Strange that Varadker is being a lot more bullish than Barnier. Does he know something we don't? I'm not sure about the legality of flying rights if there's no deal but tying it to fishing access seems insane.
Forget whether you are a Leaver or Remainer, it's the stuff he said about the border that is the most ridiculous/delusional (take your pick). Essentially the EU is saying officially that the issue of the Irish border is arguably the major stumbling block in producing any negotiated deal, and could be the main factor in resulting in a no deal outcome. (the UK are happy with some sort of fudged outcome that avoids the need for physical border apparatus). But Varadkhar is saying that he has been "assured" by the EU that if no deal is reached then there will be no need to enforce physical border checks. So the EU are apparently asserting that a Deal must include a solution to avoiding a hard border, whilst saying to Varadkhar that no deal allows for such a solution!
"Solution" is the wrong word there. Varadkar has been assured that other means of putting pressure on the UK would be applied before it ever got to the point of making a decision about the Irish border.
Is the government really going to be sending out the 'Brexit Survival Handbook' to every household? It will have to be phrased carefully - we don't want a dangerous rush as everyone panic buys petrol and tinned food.
If I were you, I'd buy a rifle. You'll be able to shoot squirrels, badger, and deer, once the EU's economic sanctions really start to bite.
If we had to do entirely without EU foods I would miss some better French cheeses from Savoie, the best Spanish ham (e.g. pata negra de bellota), top notch Italian red wine.
Everything else, literally everything, could be sourced at home or from the White Commonwealth. Often more cheaply.
This is an utterly stupid discussion as food imports from the EU won't stop.
However, as we're talking stupid hypotheticals. I would miss: Charlarois beef, Danish butter, French pate, brandy, fois gras and cheese, Spanish Rioja and olive oil.
(Olive oil would actually be one of the toughest to replace, as Spain, Greece and Italy dominate world production.)
This is the one thing that I disagreed with you in your video. Yes the average tariff may be 2% and I would accept that if the range was 0% to 4% to create the average (rough calc but illustrates my point).
But they are not the range is 0% to 160%. The issue with food it is one area the EU protects and so there are high tariffs. processed food 35%is. Dairy 40%, beef 60 to 80%. Olive oil 35% and the list goes on. With that level of tariff I can not believe that EU food sales will be unaffected, in fact over time I believe they will drop to zero. The EU knows the exact level of tariff to stop RoW imports of food. Apply them in reverse and the only conclusion I can come to is they would have the same effect on EU exports to the UK.
How do you explain this, imported under 0% TRQs?
When you ask a real question you may get an answer. Do you understand what a TRQ is?
Is the government really going to be sending out the 'Brexit Survival Handbook' to every household? It will have to be phrased carefully - we don't want a dangerous rush as everyone panic buys petrol and tinned food.
If I were you, I'd buy a rifle. You'll be able to shoot squirrels, badger, and deer, once the EU's economic sanctions really start to bite.
If we had to do entirely without EU foods I would miss some better French cheeses from Savoie, the best Spanish ham (e.g. pata negra de bellota), top notch Italian red wine.
Everything else, literally everything, could be sourced at home or from the White Commonwealth. Often more cheaply.
This is an utterly stupid discussion as food imports from the EU won't stop.
However, as we're talking stupid hypotheticals. I would miss: Charlarois beef, Danish butter, French pate, brandy, fois gras and cheese, Spanish Rioja and olive oil.
(Olive oil would actually be one of the toughest to replace, as Spain, Greece and Italy dominate world production.)
This is the one thing that I disagreed with you in your video. Yes the average tariff may be 2% and I would accept that if the range was 0% to 4% to create the average (rough calc but illustrates my point).
But they are not the range is 0% to 160%. The issue with food it is one area the EU protects and so there are high tariffs. processed food 35%is. Dairy 40%, beef 60 to 80%. Olive oil 35% and the list goes on. With that level of tariff I can not believe that EU food sales will be unaffected, in fact over time I believe they will drop to zero. The EU knows the exact level of tariff to stop RoW imports of food. Apply them in reverse and the only conclusion I can come to is they would have the same effect on EU exports to the UK.
How do you explain this, imported under 0% TRQs?
When you ask a real question you may get an answer. Do you understand what a TRQ is?
Yes it means a certain quota is imported at a lower tariff rate, in this case 0% and the full quota is not used.
Is the government really going to be sending out the 'Brexit Survival Handbook' to every household? It will have to be phrased carefully - we don't want a dangerous rush as everyone panic buys petrol and tinned food.
If I were you, I'd buy a rifle. You'll be able to shoot squirrels, badger, and deer, once the EU's economic sanctions really start to bite.
If we had to do entirely without EU foods I would miss some better French cheeses from Savoie, the best Spanish ham (e.g. pata negra de bellota), top notch Italian red wine.
Everything else, literally everything, could be sourced at home or from the White Commonwealth. Often more cheaply.
This is an utterly stupid discussion as food imports from the EU won't stop.
However, as we're talking stupid hypotheticals. I would miss: Charlarois beef, Danish butter, French pate, brandy, fois gras and cheese, Spanish Rioja and olive oil.
(Olive oil would actually be one of the toughest to replace, as Spain, Greece and Italy dominate world production.)
This is the one thing that I disagreed with you in your video. Yes the average tariff may be 2% and I would accept that if the range was 0% to 4% to create the average (rough calc but illustrates my point).
But they are not the range is 0% to 160%. The issue with food it is one area the EU protects and so there are high tariffs. processed food 35%is. Dairy 40%, beef 60 to 80%. Olive oil 35% and the list goes on. With that level of tariff I can not believe that EU food sales will be unaffected, in fact over time I believe they will drop to zero. The EU knows the exact level of tariff to stop RoW imports of food. Apply them in reverse and the only conclusion I can come to is they would have the same effect on EU exports to the UK.
How do you explain this, imported under 0% TRQs?
When you ask a real question you may get an answer. Do you understand what a TRQ is?
Yes it means a certain quota is imported at a lower tariff rate, in this case 0% and the full quota is not used.
And it is only used because at full tariff the imports would be zero or very close to that.
Ralph - it does make me wonder why Tory Brexiters keep focusing on trade deals. The most obvious gain in leaving the customs union would be a reduction in food prices if we reduce tariffs. Why they instead want to focus on deals for Trump's chlorinated chickens is beyond me.
I think a lot of trade deals aren't really about economics anymore they're about politics. An Obama aide admitted so much when asked why they were pressing for TPP. I can only presume the Tory Brexiters think a trade deal with the Donald might allow them to go on a guided tour of the Pentagon including areas with restricted access. Junior boys wanting to be invited into the senior prefects study. Too cynical?
Is the government really going to be sending out the 'Brexit Survival Handbook' to every household? It will have to be phrased carefully - we don't want a dangerous rush as everyone panic buys petrol and tinned food.
If I were you, I'd buy a rifle. You'll be able to shoot squirrels, badger, and deer, once the EU's economic sanctions really start to bite.
