Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Options

politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Boost for beleaguered TMay as the Tories hold second place in

124678

Comments

  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,339
    notme2 said:

    Floater said:

    Mr. 64, it's an interesting possibility. And welcome to PB.

    In unrelated news, it's reported Prince Harry thinks Fortnite should be banned.

    It looks like a pretty pointless game to me, but banning stuff is an unwelcome new fashion and not something royalty should be promoting.

    Proving his right on connections ...

    What an arse
    Speaking of potential bans, here's an example of the EU Parliament looking very stupid (and I post this with no pleasure, as an ardent Remainer). Hopefully, sense will prevail.

    https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/04/eu-to-ban-non-meat-product-labels-veggie-burgers-and-vegan-steaks
    First they came for the bendy bananas, and I did not speak out,
    Because I like straight bananas.
    Then they came for the inefficient vacuum cleaners, and I did not speak out
    Because I had a Henry Hoover
    Then they came for the curved cucumbers, and I did not speak out
    Because I don’t like cucumbers
    Then they came for the vegan sausages. Now it’s fu*king war!

    As Ben says, there's a lot of water to go under the bridge first on this one (which is very mich part of my day job). Essentially there's permanent joslting between the Parliament's Ag committee (which is dominated by farmers) and the Envi committee (which is dominated by environmentalists). The former are worried by meat alternatives, the latter like them. It will go to the new Parliament after it's elected. If they adopted the Ag Committee's proposal, it would need to go through the Commission and the Council of Ministers too. There's a serious risk (from my animal welfare perspective) in the medium term, but some years away.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,139

    DougSeal said:

    kamski said:

    WTO rules only apply to countries that belong to the WTO, not "everyone". EU rules only apply to countries that belong to the EU. I don't see a fundamental difference, just one of degree, and the size

    No we do not have more in common with Europeans. We have more in common historically, culturally, linguistically and even in our Common Law legal system with English-speaking Commonwealth nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do Germany, Hungary or Romania.
    So we should get out of this unnatural union with Europeans with 'foreign' legal systems like Scotland's?
    Yes. Did you miss the debate yesterday?
    It's pretty hard to sustain the argument that "we" have more in common with Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do with other Europeans if you're including Scotland in the other category.
    I think we have more in common with Scotland than the others but I think we should still dissolve the UK anyway despite that.
    Incidentally, how much time have you spent in Canada?
    More time than I've spent in any individual EU nation, a few weeks at a time every couple of years. My in-laws live there. Why?
    I just wondered as I know you grew up in Australia but hadn't seen you mention anything about Canada.
    If you think meeting your girlfriend's parents the first time is stressful, imagine having to fly thousands of miles to meet them for the first time then stay in their home for weeks...
    We are very much a European country in culture - the only thing that connects us to the culturally very different Commonwealth and US is language. We were part of the European family long before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts and have never stopped so being. The sooner we in England realise we are just a medium sized region of Europe that has nonsensically cut itself off from any day in the workings of our central government the better. The idea that we are somehow “fee” of the entity we are part of, when all we have done is deprive ourselves of any say in its government, will be seen as the insanity it is in a few short years.
    Utterly absurd claim. What makes us culturally more different than say Australia than we are say Romania?
    Our national sport for one thing.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,980
    TORIES FLAPPING YET AGAIN, Sturgeon must have marked Theresa's card to have Lady Haw Haw in a tizzy.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,139

    DougSeal said:

    kamski said:

    WTO rules only apply to countries that belong to the WTO, not "everyone". EU rules only apply to countries that belong to the EU. I don't see a fundamental difference, just one of degree, and the size

    So we should get out of this unnatural union with Europeans with 'foreign' legal systems like Scotland's?
    Yes. Did you miss the debate yesterday?
    It's pretty hard to sustain the argument that "we" have more in common with Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do with other Europeans if you're including Scotland in the other category.
    I think we have more in common with Scotland than the others but I think we should still dissolve the UK anyway despite that.
    Incidentally, how much time have you spent in Canada?
    More time than I've spent in any individual EU nation, a few weeks at a time every couple of years. My in-laws live there. Why?
    I just wondered as I know you grew up in Australia but hadn't seen you mention anything about Canada.
    If you think meeting your girlfriend's parents the first time is stressful, imagine having to fly thousands of miles to meet them for the first time then stay in their home for weeks...
    We are very much a European country in culture - the only thing that connects us to the culturally very different Commonwealth and US is language. We were part of the European family long before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts and have never stopped so being. The sooner we in England realise we are just a medium sized region of Europe that has nonsensically cut itself off from any day in the workings of our central government the better. The idea that we are somehow “fee” of the entity we are part of, when all we have done is deprive ourselves of any say in its government, will be seen as the insanity it is in a few short years.
    Utterly absurd claim. What makes us culturally more different than say Australia than we are say Romania?
    Also Australia is incredibly Anglophobic, Australians on the whole hate the English, a view (other than in Ireland) is not generally replicated in the EU.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,980

    kamski said:

    WTO rules only apply to countries that belong to the WTO, not "everyone". EU rules only apply to countries that belong to the EU. I don't see a fundamental difference, just one of degree, and the size of the group.

    For me it's not a question of principle, but whether you think, like me, that we have more in common (and more common interests) with our European neighbours, and therefore it is in our interests to share more rules with them, than with the wider 159 members of the WTO. Or not.

