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XXL

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On 28/01/2017 at 6:25 PM, Kim said:

The queen is a figurehead, nothing more or less. Does what she's told by the govt of the day. The look on that smug cunt's face when May congratulated him on his amazing win and extended an invite from old Lizzie was hilarious. 

Of course it's disgusting to see Granny May get her pussy metaphorically fisted by Trumpet, but she has no choice but go cap in hand around the world looking for whatever she can get because of Brexit. She's in Turkey today doing the same.

Jeremy Corbyn is an ineffectual zero and should hang his head in shame for ensuring there is NO effective opposition in the UK. He's a laughing stock and Labour are DEAD. Those that are actually STANDING UP for their beliefs by quitting and making it known that Brexit is simply the WRONG thing for the country are to be congratulated. The will of the people MY ARSE. If you know something is wrong and disastrous than have the guts to say it and do something about it. 

I agree with so much you're saying Kim. I'm appalled by the Labour Party and now they handled the whole Brexit thing. 

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3 hours ago, LSD said:

 

 

Sanity and utmost political competence/verve in the wake of so much uselessness wherever you turn these days. The entire British political establishment seems to have lost their minds bar Sturgeon. But I think corruption, laziness and self-indulgence are to be found in most Western countries politicians nowadays. They don't respond to the people who voted for them. Or pay their fat salaries for that matter.

The uselessness of both traditional Right and Left main parties have given birth to UKIP, Le Pen, Trump etc by deliberately crushing the economy and giving carte blanche to the finance banking mob system.

An eerie resemblance to the same pattern that people saw in the 20s and 30s. Crashing of the economy, the first fundamental step, then protectionism, nationalism, fear and divisions fostering, ultimately war. War paid for and benefitting the same groups of interest that engineer the collapse of countries and entire economical and financial systems to begin with

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@Kim @BrendanT1993  Hope your leaders give that Theresa May witch Hell on Earth. 

Theresa May to warn devolved nations: you have no veto on Brexit

Prime minister faces tough talks with leaders of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales before article 50 triggered

Theresa May is set for a bracing final round of Brexit talks with the leaders of the devolved nations before the likely triggering of article 50, with the prime minister warning her counterparts from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that they can have no veto over the process.

May is to see the other leaders in Cardiff on Monday at a meeting of the joint ministerial committee (JMC), the forum for soliciting views from around the UK on the process of leaving the UK.

While the first ministers of Scotland and Wales, Nicola Sturgeon and Carwyn Jones, have stressed they cannot accept a hard Brexit without membership of or full access to the EU’s single market, May is set to tell them this will not be possible.

“We will not agree on everything, but that doesn’t mean we will shy away from the necessary conversations and I hope we will have further constructive discussions,” May said in comments released ahead of the meeting.

Last week’s supreme court judgment on the need for MPs to vote on triggering article 50 “made clear beyond doubt that relations with the EU are a matter for the UK government and UK parliament”, May said.

While the main element of the ruling was to oblige May to put the article 50 process, which will trigger departure from the EU, as a bill to parliament – a subsidiary element of the judge’s decision was that the devolved governments could not veto the process.

The subsequent two-clause bill to trigger article 50 is being debated this week and next week, and is expected to have been passed before the JMC meets again.

May said the forum had met three times since last October: “The United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, and the UK government has a responsibility to deliver on that mandate and secure the right deal for the whole of the UK.”

The talks will also involve the Brexit secretary, David Davis, the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, and the secretaries of state for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Earlier instalments have made little apparent process. After the first JMC Brexit meeting, in October in London, both Sturgeon and Jones said they had been deeply frustrated at the lack of information or apparent plan from May and her ministers.

Sturgeon, speaking before the Cardiff meeting, said May appeared set on ignoring Scotland’s desire to remain within the single market.

“It is becoming clearer with every day that passes that the UK government is determined to pursue a hard Brexit and I am determined to do all I can to protect Scotland from the devastating impact that would have,” she said.