If we had to do entirely without EU foods I would miss some better French cheeses from Savoie, the best Spanish ham (e.g. pata negra de bellota), top notch Italian red wine.
Everything else, literally everything, could be sourced at home or from the White Commonwealth. Often more cheaply.
This is an utterly stupid discussion as food imports from the EU won't stop.
However, as we're talking stupid hypotheticals. I would miss: Charlarois beef, Danish butter, French pate, brandy, fois gras and cheese, Spanish Rioja and olive oil.
(Olive oil would actually be one of the toughest to replace, as Spain, Greece and Italy dominate world production.)
This is the one thing that I disagreed with you in your video. Yes the average tariff may be 2% and I would accept that if the range was 0% to 4% to create the average (rough calc but illustrates my point).
But they are not the range is 0% to 160%. The issue with food it is one area the EU protects and so there are high tariffs. processed food 35%is. Dairy 40%, beef 60 to 80%. Olive oil 35% and the list goes on. With that level of tariff I can not believe that EU food sales will be unaffected, in fact over time I believe they will drop to zero. The EU knows the exact level of tariff to stop RoW imports of food. Apply them in reverse and the only conclusion I can come to is they would have the same effect on EU exports to the UK.
Edit on Olive Oil the EU tariffs for olive is 0% but for processed oil 35%. Italy, Spain import olives from North Africa, process them and sell it as Italian and Spanish olive oil. We could either buy the olives or the oil to replace.
I think that you neglect the topic of permitted quotas, the very high rates apply only to imports above these quota thresholds. For example there is a 43% tariff on Argentine Beef over quota. However, Argentina only uses about 80% of this quota, so none is taxed at this rate.
Indeed quota division may well prove to be one of the more complex areas of any UK EU27 FTA, not least as each quota division will have an interested counterparty with its own interests.
When you ask a real question you may get an answer. Do you understand what a TRQ is?
Yes it means a certain quota is imported at a lower tariff rate, in this case 0% and the full quota is not used.
And it is only used because at full tariff the imports would be zero or very close to that.
That's a completely spurious point. As you can see the vast majority of our lamb comes from outside the EU, and as you can verify, we are not paying huge tariffs on it. It doesn't matter what the out of quota tariff is if we're not hitting it.
If she is spending the summer break (when she should actually take a break from all this) visiting the rubber chicken circuit (not that anyone is there as it is school hols) then she wont be walking in Wales alone with her husband and suddenly decide to call an election.
Ralph - it does make me wonder why Tory Brexiters keep focusing on trade deals. The most obvious gain in leaving the customs union would be a reduction in food prices if we reduce tariffs. Why they instead want to focus on deals for Trump's chlorinated chickens is beyond me.
I think a lot of trade deals aren't really about economics anymore they're about politics. An Obama aide admitted so much when asked why they were pressing for TPP. I can only presume the Tory Brexiters think a trade deal with the Donald might allow them to go on a guided tour of the Pentagon including areas with restricted access. Junior boys wanting to be invited into the senior prefects study. Too cynical?
I agree with you the obsession with USA is nuts. There are lots of mid sized economies like us that believe in free trade. We should work with them and let the USA, China and the EU fight each other.
When you ask a real question you may get an answer. Do you understand what a TRQ is?
Yes it means a certain quota is imported at a lower tariff rate, in this case 0% and the full quota is not used.
And it is only used because at full tariff the imports would be zero or very close to that.
That's a completely spurious point. As you can see the vast majority of our lamb comes from outside the EU, and as you can verify, we are not paying huge tariffs on it. It doesn't matter what the out of quota tariff is if we're not hitting it.
Not to my argument about EU UK trade it is not. We will have no legacy TRQ's with the EU after brexit, so it is a dumb point to raise.
Strange that Varadker is being a lot more bullish than Barnier. Does he know something we don't? I'm not sure about the legality of flying rights if there's no deal but tying it to fishing access seems insane.
Forget whether you are a Leaver or Remainer, it's the stuff he said about the border that is the most ridiculous/delusional (take your pick). Essentially the EU is saying officially that the issue of the Irish border is arguably the major stumbling block in producing any negotiated deal, and could be the main factor in resulting in a no deal outcome. (the UK are happy with some sort of fudged outcome that avoids the need for physical border apparatus). But Varadkhar is saying that he has been "assured" by the EU that if no deal is reached then there will be no need to enforce physical border checks. So the EU are apparently asserting that a Deal must include a solution to avoiding a hard border, whilst saying to Varadkhar that no deal allows for such a solution!
"Solution" is the wrong word there. Varadkar has been assured that other means of putting pressure on the UK would be applied before it ever got to the point of making a decision about the Irish border.
That makes sense. The EU know that the Irish will not impose a hard border in month 1 of hard Brexit, and have little choice but to be comfortable with that. But as other WTO members start complaining that EU/Ireland is discriminating in favour of the UK by not customs checking UK goods in the same way as other countries, some pressure will come to bear on Ireland to put up a hard border.
The EU's/Ireland's choice will be
- ignore and eventually face WTO court - drop tarriffs and checking on third countries (preposterous for the EU, but a very possible short term response of the UK to its own border non enforcement - aka MadMaxFac) - force Ireland, against its will, to impose a hard border by whatever means available - force Ireland out of the customs union and into customs union with the UK (since customs is more heavily geographical than geopolitical this could make sense, but the EU would hate to do it).
None of this is very appealing for the EU. They will come to the conclusion that the only palatable option for them, even if they don't especially want to, is to break Britain's balls in rapid enough order that we are forced back to the table and none of the above options come into play.
When you ask a real question you may get an answer. Do you understand what a TRQ is?
Yes it means a certain quota is imported at a lower tariff rate, in this case 0% and the full quota is not used.
And it is only used because at full tariff the imports would be zero or very close to that.
That's a completely spurious point. As you can see the vast majority of our lamb comes from outside the EU, and as you can verify, we are not paying huge tariffs on it. It doesn't matter what the out of quota tariff is if we're not hitting it.
Not to my argument about EU UK trade it is not. We will have no legacy TRQ's with the EU after brexit, so it is a dumb point to raise.
Your argument is that the EU sets their tariffs to "stop RoW imports of food". That is self-evident tosh.
Ralph - it does make me wonder why Tory Brexiters keep focusing on trade deals. The most obvious gain in leaving the customs union would be a reduction in food prices if we reduce tariffs. Why they instead want to focus on deals for Trump's chlorinated chickens is beyond me.
I think a lot of trade deals aren't really about economics anymore they're about politics. An Obama aide admitted so much when asked why they were pressing for TPP. I can only presume the Tory Brexiters think a trade deal with the Donald might allow them to go on a guided tour of the Pentagon including areas with restricted access. Junior boys wanting to be invited into the senior prefects study. Too cynical?