    But claiming
    In the EU=not a free country.
    Remaining a member of other international organisations/treaties=we are a free country
    is illogical

    I think some people just hate the idea of Britain cooperating with other Europeans, and having to treat people like the Germans as equals. Obviously not true of lots of leavers, but people like Jenkin really annoy me.

    No we do not have more in common with Europeans. We have more in common historically, culturally, linguistically and even in our Common Law legal system with English-speaking Commonwealth nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do Germany, Hungary or Romania.
    So we should get out of this unnatural union with Europeans with 'foreign' legal systems like Scotland's?
    Yes. Did you miss the debate yesterday?
    It's pretty hard to sustain the argument that "we" have more in common with Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do with other Europeans if you're including Scotland in the other category.
    Par for the course I am afraid, they only like fleecing us.
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,120

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all. I spent a few days in Sydney and it felt like California and very unlike any British city. But the reality is that however much cultural affinity we might have with them, they live on the other side of the world, we are awake while they are asleep, and distance means we will never be major trading partners, while we have millions of fellow Europeans to trade and socialise with 22 miles off our coast or a quick hop over the border in Ireland.
    The most British feeling place I have ever spent much time in is Barbados, which I guess is unsurprising given it was a British colony for something like 400 years. Although the weather is not very British! The culture shock I felt in the US was very unexpected. I spent 5 years there and it never felt like home.
  • Options
    eristdooferistdoof Posts: 4,897
    notme2 said:

    The preliminary investigation into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month revealed Thursday that pilots began fighting the Boeing 737 MAX’s new automatic flight-control system barely a minute after leaving the ground, after a sensor failed shortly after takeoff....

    The “black box” flight-recorder data shows that after MCAS swiveled the plane’s horizontal tail to push the nose sharply down three times in succession, the pilots hit the cut-off switches stopping the automatic action and tried to adjust the tail manually, according to the report by the Accident Investigation Bureau of Ethiopia’s Transport Ministry.

    In doing so, they were following instructions provided by Boeing last November, following the crash of Lion Air Flight 610, on how to deal with such an inadvertent triggering of the new flight-control system.


    https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/preliminary-crash-report-reveals-detail-of-ethiopian-pilots-fight-against-the-737-max-flight-controls/

    Surprised Boeing's share price hasn't taken more of a pasting tbh.
    Regardless of what happens they will remain in a duopoly and recover.
    Does the US prosecute corporate manslaughter? Someone needs to be accountable
    Which is worse VW's fiddling of emmissions tests or Boeing's alleged short-cutting of certification?
    One was straight forward corruption with no loss of life (I’m sure they’ll be claims of a gazillion more hypothetical people killed by air pollution, but the reality is a big fat zero).
    Vehicle emmissions do indirectly kill, but no extra vehicles were sold due to VW's lies. More VWs might have been sold, but the difference between buying one make of car compared to another has a negligible on publich health.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,980

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    bollox
  • Options
    kamskikamski Posts: 4,255

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I can believe that, never having been to Australia, but judging from all the Australians I've ever known (OK, not representative).

    BUT my point was we generally have more in common with other EU countries, than with other WTO countries, not whether there might be non-EU countries that we have more in common with than Romania. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are a pretty small fraction of the WTO.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,930
    edited April 2019

    Q: Without the superficial Etonian varnish and Latin epigrams, would Mogg have been seen through years & years & years ago?

    https://twitter.com/stephenkb/status/1114089657300602880

    I rather think the concern was that the UK Government would enthusiastically take us in to the EU army, not that it would have been dragged in without its consent. We didn't get a vote to install a Government and political class that fought tooth and nail for the interests of the British people, we got a vote on whether to leave the EU. You do the best with what you're given.
    So Brexit was about saving us from our own governments? An interesting concept.
    I think that's partly true. If you have two major parties with the same policy on most major issues, and a system that makes it very difficult for any other party to get any influence (UKIP got 13% of the vote and 0.15% of the seats in 2015), tieing their hands by going over their heads (sorry if that's bad phrasing) is your only option.

    Both Tory and Labour inflicted FOM on the country while saying they were worried about immigration... they kept saying it and doing nothing about it, so the country removed their get out of jail card, or at least tried to.
  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,457

    isam said:

    isam said:
    The second point does not invalidate the first.
    I guess if Nick Griffin told people to stop judging others on the colour of their skin it would be hard to say his words were not correct.

    Campbell's reply wasn't exactly in complete agreement...
    There is a difference in kind between calling someone "a piece of shit" and accusing them of treason.

    I think a truer comparison is the practise of labelling those we don't agree with 'extremists'. This type of vilification is equally dangerous to our society.
    Would you describe, say, Tommy Robinson as an extremist, or just someone we (whoever 'we' is) should respectfully disagree with.
    No, I wouldn't. I would engage with whatever apalling views he has, and call them what they are. Calling someone an 'extremist' is meaningless, quite on purpose in my view, because it can then be thrown at anyone who doesn't accord to the Government view.

    It's also insulting. As a Christian myself, to me, an 'extemist' Christian would be a monk, or a missionary, or Mother Theresa. I don't accept that Christianity is a spectrum where a moderate case is just about tolerable but if you get really into it you start bombing people. The same goes for being a Tory. The same goes for being a Scot Nat! We are all complex people with different views and experiences. What is important is what is right and wrong.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,139

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,980

    kamski said:

    WTO rules only apply to countries that belong to the WTO, not "everyone". EU rules only apply to countries that belong to the EU. I don't see a fundamental difference, just one of degree, and the size of the group.