“I hope [Monday’s] discussion on this will be meaningful, but the process has been deeply disappointing so far. Time is running out for the prime minister to demonstrate that she is going to uphold the commitment she made to me shortly after taking office that Scotland will be fully involved in discussions to develop an agreed UK approach and listen to alternative proposals for Scotland.”

Jones, who last week set out a joint white paper for post-Brexit Wales with the Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood, which also calls for continued single market access, said he hoped for “open and frank discussions”.

He said: “I look forward to welcoming government representatives from across the UK to Cardiff. While we know that the UK will leave the EU we don’t yet know how that will happen or what form our relationship with the EU will look like beyond that point.”

The new Sinn Féin leader, Michelle O’Neill, is also attending the talks, in the wake of the collapse of Northern Ireland’s devolved administration.

She said May’s government was “seeking to impose Brexit against the will of the people in the north and of the people of Scotland”

O’Neill said: “The Tory government have effectively set aside the democratic process to pursue their own narrow political agenda. We need all of those opposed to Brexit to stand together.”

 

 

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25 March 2017: Unite-for-Europe anti-Brexit march in London

Anti-Brexit campaigners aim to stage UK's biggest protest march

Unite for Europe plans to march on parliament on 25 March, the final weekend before Theresa May’s article 50 deadline

Anti-Brexit campaigners are hoping to organise the biggest protest march seen in modern British history, drawing fresh inspiration from the success of anti-Trump rallies around the world.

Unite for Europe an umbrella group of remain campaigners, plans to march on parliament at 11am on 25 March – the last weekend before Theresa May’s self-imposed deadline for launching the process of leaving the European Union – hoping to attract a crowd in excess of three-quarters of a million people.

“I don’t think we were ever under the illusion that the march would stop article 50 being triggered; it is more about demonstrating the strength of opinion against Brexit,” said Peter French of Unite for Europe. “This fast-track bill will create a lot of emotion and anger in the country that things are being rushed through.”

A march against the Iraq war in 2003 is thought to be the largest in modern times, attracting 750,000 people according to police estimates and up to 2 million according to organisers at the time. In contrast, the largest anti-Brexit march to date attracted an estimated crowd of 50,000 on 2 July, shortly after the EU referendum, and there have been two smaller marches in August and September.

“The idea is to try to make this the biggest march the capital, or country, has ever seen,” said French, who pointed out that there were 6 or 7 million voters in London alone, some 70% of whom had opposed Brexit.

“Right now, Theresa May is focused entirely on the 52% and forgetting the 48%,” he said. “We aim to impress on government the strength of feeling about the government rushing this through with no sense of what it will do to the country.”

After the supreme court ruled this week that MPs must be consulted first, the government has announced a swift timetable, with just five days of debate scheduled in the Commons and 137 words of proposed legislation.

But the “Stop Brexit” protest organisers are undeterred by the possibility that article 50 may have already been invoked by 25 March and say it underlines their concern that the government is ignoring growing concern about the consequences of leaving the EU.

The date of the planned demonstration is also the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which founded the European Economic Community, and organisers hope it will attract a broad spectrum of EU citizens and young people who were unable to vote in the referendum.

“This is a march for everyone: people who voted against, who were wavering, or perhaps those who wanted to leave but are now finding out that abandoning the single market and customs union is not what they voted for,” said French.

Resistance is also growing in Westminster, where a number of Labour MPs are preparing to defy a three-line whip from party leaders and vote against the government bill, while Conservative peers are among an active group in the Lords considering what role it should play in what is expected to be a tightly fought amendment process.

But politicians advising the march have stressed the importance of also showing grassroots opposition to an overly harsh or hasty Brexit. Organisers have been particularly buoyed by the success of last weekend’s women’s marches against Donald Trump, which were seen as symbolising a new spirit of peaceful protest and defiance against the forces of political nationalism.

“We were very encouraged by the Trump march and also by the atmosphere and enthusiasm from a cross-section of society,” added French, a professional singer who has no previous involvement in politics before the referendum. “It shows that there is a still a need out there for people to gather and that it is important to get out there and be heard.”