The fiction of a trade deal with America is the one big thing they have over people who want to keep our current trading arrangements. Once you take into account the deal with Japan and the various other deals that we have with the EU then you are left without any real big hitting names outside of America. There may be some countries were we can get a deal and it would add up if there were lots of examples of that but in terms of selling it to the public then nothing really comes close. The renegotiation angle can help convince people as well but in terms of a single big selling point then the trade deal with America is it.
It might just be my feeling but I always felt that Brexit was an attempt (in part anyway) to drag us away from the EU and into the USA orbit much more strongly, so maybe there are those who want it ideologically.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
When you ask a real question you may get an answer. Do you understand what a TRQ is?
Yes it means a certain quota is imported at a lower tariff rate, in this case 0% and the full quota is not used.
And it is only used because at full tariff the imports would be zero or very close to that.
That's a completely spurious point. As you can see the vast majority of our lamb comes from outside the EU, and as you can verify, we are not paying huge tariffs on it. It doesn't matter what the out of quota tariff is if we're not hitting it.
Not to my argument about EU UK trade it is not. We will have no legacy TRQ's with the EU after brexit, so it is a dumb point to raise.
Your argument is that the EU sets their tariffs to "stop RoW imports of food". That is self-evident tosh.
They set their tariffs to stop imports of food and then do deals with individual countries based either on an annual quota on weight or on a time limited period. What is is it you do not understand?
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
I recommend South America, fantastic place. Very friendly, even Argentina.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
I've done the Ryde-Shanklin line, but not the steam railway. I've seen the Needles way in the distance from Swanage.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
I've done the Ryde-Shanklin line, but not the steam railway. I've seen the Needles way in the distance from Swanage.
The Needles rocket launch site is well worth a look. It is an interesting slice of Britain's minor contribution to the Space Race. Great views, and free too.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
If I was forced to take a holiday in the UK[1], it wouldn't be the Isle of Wight. It'd be somewhere touristy and historic, like Bath or Edinburgh. Although if I could afford it it'd be London: there's some massively lovely architecture there, travelcards are cheap, and if the weather holds there's always Shanks's pony.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
Cornwall is the only English county I haven't visited by rail* - yet!
[* Went to Land's End by car in 1989, and the Eden Project in 2001, though]
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
We need to consider whether the Single Market was a failure, from the UK's point of view.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
Do you? Please say who by and on what date during the referendum campaign that was said.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
Banks is an arse, as is anyone who has kind words for Tommy Robinson.
Strange that Varadker is being a lot more bullish than Barnier. Does he know something we don't? I'm not sure about the legality of flying rights if there's no deal but tying it to fishing access seems insane.
Forget whether you are a Leaver or Remainer, it's the stuff he said about the border that is the most ridiculous/delusional (take your pick). Essentially the EU is saying officially that the issue of the Irish border is arguably the major stumbling block in producing any negotiated deal, and could be the main factor in resulting in a no deal outcome. (the UK are happy with some sort of fudged outcome that avoids the need for physical border apparatus). But Varadkhar is saying that he has been "assured" by the EU that if no deal is reached then there will be no need to enforce physical border checks. So the EU are apparently asserting that a Deal must include a solution to avoiding a hard border, whilst saying to Varadkhar that no deal allows for such a solution!
"Solution" is the wrong word there. Varadkar has been assured that other means of putting pressure on the UK would be applied before it ever got to the point of making a decision about the Irish border.
That makes sense. The EU know that the Irish will not impose a hard border in month 1 of hard Brexit, and have little choice but to be comfortable with that. But as other WTO members start complaining that EU/Ireland is discriminating in favour of the UK by not customs checking UK goods in the same way as other countries, some pressure will come to bear on Ireland to put up a hard border.
The EU's/Ireland's choice will be
- ignore and eventually face WTO court - drop tarriffs and checking on third countries (preposterous for the EU, but a very possible short term response of the UK to its own border non enforcement - aka MadMaxFac) - force Ireland, against its will, to impose a hard border by whatever means available - force Ireland out of the customs union and into customs union with the UK (since customs is more heavily geographical than geopolitical this could make sense, but the EU would hate to do it).
None of this is very appealing for the EU. They will come to the conclusion that the only palatable option for them, even if they don't especially want to, is to break Britain's balls in rapid enough order that we are forced back to the table and none of the above options come into play.
Then we just fucking fight them. I don't care any more. If they want to be our enemies, then they are our enemies. Enough.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
When did I ever push anything I simply posted it? I have campaigned for the Tories at every general election since 1997 bar 2015 when I was in a politically restricted post and have never voted UKIP in my life (I did not even vote Leave) but insult me if you wish as you clearly have no argument to the fact the Tories have gone from a clear poll lead to behind Labour in most polls in a fortnight almost entirely due to Tory defections to UKIP over the Chequers Deal
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
Do you? Please say who by and on what date during the referendum campaign that was said.
No idea what date, but I am pretty sure Dan Hannan said this.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
i do travel for a living (obviously) but in all sincerity you can have some globally peak travel experiences in the UK, especially now the food and wine is so much better (I was just in Annecy and Savoie in France, doing a luxe travel gig for the Times, I ate in a famous 2 star resto on Annecy Lake and a 1 star in Lake Geneva and I have honestly had food, as good, in decent London gastropubs, I don't know what;s gone wrong with French cuisine, maybe they have just been caught up, as with their wine, and all that's left is the reputation)
A top ten for British holidays that match almost anything abroad
1. St Kilda (if you want stunning grandeur) 2. Cornwall with good weather, especially Cape Cornwall, West Penwith or the Roseland and St Mawes 3. Dartmoor - incredible hotels. incredible bleakness 4. London: the greatest city on earth 5. Bath and the West country, sublime and pagan 6. The Chilterns: walk the Ridgeway, a road like nothing else on the globe 7. A weekend in Cambridge, one of the most beautiful, fascinating cities anywhere 8. Harris: enough said 9. Skye and the Inner Hebrides, the most melancholically beautiful place I know 10. the Lake District out of Season, like in the Trip. Superb
I could add five or ten more world class hols: Dorset, Pembroke, Scillies, Edinburgh, Ulster and the Causeway.... etc etc etc
Maybe Brexit will be like the Napoleonic blockade, and we shall be forced to rediscover the beauties of our own country. That's a good thing.
