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    Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,027

    Dura_Ace said:

    Where's Big G to call a PMQ victory for May?

    Been on holiday but following post to yours. And yes she is utterly uninspiring and must be under threat but as I said, more from me next week
    Welcome back. You and your considered sagacity have been missed.

    You haven't missed much. Brexit continues to be l'ascenseur pour l'échafaud. Somebody, somewhere apparently thinks Justine Greening can be Mayor of London. We had online symposium on the logistics of transnational car manufacturing in which quite a few people chatted shit.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Fenster said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    Politics is a tormentingly complicated business and one of May's failures as a leader is to allow all those complications to show on her face/in her words.

    Cameron, by contrast, was the consummate swan. He hardly ever allowed the complications to show.

    It was Cameron's failure to deal with the complications of getting a deal with the EU which cost Remain the referendum and ended his premiership
    I don't disagree. But May's discomfort is written all over her face and as a leader she needs to be better at concealing.
    Maybe but no PM is going to find it easy getting any sort of deal with Juncker and Barnier
    All she needs to do is what the Italians are gonna spend the next few years doing. Ignore them, flout their rules and basically laugh at their demands. The EU only has as much power as we allow it to have. The French ignore them too.
    As the Italians are demonstrating, the EU finds it much easier dealing with those on the outside of the tent trying to piss in than dealing with those on the inside of the tent also trying to piss in.

    The Italians have chosen a very good moment to misbehave.
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    Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,319
    If only we'd listened to George:

    Britain should only trigger Article 50 to leave the EU when it has a “clear view” of how its future in the bloc looks, finance minister George Osborne said Monday following last week’s shock referendum.

    [...]

    “The prime minister has given us time as a country to decide what that relationship should be by delaying the decision to trigger the Article 50 procedure until there is a new prime minister in place for the autumn,” Osborne said in his first public comments since the result.

    “Only the UK can trigger Article 50, and in my judgement we should only do that when there is a clear view about what new arrangement we are seeking with our European neighbours,” he added.

    “In the meantime, and during the negotiations that will follow, there will be no change to people’s rights to travel and work, and to the way our goods and services are traded, or to the way our economy and financial system is regulated.”


    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1131059/uk-trigger-article-50-leave-eu-ready/
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact

    They did not vote for it to be triggered precipitously before the government had the first clue about what leaving actually entailed or how it might be done without inflicting substantial harm.

    They voted to end free movement and regain sovereignty much as that may annoy Remainers who believe only BINO is acceptable
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    YorkcityYorkcity Posts: 4,382
    HYUFD said:

    Jezza murders May again at PMQs on BREXIT

    TM must be a severe source of embarrassment for PB Tories.

    When will she be put out of her misery?

    Yes I am so embarrassed the Tories still lead Labour even with Survation and May still leads Corbyn as best PM in every poll.

    Only a few political anoraks watch PMQs anyway and a bad day one week can be rectified by a good day the next week
    True,but that PMq performance by May on Brexit against Corbyn, you could see her authority draining away.It was a pityful.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    Politics is a tormentingly complicated business and one of May's failures as a leader is to allow all those complications to show on her face/in her words.

    Cameron, by contrast, was the consummate swan. He hardly ever allowed the complications to show.

    It was Cameron's failure to deal with the complications of getting a deal with the EU which cost Remain the referendum and ended his premiership
    I don't disagree. But May's discomfort is written all over her face and as a leader she needs to be better at concealing.
    Maybe but no PM is going to find it easy getting any sort of deal with Juncker and Barnier
    Cry me a river. Each side is negotiating for its own benefit.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117
    Fenster said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    Politics is a tormentingly complicated business and one of May's failures as a leader is to allow all those complications to show on her face/in her words.

    Cameron, by contrast, was the consummate swan. He hardly ever allowed the complications to show.

    It was Cameron's failure to deal with the complications of getting a deal with the EU which cost Remain the referendum and ended his premiership
    I don't disagree. But May's discomfort is written all over her face and as a leader she needs to be better at concealing.
    Maybe but no PM is going to find it easy getting any sort of deal with Juncker and Barnier
    All she needs to do is what the Italians are gonna spend the next few years doing. Ignore them, flout their rules and basically laugh at their demands. The EU only has as much power as we allow it to have. The French ignore them too.
    And the Germans run the show
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    Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,355

    Jezza murders May again at PMQs on BREXIT

    TM must be a severe source of embarrassment for PB Tories.

    When will she be put out of her misery?

    The answer to that may well evolve over the next two weeks, certainly by the end of June
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    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Sean_F said:

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, comes out as a Remainer 'the EU has been the greatest thing for human beings since the Western Roman Empire'

    https://mobile.twitter.com/wareisjoe/status/1003984057787699202

    ++Justin can be silly sometimes
    Better than democracy, or the abolition of slavery, or capitalism?
    He doesn’t believe in any of those.

    Once an oily always an oily
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117
    Yorkcity said:

    HYUFD said:

    Jezza murders May again at PMQs on BREXIT

    TM must be a severe source of embarrassment for PB Tories.

    When will she be put out of her misery?

    Yes I am so embarrassed the Tories still lead Labour even with Survation and May still leads Corbyn as best PM in every poll.

    Only a few political anoraks watch PMQs anyway and a bad day one week can be rectified by a good day the next week
    True,but that PMq performance by May on Brexit against Corbyn, you could see her authority draining away.It was a pityful.
    If she wins the vote next week she will be fine, if she loses she may be gone but with Umunna and Leslie and Hoey and Field on different sides and Corbyn in the middle he has little authority on Brexit either
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    Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,355
    Just had a phone call from the telegraph offering a subscription at a £1 a week for a year
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    anothernickanothernick Posts: 3,578

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
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    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    The UK has had this huge problem in which overwhelmingly major business is London-centric / SE for decades. It isn't true in places like Germany, where a number of different cities have different major industries.

