POSTINGS |
For The Record |
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Statements by our Prime Minster, Theresa May, as officially recorded in Hansard - We will be leaving the European Union on 29 March. I believe we shall be leaving on 29 March with a good deal. / I did indeed confirm that our intent and what the Government are working for is to leave the European Union on 29 March / I am happy to repeat what I have said previously - that we will be leaving the European Union on 29 March / We have that date in our legislation: it is 29 March 2019 / We have put it into legislation, and this Government are committed to delivering exiting on 29 March / No, we are leaving the European Union, and we are leaving on 29 March 2019 / We will not be revoking article 50 or asking for the extension of article 50, and we will be leaving the EU on 29 March next year / We will be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019. After that date, we will no longer be a member of the EU / We are leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019. We are negotiating a future relationship with the European Union that will, indeed, deliver on the vote of the British people / I am happy to give that reassurance. We are leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019. / My hon. Friend said, I think, “if” we leave the European Union on 29 March 2019. Let me just confirm that we will be leaving on 29 March 2019 / We will be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019 / we can and will leave the European Union on 29 March / Then yesterday Hansard records - I regret not being able to deliver Brexit on 29 March. Update 26-Mar-2019 - Mrs May’s regret at the non-delivery of Brexit on the legally agreed date seems somewhat deceitful now that we know it was agreed by her without any reference to her Cabinet or to Westminster MPs. Reports confirm that our Brussels ambassador, Sir Tim Barrow, was instructed by Mrs May to commit the UK to extending the Article 50 period to April 12 without any discussion by or mandate from Parliament. The stitch-up continues ... |
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tags: enough already, national, embarrassment, humiliation, no control, puppet, robot |
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Waiting For Anything ... |
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Predictions of Mrs May’s demise have been made more than once before. This New Statesman cover dates from July 2017 for example. But this time the odds say that they have more chance of being right.
In reality Mrs May’s authority has been completely destroyed - from both within and without. Our Friends in Europe taking away some remaining shreds at their meeting last week. Yet Mrs May has been appeasing the Brussels crocodile at every turn. Will it really eat her in the end? This week Mrs May apparently promised to somehow bypass the Speaker’s ruling and have another vote on her Dead Donkey Deal. But confusion over its timing - on Tuesday or on Thursday or on Friday evening or not being held at all - shows what a bunch of headless chickens Mrs May, her Cabinet and her political advisors have become. Instead we are, it seems, going to go through another charade of indicative votes. These will be similar to the last lot of indicative votes but have more choices and cause even more unrest. These votes being the parliamentary equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs while the ship is sinking. They give politicians a further chance to talk about what might have been and float more unworkable plans for the future - in some mythical land far from reality. Meanwhile the SS Westminster Titanic sinks ever deeper .. with only the Thames mud preventing a significant loss of life. We all know that we are (were?) supposed to leave the EU on Friday of this week. Despite this the UK parliament requested more time (after 1,000 mainly wasted days) through an extension until 30 June - but our Friends in Europe gave us two weeks - until 12 April - instead. Yet our guaranteed leaving date has been fixed at 29 March 2019 by statute for ages. So how can any extension be possible? How can an EU meeting minute over-rule existing UK law? Some say that 29 March can be simply overruled by a minister’s say-so. Others are equally certain that it would require the equivalent of a treaty change- so needing the approval of both Houses of Parliament plus Royal Assent - and more time But who is right? And what can we do about it all? Our marches, petitions, social media postings, websites, etc carry no weight within the House. So we must simply wait - to leave, to stay, for Christmas, for Godot, for anything ... |
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tags: enough already, national, embarrassment, humiliation, no control, puppet, robot |
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And You Thought That Eurovision Was Bad? |
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Our PM went to beg for more time from our Brussels masters - as expected. But they did not approve her requested June extension - and instead instructed her on their demands. She has just two extra weeks to force through her bad deal. The public meetings were sweetness and light - but in private Mrs May was clearly out of her depth and sticking to the approach that had failed so often before.
