Where are all the supporters?

[Suff]

Here is an interesting thought. Why do we assume that this bucket offing was not her target all along?

[medsec222]

No doubt there will be a good number of MPs who do think it was her target all along. Certainly she seems very pleased with what she has achieved.

[TheOstrich]

Note that the vast majority of rebellious MPs on both sides are declaring "I will not support it".

Which actually poses an interesting question - they're not saying they'll vote against it. How many of those MPs will simply abstain? Could the deal be carried 100 to 99 with 451 abstentions?

[Suff]

Which actually poses an interesting question - they're not saying they'll vote against it. How many of those MPs will simply abstain? Could the deal be carried 100 to 99 with 451 abstentions?

Well either way, if the house does vote it down in a comprehensive manner I expect a golden opportunity to be completely wasted.

If/when Parliament votes the deal down, May should take the EU to the letter of the word and start preparing for No Deal. After all those wonderful people in the EU has spent no little effort to tell the UK that what is on the table is the ONLY POSSIBLE DEAL. No changes allowed or supported.

So if May loses she should not even bother talking to Brussels. Just ramp up the No Deal preparations to the limit and keep on doing that until the EU DEMANDS to talk terms. At which point May should reply "but you told me there was nothing to discuss, nothing to negotiate, no wiggle room possible, I can't get YOUR deal through parliament so we're finished. Why would I even bother to call you?"

At which point I would expect large numbers of EU Crats to be suffering from acute enlargement of the spleen.

It would be absolutely Perfect. It would highlight the Lie for everything it really is. But I am virtually certain that May would not do it. Where is Boris when you really need him????

[TheOstrich]

…… she should not even bother talking to Brussels. Just ramp up the No Deal preparations to the limit and keep on doing that until the EU DEMANDS to talk terms. At which point May should reply "but you told [Cameron] there was nothing to discuss, nothing to negotiate, no wiggle room possible, I can't get YOUR deal through parliament so we're finished. Why would I even bother to call you?" At which point I would expect large numbers of EU Crats to be suffering from acute enlargement of the spleen.

....which is what we should have done two years ago, Suff!

Our current politicians couldn't negotiate their way out of a paper bag; they shouldn't even have tried in the first place.

[Suff]

Our current politicians couldn't negotiate their way out of a paper bag; they shouldn't even have tried in the first place.

This is the tack Davis took and we saw what happened to him. He was booted for "not trying hard enough". The point is he was working very hard at forcing the EU to come to the table with offers and then rejecting them as unacceptable. Exactly what the EU likes to do to everyone else.

It was always going to be a dogs breakfast. The prize is that the TEU and the TFEU would no longer apply. Everything else and I do mean EVERYTHING else is window dressing. Time to keep the eye on the ball and ignore the noises in the press.

[Workingman]

…… she should not even bother talking to Brussels. Just ramp up the No Deal preparations to the limit and keep on doing that until the EU DEMANDS to talk terms. At which point May should reply "but you told [Cameron] there was nothing to discuss, nothing to negotiate, no wiggle room possible, I can't get YOUR deal through parliament so we're finished. Why would I even bother to call you?" At which point I would expect large numbers of EU Crats to be suffering from acute enlargement of the spleen.

....which is what we should have done two years ago, Suff!

As a Remnainer I basically agree with these views with one proviso. May should have had a good hard look at potential outcomes before triggering A50 so that she had clear plans for any stance the EU took.

She did not do that so we have what we have.

May I also say something about the media reporting, especially by the BBC.

Today it carries a story about a study by the London School of Economics, King's College and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The headline screams: Brexit deal 'could cut UK growth by 5.5%': it is click bait.

The report is rather different and is littered with "coulds", "mays", "the study found", "probably", "possibly" and other fence sitting descriptors. It does not directly say who funded the report (People's Vote) and the figure of a GDP drop in the range of 1.9%-5.5% lower by 2030 is largely passed over except to say that it is due to the "substantial uncertainties involved".

I have done my own study and found that GDP could possibly increase by 27%-134% by 2023 if the wind blows predominantly from the south east. The reason for the range is down to whether the tea leaves are settled either by a clockwork or anti-clockwork swirl.

[Suff]

I have done my own study and found that GDP could possibly increase by 27%-134% by 2023 if the wind blows predominantly from the south east. The reason for the range is down to whether the tea leaves are settled either by a clockwork or anti-clockwork swirl.

Not quite this, more like the guy on the right is duplicated with the opposite opinion on the left...

[cromwell]

Annoyed this morning. What I thought was going to happen is happening. Namely fake polls showing that "the British people are swinging to get behind Theresa May's deal".
Absolute lying rubbish as far as I'm concerned.

[Workingman]

Oops, I might have been a bit previous with my post about the UK growth thing and no deal.

The BoE has just trumped it big time. The UK economy could shrink by 8% in the immediate aftermath if there was no transition period, while house prices could fall by almost a third, and it also warned the pound could fall by a quarter.

Oh dear!

This really is project fear, but from government not Remainers, and as far as I am concerned it is an attempt to get us to go with May's disastrous deal.

It will not work, and recent polls show it is not working. Mind you they also show even less support for no deal.