Waste of time.

[Suff]

This morning I have been talking with a Frenchman from Tours. He is the son-in-law of the lady I help with her aphasia. He also blames both sides with equal measure and thinks that both the EU and the UK knew that no-deal was always an option, but neither of them put in the time and effort to mitigate its impact. His take is that Brexit will hurt both sides simply because there is no time left and that Brexit will happen on March 29th without any deal in place.

In many ways I do agree and it is a fact that if France had a Frexit vote, today, there would be a Sorite vote by about 60:40. Given that, the French understand the EU far better than we do, they should it runs, in the majority, on French rules.

Vic, if we revoke A50 we stay in with our opt-out, veto, rebate, no Schengen and no €. We would not be rejoining on new terms as we have not left.

Today that is true. But just like every EU budget rolled back the impact of our rebate, every treaty change aims to take that away from the UK and bind us into the Euro and Schengen and the Army. It only takes another Blair/Brown for that to happen. Everyone who thinks things that we can carry on with our opt out's and exemptions needs to think very carefully about that. It only takes one more T.B.Liar and we're sunk. Then Brexit will be 100 times more difficult.

Meds, I see things differently, obviously, and am convinced that leaving on no-deal terms is the worst of all options, but it looks more likely as time passes.

WM it was always the most likely scenario. It just becomes more certain as time goes on. Whilst the average person in the UK worries about where No Deal will lead them in the mid to long term, I have to sort out how I get home again. I'm not overly concerned as inertial will force the EU and the UK to the table post a No Deal and pretty damned quickly too.

[Workingman]

It has now been announced that the parliamentary recess in February has been cancelled to allow six important pieces of law to pass in parliament before Brexit day. How chipper of them, well done chaps and chapesses. [Round of applause]

But wait....

The government's chief whip later emailed Tory MPs to tell them they could still get the time off for "scheduled medical treatment, important constituency events, cross-party delegations or time with their families".

With so many get-out clauses I can hear 650 exemption notes being posted from here and, tbh, I do not think it would make much difference if they were locked out till March 28th.

[Kaz]

It would be quite nice if Parliament behaved like a professional body, and actually worked proper hours. They still run things like a part-time gentlemen's club

They've not long gone back after the Christmas break!

[medsec222]

The government's chief whip later emailed Tory MPs to tell them they could still get the time off for "scheduled medical treatment, important constituency events, cross-party delegations or time with their families".

Yes, I did hear there was some gnashing of teeth from MPs who had booked skiing holidays and the like during the February break.

[Suff]

In reality those MP's are only needed for the vote. For the discussion rarely more than a dozen have a say anyway.

I wonder how many of those who chose to rebel and vote down May's deal, then voted for renegotiating the backstop, are now whinging that they are going to lose their holidays?

[Suff]

Interestingly RT, yet again, are talking to people about things the BBC and other UK media don't want to talk about.

This one is interesting, it is a Professor of International Economic Law whos is saying what I've said all along. Namely that the EU will NOT negotiate but will, instead, only dictate.

It's a bit late to come to that conclusion, it was blatantly obvious right from the beginning. Also interesting is the bit at the bottom about the Irish going to Washington DC to try and get their congress to "stop a no deal Brexit". How, exactly, the US is going to do that is totally and utterly beyond me. It has not one thing to do with them. However, for me, it is an indication of the level of concern in Ireland. The EU (commission, council and parliament), are totally determined that they will force the UK to submit to their wishes. The only countries that have a good idea of how the UK works, in the EU, are Ireland, Malta and Cyprus. If Ireland is going to the US, it means that they have a very good idea that the EU is on totally the wrong track with the UK. Although 46 years of the UK kowtowing to the EU has probably dulled that sense a lot.

I also saw, today, that the German IFO thinktank wants to ditch the backstop. Their solution? Well we create a new trade arbiter of which the UK and the EEA are all members. Then the new (European), trade block negotiates all trade deals. Or, otherwise known as.... Hotel California.

Nobody in the EU seems to get it. The cash cow is leaving, the fifth largest economy in the world is sticking two fingers up at the EU and striding off on its own. If that hurts then, perhaps, a lesson will be learned by all those EU countries who stuck two fingers up at the UK and, perhaps, they will adopt a suitably more mature negotiating stance in the future.

The EU hailed CETA as a great new agreement for them. After 7 years of demands and few concessions. Only to find that they are losing 1.7 times that market when the UK walks away.

At the same time Eurozone GDP growth slows to 0.2% with Germany contracting by -0.2% in Q3 and estimated to also shrink again in Q4, making it technically in recession. France is outdoing the pack with 0.4% in Q3 and a little less estimated in Q4.

So what were the UK Brexshitt disaster economic growth readings for Q3 and estimate for Q4?? That would be 0.6% Q3 and an estimated 0.4% in Q4.

German industry, facing slowing growth and potential recession continuing are starting to wake up and count the sums of money the UK spends to buy German goods. Slowly but surely German businesses are starting to go into panic as a "deal" does not emerge. If Q1 2019 German GDP growth figures do not go back into positive territory and the UK exits without a deal, the German economy is going to be in real pain.

It won't be pretty in the UK either, but the UK is still growing strongly and that growth is based more on our extra-EU trade than our internal EU trade. So, just like the predictions of disaster and destruction for voting for Brexit, No Deal is going to be a bigger issue to a struggling EU than it will for a UK which will push trade more and more out of the EU and into the world. Especially for Italy who have a £5.3bn trade surplus with the UK and, also, UK goods and services will become more expensive for an economy in recession.

Brexit could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for Italy. Especially when we talk about Automotive components we manufacture and ship to the EU for their vehicle sales. A very important component of the Italian economy.

So, all in all, there is a lot of pressure on the EU right now to accommodate trade with the UK. The EU is supposed to be the arbiter of trade for the member states, making it better, not worse.

We will see more of these kinds of discussions as time goes on.

[Workingman]

I sometimes watch the BBC Parliament channel.

A couple of junior ministers are sent in to put the government's case and a couple of shadow junior ministers are also there for the rebuttal. Then there are a dozen or so MPs taking a break from the Westminster bars to have a nap or to check their phones for the latest texts and to see what is trending on social media.

If I was running things MPs would be there from 10 till 4 or their pay would be docked accordingly. They would get time and a quarter for late sittings, but only if they had attended for at least 50% of the 'normal' day.

I, like many others, am sick if these wasters.