Just how low can our inept administration sink? |
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tags: crunch time, leave now, enough already, national, embarrassment, humiliation |
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We Want To Break Free |
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Some simple arithmetic for Labour Party MPs - So which is it to be - Deal or No Deal? You know that No Deal got far more support than the alternatives in those recent petitions to the House. Take your lead from your real-world voters. Update: Mrs May is about to announce something? |
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tags: crunch time, over the top, leave now, enough already |
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A Thousand Days |
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As the Brexit days, weeks, months and years drag by they keep reminding Grandads just how low British politicians - and even the civil servants - have sunk. The 2016 national objective was simple and direct - leave the EU. But deliberate delays, obfuscation, double speak, artificial problems, distortions and straight-out lies have been used to create barriers to it at every step along the way.
Any government that actually wanted to implement what they had promised could have submitted the Article 50 letter just days after the June 2016 vote. And since the EU rules set-out a maximum of two years notice - but no minimum - the UK could have legally left on, say, 31 Dec 2016. However the lack of preparation within Whitehall - through incompetence or design - created another barrier to slow or entirely block progress. How pathetic! This week in the House of Commons some rarely used procedural rules to put a brake on our Prime Minster’s plan to blackmail - or force - MPs into supporting her Dead Donkey Deal. A deal she remains fixated upon while seemingly unaware that the blocking rules are rarely used precisely because no other Prime Minister would have tried to force such a bad bill through Parliament unchanged. However even without the Speaker’s intervention it was unlikely that the bad deal would be accepted - so perhaps the intervention saved the Government from a third vote defeat (deliberately?) Now the Government - and the country - is in the position of having a deal that needs to be changed drastically to get approval in the UK - but the other 27 parties involved already have a deal that they are happy with. And clearly don’t want to change it. So a thousand days on from the people’s vote we expect that our PM’s next move will be to beg for more time from our Brussels masters. More national humiliation! Someone with a better grasp of the situation really has to take control and soon. But the EU are not helping. In fact today’s EU grows increasingly like East Germany was in the 1960s and 70s. A one party state exercising total control over the population. A state where anyone trying to make a break for freedom risked being shot in the back at the border wall. Bring back memories, Angela? |
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tags: Not out, scoreboard, remain losers, disenfranchised leavers, vote ignored, anti-democratic |
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No End In Sight |
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Despite everything that has happened Mrs May is planning yet another attempt to force her Dead Donkey Deal onto the statute books. A deal that has already been rejected twice. It is so bad that May initially withdrew the bill to avoid the humiliation of a massive defeat. The next time it came up it got the biggest ever rejection of a government bill in modern political history.
But that’s not all. After this next vote Mrs May will head off to EU HQ - it is claimed - to ask for a delay of either a few weeks or a few years! The cynics will think it is more likely that the purpose is to be told what she has to do next ... A delay of a few weeks would be to implement the May-Robins plan - which involves years of transition and sham independence. The delay of a few years would be to start to draw up a different plan - which takes us back to our 2016 position. Both require even more of our taxes to be thrown into the swamp for years and years. So no Brexit on the promised day and the May-Robins stuffed Dead Donkey will have a law passed to say that it is still considered alive - indeed that it is immortal ... I Don’t Beleeeive It! |
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tags: incompetence, fraud, deceit, lies |
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Please End This Soon! |
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As the May-Robins Withdrawal Agreement gets totally smashed for a second time even the most delusional members of parliament must have finally got the message that it is a dead donkey of a deal. Few Grandads would claim to foresee the future but it did not take Nostradamus to predict - back in October 2018 - that this agreement would be a very bad deal for Britain. Westminster and Whitehall should Drop the Dead Donkey! Similarly many Grandads would simply say it was just common sense to aim for the best outcome as outlined in our posting of two and a half years ago (13-Sep-2016) - Now any Grandads with a strong commercial background would probably conclude that the best strategy would be to go for the simplest terms agreed as quickly as possible. In fact terms that could be as simple as a polite goodbye with no concessions or commitments. This would put the UK in the same situation as non-European countries and non-EU members like Turkey. So trips to the rest of Europe could involve visas (and therefore for EU citizens coming to the UK) - providing the EU is really prepared to commit