Organisers are working with the Metropolitan police, Greater London Authority and Westminster council on a route for the march that will likely start in Park Lane before heading to Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square and end in Parliament Square with a series of as-yet unannounced speakers.

There are also a series of marches planned against NHS cuts on 4 March, which it is hoped will help unite political opposition against government policies.

Organisers of the Stop Brexit march defended their decision to hold a single event in London, citing the logistical challenge since launching the planned march on 30 December. So far largely organised on Facebook, they are currently crowd funding and seeking volunteer marshals.

They say that they want to maximise the visual impact by staging the largest march possible. “It is vital that it is in London because we are marching on parliament; our message is to parliament,” said French.

A small counter protest is planned by Brexit supporters in Whitehall.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/28/stop-brexit-campaign-biggest-uk-biggest-protest-march

http://www.uniteforeurope.org/

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By the way, there are protests going on across cities all over the UK against the Muslim ban by Trump and the 10 Downing Street witch's lukewarm weak positioning on all this international mess - #StandUpToTrump tag on Twitter.

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17 hours ago, pjcowley said:

Brexit means Trump.

 

:rotfl::chuckle: 

 

Looking forward to Mayxit

I didn't know much about her political past before she became PM

She sure is unconvincing and annoying from what I have seen since she took charge of the negotiation process

 

 

May "taking a question" for Trump from BBC Laura Kuenssberg

 

 

 

 

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ken-clarke-brexit-bill-debate-tory-party-anti-immigrant-eurosceptic-enoch-powell-surprise-a7555326.html

Ken Clarke says Tory Party is so anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic even Enoch Powell would be surprised

Conservative grandee attacks own party in powerful speech that has Labour MPs applauding

 

 

 

Ken Clarke has said he will vote against Brexit, during a speech in which the veteran Conservative MP accused his own party of being “anti-immigrant” and claimed even Enoch Powell would be surprised at how Eurosceptic the Tories had become.

In a impassioned address that made a powerful argument for MPs voting with their conscience rather than following their constituents, the former Chancellor said Brexit was “baffling” to the UK’s allies abroad and claimed leaving the EU was “a very, very bad move, particularly for our children and grandchildren”.

Mr Clarke announced he would be voting against the Government’s position and instead backing an amendment tabled by the Scottish National Party to prevent Article 50 being triggered.

Referencing the anti-immigrant former Tory MP Enoch Powell, whom he called “the best speaker of the Eurosceptic cause”, Mr Clarke said: “If he was here he would probably find it amazing to believe that his party had become Eurosceptic and rather mildly anti-immigrant in a very strange way in 2016. I’m afraid on that I haven’t followed them – and I don’t intend to do so.”

 

His claims were greeted with heckling, tutting and head-shaking from his Conservative colleagues, but Mr Clarke returned fire. In a barely coded attack on fellow Tory MPs who advocated a Remain vote but are now voting to for Brexit, he said: “I admire my colleagues who can suddenly become enthusiastic Brexiteers having seen a light on the road to Damascus on the day the votes were cost on 23 June. I’m afraid that light has been denied me.”

 

Mr Clarke is the first Conservative MP to announce he will vote against the party whip and oppose the Prime Minister’s efforts to begin the process of withdrawing Britain from the EU. 

 

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Defending the decision, he said: “I would point out to those who say that somehow I am being disloyal to my party by not voting in favour of this Bill: I am merely propounding the official policy of the Conservative Party for 50 years until 23 June 2016.

He also criticised those suggesting MPs should follow the vote of their constituents, saying: “I have fought Lord knows how many elections and I have always advocated voting Conservative. “But the British public, in their wisdom, have occasionally failed to take my advice and they have actually by a majority voted Labour and I have found myself here facing a Labour government. “I do not recall an occasion where I have been told it was now my democratic duty to support Labour policies and the Labour government”.