Oh I agree. But you missed Northumberland. Scenery, empty beaches, magnificent castles, wonderful food, lovely people If it wasn't for the weather...we'd be perfect.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
Banks is an arse, as is anyone who has kind words for Tommy Robinson.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
i do travel for a living (obviously) but in all sincerity you can have some globally peak travel experiences in the UK, especially now the food and wine is so much better (I was just in Annecy and Savoie in France, doing a luxe travel gig for the Times, I ate in a famous 2 star resto on Annecy Lake and a 1 star in Lake Geneva and I have honestly had food, as good, in decent London gastropubs, I don't know what;s gone wrong with French cuisine, maybe they have just been caught up, as with their wine, and all that's left is the reputation)
A top ten for British holidays that match almost anything abroad
1. St Kilda (if you want stunning grandeur) 2. Cornwall with good weather, especially Cape Cornwall, West Penwith or the Roseland and St Mawes 3. Dartmoor - incredible hotels. incredible bleakness 4. London: the greatest city on earth 5. Bath and the West country, sublime and pagan 6. The Chilterns: walk the Ridgeway, a road like nothing else on the globe 7. A weekend in Cambridge, one of the most beautiful, fascinating cities anywhere 8. Harris: enough said 9. Skye and the Inner Hebrides, the most melancholically beautiful place I know 10. the Lake District out of Season, like in the Trip. Superb
I could add five or ten more world class hols: Dorset, Pembroke, Scillies, Edinburgh, Ulster and the Causeway.... etc etc etc
Maybe Brexit will be like the Napoleonic blockade, and we shall be forced to rediscover the beauties of our own country. That's a good thing.
In the Isle of Wight I would recommend Dans Kitchen on St Helen's Green. For those on a more restricted budget, the fish and chip shop in Brading is very good indeed.
I would advise against the Garlic fudge and Garlic beer, both available from The Garlic Farm Shop. They are as bad as they sound, and too foul even for consuming as an evil forfeit.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
Banks is an arse, as is anyone who has kind words for Tommy Robinson.
Absolutely.
I remember when Tommy Robinson and the EDL staged a rally in Leicester. What a total bunch of arseholes.
However, he said there were contingency plans for Irish airports and seaports in event of a no deal Brexit.
Link 2
At the meeting, Ministers agreed to hire 700 additionalnd animals travelling between Ireland and the UK after Brexit.
They are activating the contingency plans.
Well I hope we are too.
Every time I feel despair at the idiotic behaviour of the British government, along comes some EU person to remind me how equally obtuse the EU is being.
It’s not hard to understand: Britain has voted to leave the EU. Depending on your point of view this is either a good or bad thing or, more likely, a bit of both. It makes sense for both us and the EU to have some new arrangement for matters of mutual interest in place. With goodwill this can - eventually - be achieved. Britain needs to be realistic. But the EU needs to stop behaving as if Britain is - or should be treated as - some sort of pariah state which deserves to be punished for not liking the EU.
Does the EU really think that putting Britain under some sort of blockade with no-one able to get in or out of the country is in the EU’s interests?
They have their red lines and we have our red lines.
With Brexit we could become a 'lawless' country within a few months as we've not prepped for undoing 40 odd years of trading relationship and laws.
You'll probably 'appreciate' the analogy to Brexit I was given yesterday in Frankfurt.
Brexit is like Nick Leeson, the first mistake was survivable, in doubling down we've made the mistake even worse.
UK as Barings was not an analogy that cheered me up.
I’m well aware of the red lines. But that wasn’t the question I asked.
Re the Leeson analogy: what was the “first mistake”? And what is the “doubling down”?
Treating the result of a democratic vote as the same as a dishonest fraud is a category mistake. The EU may think we’re wrong to do this. Plenty of people in Britain do. But they would do better to try and understand why their vision of the future has been rejected by a country after 4 decades of experience of it and try and come up with some alternative view of what the British-European relationship should be. Or they can blockade us. I would only politely suggest that doing that is silly and not in their interests.
I’m not sure I agree with the “lawless” point. Aren’t we incorporating all EU law into our own so that it effectively vecomes British law?
The first mistake was buying Christopher Heath’s business from Henderson’s (my godfather was the partner who recommended that it was sold)
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
i do travel for a living (obviously) but in all sincerity you can have some globally peak travel experiences in the UK, especially now the food and wine is so much better (I was just in Annecy and Savoie in France, doing a luxe travel gig for the Times, I ate in a famous 2 star resto on Annecy Lake and a 1 star in Lake Geneva and I have honestly had food, as good, in decent London gastropubs, I don't know what;s gone wrong with French cuisine, maybe they have just been caught up, as with their wine, and all that's left is the reputation)
A top ten for British holidays that match almost anything abroad
1. St Kilda (if you want stunning grandeur) 2. Cornwall with good weather, especially Cape Cornwall, West Penwith or the Roseland and St Mawes 3. Dartmoor - incredible hotels. incredible bleakness 4. London: the greatest city on earth 5. Bath and the West country, sublime and pagan 6. The Chilterns: walk the Ridgeway, a road like nothing else on the globe 7. A weekend in Cambridge, one of the most beautiful, fascinating cities anywhere 8. Harris: enough said 9. Skye and the Inner Hebrides, the most melancholically beautiful place I know 10. the Lake District out of Season, like in the Trip. Superb
I could add five or ten more world class hols: Dorset, Pembroke, Scillies, Edinburgh, Ulster and the Causeway.... etc etc etc
Maybe Brexit will be like the Napoleonic blockade, and we shall be forced to rediscover the beauties of our own country. That's a good thing.
I would also add the Lakes off the beaten track, An amble up Fleetwith Pike with a view over Crummock Water and Loweswater is as good as any year round.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
Do you? Please say who by and on what date during the referendum campaign that was said.
No idea what date, but I am pretty sure Dan Hannan said this.
The Leave campaign made clear we would regain control of our borders and our laws, which prohibited membership of the single market as now and also that we would do our own trade deals, which prohibited membership of the Customs Union
Field work: 13/07/18 – 15/07/18 Sample size: 1,526"
If this trend holds forget Italy, Austria or Le Pen, the biggest post Brexit shock in Europe will come in September when Sweden, the supposed social democratic progressive paradise, puts a hard right anti immigration party first in its general election
Field work: 13/07/18 – 15/07/18 Sample size: 1,526"
If this trend holds forget Italy, Austria or Le Pen, the biggest post Brexit shock in Europe will come in September when Sweden, the supposed social democratic progressive paradise, puts a hard right anti immigration party first in its general election
So far, the SD's have been treated as beyond the pale.
But, a lot of Moderates would be willing to deal with them, as would the KD's.
Field work: 13/07/18 – 15/07/18 Sample size: 1,526"
If this trend holds forget Italy, Austria or Le Pen, the biggest post Brexit shock in Europe will come in September when Sweden, the supposed social democratic progressive paradise, puts a hard right anti immigration party first in its general election
The question is whether the polls are correctly recording SD support.