to the cost of extra policing at its borders that this visa checking would incur. Instead our leaders we have made us suffer all this avoidable angst without coming up with a solution that is any better than that proposed plan of a polite goodbye. But at least we have a date, in law, to leave - the 29th of this month. Westminster politicians will no doubt vote against it. Yet in reality the earlier actions of Mrs May, and those same politicians, have manufactured a situation where there are no viable alternatives. Even the EU is facing up to the UK leaving this month deal-free. With 15th March approaching some classics scholars might be wondering if the advice of the soothsayer in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to Beware the Ides of March could equally apply to one or more of our current political leaders. After 993 days of political bluster the pent-up anger must be about to boil over and then anything could happen ... |
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tags: agreement, prediction, UK, EU, bad deal, leave now |
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10-Mar-2019 |
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Too Many Strings |
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As the promised date for leaving the EU gets nearer the pace of change in Whitehall and Westminster gets more and more hectic.
However amongst this unrest we have a Prime Minister who seems determined to force through a terrible deal. And not just to force it through but then to retire to the back benches or out of politics completely. A rather surprising plan considering how much her predecessor, Mr Cameron, was decried for leaving after the 2016 referendum defeat. So why would anybody be trying so hard to tie the country to a bad deal? A deal with so many strings attached that it needs 625 pages of description - yet does not include even a basic trade agreement. After suffering the biggest ever Commons defeat surely any normal person would have accepted that their deal was totally unacceptable. So with the prospect of being unemployed at age 62 what is planned to fill our ex-Prime Minster’s free time? The nice fat civil service pension will make life comfortable - but still some way short of a true millionaire lifestyle. But perhaps that pension would be trivial compared to the money to be made from some well-timed financial investments. So the question becomes who is going to make enough money from a bad Brexit deal to make it worthwhile for a puppet leader to give up their exalted position? The only hope for our grandchildren is that the forced acceptance of this bad deal fails - either through lucky accident or opposition design - and the metaphorical strings are broken beyond repair. |
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tags: agreement, surrender, UK, bad deal, leave, no strings, puppet |
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Meme Of The Day |
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tags: jokers, fools, agreement, surrender, UK, confidence trick, useless |
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Meme Of The Day |
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tags: doom, gloom, lies, end, universe, useful idiots |
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28-Feb-2019 |
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Meme Of The Day |
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tags: Crocodile, swamp, wildlife, Euro, agro, help |
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Lost Cause |
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In 2016 Grandad’s constituency voted to leave the European Union - by a big margin. And at the last general election it returned a Labour candidate - by a big margin - as it has done at every election since the 1920s.
If leave had been a political party it would have had an estimated House of Commons majority of 268 seats - more than enough to control the House even if all the Scottish and Northern Irish seats were in opposition. Soon after the vote it was becoming clear to many Grandads that the Conservative side was reluctant to press ahead on implementing the vote result. At this stage the Labour opposition had the opportunity to attack the government on its slowness of action. It could have become the voice of the majority wanting to see progress. The voice of those voters who formed the majority in those 421 seats. Six months on the government were still delaying the notice of leaving the EU and the writing was on the wall for Corbyn and co. to take the initiative. If they could have read the clear message. The withdrawal letter did not get sent until nine months had elapsed. So the window of opportunity was wide open for months. But instead the opposition was so inept that they failed to take the advantage and at the unnecessary general election they simply blundered on. Today, with just weeks left, they demand closer ties to the EU than the terrible May-Robins Surrender Agreement already provides! Clearly whoever is responsible for party policy has lost touch with both reality and many of their grass roots supporters. How different if Labour had been the party demanding faster progress towards getting what the majority voted for - just leaving with no strings attached. |
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tags: opposition, lack of strategy, leave now, death of democracy |
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Can Anyone Be Trusted? |
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According to Prime Minster May - and her cabinet - if any EU leave deal fails to get enough support in yet another vote rerun then the UK’s exit day will be 29-Mar-2019. The date that was put into law last year.
