Brexit, aka, the UK Becomes a Clown Car of the Highest Order

[playingwithknives]

Welsh Government release No Deal preparations.

Faisal Islam (faisalislam)

This is a national disaster on a scale you would only see if you slammed a fucking comet into the North Sea or something. Fucking bastards.

Edit: Idiot surprised his stupid plan won’t work.

Boris Johnson 'surprised' by level of Irish border checks

[KevinC]

“Nobody knew healthcare the Irish border could be so complicated”

[magnet]

EU lawmakers vote to approve Brexit delay if UK requests one

And Verhofstadt voted to throw a little bit of shade:

Noting that Eurosceptic politicians often criticize the EU for being undemocratic, Guy Verhofstadt said EU leaders “can do a lot of things, but at least they cannot close the doors of our [Parliament]. That is not possible.”

[playingwithknives]

Brexit racists are now a targeted marketing demographic.

Anthony Bale (RealMandeville)

BritMuscovite (BritMuscovite)

[KevinC]

A cruise only for Brits must have the worst food in the industry.

[Fifth_Fret]

Court has been very interesting. I can see the ruling going either way next week. If you’d asked me before the Scottish courts made its ruling, I’d have never imagined ruling against the government could have been possible.

[scottagibson]

Everything I’ve read from knowledgeable people (I am not one) suggests that the ruling will be Solomaic. The court will say that the PM can’t progrogue parliament for political reasons that are too extreme, but that in this case the political reasons weren’t too extreme.

[aeneas]

Solomaic

That’s a new word to me whats that mean then?

[magnet]

It means Solomonerrific.

[scottagibson]

Yes, that’s it. A Solomon-like decision, e.g. cutting the baby in half.

Edit: the right term is ‘Solomonic’ my bad.

[aeneas]

Sorry wasnt meaning to call out bad spelling I just thought this might be some term i’ve never come across.

[Tman]

A cruise only for Brits must have the worst food in the industry.

Oh now come on, I’m sure there are dozens of meat pie variants. Plus fish and chips.

Dozens.

[CraigM]

Pros: good ales
Cons: Marmite. Lots and lots of Marmite

[Fifth_Fret]

Ben Page, Ipsos MORI (benatipsosmori)

[playingwithknives]

“What did you do in the Race War daddy?”

Jeremy Corbyn: I’ll stay neutral and let the people decide on Brexit

“A 3 year campaign of obsfucation, evasion and ambiguity before formally announcing the policy will be to sit on the fence, as we want to appeal to the racists and the anti-racists, a policy we believe will be highly successful”

“Does -60 means you won?”

[Rock8man]

In Andrew Sullivan’s latest article, he thinks a deal with the EU is now in sight. Is he daydreaming now, or is this actually a thing now that could happen?

Through the Westminster grapevine, I’m hearing hints that the U.K. and E.U. positions on Brexit are getting closer. We all knew it would come down to the wire. Hard negotiations are like that. Yesterday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that he had received a new formal proposal from Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday night. Juncker’s language was more conciliatory than it has been, especially on the main sticking point, the “backstop” designed to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. He said he did not have “an erotic relation” to the backstop, in which the U.K. would be permanently trapped in the E.U. Customs Union, and was open to “alternative arrangements … allowing us and Britain to achieve the main objectives of the backstop.”

One possible solution: to keep Northern Ireland inside the Customs Union, but leave the rest of the U.K. out of it. So the hard border would actually be the Irish Sea, which is both enforceable and leaves Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement in place. Of course, this means that one part of the U.K. would be treated differently than the rest. But Northern Ireland is unique. Unlike Wales and Scotland, there is a sea between Ulster and the mainland U.K.

[magnet]

Yet another leftist leader who seeks conservative appeal as a path to power.

I guess you could say that he’s Biden his time!

[Ginger_Yellow]

I mean, that was the original backstop proposal, until Arlene Foster vetoed it, so obviously the EU is OK with it. The question is whether Parliament is.

[Fifth_Fret]

The big fear before was that the DUP would end the agreement and vote down the government. But maybe, given the government no longer fears such a thing (!), there’s room to just ignore their concerns?

I’ve really no idea. Anything seems possible.

[Ginger_Yellow]

The DUP were the (main) ones opposed to an NI only backstop, but a clear majority of Parliament even without the DUP were also against it (including the Labour leadership). How much of that opposition was for show/tactical advantage and will disappear if it’s that or no-deal, we may find out.