    Gordo attempts at redistribution of public sector jobs to the regions, with on eye on stimulating the economy hasn't done much (other than drive up property prices in places like Bristol), and even though London is now bursting at the seams with lack of housing, business and people all still want to locate there.

    The vast majority of undergraduates I have talked to at the big unis measure success as a graduate job in London.

    Answers to the problem on the back of a postcode to ....

    Split the U.K. into 12 independent states, give them 600 years to develop their own capitals and then reunite them under the most militaristic culture?
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    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,503

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    If policy was driven by ERG we would go straight to WTO terms with no regulatory alignment or transition period
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    MortimerMortimer Posts: 13,956

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    Didnt see PMQs, but it is beginning to look like losing Rudd from the cabinet might have changed No. 10 Brexit strategy.
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    Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 4,836
    edited June 2018
    eek said:

    Any posted this yet https://www.citymetric.com/transport/so-why-northern-rail-chaos-here-are-11-reasons-3952

    Why the Northern Rail disaster was inevitable...

    Thanks. I've been looking for something like this.

    I'm not sure how bad it has got further into Yorkshire where the changes are a bit less radical, but of the things highlighted in the article it seems to me that the immediate crisis is down to:

    1. Bolton electrification line closure (which was known to be ongoing)
    2. Through capacity in Manchester, as said, requires that trains do not terminate at Victoria, but the main Northern through routes are heavily focused on the general direction of Wigan and Bolton. Or mainly just Wigan with Bolton out of action.
    3. The old, long distance unreliable Northern trains serving Cumbria, which are in free fall, are also going through this corridor.
    4. These and other services along the Bolton / Wigan direction are also heavy users of the very congested through routes into Piccadilly (and the airport)
    5. I hadn't realised the Northern work to rule - the generally immediate quoted reason for most cancellations is a lack of train crew (takes the edge off my happiness when there is a Northern strike day and the Transpennines run so much better)
    6. More Manchester through movements due to Transpennine routing across the Ordeal Curve (I agree it's a curse) that now make 2 through passes of Manchester to get from WY to the airport (they used to reverse at Piccadilly and probably should do again for the time being, as the lesser evil).

    Ironically, the closure of Liverpool Lime Street for upgrade work might ease problems for a couple of weeks, but come the end of June there could be another wave of trouble when Lime Street reopens.
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    StereotomyStereotomy Posts: 4,092

    Just had a phone call from the telegraph offering a subscription at a £1 a week for a year

    I'd recommend sticking with Andrex.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    edited June 2018

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    As HYUFD continuously points out, Leavers voted Leave because of immigration. Apart from one R. Tyndall that is.

    Yet both make sweeping generalisations about their fellow travellers.
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    YorkcityYorkcity Posts: 4,382

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
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    FensterFenster Posts: 2,115

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    I think she's always been crap. I can't cope with indecisive people. She's indecision central.

    At least you know what Corbyn stands for. And he doesn't seem to give the tiniest fuck what people think. Even on something krypton-toxic like anti-semitism, he wasn't willing to spin any love for the Jews.
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    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300

    Just had a phone call from the telegraph offering a subscription at a £1 a week for a year

    Do you enter this subscription via the Telegraph's site or give your payment details over the phone? Even if genuine, these calls soften people up for fraudsters.
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    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Scott_P said:
    Project Fear enters the Project Reality stage.

    Jun 2018 - "Project Fear enters the Project Reality stage"
    And in actual reality there were six different types of British strawberry and two different types of British raspberry on sale at Tesco yesterday.
    Reads like a list of the number of occasions Leavers have had to put their fingers in their ears and shout "I'm not listening, I'm not listening".
    Listening to what ?

    Predictions that there would be an immediate recession, the car factories would shut down, the City would relocate to Frankfurt, the stock market would crash, refugee camps at Dover and the crops rotting in the fields ?

    Why don't Remainers ever provide any DATA to back up their claims instead of merely pasting from twatter.
    Luckily enough Mark Carney acted to stave off a recession, Theresa May bribed the car companies, and those with GBP assets and non-GBP liabilities found there was a crash. Refugee camps? I think they may yet end up being at Larne. As for the crops, https://ft.com/content/0e0a77f2-96df-11e7-b83c-9588e51488a0
    LOL

    Is that really the best response you can make ? Really ?

    And you wonder why nobody believes these predictions of doom any more ?
    Not doom, just a diminution in our wellbeing.

    And which bit do you have a problem with? Carney's rate move, May's bribe, GBP's fall, or the farmer featured in the FT?
    Carneys rate move

    In your last answer (a few days ago) you didn’t understand the difference between liquidity provision (good) and loosening monetary policy (unnecessary, risky, and wasteful)
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    XenonXenon Posts: 471

    Xenon said:

    instead of (or as well as) a massive infrastructure spending spree in the North, how about cutting taxes for poorer areas. A few taxes that could be reduced:

    Employers/employees national insurance contributions
    Business rates
    PAYE rates (maybe another £5k tax free threshold)
    Council tax

    Get people and businesses wanting to move up North and the case for better infrastructure becomes a lot stronger.

    ... and there'll be even less money to pay for it.
    The poorest areas aren't exactly paying a lot of tax as it is anyway.
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    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Democrat 25 pt flip in SD17 in Missouri for anyone betting on the US elections btw.

    I think GOP control for the senate is probably now a lay at 1.39.
    I'm glad I got on Dem control of the House when I did but I'm not touching the Senate market with a barge poll either way,
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    edited June 2018
    Charles said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Scott_P said:
    Project Fear enters the Project Reality stage.

    Jun 2018 - "Project Fear enters the Project Reality stage"
    And in actual reality there were six different types of British strawberry and two different types of British raspberry on sale at Tesco yesterday.
    Reads like a list of the number of occasions Leavers have had to put their fingers in their ears and shout "I'm not listening, I'm not listening".
    Listening to what ?

    Predictions that there would be an immediate recession, the car factories would shut down, the City would relocate to Frankfurt, the stock market would crash, refugee camps at Dover and the crops rotting in the fields ?

