the day after the deadline: can the union survive brexit and other deep questions

I think this will stoke a fair amount of Irish hatred in parts of England. Perhaps in Wales too but but for other reasons. and In scotland alos but for other plus other reasons. There are vast swathes of the country that dgaf about Ireland or NI and would willingly cut NI loose as part of Brexit since the first time they actually gave NI the merest thought this millennium was this summer w/r/t the DUP deal.

Newsnight about to feature the highly relevant opinions of IDS.

Is there a stereotype about berlingos now? My mum's got a berlingo, she always buys the most practical car available.

I'm referring to Berlingo vans, which are a very popular transport option in the trades/construction industry.

oi my wife's got a berlingo. or at least she will have until the government stop her mobility allowance

i did ask her though and she blames the irish

I thought "yeomanry in Berlingo van types" might have made it clear I wasn't referring to old dames in motors or disabled mobility cars ffs!

Are they so stupid

It's Iain Duncan Smith.

I think most of Britain would be glad to see the back of Northern Ireland tbh.

I don't think that's even in debate

Unfortunately ye give them seats in fuckin Westminster ye fuckin clowns

I mean supposedly we want them back but we wouldn't give them fuckin seats in Dublin lads

I think this will stoke a fair amount of Irish hatred in parts of England.

The old tricks are the best!

I agree with most of Britain not gafing about NI, but only because a fair whack of the country thinks everyone living there is Irish and doesn’t understand why the “Irish” are making such a fuss.

They are all Irish though.

THEY are all Irish though or they ARE all Irish though. Or are they though?

otm

It's one of those things where you wait until they tell you if they are or not

lol IDS

_ “You know this Irish stuff was not at this state some months ago, now it’s suddenly become an issue because the Irish - for political reasons internally, presidential elections, disputes between two elements of the same party - they suddenly laid this on. _

also, assuming everyone knows this here but the irish president is a nominal head of state with no real power. we haven't had a presidential election for several years and if we did it wouldn't be a matter of controversy. it is fairly perturbing that a senior british politician has literally no idea how the democratic system of one of the country's closest neighbours works.

Is it still that Joyce expert geezer these days

http://dlx.b-ok.org/foreignfiction/767000/0923776b0576ed9e7f7dace9b8b11197.txt/_as/[Smith_Iain_Duncan]_The_Devil's_Tune(bookos-z1.org).txt

His novel The Devil's Tune, which never reached the paperback format, probably reveals a lot about the enigma of the quite fucking stupid man.

you have to c+p that link

Iirc that came out pretty much simultaneously with him being dumped as party leader, felt bad for the publishers lol

things like that novel contribute to my sense of IBS as a tragicomic figure, this slightly oikish duffer who keeps trying to prove himself to the big boys but knows deep down that nobody likes him and they're laughing behind his back. he's the Arnold Rimmer of uk politics.

the not-quiet-enough man of british politics

He's a psychopath, but missing the ability to charm and manipulate skillset that usually goes with that

Also my da has a mate from his old canoe club who's a dead ringer for IDS lol

I used to think that all the moralistic Christian stuff he came out with was just a smokescreen for the brutality of his welfare policies but now I'm pretty sure he was genuinely stupid enough to believe both things at once without ever noticing the contradiction.

It just goes to show that the absolute dearth of talent in the Conservative party has been a very long term problem. Nothing about IDS stands up to much scrutiny, including his fabricated CV. Or the pretense that he quit Cameron's cabinet over cuts to disability benefits.

Now enjoying the idea that reality has shifted, Man in the High Castle style, and IDS is the only person who remembers that he was leader of the Conservative Party.

meanwhile, David Davis is doing the whole "a dog ate my homework" routine in front of the Brexit Select Committee.

in fact, not so much "dog ate my homework" as "I do not recall the existence of any homework in the first place" JFC

it is fairly perturbing that a senior british politician has literally no idea how the democratic system of one of the country's closest neighbours works.

Come on, you don't actually think Tories believe the Republic of Ireland is a proper country?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQUYSWeX4AAoXRf.jpg

Williamson vs Hammond fite is an amusing little sideshow.

choppy morning for david davis

trying to get out of it with "I'm running late" particularly impressive

I'M RUNNING 17 MONTHS LATE

here is footage of Davis' response to the committee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDUIGvpDolw

it's his SAS training kicking in - 'improvise, adapt and overcome'.

Q: Did the government undertake an assessment of leaving the customs union before the cabinet took that decision?

Not a quantitative one, no, says Davis.

Q: Isn’t that extraordinary?

No, says Davis. He says the range of different outcomes is too wide. Some free trade agreements have been very effective, and others haven’t. Ministers had to take a judgment. That is what they did, he says.

Davis says cabinet took decision to leave the customs union without an analysis of the economic impact.

There was a piece in the Standard about pro-Corbyn City boys (and more generally City types who voted Labour last time). It illuminated precisely nothing about Labour policy but really did show quite how catastrophically the Tories are trashing their own brand, apparently without realising it. That Davis answer is their whole problem in a nutshell.

fuck it we'll give it a go. over the top lads.

xpost

"Lets just do it and be legends"

Committee chairman Hilary Benn asked whether impact assessments had been carried into various parts of the economy, listing the automotive, aerospace and financial sectors.

"I think the answer's going to be no to all of them," Mr Davis responded.

When Mr Benn suggested this was "strange", the minister said formal assessments were not needed to know that "regulatory hurdles" would have an impact.

"I am not a fan of economic models because they have all proven wrong," he added.

oh so that's okay then

In retrospect it was probably a mistake to let them watch The Hatton Garden Job the night before.

Jim Allister, a former DUP MEP and now leader of the hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice, said today that any moves aimed at keeping Northern Ireland inside the European Customs Union would have moved the border to the Irish Sea.

it's cool they set up a party for that weird way they all speak

they should have called it the Hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice

good alex harrowell piece from a month ago on the causes of these pervasive and seemingly baffling fyre-festival levels of useless incompetent mendacity

tl;dr: most billionaires are deeply stupid but they now basically drive politics and policy

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxpYW_w5pgo

Davis says cabinet took decision to leave the customs union without an analysis of the economic impact.

and there it is.
no doubt this will get buried in the deluge of crap thats flying around at the moment ...

Wera Hobhouse, a Lib Dem, asks where the misunderstanding that there were impact assessments came from.

Davis says she will have to ask other people. He says he always used the phrase sectoral analysis. He accepts that, at an earlier hearing, when Seema Malhotra asked him about impact assessments, he might not have corrected her.

haha that is great - never saw it before, xpost.

surely this idea they don't have impact assessments is outrageous bullshit right? "our dog ate them" sounds like a classic case of covering up the truth expertly by admitting to something absurd and embarrassing.