190401 19:37 : Closing remarks from revoke petition debate

Closing remarks - see below for links to full discussion
7:37 pm

Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North - Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. I was perhaps being a little unfair on him when I picked him up on his reference to Newcastle upon Tyne North being a leave constituency, because, as my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Sandy Martin) pointed out, ​there are projected figures for demographic analysis, and I know from the conversations I had on many doorsteps during the referendum campaign that many of my constituents were voting leave.

The discussion and the level of debate from those on the Government Benches have been disappointing throughout this debate, in terms of engagement with the substance of the issue. The point that gets forgotten is a reality check on where we are, rather than going around in ever-decreasing circles, arguing tit for tat about how we got here. We know how we got here. There was a referendum question put to the country that did not specify in any way how it would be delivered, and we had a Government who went ahead and held a general election, and lost their majority. We have a Prime Minister who has completely failed to engage with anyone but those within her own party on this issue, and to reach out and form a consensus.

We know why we are where we are. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Jenny Chapman), I was disappointed that the few Conservative Members who initially attended the debate, to whom I gave many opportunities to intervene, got up and left before the end without making any substantive contribution. If I am perfectly honest, their contributions were like those in a school debating club—point scoring rather than engaging with the substance.

I marvel, horrified, when I find Conservative Members of Parliament dismissing out of hand the concerns expressed by the CBI and by chambers of commerce up and down the country that the facts around a no-deal Brexit put so many of our jobs and industries at risk, and that they are not ready, as they have said with absolute clarity. The Conservative party used to pride itself on being the party of business; now it dismisses the concerns of businesses and treats those businesses as though they, and their concerns about a no-deal Brexit, are of no relevance to the Brexit preparations.

That is how we have ended up with this petition. To try to dismiss it as some kind of assault on democracy, which we heard in some hon. Members’ contributions, is not only deeply insulting to every single member of the public who took the trouble to go and sign up on the petitions website, but it ignores the deep, gnawing anxiety of so many people in our country who are terrified of the prospect of a no-deal Brexit and want to know that—as politicians, as Members of Parliament, as a Government—we will not stand by while that happens to our country, with all the consequences it would bring.​

Anyone who stands there and says, “I have no fear of a no-deal Brexit; it’ll be absolutely fine,” clearly has nothing to lose and is completely insulated, but I know that my constituents are not. I go back to the point that the Minister made about mine being a leave constituency: the honest answer is we do not know. The vote was calculated as a city, so we know that Newcastle voted remain very marginally. What I do know, as a Member of Parliament who represents, lives in and has children growing up in the constituency, is that I will not take any action if all the evidence, including the Government’s own analysis, points to its damaging my constituency’s prospects.

Even if it means not getting re-elected, the only basis on which I will make this decision is knowing that I have done the right thing in terms of all the evidence I am presented with. That is why this revoke petition has been so popular, but it is also the reason that the call for a confirmatory referendum on whatever Brexit deal the Government arrive at has gained so much support. I recognise, as do my colleagues, that there was a vote to leave the European Union, but how that would happen was not decided upon; that is something Parliament has to decide. We have seen the evidence. We have seen that every single Brexit option will make our constituents poorer, and the impact will be greatest on those in the north-east.

Therefore, my view and the view of many of my colleagues who will support the motion tonight is that we should allow Parliament to have that process, to pass it back through Parliament and give it back to the people to make the final decision. Given that they started the process in 2016, they can now make the final decision on how it ends. That is how I will find out whether this is a Brexit that my constituents support, because they will have the opportunity to vote for it in a referendum—a referendum that every single citizen of this country who can vote can take part in. That is a democratic resolution to the impasse that we find ourselves in here in Parliament.

We know how we got here; we know how to get out of it. It is about time that the Government stopped burying their head in the sand and going around in circles, engaging in a debate that is not taking us forward in any way, but only leaves us stuck in this Brexit chaos. I implore the Minister, rather than engaging in the tit-for-tat that is driving the country to distraction, to compromise and come to an agreement that Parliament cannot take this historic decision without the confidence that it is something the public support.