Any change of leaving date would require a change in the UK law - and the agreement of all the EU members. Which of these options is our government’s plan? Who is giving us a straight answer and who is trying to mislead us? By the end of March we should have an answer - but both options are simply following on from the step that is deeply undemocratic. A vote on a very bad deal. The May-Robins Withdrawal Agreement has already been comprehensively rejected by parliament. It suffered a record defeat. May and her cabinet should have accepted the result; not still be hawking it around Westminster. It is dead! It stinks! They - the government and public service - should now be in full-scale preparation for leaving the EU on World Trade Organisation terms next month. They should have told all public and private sector organisations that this is our short-term future - as soon as the Withdrawal Agreement was defeated. Instead we now see hundreds of head-less chickens in Westminster thrashing around while leaving everyone else to fend for themselves .. |
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tags: weak, ineffective, gutless, inflexible, blind panic |
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Which Side Are They On? |
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Despite claiming to be our elected representatives Westminster has way too many politicians who still believe that they know best. We even had a senior figure telling us that we should all leave politics to the professional politicians.
Currently we have a rag-tag assortment of know-it-alls demanding that a no deal outcome is removed from the options available when leaving the European Union. This is such a basic mis-interpretation of the negotiation process that it beggars belief. In fact it is such a fundamental error that you have to conclude that either those demanding it have an impaired mental capacity or that they are fighting for the other side. If the former they need to stand down from their positions for everyone’s safety. If the later they need to face what ever treason laws are still enforceable and be removed from office. Despite the obvious stupidity of having to agree a deal - no matter how unreasonable it is - that seems to be the way our parliament is heading. A direction being encouraged by branding a WTO Brexit outcome as crashing out over a cliff-edge leaving the population to starve in the dark. The next few weeks will shine a spotlight on just how good our politicians are. And most have shown little sign of being capable of handling the coming situation ... |
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tags: UK, political, crunch time, cave in |
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18-Feb-2019 |
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Feedback |
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Monster Mash (18-Apr-2018) - After many months with little news the Telegraph has now reported that Martin Selmayr's promotion broke 'letter and spirit' of EU law, Brussels watchdog finds. Coming a year after the actual coup and with little apparent impact on the culprit it looks like Selmayr will be safe in his well-funded job - for life; even if the EU one day collapses into its rotten core. Public Petitions (9-Jan-2019) - Even though those seven petitions have already been debated in the House of Commons (and then ignored) some remain open for voting. And still in the runaway lead is Leave the EU without a deal in March 2019. As at today 352,127 UK voters had put their signatures to this petition. So when you consider the 66,972 signatures for Leave the EU now and the 22,750 signatures for Walk away now! We voted for a No Deal Brexit there are a lot of UK citizens unhappy with those Westminster politicians (and civil servants) that want to remove No Deal from the available options. In fact the big question is - why is this best supported option not now our Government’s policy? Meme of the Day (11-Dec-2018) - The headline Treasona May Ducks The Bullet Again.. could have been used repeatedly as the Brexit soap opera lurches from one contrived - then avoided - crunch point to another. It’s been just over two months since that meme was first published but the same scene has been replayed so many times since it could have applied almost weekly. EuroBillions (15-Nov-2018) - The winners of the biggest jackpot in world history (probably) are getting very upset that they have yet to receive any of their prize money. Apparently the auditors are not prepared to sign off the complex lottery processes given the extremely unlikely nature of the result. With so many winners spread over twenty seven countries and yet nothing at all for the country with the second largest number of tickets raises obvious concerns. And even the compliant audit team senses that something is rotten in the state of Denmark (to quote William Shakespeare). |
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tags: Brexit, EU, corrupt, abuse of power, not listening |
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08-Feb-2019 |
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On Track? |
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Surely Grandad is not the only one interested in any news of progress on that very expensive but largely forgotten project - HS2? You remember - the one that was announced seven years ago ...