    Why don't Remainers ever provide any DATA to back up their claims instead of merely pasting from twatter.
    Luckily enough Mark Carney acted to stave off a recession, Theresa May bribed the car companies, and those with GBP assets and non-GBP liabilities found there was a crash. Refugee camps? I think they may yet end up being at Larne. As for the crops, https://ft.com/content/0e0a77f2-96df-11e7-b83c-9588e51488a0
    LOL

    Is that really the best response you can make ? Really ?

    And you wonder why nobody believes these predictions of doom any more ?
    Not doom, just a diminution in our wellbeing.

    And which bit do you have a problem with? Carney's rate move, May's bribe, GBP's fall, or the farmer featured in the FT?
    Carneys rate move

    In your last answer (a few days ago) you didn’t understand the difference between liquidity provision (good) and loosening monetary policy (unnecessary, risky, and wasteful)
    I understood it perfectly well Charles and made an analogy. Perhaps you don't understand what they are.

    Carney taking steps to loosen monetary policy, or in this case push at a piece of string so I'd struggle to call it loosening monetary policy, to restart QE, and to create a package for the banks all sent a message ANALAGOUS to the Fed's 1987 message to banks, that the BoE would stand behind the financial system in the coming months.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117
    edited June 2018
    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
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    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,884
    Sun Politics Oh dear Oh dear

    "A year ago, she was strong and stable.

    But more days like this and Tory MPs will once more be talking about shunting Mrs May into the sidings.
    FINAL SCORE: Theresa May 1 – 5 Jeremy Corbyn"
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    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
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    RoyalBlueRoyalBlue Posts: 3,223
    edited June 2018
    That Starmer ‘internal market’ amendment really is disengenuous. We either stay in the Single Market or we don’t.

    I imagine that Umunna, Kinnock etc. are currently having a shouting match with Corbyn and/or Milne and/or Starmer about the opportunity being lost to embarrass the government with the EEA amendment.

    I conclude that Corbyn has asked for this amendment to ensure that both it and the EEA amendment fail now, whilst keeping the opportunity to pivot to EEA at a future date.

    Clever.
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    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,884

    Just had a phone call from the telegraph offering a subscription at a £1 a week for a year

    Bargain
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    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    edited June 2018
    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    Politics is a tormentingly complicated business and one of May's failures as a leader is to allow all those complications to show on her face/in her words.

    Cameron, by contrast, was the consummate swan. He hardly ever allowed the complications to show.

    It was Cameron's failure to deal with the complications of getting a deal with the EU which cost Remain the referendum and ended his premiership
    Yes, but he "didn't let it show" which is why we have to read post after post of people on here claiming he was a great PM despite creating a massive crisis and then fucking off.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117
    Alistair said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    Politics is a tormentingly complicated business and one of May's failures as a leader is to allow all those complications to show on her face/in her words.

    Cameron, by contrast, was the consummate swan. He hardly ever allowed the complications to show.

    It was Cameron's failure to deal with the complications of getting a deal with the EU which cost Remain the referendum and ended his premiership
    Yes, but he "didn't let it show" which is why we have to read post after post of people on here claiming he was a great PM despite creating a massive crisis and then fucking off.
    It is all very well being easy going but when you have the biggest negotiation in decades you need to be hard headed and deal with the complexities
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
  • Options
    ralphmalphralphmalph Posts: 2,201

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    It does not really matter what consensus in the country wants because the EU has said no cherry picking and have been perfectly clear on that.
    The only options on offer were
    Stay 100%
    Go to EEA (although Ireland would veto this)
    Third country with a customs deal
    Third country with an FTA deal
    Third country.

    These options should have been presented to the country and the vote given to parliament.

    May has decided to try to do the impossible she wants the benefits of the single market with this bit and that bit and Corbyn is saying the same all the benefits of the single market but with these opt outs or opt-ins.

    None of that has ever been on offer and never will be on offer. Who ever told here to try and execute this strategy is as much at fault as May.
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    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763

    Fenster said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    HYUFD said:

    Fenster said:

    Politics is a tormentingly complicated business and one of May's failures as a leader is to allow all those complications to show on her face/in her words.

    Cameron, by contrast, was the consummate swan. He hardly ever allowed the complications to show.

    It was Cameron's failure to deal with the complications of getting a deal with the EU which cost Remain the referendum and ended his premiership
    I don't disagree. But May's discomfort is written all over her face and as a leader she needs to be better at concealing.
    Maybe but no PM is going to find it easy getting any sort of deal with Juncker and Barnier
    All she needs to do is what the Italians are gonna spend the next few years doing. Ignore them, flout their rules and basically laugh at their demands. The EU only has as much power as we allow it to have. The French ignore them too.
    As the Italians are demonstrating, the EU finds it much easier dealing with those on the outside of the tent trying to piss in than dealing with those on the inside of the tent also trying to piss in.

    The Italians have chosen a very good moment to misbehave.
    The problem for the UK is we havent pissed inside the tent since the handbagging days


    Major, Blair and Cameron all tried to be reasonable and it didn't work as some countries see being reasonable as weakness - see Blair Chriac and Schroder

    I'm firmly of the view that if the UK establishment had been more bloody minded we'd still be in the EU as people want to feel the government is fighting the corner.

    Instead we got fairy tales of "influence" which nobody believed.

    sic transit Gloria Europae
  • Options
    Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,319
    Theresa should press the doomsday button: announce that, such is the intractability of the negotiations, that she's putting Brexit on hold until a Royal Commission has investigated all the possibilities and their merits. In the meantime DD and Fox can be dispatched to back benches. That would wipe the smile off of Jezza's face!
  • Options
    El_CapitanoEl_Capitano Posts: 3,875
    https://twitter.com/GuardianHeather/status/1004323801964957696

    "Tired and tetchy" - a very accurate description of May.

    I suspect if we were to have a May vs Corbyn election tomorrow, we'd see the same as happened in 2017. The more people see of May, the less they like her; the more they see of Corbyn, the more they like him.