7.45 pm Motion lapsed, and sitting adjourned without Question put (Standing Order No. 10(14)).

Full version

Watch the discussion: here

Read the transcript: here

how the trap works

How the trap works:

• Invite Jeremy to assist with a deal.
• Agree something that works in the Political Declaration.
• Get Jeremy to use a whipped bloc vote to get it passed with the Withdrawal Agreement.
• The Withdrawal Agreement is then passed and UK is legally removed from the EU.
• Call an Election.
• Somebody wins.
• A new leader rebuffs the Political Declaration, nullifying whatever Jeremy has input.

UK is now on the outside.

sunny disposition

Mrs May must have read Sun Tzu but not quite got the hang of it. Some ideas work quite well, but others don't.

FOR OBFUSCATION (5/5 - totally opaque, smacks of jumpiness)

• Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
• Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.
FOR WEARING EVERYONE DOWN (5/5 - everyone is worn flat)

• Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust.
• Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
FOR EDGINESS (4/5 - pushed but things fell apart)

• A leader leads by example, not by force.
• If the mind is willing, the flesh could go on and on without many things.
FOR DECEPTION (3/5 - mostly to own troops)
• When strong, avoid them. If of high morale, depress them. Seem humble to fill them with conceit. If at ease, exhaust them. If united, separate them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.
• All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
FOR CREATING DIVISION (0/5 - everywhere, but to what end?)
• If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
TEAM BUILDING (0/5 - no constructive teams identified)
• A leader will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
• There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
• Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.
PLANNING (0/5 - Ready, Fire, Aim not the best way)
• Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
• Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
FOR TALKING WITH JEREMY (unable to mark this - see deception and obfuscation)
• Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
• The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
• All warfare is based on deception.
• To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.
• Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.

step away and #revoke

More from that improv show that's hit London Town: (artist's impression)

Big red buttons? Bad choices? Desperation?

Step away.

#revoke #remain #rebuild #bottomsup

razzle dazzle

It's fascinating watching and listening to some of the politicians on telly at the moment. Some understand the nuances of the current situation. Whether one agrees with them or not, they can put forward reasoned arguments.

Others less so, reliant upon dogma and doing what they are told to do. I've also heard some of them interviewed and simply spout received viewpoints and opinions without anything to back them up.

Theresa May is still trying to bludgeon her Withdrawal Agreement through. Decoupling most of the material content means she might even succeed. It is a classic lack of planning coupled with overrun that we are witnessing.

By comparison, the EU drew up their plans, negotiating strategy and fall backs ages ago. I'm reminded of the slide that Michel Barnier presented back in December 2017. It listed the options of the day and the reasons that many of them transgressed Theresa May's Lancaster House red lines.

Barnier concluded that the only one of the options that didn't cross any of May's (framed as UK's) red lines was akin to a Canadian model. Failing that, it would be a fall into no deal/crash out with World Trade Organisation trading arrangements.

Fifteen months later, and already in extra time, the debate about these options has started, albeit with scarcely a reference to Barnier's chart.

The original basis of the Withdrawal Agreement agreement (before all the padding was added) was also drawn up in roughly the same December 2017 time-frame and even available ahead of Barnier's chart. It included the original 'back-stop' wording which has been modified back-and-forth since that time.

I can only reiterate that David Davis must have been asleep at the wheel through this entire period, or else there would have been time for some 'meaningful' discussions well before the road ran out.

I worked out that by around May 2018, the UK negotiation was a failing project with 'Game Over' lights lit all over the board.

It's the time when Barnier created another interesting diagram, illustrating a possible future Partnership Framework.

It talked about governance, level playing fields and a 'security of information' agreement. Specifically it added the EU legal basis for 3rd countries in EU programmes. That and the EU autonomous measures layers were two types of insulation that relegated UK to 3rd country status and quietly positioned that we'd be like anyone else trying to face off to the EU.

