Europe IV: The Final Hour

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/oct/14/brexit-latest-news-queens-speech-branded-farcical-as-talks-in-eu-still-fail-to-achieve-breakthrough-live-news?page=with:block-5da44efd8f083d8b3b9db820#liveblog-navigation

No.10 says Brexit talks are still progressing but have a long way to go. They won't extend A50 to allow for them to succeed either making any further talks also redundant, showcasing what an utter empty waste of time they are and blatantly confirming they're in bad faith and just a PR exercise.

[QualityChimp]

The old lie: our eldest generation backs Brexit
Many who support leaving the EU have a misty-eyed nostalgia. People who lived through the Second World War, though, don’t necessarily feel the same.

"I think the men who fought in the war, who didn’t have any choice at the time, might wonder today what it was all about"

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/14/police-ban-extinction-rebellion-protests-from-whole-of-london

Extinction Rebellion protests have now been banned throughout London.

[MartyG]

Yes, that's not going to backfire in any way at all.

[Neon Ignition]

It's certainly going to escalate as it goes on, they're already resisting the ban which will step up tensions with local authorities and given the Government is only tolerating XR for campaign purposes the needle could turn very quickly.

[Cassius_Smoke]

'Under the Human Rights Act everybody has a freedom of expression and a freedom of thought and assembly. This means that everybody has a right to a peaceful protest and no restrictions shall be placed on this unless it is in the interests of national security, public safety or for the prevention of disorder or crime.'

Do we know that they have become a problem for the public, national security or criminal activity?

[Neon Ignition]

I think the number of arrests is over 1,400 now so I'd hazard a guess they'll be passing it off as XR sucking up police resources which means more crime etc is failing to be prevented as a result - thereby passing it off as public safety etc indirectly

[QualityChimp]

Voter ID: Government announces plan to prevent UK citizens voting without photographic proof of identity at polling stations

"The government has announced plans to prevent people from voting unless they can provide photographic identification, prompting accusations it is attempting to “rig the next election”."

Basically, if you've not got a passport or driving licence, you can't vote. The people in this group are primarily poorer people, who are most likely to be voting against the government that made them poor in the first place with austerity measures.

A 2017 University of California study found that strict voter ID laws in the US tended to “skew democracy in favour of whites and those on the political right”.

[Neon Ignition]

How'd that work with postal votes?

[QualityChimp]

Well, it would make sure those filthy homeless people couldn't vote, that's for sure, what what?

[QualityChimp]

Embedded Tweet

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/15/boris-johnson-close-to-brexit-deal-after-border-concessions

Apparently Johnson is close to getting a deal agreed which is basically one of May's rejected deal attempts reheated.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/15/the-votes-are-now-there-for-brexit-deal-says-jacob-rees-mogg

Whilst Mogg says there is now enough support for the deal even though it doesn't exist yet and no-one has agreed or knows the details.

... I mean... I'm just not seeing it. I'm probably being dumb as well but how the hell does a border down the Irish Sea work in a favourable way?

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I’m not sure I fully understand it. While it’s being described in different terms, in practical terms it would seem to work exactly the same way the backstop would, essentially sectioning NI off to be compliant with EU free trade regulations. Not sure what’s really being proposed here.

[Neon Ignition]

Which sounds almost worse than the backstop, like we're severing NI off like a gangrenous limb which will surely fuel issues. Seems weird the DUP would be willing to go back to that, also that the Lib Dems or Labour would consider it acceptable so with a small minority as well I'm not sure how this wouldn't be doomed to die at Parliament as well. If anything, agreeing a deal makes it even harder for Johnson to run a No Deal based General Election manifesto

[Asura]

Seems weird the DUP would be willing to go back to that, also that the Lib Dems or Labour would consider it...

Maybe. I guess that the thing is, unless we somehow do a colossal U-turn and cancel Brexit altogether, we have to do something and it might be "the devil you know" - like they might be willing to go for something they wouldn't prefer in preference to having something foisted on them without warning in the future. Once Brexit goes through, we've got forever to pick up the pieces.

This is pure speculation on my part though.