Will Ms May receive St Valentine’s Day cards? I doubt it, not when I see what’s on the cards for her today!
We alerted you yesterday (see here) on serious underhand dealings by the Government whose motion the HoC will vote on later today has taken on board an amendment meant to prevent the No Deal Brexit.
Tomorrow has now arrived – and the Government has, so far, not budged. It lead to today’s headline in The Express that 80 Tories will not vote for Ms May’s motion. The DT (paywalled) observes this morning:
“Theresa May is braced for another damaging defeat in the Commons on Thursday after Tory Eurosceptics accused her of ruling out a no deal Brexit.The European Research Group of Conservative Brexiteers says it cannot support a Government motion being put to a vote on Thursday after describing Mrs May’s position as “madness”. Senior sources within the ERG said the group would abstain, and with Labour expected to vote against the motion, it will mean yet another Brexit defeat for Mrs May just 43 days before Britain is due to leave the EU. The result of the vote will be purely symbolic, as it will not be legally binding, but a defeat would be a setback for Mrs May as she tries to persuade Brussels to change the Brexit deal.” (my bold)
Jonathan Isaby, in his daily email newsletter for BrexitCentral, reports:
“The Prime Minister’s official spokesman was forced to deny that no-deal was being taken off the table, giving the media the following explanation: “What the motion reflects is the position the Prime Minister set out after those votes, which is the Parliament wants the UK to leave with a deal, but in order to do so it requires us to secure legally-binding changes in relation to the backstop. No-deal is an eventuality we wish to avoid, but one we continue to plan for. Does no-deal remain on the table? The answer is yes.“ (my bold)
Hands up all those who now understand the Government’s position! Me, I am full of admiration for the collection of fluffy, obfuscating expressions Ms May’s spokesman has used to construct this statement. Jonathan Isaby also draws this conclusion:
“So as it stands, the Government motion could be defeated tonight although, not being a substantive motion, that would have no direct consequences. However, in terms of optics, it would suggest to those observing proceedings in Brussels that the PM is again struggling to hold together the fragile coalition that is the parliamentary Conservative party and command a majority in the House of Commons.” (my bold)
This is not the first time that I wonder what Ms May actually wants to achieve, and it’s not the first time that I ask myself why she and her Svengali Olly Robbins are so blind in their wish to keep us in that they have no regard for how they thrash our country on the world stage.
How disastrous their devious, underhand dealings are for the wellbeing of our country – a functioning economy surely is the basis for that! – is explained by Allister Heath in today’s DT (paywalled) who asks:
“Remind me: what’s so great about the single market and the single currency again? The latest economic statistics from the eurozone are appalling, and point to a continent that is sleepwalking into a catastrophic recession. Our own establishment is too busy self-flagellating to have noticed, even though a eurozone meltdown would not only hurt British businesses and workers but could transform the Brexit negotiations.”
Yes, well, anyone who has watched our MPs ‘perform’ knows that their economic knowledge isn’t even tending to ‘basic’, it’s non-existent. So of course, as long as they can flagellate not just ‘self’ but the opposition, they prefer doing that, grandstanding about ‘The People”, rather than educating themselves by reading business articles. I believe anyway that most of them must be functioning illiterates because, apart from tweeting, all they do is regurgitating what they’ve been told by their ‘advisers’. Thinking for themselves? Forget it! Allright, there are some honourable exemptions, but we can count them on the fingers of one hand.
Allistair Heath continues, giving us some numbers:
“If being part of the single market and customs union mattered so much more than any other policy, the eurozone would have boomed. Yet it didn’t, and the voters know they have been sold a pup. If you want to see proper growth, you need to turn to the emerging world, to China (which has multiplied the size of its economy in extraordinary fashion), to India, to Singapore, to Israel (up 98 per cent). Of course, the UK has underperformed these past two years; and yes, Brexit uncertainty, compounded by the Government’s incompetence, was one important reason. Yet this brief period of EU overperformance is ending. Eurozone industrial production was down a calamitous 4.2 per cent, year‑on-year in December, led by a 6.7 per cent collapse in Spain, 5.5 per cent in Italy and 3.9 per cent in Germany. French industry’s crisis was less pronounced at minus 1.7 per cent; Britain did slightly better again, by shrinking only 1.2 per cent. “ (my bold)
Where are the Remainers refuting these numbers? If it’s still not obvious that the whole Remain conglomeration lives with Alice in her Wonderland then I don’t know …
Allister Heath concludes:
“One thing is certain: another eurozone crisis would strengthen the Brexiteers’ resolve, even if Britain is also affected. As a tangible EU failure, it would more than cancel out the warnings of Project Fear. It would make Eurosceptics even more sanguine about a no-deal departure. […] If we had a competent government, these are the sorts of discussions it would be having. […] Instead, there is nothing: no plan, no strategy, no reaction. But at some point, and soon, the British public will notice what is happening to the eurozone, and it will remember why it voted Leave. Woe betide the Tories if they betray Brexit under such circumstances.” (my bold)
There’s this saying that one ought not to ascribe to malice what is in fact sheer incompetence. I think we’re now seeing an unholy mixture of both incompetence and malice.
