Be Excellent To Each Other

The Pig and Ballbearing.

Botley Road Flag Man update!

The local rag reports that a PCSO told him to take his sign down.

He's right, we haven't had no democracy

I'm 100% sure that last bit is true.

His signs were all up when I passed the house this afternoon. They complement a neighbour's large bright orange "Liberal Democrats - Winning Here" sign well.

Well, the Withdrawal Agreement Bill goes to second reading today, and by some of the summaries I've seen they've helpfully stripped out elements involving any form of Parliamentary oversight of any agreements. Sad to see MPs vote to make themselves bystanders to it all, but I suppose we have to accept that we have a populist right-wing administration now that doesn't like criticism.

If I can up with a better thread title I'll change it, but my glibness and devils-advocating of the early days of this thread seem so horribly inappropriate now.

But, fuck it. Christmas!

It'll all fall to pieces as it is built on shit, anyway. Up the reds, fuck the Tories, etc

Yep. I've often felt that the whole affair has been set up just to provide a feature-length sequel to King and Crewe's classic "Blunders of our governments".
It'll fuel the political science and legal PHd industry for decades.

January 31st is a friday so probably out for one last hurrah.

It's BREXXXXXXXXMAAAAAAAAAAS.

1st Feb - Nissan announces closure of Sunderland plant.

If we're going to have annual independence day parties, couldn't we hold on a bit to at least get better weather?

The government's proposed increases in public spending and lack of tax to pay for it will probably cushion the immediate blow to the economy, but, like drinking with a hangover, will only exacerbate things later on.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ter-brexit

Someone got up and put on their big boy pants.

And, we're done.

Yes; not with a bang but a whimper. Frankly, I've just let it all pass by for now (the sight or sound of Mr Johnson grates me even more than Mr Trump right now). Let them have their moment and their victory. Whatever happens next is all on them.

We should probably have a new thread after midnight (Central European Time) on the 31st. This one was never meant to run for so long, after all.

I do like that we leave at 11pm, a rule taker already...

Here's a fun read, contrasts nicely with OUT ON THE JANUARY 31ST BRITAIN WINS AND BREXIT IS DONE.

https://politics.co.uk/blogs/2020/01/23 ... son-s-trad

Oh. My.

I think I may prefer to stay in ignorance, even if it's not blissful.

I began to lose the will after the first few paragraphs.

Don't worry, I'm sure dear old Boris has thought it all through.

https://twitter.com/billybragg/status/1 ... 3205560320

Can anyone spot what's wrong with the design of the 'iconic blue passport' as depicted in today's Daily Express? pic.twitter.com/tNCmrf6OdD

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) January 23, 2020

It is at this moment (14:38) still live on their website.

That's a staggeringly good article, although I think I'm going to have to re-read it several times to even begin to properly get a grasp on it, let alone find a nice way to ask my MP for her views on rules of origin.

I'd respectfully suggest you keep an eye on politics.co.uk and also follow Ian Dunt on Twitter, I never 'tweet' anything because that's for deadbeats and degenerates but I do follow a carefully curated list of people on there, and between them I get a nice Twitter feed of interesting stuff, along with worthwhile retweets. (I also follow Hadley Freeman because I like her work too but also because she is impossibly lovely.)

Ian Dunt has been banging on about all this 'boring' stuff like rules of origin for years, making the point that it'll never go away and will have to be faced at some point.

Glad you found the article useful

He's also excellent on the Remainiacs podcast.

And we're zany to the max!

Next week! Someone recommends the Bodleian Library as somewhere Kern might like to pay a visit.

Give me a hint? Because my instinctive response to that is scorched earth.

I'm pissed so only managed to focus on about half of it and now I'm more angry, disappointed and depressed than I already was.

Ixnay on the rixnay.

Let's go out for beers in liverpool on Friday. Worst case is, we get mad drunk.

I believe that was Mali's response to the withdrawal bill gaining assent in the Lord's.

And here we are, after so many false starts. Well, tickover mode for 11 months at least. But people have got their victory and are happy, and undoing it all becomes a heck of lot more difficult. Besides, "Transitioning the Brexit" isn't a very good thread title.

I'm probably avoiding the news today, and certainly am not going to watch Mr Johnson's address to the nation.

Radio 3's concert last night, live from Manchester, was a performance of Beethoven's 9th. For once, I wasn't in the mood.

I'm trying to see it as a win win now. When it all goes completely tits we get to be really fucking annoying about it. And if it somehow doesn't then we get to enjoy untold riches.

I've had a few Union Jacks turn up on my Facebook news feed as people change their profile pictures, so I've changed mine to the EU flag.

Copy them, but fly it upside down.

BBC news talked about what changes tomorrow, and the answer was pretty much... nothing much for now. apart from one weird thing they decided to add, which stood out of place.
Apparently Germany will no longer extradite UK nationals to the UK, so if you fancy committing a crime in the next 11 months, hot foot it to Germany.

Obviously, that got me to wondering, I started to wonder what crimes this would be valid for, then wondered where a crime actually takes place.
i.e. If I stood in Germany, and Malia stood across the border in France. If I lobbed a hefty rock, and with unerring accuracy, smacked him on the bonce, would the crime have happened in France or in Germany?

In Germany.

And it's not just Germany, a number of EU nations will only extradite to other EU nations.

A few weeks ago, I went through and unfriended the few of my friends that were heavy pro-Brexit supporters, so at least I don't need to put up with that crap today. I tried to see their point of view, then ended up hiding their posts, but I gave up on them as they post gradually more unhinged racist nonsense. Talking of which, that clip of Katie Hopkins receiving that fake award is quite something.

Isn't it glorious?

The most heinous crime here would be queue jumping.

Trick question! Under the terms of the 1709 Treaty of Augsburg, acts of violence against Renowned Space Pirates are not to be considered illegal.

If you haven't seen this already, it's well worth a look.

Wayne Morgan shares his reasons for voting for Brexit.

Sometimes you have to wonder if universal suffrage is such a good thing.

Indeed.

But maybe he was more lucid when she spoke to him before they went on air and then he had a couple of beers and then his mind just went blank when the camera rolled.

I didn't see any of the live coverage on the day so I don't know if any pro-leave voters with well reasoned arguments were also interviewed, but then again, we all want to see someone making a tit of themselves on live TV, particularly if we don't agree with what they are tryingto say.

Fuck Colin.

I flew back from Schiphol on Tuesday, and there was an absolute arse in the queue ahead of me complaining that “the Pakis went straight through while he had to queue”. He genuinely believed that the non-eu people should have to wait until everyone else had been processed despite their lane only having a handful of people in. Telling him to shut up felt inadequate.

And so it begins.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-goog ... 7-DvgdXrJo