    (And no, I wouldn't vote for either.)
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and e

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    It does not really matter what consensus in the country wants because the EU has said no cherry picking and have been perfectly clear on that.
    The only options on offer were
    Stay 100%
    Go to EEA (although Ireland would veto this)
    Third country with a customs deal
    Third country with an FTA deal
    Third country.

    These options should have been presented to the country and the vote given to parliament.

    May has decided to try to do the impossible she wants the benefits of the single market with this bit and that bit and Corbyn is saying the same all the benefits of the single market but with these opt outs or opt-ins.

    None of that has ever been on offer and never will be on offer. Who ever told here to try and execute this strategy is as much at fault as May.
    Funnily enough I see more potential for a fudge/concession from the EU than that. I have long held the view, informed by various folk close to the situation prior to the vote, that an EEA solution is untenable for the size of economy that the UK is. But that's not to say that there couldn't be the creation of a EUKEA with some tremendous amount of fudge contained therein.
  • Options
    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    TOPPING said:

    Charles said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Scott_P said:
    Project Fear enters the Project Reality stage.

    Jun 2018 - "Project Fear enters the Project Reality stage"
    And in actual reality there were six different types of British strawberry and two different types of British raspberry on sale at Tesco yesterday.
    Reads like a list of the number of occasions Leavers have had to put their fingers in their ears and shout "I'm not listening, I'm not listening".
    Listening to what ?

    Why don't Remainers ever provide any DATA to back up their claims instead of merely pasting from twatter.
    Luckily enough Mark Carney acted to stave off a recession, Theresa May bribed the car companies, and those with GBP assets and non-GBP liabilities found there was a crash. Refugee camps? I think they may yet end up being at Larne. As for the crops, https://ft.com/content/0e0a77f2-96df-11e7-b83c-9588e51488a0
    LOL

    Is that really the best response you can make ? Really ?

    And you wonder why nobody believes these predictions of doom any more ?
    Not doom, just a diminution in our wellbeing.

    And which bit do you have a problem with? Carney's rate move, May's bribe, GBP's fall, or the farmer featured in the FT?
    Carneys rate move

    In your last answer (a few days ago) you didn’t understand the difference between liquidity provision (good) and loosening monetary policy (unnecessary, risky, and wasteful)
    I understood it perfectly well Charles and made an analogy. Perhaps you don't understand what they are.

    Carney taking steps to loosen monetary policy, or in this case push at a piece of string so I'd struggle to call it loosening monetary policy, to restart QE, and to create a package for the banks all sent a message ANALAGOUS to the Fed's 1987 message to banks, that the BoE would stand behind the financial system in the coming months.
    No - in that respect HSE you said he cut interest rates to create liquidity. Which is just wrong.

    I had no issue with the liquidity backstop or the ability to restart QE (I’m not sure he actually spent anything). The rate cut and the slightly panicky messaging I do have difficulty with
  • Options
    MortimerMortimer Posts: 13,956
    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    There is a bill going through the EU parliament at the moment which puts restrictions on import of stamps (invented 1840) and photographs (similar date of origin), amongst other items, more than 250 years old. Even the most limited definition of soverignty would involve not passing such a stupid law into domestic policy. The British government will have no such veto if in the EU. That is not being sovereign.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
    so they voted for their own interests

    why's that wrong ?
  • Options
    ElliotElliot Posts: 1,516

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    No attempt to achieve a national consensus? We had manifestos setting out the approach (closest relationship outside CU/SM) and an election over it. That election produced a majority in parliament from two parties supporting that approach. By "national consensus" you just want to mean following the views of people like yourself who are implacably opposed to any form of Brexit.

    It's also worth pointing out the hypocrisy of the people arguing for this are the people that actively supported European integration over the last few treaties with not even the slightest attempt to have a vote over them, much less 'forge a national consensus'. You don't want a consensus, you want your views implemented regardless of electoral results.
  • Options
    JohnOJohnO Posts: 4,215
    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

  • Options
    MortimerMortimer Posts: 13,956
    I think that the cabinet sub committee and cabinet at large probably have the numbers to change the approach. Losing Rudd flipped it all...
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    Oh FFS. Would one of them just leave so we can start a new market on the next minister out of the Cabinet? I've lost track of this one.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763
    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    Boy JohnO, Cameron really did screw things up !
  • Options
    JohnOJohnO Posts: 4,215

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    Boy JohnO, Cameron really did screw things up !
    I’m afraid you are 100% right on that.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    edited June 2018
    Charles said:

    No - in that respect HSE you said he cut interest rates to create liquidity. Which is just wrong.

    I had no issue with the liquidity backstop or the ability to restart QE (I’m not sure he actually spent anything). The rate cut and the slightly panicky messaging I do have difficulty with

    No I didn't Charles. I said the following:

    "He stood behind it because it was the right thing to do, as I mentioned earlier, echoing the Fed, which 30 years earlier:

    "affirmed today its readiness to serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and financial system""
  • Options

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
    so they voted for their own interests

    why's that wrong ?
    They voted for what they thought were their best interests. They didn't have any more than the vaguest conception that there might be any significant downsides to Brexit, and certainly nothing that might affect them personally. When things do go pear-shaped, they'll blame May's government for badly implementing Brexit, not themselves for making the wrong choice. This is why Corbyn will win the next election.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117
    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    Yet the very same poll I quoted shows the majority of the British electorate want to end FOM so you cannot escape that requirement whether the Tories or Labour are in power
  • Options
    PurplePurple Posts: 150
    Latest Betfair midprices for next Tory leader

    Gove 7.1
    Rees-Mogg 9
    Javid 9.5
    Johnson 14.5
    Hunt 18.5

    Gove, Rees-Mogg, Javid or Hunt (because it won't be Johnson) 2.43. A 143% return probably by next summer at the latest.
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    I think the other source of mess- at least on the political side- is that the referendum was not more specific about what we were voting for. It could have been designed so that the official Leave campaign would be responsible for producing a one-page statement of negotiating objectives, red lines, etc. at the beginning of the campaign

    The Leave campaign(s) couldn't agree before the vote, and the advocates on Leaving can't agree now.