    For me it's not a question of principle, but whether you think, like me, that we have more in common (and more common interests) with our European neighbours, and therefore it is in our interests to share more rules with them, than with the wider 159 members of the WTO. Or not.

    But claiming
    In the EU=not a free country.
    Remaining a member of other international organisations/treaties=we are a free country
    is illogical

    I think some people just hate the idea of Britain cooperating with other Europeans, and having to treat people like the Germans as equals. Obviously not true of lots of leavers, but people like Jenkin really annoy me.

    No we do not have more in common with Europeans. We have more in common historically, culturally, linguistically and even in our Common Law legal system with English-speaking Commonwealth nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do Germany, Hungary or Romania.
    So we should get out of this unnatural union with Europeans with 'foreign' legal systems like Scotland's?
    Yes. Did you miss the debate yesterday?
    It's pretty hard to sustain the argument that "we" have more in common with Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do with other Europeans if you're including Scotland in the other category.
    I think we have more in common with Scotland than the others but I think we should still dissolve the UK anyway despite that.
    Incidentally, how much time have you spent in Canada?
    More time than I've spent in any individual EU nation, a few weeks at a time every couple of years. My in-laws live there. Why?
    I just wondered as I know you grew up in Australia but hadn't seen you mention anything about Canada.
    LOL, a foreigner and an English nationalist , how we chuckled.
  • Options
    anothernickanothernick Posts: 3,578
    eristdoof said:

    The continued speculation about changing the "Brexit date" by a few weeks and the threat of no deal in one week is good for no European economy and frankly an absurd way to do politics. The 2 year notice that comes with Article 50 was sensible, but we are where we are now, and another approach is needed.

    A formal brexit date should now be withdrawn, but the negotiations votes etc carry on. Once the EU and the UK have agreed the withdrawal plan, then a two month notice is given with a definite date and known leaving conditions. This would allow comanpies and citizens to make realistic plans without having to hav 3 short term contingency plans.

    Anyone who objects, saying that then Brexit will never happen, i reply "if the political will for Brexit is there then it will happen and Brexit is so big, we need to get it right, not rushed through in a few days just to meet a deadline"

    That is effectively what will happen if the EU grants a long "flextension" as suggested in the media this morning. However the chances of the UK parliament agreeing on a deal are pretty slim, so the effect of a long extension will be to keep the UK in the EU indefinitely, or until the EU decides to throw us out (which they might do if we adopt the Rees Mogg bad behaviour strategy).
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,679
    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    The preliminary investigation into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month revealed Thursday that pilots began fighting the Boeing 737 MAX’s new automatic flight-control system barely a minute after leaving the ground, after a sensor failed shortly after takeoff....

    The “black box” flight-recorder data shows that after MCAS swiveled the plane’s horizontal tail to push the nose sharply down three times in succession, the pilots hit the cut-off switches stopping the automatic action and tried to adjust the tail manually, according to the report by the Accident Investigation Bureau of Ethiopia’s Transport Ministry.

    In doing so, they were following instructions provided by Boeing last November, following the crash of Lion Air Flight 610, on how to deal with such an inadvertent triggering of the new flight-control system.


    https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/preliminary-crash-report-reveals-detail-of-ethiopian-pilots-fight-against-the-737-max-flight-controls/

    Surprised Boeing's share price hasn't taken more of a pasting tbh.
    Boeing sold $400m worth of Block III Super Hornets the USN just yesterday.
    $4bn surely? ($400m would only be 7 aircraft) ??
    Yes. Typo induced by brexit neurosis.
    What's $3.6bn between friends? :wink:
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    malcolmg said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    bollox
    ???

    I spent my entire High School time in Australia then moved back to the UK and went to University of Nottingham. I see no bigger difference between Melbourne and Nottingham than I do between London and Nottingham.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    malcolmg said:

    kamski said:

    WTO rules only apply to countries that belong to the WTO, not "everyone". EU rules only apply to countries that belong to the EU. I don't see a fundamental difference, just one of degree, and the size of the group.

    For me it's not a question of principle, but whether you think, like me, that we have more in common (and more common interests) with our European neighbours, and therefore it is in our interests to share more rules with them, than with the wider 159 members of the WTO. Or not.

    But claiming
    In the EU=not a free country.
    Remaining a member of other international organisations/treaties=we are a free country
    is illogical

    I think some people just hate the idea of Britain cooperating with other Europeans, and having to treat people like the Germans as equals. Obviously not true of lots of leavers, but people like Jenkin really annoy me.

    No we do not have more in common with Europeans. We have more in common historically, culturally, linguistically and even in our Common Law legal system with English-speaking Commonwealth nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do Germany, Hungary or Romania.
    So we should get out of this unnatural union with Europeans with 'foreign' legal systems like Scotland's?
    Yes. Did you miss the debate yesterday?
    It's pretty hard to sustain the argument that "we" have more in common with Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do with other Europeans if you're including Scotland in the other category.
    I think we have more in common with Scotland than the others but I think we should still dissolve the UK anyway despite that.
    Incidentally, how much time have you spent in Canada?
    More time than I've spent in any individual EU nation, a few weeks at a time every couple of years. My in-laws live there. Why?
    I just wondered as I know you grew up in Australia but hadn't seen you mention anything about Canada.
    LOL, a foreigner and an English nationalist , how we chuckled.
    I'm English not a foreigner. I grew up as an English expat in Australia, always supporting England in the Ashes - and as this was in the 1990s I was always the Pommie Bastard whenever we lost the Ashes.
  • Options
    Harris_TweedHarris_Tweed Posts: 1,300
    Not that it mattered in this case, but from the party names in this one, I suspect there are 3 or 4 candidates who might have been expected to coalesce around UKIP in its Farage guise and added a couple of percent on to their total. That wing needs to sort its life out if it wants any influence in future.

