RANTS FROM ROSS

Ross Thomson, the poor man’s Boris Rees-Fox, has taken to Twitter in a l-o-n-g rant about the mess that May is making of Brexit.

To be fair to him some of what he says is quite true.

There is a relatively limitless amount that you could say/write about his points. Munguin has made one or two obvious comments. We’d be happy to hear any of yours.

Ross is in black; Munguin’s in red.

@RossThomson_M24h24 hours ago

The spin around the #ChequersPlan is that it is a pragmatic compromise deal. It’s simply not. Rather it’s an “evolution” of the PM’s clear pledges at Lancaster House. It’s the status quo but with none of the benefits. So here are the facts about Chequers.

This is the fault of the Tories. You have spent 18 months arguing among yourselves. Added to which you had an unnecessary General Election and ended up dependent on the DUP, about which… well, enough said, but let’s admit that they aren’t big in the business of compromising.  And you are still all fighting like cats.

When we leave the EU’s institutions we will sign up to the EU’s rule book on goods and agri-products meaning that the UK will have to apply the same bureaucratic EU rules to all goods produced domestically for the UK market. This is staying in the single market in all but name.

Well, that was what your boss, Ruth Davidson, and your other boss, Fluffy Muddle, and indeed his boss said was absolutely VITAL to Scotland’s future. You do remember you are a Scottish MP, right?

Not only will we stay tied to bad regulations such as the EU ban on hoovers with motors more powerful than 900w we will be compelled to follow future EU regulations. Having left the EU’s institutions where these rules are decided the U.K. will become a voiceless rule taker.

As Tom Arthur points out (1) Vacuum cleaner performance isn’t dependent upon power rating. (2) The reduction in energy consumption across the EU by 2020 will be equivalent to EIGHT medium-sized power stations. (3) Over 6 million tonnes of CO2 will not be emitted. (4) Consumers will save money. Given some of what is happening to climate at the moment, I’d say that was a good thing, wouldn’t you?

It’s argued that in future the U.K. can choose to diverge from EU rules. Yet as set out in the white paper our refusal to implement regulations or to change them will result in consequences with the EU imposing penalties.

Yeah, that’s true, but in fairness, it is true of any deal between countries. A deal with the USA would have rules and regulations, and the rules and regulations of a trade deal are nearly always the rules and regulation of the bigger partner and that will only be us if we do a deal with the Isle of Man or Moritania. 

Independent arbitrator will act as a postbox for referring issues to the ECJ and issuing judgments which simply rubber stamp the ECJ’s rulings. Thereby the U.K. will still be subject to rulings of a foreign court.

You have to have an independent arbiter. It’s just not even slightly possible that the EU would see the ECJ as their arbiter but accept that the Engish High Court would be the UK’s.

Brexit should mean the supremacy of our Parliament. Yet with Chequers the ECJ will continue to work under the principle of the supremacy of the ECJ. It’s (sic) scope won’t be limited to the EU rule book but to environment, climate change, employment and consumer protection.

I can see that they would bother the right wing of your party. Frankly, I’d rather that the ECJ were the arbiter than the Americans, particularly this American government. Certainly on medicines, environment, food standards, agriculture, etc.

The PM pledged to end the rule of EU judges but Chequers means the ECJ will be the final arbiter in disputes about our £39bn Brexit bill, whether U.K. services regulation is deemed “equivalent” and the wider workings of Brexit. This means ECJ jurisdiction in perpetuity.

As I said above.

The prize of Brexit is regaining our ability to sign new trade deals. However, being aligned to the EU’s regulations makes a fee (sic) trade deal with the US difficult. The US will expect mutual recognition of each other’s regulatory standards which we won’t be able to offer

Again, I can see that that would appeal to the hard right. I suspect that most people would rather have the far stricter European standards. OK, it’s a lot of bother, but hygiene is hygiene and safety does matter.  There won’t be much mutuality in the deal with Trump’s “America First” America, given that Trump is a businessman first and foremost, and he knows that the UK is screamingly desperate for a deal. Any Deal …  But the fact that you mention it shows that you are quite prepared to meet the standards of America, but unwilling to do the same for Europe. Is this the Thatcher “English speaking nations of the world” thing?

Brexit means taking back control of our borders. Yet a mobility agreement with the EU will again mean preferential treatment for EU nationals and even the White Paper indicates continued access to benefits for EU citizens after Brexit.

If you are going to have a mobility with Ireland you probably have to have it with the rest of Europe. In any case, Britain could always have had stricter immigration from Europe. Othe European countries have. UK was just too lazy to set up a system which recorded and dealt with unemployed immigrants. There is a time limit on most immigration in Europe.

