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

lol who is this bloke?

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/914971208281657344/r4u3nLn0_400x400.jpg

@faisalislam
Chuka Umunna now listing the number of time the eurosceptics have rebelled against the Government...Davis - 90 times, Fox - 19 times, Leadsom - 7 times, Redwood - 17 times Jenkin - 95 times, Cash - 100+ times
“None of these people can lecture people seeking to do the right thing”

Newsnight just ridiculously irrelevant these days

Let me just check I've got this right:

- As of last week, no deal eventuality = Britain basically continues under current rules
- Which reduces the risk if Parliament vetoes a deal, when previously this would = crashing out on WTO rules
- Unless something major happens there's no majority in Parliament for a Hard Brexit
- UNLESS that would lead to the collapse of the government, a GE, Jeremy Corbyn in #10 etc, so it hinges on how many Tory rebels can be intimidated round to the government's way of thinking?
- May won't want to see any of this stuff happen anyway so a hard Brexit is pretty much dead in the water? It's been obvious for a while that she is likely to cave on most of what the EU wants her to cave on, but the fact that she wouldn't be able to get it through Parliament anyway means that a reasonably sane outcome is a lot more likely?

Two Labour MPs voted with the government. I imagine I don't have to mention them by name, you'll already have guessed.

kate hoey being a former trot from an ulster unionist background who supports brexit is like someone made a human being in a petri dish specifically for me to loathe

oh yeah and she's pro-fox hunting, anti-cycling and (of course considering she's a brexiteer) anti-immigration

I'm not convinced Hoey is human at all tbh.

Not sure if the undead are human or not tbh, so Frank Field's status is undefined.

Let me just check I've got this right:

- As of last week, no deal eventuality = Britain basically continues under current rules

DAILY MAIL: Proud of Yourselves? #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/sQ3o6P1kNZ

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 13, 2017

Coming here to post that - I have to imagine that there was fistfights in the Mail newsroom over the unwarranted olive branch of not calling for their hanging.

Probably gutted that they couldn’t use Dirty Fozen tbh.

"

Great post!

Meant to say...

"DIEHARD Tory Remainers were accused of treachery last night..."

Yes, by the Daily Mail

*Dozen

pic.twitter.com/Tj80NSwA43

— Mollie Goodfellow 🤶🏻 (@hansmollman) December 14, 2017

alex tomo currently giving tulip siddiq a doing on channel 4 news

I'm surprised more isn't being made of this, cozying up to her murderous authoritarian aunt and washing her hands of british citizens who are disappeared. how is she still in the labour party?

For a start, the people involved are not British citizens aiui.

Having spoken at an event organised by her aunt’s political party (bearing in mind they are the largest in Bangladesh) is fairly light-touch as far as cozying up goes. She has kept her distance from Bangla politics for the most part.

She came off appallingly in the initial interaction with C4 a couple of weeks ago but she is not really under any more obligation than anyone else to take up specific causes.

That interview was awful but the guilt-by-association dogwhistling that's been going on in sections of the press is grim.

Yep. All the ‘where do her loyalties really lie?’ stuff, when her position throughout has been ‘I am not a Bangladeshi politician and I can only represent my constituents’ has been bad.

yes looking at it the person mentioned by alex thompson was a bangladeshi citizen who had studied here. if, as they show in that report, she speaks regularly with her aunt, goes with her to meet world leaders, has spoken at her party rallies and claims she couldn't have won without their support that seems... very cozy? her dismissive, hostile reaction when asked about raising this issue seems like a huge red flag. shades of that (plus some some disingenuousness/confusion/idiocy) in hasina's defense when questioned about disappearing people - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/25/bangladesh-pm-sheikh-hasina-claims-forced-disappearances-take-place-in-uk-and-us

if as the report says other MPs with connections to bangladesh are involving themselves it seems hard to come up with an unterrible motivation for her behaviour

comes from the same place as asking Sadiq Khan how it feels to be home. best press in the world.