    Don't get me wrong - very happy for them to be screaming "People's Front of Judea" at each other.. but it won't get them anywhere. I guess the same is true of Change and the Lib Dems.. but I imagine they'll get it together with a pact at some point.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,980
    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Anybody that has ever watched Neighbours of Skippy knows it is utter bollox.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,680

    If the Cooper Bill has forced the Government to request a longer extension already it is serving its purpose.
    Looks like the EU are going to give a longer extension anyway with the option for the UK to leave as soon as a deal is agreed. But I wouldn't hold your breath on that one. A long extension will just mean a continuation of squabbling at Westminster and no agreement on anything.
    https://twitter.com/michaelsavage/status/1114077831334649858

    https://twitter.com/quatremer/status/1114074168851562496

    Quatremer changed the GIF on his tweet - the first one was a cartoon of a weakling in a boxing ring being repeatedly flung into the ropes....
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
  • Options
    nico67nico67 Posts: 4,502
    Just shows the vomit inducing hypocrisy of Mogg . Apparently we’re very powerful and can stop lots of things in the EU . But being in the EU made us weak .

  • Options
    asjohnstoneasjohnstone Posts: 1,276
    malcolmg said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    bollox
    It really isn't

    In fact Melbourne is very like Glasgow in a lot of ways, it's a major empire era port city.

    Very sports focused, city centres quite similar.
  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,457
    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,120

    malcolmg said:

    kamski said:

    WTO rules only apply to countries that belong to the WTO, not "everyone". EU rules only apply to countries that belong to the EU. I don't see a fundamental difference, just one of degree, and the size of the group.

    For me it's not a question of principle, but whether you think, like me, that we have more in common (and more common interests) with our European neighbours, and therefore it is in our interests to share more rules with them, than with the wider 159 members of the WTO. Or not.

    But claiming
    In the EU=not a free country.
    Remaining a member of other international organisations/treaties=we are a free country
    is illogical

    I think some people just hate the idea of Britain cooperating with other Europeans, and having to treat people like the Germans as equals. Obviously not true of lots of leavers, but people like Jenkin really annoy me.

    No we do not have more in common with Europeans. We have more in common historically, culturally, linguistically and even in our Common Law legal system with English-speaking Commonwealth nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do Germany, Hungary or Romania.
    So we should get out of this unnatural union with Europeans with 'foreign' legal systems like Scotland's?
    Yes. Did you miss the debate yesterday?
    It's pretty hard to sustain the argument that "we" have more in common with Canada, Australia and New Zealand than we do with other Europeans if you're including Scotland in the other category.
    I think we have more in common with Scotland than the others but I think we should still dissolve the UK anyway despite that.
    Incidentally, how much time have you spent in Canada?
    More time than I've spent in any individual EU nation, a few weeks at a time every couple of years. My in-laws live there. Why?
    I just wondered as I know you grew up in Australia but hadn't seen you mention anything about Canada.
    LOL, a foreigner and an English nationalist , how we chuckled.
    I'm English not a foreigner. I grew up as an English expat in Australia, always supporting England in the Ashes - and as this was in the 1990s I was always the Pommie Bastard whenever we lost the Ashes.
    Note: expat not immigrant. The English are never immigrants!
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    DougSeal said:

    Also Australia is incredibly Anglophobic, Australians on the whole hate the English, a view (other than in Ireland) is not generally replicated in the EU.

    Complete bollocks.

    The Ashes is arguably the greatest sporting rivalry as far as they're concerned [though in the 90s it wasn't much of a contest] but they don't hate us, it is banter. I never once felt hated my entire time there, not once. No more than the French have with the Rosbifs.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,139

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us. Other than cricket, we play completely different sports (RU is as a minority pastime in Aus as RL is in England), think differently, have different attitudes and totally different histories. Most importantly they are on the diametrically opposite side of the world
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,679

    isam said:

    isam said:
    The second point does not invalidate the first.
    I guess if Nick Griffin told people to stop judging others on the colour of their skin it would be hard to say his words were not correct.

    Campbell's reply wasn't exactly in complete agreement...
    There is a difference in kind between calling someone "a piece of shit" and accusing them of treason.

    I think a truer comparison is the practise of labelling those we don't agree with 'extremists'. This type of vilification is equally dangerous to our society.
    Would you describe, say, Tommy Robinson as an extremist, or just someone we (whoever 'we' is) should respectfully disagree with.
    No, I wouldn't. I would engage with whatever apalling views he has, and call them what they are. Calling someone an 'extremist' is meaningless, quite on purpose in my view, because it can then be thrown at anyone who doesn't accord to the Government view.

    It's also insulting. As a Christian myself, to me, an 'extemist' Christian would be a monk, or a missionary, or Mother Theresa. I don't accept that Christianity is a spectrum where a moderate case is just about tolerable but if you get really into it you start bombing people. The same goes for being a Tory. The same goes for being a Scot Nat! We are all complex people with different views and experiences. What is important is what is right and wrong.
    I was with you until the very last sentence. Unfortunately, what is right and wrong is in the eye of the beholder... very few people think that what they believe in is wrong.
  • Options

    malcolmg said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    bollox
    It really isn't

    In fact Melbourne is very like Glasgow in a lot of ways, it's a major empire era port city.