May eventually got rid of Davis, but didn't seem to like the replacement Raab's enthusiasm and sidelined him from the negotiation. Nowadays most people would be hard-pushed to even identify the current north-east Cambridgeshire based Brexit Secretary in a line-up.

By the time the Chequers variant of the Lancaster House red lines had been produced, the Department for EU Exit were faced with a huge economic conundrum. Most of the likely outcomes were disproportionately detrimental to the UK.

Crash out was the 8-9% GDP impact over even 15 years. Free Trade over the same time period was still 5%-7% worse off. The EEA option comes out less detrimental, but UK still loses its voice and vote over EU matters.

The chart also illustrates one of the topics that doesn't receive the prominence in much of the debate. That of worker migration. Even in the Referendum campaigning, the split between the leave parties meant that one could argue about migration blocks and another group could keep this out of their agenda. A variant of dog whistle politics where the person with the whistle is decoupled from the rest of the campaigners. It was another of the many distastetful elements of the Referendum campaigning.

Now we are watching more last minute scrabbling to get to an answer. The spectacle of Moulin Rouge, but where there's much about internal party politics. Events are being driven not for the 'will' of the people, certainly not for the good of the people but instead for personal gain.

What's left in the hopper? A few residual options including Barnier's original assertion. We can lose our EU Voting, lose our EU voice and achieve a locked down-trading relationship. It's worse than simply retaining the EU membership.

Here's a summary of the current UK-EU relationship models from the House of Commons library.

May has so far ignored what Parliament has been doing in their off-piste voting. I suspect she is keeping an opportunistic eye on these options, including the only one signalled green, which also happens to be Barnier's prediction from 2017.

Follow that route and we'll be using Barnier's governance chart as well. We can call the outcome Ineptitude Plus.

Oh yes, although yesterday's climate change protest from the gallery gives a bottom line that some other business is still being considered.

clowns to the left, jokers to the right

Usually I’d sift through the April Fool's jokes today, but I decided that the rebuttal of them in one of the newspapers was probably the most interesting.

It described how British April Fool's jokes have been banned this year under an archaic parliamentary order, amid warnings the public can no longer tell the difference between reality and farce.

It went on to say that a statute from 1653 imposed by Oliver Cromwell forbade the telling of porky pies. Of course, our recent constitutional twists and turns are borrowing from similar sources.

I’m somehow reminded of those Magic Eye tuning/recording indicators, where the indicated gap would decrease as the signal strength increased.

For the referendum’s aftermath the true signal strength still leaves a large gap.

The fibs, the funding discrepancies, the original vote only being advisory, the denials of knowledge from some of those now seeking power, the information hiding, and so it goes on.

The spinners use current circumstances to illustrate that ‘democracy itself is in jeopardy’. These arguments are self-serving and conveniently forget the things that don’t help their ongoing case (which is to gain power). The realisation that it was impossible to keep a lid on all the original reality distortions for two-and-a-half years. There is a huge hypocrisy in claiming the will of the people when it is all about grubby personal agendas.

There’s bound to be more about this later, after the next set of indicative votes. I see the PM has instructed the Cabinet to boycott them - which anyway skews the percentages. Theresa May is operating in a contrived parallel universe in any case. Her dissociative behaviour ignores the marches, the petitions, the push-back, the lost votes. The dream reality confusion spreads wider creating personality disorders across key parts of Parliament.

I realise these indicative votes are mostly an attempt to make the unpalatable seem better. If something emerges as a better option it will be clutched at like a straw. As an obvious example, a drift towards a variation of a Customs Union or Common Market 2 - I could imagine Labour going with it to create more chaos. It's still a poor choice when it would have the UK on the outside of EU’s decision-making.

What does it amount to? No Vote, No Voice, No Exit.

Better to stay where we are and pretend the whole thing hadn’t happened.

Keep our votes, keep our voice and remain. #revoke, #remain, #reform

My favourite banner from the recent protests:

messing about on the river

Clear the head with a simple stroll along the riverbank today.

Most of the boats are still ashore, in the car park, ready to be lifted back into the water during the next month. There's a few further upstream, but it will soon be much busier.