Mr Clarke also mocked Brexit supporters claiming the EU had a bright future as a “trading nation”.  He said: “Apparently you follow the rabbit down the hole and you emerge in a wonderland where suddenly countries throughout  the world are queuing up to give us trading advantages and access to their markets that previously we’ve never been able to achieve as part of the European Union.   :rotfl:  :rotfl: 

 

 

 

 

 

Labour MPs lavished praise on Mr Clarke’s speech, with some taking the unusual step of applauding in the House of Commons chamber. Angela Eagle, a former Treasury Secretary, said Mr Clarke was “making total mincemeat” of the Government’s Brexit position, while former minister David Lammy called it a “truly great speech”. Ben Bradshaw, the former Culture Secretary, said it was a “valuable reminder of post-World War II European history”.

 

 

:clap:

 

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34 minutes ago, XXL said:

She sure is unconvincing and annoying from what I have seen since she took charge of the negotiation process

One thing she's convinced herself of, that she is Thatcher material.

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6 minutes ago, XXL said:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ken-clarke-brexit-bill-debate-tory-party-anti-immigrant-eurosceptic-enoch-powell-surprise-a7555326.html

Ken Clarke says Tory Party is so anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic even Enoch Powell would be surprised

Conservative grandee attacks own party in powerful speech that has Labour MPs applauding

 

 

 

 

Ken Clarke has said he will vote against Brexit, during a speech in which the veteran Conservative MP accused his own party of being “anti-immigrant” and claimed even Enoch Powell would be surprised at how Eurosceptic the Tories had become.

In a impassioned address that made a powerful argument for MPs voting with their conscience rather than following their constituents, the former Chancellor said Brexit was “baffling” to the UK’s allies abroad and claimed leaving the EU was “a very, very bad move, particularly for our children and grandchildren”.

Mr Clarke announced he would be voting against the Government’s position and instead backing an amendment tabled by the Scottish National Party to prevent Article 50 being triggered.

Referencing the anti-immigrant former Tory MP Enoch Powell, whom he called “the best speaker of the Eurosceptic cause”, Mr Clarke said: “If he was here he would probably find it amazing to believe that his party had become Eurosceptic and rather mildly anti-immigrant in a very strange way in 2016. I’m afraid on that I haven’t followed them – and I don’t intend to do so.”

His claims were greeted with heckling, tutting and head-shaking from his Conservative colleagues, but Mr Clarke returned fire. In a barely coded attack on fellow Tory MPs who advocated a Remain vote but are now voting to for Brexit, he said: “I admire my colleagues who can suddenly become enthusiastic Brexiteers having seen a light on the road to Damascus on the day the votes were cost on 23 June. I’m afraid that light has been denied me.”

Mr Clarke is the first Conservative MP to announce he will vote against the party whip and oppose the Prime Minister’s efforts to begin the process of withdrawing Britain from the EU. 

Defending the decision, he said: “I would point out to those who say that somehow I am being disloyal to my party by not voting in favour of this Bill: I am merely propounding the official policy of the Conservative Party for 50 years until 23 June 2016.

He also criticised those suggesting MPs should follow the vote of their constituents, saying: “I have fought Lord knows how many elections and I have always advocated voting Conservative. “But the British public, in their wisdom, have occasionally failed to take my advice and they have actually by a majority voted Labour and I have found myself here facing a Labour government. “I do not recall an occasion where I have been told it was now my democratic duty to support Labour policies and the Labour government”.

Mr Clarke also mocked Brexit supporters claiming the EU had a bright future as a “trading nation”.  He said: “Apparently you follow the rabbit down the hole and you emerge in a wonderland where suddenly countries throughout  the world are queuing up to give us trading advantages and access to their markets that previously we’ve never been able to achieve as part of the European Union. 

 

 

 

 

 

Labour MPs lavished praise on Mr Clarke’s speech, with some taking the unusual step of applauding in the House of Commons chamber. Angela Eagle, a former Treasury Secretary, said Mr Clarke was “making total mincemeat” of the Government’s Brexit position, while former minister David Lammy called it a “truly great speech”. Ben Bradshaw, the former Culture Secretary, said it was a “valuable reminder of post-World War II European history”.

 

 

:clap:

 

:clap: Indeed!

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20 minutes ago, pjcowley said:

One thing she's convinced herself of, that she is Thatcher material.