    Very sports focused, city centres quite similar.
    I would suggest they have rather different weather.
  • Options
    kamskikamski Posts: 4,255

    Mr. Thompson, sounds like a comedy plot.

    Mr. Kamski, disagree. The EU's approach to Amazon/VAT was meant to help consumers but ended up harming small and micro-businesses, whilst helping Amazon (because the extra red tape forced many smaller firms/individuals to move to marketplace websites like Amazon).

    To combat ISIS-sold antiquities, a noble goal, the EU made things far more difficult for antique booksellers working legitimately. Now ISIS has lost all its territory, have the rules been loosened? Not that I'm aware of.

    Articles 13 and 11 are great ways to shaft the internet with the deranged ideas of a link tax and an apparent attempt to help protect copyright which many fear, and it seems a legitimate concern, will end up stifling creativity and hammering smaller creative businesses.

    The EU is technologically illiterate, unaware of the most basic concepts of business, and frankly delinquent when it comes to drafting laws like this.

    UK politicians aren't great, but we don't need another layer of bureaucratic morons imposing this sort of bullshit on us.

    OK I'm sure you know more about selling antiques, so that might be a good example, although I'm sure the UK authorities is/would be guilty of similar things.

    but "another layer": wouldn't we just be replacing an EU layer, with a UK layer in most cases?
    I have a little sympathy with the argument that it would be healthier for people complaining to be complaining about UK authorities rather than EU authorities, so we wouldn't be blaming foreigners - one of the few advantages of leaving the EU I can think of.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Note: expat not immigrant. The English are never immigrants!

    We always intended to eventually return home, that's the difference. I never took Aussie citizenship or even permanent residency.
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,311
    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Have you seen quite how many Vietnamese restaurants there are in Shoreditch?
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,929
    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Anglophobia ?! Lol.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us. Other than cricket, we play completely different sports (RU is as a minority pastime in Aus as RL is in England), think differently, have different attitudes and totally different histories. Most importantly they are on the diametrically opposite side of the world
    Considering I actually lived there and never once felt hated you're going to have to do more than just say that to make it convincing. The idea they 'viscerally hate us' is complete and utter bullshit.
  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,457

    isam said:

    isam said:
    The second point does not invalidate the first.
    I guess if Nick Griffin told people to stop judging others on the colour of their skin it would be hard to say his words were not correct.

    Campbell's reply wasn't exactly in complete agreement...
    There is a difference in kind between calling someone "a piece of shit" and accusing them of treason.

    I think a truer comparison is the practise of labelling those we don't agree with 'extremists'. This type of vilification is equally dangerous to our society.
    Would you describe, say, Tommy Robinson as an extremist, or just someone we (whoever 'we' is) should respectfully disagree with.
    No, I wouldn't. I would engage with whatever apalling views he has, and call them what they are. Calling someone an 'extremist' is meaningless, quite on purpose in my view, because it can then be thrown at anyone who doesn't accord to the Government view.

    It's also insulting. As a Christian myself, to me, an 'extemist' Christian would be a monk, or a missionary, or Mother Theresa. I don't accept that Christianity is a spectrum where a moderate case is just about tolerable but if you get really into it you start bombing people. The same goes for being a Tory. The same goes for being a Scot Nat! We are all complex people with different views and experiences. What is important is what is right and wrong.
    I was with you until the very last sentence. Unfortunately, what is right and wrong is in the eye of the beholder... very few people think that what they believe in is wrong.
    Perhaps, but most things that are wrong can be shown to be so in my opinion. If they cannot, we should perhaps question whether they are. But that's another debate!
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,790
    'nuff said. Baroness Boothroyd:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrZFRVd-cX4
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,139

    DougSeal said:

    Also Australia is incredibly Anglophobic, Australians on the whole hate the English, a view (other than in Ireland) is not generally replicated in the EU.

    Complete bollocks.

    The Ashes is arguably the greatest sporting rivalry as far as they're concerned [though in the 90s it wasn't much of a contest] but they don't hate us, it is banter. I never once felt hated my entire time there, not once. No more than the French have with the Rosbifs.
    That is incredibly naive. Attitudes surveys towards the English in Australia usually show we are at the bottom of the pile in their estimation. They see the Ashes as a joke - the big rivalries were with the Windies until their decline but now with India. We are generally viewed with contempt there.
  • Options
    asjohnstoneasjohnstone Posts: 1,276

    malcolmg said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    bollox
    It really isn't

    In fact Melbourne is very like Glasgow in a lot of ways, it's a major empire era port city.

    Very sports focused, city centres quite similar.
    I would suggest they have rather different weather.
    Obviously, but the point remains. Glasgow with sunshine.

    I've attended old firm matches, I've attended Carlton vs Richmond at the MCG. Not so different.
  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,114

    malcolmg said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    bollox
    It really isn't

    In fact Melbourne is very like Glasgow in a lot of ways, it's a major empire era port city.

    Very sports focused, city centres quite similar.
    Are there many stabbings after sports fixtures?
  • Options
    mr-claypolemr-claypole Posts: 217
    Re the expat thing I have wondered if growing up with an idea of England rather than in it give rise to a certain nationalistic fervour.My father in law was in the British Council for many years and observed that the biggest little englanders were often actually expat progeny. Hannan was an expat/migrant child wasn't he?
  • Options
    geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,166
    »

    isam said:

    isam said:
    The second point does not invalidate the first.
    I guess if Nick Griffin told people to stop judging others on the colour of their skin it would be hard to say his words were not correct.