Anyway – if you want to see ‘blood on the floor’, book your place to watch today’s HoC debate and don’t miss watching the voting later this evening!
Viv,
I cannot understand why you haven’t yet figured out what the PM is doing.
She is a Tory Prime Minister, and by definition her Prime Directive is the survival of the Conservative Party. Now just suppose that, although she allegedly voted to remain, she has since realised that there is no way we will ever get a deal out of Brussels that is better than none, because we must be punished even if this hurts some other countries in Europe. But if she just made an announcement in the House that, Stuff it we’re going for no deal, EVERYONE would be fighting her tooth and nail, from the CBI on down.
So what to do? Exactly what she has – a strawman Withdrawal Agreement carefully constructed between herself and the EU, guaranteed to fail passage through the HoC. I don’t recall where I read it but apparently it was SHE who insisted on the inclusion of the infamous backstop arrangement. Then all she has to do is run the clock down while preoccupying the HoC on both sides with microscopic updates and reassurances. It is already too late to introduce any heavy-duty legislation to thwart the direction of travel.
Note that although she has never wavered from statements that the Referendum result must and will be honoured, and that come what may we will be leaving the EU on the 29th March. She has STOPPED, however saying that No Deal is better than a Bad Deal.
Why has she stopped saying that? Because then, if she spends the next 44 days fighting ostensibly to get her strawman Agreement through (knowing damn well it won’t), when the inevitable happens, the No Deal which she knows we need, the Tory Party will still be in one piece (sorta), and she comes out smelling like a rose.
Don’t you get it?
Rob, I so hope you’re right.
My suspicion and fear is that she really does want to get her disgraceful WA through and stitch up the country.
Failing that I fear that all the treachery in the House will stop a No Deal.
I personally do not trust any of the politicians of any of the main parties at all,so I am never suprised by their manoeuvres and self important statements….am just waiting to leave the E.U.
Which brings me to. ……..everybody should be buying fireworks to let off on the night of the leave date…all leave Organisations should push this as it would let the establishment know what the public think and be fun as well
It is with total regret that I note just what we have in the HofC ! With a few exceptions, female MPs have no brains, and male MPs have no balls or brains ! We kid ourselves that we live in a Democracy, and yet these very poor examples of elected MPs, our representatives, appear to be implacably against representing our wishes, as expressed by our Nation’s largest vote !
Cameron could have complicated the referendum ballot question, but went instead for the clear cut Leave or Remain, and our Nation gave its vote to Leave. ….. Now I know that there is the difference between War, and a sort of Peace, but consider this just for a moment.- Churchill made a decision to drop bombs on Berlin, due to an error by Germany dropping a few bombs on London. This started the London blitz, which was so expensive in civilian lives.- The late arrival of the USA, made possible the almost total destruction of most German Cities ! ….. Now I again stress the different circumstances, but is there a more ‘painful’ light being shown upon the two PMs of Churchill and Mrs May ? Churchill had to make decisions quickly on a daily basis. Mrs May only has to do what the people have told her to do, and she has taken two and a half years, and still counting ! I recon that Churchill would not p**S on May if she were on fire, and that’s what we are stuck with today in the HofC ! UKIP TAKE NOTE !
I have been reading through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 on legislation.gov.uk and maybe I have got it wrong (hardly surprising as it’s not in plain English) but under Article13 it appears to state that if no agreement in principle in the negotiations has been reached under Article 50 by January 21st 2019 then the government have a further period of 14 days to make a statement setting out how her Majesty’s government proposes to proceed.
This to me would mean that as the government have not produced an acceptable Withdrawal Agreement that could be ratified then we automatically default to a no deal.
It makes sense to me but then I’m not legally trained! Maybe somebody that has a better understanding of the law could cast their eyes over it. As of today there is no amendment to this shown.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/16/section/13/enacted?view=interweave
Our elected representatives are living on another planet.
I have gone off Jacob Rees Mogg somewhat.
Today, on BBC Politics Live he has pretty well called UKIP an extremist Party comparing UKIP to alleged extremist parties in Europe.
This comment should not be allowed to stand unopposed. Gerard Batten must challenge Mogg to justify that claim.
Gerard should challenge Mogg to a public debate and if Mogg refuses then Gerard should publish papers and videos calling out Mogg as an undemocratic deceiver.
Mogg backs the Malthouse proposal which would keep the UJK in the EU for a least another 3 years, paying large and increasing contributions to the EU in addition to the £39 billion and still under the ECJ.
Mogg is now a disgrace.
Awkward
Gerard refuses to appear on SKY/ LBC / BBC Daily Politics or talk to many other broadcasters/publishers.
Short of a duel with pistols on Hampstead Heath there is probably no place to challenge Jacob Rees -Mogg
45 days to go….
“Gerard refuses to appear on SKY/ LBC / BBC Daily Politics or talk to many other broadcasters/publishers.”
Is this true? I have seen Gerard on BBC Politics Live at least twice in which he resoundingly defeated Coburn and Remainer guests in direct argument. Maybe its Coburn and the BBC who won’t have him on because they always lose their argument as he clearly proves them wrong!
George, what do you expect he is a Tory? and a friend of Nigel Farage, they probably sent each other Valantine cards!
He also admits that the Bill of Rights 1689 is still in force as reported below but never mentions it when he is supposedly fighting for Brexit. We are continuously lied to and told it has been amended but that can’t be as it can only be changed by ‘the will of the People’ and we have certainly never been asked to vote on it in any shape or form. That makes every single Treaty and Agreement in connection with the EU null, void and treasonous. However, he remains quiet on the issue.
https://www.jacobreesmogg.com/parliamentary-approval
You have to remember that although ( if ) Moggie is a Leaver, his first loyalty is to the Tory party and all he is doing is spearing Ukip as he sees it as a real threat to the Tory party in the future regardless of how this present pantomime turns out (oh yes it is).
If it were otherwise he would not bother mentioning Ukip. Although I take his Leaver credentials with a pinch of salt, after all we have watched a long line of Tory “Leavers” cave, making me think it is part of the pantomome script (oh yes it is), he is a sharp cookie and in this I think he is right, we will be a force to reckon with.
I agree with you Jim.
if we are in another 3 years its 2022 which means we are a state of the eu for evermore and have ton switch to the euro as per some agrement she signed a few years back
Mogg claims to be eurosceptic but does not seem sufficiently worried about the WA’s threat to civil liberties or about the EU Army or the UN Migration Pact. iWith him the Tory Party comes before country.
Does UKIP still exist ? No sign of it in the public arena at a time when it should be the lead voice on vision pathways and nonsense exposure. It’s website indicates detachment & navel gazing.What do UKIP MEPs do for their salary ? Presumably it has given up in advance on May local elections.
UKIP does still exist, however the Establishment are doing their level best to ignore them and give them no platform to put forward their alternative view. It’s not so much the case that Gerard Batten ‘refuses’ to appear on the BBC News / Sky etc, but that he is not being invited on.
As for UKIP MEPs, sadly there are now very few of them left, as most have now left the party but refused to give up their EuroParl seats and choose to sit as independents now, despite the UKIP MEPs charter which Nigel Farage himself introduced. The now ex-UKIP MEPs are now showing their true colours, and demonstrating that they themselves are perhaps the ‘Establishment infiltrators’ that Mr Farage himself warned about.
“Fighting for Brexit within the EU Parliament” or fighting to keep their snouts in the EU gravy train trough, you decide.
what do you expect from people on a list.
As I see it, cutting through all this deliberately complicated legal theatre, the corrupt europhile Tory party are hell bent on thwarting Brexit no matter what.( I hope by some miracle I’m proved wrong). This whole mess was caused by voters putting Brexit in their hands in the first place. There is no short cut; the only way to get brexit is to elect a Govt committed to simply tearing up the unconstitutional 1972 act and treaties as detailed on Gerard Battens website. ukip.org website is indeed a disgrace, but UKIP is the only party genuinely committed to this and must succeed, although the later we leave it the more difficult it gets as the EU develops its thug power. I guess it’s down to each of us to make it succeed by standing as candidates and delivering the leaflets which UKIP do have on offer. Our leader is deliberately excluded from MSM, who want to create the impression that UKIP no longer exists (Mogg calls us WhoKip)..
Instead of leaving it to this platform UKIP could easily set up and daily update a website mocking exposure satirical newspaper to fill the huge gap left by the political consensus. There is a huge gap between public anger & news media consensus not just on eu eg on poor dear islamofascists must have right to come back to UK. It could target on line adverts to make public aware of its existence & build up a large following amongst public wanting an alt view of politics
Interesting idea Pedro; too often I am tempted to ask “Where is UKIP”. An email to members simply doesn’t cut the biscuit; it’s just preaching to the converted.