This month’s postings on the official site cover the designs for Old Oak Common station and which construction teams have been selected for the Euston and Old Oak Common contracts. But these official postings cover little about the projected costs involved. However today’s press reports putting the cost at £1,000 million - just at Old Oak Common - have not been denied. Now it is hard for the general public to keep track of all the elements of complex, extended projects - but just take a look back on this single element; Old Oak Common station. In October 2014 this website pointed out the issues around this station. Then London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, had ruled that an HS2-Crossrail interchange station would not receive any extra funding - so Kensington and Chelsea Council had underwritten the £33 million involved. With the way that project costs are climbing that £33 million will eventually pay for little more than the contractor’s tea breaks. In 2014 politicians decried a proper interchange station at Old Oak Common - calling it Wormwood Scrubs International. But now comes the prediction that this critical hub will serve 250,000 passengers a day – more than 90 million a year – when it opens in 2026(!). It will replace London Victoria as the second-busiest station in the UK, after Waterloo. If that is true then it will be much busier than Euston. Politicians still claim that they are unfairly treated when their confident pronouncements are dismissed as rubbish by a long-suffering electorate. But it seems that lies about HS2 are just as common as those about our relationship with Europe - and so many other things these days. |
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tags: Big spender, high speed, HST, railway, slow progress, misguided |
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Into The Sixties |
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But this time the deaths of pilot Roger Peterson with singers Ritchie Valens (17), Jiles Perry "Big Bopper" Richardson (28) and Buddy Holly (22) made news around the world. Not least in Australia and the UK where Holly’s popularity was high having toured both during the year before. Even so at the time of his death Buddy Holly’s records had only appeared in the UK music charts for just over a year. With Peggy Sue, Listen To Me, Rave On, Early In The Morning and Heartbeat being the ones that charted before the crash. Despite this brief and restricted career his music and influences can still be heard today - some sixty years on. For many 3-Feb-1959 was not The Day That Music Died but a tragic loss that shaped a new and highly successful era of popular music - Rave On!
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tags: anniversary, sixty years, rock and roll |
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From Bad to Worse to Total Shambles |
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The EU and the BBC often put down Britain’s strained relationship with European politicians as simple an issue caused by splits in the Conservative party. And that Cameron should have never allowed a referendum - because the British public would then have a chance to vote on a real issue for once.
And this spin on events is still being used today, in public, by EU Presidents no less. Not allowing the public to vote on meaningful issues has become a fundamental plank of the Greater Europe strategy. And in the few cases where a vote did get past the guards any unfavourable result was either ignored or referred to a second vote. A familiar technique that is being tried at present by MPs and political lobbyists wanting a repeat of the Brexit referendum. Yet the deeply unsuitable direction being set by the Eurocrats has been a cause for concern for many more British people than just Conservative party members. And for much longer than the Cameron years. Exactly why there is such unease with the unstoppable drive to create a Euro Super State probably does not have a simple answer. But one candidate must be the growing fear that there is a slow march towards equipping the EU for conflict with other super-powers. Not just a trade or political power conflict - but real fighting with real devastation. And it is worth remembering that the nature of people changes much more slowly than fashion, technology and material possessions. There will always be someone who wants to be the master of Europe .. or even the world. However back with the short-term politics there are little signs that any of the current crop of UK politicians will be a threat to anything other than Grandad’s blood pressure. After 950 days of post-referendum contemplation Westminster is now overflowing with increasingly desperate but ill-considered schemes to get us out of this Brexit mess sometime soon. Having become tired of all the arguments and counter-arguments months ago the majority of general public just want it to end. And since the EU are currently sticking to their position that the Withdrawal Agreement is finalised and cannot now be changed there seems little point in UK MPs making demands for changes to it. Similarly extending the present purgatory by means of a second referendum, a new government or a later leaving date will change nothing. There is no agreement that can meet all the demands. And some British politicians are looking increasingly like sad individuals standing on the shore commanding the tide to stop coming in. |
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tags: Brexit, Westminster, headless chickens, bad deal, 950 days gone |
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Yet More Of The Same |
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Another critical date passed, another repeat of the same bad deal. And it is hard to believe that our Prime Minister and her inner circle are sticking with an EU withdrawal agreement so soundly defeated by parliament.