    Campbell's reply wasn't exactly in complete agreement...
    There is a difference in kind between calling someone "a piece of shit" and accusing them of treason.

    I think a truer comparison is the practise of labelling those we don't agree with 'extremists'. This type of vilification is equally dangerous to our society.
    Would you describe, say, Tommy Robinson as an extremist, or just someone we (whoever 'we' is) should respectfully disagree with.
    No, I wouldn't. I would engage with whatever apalling views he has, and call them what they are. Calling someone an 'extremist' is meaningless, quite on purpose in my view, because it can then be thrown at anyone who doesn't accord to the Government view.

    It's also insulting. As a Christian myself, to me, an 'extemist' Christian would be a monk, or a missionary, or Mother Theresa. I don't accept that Christianity is a spectrum where a moderate case is just about tolerable but if you get really into it you start bombing people. The same goes for being a Tory. The same goes for being a Scot Nat! We are all complex people with different views and experiences. What is important is what is right and wrong.
    "Extremism in the defence of liberty" (Barry Goldwater)
    I never understood why that was supposedly anathema.
  • Options
    asjohnstoneasjohnstone Posts: 1,276
    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us. Other than cricket, we play completely different sports (RU is as a minority pastime in Aus as RL is in England), think differently, have different attitudes and totally different histories. Most importantly they are on the diametrically opposite side of the world
    I'd suggest there is a large shared history, and much more unites than divides
  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,114

    isam said:

    isam said:
    The second point does not invalidate the first.
    I guess if Nick Griffin told people to stop judging others on the colour of their skin it would be hard to say his words were not correct.

    Campbell's reply wasn't exactly in complete agreement...
    There is a difference in kind between calling someone "a piece of shit" and accusing them of treason.

    I think a truer comparison is the practise of labelling those we don't agree with 'extremists'. This type of vilification is equally dangerous to our society.
    Would you describe, say, Tommy Robinson as an extremist, or just someone we (whoever 'we' is) should respectfully disagree with.
    No, I wouldn't. I would engage with whatever apalling views he has, and call them what they are. Calling someone an 'extremist' is meaningless, quite on purpose in my view, because it can then be thrown at anyone who doesn't accord to the Government view.

    It's also insulting. As a Christian myself, to me, an 'extemist' Christian would be a monk, or a missionary, or Mother Theresa. I don't accept that Christianity is a spectrum where a moderate case is just about tolerable but if you get really into it you start bombing people. The same goes for being a Tory. The same goes for being a Scot Nat! We are all complex people with different views and experiences. What is important is what is right and wrong.
    One finds moral relativism in the strangest places!

    I (or my political viewpoints more precisely) have certainly been called extreme by governments and individuals, but I think I'm confident enough to survive it. I think it would be a pity to remove a word from the common vocabulary just because governments use or misuse it.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Also Australia is incredibly Anglophobic, Australians on the whole hate the English, a view (other than in Ireland) is not generally replicated in the EU.

    Complete bollocks.

    The Ashes is arguably the greatest sporting rivalry as far as they're concerned [though in the 90s it wasn't much of a contest] but they don't hate us, it is banter. I never once felt hated my entire time there, not once. No more than the French have with the Rosbifs.
    That is incredibly naive. Attitudes surveys towards the English in Australia usually show we are at the bottom of the pile in their estimation. They see the Ashes as a joke - the big rivalries were with the Windies until their decline but now with India. We are generally viewed with contempt there.
    Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks as anyone who has even holidayed in let alone lived in Australia could tell you. Give some evidence.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,653
    edited April 2019

    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us. Other than cricket, we play completely different sports (RU is as a minority pastime in Aus as RL is in England), think differently, have different attitudes and totally different histories. Most importantly they are on the diametrically opposite side of the world
    Considering I actually lived there and never once felt hated you're going to have to do more than just say that to make it convincing. The idea they 'viscerally hate us' is complete and utter bullshit.
    As someone who has lived there, and has family there, I agree there is no visceral hate of the English in Australia.

    They don't see us as the future though, theirs has been a pacific future since the Sixties at least.

  • Options
    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    'Beleaguered' used to be a perfect word for politicians on their uppers but for Mrs May it sounds pitifully inadequate.
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,790

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
  • Options
    anothernickanothernick Posts: 3,578
    nico67 said:

    Just shows the vomit inducing hypocrisy of Mogg . Apparently we’re very powerful and can stop lots of things in the EU . But being in the EU made us weak .

    Surely no one take him seriously now. He has held three completely separate and contradictory positions on the WA in the past couple of weeks.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Foxy said:

    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us. Other than cricket, we play completely different sports (RU is as a minority pastime in Aus as RL is in England), think differently, have different attitudes and totally different histories. Most importantly they are on the diametrically opposite side of the world
    Considering I actually lived there and never once felt hated you're going to have to do more than just say that to make it convincing. The idea they 'viscerally hate us' is complete and utter bullshit.
    As someone who has lived there, and has family there, I agree there is no visceral hate of the English in Australia.

    They don't see us as the future though, theirs has been a pacific future since the Sixties at least.

