Today's BBC Newsnight interview with Tony Blair.

The British version of US Democrats, centrism and Clintonite. Can't get it in a more compact statement. Covers the policies of 2000 to the present ... with some sense of historical content of events and how politicians failed to keep in touch with a changing electorate.

We all are aware Tony Blair has lost it a long time ago ... creating the opening for Brexit - Conservatives in power - election of Donald Trump. Tony Blair has NO CLUE! What a pitiful figure he has become. Read the transcript. Tony at a loss for words to respond on Labour and which party wing he stands behind.

Backing the ugly attack of Labour MP Hodge on Jeremy Corbyn. Hypocrite!

@ET -  Jewish Cheques and Balances.

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

'Forces of darkness have taken over': Soubry accuses May of capitulating to hardline Brexiters | The Guardian |

The Conservative rebel Anna Soubry has accused Theresa May of capitulating to "the forces of darkness" in her party and warned that, as a result, she and her fellow soft Brexiters may not back the final deal the prime minister obtains from Brussels.

...
Soubry's intervention followed a dramatic week at Westminster in which Conservative factions have openly battled for control while May tried desperately to keep her job and negotiate Brexit.

On Monday, the Broxtowe MP gave a barnstorming speech during the debate on the customs bill, voicing anger at May's decision to do a deal with Rees-Mogg's European Research Group to head off a damaging rebellion. Until then Soubry had supported the prime minister's new softer Brexit strategy that was signed off at Chequers a fortnight ago.

...
The MP said she believed the ERG were "ruthless bastards" who would stop at nothing because they believed their cause was "bigger than anything else". She added: "Now that the forces of darkness have got the prize in sight, they are going for it. I'm afraid that Theresa has embraced these people, they are now running Theresa."

ERG members and supporters include a range of Tory backbenchers, from veteran anti-Europe campaigners, such as John Redwood and Bill Cash, through to former ministers David Jones and Steve Baker, and young MPs including Andrea Jenkyns, who want to force out May. Rees-Mogg is its chair.

Today's aggressive comments by Messrs Varadkar and Barnier show why we are right to be leaving the mafia-like European Union.

— Jacob Rees-Mogg (@Jacob_Rees_Mogg) July 20, 2018

○ Did The Bad Boys of Brexit Break America? | Vanity Fair - July 2018 |

Related articles ...

○ International Coalition to Defeat Democrats and Hillary in 2016

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

PM approved bonus of £15,000 to £20,000 for Oliver Robbins - a key adviser behind her softer Brexit strategy | The Guardian |

Robbins worked for David Davis at DExEU until September, before switching to work directly for May as her chief Europe adviser as the prime minister cut out Davis and took direct control of the Brexit negotiating strategy.

He was the key adviser behind May's new softer Brexit strategy, first unveiled at Chequers, which led to the resignations of Davis and Boris Johnson. Davis had been working on his own strategy white paper only to discover that May and Robbins had developed their own approach and only consulted him at the last minute.

The civil servant has become a lightning rod for Brexiters' frustration with the direction of May's Brexit policy. Stewart Jackson, a former MP who was Davis's chief of staff, accused Robbins of "blocking the publication" of the DExEU white paper from March and wanting a "Hotel California Brexit" in which the UK checks out but never leaves.

Immediately after Davis quit, 50 DExEU staff were seconded to work for Robbins in his team at the Cabinet Office as May tries to step up the pace of the Brexit negotiations in the runup to a critical meeting of EU leaders in October.

A career civil servant, Robbins has been at the heart of the political establishment. He worked in Number 10 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and his career was championed by the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood.

German politicians allied against Steve Bannon | DW |

Plans for US far-right figure Steve Bannon to exert his influence on the European parliament's 2019 election have been met with alarm across Germany's political spectrum. Bannon has become a controversial figure, known for his ties to the campaigns for the UK to leave the European Union and the election of US President Donald Trump.

"We have to fight now, with good arguments, confident and true," said Michael Roth, a center-left Social Democrat (SPD) lawmaker and Minister of State for Europe in an interview with the Welt newspaper.

Europe should not "be afraid of nationalist campaigns with which Mr. Bannon would like to force Europe to its knees...our values are stronger than his hate and his lies."

'A frontal attack on the EU'

In an interview with the same newspaper, Florian Hahn of the center-right Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said that he believed that the threat of Bannon's influence in European elections should be "taken seriously."

