A New York Times columnist believes the UK “has gone mad”. How, asks a Russian TV host, can Britain fail so spectacularly “to correlate its capabilities with reality”? For Australia, it’s like “watching a loved grandparent in physical and mental decline”.

From China to Israel and Russia to Brazil, a world well beyond Europe is watching Britain’s Brexit bedlam with sorrow, bafflement and amusement – and, in those parts of the globe once told that Rule Britannia meant order, stability and shared long-term prosperity, not a little schadenfreude.

“If you can’t take a joke you shouldn’t come to London right now, because there is political farce everywhere,” wrote the New York Times commentator Thomas Friedman. “In truth, though, it’s not very funny. It’s actually tragic.”

Here was a country “determined to commit economic suicide but unable even to agree on how to kill itself”, led by “a ship of fools” unwilling to “compromise with one another and with reality”. The result was an “epic failure of political leadership”, Friedland said: scary stuff, but “you can’t fix stupid”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/06/a-shambles-on-which-the-sun-never-sets-how-the-world-sees-brexit

James Melville @JamesMelville

He was the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom.

Jacob Rees-Mogg ✔
@Jacob_Rees_Mogg

If a long extension leaves us stuck in the EU we should be as difficult as possible. We could veto any increase in the budget, obstruct the putative EU army and block Mr Macron’s integrationist schemes.

Theresa May’s Brexit manoeuvres make Extinction Rebellion’s semi-naked protest look like an outbreak of sanity

People pressed their semi-naked bums on the gallery glass in the House of Commons and had to be peeled off by police, and it still wasn’t the stupidest thing that happened in parliament this week.

On Monday, the night that parliament was supposed to “take back control”, protest group Extinction Rebellion got into the gallery, took their kit off and tried to stick a variety of body parts to the glass, turning the House of Commons into some kind of X-rated human zoo.

It seemed weird but by the time Tuesday came around we were all looking back on it as a rare moment of sanity. For one thing, it was just nice to see people who had made a decision. It wasn’t the best decision – they were going to glue their hands to some glass and wriggle their bums around for a bit – but at least something got decided in parliament.

Because what happened next was that MPs, who had just taken control from a government who kept bringing back the same deal over and over again, decided to reject every available option they had created for themselves for the second time in a row.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/03/bums-glass-parliament-brexit-extinction-rebellion

Exclusive: ‘grassroots’ groups that spent up to £1m on targeted Facebook ads share administrator who works for lobbying firm

A series of hugely influential Facebook advertising campaigns that appear to be separate grassroots movements for a no-deal Brexit are secretly overseen by employees of Sir Lynton Crosby’s lobbying company and a former adviser to Boris Johnson, documents seen by the Guardian reveal.

The mysterious groups, which have names such as Mainstream Network and Britain’s Future, appear to be run independently by members of the public and give no hint that they are connected. But in reality they share an administrator who works for Crosby’s CTF Partners and have spent as much as £1m promoting sophisticated targeted adverts aimed at heaping pressure on individual MPs to vote for a hard Brexit.

Repeated questions have been raised about who is backing at least a dozen high-spending groups that have flooded MPs’ inboxes with calls to reject Theresa May’s deal. Until now they were thought to be independent entities.

But according to the documents, almost all the major pro-Brexit Facebook “grassroots” advertising campaigns in the UK share the same page admins or advertisers. These individuals include employees of CTF Partners and the political director of Boris Johnson’s campaigns to be mayor of London, who has worked closely with Crosby in the past.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/03/grassroots-facebook-brexit-ads-secretly-run-by-staff-of-lynton-crosby-firm

Robbie Mullen had only been a mole inside neo-nazi group National Action since April 2017. He had joined the group in 2015, impressed by what he had seen of it in the media, and in the search for friends.

From the very moment he made contact we treated him with kid gloves. We had to establish over long and delicate communications that he actually was who he said he was: unlike many activists in National Action he was completely unknown to us.

National Action had been threatening HOPE not hate from almost from the moment it was founded in 2013, and we knew we were still getting under its skin in 2017.

In March 2017 – three months after it was banned by the Home Secretary, because the group publicly venerated the killer of Jo Cox MP – we exposed National Action’s efforts to regroup and reform under new names but with even more violent intent. NA members were furious with founder Ben Raymond for being so careless and being exposed in this way.

Full story: https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/killer-instinct/

https://twitter.com/hopenothate/status/1113081662563385346
HOPE not hate ✔
@hopenothate

A few moments ago a trial finished at the Old Bailey. Now that the trial is over, we’re able to finally tell the full story of how HOPE Not hate smashed the banned terror group National Action and foiled a murder plot.