 

:chuckle:  :thumbsup: 

 

A very reductive one

 

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has joked, using the text-speak abbreviation of expletive-laden exasperation, to describe Boris Johnson as an FFS - saying that in this case it stood for being a Fine Foreign Secretary. Her comment came at Prime Minister's Questions after being asked by Labour MP Peter Dowd if she regretted appointing Mr Johnson to the Foreign Office, suggesting that she may have misunderstood the meaning of the letters FO written next to his name when she was choosing her cabinet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a sad joke

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This MP Rewrote The "Trainspotting" Speech To Make A Ferocious Attack On Brexit

“Choose the great Brexit power grab, taking back control of straight bananas,” said SNP MP Hannah Bardell.

Hannah Bardell, the SNP MP for Livingston, has delivered this attack on which turned the famous Trainspotting opening into a rebuke of Brexit.

Bardell, who was speaking on Wednesday during the House of Commons debate on the triggering of Article 50 – which will begin the official process for leaving the EU – said she wanted to pay tribute to author Irvine Welsh, director Danny Boyle, and Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.

The SNP MP went on to deliver a ferocious attack of the Conservative government’s plan for leaving the EU, saying it was choosing a rise in hate crime, xenophobic sentiment, and the “great Brexit power grab, taking back control of straight bananas”.

The SNP’s 54 MPs are voting against the triggering of Article 50, and Bardell warned that if the other MPs in the Commons refused to do the same, then “it will be the beginning of the end of this dis-United Kingdom”.

“Choose Brexit. Choose making up numbers from thin air about the NHS and plastering them on the side of buses. Choose racist and xenophobic sentiments seeping out from some corners of the Leave campaign.

“Choose hate crime rising by over 40% and LGBT hate crime by 150% in England and Wales following the Brexit vote. Choose taking the people of our nations to the polls on one of the most important issues of a generation with nothing written down and no plan.

“Choose ignoring the interests of the people of Scotland and my constituents in Livingston despite the fact they voted overwhelmingly to Remain in the EU. Choose leaving the single market, risking 80,000 Scottish jobs within a decade and costing the people of Scotland an average of £2,000 a year in wages.

“Choose lowering Scotland’s GDP by more than £10 billion and Scotland’s exports by more than £5 billion. Choose vital EU worker status being under threat with widespread uncertainty to family, businesses, and the economy.

“Choose risking our international standing in the academic research and innovation communities as we lose access to funding, expertise, and people in the EU. Choose walking away from the European medicine association without any detail or thought of the impact.

“Choose the great Brexit power grab, taking back control of straight bananas. Choose returning to the Thatcher era of poverty and austerity. Choose the UK turning its back on Europe. These, Mr Speaker, are not the choices that the Scottish people made.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamieross/this-mp-rewrote-the-trainspotting-speech-to-make-a-ferocious?utm_term=.qorD9eBY5#.seGoYP7Qw

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6 minutes ago, pjcowley said:

This MP Rewrote The "Trainspotting" Speech To Make A Ferocious Attack On Brexit

“Choose the great Brexit power grab, taking back control of straight bananas,” said SNP MP Hannah Bardell.

Hannah Bardell, the SNP MP for Livingston, has delivered this attack on which turned the famous Trainspotting opening into a rebuke of Brexit.

Bardell, who was speaking on Wednesday during the House of Commons debate on the triggering of Article 50 – which will begin the official process for leaving the EU – said she wanted to pay tribute to author Irvine Welsh, director Danny Boyle, and Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.

The SNP MP went on to deliver a ferocious attack of the Conservative government’s plan for leaving the EU, saying it was choosing a rise in hate crime, xenophobic sentiment, and the “great Brexit power grab, taking back control of straight bananas”.

The SNP’s 54 MPs are voting against the triggering of Article 50, and Bardell warned that if the other MPs in the Commons refused to do the same, then “it will be the beginning of the end of this dis-United Kingdom”.

“Choose Brexit. Choose making up numbers from thin air about the NHS and plastering them on the side of buses. Choose racist and xenophobic sentiments seeping out from some corners of the Leave campaign.