Manchester students paint over classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' just a WEEK after the art was erected on a campus wall because of writer's 'racist and imperialistic' works - and replace it with piece by Maya Angelou
Manchester students paint over classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' just a WEEK after the art was erected on a campus wall because of writer's 'racist and imperialistic' works - and replace it with piece by Maya Angelou
Manchester students paint over classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' just a WEEK after the art was erected on a campus wall because of writer's 'racist and imperialistic' works - and replace it with piece by Maya Angelou
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
i do travel for a living (obviously) but in all sincerity you can have some globally peak travel experiences in the UK, especially now the food and wine is so much better (I was just in Annecy and Savoie in France, doing a luxe travel gig for the Times, I ate in a famous 2 star resto on Annecy Lake and a 1 star in Lake Geneva and I have honestly had food, as good, in decent London gastropubs, I don't know what;s gone wrong with French cuisine, maybe they have just been caught up, as with their wine, and all that's left is the reputation)
A top ten for British holidays that match almost anything abroad
1. St Kilda (if you want stunning grandeur) 2. Cornwall with good weather, especially Cape Cornwall, West Penwith or the Roseland and St Mawes 3. Dartmoor - incredible hotels. incredible bleakness 4. London: the greatest city on earth 5. Bath and the West country, sublime and pagan 6. The Chilterns: walk the Ridgeway, a road like nothing else on the globe 7. A weekend in Cambridge, one of the most beautiful, fascinating cities anywhere 8. Harris: enough said 9. Skye and the Inner Hebrides, the most melancholically beautiful place I know 10. the Lake District out of Season, like in the Trip. Superb
I could add five or ten more world class hols: Dorset, Pembroke, Scillies, Edinburgh, Ulster and the Causeway.... etc etc etc
Maybe Brexit will be like the Napoleonic blockade, and we shall be forced to rediscover the beauties of our own country. That's a good thing.
Oh I agree. But you missed Northumberland. Scenery, empty beaches, magnificent castles, wonderful food, lovely people If it wasn't for the weather...we'd be perfect.
I love Northumberland. It would be on my B list, for sure, maybe A list. Bamburgh Castle on the beach - bloody hell!
Great list. You have the Scillies, but I'd single out the gardens on Tresco.
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
We need to consider whether the Single Market was a failure, from the UK's point of view.
The problem with that question is - like most sensible questions - that the answer is "it depends".
The Single Market made London Europe's capital. And so, if you bought a flat in London, in 1995, it made you a rich man (or woman).
But it also changed the nature of towns and villages even far from the capital. And - by and large - not to the liking of their inhabitants. It also priced a generation of twenty somethings out of a city they grew up in.
What it did not do was cause our trade deficit. That is a monster of our own making, the result of governments that suppressed saving and encouraged consumption.
Manchester students paint over classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' just a WEEK after the art was erected on a campus wall because of writer's 'racist and imperialistic' works - and replace it with piece by Maya Angelou
You don't think the student union should be able to decide what they want on the wall of the student union building?
It doesn't prevent them from being twats.
I didn't see the SU right-on'ers campaigning to ban Stormzy from playing at the Student Union, despite his homophobic outbursts on twitter over the course of a number of years.....
Scarborough, Saltburn, Cleethorpes, Llandudno, Berwick, Aberystwyth, Cardiff Bay, Weymouth, Portsmouth, and Eastbourne were all pleasant surprises when I got off the train
Manchester students paint over classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' just a WEEK after the art was erected on a campus wall because of writer's 'racist and imperialistic' works - and replace it with piece by Maya Angelou
You don't think the student union should be able to decide what they want on the wall of the student union building?
It doesn't prevent them from being twats.
I didn't see the SU right-on'ers campaigning to ban Stormzy from playing at the Student Union, despite his homophobic outbursts on twitter over the course of a number of years.....
As usual when civvies dip their toes in the water there was a load of absolute rubbish written on military aviation.
1. The UK has 14 x F35B (not 0 and not 4). These are split between 17 TES at Edwards AFB, 617 at Marham and VMFAT-501 at Beaufort MCAS.
2. British forces do not provide "QRA" for the Republic of Ireland as a) UK QRA is controlled by NATO (specifically ACCS) of which RoI are not members and b) The Irish constitution specifically prohibits that sort of foreign military activity on Irish territory. That's not to say that some sort of extraordinary help could not be theoretically requested in a highly improbably 911-on-the-Liffey scenario.
Presumably Tommy's establishment girlfriend was forcing poor Tommy's fists into her face and the police officer should have recognised it was future peoples champ Tommy and let him carry on.
Presumably Tommy's establishment girlfriend was forcing poor Tommy's fists into her face and the police officer should have recognised it was future peoples champ Tommy and let him carry on.
The irony of the US alt.right latching on to Tommy Robinson is that with his list of crimes in much of the USA he would be serving a decades long sentence in jail.
It is worth noting that he pleaded guilty in his recent trial, and his current appeal is over sentence not conviction itself.
UKIP have now decided that he is their poster boy. Soon they will be Indistinguishable from the BNP.
Presumably Tommy's establishment girlfriend was forcing poor Tommy's fists into her face and the police officer should have recognised it was future peoples champ Tommy and let him carry on.
The irony of the US alt.right latching on to Tommy Robinson is that with his list of crimes in much of the USA he would be serving a decades long sentence in jail.
It is worth noting that he pleaded guilty in his recent trial, and his current appeal is over sentence not conviction itself.
UKIP have now decided that he is their poster boy. Soon they will be Indistinguishable from the BNP.
I don't like the Russian interference, they want chaos and disorder. The American alt-right backing is altogether more scary because they actually have an ideology.
Whilst I don't like Farage and he regularly jumps over the line he is far closer to an acceptable range of opinion than UKIP are currently, he has also said negative things about Tommy Robinson.
There is a funny transcript involving Bannon and Farage where Farage is there as the voice of reason trying to get a word in edgeways about Tommy Robinson as Bannon rants about him.
On the plus side though I'm pretty sure America are giving us a negative enough impression of those kind of politics for the moment.
As usual when civvies dip their toes in the water there was a load of absolute rubbish written on military aviation.
1. The UK has 14 x F35B (not 0 and not 4). These are split between 17 TES at Edwards AFB, 617 at Marham and VMFAT-501 at Beaufort MCAS.
2. British forces do not provide "QRA" for the Republic of Ireland as a) UK QRA is controlled by NATO (specifically ACCS) of which RoI are not members and b) The Irish constitution specifically prohibits that sort of foreign military activity on Irish territory. That's not to say that some sort of extraordinary help could not be theoretically requested in a highly improbably 911-on-the-Liffey scenario.
Your subject isn’t unique. There was reams of drivel written by people who think they are well placed to advise on commercial aviation and international treaties because they’ve once Dan-Air.
Is the government really going to be sending out the 'Brexit Survival Handbook' to every household? It will have to be phrased carefully - we don't want a dangerous rush as everyone panic buys petrol and tinned food.
Or takes their money out of the bank - remember the savings protection limit?
How is that in play? I appreciate it's an EU aligned protection but wouldn't the government just continue the guarantee?
When people become worried, they don’t necessarily act rationally.
Would you trust this government to guarantee your savings?
Hardly a surprise to see you pimping out UKIP. Its funny when you call other people not proper Tories because they believe in something different to you but you've always seemed like a Kipper and are prepared to push them like this. Funny that.
wtf is 'proper leave'? I seem to recall we were told nobody in their right mind was talking about not being in a customs union or Thatcher's single market.