Two of the black swans from Dawlish seem to like it across on this side of the river, and are frequently by the quayside. Here's an iPhone snap.

Yesterday I noticed egrets, herons, a swooping marsh harrier and some kind of pretty red headed ducks, when I was along the nearby River Clyst.

That is when my iPhone isn't quite powerful enough to take a usable photo. Instead, this picture shows couple of cormorants sitting on one of the boats that has remained in the water.

Here's some of the reeds which could make a good subject for a painting.

Across on the other bank there's a couple of other boats that seem to have been in the water a long time.

thoughts on UK +++ #revoke #remain #reform

It's all so much clearer today. Almost impossible to think back to those heady days before the Referendum. The days when UK had negotiated its concessions to its EU membership.

Before the last two years, I thought of our agreement as Germany +++.

Better branding might be UK +++. I think it's still far better than any of the current offers on the table. Even now we might be better served with 'revoke, remain, reform'.

The UK formally pays in circa £14bn per annum to the EU but with rebates the resultant amount is closer to £8.6bn. That’s £165m per week. Or £130 per head of UK population, or £252 per year per taxpayer.

It’s less than the amount the UK gives to foreign aid and around 1% of the government’s spending bill.

In return (and as fifth largest global economy) UK gets access, membership and influence of one of the three biggest trading blocs and economies in the world. Kind of AAA status, notwithstanding some of the duff Farrige- style representatives we've fielded.

UK +++
Let’s recap some of the special things already available to UK:

• The UK has an opt out of the Euro.
• The UK has an opt out of Schengen.
• The UK has a veto over new members of the EU.
• The UK has a veto over Treaty change.
• The UK has a veto over proposed EU army.

Then, a few more agreements secured by UK and to be written into EU treaties.

• UK, under Cameron, secured an opt out from ‘ever closer union’.
• The UK secured the proposal that if 55% of EU member states agreed they could block a legislative proposal from the European Commission.
• The UK secured recognition that the Euro is not the only currency in the EU and that non- euro countries would not have to fund eurozone bailouts and they would be reimbursed from central EU funds that support the Euro.
• There's more, but this gives enough of a flavour.

Now, I suppose if I ignore all of that above information, we have to start to think of the alternative UK outside of the EU.

An off-Europe deregulated tax-haven, run by Bojo, perhaps?

throwing dice along the wharf

Latest chicanery is tomorrow's blind brexit vote. Theresa May certainly has a lot of dice.

This attempt is for MPs to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement without taking account of the Political Declaration. It's unbundling and side-stepping MV3, trying to be a Speaker-proof third attempt at an unchanged Withdrawal Agreement.

It's a subterfuge because the EU extensions until 12 April/22 May are already validated under EU law. Theresa May needs to look as if she's tried something new, to get past the 12 April date. This isn't new, but passing the Withdrawal Agreement would locks down the exit date to 22 May. Better get the cheque book ready.

Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General says it is perfectly lawful. I reckon it attempts to bypass much of what is happening in the Parliamentary discussion over the next few days.

Game Over if this desperate deception gets passed.

Is it just me or is Ticketmaster Platinum ticketing just like scalping? @itvmlshow

A few interesting recent gig ticket buying exploits. A few days ago, I bought some tickets for one popular artist's gig via dice.fm. Totally fair. I paid the right kind of price for just released tickets without any hassle, in minutes.

Today I tried to buy a different artist via Ticketmaster. I had a pre-sales code for the relevant shows, logged in and was offered seats. Limited choices of so-called Platinum seats. It may sound good, but I wonder whether Platinum could be code for 'rip-off'.

It simply means the seats are dynamically priced by Ticketmaster. If you are fortunate enough to be a pre-sales person then Ticketmaster know you are probably keen to see the artist and they can mark the ticketing up. 100% or more.

I took three attempts to get some decent seats via the Ticketmaster site but the pricing increased even whilst I was doing this. First time £126, then £135, then £145. Ouch.