    They reasoned (correctly) that any coherent, deliverable version of Leave would not have won the vote
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,117
    edited June 2018

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
    so they voted for their own interests

    why's that wrong ?
    They voted for what they thought were their best interests. They didn't have any more than the vaguest conception that there might be any significant downsides to Brexit, and certainly nothing that might affect them personally. When things do go pear-shaped, they'll blame May's government for badly implementing Brexit, not themselves for making the wrong choice. This is why Corbyn will win the next election.
    No, Brexiteers will stick with the Tories and diehard Remainers will go LD not Corbyn Labour in such a scenario
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    Yet the very same poll I quoted shows the majority of the British electorate want to end FOM so you cannot escape that requirement whether the Tories or Labour are in power
    This is where leadership comes in. Like all things, politics is a world of compromise, of achieving the possible. Cons and you have fixated on one element - immigration - and have subordinated every single other factor to that one point.

    And if you are talking about the Ipsos Mori poll, 54% want it reduced. And for that look what we might do to our country.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or re accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
    so they voted for their own interests

    why's that wrong ?
    They voted for what they thought were their best interests. They didn't have any more than the vaguest conception that there might be any significant downsides to Brexit, and certainly nothing that might affect them personally. When things do go pear-shaped, they'll blame May's government for badly implementing Brexit, not themselves for making the wrong choice. This is why Corbyn will win the next election.
    the bulk of the remain campaign was based on the dire consequences of leaving. So how you can claim no-one heard of the ( much exaggerated ) downside is astounding.

    even if they " thought" it was in their best interest that simply means Remain didn't have a convincing enough argument to make them change their minds
  • Options
    PurplePurple Posts: 150
    edited June 2018
    HYUFD said:

    Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, comes out as a Remainer 'the EU has been the greatest thing for human beings since the Western Roman Empire'

    https://mobile.twitter.com/wareisjoe/status/1003984057787699202

    He sounds soft in the head. Did he have family who'd been to Trinity?

    Used to work for Elf Aquitaine

    Is it true that he later corrected, albeit continuing to thumb his nose at Byzantium: "since the Western Roman Empire, the Aztec Empire, and the Confederate States of America"?

  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,561
    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
  • Options
    HYUFD said:


    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.

    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
    so they voted for their own interests

    why's that wrong ?
    They voted for what they thought were their best interests. They didn't have any more than the vaguest conception that there might be any significant downsides to Brexit, and certainly nothing that might affect them personally. When things do go pear-shaped, they'll blame May's government for badly implementing Brexit, not themselves for making the wrong choice. This is why Corbyn will win the next election.
    No, Brexiteers will stick with the Tories and diehard Remainers will go LD not Corbyn Labour in such a scenario
    I'm not talking about "diehard" Brexiteers or Remainers, but rather those non-political folk who voted for Brexit simply because they thought it was in their interests. On the whole, they don't really know or care what Corbyn thinks, but if there are major economic repercussions, they'll blame the Tories for messing up what, to them, seems a fairly straightforward task. After all, Brexit is Brexit. Couldn't be simpler :-)
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    I'm not sure why pb's Conservatives are so depressed about the current government contortions about customs. It's not as though its eventual position is going to make very much difference to the ultimate outcome, which will be largely set by Brussels anyway on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763
    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    Yet the very same poll I quoted shows the majority of the British electorate want to end FOM so you cannot escape that requirement whether the Tories or Labour are in power
    This is where leadership comes in. Like all things, politics is a world of compromise, of achieving the possible. Cons and you have fixated on one element - immigration - and have subordinated every single other factor to that one point.

    And if you are talking about the Ipsos Mori poll, 54% want it reduced. And for that look what we might do to our country.
    raise productivity ?
    increase salaries ?
    force employers to train their staff ?
    ease the housing shortage ?
    give infrastructure a chance to catch up with the population ?

    dreadful.
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,378
    The only bits of Northern Rail I have left to do are:

    Barrow to Carlisle
    Darlington to Bishop Auckland
    Darlington to Saltburn
    Thornaby to Stockton
    Middlesbrough to Whitby
    Retford to Barnetby via Brigg (Sats only!)
    Clitheroe to Hellifield (Suns only!)
    Habrough to Barton-on-Humber
    Wakefield Westgate to Kirkgate
    Selby to York (two routes)
    Burnley to Hebden Bridge

    plus rarities like:
    Stockport to Guide Bridge (Fri mornings!)
    Bare Lane to Carnforth
  • Options
    ralphmalphralphmalph Posts: 2,201
    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and e

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    It does not really matter what consensus in the country wants because the EU has said no cherry picking and have been perfectly clear on that.
    The only options on offer were
    Stay 100%
    Go to EEA (although Ireland would veto this)
    Third country with a customs deal
    Third country with an FTA deal
    Third country.

    These options should have been presented to the country and the vote given to parliament.

    May has decided to try to do the impossible she wants the benefits of the single market with this bit and that bit and Corbyn is saying the same all the benefits of the single market but with these opt outs or opt-ins.

    None of that has ever been on offer and never will be on offer. Who ever told here to try and execute this strategy is as much at fault as May.
    Funnily enough I see more potential for a fudge/concession from the EU than that. I have long held the view, informed by various folk close to the situation prior to the vote, that an EEA solution is untenable for the size of economy that the UK is. But that's not to say that there couldn't be the creation of a EUKEA with some tremendous amount of fudge contained therein.
    German car industry going to save us?
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and e

    But voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or remain voters. And nor do you. Each of the 17 million who voted leave would, I suppose, have had a slightly different combination of motives. This is the heart of the problem - there is no agreed interpretation of what "leave" means. May has made no attempt to achieve a national consensus on the issue and has instead allowed policy to be driven by the ERG. This has left the UK in a very weak position such that we will either go over the economic cliff or humbly accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    It does not really matter what consensus in the country wants because the EU has said no cherry picking and have been perfectly clear on that.
    The only options on offer were
    Stay 100%
    Go to EEA (although Ireland would veto this)
    Third country with a customs deal
    Third country with an FTA deal
    Third country.

