lickers, extreme right wingers and self serving incompetents. Not one of them would recognise a principled stance if it smacked them in the face.

Adrian Hill is not a happy bunny, is he?

@Peregrina

There have been quite a few posts in the last 18 hours about how now Brexit is really done we must stop moaning and move on. Reading about Kent residents, may I suggest that they take the lead on this, since they were the ones keen to have Brexit?

For the hundreth time not all of us.

Apologies if I’m mistaken Peregrina, but I thought you were English? Should you stop moaning because the English voted for it? Should Prettybird stop moaning because the British voted for it?

The people of Kent are not a homogeneous mass of gammon faced Brexiteers.

Johnson isn't the problem though.

He has certainly made the problems worse because he kicked out the decent ones at the last election. I say this as one who has never voted Tory but I am quite sure that many he got rid of had come into Parliament with honourable motives. If Johnson got kicked out, we'd just get another chancer.

I never describe myself as English. I hold a British passport.

I am well aware that the people of Kent are not homogenous, but I strongly suspect that the people in Kent who are moaning were Leave voters. With the Gloucestershire eel man, we know he was a Leave voter who now feels badly let down. But why anyone trusted Boris Johnson is beyond me - his history shows that he's not a man of his word.