“Choose hate crime rising by over 40% and LGBT hate crime by 150% in England and Wales following the Brexit vote. Choose taking the people of our nations to the polls on one of the most important issues of a generation with nothing written down and no plan.

“Choose ignoring the interests of the people of Scotland and my constituents in Livingston despite the fact they voted overwhelmingly to Remain in the EU. Choose leaving the single market, risking 80,000 Scottish jobs within a decade and costing the people of Scotland an average of £2,000 a year in wages.

“Choose lowering Scotland’s GDP by more than £10 billion and Scotland’s exports by more than £5 billion. Choose vital EU worker status being under threat with widespread uncertainty to family, businesses, and the economy.

“Choose risking our international standing in the academic research and innovation communities as we lose access to funding, expertise, and people in the EU. Choose walking away from the European medicine association without any detail or thought of the impact.

“Choose the great Brexit power grab, taking back control of straight bananas. Choose returning to the Thatcher era of poverty and austerity. Choose the UK turning its back on Europe. These, Mr Speaker, are not the choices that the Scottish people made.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamieross/this-mp-rewrote-the-trainspotting-speech-to-make-a-ferocious?utm_term=.qorD9eBY5#.seGoYP7Qw

 

:clap:  :clap: :clap: 

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/01/theresa-may-rejects-calls-block-donald-trumps-state-visit-fierce/

Theresa May rejects calls to block Donald Trump's state visit in fierce exchange with Jeremy Corbyn

 

Theresa May has rejected calls from Jeremy Corbyn to withdraw Donald Trump's state visit invitation, telling MPs: "He can lead a protest, I'm leading a country." Labour leader Mr Corbyn said the US president has "torn up" international agreements on refugees, praised the use of torture, "incited hatred" against Muslims and "directly attacked" women's rights.

 

US-President-Donald-Trump-arrives-to-ann

 

He questioned what more Mr Trump has to do before Mrs May listens to the near-1.8 million petitioners who want the state visit invitation withdrawn. Mrs May claimed Mr Corbyn's foreign policy is to "object to and insult" the democratically-elected head of state of Britain's "most important ally" and added that he would have failed to protect British citizens had he been in charge. 

The exchange came amid calls for Mr Trump to be banned from addressing MPs in Parliament as part of the visit.

 

corbyn-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqX9BUfzDCv

 

Asked by Mr Corbyn what her visit to the US had achieved the Prime Minister said: "I was able to build on the relationship we have with our most important ally and to get some very significant commitments from President Trump and crucial among these was a 100% commitment to Nato, Nato which keeps us safe and which keeps Europe safe too."

The Labour leader then pushed Mrs May on whether she was aware of the so-called Muslim ban while she was still in America. 

She said: "This government is clear that that policy is wrong. We wouldn't do it, in six years as Home Secretary I never introduced such a policy, we believe it is divisive and wrong.

 

JS119024039_EPA_US-President-Donald-J-Tr

 

"If he's asking me whether I had advanced notice of the ban on refugees, if he's asking me if I had advanced notice of whether the order could affect British citizens, the answer is no, if he's asking if I had advanced notice of travel restrictions, the answer is we all did because President Trump said he would do this in his election campaign.

"The job of government is not to chase headlines, the job of government is not to take to the streets in protest, the job of government is to protect the interests of British citizens and that's what we did."

Mr Corbyn then used his sixth question to push the Prime Minister further on her views on Mr Trump: "He’s praised the use of torture; he’s incited hatred against Muslims; he’s directly attacked women’s rights. What more does President Trump have to do before the PM will listen to the 1.8m people who have already called for his state visit invitation to be withdrawn?”

 

JS118997783_REUTERS_Britain27s-Queen-Eli

 

 

Mrs May responded:

 

"The Right Honourable Gentleman's foreign policy is to object to and insult the democratically elected head of state of our most important ally.

"Let's just see what he would have achieved...would he have been able to protect British citizens from the impact of the executive order? No! Would he have been able to lay the foundation of the trade deal?No! Would he have got a 100% commitment to Nato? No!"