    These options should have been presented to the country and the vote given to parliament.

    May has decided to try to do the impossible she wants the benefits of the single market with this bit and that bit and Corbyn is saying the same all the benefits of the single market but with these opt outs or opt-ins.

    None of that has ever been on offer and never will be on offer. Who ever told here to try and execute this strategy is as much at fault as May.
    Funnily enough I see more potential for a fudge/concession from the EU than that. I have long held the view, informed by various folk close to the situation prior to the vote, that an EEA solution is untenable for the size of economy that the UK is. But that's not to say that there couldn't be the creation of a EUKEA with some tremendous amount of fudge contained therein.
    German car industry going to save us?
    That, I don't see.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    Yet the very same poll I quoted shows the majority of the British electorate want to end FOM so you cannot escape that requirement whether the Tories or Labour are in power
    This is where leadership comes in. Like all things, politics is a world of compromise, of achieving the possible. Cons and you have fixated on one element - immigration - and have subordinated every single other factor to that one point.

    And if you are talking about the Ipsos Mori poll, 54% want it reduced. And for that look what we might do to our country.
    raise productivity ?
    increase salaries ?
    force employers to train their staff ?
    ease the housing shortage ?
    give infrastructure a chance to catch up with the population ?

    dreadful.
    Good point. Like cutting off your arm because you have a blister on your littler finger.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,561

    I'm not sure why pb's Conservatives are so depressed about the current government contortions about customs. It's not as though its eventual position is going to make very much difference to the ultimate outcome, which will be largely set by Brussels anyway on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

    Because there’s a significant number of Tory MPs that get positively tumescent at the prospect of no deal Brexit.

    In my view a no deal Brexit dooms the Tory party in opposition for decades.

    Even if PM Corbyn screws up he can blame the hard Brexiteers for the mess he inherited.
  • Options

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or re accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
    so they voted for their own interests

    why's that wrong ?
    They voted for what they thought were their best interests. They didn't have any more than the vaguest conception that there might be any significant downsides to Brexit, and certainly nothing that might affect them personally. When things do go pear-shaped, they'll blame May's government for badly implementing Brexit, not themselves for making the wrong choice. This is why Corbyn will win the next election.
    the bulk of the remain campaign was based on the dire consequences of leaving. So how you can claim no-one heard of the ( much exaggerated ) downside is astounding.

    even if they " thought" it was in their best interest that simply means Remain didn't have a convincing enough argument to make them change their minds
    Unfortunately, snake-oil salesmen can be very convincing :-(
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    Yet the very same poll I quoted shows the majority of the British electorate want to end FOM so you cannot escape that requirement whether the Tories or Labour are in power
    This is where leadership comes in. Like all things, politics is a world of compromise, of achieving the possible. Cons and you have fixated on one element - immigration - and have subordinated every single other factor to that one point.

    And if you are talking about the Ipsos Mori poll, 54% want it reduced. And for that look what we might do to our country.
    raise productivity ?
    increase salaries ?
    force employers to train their staff ?
    ease the housing shortage ?
    give infrastructure a chance to catch up with the population ?

    dreadful.
    Good point. Like cutting off your arm because you have a blister on your littler finger.
    whereas your alternative is to keep stuffing your face with lard while wearing that pair of 30 inch waist trousers that last fitted when you were 14.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763

    HYUFD said:

    This entire post-referendum mess boils down to one thing: the catastrophic decision to trigger Article 50 without first understanding the complexities of the UK’s integration into the EU or having an agreed strategy about how to work through these. Everything else flows from that.

    17 million voted Leave to trigger Article 50 much as diehard Remainers may wish to gloss over that fact
    Correct. 17 million people voted to leave the EU and enter a world in which the UK would get all the benefits of membership but none of the costs, vast amounts would be invested in the NHS and the EU would give us a simple, cost-free Brexit.

    But the world they voted for is a fantasy and cannot be made into reality simply by voting for it.
    No they didn't. And given you didn't vote Leave you are in no position to make those claims. Like so many Remoaners you speak from a position of ignorance.
    Of course I do not know what motivated either leave or re accept whatever the EU offers us.

    You may think this is what 17 million people voted for but I would beg to differ.
    Most of the non-political leave voters of my acquaintance (mostly elderly and less educated) voted for more money for the NHS, fewer immigrants and an end to the imposition of EU laws on the UK. That was about as far as their analysis went.
    so they voted for their own interests

    why's that wrong ?
    They voted for what they thought were their best interests. They didn't have any more than the vaguest conception that there might be any significant downsides to Brexit, and certainly nothing that might affect them personally. When things do go pear-shaped, they'll blame May's government for badly implementing Brexit, not themselves for making the wrong choice. This is why Corbyn will win the next election.
    the bulk of the remain campaign was based on the dire consequences of leaving. So how you can claim no-one heard of the ( much exaggerated ) downside is astounding.

    even if they " thought" it was in their best interest that simply means Remain didn't have a convincing enough argument to make them change their minds
    Unfortunately, snake-oil salesmen can be very convincing :-(
    or in Osborne's case not
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,561

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
    I know. I blame Dave for not going Blue on Blue.

    I blame Boris for putting his leadership ambitions ahead of the country.

    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    I blame myself for thinking and encouraging the strategy that won the Indyref and GE2015 would win the Brexit referendum.

    Dave should have listened to George and not offered the referendum.
  • Options
    AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    edited June 2018
    Dura_Ace said:

    Scott_P said:

    https://twitter.com/NickGibbs/status/1004230896457838592

    EDIT: I am sure our car part manufacture and logistics "experts" will be along shortly to tell us the boss of Unipart is wrong...