Clearly Mrs May, the Eurocrats and leaders of the EU states are all happy with the current deal. For the EU side the reasons why they are happy are obvious; they get lots of cash, lots of control and the UK has no say over their actions. But for Mrs May and her political supporters in their Westminster bunker why is there such a determination to force a bad deal down the throats of the majority of politicians and the public? Obviously whatever the reason it must carry a high value - since the present approach seems likely to end Mrs May’s political career and put the Conservative party in the voters’ black books for decades to come. Mrs May has already said that she will stand down as leader before the next election - so loss of job is not much of a penalty. What other reason could there be? A seat in the House of Lords does not seem very likely but equally would not be much of a motivator. However the big financial perks likely to be offered to such a high profile ex-Prime Minister once they leave office would tempt anyone. And there would be lots of grateful people in high places who could make life very sweet for the right candidate - if they get the result they want. Nothing specific just a observation of modern life ... |
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tags: Leave, No Deal, 62 days away, pig-headed, hidden motivation |
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Advance Britannia |
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The headline chosen will be considered by some to be in a range between out-dated sentimental rubbish and hate-filled nationalist propaganda.
Today in Britain there is a case to be made for pride in our country to be restored to its historic position of importance. If only because we will all be better off with it than without it. And especially so when faced with the choice between national independence and being little more than a funding source for the Europa Projekt. One experienced Australian politician expressed it in this way - It’s pretty hard for Britain’s friends, here in Australia, to make sense of the mess that’s been made of Brexit. The referendum result was perhaps the biggest-ever vote of confidence in the United Kingdom, its past and its future. But the British establishment doesn’t seem to share that confidence and instead looks desperate to cut a deal, even if that means staying under the rule of Brussels. Looking at this from abroad, it’s baffling: the country that did the most to bring democracy into the modern world might yet throw away the chance to take charge of its own destiny. Let’s get one thing straight: a negotiation that you’re not prepared to walk away from is not a negotiation - it’s a surrender. It’s all give and no get ... The EU’s palpable desire to punish Britain for leaving vindicates the Brexit project. Its position, now, is that there’s only one deal on offer, whereby the UK retains all of the burdens of EU membership but with no say in setting the rules. The EU seems to think that Britain will go along with this because it’s terrified of a no deal. Or, to put it another way, terrified of the prospect of its own independence. ... Britain has nothing to lose except the shackles that the EU imposes upon it. After the courage shown by its citizens in the referendum, it would be a tragedy if political leaders go wobbly now. Britain’s future has always been global, rather than just with Europe. Like so many of Britain’s admirers, I want to see this great country seize this chance and make the most of it. Now this was written back in October 2018 - yet despite everything that has happened since it is still a fair assessment of our position. And even though the latest petition votes show that 48% of the public are in favour of just leaving - as compared to 19% for a second vote and 15% to remain - some of our Westminster politicians are still demanding that no deal must be been taken off the table before discussing a way forward. Thus breaking the first rule of negotiation. Idiots! |
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tags: Restoration, self rule, independence, world power, rich history, bright future, 69 days away |
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More Of The Same |
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Last night even blinkered Westminster politicians could pretend that the donkey was alive no longer. Some still hoped for a miracle. But a donkey resurrection just did not happen. In a rare case of honesty a few politicians are even proposing that parliament honour its 2016 referendum promises of A once in a generation decision and The Government will implement what you decide. Even though they are still outnumbered by MPs who have decided that they know better than the majority of their constituents and indeed the majority of the UK. So today we have a Prime Minister who will not resign voluntarily and seems unlikely to be pushed hard enough to go. The mess just gets worse and worse ... |
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tags: Leave, No Deal, 72 days away, dead-end plan |
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Public Petitions |
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Next Monday (14-Jan-2019) has now been scheduled for parliament to debate no less than seven separate petitions related to leaving the European Union. The actual numbers behind each request - as at today - vary widely and only the top three get above the 100,000 figure normally required to qualify for a debate.