We are told that the Chequers Plan should just be accepted (despite how bad it is) because no alternative plans have been submitted. This is total rubbish. Here are the alternatives:

Status Quo Comprehensive Free Trade Deal (preferred by all sides) DExEU plan (worked on by David Davis based on the widely welcomed mansion house speech)

Chequers Plan (which pleases no one)

WTO rules (On which we already do trade with the US and China)

Can you let us know what all of these would cost us?

The Government should focus on the issues around the border between the U.K. and Ireland in order to secure an Advanced Free Trade Agreement (CETA +++). Currently a border already exists – in currency, VAT, excise duties and security which do not present any problems.

Using new technology as well as extending schemes such as the Authorised Economic Operator Scheme means any post Brexit customs checks can be done without a hard border. The EU insists on customs checks but in reality, no U.K. or Irish govt would ever accept a hard border.

But, hasn’t Mrs May admitted that this technology doesn’t exist? Even if it did it would be horrendously expensive to install. Do you know how many crossings there are on the 310-mile border?  275. That’s a lot of crossings to man. And the Irish would have to agree and to pay its share.

Remember thar (sic) the Chequers Plan is not a deal. It’s an opening offer to the EU to be compromised and watered down. Already the EU is pushing the UK towards a combination of EEA and Customs Union membership which is an unacceptable undermining of the vote public vote to leave.

That’s true. Barnier has already rejected it. You really can’t have that cake you just ate. We do not hold all the cards and this is not the easiest thing ever.

 

The commitments, promises and pledges given either at the dispatch box or in speeches by the PM have now “evolved”. In cute language that means the Chequers plan hands away the prizes of Brexit. We will have the status quo but worse off. It’s not in the country’s best interests.

But all the plans for Brexit leave your constituents worse off.  Show me one that doesn’t.

Certainly, a Norway style deal is what some of your Tories would call, the worst of all worlds. You pay (without rebate), you follow the rules, you have almost no say at all in what these rules are, or who else gets to join, and you more or less accept the four freedoms and the jurisdiction of  ECJ. Plus there is no farming payment, no social fund, no structural fund…

Don’t just take my word for it. The Times recently reported that “By more than two to one, voters do not believe [Theresa May’s] plan keeps faith with the referendum result.” Polling since Chequers shows the Conservatives have averaged 37% and not led Labour in a single poll.

The plan is crap. No doubt about that. It’s already been rejected by Barnier, so it’s not going to happen. Mrs May is not going to get big votes. She personally is as popular as …well, you know the expression (and we have young readers of sensitive dispositions). But Corbyn is no better. His party is just as riven as yours. I’ve yet to see an idea come from them.

The voters are unhappy with the Chequers Plan and their confidence in the government’s ability to deliver Brexit has plummeted. The people by 17.4m voted for the U.K. to leave the EU. If Brexit is not delivered properly there will be consequences at the ballot box.

I REALLY wish that you would remember that you are a SCOTTISH MP. Scotland voted 62-38 to STAY (and in a recent opinion poll, every bit as reliable as the one you quoted they were split 70-30). 

We’re told to back Chequers or we’ll get Corbyn. That’s ridiculous. In reality if we don’t deliver Brexit fully we will lose seats like Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Banff and Buchan and much more. To fail on Brexit will usher in the chaos of Corbyn message

Are you suggesting that the Tory/DUP messages aren’t just as chaotic?

There is still time to ditch Chequers and take a different approach to deliver the Brexit articulated so well by the PM at Lancaster House. It’s right that colleagues have voiced concern and I’ll work with them to constructively engage with the government for it to change course.

Before Monsieur Barnier and his colleagues can give a definitive answer to the UK, it would help if he thought that there wasn’t going to be another general election and that the governing party weren’t tearing each other’s eyes out, stabbing each other in the back and pissing on each other’s chips… and bowing to the pressures of a loonie right-wing faction whose swivvel-eyed support they purchased with a not inconsiderable amount of OUR money. Think about it. You guys would the laughing stock of the world if Trump weren’t a much more important fool.

FOR THOSE WHO COULDN’T MAKE IT…

The whole march in Inverness yesterday squeezed into 2m20s with words from @MareeToddMSP #AUOBInverness
(ignore the "double vision" at the beginning there…) pic.twitter.com/Hof4oRJmJp

— Independence Live (@liveIndyScot) July 29, 2018

SOPPY SUNDAY

Morning all. Just waking up here…

Grand Canyon.

Greenland.

You don’t expect me to get my feet wet, do you?

Northern lights in Iceland.