    If he consulted the leavers on here he would have realised that all he needs to do is build an airport in the office car park.
    I liked this response from one of the DM's finest minds:
    Project Fear has not gone away!... Unipart should have a "can do" attitude... Stop whining and stop being so negative... The US does not have a trade deal with the EU, and the US is the richest country in the world!... The CEO of Unipart is putting his staff at risk by complaining so much... He should be in the office, working out a strategy for the future -- not writing whiny articles for the papers.

    Which one of you was it?
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,985
    O/T Though its no longer my district council, is (If it as reported) a 'normal' use of funds ?

    North East Derbyshire District Council’s ruling Labour group have approved £8.663m in borrowings to loan to the Northwood Group – a joint venture company set up to provide almost 200 houses at the Ankerbold Road site in Tupton – only 39 of which will be classed as affordable homes.

    The loan is made up of £0.963m in shareholder investment; with a further £7.7m on commercial terms to facilitate the development of Ankerbold Road.

    The £8.663m in borrowing exceeded the Authorised Borrowing Limit set within the authority’s
    Operational Boundary and Capital Financing Requirements and as such the Council was required to update that policy upon agreeing to borrow the amount.


    To me it looks like the council acting as a development financier which is kind of risky...
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive over Brexit, as Opinium showed this week the only Brexit proposal with over 50% support is EEA membership with restrictions on free movement which is logically impossible so whoever is PM a large section of the electorate will not be happy with how Brexit turns out and if you are decisive and appease diehard Brexiteers you infuriate diehard Remainers and vica-versa
    Finally! You accept that the government should govern for the British people, ie the whole country, and not just those who want an end to FoM. So why doesn't the government follow this very sensible analysis and come up with a plan which acknowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    Yet the very same poll I quoted shows the majority of the British electorate want to end FOM so you cannot escape that requirement whether the Tories or Labour are in power
    This is where leadership comes in. Like all things, politics is a world of compromise, of achieving the possible. Cons and you have fixated on one element - immigration - and have subordinated every single other factor to that one point.

    And if you are talking about the Ipsos Mori poll, 54% want it reduced. And for that look what we might do to our country.
    raise productivity ?
    increase salaries ?
    force employers to train their staff ?
    ease the housing shortage ?
    give infrastructure a chance to catch up with the population ?

    dreadful.
    Good point. Like cutting off your arm because you have a blister on your littler finger.
    whereas your alternative is to keep stuffing your face with lard while wearing that pair of 30 inch waist trousers that last fitted when you were 14.
    Nope. My alternative is to focus on, by incentivising improving productivity and making long term infrastructure plans. I simply don't have a problem with immigration. Are you finding the streets of Leamington being over-run?
  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633

    I'm not sure why pb's Conservatives are so depressed about the current government contortions about customs. It's not as though its eventual position is going to make very much difference to the ultimate outcome, which will be largely set by Brussels anyway on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

    Indeed - let's have a hard Brexit on WTO terms and add things back in with the EU after a while if they haven't found export markets for their humongous balance of trade surplus that they have with the Uk.

    Only way to move on frankly and what should have have been the outlook from the start. WTO plus whatever the EU can stomach.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
    I know. I blame Dave for not going Blue on Blue.

    I blame Boris for putting his leadership ambitions ahead of the country.

    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    I blame myself for thinking and encouraging the strategy that won the Indyref and GE2015 would win the Brexit referendum.

    Dave should have listened to George and not offered the referendum.
    Nah Dave should have listened to me and shot Osborne, he'd still be PM
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    BFD
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,777

    I'm not sure why pb's Conservatives are so depressed about the current government contortions about customs. It's not as though its eventual position is going to make very much difference to the ultimate outcome, which will be largely set by Brussels anyway on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

    My view too. Ask the EU27 what the deal is then either eat the shit sandwich or walk out to WTO.
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    TGOHF said:

    WTO plus whatever the EU can stomach.

    What do we eat in the meantime?

    Ah yes, Sovereignty...
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    https://twitter.com/michaelgove/status/1003266277908066305
  • Options
    Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,319
    The most logical and just Brexit position for Theresa to take is the softest Brexit possible. That way, if the public doesn't like it, they can vote for WTO terms at a later election. But if we start with nothing it will be all but impossible to get any goodies from the EU in the coming years. It's called giving the public as much choice as possible.
  • Options
    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,002
    Good afternoon, everyone.

    Just a reminder that some of us suspected the clock would be run down to try and force us either into a worse position, or use that to justify remaining/referendum 2.

    The main question now is if May is just being sly or incompetent.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    Foxy said:

    I'm not sure why pb's Conservatives are so depressed about the current government contortions about customs. It's not as though its eventual position is going to make very much difference to the ultimate outcome, which will be largely set by Brussels anyway on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

    My view too. Ask the EU27 what the deal is then either eat the shit sandwich or walk out to WTO.
    The EU is a process-driven organisation but that's not to say they couldn't establish a process for a country in the situation that the UK is. Draft any number of special (small s) terms and treaties. I think it is entirely possible.

    But it would take 5-10 years.

    If we really wanted to leave properly, this is what we would ask for/have asked for. But of course UK politics (no politics) works like that and it would require some form of Grand Coalition so as not to derail the whole thing at any time along the way.

    So as it stands, and in the absence of any plan on our side, yes I agree with you.
  • Options
    anothernickanothernick Posts: 3,578

    I'm not sure why pb's Conservatives are so depressed about the current government contortions about customs. It's not as though its eventual position is going to make very much difference to the ultimate outcome, which will be largely set by Brussels anyway on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

    Because there’s a significant number of Tory MPs that get positively tumescent at the prospect of no deal Brexit.

    In my view a no deal Brexit dooms the Tory party in opposition for decades.

    Even if PM Corbyn screws up he can blame the hard Brexiteers for the mess he inherited.
    But look on the bright side - the Leavers would be forever damned by history - they would be vilified even more than the appeasers of the 1930s.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,561

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    https://twitter.com/michaelgove/status/1003266277908066305
    Cheers for that.
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,378

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
    I know. I blame Dave for not going Blue on Blue.