Do you? Please say who by and on what date during the referendum campaign that was said.
No idea what date, but I am pretty sure Dan Hannan said this.
The Leave campaign made clear we would regain control of our borders and our laws, which prohibited membership of the single market as now and also that we would do our own trade deals, which prohibited membership of the Customs Union
‘The Leave capmpaign’, forsooth.
Were we voting for their manifesto ? Or answering a very simple question capable of multiple interpretations, as the Hannan quote nicely demonstrates ?
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
i do travel for a living (obviously) but in all sincerity you can have some globally peak travel experiences in the UK, especially now the food and wine is so much better (I was just in Annecy and Savoie in France, doing a luxe travel gig for the Times, I ate in a famous 2 star resto on Annecy Lake and a 1 star in Lake Geneva and I have honestly had food, as good, in decent London gastropubs, I don't know what;s gone wrong with French cuisine, maybe they have just been caught up, as with their wine, and all that's left is the reputation)
A top ten for British holidays that match almost anything abroad
1. St Kilda (if you want stunning grandeur) 2. Cornwall with good weather, especially Cape Cornwall, West Penwith or the Roseland and St Mawes 3. Dartmoor - incredible hotels. incredible bleakness 4. London: the greatest city on earth 5. Bath and the West country, sublime and pagan 6. The Chilterns: walk the Ridgeway, a road like nothing else on the globe 7. A weekend in Cambridge, one of the most beautiful, fascinating cities anywhere 8. Harris: enough said 9. Skye and the Inner Hebrides, the most melancholically beautiful place I know 10. the Lake District out of Season, like in the Trip. Superb
I could add five or ten more world class hols: Dorset, Pembroke, Scillies, Edinburgh, Ulster and the Causeway.... etc etc etc
Maybe Brexit will be like the Napoleonic blockade, and we shall be forced to rediscover the beauties of our own country. That's a good thing.
Oh I agree. But you missed Northumberland. Scenery, empty beaches, magnificent castles, wonderful food, lovely people If it wasn't for the weather...we'd be perfect.
I love Northumberland. It would be on my B list, for sure, maybe A list. Bamburgh Castle on the beach - bloody hell!
Great list. You have the Scillies, but I'd single out the gardens on Tresco.
St. Agnes on a cloudless, moonless night, walking back from the Turks Head.....
Strange that Varadker is being a lot more bullish than Barnier. Does he know something we don't? I'm not sure about the legality of flying rights if there's no deal but tying it to fishing access seems insane.
Forget whether you are a Leaver or Remainer, it's the stuff he said about the border that is the most ridiculous/delusional (take your pick). Essentially the EU is saying officially that the issue of the Irish border is arguably the major stumbling block in producing any negotiated deal, and could be the main factor in resulting in a no deal outcome. (the UK are happy with some sort of fudged outcome that avoids the need for physical border apparatus). But Varadkhar is saying that he has been "assured" by the EU that if no deal is reached then there will be no need to enforce physical border checks. So the EU are apparently asserting that a Deal must include a solution to avoiding a hard border, whilst saying to Varadkhar that no deal allows for such a solution!
"Solution" is the wrong word there. Varadkar has been assured that other means of putting pressure on the UK would be applied before it ever got to the point of making a decision about the Irish border.
That makes sense. The EU know that the Irish will not impose a hard border in month 1 of hard Brexit, and have little choice but to be comfortable with that. But as other WTO members start complaining that EU/Ireland is discriminating in favour of the UK by not customs checking UK goods in the same way as other countries, some pressure will come to bear on Ireland to put up a hard border.
The EU's/Ireland's choice will be
- ignore and eventually face WTO court - drop tarriffs and checking on third countries (preposterous for the EU, but a very possible short term response of the UK to its own border non enforcement - aka MadMaxFac) - force Ireland, against its will, to impose a hard border by whatever means available - force Ireland out of the customs union and into customs union with the UK (since customs is more heavily geographical than geopolitical this could make sense, but the EU would hate to do it).
None of this is very appealing for the EU. They will come to the conclusion that the only palatable option for them, even if they don't especially want to, is to break Britain's balls in rapid enough order that we are forced back to the table and none of the above options come into play.
Then we just fucking fight them. I don't care any more. If they want to be our enemies, then they are our enemies. Enough.
Anyone considered ultra hard Brexit. Borders shut, no food, no medicine, no flying rights etc. How long would the government survive ? Maybe this is the plan of the eu if we crash out.
Mr. Ace, perhaps. But it's a bloody stupid plan. Regardless of what happened after that, a very large segment of the UK electorate would actively hate the EU (blame would vary between the EU and UK Government, perhaps largely contingent upon one's starting perspective).
Mr. Ace, perhaps. But it's a bloody stupid plan. Regardless of what happened after that, a very large segment of the UK electorate would actively hate the EU (blame would vary between the EU and UK Government, perhaps largely contingent upon one's starting perspective).
Mr. Ace, perhaps. But it's a bloody stupid plan. Regardless of what happened after that, a very large segment of the UK electorate would actively hate the EU (blame would vary between the EU and UK Government, perhaps largely contingent upon one's starting perspective).
Maybe they would but it would lead to the fall of the government and probably the return of the UK cap in hand. Can’t happen you say. Well it happens to Switzerland regularly. Just for an hour or so to teach them a lesson
Mr. Meeks, amidst all the noise and intense chatter here, most people are either not fussed or have quite fuzzy pro- or anti-EU feelings.
If we suddenly can't fly over the EU, that'll change very quickly. Some, as I said, would blame the UK Government. Others will blame the EU. It'll probably come down to the original perspective of the individual as to which they go for.
Those who blame the UK can vent that rage by voting elsewhere and replacing (sooner or later) the governing party. Politicians will change and it'll fade, becoming remembered as a huge balls-up.
Those who blame the EU will remember it. They'll have no opportunity to vent their rage, except when it comes to the inevitable drive by some for us to rejoin, which they'll vote against and perhaps campaign against bitterly, remembering the hostile act(s) the EU took when no deal could be agreed.
May's been a dire negotiator, flitting between prevarication and capitulation, but the EU is not blameless. It's refusal to countenance anything apart from precisely what it wants, and to conduct a regulatory annexation of Northern Ireland, is not the attitude of a neutral party, let alone a friendly one.
An aside: does the RAF protect Irish airspace? Because, if it does, and the cantankerous gnome is threatening we won't be able to fly over it, it'd be a great opportunity for Russia to perform some incursions.
It's interesting the Irish Republic considers common standards so important given it changed all its road signs and cars to km from miles just to be different to the UK (and thus Northern Ireland).
It's interesting the Irish Republic considers common standards so important given it changed all its road signs and cars to km from miles just to be different to the UK (and thus Northern Ireland).
Is the government really going to be sending out the 'Brexit Survival Handbook' to every household? It will have to be phrased carefully - we don't want a dangerous rush as everyone panic buys petrol and tinned food.
