Brexit slowly becoming a Farce.

[welshbairn]

Word from Downing Street, probably Cummings.

Quote

‘The negotiations will probably end this week. Varadkar doesn’t want to negotiate. Varadkar was keen on talking before the Benn Act when he thought that the choice would be ‘new deal or no deal’. Since the Benn Act passed he has gone very cold and in the last week the official channels and the backchannels have also gone cold. Varadkar has also gone back on his commitments — he said if we moved on manufactured goods then he would also move but instead he just attacked us publicly. It’s clear he wants to gamble on a second referendum and that he’s encouraging Barnier to stick to the line that the UK cannot leave the EU without leaving Northern Ireland behind.

 

There are quite a few people in Paris and Berlin who would like to discuss our offer but Merkel and Macron won’t push Barnier unless Ireland says it wants to negotiate. Those who think Merkel will help us are deluded. As things stand, Dublin will do nothing, hoping we offer more, then at the end of this week they may say ‘OK, let’s do a Northern Ireland only backstop with a time limit’, which is what various players have been hinting at, then we’ll say No, and that will probably be the end.

 

Varadkar thinks that either there will be a referendum or we win a majority but we will just put this offer back on the table so he thinks he can’t lose by refusing to compromise now. Given his assumptions, Varadkar’s behaviour is arguably rational but his assumptions are, I think, false. Ireland and Brussels listen to all the people who lost the referendum, they don’t listen to those who won the referendum and they don’t understand the electoral dynamics here.

 

If this deal dies in the next few days, then it won’t be revived. To marginalise the Brexit Party, we will have to fight the election on the basis of ‘no more delays, get Brexit done immediately’. They thought that if May went then Brexit would get softer. It seems few have learned from this mistake. They think we’re bluffing and there’s nothing we can do about that, not least given the way May and Hammond constantly talked tough then folded.

 

So, if talks go nowhere this week, the next phase will require us to set out our view on the Surrender Act. The Act imposes narrow duties. Our legal advice is clear that we can do all sorts of things to scupper delay which for obvious reasons we aren’t going into details about. Different lawyers see the “frustration principle” very differently especially on a case like this where there is no precedent for primary legislation directing how the PM conducts international discussions.

 

We will make clear privately and publicly that countries which oppose delay will go the front of the queue for future cooperation — cooperation on things both within and outside EU competences. Those who support  delay will go to the bottom of the queue. [This source also made clear that defence and security cooperation will inevitably be affected if the EU tries to keep Britain in against the will of its government] Supporting delay will be seen by this government as hostile interference in domestic politics, and over half of the public will agree with us.

 

We will also make clear that this government will not negotiate further so any delay would be totally pointless.  They think now that if there is another delay we will keep coming back with new proposals. This won’t happen. We’ll either leave with no deal on 31 October or there will be an election and then we will leave with no deal.

 

‘When they say ‘so what is the point of delay?’, we will say “This is not our delay, the government is not asking for a delay — Parliament is sending you a letter and Parliament is asking for a delay but official government policy remains that delay is an atrocious idea that everyone should dismiss. Any delay will in effect be negotiated between you, Parliament, and the courts — we will wash our hands of it, we won’t engage in further talks, we obviously won’t given any undertakings about cooperative behaviour, everything to do with ‘duty of sincere cooperation’ will be in the toilet, we will focus on winning the election on a manifesto of immediately revoking the entire EU legal order without further talks, and then we will leave. Those who supported delay will face the inevitable consequences of being seen to interfere in domestic politics in a deeply unpopular way by colluding with a Parliament that is as popular as the clap.

 

Those who pushed the Benn Act intended to sabotage a deal and they’ve probably succeeded. So the main effect of it will probably be to help us win an election by uniting the leave vote and then a no deal Brexit. History is full of such ironies and tragedies.’

 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

36 minutes ago, tarapoa said:

Cummings seems to have the euro-sceptic Hungarian top brass primed for the veto they need to render the “law” meaningless.

No surprise that Cummings and Co will be trying to tap up Orban's scurrilous Government, as it has Bannon's figerprints all over it.  I doubt that the Hungarians will however provide the magic pass key; they are already on the EU's naughty stool and will be shat on from very on high if they try to pull a stunt on Brexit.

I actually think that if it's true then it's a welcome sign of the desperation in the Brexit camp, and the petulant fire and brimstone noises coming out of 10 Downing Street tonight back that up.  Johnson's deal is dead in the water and the Government is issuing all maner of threats, more as an act of bravado than a serious statement of intent.