HOPE not hate ✔
@hopenothate

Robbie Mullen saved the lives of two people by providing the information that foiled Jack Renshaw's murder plot. He didn't do it for the thanks but he does deserve our gratitude. Please share your message with Robbie here: https://donate.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/thank-you-robbie … pic.twitter.com/RJlYXOlQKz

William Kedjanyi @KeejayOV2

“Fuck knows, I’m past caring, it’s like the living dead in here.” A Cabinet Minister to @nicholaswatt of #newsnight on tomorrow’s vote. So, you know, good vibes

In Cabinet, I am picking up complete and utter despair. I said to one Cabinet minister, "Why is the PM holding a vote when she’s pretty sure that she’s going to lose?" And using very strong language, this Cabinet minister said to me, "Fuck knows, I'm past caring, it's like the living dead in here."

This Cabinet minister then went on to say, "Theresa May is the sole architect of this mess. It is her inability to engage in the most basic human interactions that brought us here. Cabinet has totally broken down. Ministers say their bit, she gives nothing away. One side thinks X will happen, the other side thinks Y will happen, and the Prime Minister decides on Z."

Jim Cornelius🇪🇺🇬🇧 🇮🇪🔶 @Jim_Cornelius

2015: "Only the Conservatives can deliver strong and stable government"
2016: "It's going to be a Titanic success"
2017: "I'm not going to be calling a snap election"
2018: "Chuck Chequers"
2019: "Fuck knows I'm past caring, it's like the living dead in here."

Draw near, true believers, for these are dark days for the ERG Brexit ultras. The Fellowship of the Ringpieces finds itself divided on their next move, and may yet be bitterly sundered as they ponder the big question: could they honestly have played it worse?

Before we help them answer it, a quick update on which bit of Blunderland we’ve tumbled into now. Late on Monday night, the House of Commons voted to take control of the parliamentary agenda and attempt to break the Brexit deadlock via a series of indicative votes masterminded by former Tory minister Oliver Letwin. A clue, a clue! Our kingdom for a clue! Like all initiatives handled by Oliver Letwin since the 1980s, it promises to go spectacularly wrong in ways we haven’t even thought of yet, but let’s pretend otherwise before the shitstorm gets properly under way on Wednesday.

The Commons took this momentous decision after yet another of its Brexit endurance debates, all of which now resemble the grim Depression-era dance marathons of They Shoot Horses Don’t They? Lowlights included Kate Hoey insisting that no deal is simply “a different type of deal”, in that way that farmers will agree that no rainfall is simply a different type of rainfall. Or, indeed, that farmers will agree that no deal is simply a different type of deal, as they prepared to slaughter the estimated 10 million lambs they would not be able to export to the EU.

Reflecting on the Commons decision to take the prime minister into special measures, the No 10 spokesman said May was not happy with it: “She has said that tying the government’s hands in this way by seeking to commandeer the order paper would have far-reaching implications for the way that the UK is governed and the balance of powers and responsibilities in our democratic institutions.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/26/brexit-indicative-votes-grand-wizards-ultras

It was a historic moment. Tonight the constitutional battle over Brexit took a decisive turn. MPs finally took control.

It had been a long time coming. Dominic Grieve first tried to wrestle control from the government in January. Then Hilary Benn tried again the week before last, only to lose by two votes.

Tonight's successful attempt came from Oliver Letwin. It wasn't even that close. It passed by 329 votes to 302. In the process, the government lost three ministers, who resigned to vote against the government: health minister Steve Brine, business minister Richard Harrington and the widely-admired Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt, who only yesterday was sat with Theresa May in Chequers.

In each case, the amendments had used the same mechanism: Standing order 14.1, which gives government the power to control parliamentary business. This was MPs setting their own timetable and deciding what they would debate and how.

https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2019/03/25/finally-parliament-takes-control-of-brexit

BBC Politics ✔
@BBCPolitics

"None of you is a traitor... the sole duty of every member of Parliament is to do what he or she thinks is right"

Commons Speaker John Bercow defends Parliament, after MP accuses Theresa May of "pitching MPs against the public" over #Brexithttp://bbc.in/2JHSaeL

PointOfOrder @Point_OfOrder

Andrea Leadsom and the Speaker, John Bercow, had their umpteenth public spat in the Commons just a few minutes after. pic.twitter.com/Wri5GiNyB0