315,271 - Leave the EU without a deal in March 2019 |
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tags: Leave, No Deal, 79 days away, split decisions |
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March Armageddon |
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Now that the Christmas / New Year break is just a memory many Grandads ought to be making plans for some time away from home in what was once called a holiday but with retirement has become just a change of scenery.
The seas will turn blood red, the dead will rise up and everyone will be thrown into the final battle at the end of the UK’s world. In response Grandads are advised that they should take their holidays early in the year, stock up on canned food and convert any savings into krugerrands. Then they should equip a small boat and head to a remote island with a religious mystic for protection. The problem is, however, that almost all the stocks of boats have already been bought by those wanting to stay in the EU. Since many plan to head en-masse across the Channel, in a sort of reverse Dunkirk, and claim asylum in mainland Europe. They know that if enough boats make a co-ordinated crossing then the authorities will not be able to stop them. To avoid this Armageddon our leaders promise that if we could just give Big Brother control over our lands in perpetuity everything would be rosey. To quote the concluding lines of 1984 by George Orwell - But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. |
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tags: Leave, No Deal, 83 days away, inept politicians |
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I absolutely agree that we should be delivering on leaving the European Union, and we have been clear that that will be on 29 March / It is indeed correct that four fifths of this House voted to trigger article 50 - for a two-year process that ends on 29 March this year / but I have been clear that it is important that we deliver on the referendum vote and leave the European Union on 29 March / We will be leaving the EU on 29 March. I believe it is important that Parliament delivers on the vote that people took in 2016 / I am happy to confirm that we will be leaving the European Union on 29 March next year. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for pointing out the significant number of Members who stood on a manifesto commitment to deliver on the vote that people took in 2016 / I believe it is important for us to deliver on the vote that people took. We have it in our legislation that we will leave the European Union on 29 March 2019 / we will be leaving on 29 March next year. / This Parliament put the exit date into legislation, and we will be leaving on 29 March next year / Very simply: I am clear that we will be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 / I do get from people an urgent desire to get this sorted—not to get a second referendum and a people’s vote but actually to deliver on the first vote and, to do so, to leave the European Union on 29 March. / My right hon. Friend has regularly asked me that question, and my answer has not changed. First, I believe that it is our duty to deliver leaving the European Union and, as he knows, there is a date in legislation for us to leave—it is 29 March. / No, we are not going to extend article 50. We have a timetable; we are working to it; and we will leave on 29 March 2019 / I want my hon. Friend and his constituents to be very clear that we will be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 / We will be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019 / I am happy to confirm to my hon. Friend, as I did a little earlier, that we will be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019 and that we will be negotiating a smooth and orderly process, so that people can carry on living their lives .. / We will be leaving the common fisheries policy - and, as I indicated, the CAP - on 29 March 2019. / I thank my hon. Friend, and I can confirm that we will be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019 / We put that amendment down because we believe it is important to confirm, and so that people have the confidence of knowing, the date we will leave the European Union, which is 29 March 2019 / I am clear that we will not extend article 50 and that we will leave the EU on 29 March next year / I told my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) that we will be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019, and we will. / we will leave the European Union on 29 March next year / I am happy to give my right hon. Friend and others that reassurance. We are very clear that we will be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 at 11 pm / As I said to my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East, we are going to leave on 29 March 2019 / We will be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019. We will now be moving quickly to negotiate the details of the relationship / First, the hon. Gentleman says “should” the UK leave the EU. The UK is leaving the European Union, and that will happen on 29 March next year / we leave the European Union on 29 March 2019 and will no longer send vast sums … / etc, etc, etc, etc
And if observers though that her authority had crumbled back then - what would they say about it now?