I welcome the day that Cummings is led out of No 10 and public life muttering like the villain in the closing scene of Scooby Doo.

[Paco]

Word from Downing Street, probably Cummings.

I think a good 70% of that is demonstrably horseshit, and the rest speculation that’s impossible to prove either way.

Where did it come from?!

[H Wragg]

I think a good 70% of that is demonstrably horseshit, and the rest speculation that’s impossible to prove either way.

Where did it come from?!

This is where it was reported.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/how-number-10-view-the-state-of-the-negotiations/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[ICTJohnboy]

Grant Shapps just been on Sky News to answer questions on the hit to the economy leaving without a deal would mean. Usual worse case scenarios mentioned of course, plus the fact that whatever happens to the UK economy, it will be - Quote  "just as bad, if not, even worse for the EU economy".

How reassuring is that?

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Autocorrect and far fingers.

Mods ffs

[dirty dingus]

1 hour ago, ICTJohnboy said:

Grant Shapps just been on Sky News to answer questions on the hit to the economy leaving without a deal would mean. Usual worse case scenarios mentioned of course, plus the fact that whatever happens to the UK economy, it will be - Quote  "just as bad, if not, even worse for the EU economy".

How reassuring is that?

Are the sky studios and bbc right next to each other? The same folk seem to pop up on both outlet in double quick time. Shapps also tried to get out of answering the leaked release by 10 Downing street by saying it could have came from the guy that sets out the chairs at meetings. They are all shite scared of Cummings and going of his script.

[Granny Danger]

1 hour ago, H Wragg said:

This is where it was reported.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/how-number-10-view-the-state-of-the-negotiations/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Johnson using the Spectator to try and discredit Varadkar and to try and claim that he would have been willing to ‘compromise’ had it not been for the Benn Act.

Only simpletons will fail to see this desperate stunt for what it is.

Johnson may not be taking money from the Telegraph or the Spectator these days but there’s an ongoing quid pro quo relationship.

[Paco]

No 10 now saying a deal is now impossible. Quelle surprise.

 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

The amount of downright lies that these gammon simpletons are prepared to swallow is frightening.

Anything that is negative about Brexit - such as the IFS report, is dismissed as fake news and scaremongering.

I wonder how many job losses or what length of recession will convince these economic illiterates otherwise.

[zidane's child]

16 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

I wonder how many job losses or what length of recession will convince these economic illiterates otherwise.

They'll just blame the Polish anyway.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

The amount of downright lies that these gammon simpletons are prepared to swallow is frightening.

Anything that is negative about Brexit - such as the IFS report, is dismissed as fake news and scaremongering.

I wonder how many job losses or what length of recession will convince these economic illiterates otherwise.

Hopefully the loss of their own jobs

[Detournement]

Merkel apparently told Boris that RoI has veto on NI leaving the customs union. 

 

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 minute ago, Detournement said:

Merkel apparently told Boris that RoI has veto on NI leaving the customs union. 

 

It must be like playing Scrabble with a toddler, constantly explaining the rules.

[Detournement]

16 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

It must be like playing Scrabble with a toddler, constantly explaining the rules.

You would struggle to find that rule written down anywhere.

[Granny Danger]

1 hour ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

The amount of downright lies that these gammon simpletons are prepared to swallow is frightening.

Anything that is negative about Brexit - such as the IFS report, is dismissed as fake news and scaremongering.

I wonder how many job losses or what length of recession will convince these economic illiterates otherwise.

There will be many, many Tory MPs who KNOW that it is not scaremongering.  These also know that if they speak out they will be deselected.  The overwhelming majority of them do not have the courage of their convictions.

I don’t have any time for any Tories but I’m not blinkered enough to believe that they are all alike.

The Tory Party grass roots has been infiltrated by Farage loving hardliners and they are setting the agenda.

 

[Paco]

Er.....

[cyderspaceman]

I saw this in the Soaraway Shite and immediately thought it referred to brexiters. (It  didn't, of course, it was the Extinction Rebellion protesters.)

Quote

Like a deranged fundamentalist religion, they trade in misery and fear — with suffering as the only route to salvation

 

[Kejan]

Build a wall and/or a hard border.

Can we no have one with England?

FFS, look at the nick of this!

 

[H Wragg]

Build a wall and/or a hard border.
Can we no have one with England?
FFS, look at the nick of this!
 

The replies to this one. [emoji23]