Cambridge Analytica Files | The Guardian |  

○ British Spooks Exploiting Populist Insurgency for Anti-Russia Campaign

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

More steps taken by PM May these past days corroborated my analysis May would go on a full attack against the EU. In full control [of her armada] May will no take no prisoners in the coming weeks. She will attempt to split a few countries away from Brussels in a divisive attempt to put blame across the Channel for the disaster about to happen.    

"Robespierre was elected to the Estates General convened in 1789 by
King Louis XVI to deal with the Royal Court's ongoing financial crisis."

May's inner circle of trustworthy persons is getting quite small as pressure mounts.

Brexit: Raab 'sidelined' as May takes control of EU negotiations | The Guardian |

Theresa May has taken back control of crucial negotiations with Brussels from her new Brexit secretary just hours after the government published its white paper on withdrawing from the European Union.

The prime minister announced she would now lead the crunch talks with the EU while Dominic Raab, who was appointed two weeks ago, would be left in charge of domestic preparations, no-deal planning and legislation.

The move was swiftly characterised as a "sidelining" of the Brexit secretary by No 10's Europe unit, led by May's chief Brexit adviser, Olly Robbins, with the prime minister also taking officials from his department.

In a written statement on the last sitting day of the Commons before the summer recess, May said: "I will lead the negotiations with the European Union, with the secretary of state for Exiting the European Union deputising on my behalf.

...
Robbins, appearing alongside Raab at the Commons' Brexit committee, said: "The overall strategy for the conduct of these negotiations, she regards very much as her personal responsibility, now with the secretary of state very close at hand."

On #Marr Brexit Secretary @DominicRaab sets out how we're making progress on delivering the best Brexit deal. pic.twitter.com/t1JSLW5HGR

— Conservatives (@Conservatives) July 22, 2018

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and negotiator Oliver Robbins appearing before Brexit Committee now. pic.twitter.com/iaWsgqGspP

— BBC Parliament (@BBCParliament) July 24, 2018

The Government has published a White Paper on how it will legislate for the Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the EU. (_link)

— Exiting the EU Dept (@DExEUgov) July 24, 2018

Britain's draft document, officially known as its "schedule", is 719 pages long.

"WTO members will have three months to review the schedule, which will be considered to be approved if there are no objections from other members," the WTO said in a statement.
[...]
Seven agricultural ["]suppliers["] - including the United States, Canada and Australia - have already said they disapprove of the terms of the divorce, since they will lose flexibility to switch exports between Britain and the rest of the EU.

archived ubn warned
Joint letter from the EU and the UK Permanent Representatives to the WTO Oct 2017
Divide and Conquer?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

US to pay billions in aid to farmers hit by Trump trade war | France24 |

Farm products have borne the brunt of tariffs imposed by trading partners angered by US trade actions, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the aid program will provide relief.

The program will "assist farmers in response to trade damage caused by illegal retaliatory tariffs," which the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) estimated at $11 billion, Perdue told reporters.

He said this was a "short-term" solution to help farmers and give President Donald Trump time to negotiate a longer term trade deal to help agriculture and other sectors hurt by unfair trading practices by China and others.

The aid for farmers announced today is clear statement that other nations can't bully our agricultural producers to force the U.S. to cave in to unfair trade practices & retaliatory tactics. @POTUS makes good on promise to stand by farmers. (_link)

— Sec. Sonny Perdue (@SecretarySonny) July 25, 2018

US farmers 'want trade not aid'

he latest development in a rolling trade dispute between the US and China features a recognition of impact and US$12bn in relief funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to US farmers.

The short-term relief funding will be distributed through a number of programmes like direct payments to farmers, commodity purchases for food-aid programmes, and increased promotion to other export markets looking for US products, according to Bloomberg.

"This is a short-term solution to allow president Trump time to work on long-term trade deals to benefit agriculture and the entire U.S. economy," said US secretary of agriculture, Sonny Perdue, in a statement.

Mark Powers, director of the Northwest Horticultural Council told Asiafruit, "The tariffs imposed by the People's Republic of China (40 percent on apples, pears and cherries) and Mexico (20 percent on apples) plus the 25 percent tariff on apples India has indicated it will impose August 4 of this year will affect $500 million of export volume."

The US$12bn in relief funding was calculated based on a predicted US$11bn impact that retaliatory tariffs will have on the entire agricultural economy, from fresh fruit to soy and grain.

"Unfortunately, America's hard-working agricultural producers have been treated unfairly by China's illegal trading practices and have taken a disproportionate hit when it comes illegal retaliatory tariffs," said Perdue.

Despite his comment, China's multiple retaliations to president Donald Trump's implemented tariffs have been in line with World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations.