My biggest gripe against UKIP for past decade has been the atrocious ukip.org website. Since we get no MSM coverage, a decent website is vital. Worse still ukip.org is printed on all our publications, creating a very bad impression and hardly explaining any of the issues. Couldn’t they scrap it altogether and replace with something similar to https://ukipsurrey.co.uk? could it provide links/mention of other sites like this one, ( or would there first be legalities to sort out over this) ?
Will somebody please tell me, even if nobody else seems to be interested.
If the body of this much vaunted “only possible deal”, never mind the back stop is kosher or not.
I understood the WA is a vehicle for BRINO – Brexit In Name Only, I was told the Spectator said there were 40 points at issue.
I have been told nothing more since,
I certainly haven`t heard any parliamentary objections (or official reactions) and I don`t recall any movement from the mass of the MSM and similar conspiratorial bodies.
Oh Yes! if what I was told earlier is true then it is at least a CONSPIRACY of silence if not a conspiracy not to provide fake news
Roger I unfortunately don’t have specific links but I do recall that the Government did produce a refutation to these forty points and there followed a refutation to their refutation, by whom I am not sure.
I am sure that others, more politically astute than I, can shed more light on the matter, maybe produce an article?
https://briefingsforbrexit.com/dangers-of-the-withdrawal-agreement/
https://briefingsforbrexit.com/every-claim-made-by-theresa-may-and-her-rebuttal-unit-is-false/
“The Brexit Rebuttal Unit” aka “The Ministry of Truth”. Where have we read of that before?
Roger,
Some links to help ;—
https://brexitcentral.com/nasty-surprises-smallprint-theresa-mays-brexit-deal/
https://www.ofoc.co.uk/40_reasons_not_to_back_the_brexit_deal
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/12/the-top-40-horrors-lurking-in-the-small-print-of-theresa-mays-brexit-deal-2/
https://richards-watch.org/2018/12/06/40-things-wrong-with-the-eus-brexit-agreement/
In addition, no less an authority(?) than Gina Miller (!!!!) said on Question Time 31st January , (is she partial or impartial?) agrees with me and my (objective, factual) sources (and there are many more) saying ” … there are many more things wrong with May’s WA than the Backstop because there are 585 pages where we just become servants to the EU … common rule book, international alignment.. giving over everything to the EU under international treaty before we’ve even started the hard bit of doing the future trade deal. The EU must be laughing at us because it gives them everything and we have nothing … why are the MPs not all up in arms about the WA !? The whole thing! Not just the Backstop?!! ”
I have searched for reference or comment on this in the MSM today and found it ignored. What? Gina Miller being controversial and being ignored?? Oops, she’s not saying the right thing,she’s not supposed to be saying that, she’s spoiling the great con trick we’re perpetrating on the British people. Proof of a great conspiracy?
Since when did the Govt worry about what was kosher? The 1972 act and subsequent treaties weren’t kosher; plus Martin Howe of Brexit Central and Bill Cash have criticised legal aspects of the WA; but all this fallen on deaf ears. Plus HM Government has received legal advice on its Brexit ‘deal’ but is refusing to make this public in spite of HM Opposition tabling a Humble Address on the matter, a very serious breach of parliamentary convention. Steven Baker MP’s account to Bill Cash’s select committee re the subterfuge of the last 2 years are also very revealing. And one of the most worrying aspects : https://independencedaily.co.uk/dangers-to-national-security-and-individual-freedom-in-withdrawal-agreement. Zero Hedge also did an article on the WA .
If ever there were justification for an uprising against government then that, should it succeed, is it. Any appearance of EGF in our country should be treated as an armed invasion and responded to as such. No wonder our right to bear arms was removed. All part of the same plan?
Thanks for all the info chaps (and chapesses)
I now have a bad case of indigestion
“But at some point, and soon, the British public will notice what is happening to the eurozone, and it will remember why it voted Leave”. I fear that UK voters won’t wake up until we’re fully caught in the trap; they will wake up to the eurozone crisis, the effects of the UN Migration Compact, and the totalitarian nature of the EU.
The crazy things going on make sense once you realise the agenda was always to destroy the Western civilisation. who get in the way of the globalist agenda.
Mary if she gets her way and keeps us tied untill 2022 then we become a numbered state in the eu and have to take the € as our currency.I live in the eu but all they lead by germanyy has been the determination to destroy the uk. I would read the deliberate destruction of britains economy by the eu, and follow the money trail, be prepared for a shock