    I blame Boris for putting his leadership ambitions ahead of the country.

    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    I blame myself for thinking and encouraging the strategy that won the Indyref and GE2015 would win the Brexit referendum.

    Dave should have listened to George and not offered the referendum.
    Should Dave have resigned? Should he have accepted the result, "kept calm and carried on"?
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,561

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
    I know. I blame Dave for not going Blue on Blue.

    I blame Boris for putting his leadership ambitions ahead of the country.

    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    I blame myself for thinking and encouraging the strategy that won the Indyref and GE2015 would win the Brexit referendum.

    Dave should have listened to George and not offered the referendum.
    Should Dave have resigned? Should he have accepted the result, "kept calm and carried on"?
    His authority was shot and he’d have been forced out by the Leavers.

    Heck had Remain won 75-25 Andrew Bridgen would have tried to force Dave out.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    I used to have a regular lunch with a friend and, come the day, each of us would wait until the last possible moment to cancel because we both knew we would both be cancelling.
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    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Yorkcity said:

    May was very poor at PMQs. She is running out of room to kick the can for much longer. It feels like things will have to come to a head soon.

    I am fast approaching the point of having no confidence in May’s premiership.

    She is providing no leadership.
    Agreed , she is a decent lady , but leadership over Brexit , seems beyond her capabilities.
    The problem is the British people are indecisive ovenowledges that.

    (I am leaving the sovereignty angle out of it because as you know we always were sovereign.)
    Yet the very same poll I quoted shows the to that one point.

    And if you are talking about the Ipsos Mori poll, 54% want it reduced. And for that look what we might do to our country.
    raise productivity ?
    increase salaries ?
    force employers to train their staff ?
    ease the housing shortage ?
    give infrastructure a chance to catch up with the population ?

    dreadful.
    Good point. Like cutting off your arm because you have a blister on your littler finger.
    whereas your alternative is to keep stuffing your face with lard while wearing that pair of 30 inch waist trousers that last fitted when you were 14.
    Nope. My alternative is to focus on, by incentivising improving productivity and making long term infrastructure plans. I simply don't have a problem with immigration. Are you finding the streets of Leamington being over-run?
    Like most leavers I dont have a problem with immigration per se either, I just want it controlled sensibly. I want us to look after the people in our own society who are hardest hit by low wages, I want sensible housing and I want infrastructure that works.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,398
    edited June 2018

    Like most leavers I dont have a problem with immigration per se either, I just want it controlled sensibly. I want us to look after the people in our own society who are hardest hit by low wages, I want sensible housing and I want infrastructure that works.

    Wrong!! Most leavers (please refer to @HYUFD) have a problem with immigration. Most people in this country have a problem with immigration.

    As for the other stuff, immigration is neither here nor there in our attempts to address those issues. Like the EU it is a convenient and lazy peg upon which to hang our failure to do so.

    Edit: always happy to sort out your formatting issues!! :smile:
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    nunuonenunuone Posts: 1,138

    The most logical and just Brexit position for Theresa to take is the softest Brexit possible. That way, if the public doesn't like it, they can vote for WTO terms at a later election. But if we start with nothing it will be all but impossible to get any goodies from the EU in the coming years. It's called giving the public as much choice as possible.

    I am kind of resigned to this now. I feel future Tory leaders will elect to make sure we creep away from the E.U and it's institutions anyways.
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    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,378

    JohnO said:

    Theresa May was dreadful today but that’s not really the point: much as I would wish it otherwise, I can’t see how the Conservatives can stay together with even a semblance of cohesion irrespective of whether Brexit is soft or hard. If the former, then the prospects of Cabinet resignations (Johnson, Fox, Davis, Gove??) aided by their 70+ backbench supporters must be a serious likelihood. If the latter, what becomes of Clarke, Soubry, Grieve, Hammond S, Morgan, Damian Green et al: sure their numbers are modest but enough to wreak havoc. There is so little, if any, common ground.

    And not even Corbyn PM seems to be a deterrent.

    The crunch is not this month, but the autumn and it ain’t going to be pretty.

    But if I win my £100 bet with TSE - and I think I will - I can at least drown my sorrows with his best bubbly.

    The current Tory party are driving a good Muslim boy like me to the brink of drinking that bubbly with you.

    What a world from May 8th 2015.
    hey you guys called that referendum
    I know. I blame Dave for not going Blue on Blue.

    I blame Boris for putting his leadership ambitions ahead of the country.

    I blame Gove for legitimatising a vile campaign, something I’m told he privately regrets.

    I blame myself for thinking and encouraging the strategy that won the Indyref and GE2015 would win the Brexit referendum.

    Dave should have listened to George and not offered the referendum.
    Should Dave have resigned? Should he have accepted the result, "kept calm and carried on"?
    His authority was shot and he’d have been forced out by the Leavers.

    Heck had Remain won 75-25 Andrew Bridgen would have tried to force Dave out.
    Had Dave not resigned, we wouldn't have Theresa as PM.
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    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763
    TOPPING said:

    Like most leavers I dont have a problem with immigration per se either, I just want it controlled sensibly. I want us to look after the people in our own society who are hardest hit by low wages, I want sensible housing and I want infrastructure that works.

    Wrong!! Most leavers (please refer to @HYUFD) have a problem with immigration. Most people in this country have a problem with immigration.

    As for the other stuff, immigration is neither here nor there in our attempts to address those issues. Like the EU it is a convenient and lazy peg upon which to hang our failure to do so.

    Edit: always happy to sort out your formatting issues!! :smile:
    I wouldn't base your claims just on PB, it's not the real world.

    https://yougov.co.uk/news/2018/04/27/where-public-stands-immigration/
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,783
    Some decent results for the Democrats in the midterm primaries - which ought to marginally improve the odds of taking the House in November;
    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/democrats-avoid-disaster-in-california-and-five-other-takeaways-from-super-tuesday.html?
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