Ladybirds for independence march.

Seems like a good place for a rest.

Morocco.

Found this fellow on Twitter courtesy of Barry Farquharson.

The first day at work is always daunting.

These papers are so boring!!!

Plockton and Kyle from Raasay, thanks to Dave.

What are they cooking for Munguin’s dinner?

I looked right and then left and then right again.

Where do you suppose that is?

Temple Bar, Dublin.

Come on, it’s time to get up.

Punakha, Bhutan.

Are you going to be my friend?

Hows this for a view?

Well, that’s it for another week, Munguinites. Hope you enjoyed it more than I’m enjoying whatever this is I’ve got to eat.

 

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS

Late addition…

Thanks again to Dave…

IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE MUNGUIN, HOW ABOUT BELIEVING JOHN NELSON?

Lloyds of Brussels?

Oh, and I’ve just noticed that Dominic Raab, the newly appointed Brexit Secretary, isn’t actually going to be Brexit Secretary… I mean he’s still going to have the title, the salary and the car and be called Rt Hon and all, he’s just not actually going to be doing Brexit. So it didn’t take them long to find out he was a useless whatsit.

No, don’t look at me like that. This is Britain. It’s all totally possible.

Anyway, wait for the exciting news. Mrs May is going to take over the negotiations herself (because she’s so good at this stuff).

Anyway, you might say that “Brexit means Brexit”, but you can’t say the “Brexit Secretary means Brexit Secretary”.

It’s a funny old world, ain’t it just!

Seriously though… did you ever read so much unbelievable guff? “Simple” is the only word I can see in there that even vaguely connects with the Tories.

I wonder, with all this leisure time on his hands, if Dom will be taking over the tea duties from Fluffs…

Or maybe he’s the one that will be doing the stockpiling of food. The Rt Hon Secretary of State for Warehouses, Workhouses and Ration Books for the deserving poor?

It gets more surreal by the minute.

NOW WE ARE SERIOUSLY LOOKING AT NO DEAL

Not long after the referendum, Terry Entoure pointed me in the direction of “Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now?” a book by Ian Dunt, the editor of Politics.co.uk.

In the first chapter, Dunt paints a doomsday scenario of a no deal exit, a scary, dystopian vision of the future. I was seriously worried by the time I finished. Fortunately, right at the end of the chapter, he admits that this is an absolute worst case scenario and highly unlikely to happen. The rest of the book is a little more upbeat.

But because the different factions of the Tories and the DUP can’t agree on anything that would be even halfway acceptable to each other, never mind the European Union, and the clock that Monsieur Barnier pointed out was ticking over a year ago, is still heading to that 11 pm deadline on March 29, 2019, it is beginning to look like that is what we are heading for. For those in doubt, this is what it would look like.

May has always said that “no deal is better than a bad deal”, but frankly it isn’t true, any more than her other witterings have been… you know, like “being very clear” about stuff, and being “strong and stable” in government.

Today David Dark Money Mundell, a man who makes Jim Murphy look like a  halfway decent Secretary of State for Scotland, has said that a no deal scenario would be preferable to the break up of the United Kingdom.

That as the UK government admitted that it was stockpiling medicines and foods against this eventuality, emergency measures are being drawn up, notes of advice will be issued to households over the coming months and Jacob Rees Mogg, Brexiter Extraordinaire admits that the UK could be looking at 50-60 years of austerity.

It’s all an awfully long way from £350 million a week for the NHS.

I can only imagine that Muddle is speaking for himself on this matter. As a Cabinet Minister, I assume he wouldn’t be obliged to suffer any of the privations that the rest of us would endure. But of course, his seat around the cabinet table and the ministerial car and fat salary would disappear overnight were there no Scotland to Secretary of State for.

He most certainly isn’t talking for me, but then, I doubt that in his entire life he has ever spoken up for the likes of us… you know, ordinary Scottish people.

Still … look on the bright side, folks… We can always laugh at this stupid arse.

SOPPY SUNDAY

Morning. The youngsters are asleep so I’ll welcome you to Soppy Sunday. Have a good day…

Nest of short tailed voles uncovered during a bit of a of a tidy up behind the tool store yesterday @cowdengarden. #britishmammals pic.twitter.com/0yjB9AHKgV

— Japanese Garden Cowden (@cowdengarden) July 18, 2018

Bernkastel, Germany.

Who could say otherwise?

This is my home. Bet yours isn’t anything like as nice.

I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of Canada.

Frank sent this in, He reckons (as do I) that this is a Red-breasted Merganser and her rather considerable family. Big job there, birdie!