"He can lead a protest, I'm leading a country."

 

Asked after the exchange whether Mr Corbyn would decline an invitation to a state dinner with President Trump when he comes to the UK a spokesman for the Labour leader said a decision would be made closer to the time.

 

 

 

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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-38833883

Brexit: MPs overwhelmingly back Article 50 bill

 

MPs have voted by a majority of 384 to allow Prime Minister Theresa May to get Brexit negotiations under way.

They backed the government's European Union Bill, supported by the Labour leadership, by 498 votes to 114.

But the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats opposed the bill, while 47 Labour MPs and Tory ex-chancellor Ken Clarke rebelled.

The bill now faces further scrutiny in the Commons and the House of Lords before it can become law.

The prime minister has set a deadline of 31 March for invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, getting official talks with the EU started. The bill returns to the Commons next week.

 

 

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Theresa May 'hires Daily Mail political editor James Slack as chief spokesman'

Mr Slack would become the second 'Daily Mail' political editor to work for the Conservative Government

 

theresa-may.jpg

 

 

Prime Minister Theresa May has reportedly hired The Daily Mail's political editor James Slack as her chief spokesman.

Mr Slack will replace Helen Bower, who will go on to work as Boris Johnson's director of communications at the Foreign Office. 

He will be responsible for No 10's twice daily briefings with political journalists in the Houses of Parliament.

 

If his appointment is confirmed, Mr Slack will become the second political editor from the tabloid to work for the Conservative Government.

James Chapman left the paper in 2015 to work for forrmer Chancellor George Osborne, as his chief of communications.

He is now director of communications for Brexit secretary David Davis.

A spokesman for No 10 declined to comment.

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-daily-mail-political-editor-james-slack-appointment-a7557696.html

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11 powerful stories of how it feels to be European in Brexit Britain

Why are you in the UK? 11 EU citizens share their experiences (good and bad) of living in Brexit Britain

image.jpg

Ever since the referendum, EU citizens in the UK have been enduring great uncertainty, their future status unknown.

One of them, Susana De Dios, a photographer, decided to go out and picture and interview others living in the same precarious circumstances, to hear their stories – good and bad – of living in Brexit Britain. Here are those stories....

Full story http://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/culture/11_powerful_stories_of_how_it_feels_to_be_european_in_brexit_britain_1_4867257?platform=hootsuite

 

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Brexit will wipe UK out of history: It will no longer be the UK

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The Brexit crisis is not the only emergency facing the UK and leaving the EU could spell the end for another union

The UK is facing a major crisis because of the consequences and complexities involved in exiting the European Union.

But an even greater calamity lies buried in the Brexit debacle.

The underlying condition of the constitutional order – whose malaise makes the Brexit debacle possible – could see the United Kingdom exit not just from the EU but from existence.

The Supreme Court has ruled that there must be a Parliamentary debate on whether to trigger Article 50. Efforts by Theresa May and the Brexit cabal to dodge a full Parliamentary debate are in effect efforts to sideline the principles on which the Supreme Court reached this view, and the role of Parliament.

This is a subversion of our representative democracy, and is a vivid symptom of what is so badly wrong with the British polity.

To understand the crisis that the UK is facing, recollect the facts.

The EU referendum of 2016 was not prompted by any downturn in relations between the UK and the EU or any threat posed by Europe to our prosperity, security or well-being.

On the contrary, the UK was benefitting handsomely from EU membership in many respects, from the staffing of the NHS to the leading role of the UK in European science, from the huge and profitable role of the City in European as well as global finance to the equally profitable business and investment conduit into Europe that the UK represented.

No, there was no problem with EU membership, though xenophobic irritation at immigrants (often fellow EU citizens) in some quarters, mendaciously exacerbated by the Daily Mail and its ilk, masked the net contribution that their presence in the UK makes.

Instead the EU referendum was promised by David Cameron to spike the guns of the Tory right-wing, and to prevent the loss of votes to UKIP in some constituencies. It was entirely an internal Conservative Party matter.

