Well what a surprise. Nobody resigned.

The Tories have a long and proud history of not having the guts to say something to their leader’s face, but heading off and almost immediately sticking the knife in. Boris gets a telling off, which he takes meekly, then heads off to bravely write a few thousand words for the Telegraph.

I would be unsurprised to see this feeble government still taking pleasure in ripping itself apart this time next week or month rather than getting on with the job.

I think we all knew that all along. Especially the self-serving mop!

She should have called their bluff a long time ago. But then i’m very glad she finally has. This is still a shit sandwich but at least it’s not a foot long sub with extra topping

She should have called their bluff a long time ago.

I wonder if she took in a life-size cardboard cut out of Jeremy Corbyn just hammer home to the nutters just what the results of their silly little rebellion would be? Anyway yes, the timing is perfect. All the knuckledraggers have directed their jingoism towards a sport they think we own. Although I do fear that should Harry Kane & Co win the most underserved world cup in history, all the small minded rule britannia rubbish will be amplified beyond all reason.

She has played an absolute blinder.

She has, but I cannot believe it was intentional

She has played an absolute blinder.

Chateau!

I’m not sure she did thou, they had to have something to take to the eu or it was game over.

Couldn’t kick the can up the road any further and sacrificing the big manufacturing businesses probably wouldn’t fly.

They’ve ve pissed away the time thou still more fun ahead.

oh yeah an that NI thing bit tricky that.

She has played an absolute blinder.

Has she?

Surely the EU will reject it. Essentially it’s separating the four freedoms. They’ve been quite clear that can’t happen.

Which begs the question, then what?

The government has (finally) decided that it wants the least-worst brexit.  The EU will surely say “non” for reasons as Bob suggests (and the Irish elephant in the room).  Where do we go from here?  Where can we go from here?

Is it too much to hope that this a precursor to a climb-down?  They’ve demonstrated that they’ve tried to make it work (for some value of, at least) and it’s just not feasible.  Let’s call the whole thing off and come up with something else?

Essentially it’s separating the four freedoms.

What are you reading that suggests this? I’ve only seen the statement.

Would Enola have discretely  run this past Barnier beforehand?

I look forward to Johnson’s words of support.

How many dodgy photos were shown to various ministers at chequers?

The government has (finally) decided that it wants the least-worst brexit.

But it isn’t the least worst….apart from no deal, it’s about as bad as it can be…no FOM, no customs union, no single market, nothing for services.   It’s utterly insane

Where do we go from here?  Where can we go from here?

This is gives the starting point for a “new” framework. Basically Norway but with the language re-written.

now to get there is the issue. It will all take a fantastic amount of time but this is not an issue if there is a renewable transition and the UK covers the costs of the negotiations.

For me it just opened the door to allow an almighty kick of the can (years this time). If it can be agreed in principle to extend transition and we are bino then in a few months the cull of the Brexiteers will happen from the front bench (and I imagine the party) leaving just JRM and s few loons at the back.

Then all there needs to be is a limited skirmish or credit blip for it to be pushed to the back burner and made future governments problem.

She has played an absolute blinder.

Let’s see if I can explain that better.

She appointed the leading three (and later four) Brexiteers to the cabinet and let them try to come up with some coherent proposals, knowing full well that they would fail – partly because she knew it was always impossible, and partly because she had their measure and knew how clueless they all were.

She gave them 16 months to play their little games, putting up with their tantrums and outbursts, and letting Davis snooze away the entire time…until we had reached a point where the “no deal” scenario was no longer possible. We don’t have the physical infrastructure in place at Dover. We haven’t hired thousands of customs officials to collect all those tariffs. We don’t have any kind of coherent plan for the NI border.

Then she sprung her trap, knowing that they had exhausted themselves fighting with each other, knowing that they were all ultimately too vain and spineless to turn against her, and cleverly engineering her trap so that they couldn’t communicate with the outside world where there might have been some people with some spine.

Gove, Johnson, Fox and Davis have all cheerfully walked up onto the scaffold and put their heads through the nooses she has prepared for them, grinning amiably.

After this, none of them will be trusted ever again by either side – the Brexiteers in the cabinet are finished as politicians.

The ones outside she still has to deal with (the JRMs of this world) but JRM himself seems strangely reluctant to do anything that might land him with a cabinet post; can’t think why. That leaves the remaining leavers, but they are all small fry who, I suspect, will mostly step into line once they realise their choices are very limited.

As a bonus she can probably point out that she’s now offering the UK a softer Brexit than Corbyn, leaving the Labour party out in the cold, with Corbyn having alienated all the Remain Labour members (about 80% of them support remain), meaning the Tories have a good chance at winning the next election. They don’t need to be perfect, they just need to appear less insane than Labour.

I have to say I’m impressed with how skilfully she has done this. An absolute masterclass.

I have to say I’m impressed with how skilfully she has done this. An absolute masterclass.