In the UK, touts are now forbidden from bulk buying. Ticketmaster had to stop its secondary market web-sites like Seatwave and GetMeIn and the support it provided to secondary ticket sellers through programs such as TradeDesk. It looks to me as if they now do the price hiking at source.

Here's how: Release tickets slowly on pre-sales at so-called demand-driven prices - which can be multiples of the underlying seat price. Don't declare a formal 'seat price' - after all they are 'Platinum'. There is nothing else special about Platinum seats. It's scalping, pure and simple. I wonder whether the artist or the venue gets any of the surplus cash generated in these 2x and 3x seat pricing scams?

The gov.uk site has a section about stopping touting, but it doesn't cover the original ticketing agency running this kind of rip-off. After all, Ticketmaster must have detailed experience to know what 'fair' seat prices are for a given artist and venue?'

My third attempt to buy tickets was via another card that I hold. It offered the same pre-sales for the same artist as the rip-off Ticketmaster, but far more fairly priced. Faster access, wider choice of seats and no hidden mark-ups. The seats were roughly one third of the price of Ticketmaster - same gig and similar seats. I didn't just try one venue, I tried three.

The UK Government attempt to fix the mark-up behaviour is documented on the gov.uk website. It doesn't work.

Here's some of Ticketmaster's own small print:

Tricky when they run a near-monopoly on some ticketing.

the security of this entire universe is in jeopardy

Maybe Buzz has the right idea. "To infinity, and beyond"? It's an option to just keep on voting now. "Suffragii ad aeternum"?

Some commentators seem surprised that there wasn't 'an answer' from that 8-way vote. It didn't occur to me that there would be a single result. More that it would indicate some direction.

My own predictions were off in scale, although the lack of any MP vote on many of the options reduced the percentages. With between 87 and 208 non-voters (including May's so-called Cabinet), it is not surprising that none of the votes cleared a 50% threshold. I can understand there's be a number of non-voters, but why did it vary so dramatically?

Then the results - I've used the IfG graphic as a clear representation of who did what.

'Confirmatory public vote' had a much higher score than I expected. The rest were fairly in line with my expectations, subject to scaled back numbers.

Customs union is still a grudging top choice, with the Labour plan getting its whipped bloc vote into second position, although there's almost nothing between Customs Union and Labour Plan. The Common Market 2.0 drops away. Tribal logic dictates that only the 237 Labour MPs would vote for their option in any case. Any of the 'adjustment of terms' options are anyway dependent upon a combination of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration.

Revoke Article 50 slightly got more than I expected, but still isn't really in play.

I notice the magician's art of deliberate mis-direction. Some MPs biasing the public away from some of the ideas on the table. Keeping the main debate about WA vs No Deal. Everyone in the well-publicised mug shot about future Prime Minister candidates has that agenda. Power and Party over People. Pah.

Time for some Nirvana (the original 60s group) - Rainbow Chaser, complete with the phased orchestra. Phased, now there's a thought.

choosing the pinkest, fluffiest unicorn of them all

Bercow's down selection from 16 to 8 isn't so different from my prior guesses.

I'll use my original prediction percentages again, with a couple of adjustments for the smaller set. Labour has whipped 3 of the votes, too, which defeats one of the objectives of a free vote from Parliament.

1. There's flavours of Customs Union (81%), EEA/EFTA (69%), Common Market 2.0 (61%), and the Labour Plan (47%), which are all variations of the same continuum, but has tactical voting from Labour, to skew the outcome. Some of these are also linked to the Political Declaration, which is post Withdrawal Agreement.
2. The first set of options play against No Deal (64%) and Revoke Article 50 (I up its chances to a still lowish 42% in this new line-up). The big loss is removal of Revocation to replace No Deal, which could have changed the outcome. Without it, there's really very little change to the overall picture.
3. Then there is a confirmatory public vote (24%). In other words No Second Referendum.

At this rate the first round of votes won't really do anything, but the subsequent time-line based down selection might.

By my reckoning, if the chicanery continues, its chances of winning are actually increasing.