Or takes their money out of the bank - remember the savings protection limit?
How is that in play? I appreciate it's an EU aligned protection but wouldn't the government just continue the guarantee?
When people become worried, they don’t necessarily act rationally.
Would you trust this government to guarantee your savings?
Yes.
"The pound in your pocket is worth a lot less than it was, as Harold Wilson did not quite say."
Either way, agreement on the withdrawal deal, and the basis of a trade deal through a political declaration, by the European council summit at the end of October, is regarded as highly unlikely. It is understood that an emergency summit is being pencilled in for early November...
Cool fact (if it's true) in an article from Fintan O'Toole: Apparently the White Paper on joining the Common Market is the best-selling official document in British history. Sold over a million copies which is actually quite staggering when you think about it.
Manchester students paint over classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' just a WEEK after the art was erected on a campus wall because of writer's 'racist and imperialistic' works - and replace it with piece by Maya Angelou
Really? There's bits of Kipling that aren't as bad as they might be, though Orwell overstated the case in his favour, but If ffs. The last line alone is world beatingly eeeuw on so many levels.
Cool fact (if it's true) in an article from Fintan O'Toole: Apparently the White Paper on joining the Common Market is the best-selling official document in British history. Sold over a million copies which is actually quite staggering when you think about it.
"Solution" is the wrong word there. Varadkar has been assured that other means of putting pressure on the UK would be applied before it ever got to the point of making a decision about the Irish border.
That makes sense. The EU know that the Irish will not impose a hard border in month 1 of hard Brexit, and have little choice but to be comfortable with that. But as other WTO members start complaining that EU/Ireland is discriminating in favour of the UK by not customs checking UK goods in the same way as other countries, some pressure will come to bear on Ireland to put up a hard border.
The EU's/Ireland's choice will be
- ignore and eventually face WTO court - drop tarriffs and checking on third countries (preposterous for the EU, but a very possible short term response of the UK to its own border non enforcement - aka MadMaxFac) - force Ireland, against its will, to impose a hard border by whatever means available - force Ireland out of the customs union and into customs union with the UK (since customs is more heavily geographical than geopolitical this could make sense, but the EU would hate to do it).
None of this is very appealing for the EU. They will come to the conclusion that the only palatable option for them, even if they don't especially want to, is to break Britain's balls in rapid enough order that we are forced back to the table and none of the above options come into play.
Then we just fucking fight them. I don't care any more. If they want to be our enemies, then they are our enemies. Enough.
Have you any idea how mental you sound?
Tbf, Sean has sounded way more mental than that on other occasions, and as Morris says, f them would be a common sentiment in the circumstances.
The plus side is that the EU are facing up, in more detail, to what a no deal Brexit means for them and I'm sure they don't like the look of it one bit. The UK are scaring them to death, a genuinely erratic player, not just acting the madman.
I think they strip the reciprocal customs agent nonsense amendment straight out of Chequers (I was OK with some of the other ERG amendments), perhaps try for a few minor tweaks, and then go for it. There is still the final trade deal to play for later, and a lot can be reasserted in that from an EU pov.
If it fails from here, and we get to hard Brexit, I think it will be down primarily to UK politics.
Auntie still having a nervous breakdown over the Cliff Richard case and trying to pose as defenders of press freedom and the vulnerable having effectively declared Cliff Richard guilty even before the police had raided his house.
Nobody has yet pointed out it took them months to name Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall both of whom were subsequently found guilty.
F1: put a tiny sum (collectively, my stake is less than half a bus fare, so we're talking pence) on some FP1 long shots. Over time, the weather forecast wet weather has migrated from Sunday to Saturday. It *might* move to Friday.
If it does, the long odds (with boost, 2501 for most, 326 for Leclerc) on the Sauber (including Giovinazzi rather than Ericsson) each way are worth throwing down a few pence.
Obviously, it's odds against, but if the weather changes the value would be immense. And if it doesn't change, the stake lost will be so small even an impoverished morris dancer can shrug it off.
Edited extra bit: meant Sauber and Williams drivers.
Cool fact (if it's true) in an article from Fintan O'Toole: Apparently the White Paper on joining the Common Market is the best-selling official document in British history. Sold over a million copies which is actually quite staggering when you think about it.
That thinking is no different, though you wouldn’t admit it, to the thinking which led to wrinkly nihilists with guaranteed pensions voting for Brexit paid for by workers - it was all better in the good old days.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
Cornwall is the only English county I haven't visited by rail* - yet!
[* Went to Land's End by car in 1989, and the Eden Project in 2001, though]
That means I’ve been on a route that Sunil hasn’t! Plymouth to Penzance last summer.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
Cornwall is the only English county I haven't visited by rail* - yet!
[* Went to Land's End by car in 1989, and the Eden Project in 2001, though]
That means I’ve been on a route that Sunil hasn’t! Plymouth to Penzance last summer.
I've travelled that route as far as Saltash. Stunning run across the Royal Albert Bridge.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
No thanks. I rarely venture outside Northumberland at the very best of times. Normally I go to Berwick, Seahouses, Druridge or Haggerston, but it seems I;ve bee re-booked under the Haltwhistle bypass.
Cornwall is the only English county I haven't visited by rail* - yet!
[* Went to Land's End by car in 1989, and the Eden Project in 2001, though]
That means I’ve been on a route that Sunil hasn’t! Plymouth to Penzance last summer.
I've travelled that route as far as Saltash. Stunning run across the Royal Albert Bridge.
I actually went all the way from Paddington and the best bit along the coast (at Dawlish I think).
Comments
I think a lot of trade deals aren't really about economics anymore they're about politics. An Obama aide admitted so much when asked why they were pressing for TPP. I can only presume the Tory Brexiters think a trade deal with the Donald might allow them to go on a guided tour of the Pentagon including areas with restricted access. Junior boys wanting to be invited into the senior prefects study. Too cynical?
Indeed quota division may well prove to be one of the more complex areas of any UK EU27 FTA, not least as each quota division will have an interested counterparty with its own interests.
The EU's/Ireland's choice will be
- ignore and eventually face WTO court
- drop tarriffs and checking on third countries (preposterous for the EU, but a very possible short term response of the UK to its own border non enforcement - aka MadMaxFac)
- force Ireland, against its will, to impose a hard border by whatever means available
- force Ireland out of the customs union and into customs union with the UK (since customs is more heavily geographical than geopolitical this could make sense, but the EU would hate to do it).
None of this is very appealing for the EU. They will come to the conclusion that the only palatable option for them, even if they don't especially want to, is to break Britain's balls in rapid enough order that we are forced back to the table and none of the above options come into play.
It might just be my feeling but I always felt that Brexit was an attempt (in part anyway) to drag us away from the EU and into the USA orbit much more strongly, so maybe there are those who want it ideologically.
