Tuesday 2 April 2019

War of Attrition

OK then, customs union it ain't!  (see below).  At the start of this whole ridiculous story I suggested that sometimes, just sometimes, the frontal assault pressed home with relentless determination can perhaps be appropriate.  But only if you have the numbers.

Since November May has attempted, and seems still to be attempting, a war of attrition - without the numbers.  Nothing could better illustrate her strategic blindness, her complete and utter lack of imagination.  And here we are, with a 'snap GE' apparently being mulled.

Surely there's no super-majority for that??  (Do the DUP wish to treat with Corbyn?  Does any Tory MP reckon their chances in a May-fronted election?  How many Labour MPs would do anything to stop Corbyn being gifted the opportunity?)

That Cabinet room will be fairly foetid at the end of 5 hours.  How many of them will stick it out to the end?  Will she still have a Chancellor?  Will physical punches be thrown, actual wrists be slashed?  

Can we hope someone is secretly recording it for posterity?  Iannucci, we thought you were exaggerating.

ND

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

https://twitter.com/dpinsen/status/1112988719957434371

"Someone tweeted recently that you can tell how good a product or service is by how easy it is to return or cancel it. By those criteria, the EU doesn't seem so great."

I distinctly remember David Cameron saying that if we voted leave, there wouldn't be any more negotiations with the EU ('the negotiation is now'), no rethinks and second referendum - that was it. I seem to recall the leaflet through the door said "the Government will implement what you decide". I also recall our PM said that 'no deal is better than a bad deal'.

But leaving the EU seems to be more like cancelling a phone contract with EE or a broadband contract with BT.

Anonymous said...

Godfrey Elfwick on Brexit voters

"At first I felt nothing but anger towards them... Their bigotry and ignorant generalization of anyone who is different to them is typical of the working-class. But lately I have changed my view. These people were lied to. After all, the government somehow convinced them if they voted to Leave the EU, it would happen. How gullible they were! How I pity their childlike innocence."

https://spectator.us/time-forgave-brexit-voters/

Bill Quango MP said...

In an actual current court case, currently now in its fifth year, a judge has given his findings and summary, on phase one of four judgements.

The aggrieved party has petitioned to have the judge removed and the trial restarted from scratch.

That’s modern Britain for you.
( by the way, one of the things the aggrieved party stated they objected too, was the judge informing them, the super corporation, that they had deliberately done everything in their power to delay the trial in any and every way, and then string it out a song as possible, in order to run down the claimants funds. Their latest action, I feel, rather vindicates the judge.)

Nick Drew said...

just as the Common Law understands the concept of Reasonableness, so ought it to comprehend "now you're taking the piss"

"Irish Gardai have three levels of warning:
- yer grand **
- mind yerself there ...
- now you're taking the piss!"
(Dara O'Briain)

**often misunderstood by us English, who take it to mean 'that's great!', which it definitely doesn't

E-K said...

Anon at 12.17

Most of us voted for the destruction of Middle Eastern civilisations. Cameron or Blair, take your pick, we voted for them without paying enough attention.

The sight of the exodus of refugees from devastated war zones played a far greater part in Brexit than any campaign overspend or red bus.

We are where we are because it is natural justice, what goes around comes around.

The worst Prime Minister, the worst Government and the worst Parliament ever at the time of the worst problem since WW2.

Anonymous said...

Well, she's going to ask for another extension and, reading between the lines, seeing what price she needs to pay for Jez Spart to buy her deal.

If anyone heard a loud banging the other days it was Eden's corpse, fist pumping in his coffin in joy at no longer being Worst PM Evah. Gordon Brown probably has mixed feelings, he's now just third worst, but that's also inching closer to being bleached out of history.

I'm honestly not sure the EU will accommodate her, it was already bad enough they had to come up with her Plan A.5 as it was apparent when they asked her about Plan B she was bumbled on about it was just Plan A.

I genuinely feel sorry for the EU, they came to the table to play hardball and bargained in good faith. The Maybot just rocked up, ignoring the Miller court case result, her own party and Parliament as a whole and was shocked to find out that the naughty boys and girls just wouldn't take Matron's Very Sensible Medicine.

It's been weird from the start. Cameron thought Remain would win. Leave never bothered to couch what Brexit actually was, although Remain did. Probably not very prescient to tell everyone it was no Single Market or Customs Union, not thinking said threat would be seen as a promise.

It's been a series of fuck-ups by the Establishment, a jenga of shit. And they're stuck with Little Miss Intransigent.

I still can't see her deal going through, and I suspect the EU can't either. In their boots I'd hang her out to dry. They might just pinch their noses and see if MV part-whatever-the-fuck-it-is-now goes through this time, but surely it's 50/50 at best?

GE for June at this rate?

Anonymous said...

It won't be a short extension as any agreement to the WA needs the EP to rubber stamp it. The last meeting of the EP is on 18th April. She has run out of road. It's no deal and the EU are being asked to throw us out.

What you might call "death by cabinet". So she'll be out on 12th. We'll be out by the 12th and whoever takes over will have to manage "no deal". There will be no PV or GE.

No wonder no-one wants her job but someone within the Party will have to take it.

Anonymous said...

No dal is not an option.
No tory party is a acceptable for May if she can avoid no deal.

Timbo614 said...

I agree with the anonomi at 6:49 & 7:09. Our Theresa has run out of road. At this late hour even after 3 defeats, even having been given an ultimatum that some deal must be agreed before the 12th or no extention... she insisted that her WA would form part of any revised deal. We need her replaced immediately. She is delusional!

DJK said...

Timbo614: I too used to think she was delusional, but the best explanation I have seen is that she is severely autistic. The utter charmlessness, lack of any conversational skill, the inability to think on her feet and the unwillingness to let go of a clearly dead idea all seem to fit. Usually a male affliction, but TM seems to have a case of it. Makes her utterly unfitted for any leadership role but we knew that.

Anonymous said...

Someone on Markets Live today "Press don't seem to be commenting much on the fact Sinn Fein met Barnier over the weekend, Varadkar is meeting Macron today and Merkel is coming to Dublin on Thursday. Take those together, and I reckon there's something going on."

Maybe Merkel is bringing 200 kilos of Semtex in diplomatic bags... just to concentrate Mrs May's mind.

The Dublin middle classes are loving this. They are about at the stage the UK middle classes were when Blair was elected in 1997 - so pleased that they're modern, secular types now and can at last look down on the Brits. Macron was at the French game in Dublin less than a month ago, too (as my Dublin host was at pains to inform me).

Meanwhile stories like this are starting to appear, although mostly suppressed by the Irish press. North Dublin is becoming South London.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/pregnant-woman-threatened-gang-up-13545298

https://www.thetricolour.com/Articles/183/politics/Blanchardstown-Residents-living-in-Fear-as-new-gang-culture-takes-shape/l4474504/

Raedwald said...

European Council meet on the 10th and turn down her request for an extension until the 22nd May.

Bercow will turn down an opportunity for MV4

Parliament will not pass Yvette Cooper-Balls' Bill

The days between now and the 10th are just window dressing to pretend May / Parliament are doing something

Everyone is praying for a distant war / plane crash / hurricane / Trump waving his wanger in public - anything to fill the news days between 3rd - 10th.