Brexit View

[JohnL]

Penny Mordaunt is staring at her phone in a strange way apparently from the Evening Standard live feed.

[diable rouge]

In case you're wondering why there wasn't much publicity about Farage's call to arms yesterday to demonstrate outside Downing Street*...

*Press and passers-by don't count Nige...

[JohnL]

Nicky Morgan backs the deal - maybe she's being tapped up for a job :)

[diable rouge]

JohnL Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Anyway I see a huge catfight coming (and not only

> Larry).

From Larry's Twitter feed...

?The Prime Minister offered me the position of Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. After careful consideration for three seconds, I have declined the offer?

[JohnL]

LOL and after the cat turned it down she's offered it to Gove - who's still undecided apparently.

[diable rouge]

Have you noticed how perfect the tarmac finish is in Downing Street, even the patch repair is super smooth, unlike our lumpy peasant streets... :)

[diable rouge]

Jacob Rees Mogg submits letter of no confidence in May...

[JohnL]

I keep reading Draft Brexit Deal as Daft Brexit Deal - which it is.

[Jules-and-Boo]

it's neither Brexit, nor a Deal

[JohnL]

You have to give it to May, she has some stamina when she wants to.

"Her statement began at 10.30am and finished at 1.28pm."

[Jules-and-Boo]

indeed. I would not like her job.

[diable rouge]

And this one from David Baddiel's Twitter feed...

‏

''I feel I should take the job of Brexit Secretary now. If only so that when I resign, Theresa May can finally be proved right that No Deal is better than a Baddiel.''

[rendelharris]

The Prime Minister has stated that in cricket terms, she is a Geoffrey Boycott, who can plug away and finally get the runs (or roons). One wonders if she recalls the 1979 World Cup Final, in which Boycott played so ridiculously slowly, thinking of nothing but his own wicket and ego, that we made 129 runs in 38 overs and lost the match by 92 runs.

Johnny metaphor can be a tricky cove, Mrs.May.

[JohnL]

Boycott used to get his batting partner run out didn't he :)

Apparently Gove was offered the job of Brexit Secretary and one of the conditions was he had to renegotiate the deal. So Theresa May wants to renegotiate now (as she knows this one won't pass)

[rendelharris]

JohnL Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Boycott used to get his batting partner run out

> didn't he :)

Indeed - or sometimes, when they were sick of his slow progress, his teammates would run him out on purpose, which seems quite likely to happen to the PM...

[diable rouge]

JohnL Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Apparently Gove was offered the job of Brexit

> Secretary and one of the conditions was he had to

> renegotiate the deal. So Theresa May wants to

> renegotiate now (as she knows this one won't pass)

I read that it was Gove who wanted to renegotiate. Anyway, Gove not resigning...

ETA..He says he wants to stay to try and achieve the best Brexit outcome. Fine, so why not take the Brexit Secretary job then?

Too busy sharpening his knife. Once a duplicitous back-stabbing lizard...

[diable rouge]

The Gov Sell-Out Brexit protesters are back, and this time they're really going for it...

[robbin]

I'm perplexed that a draft agreement of 585 pages has no index or contents page to facilitate navigation of the document - it's almost as if a deliberate decision has been taken to erect barriers in order to discourage people from reading what might be one of the most significant documents in recent years. Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but the only other explanation is that the omnishambles that is the negotiation process has just been carried forward into an amateurish production of the document. There's no excuse for that - it looks rushed and unprofessional.

The document jumps from subject to subject with parts of it having no readily identifiable structure. Almost all commentaries I have seen make points about what is in the document without setting out the relevant page number, so they are of limited help in that regard. In at least one case I wanted to check the wording because an MP was on television making an obviously bogus point about certain wording, but it takes forever searching for the needle in the haystack just to check one point.

Has anyone located any sort of contents or index (I was hoping some commentator might have produced one after the event)?

[JohnL]

Theres this (Explainer to support understanding of the draft Withdrawal Agreement from the European Union)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/withdrawal-agreement-explainer-and-technical-explanatory-note-on-articles-6-8-on-the-northern-ireland-protocol

But it doesn't help much

[diable rouge]

I found this on an EU Law specialist's Twitter feed...

They'll very likely add a clickable contents list after the legal "verification" has taken place. The article nos may change they say, which is probably why there's no contents list yet.

[diable rouge]

Only four three more Brexit Secretaries to go before Christmas...

[JohnL]

The Brexit secretary seems to have no role.

Meanwhile Liam Fox has said "A deal is better than no deal"

[robbin]

diable rouge Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I found this on an EU Law specialist's Twitter

> feed...

>

> They'll very likely add a clickable contents list

> after the legal "verification" has taken place.

> The article nos may change they say, which is

> probably why there's no contents list yet.

So have these experts and supposedly intelligent people never heard of one of the most basic word processing functions that exist? Do they (nor any of their hundreds of secretarial support staff) know that their WP system will automatically change para numbers and references in their contents page as any changes are made in the body of the document? Ridiculous - of course they do - yet they have instead chosen to make the document as difficult to access as possible. So difficult that the leader of the opposition hasn't been able to read it yet!

[diable rouge]

Complex legal document written in complex legalese shocker.

Corbybabes need not worry though, the Ladybird version will soon be out...

[robbin]

It's not the complex legalese that's the issue - that is not all that difficult if it's something you are familiar with reading - it's the inability to be able to find anything you may be looking for that's the irritating (and apparently deliberate) tactic that seems to have been adopted that I'm complaining about. Of course it's in legalese - it's a legal document.

I was going to write to say I am surprised Jezza hasn't even bothered to read the document yet, but on reflection decided I'm not in the slightest bit surprised! I also see he's reverted to saying he's not for a referendum now (but maybe 'later'). Funny that those in his party who 'clarified' his comments a couple of weeks ago on this (i.e. that when he said he was opposed to another referendum, he in fact meant the opposite) have not said anything today to correct him. Does anyone know today's combined Jezza/Labout party position (or is there no combined single position)?