To quote from today’s Guardian - May’s appeal to the heads of state and government was described by sources as “90 minutes of nothing”. She was unable to offer any answers as to how a no-deal Brexit would be avoided if the deal was rejected again. The withdrawal agreement has, so far, gone down by 230 votes and 149 votes: the first and fourth highest defeats faced by any government in the Commons.
Some simple arithmetic for Conservative Party MPs -
Now we are just nine days away from the much-promised leaving date. A date which was set for the maximum allowable notice period and after nine months of government delay.
Will it get through at her next attempt next week? If it does that will be the end of any pretence that Parliament represents either the people or what is fair and just. Members of Parliament who let this happen should take the advice of Groucho Marx - I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members - and resign.
Clearly a quick and clean separation would sweep away all the uncertainties but it would also upset those that want to hang on to EU membership for as long as possible. Notable amongst these would be the SNP. However acting decisively at the first opportunity would shorten the period of unrest; even if it brought to a head the issue of a second referendum on Scotland leaving the UK. Surely a price worth paying when considering the alternative of years of political wrangling.
Sadly the changes that quickly come and then go again serve only to illustrate just how far the various schemers and plotters have strayed from the objective - leaving the EU as cleanly and simply as possible.
Overall 421 out of 574 English and Welsh constituencies probably voted to leave the EU. It has to be probably because the referendum was not counted by parliamentary seats so has been estimated by political analysts.
However, according to His Ollyness The Mekon, not accepting a deal will put back our leaving date - not just by a few days but by an extended period. Our assumption being that May’s failure to get enough votes would then require the vote to be repeated time and time again until it does get forced through. And that could need a very long time.
A nice try but one that would only be valid if we didn’t have to follow any of the laws or pay any of the taxes that the professional politicians seek to impose.
But there certainly seems to be few investigative souls pressing the government and their contractors for any news of progress on the ground. True there is a government paper - Overview of the HS2 project, setting out progress so far and next steps - available on the official website. Unfortunately it does lack much relevance to 2019 since it is dated March 2015. In other words it is four years out of date!
It is sixty years ago tomorrow that a four-seater Beechcraft Bonanza crashed at around 1am in bad weather near Clear Lake, Iowa. All four on-board were killed. A tragedy but nevertheless an event where reports would normally be limited to just local news.
This is usually followed-up with comments to the effect that the public are too ill-informed to be asked important political questions. Best not to give them any chance to stop or redirect the plans of the governing elite. A variation on the don’t you trouble your pretty little head line of condescending superiority that might have been expressed centuries ago.
Yet having been directed to come back with a Plan B within three days the PM instead rang up a few leaders on the EU side and to their amazement had no new demands. A course of action which does raise the rather obvious question - what is the PMs motivation for repeated attempts to force through a plan that is so unpopular? Why persist with a dead deal?
And yet on the other side of the world the song Advance Australia Fair is considered an inspiring national anthem.
For the past three months, or more, Theresa and Olly have been clinging to the false hope that their Chequers donkey was just resting when anyone with any sense could see it was well and truly dead.
But numbers aside the views expressed show just how split the public - and the activists - are on the issue. And even though most support a no deal Brexit there are significant minorities wanting either to remain or have another referendum. There are no signs that peace will break out anytime soon...
However this year we have been informed by our superiors that if we continue with our stupid demands to leave the European Union deal-free then the final days of March will mark the end of civilised existence for anyone still holding a British passport.
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FOOTNOTES |
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