Well you are giving her credit for a lot there…..

Lets see if it washes with the EU.

You think it is finished ? No more tantrums ?

I am guessing the Sunday papers will be full of Brexit means Brexit etc…

@molgrip, no freedom of movement or services. Although there is something about fom but not exactly clear yet.

i am a bit surprised at the whole optism after friday.

It is not over yet.  Scotland will have a say too.

 she’s now offering the UK a softer Brexit than Corbyn

In what way?  This NOT soft Brexit!

I have to say I’m impressed with how skilfully she has done this. An absolute masterclass.

Come off it. All she’s ever had to do is play the Corbyn card. The only thing rightwing tories fear more than the EU is Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell rolling back the decades and creating a newly unionised workforce, renationalised infrastructure and an all-powerful public sector. If the tories go through with a hard brexit they will lose the support of big business, which is the only thing that keeps them going. Hard brexit will not only have them out of government, it could finish them as a party.

May’s managed to batter…  … sorry unite her sack full of rats into a position that’s still untenable to the EU, she’s not even begun negotiating with the actual situation which is far more faceted.

Not really management masterclass is it?

Come off it. All she’s ever had to do is play the Corbyn card.

I think she is hoping for a double bill and a photo Op with Gareth and Jules

I have to say I’m impressed with how skilfully she has done this. An absolute masterclass.

Well, she appears to have deluded at least one poor sod

Writing to Tory MPs, she said: “During the EU referendum campaign collective responsibility on EU policy was temporarily suspended. As we developed our policy on Brexit I have allowed cabinet colleagues to express their individual views.

Agreement on this proposal marks the point where that is no longer the case and collective responsibility is now fully restored.”

I didn’t realise that everything that happened up until now was part of the plan.

I really don’t understand this facet of our “democracy.”

If individual MPs aren’t allowed to “express their individual views” then what’s their purpose?  Might as well sack the lot and just leave Kaiser May in charge of everything.

In other news,

Spotted on Facebook’s Leave.EU page: One bloke suggesting taking the cabinet to court and that all 17.4 million Leave voters put in a quid to ‘pay for a good barista’. 😂 That’ll be some damn fine coffee.

PMSL 😂😂😂😂

Applauds Cougar 🙂 🙂 🙂

I really don’t understand this facet of our “democracy.”

If individual MPs aren’t allowed to “express their individual views” then what’s their purpose?  Might as well sack the lot and just leave Kaiser May in charge of everything.

I’ve often wondered this myself, if MPs can’t vote in the commons in good faith, AKA for fear of losing thier jobs, is it really democratic?

Maybe commons votes should be like public votes, remove the whip, vote how you see best.

If you’re an MP then you were allegedly made as such to make decisions in good faith as opposed to being whipped into some retarded version of a party line.

I was always in favour of FPTP because I thought it made MPs answerable to their constituents rather than the party.  Turns out most people think they’re voting for a PM rather than their own MP.  MPs generally don’t get held to account for their own voting records by the electorate.

Most people do not know who their MP is so vote for a political party based on what they believe the policies might be (few will have read the manifesto) or on which leader looked best on TV…

Yes minister is still as relevant today as it ever was

https://youtu.be/hTJfTXRupEk

The leave.eu Facebook page is rather eye opening.

A number on there advocating revolution, also suggesting that we don’t need big business too.

Definitely a lot of swivel eyed loons on there

A number on there advocating revolution

A threat to modern swiveleyesation?

It’s also all over Facebook that Jacob Reese-Mogg is revolting.

There’s a joke here somewhere but I can’t quite put my finger on it…

The Gammons are going apeshit. My local mp is making muttering of betrayal and talking about opposing it.

My local mp is making muttering of betrayal and talking about opposing it.

It would be funny as hell if, by opposing the deal, arch Brexiteers ended up voting with the remainers in opposing the deal and it ended up stopping Brexit.

Well he’s not the sharpest tool in the box so entirely possible.

What are you reading that suggests this? I’ve only seen the statement.

The four freedoms are goods, services, capital and people

With this deal the Tories have proposed they’re at best removing people from that list, although I see today may has not ruled out a special deal for EU citizens…

Either way, last nights “deal” definitely removed people and  in all likelihood services. It’s farcical at best and down right stupidity at worst.

The EU must reject it

My local mp is making muttering of betrayal and talking about opposing it.

If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that MPs who mutter about things don’t actually act, even when they actually say they will take a stand, they don’t.

The phrase ‘talk is cheap’ has never been more true.

This NOT soft Brexit!

Seems a bit floppy to me.

Boris just can’t help himself, she has put her cards on the table let’s see what the swivel eyed loons come up with.

What are are the odds on Europe saying “don’t be silly”

I thought that our democratically elected leaders had made a decision ,the papers were signed and off we go.

As we have been told so often it was time to  all unite  behind May and crack on with Brexit.

Apparently not!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/the_papers

Seems a bit floppy to me.