As well as a historic steam railway, there are the old Northern line underground trains on the Ryde Shanklin line, a vintage bus museum, the Roman villa, and Britains first rocket launch site at the Needles. All PB tastes are accounted for!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/18/eu-assault-on-mays-white-paper-heightens-no-deal-brexit-fears
https://www.redfunnel.co.uk/en/isle-of-wight-guide/my-isle-of-wight/featured-articles/needles-rocket-testing-facility/
Leicesters Space centre has a Blue Streak too.
[1] Old joke: I go on holiday only when forced.
[* Went to Land's End by car in 1989, and the Eden Project in 2001, though]
https://twitter.com/iandunt/status/799282286185222145?lang=en
I would advise against the Garlic fudge and Garlic beer, both available from The Garlic Farm Shop. They are as bad as they sound, and too foul even for consuming as an evil forfeit.
@EuropeElects
3h3 hours ago
Sweden, YouGov poll:
SD-ECR: 26% (-3)
S-S&D: 21% (-1)
M-EPP: 16% (-1)
V-LEFT: 10% (+1)
C-ALDE: 9% (+2)
L-ALDE: 5% (+1)
MP-G/EFA: 4%
KD-EPP: 4% (+1)
Fi-S&D: 1%
Field work: 13/07/18 – 15/07/18
Sample size: 1,526"
But, a lot of Moderates would be willing to deal with them, as would the KD's.
Manchester students paint over classic Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' just a WEEK after the art was erected on a campus wall because of writer's 'racist and imperialistic' works - and replace it with piece by Maya Angelou
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5967459/Manchester-students-paint-classic-Kipling-poem-imperialistic-works.html
The Single Market made London Europe's capital. And so, if you bought a flat in London, in 1995, it made you a rich man (or woman).
But it also changed the nature of towns and villages even far from the capital. And - by and large - not to the liking of their inhabitants. It also priced a generation of twenty somethings out of a city they grew up in.
What it did not do was cause our trade deficit. That is a monster of our own making, the result of governments that suppressed saving and encouraged consumption.
As usual when civvies dip their toes in the water there was a load of absolute rubbish written on military aviation.
1. The UK has 14 x F35B (not 0 and not 4). These are split between 17 TES at Edwards AFB, 617 at Marham and VMFAT-501 at Beaufort MCAS.
2. British forces do not provide "QRA" for the Republic of Ireland as a) UK QRA is controlled by NATO (specifically ACCS) of which RoI are not members and b) The Irish constitution specifically prohibits that sort of foreign military activity on Irish territory. That's not to say that some sort of extraordinary help could not be theoretically requested in a highly improbably 911-on-the-Liffey scenario.
Presumably Tommy's establishment girlfriend was forcing poor Tommy's fists into her face and the police officer should have recognised it was future peoples champ Tommy and let him carry on.
It is worth noting that he pleaded guilty in his recent trial, and his current appeal is over sentence not conviction itself.
UKIP have now decided that he is their poster boy. Soon they will be Indistinguishable from the BNP.
Whilst I don't like Farage and he regularly jumps over the line he is far closer to an acceptable range of opinion than UKIP are currently, he has also said negative things about Tommy Robinson.
There is a funny transcript involving Bannon and Farage where Farage is there as the voice of reason trying to get a word in edgeways about Tommy Robinson as Bannon rants about him.
On the plus side though I'm pretty sure America are giving us a negative enough impression of those kind of politics for the moment.
Were we voting for their manifesto ?
Or answering a very simple question capable of multiple interpretations, as the Hannan quote nicely demonstrates ?
Mr. Ace, perhaps. But it's a bloody stupid plan. Regardless of what happened after that, a very large segment of the UK electorate would actively hate the EU (blame would vary between the EU and UK Government, perhaps largely contingent upon one's starting perspective).
If we suddenly can't fly over the EU, that'll change very quickly. Some, as I said, would blame the UK Government. Others will blame the EU. It'll probably come down to the original perspective of the individual as to which they go for.
Those who blame the UK can vent that rage by voting elsewhere and replacing (sooner or later) the governing party. Politicians will change and it'll fade, becoming remembered as a huge balls-up.
Those who blame the EU will remember it. They'll have no opportunity to vent their rage, except when it comes to the inevitable drive by some for us to rejoin, which they'll vote against and perhaps campaign against bitterly, remembering the hostile act(s) the EU took when no deal could be agreed.
May's been a dire negotiator, flitting between prevarication and capitulation, but the EU is not blameless. It's refusal to countenance anything apart from precisely what it wants, and to conduct a regulatory annexation of Northern Ireland, is not the attitude of a neutral party, let alone a friendly one.
An aside: does the RAF protect Irish airspace? Because, if it does, and the cantankerous gnome is threatening we won't be able to fly over it, it'd be a great opportunity for Russia to perform some incursions.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/18/eu-assault-on-mays-white-paper-heightens-no-deal-brexit-fears
Both UK and Brussels sources suggested that an informal summit in Salzburg in September was now likely to be a crunch moment when EU leaders have a chance to take the lead and instruct Barnier to take a more flexible approach, or send the UK back to the drawing board.
Either way, agreement on the withdrawal deal, and the basis of a trade deal through a political declaration, by the European council summit at the end of October, is regarded as highly unlikely. It is understood that an emergency summit is being pencilled in for early November...
Aside from planning for a no deal Brexit...
Apparently the White Paper on joining the Common Market is the best-selling official document in British history. Sold over a million copies which is actually quite staggering when you think about it.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-brexit-white-paper-puts-uk-on-road-to-nowhere-1.3566782#.W02E1ssOadg.twitter
The plus side is that the EU are facing up, in more detail, to what a no deal Brexit means for them and I'm sure they don't like the look of it one bit. The UK are scaring them to death, a genuinely erratic player, not just acting the madman.
I think they strip the reciprocal customs agent nonsense amendment straight out of Chequers (I was OK with some of the other ERG amendments), perhaps try for a few minor tweaks, and then go for it. There is still the final trade deal to play for later, and a lot can be reasserted in that from an EU pov.
If it fails from here, and we get to hard Brexit, I think it will be down primarily to UK politics.
Auntie still having a nervous breakdown over the Cliff Richard case and trying to pose as defenders of press freedom and the vulnerable having effectively declared Cliff Richard guilty even before the police had raided his house.
Nobody has yet pointed out it took them months to name Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall both of whom were subsequently found guilty.
Betting PostF1: put a tiny sum (collectively, my stake is less than half a bus fare, so we're talking pence) on some FP1 long shots. Over time, the weather forecast wet weather has migrated from Sunday to Saturday. It *might* move to Friday.
If it does, the long odds (with boost, 2501 for most, 326 for Leclerc) on the Sauber (including Giovinazzi rather than Ericsson) each way are worth throwing down a few pence.
Obviously, it's odds against, but if the weather changes the value would be immense. And if it doesn't change, the stake lost will be so small even an impoverished morris dancer can shrug it off.
Edited extra bit: meant Sauber and Williams drivers.
I think).