    Agreed. They are our kin though. I view my future as my wife and children not my siblings.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,680

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all.
    Your fellow countrymen do. By a wide margin its the most popular destination for British expats, with the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa all in the top 10. The 4 continental EU countries in the top 10 have fewer in total than Australia alone.
  • Options
    mr-claypolemr-claypole Posts: 217

    nico67 said:

    Just shows the vomit inducing hypocrisy of Mogg . Apparently we’re very powerful and can stop lots of things in the EU . But being in the EU made us weak .

    Surely no one take him seriously now. He has held three completely separate and contradictory positions on the WA in the past couple of weeks.
    Revealing he is not very good at politics which is why he was not offered any ministerial advancement before the current sh@tshow
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,997

    isam said:

    isam said:
    The second point does not invalidate the first.
    I guess if Nick Griffin told people to stop judging others on the colour of their skin it would be hard to say his words were not correct.

    Campbell's reply wasn't exactly in complete agreement...
    There is a difference in kind between calling someone "a piece of shit" and accusing them of treason.

    I think a truer comparison is the practise of labelling those we don't agree with 'extremists'. This type of vilification is equally dangerous to our society.
    Would you describe, say, Tommy Robinson as an extremist, or just someone we (whoever 'we' is) should respectfully disagree with.
    No, I wouldn't. I would engage with whatever apalling views he has, and call them what they are. Calling someone an 'extremist' is meaningless, quite on purpose in my view, because it can then be thrown at anyone who doesn't accord to the Government view.

    It's also insulting. As a Christian myself, to me, an 'extemist' Christian would be a monk, or a missionary, or Mother Theresa. I don't accept that Christianity is a spectrum where a moderate case is just about tolerable but if you get really into it you start bombing people. The same goes for being a Tory. The same goes for being a Scot Nat! We are all complex people with different views and experiences. What is important is what is right and wrong.
    I was with you until the very last sentence. Unfortunately, what is right and wrong is in the eye of the beholder... very few people think that what they believe in is wrong.
    Wouldn't it be reasonable (haha) to describe a Jehovahs Witness or a member of the Plymouth Brethren as an extremist Christian?
  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633
    Roger said:

    'Beleaguered' used to be a perfect word for politicians on their uppers but for Mrs May it sounds pitifully inadequate.

    She is now a septic tank (not rhyming slang) - her opponents in the Con party are happy to trade short term pain to ensure that all the Brexit poison ends up in her bowl.

    However this approach of leaving her in place is postponing the end of the ordeal.

    Normally he who wields the dagger doesn't get the crown - but these aren't normal times.
  • Options
    moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,244
    Pulpstar said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Anglophobia ?! Lol.
    Yes what a nonsense. An Englishman is more welcome in the average Australian bar than Scottish one. That is not to underplay that Australian culture is increasingly influenced by Eastern Asia, which is a black hole on the map for most people in the UK. But you could have a common travel area with Australia (and New Zealand for that matter) and it would have a less noticable impact on social cohesion than there was even with the 2004 EU accession countries.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,626

    The preliminary investigation into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month revealed Thursday that pilots began fighting the Boeing 737 MAX’s new automatic flight-control system barely a minute after leaving the ground, after a sensor failed shortly after takeoff....

    The “black box” flight-recorder data shows that after MCAS swiveled the plane’s horizontal tail to push the nose sharply down three times in succession, the pilots hit the cut-off switches stopping the automatic action and tried to adjust the tail manually, according to the report by the Accident Investigation Bureau of Ethiopia’s Transport Ministry.

    In doing so, they were following instructions provided by Boeing last November, following the crash of Lion Air Flight 610, on how to deal with such an inadvertent triggering of the new flight-control system.


    https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/preliminary-crash-report-reveals-detail-of-ethiopian-pilots-fight-against-the-737-max-flight-controls/

    Surprised Boeing's share price hasn't taken more of a pasting tbh.
    Regardless of what happens they will remain in a duopoly and recover.
    Does the US prosecute corporate manslaughter? Someone needs to be accountable
    Which is worse VW's fiddling of emmissions tests or Boeing's alleged short-cutting of certification?
    Boeing's led to direct deaths so probably the latter but the certification process was decided by the FAA not them. VW committed outright fraud which I don't think Boeing have actually been accused of.
    Yes, sounds reasonable. One thing it reinforces for me is that large corporates need close scrutiny.
    Which the FAA was providing until the 'streamlining' of their approvals procedure...
  • Options
    VerulamiusVerulamius Posts: 1,435
    My understanding is that under Article 50 the European Parliament has to give consent to the agreement. The last date the European Parliament sits before its elections is Thursday 18 April. So if the withdrawal agreement is not agreed before then the first session of the new Parliament is in July.

    So in practice it would appear that an extension to 30 June is not helpful unless the WA is agreed before Easter.
  • Options
    RoyalBlueRoyalBlue Posts: 3,223
    edited April 2019
    I would love to drop people who think there are significant cultural differences between England and Australia into Lagos, Riyadh, Peshawar or Phnom Penh.

    It’s a big world out there.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,680
    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us.
    As you write, you don't know Australia well.

    Australians don't do visceral hatred, for starters.

