Is May's Chequers plan dead?

[Workingman]

Take a look at this.

It has the responses from the Permanent Dexeu Secretary to questions by a parliamentary committee. Scroll down tlo 11 am and read up.

Confidence in the competence of government and the civil service is not exactly inspired. So much to do, so little time.... even if things go well!

[Suff]

So much to do, so little time.... even if things go well!

Indeed and very little in the way of real answers from the civil service permanent secretary.

[cromwell]

Take a look at this.
Confidence in the competence of government and the civil service is not exactly inspired.

You've got that right. Talk about a last minute job.

[Workingman]

Yesterday Mervyn King, former chief of the BOE and leading Brexiteer came to the same conclusion many of us have come to - government is incompetent.

However, today's bit of political nincompoopey takes the biscuit - a photograph of the government's briefing titled Operation Yellowhammer.

Last week there was a meeting to discus a meeting about a no-deal Brexit. On Tuesday that meeting, to put beef on the bones, was held and there came the discovery of the briefng papers.

Here is what was on the viewed page:

HMT briefing - Operation Yellowhammer - 04 September 2018

Operation Yellowhammer: no deal contingency planning

Summary of issue

•This meeting will consider progress on the Government's plans for mitigating the immediate impacts of a No Deal Brexit.

•The Civil Contingencies Secretariat held a two-day workshop last week to review departments' plans, assumptions, interdependencies and next steps.

HMT objectives

1.Emphasise the importance of building XWH [cross Whitehall] communications architecture that can help maintain confidence in the event of contingency plans being triggered - particularly important for financial services.

2.Explain that departments should be raising Yellowhammer costs through the normal channels - through their spending teams for in-year pressures, and in their bids for 19/20 Brexit allocations for spending that year. Their first call should be internal prioritisation.

3.Reaffirm the need for consistent planning assumptions across plans […] aviation and rail access to the EU.

4.Remind departments of the need to consider the financial […] commercial firms that play a role in their contingency plans.

So there we are, lots of reminding, emphasising, explaining, prioritising and reaffirming, but not a heck of a lot of doing.

[TheOstrich]

I'm sorry, I know this is a serious thread, but I couldn't help falling about laughing ….

..... of the government's briefing titled Operation Yellowhammer.

You'll probably all know, of course, the colloquial name for the Yellowhammer (Emberiza Citrinella).

It's called, after its song, "the little bit of bread and no cheese bird".

So there we have the effects of no-deal in a nutshell - hardly anything on the supermarket shelves, and certainly no wretched imported EU dairy products …....

[Suff]

So there we are, lots of reminding, emphasising, explaining, prioritising and reaffirming, but not a heck of a lot of doing.

True, but what do they really need to do right now.

Negotiations continue, we have not reached a point where no deal will be a certainty. 4 months is enough to enact any plans required to mitigate the impact of no deal.

If they're doing nothing in January with no deal on the table, I'll agree with you.

[Workingman]

:mrgreen: I'm sorry, I know this is a serious thread, but I couldn't help falling about laughing ….

I have no problem having a laugh.... there is enough room for everything.

Negotiations continue, we have not reached a point where no deal will be a certainty. 4 months is enough to enact any plans required to mitigate the impact of no deal.

Maybe, but I come back to Cromwell's observation:

What does strike me is that if we go for no deal we are going to need many more fisheries protection vessels, for instance? And Border Guards? And Customs Officers?

Having a plan, however late in the day it is, is one thing; having the resources in play to enact it is another thing entirely.

[Suff]

If we had no borders previously, then the issues with borders and guards would be more urgent. Ditto customs officers.

Yes the NI border will be an issue, but a very limited one.

This is not like, for instance, France deciding to leave with borders to Belgium, Germany, Spain and Italy, all open and all without controls for most of the time. Our borders are already closed and we consistently refused to open them.

Fisheries will be an issue, but as 90% of our waters are currently fished by EU boats, it is not like we have a massive fishing fleet which will suddenly be inundated by illegal EU boats. We have a small fishing industry and we can take time to build it up and we can grow our protection vessels with it.

A very large part of the whole thing is overblown. Yes we will see certain areas in which we must act. But, oddly enough, so will the EU. Like the fact that the UK controls all most of the air routes to the US. Essentially the EU, if they refuse to cooperate with the UK, would have difficulty flying to the US at all.

There does need to be a pragmatic view of what the problem is but that doesn't really fall into any of the vested agendas right now.