Dominic Raab: the face that says, 'I need to take back control of my sphincter' | The Guardian - by Marina Hyde |

Even for those who've been stockpiling I-told-you-sos for two years, there really is zero satisfaction in watching Brexit secretary Dominic Raab wanly assure a parliamentary committee that, post-Brexit, "there will be adequate food". Just like the al-Qaida number three job used to be, the DExEU gig really is dead men's shoes. Give it a year and it'll be Secretary of State Ray Mears.

Either way, Raab's is perhaps the most inspirational vision of the UK's post-EU future since Chris Grayling explained last October that British farmers would simply have to grow more food. The good news is the uplands are sunlit; the bad news is we all have to till them. Unfortunately, there's a nine-month import hold-up on ploughshares ...

My bit on your inspirational week in Brexit (_link)

— Marina Hyde (@MarinaHyde) July 27, 2018

In many ways, though, a no-deal Brexit feels like the next step in Britain's 15-year fetishisation of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster. No-deal will allow the nostalgic populace to inhabit other second world war memes such as Dig for Victory, Prepare Your Tin Cans For War, and Rationing Means a Fair Share For All Of Us. All of these are much more practical than the UK's negotiating strategy hitherto, which has amounted to disagreeing with gravity in Daily Mail comment articles, or screaming "You need to think creatively!" at the tide.

Michel Barnier kills off Theresa May's Brexit customs proposals | The Guardian |

Michel Barnier has warned that attempts to appeal to EU leaders over his head were a waste of time as he rejected Theresa May's proposals on customs after Brexit, in effect killing off the Chequers plan.

On Friday Theresa May travels to Austria to meet Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Czech prime minister Andrej Babis, before heading off on her summer holiday.

"Anyone who wants to find a sliver of difference between my mandate and what the heads of government say they want are wasting their time, quite frankly," he told reporters at a joint press conference with the new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, in Brussels.

○ EU may give UK unique Galileo deal after Brexit
○ Theresa May in Austria in attempt to revive Chequers Brexit plan

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

UK's Brexit proposals threaten future of EU, says Barnier | The Guardian |

Michel Barnier has launched his own appeal for hearts and minds in Europe by warning that Theresa May's Brexit proposals, put forward in the UK government's recent white paper, pose a threat to the future of the European single market.

In an article published in 20 newspapers across Europe, the EU's chief negotiator writes: "The UK knows well the benefits of the single market. It has contributed to shaping our rules over the last 45 years. And yet, some UK proposals would undermine our single market, which is one of the EU's biggest achievements.

#Brexit negotiation can reach good outcome. We must solve withdrawal issues incl. Ireland/NI. EU wants new partnership w/ UK on security & w/ ambitious FTA at its heart. We can do this based on #EuCo principles: indivisibility of 4 freedoms & EU autonomy (_link)

— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) August 2, 2018

"The UK wants to keep free movement of goods between us, but not of people and services. And it proposes to apply EU customs rules without being part of the EU's legal order. Thus, the UK wants to take back sovereignty and control of its own laws, which we respect, but it cannot ask the EU to lose control of its borders and laws."

The article will be seen as a direct rebuff to attempts by the British cabinet to persuade individual EU leaders and Europea business leaders to back the UK vision.

He writes of being hopeful of a deal being struck but suggests that the basic free trade agreement lifting tariffs on goods, alongside a security deal, is the best offer he can make.

Barnier's line is a familiar one in Whitehall, but the publication of his article is incendiary given the push in recent days by May and her cabinet to try and forge a new approach to the negotiations with the EU27 states.

UK trade minister Liam Fox says EU pushing Britain to no-deal Brexit | DW |

Britain's international trade secretary, Liam Fox, has put the odds of the UK leaving the European Union without agreeing terms to formally finalize its exit at 60-40.

"I think the intransigence of the [European] Commission is pushing us toward no deal," he told British newspaper The Sunday Times in an interview published late Saturday.

"We have set out the basis in which a deal can happen but if the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic well-being of the people of Europe then it's a bureaucrats' Brexit -- not a people's Brexit -- [and] then there is only going to be one outcome," he said.

SUNDAY TIMES: No deal Brexit is odds on says trade secretary #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/glSWHQihXV

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) August 4, 2018

'Worst of both worlds'

Meanwhile, another prominent Brexiteer, former minister Priti Patel, has called on Mrs May to have the "backbone and confidence" to back Britain in the negotiations with the EU.

She said the UK was in a "strong position" when it came to a future trade deal because "we are dynamic, competitive and growing" - while the EU "desperately needs our money".

○ Brexit in Brégançon - diplomacy or disappointment? | France24 |

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide