The now-enacted will of (some of) the people

[LondonLax]

My understanding of the lords vote is that it is pretty meaningless. 

It asks the government to explain what steps they have taken to remain in the customs union. Not that they must remain in the customs union.  

The government response may well be ‘we haven’t taken any steps because we are leaving the customs union’.  

I think the only point of it was to give some encouragement to Tory remainers. 

[ml1dch]

14 hours ago, LondonLax said:

My understanding of the lords vote is that it is pretty meaningless. 

It asks the government to explain what steps they have taken to remain in the customs union. Not that they must remain in the customs union.  

The government response may well be ‘we haven’t taken any steps because we are leaving the customs union’.  

I think the only point of it was to give some encouragement to Tory remainers. 

I just wonder at what point they'll realise that for all the windbaggery on the subject of the Customs Union, it has slightly less than bugger all impact on whether there'll be a hard border in Ireland and that it's being part of the Single Market that is going to be needed to prevent that.

[bickster]

Fresh Lords defeat, this time over the European Human Rights legislation.

They might be unelected but they are showing far more signs of intelligent life

[snowychap]

‘Painless’ procedure for EU citizens in UK – but only if you have an Android phone

Quote

Gary Gibbon 24 Apr 2018:

British officials have been briefing MEPs in Brussels on how the post-Brexit registration process will operate for EU citizens who want “settled status” and to remain in the UK.

Even before the Windrush story hit the headlines, some EU citizens and politicians and been pretty sceptical about the UK Home Office’s capacity to register EU citizens effectively and sensitively. That scepticism seems only to have grown.

I’m told that the Home Office team brought up Windrush before the European Parliament Brexit Steering Group could and spent the first five minutes of the encounter apologising for it.

The presentation that followed included a walkthrough of the app which the government hopes will make registering a wish to stay in the UK a straightforward and painless experience for EU citizens. It is an Android app and so not compatible with Apple technology. I’m told the officials said that if you only have an iPhone you could borrow another device from a friend.

The officials said it would be a priority to slow down the process of applications as much as possible as there were concerns the whole system could crash if too many people apply in one go.

Edit:

Edited April 24, 2018 by snowychap

[Stevo985]

@limpid's backing of the leave campaign confirmed.

[choffer]

 

[snowychap]

Ed Vaizey:

Quote

I see that a Treasury Minister is responding to this debate, not a Trade Minister. This is a new phenomenon: when the Government are in trouble, they no longer uncork the Gauke; they un-shell the Mel.

I do not know about the emperor’s new clothes, but I feel I am living in an Alice in Wonderland world. I am learning more and more about Brexit every day. I have learned that we can be out of the EU but in the single market; that we can be out of the EU but in the customs union; that we can be in the EU and have a blue passport made by a British company; that we can be out of the EU and have a blue passport made by a French company; that the Windrush scandal is the Europeans’ fault because they are in favour of people presenting papers, and that Brexiteers are very pro-immigration; that there will no longer be a bonfire of EU regulations—but it’s all right because we are going to adopt them all; that we are not trading enough with the EU so we are going to make it more difficult to trade with the EU; and that the Good Friday agreement is a waste of time and we are to have a hard border with Northern Ireland because of Brexit; and I have heard that anything I do to contradict anyone who supports Brexit is undermining the will of the people, even though during the referendum, as far as I am aware, there was a clear question—“Do you want to leave the EU?”—but no clear proposition about what that meant, which has left it to Parliament to decide what leaving means, or at least to guide and engage with the Government.

 

[ml1dch]

Hopefully the Rudd situation has created an embittered back bencher with an axe to grind, ready for those important votes coming up.

[chrisp65]

3 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

Hopefully the Rudd situation has created an embittered back bencher with an axe to grind, ready for those important votes coming up.

I don't think Rudd can vote. She's only been here 54 years.

[bickster]

15 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

Hopefully the Rudd situation has created an embittered back bencher with an axe to grind, ready for those important votes coming up.

She'd miss the grinding wheel and chop her toes off with the blunt axe claiming she didn't know it was possible

[HanoiVillan]

 

[Chindie]

It's genuinely astonishing how this government has taken a shitty decision, and managed to gild it with ever more shit with every passing day. It's quite an achievement.

That no deal looks ever more likely. And there's idiots cheering it. And others salivating. All to our harm.

I hope the Brexiteers live to suffer from their idiocy. I want to see it, and smile.

[blandy]

1 hour ago, Chindie said:

It's genuinely astonishing how this government has taken a shitty decision, and managed to gild it with ever more shit with every passing day.

No it isn't. It's not in the slightest bit surprising.

Quote

I hope the Brexiteers live to suffer from their idiocy. I want to see it, and smile.

Yes, indeed.

[ml1dch]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

 

All this stuff about the Government needing to decide which customs option it wants is impressively incompetent. 

"Which of these two impossible, unrealistic, already-rejected options shall we go for?"

I'm sure these weeks could probably be used a bit more productively.

 

[Davkaus]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

 

Photos of words removed should come with a NSFW warning.

[ml1dch]

Arthur Dent: "Have you found a solution?"

Ford Prefect: "No, but I've got a new name for the problem."

[PompeyVillan]

11 hours ago, Chindie said:

It's genuinely astonishing how this government has taken a shitty decision, and managed to gild it with ever more shit with every passing day. It's quite an achievement.

That no deal looks ever more likely. And there's idiots cheering it. And others salivating. All to our harm.

I hope the Brexiteers live to suffer from their idiocy. I want to see it, and smile.

Do you mean Brexiteer politicians? I think Hanoi made an excellent point a while ago, something along the lines of 'Brexit can't fail, only Brexit can be failed'. They'll blame the Lords or Labour or immigrants or remainers or the EU or whoever. It won't be because Brexit is a ridiculous idea being negotiated by clowns.

 

[ml1dch]

Julian Smith the Conservative Chief Whip has apparently told cabinet that the Government doesn't have the votes needed to defeat the Customs Union amendment.

As Ian Dunt put it yesterday, we are watching the tiny dreams of very unimaginative people finally circle around the drain and disappear

Edited May 3, 2018 by ml1dch

[bickster]

The Tory backbench Euro rebel’s are now trolling the Labour Party. They are being called out on single market membership. The Tory rebels are saying they now have enough votes to stay in the single market as long as Labour back them. 

That should sort out the Labour line once and for all. 

I predict a surge in Libdem support soon after Labour make it clear their policy is really a hard Brexit policy

[snowychap]

Revealed: Britain's £3 billion 'sat nav' system to rival EU's after Brexit

Quote

Ministry of Defence officials have started preliminary work on a £3billion British satellite navigation system because the UK could be shut out of the European Union’s Galileo network.

The move comes amid a deepening row with Brussels over whether Britain can continue to be trusted with Europe's most sensitive security information in the wake of the Brexit vote.

...rest of article behind Torygraph paywall