Hello. I don’t suppose you could spare a little puffin a bit of your sandwich? I’m particularly partial to prawns.

Pompeii.

Shhhh. Wake me up when lunch is ready.

The Twins.

Awwwww.

Blue flames from Indonesian volcano.

Manarola.

Peace.

Well, what do you think of these horns?

Hoi, do you mind? These are new trainers.

Slow worms in the Hebrides.

St Stephens, Budapest.

Sorry, I just got up and splashed some water on my face. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Soppy Sunday.

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS

As always on Saturdays, thanks to Dave for the car pics.

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FUNNY…

…EVEN WITHOUT THE LAST LINE

WHAT UTTER EMBARRASSMENTS

Oh my God!!! Oh my God!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!! Theresa May doesn’t know shit… pic.twitter.com/TqPsL2CCCu

— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) July 19, 2018

She might as well have said: “You know what, Yvette, I’ve not got a freakin clue where they will pay their taxes. Indeed, I expect they probably won’t”. Because she doesn’t know anything about it, and compared with Yvette Cooper who was patiently calm and polite but firm, May looked like a rank amateur.

Talking of which… Is there a competition going on between May and Trump to see who can be the bigger embarrassing roaster?

What a load of nonsense. He couldn’t even read the statement that his people prepared for him. He rambles through it, mixes up repeal and repel and indicates that there might be some doubt as to what he said… when there is no doubt at all.

Danny sent me this article from the Washington Post.

America’s child president had a play date with a KGB alumnus, who surely enjoyed providing daycare. It was a useful, because illuminating, event: Now we shall see how many Republicans retain a capacity for embarrassment.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, a Democrat closely associated with such Democratic national security stalwarts as former senator Henry Jackson and former senator and former vice president Hubert Humphrey, was President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations. In her speech at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, she explained her disaffection from her party: “They always blame America first.” In Helsinki, the president who bandies the phrase “America First” put himself first, as always, and America last, behind President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Because the Democrats had just held their convention in San Francisco, Kirkpatrick branded the “blame America first” cohort as “San Francisco Democrats.” Thirty-four years on, how numerous are the “Helsinki Republicans”?

What, precisely, did President Trump say about the diametrically opposed statements by U.S. intelligence agencies (and the Senate Intelligence Committee) and by Putin concerning Russia and the 2016 U.S. elections? Precision is not part of Trump’s repertoire: He speaks English as though it is a second language that he learned from someone who learned English last week. So, it is usually difficult to sift meanings from Trump’s word salads. But in Helsinki he was, for him, crystal clear about feeling no allegiance to the intelligence institutions that work at his direction and under leaders he chose.

Speaking of Republicans incapable of blushing — those with the peculiar strength that comes from being incapable of embarrassment — consider Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), who for years enjoyed derivative gravitas from his association with Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Graham tweeted about Helsinki: “Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections.” A “missed opportunity” by a man who had not acknowledged the meddling?

Contrast Graham’s mush with this on Monday from McCain, still vinegary: “Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” Or this from Arizona’s other senator, Jeff Flake (R): “I never thought I would see the day when our American president would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression.” Blame America only.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and others might believe that they must stay in their positions lest there be no adult supervision of the Oval playpen. This is a serious worry, but so is this: Can those people do their jobs for someone who has neither respect nor loyalty for them?

Like the purloined letter in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story with that title, collusion with Russia is hiding in plain sight. We shall learn from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation whether in 2016 there was collusion with Russia by members of the Trump campaign. The world, however, saw in Helsinki something more grave — ongoing collusion between Trump, now in power, and Russia. The collusion is in what Trump says (refusing to back the United States’ intelligence agencies) and in what evidently went unsaid (such as: You ought to stop disrupting Ukraine, downing civilian airliners, attempting to assassinate people abroad using poisons, and so on, and on).

Americans elected a president who — this is a safe surmise — knew that he had more to fear from making his tax returns public than from keeping them secret. The most innocent inference is that for decades he has depended on an American weakness, susceptibility to the tacky charisma of wealth, which would evaporate when his tax returns revealed that he has always lied about his wealth, too. A more ominous explanation might be that his redundantly demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians. A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant.

The explanation is in doubt; what needs to be explained — his compliance — is not. Granted, Trump has a weak man’s banal fascination with strong men whose disdain for him is evidently unimaginable to him. And, yes, he only perfunctorily pretends to have priorities beyond personal aggrandizement. But just as astronomers inferred, from anomalies in the orbits of the planet Uranus, the existence of Neptune before actually seeing it, Mueller might infer, and then find, still-hidden sources of the behavior of this sad, embarrassing wreck of a man.