love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

on radio this morning they appear to have rebranded 'no deal brexit' as 'australia-style deal', less than a week after tony abbott was invited to participate...

Australia can afford an 'Australian-style deal' with the EU because it doesn't really trade much with the EU. And it's in active negotiation with the EU, so even Australia won't have an 'Australian-style deal' for much longer.

Australian exports to the EU = £10 billion

UK exports to the EU = £300 billion

Getting some Varoufakis vibes/trolling from that FT report and we all know how that went down with the EU.

How is this all going down in Northern Ireland right now? I mean I can guess but it would be nice to read some informed commentary.

Hard to know which level of deception the UK government is on:

1) they really want to blow up talks and don’t want a deal

2) they want EU to think they want to blow up talks to get concessions in a deal

3) they want Brexiteers to think they think this as theatrics to do a deal https://t.co/wWClpTmpYz

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) September 6, 2020

I'm with 3 rn.

3 seems credible.

Of those options I'm with three — this isn't for EU consumption, but I still don't follow. The Brexiteer faithful's appetite for carnage is high, so how is "we threatened carnage but ... then backed down" going to help them sell it?

"This deal is complicated don't bother reading it, we promise it gives you all the cake we said you'd get" has worked much better so far.

1) and 3) aren’t mutually exclusive right? If I’m reading the garbled syntax correctly.

Stephen Bush says:


Yes, undermining the Irish border protocol means undermining any hope of a serious US-UK trade deal, but the government's own red lines, on agri-food, the National Health Service and more besides have already undermined any hope of a serious US-UK trade deal.

And the big prize of Brexit, at least as far as this Downing Street is concerned, is freedom from restrictions on state aid: an aim that, similarly, cannot be achieved while signing any EU-UK trade deal.

So the possibility of a no deal remains very high - and the government's moves in that direction should be taken seriously.

RTE says:

In essence, says one official, Dublin is concerned that it was being asked to effectively trade its influence with the commission over legal obligations under the protocol to which the UK had signed up.

According to the official: "We won’t get in a position where we’re teaming up with the British on something and then going back with it to Brussels.

"That’s just not how it was done for four years and we’re not going to start doing it now.

They've been calling it an Australian-style deal for most of the year now.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-australia-trade-deal-brexit-eu-phil-hogan-a9319591.html

Tracer, the idea with 3) is that this is fresh meat to be thrown to the Brexiteers - you can sleep soundly because your freedoms are being protected by virile British laws - but they'll make a deal anyway.

I think the plan has always been to crash the deal and blame the EU

Is that the plan? The Tories have commitments to British capitalism and the Union. How does crashing out help with either?

I think it's entirely possible that Johnson could come back with a deal that concedes more sovereignty than May had planned and a big chunk of the Brexiters would still be going "ra ra Boris he got it done in the end, great job". Farage and maybe a few ERG members will pipe up but will it make much difference?

At this stage, the vast majority of people who voted Leave almost certainly have other things on their mind than what flavour of Brexit deal we get, the page has already been turned on that particular chapter.

Entertaining if true that State Aid really is the hill Cummings is making them die on. Lexit here we come

Staff at school Boris Johnson visited days ago tests positive for Covid-19https://t.co/IktYZqBwWB pic.twitter.com/vZaxb4VXGr

— Mirror Politics (@MirrorPolitics) September 7, 2020

"Don't kill your granny by catching coronavirus and then passing it on" - Matt Hancock on Radio 1 Newsbeat https://t.co/pVJFzZazJd

— Emily Ashton (@elashton) September 7, 2020

matt hancock otm, great advice

with the caveat that if your granny is one of them Mail-reading tory-voting curtain-twitching narks, then give her a hearty hug!

Terrific work, thousands of children now going home petrified that they're going to kill their granny and/or parents just because they went to school. Perhaps that might have been a better message to give to Gavin Williamson around the Cabinet table.

I haven't seen a great deal written about how a socially distanced hall of residence is supposed to work either because piling loads of 18 year olds together for the first time has very predictable results that aren't going to change much because we're in a pandemic.

And of course the catchment area for a uni is somewhat larger than for a school.

Failure to do anything to address the imminent return to HE is probably even more irresponsible and likely lethal than the back to school push

And that's before I even think about how the tensions between students and locals are gonna play out in socially distanced pubs, residential areas etc. Legit scary.

This government's entire steez is looking at car crashes in the rear view mirror and blaming other drivers

I wonder how many of the returning students are just back from breaks in Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc.

And then imagine if we get thru to December without a national lockdown and everybody goes home for a family christmas

On top of all this a 15 year old boy has been fucking shot in Suffolk on the way to school.

I heard that but I figured "just East Anglia things"

Christmas is the big thing I'm worried about: I can't see this ending well in any way, let alone w/Brexit

xp wtf Suffolk

"piling loads of 18 year olds together for the first time has very predictable results that aren't going to change much"

Loneliness, rejection, alienation, isolation, despair.

all right thom yorke

lol was gonna say Morrissey

i wd never

It was amusing seeing Diane Abbot spoonerising Keith's name on Sky news yesterday. This is going to be my regular slot where I gather the previous days low hanging fruit! But tbf I think at least two ilx posters used the same one as a dn in recent history.

BREAKING: The government has increased the length of time that those charged with criminal offences can be detained in custody before trial by 2 months to from 182 days to 238. https://t.co/czwFcovHn0

— Catherine Baksi (@legalhackette) September 6, 2020

The Government has whipped its MPs to defeat @UKLabour’s new clause to the #FireSafetyBill which would have put into law the implementation of the recommendations of #Grenfell Inquiry Phase I. This is a shameful dereliction of duty on fire safety.

— Nick Thomas-Symonds MP (@NickTorfaen) September 7, 2020

not good, but I still can't stand Nick Thomas-Symonds. He's only slightly less repellent and worthy of a good shoeing than sir keith and that fucking Enoch Powell alike cunt, Ashworth.

Oh yeah he's shit, that was the first tweet that came up with this awful news on.

oh of course, didn't mean anything other than maximum ill will to these Labour wankers within the comment!

Lol

Starmer needs to go full prosecutor mode on the Grenfell recommendations being blocked, enough with civility

— jacob richardson (@jjarichardson) September 7, 2020

an establishment melt will take the knee as a stunt but not take the gloves off!

You wouldn't like him when he's angry

when he angrily takes his hand of his edwardian oak mantelpiece, the guy is a fucking force

his trembling hand on the mantelpiece even scares me

https://24.media.tumblr.com/5690eac39d8f848475872c77317c98fa/tumblr_n0nf58wycJ1s0a80fo1_500.gif live footage of Starmer in action at pmqs after his statements supporting the government get read back to him

Details of the £12.2bn Affordable Homes Programme released this morning.

Couple of key points:https://t.co/nnpS9xV10p

— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) September 8, 2020

Theresa May...thank you

Theresa May is second on the list of urgent questions to NI Secretary Brandon Lewis in Commons at 12.30 - after Labour NI lead Louise Haigh - who is asking about plan to weaken the NI protocol and Withdrawal Agreement

— seanwhelanRTE (@seanwhelanRTE) September 8, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/07/eu-has-powers-to-punish-uk-if-it-breaches-brexit-treaty-experts-warn

This is good on what could actually happen to the government if it breaks the agreement.

🚨 Brandon Lewis confirms the Government will break international law on EU Withdrawal Deal:

"Yes, this does break international law in a very specific and limited way". pic.twitter.com/6B8pU5M2cH

— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) September 8, 2020

The Empire's back, baby

https://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdyd1cbIqU1rby04wo1_1280.gif