Cameron doubtless did not expect there to be a referendum because he did not expect to win a majority in the 2015 election. When to his surprise he did so, he lazily and thoughtlessly allowed the referendum to be poorly organised.

Its main fault lay in excluding from the franchise those most materially concerned in its outcome: 16-17 year olds, a large tranche of British expatriates, and EU citizens living and paying taxes in the UK.

All three constituencies were allowed to vote in the Scottish independence referendum of 2014; had they voted in the EU referendum the result would have been markedly the other way. Their exclusion was gerrymandering.

We now approach the nub of the matter. The EU referendum was explicitly an advisory, non-binding poll. MPs were told this very clearly in the briefing they were given before debating the Bill.

They were also explicitly alerted to the fact that if there were to be any question otherwise, a supermajority would be required – the norm in most mature constitutions is a two-thirds majority.

In the event a mere 37% of the gerrymandered electorate voted Leave. This is a proportion too small for a strike to be permitted in any important public service in the UK, and by far too little to trigger a general election out of Parliamentary term, this requiring 66% of all MPs, whether they vote or not.

Treating the referendum as binding and its 37% Leave percentage as mandating is both dishonest and politically illegitimate.

In order to behave as if the outcome of the referendum were binding and had a supermajority in support, May and the Brexiteer cabal have comprehensively sidelined Parliament, despite it being constitutionally the sovereign body in our polity to which the executive should be answerable.

The Brexiteers, now alas including the once-sensible Philip Hammond, is deliberately avoiding Parliament in order to hasten the UK past the possibility that MPs will halt the Brexit process. This they could do given that the considered and informed judgment of most of them, before the referendum, was that EU membership is in the UK’s interests. The facts on which that judgment is based have not changed, so an unwhipped vote in Parliament on the rational case would stop Brexit in its tracks.

Not only has May made every effort so far to have no debate in Parliament on whether Article 50 should be triggered – this being the same as debating whether the advice of the advisory referendum should be taken – she has said that although there will at last be a debate in several years’ time, after a “deal” has been struck with the EU, whatever vote results from that debate will be ignored anyway. Brexit will, she asserts, definitely happen. This of course makes that promised future debate pointless.

One aspect of the real crisis, therefore, is the drastic subversion of the Parliamentary system that we are witnessing. We are seeing what is tantamount to a coup by the executive. It is stealing the country from under our noses without any check or question from the body that is meant to be constitutionally sovereign in our polity. It is incomprehensible that MPs themselves are not mightily up in arms about this, and demanding that the executive present itself before both Houses of Parliament to be called to account.

The degrading of Parliament in our political process is happening because the Party system has enfeebled our democracy. Whipping votes in Parliament, party patronage and disposal of ministerial office, and the closed shop nature of electoral candidature, have together made the vast majority of MPs mere lobby fodder for most purposes, with revolts against leaderships a very rare and usually timid occurrence. In Robert Walpole’s day the robust independence of MPs would never have allowed an executive to scorn Parliament in this unconscionable way.

Moreover the nature of representative democracy, in which MPs are meant not to be simple messenger boys and girls reporting their constituents’ sentiments, but informed and rational agents acting on their behalf in their best interests by getting the facts and examining them carefully, seems to have been forgotten by MPs, and not known by the public.

The second aspect of the crisis, and the reason why the UK will leave history if it leaves the EU, is that Scotland and perhaps Northern Ireland will leave the UK. That is why the UK will leave history: it will no longer be the UK.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have every reason to refuse to be dragged into the morass of negative consequences into which English right-wing Tories and English tabloid newspapers and English xenophobia are plunging us. Along with many who campaigned to keep the Union together at the time of the Scottish independence referendum, I would now strongly support it: Brexit is an irrational and damaging project, and there is no reason why a strongly pro-EU Scotland should be forced to eat the rubbish that the Brexiteers are seeking to serve up.

The end of Parliamentary sovereignty, the end of the UK, and not just the end of all the advantages of EU membership, add up to the real crisis we face.

http://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brexit_will_wipe_uk_out_of_history_it_will_no_longer_be_the_uk_1_4873001

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