If any other politician rang their relative to cut through some red tape, we’d be here talking about how unseemly it was.

xp for real you think the fact that an MP who is cagey and defensive about the fact they're a close relation of a PM who gets their security forces to arrest, hassle & murder journalists and political opponents is of no interest?

i don't think helping releasing ppl from being illegally detained/tortured or whatever comes down as 'cutting red tape'

What do you think her motive is?

I think she doesn't want to rock the boat with her extremely powerful aunt

more information would be good obviously, but I'm struggling to square everyone's blase reaction to what we know so far. it at least seems worthy of further attention

tbf, a lot of the grass roots pressure has come from Bangladeshi opposition groups in the UK who have had a longstanding issue with Siddique being an MP in the first place. By and large it is guilt by association stuff designed to make her uncomfortable / defensive rather than in the expectation that she could effect any meaningful change if she wanted to. She is seen as a beneficiary of the party’s corruption, even if it is mostly by accident of birth.

The RW press going in on her, while handwaving away arms sales to Bangladesh, obv have a different agenda.

I think that's probably true. I also think it's very possible she has no influence with her aunt in any case. It's also possible/likely that she doesn't want to cast herself/be cast as unofficial Bangladeshi liaison officer because of who her family are, which I think would be fair and reasonable given that none of us are responsible for the actions of our older relatives.

I'm not really sure what she's like a consititency MP, and I'm conflicted as to whether she should have been selected in the first place given the potential of her connections to cause (at best) extreme embarrassment to the party. But let's not pretend that the plight of Bangladeshi dissidents is what interests the press here. (xpost)

in general I don't know how it's possible not to be extremely suspicious of people in politics with close personal ties to repressive governments, and political dynasties/family connections in politics more generally, because there's always questions of conflicts of interest, especially when people are so cagey. I don't think you can be a priori dismissive about political associations: the importance of having effective diplomatic ties with even the grimmest regimes doesn't mean that the motives of everyone involved will always be pure or above suspicion; most ppl ITT have probably felt aggrieved by associations in the past (thatcher and pinochet, say); and, from an admittedly out of context speech, she herself seems to have suggested her career has been dependent on her family ties.

The Bangla community in her seat is something like 1% if the electorate so idk how useful the Siddique name has been there.

The conflict of interest line would be extremely valid if she was shadow Foreign Sec and taking a soft line on Hasina, or actively lobbying for pro-Awami policies from the back benches, but she isn’t afaict. She’s just not getting involved in an area some people want her to.

She was originally a councillor for a Camden ward with a large Bangladeshi community.

xp if she had no significant contact with her aunt or bangladeshi politics and was in a position where she felt she could be critical of the govt I'd agree with you!

I remember a Bangladeshi, as in Bangladeshi not UK Bangladeshi, guy I work with talking about her (Tulip, that is) but fucked if I can remember what he said, I think the gist of it was her family are bad people.

A substantial minority of Bangladeshi people would agree.

My contacts over there are not enthusiastic Awami supporters, by any means, but are pretty proud to see her alongside other Bengali-origin politicians in Parliament.

Paul Golding arrested in Belfast. Also WTF he's 35 LOLOLOL bullshit.

speaking as a 23 year old that seems plausible

Kan u not

Also WTF he's 35 LOLOLOL bullshit.

A diet of nothing but roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and a full English every day will do that to a man.

You forgot the side-order of ignorant hatred. P toxic that stuff.

Pollonium Twat.

still amazes me that farage is only in his early fifties

might have to put up with him for another 30 years ffs

No fucking way, he's a coronary waiting to happen.

He needs to stop smoking and cut down on the shouty high-octane r/w soundbites, maybe he could start a Centrist Party?

Oh do Centrist Parties avoid soundbites and smoking?

Probably not, but it would be amusing to see Farage on a platform with Dave M and Chuka. Lol, there is a Centrist Party called Platform as well btw.

flatporm