    And your facts are contradicted by polling evidence:

    Feelings towards other countries

    Three Anglosphere countries top the feelings thermometer this year: New Zealand (86°), Canada (84°), and the United Kingdom (82°). The United States ranks lower, at 67°. Feelings towards the European Union warmed five points to 67°, while those towards Germany (71°) and France (70°) remained steady. Japan recorded a three-point rise to 74°, while feelings for South Korea (62°), the Philippines (61°), Taiwan (60°), and China (58°) are moderately warm. Feelings for Indonesia remain lukewarm at 54°, and neither warm nor cold for Myanmar (50°). In the Pacific, Papua New Guinea registers a warmish 63°, and East Timor a cooler 57°. Russia (47°), Saudi Arabia (40°), and North Korea (25°) all sit on the cold side of the thermometer.


    https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/2018-lowy-institute-poll
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all.
    Your fellow countrymen do. By a wide margin its the most popular destination for British expats, with the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa all in the top 10. The 4 continental EU countries in the top 10 have fewer in total than Australia alone.
    Is that cumulative or current? I'm not sure how helpful it is to work on the basis of people such as my aunt, who emigrated to Australia in 1963.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226

    May of course can't ask for later than June 30 as shes said she'll quit first

    Yes, she goes either way now, on the face of it. WA passes, she has pledged to stand down. WA doesn't pass, thus a long extension which is "unacceptable to me as Prime Minister".

    So Tory leadership contest in the summer, then an October GE.

    Will that GE be after we have Brexited or before? Will the WA have passed by then or will we still be at impasse? That for me is the biggest question in British politics right now because the answer will decide (i) who wins the election and (ii) whether Ref2 happens and we remain.

    By the summer of next year we will either be an EU country with a socialist government or we will have left the EU and have a right wing Tory government.

    That's what you call a choice.
  • Options
    geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,166
    Mrs May should ask for an extension until mid August.
    "Just for the lols!" as some of you say on here.
  • Options
    TheValiantTheValiant Posts: 1,710
    nico67 said:

    Flextension now enters the lexicon .

    An interesting offer from Tusk. Certainly makes more sense than lots of mini extensions , enough time to hopefully rid the country of the Tories .

    My concern with a 'flextension' as it might be called is that it's like the final assignment.
    Someone says you have until 31st March 2020 to submit it, but if you submit it earlier you can have your degree and leave earlier. What happens?
    Bleary eyed and having stayed up all night, you submit at 8.53am on the morning of the 31st March.

    If we get a years extension, don't anybody think it won't be used in full, AND you'll have all the different factions misusing the time to try and get what they want, from No Dealers to Remainers.

  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,626

    The preliminary investigation into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month revealed Thursday that pilots began fighting the Boeing 737 MAX’s new automatic flight-control system barely a minute after leaving the ground, after a sensor failed shortly after takeoff....

    The “black box” flight-recorder data shows that after MCAS swiveled the plane’s horizontal tail to push the nose sharply down three times in succession, the pilots hit the cut-off switches stopping the automatic action and tried to adjust the tail manually, according to the report by the Accident Investigation Bureau of Ethiopia’s Transport Ministry.

    In doing so, they were following instructions provided by Boeing last November, following the crash of Lion Air Flight 610, on how to deal with such an inadvertent triggering of the new flight-control system.


    https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/preliminary-crash-report-reveals-detail-of-ethiopian-pilots-fight-against-the-737-max-flight-controls/

    Surprised Boeing's share price hasn't taken more of a pasting tbh.
    Regardless of what happens they will remain in a duopoly and recover.
    Does the US prosecute corporate manslaughter? Someone needs to be accountable
    Which is worse VW's fiddling of emmissions tests or Boeing's alleged short-cutting of certification?
    Boeing's led to direct deaths so probably the latter but the certification process was decided by the FAA not them. VW committed outright fraud which I don't think Boeing have actually been accused of.
    Boeing participated directly in the certification process under the new streamlined procedure.

    I wouldn't know whether they did anything illegal, but there is an FBI investigation:
    https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/fbi-joining-criminal-investigation-into-certification-of-boeing-737-max/
  • Options
    Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 30,951

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
    I would define governed, at least in part, as having laws made for us, with or without our agreement, over which we have no veto. That is certainly the case with the EU.
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,790
    Mr Thompson: I'm English not a foreigner. I grew up as an English expat in Australia, always supporting England in the Ashes - and as this was in the 1990s I was always the Pommie Bastard whenever we lost the Ashes.

    Haha, the English version of a "mock-Jock". Never come across one before. Trying sooo hard to be English. It explains everything you have written on here. Let me let you into a secret. We are all just human beings, with a common ancestor. All people that live on these islands are immigrants if you trace it far enough back, with the exception of Jacob Rees Mogg who inexplicably grew out of a serving of overcooked primordial soup, mixed with one of his ancestors biscuits, that was brewed up at the Eton canteen in 1441.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,680

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all.
    Your fellow countrymen do. By a wide margin its the most popular destination for British expats, with the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa all in the top 10. The 4 continental EU countries in the top 10 have fewer in total than Australia alone.
    Is that cumulative or current? I'm not sure how helpful it is to work on the basis of people such as my aunt, who emigrated to Australia in 1963.
    The most recent year has the USA at #1, Australia #2, with the top EU entrant Spain at #5:

    https://www.movehub.com/blog/top-10-countries-brits-choose/
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,790

    isam said:

    isam said:
    The second point does not invalidate the first.
    I guess if Nick Griffin told people to stop judging others on the colour of their skin it would be hard to say his words were not correct.

    Campbell's reply wasn't exactly in complete agreement...
    There is a difference in kind between calling someone "a piece of shit" and accusing them of treason.

    I think a truer comparison is the practise of labelling those we don't agree with 'extremists'. This type of vilification is equally dangerous to our society.
    Would you describe, say, Tommy Robinson as an extremist, or just someone we (whoever 'we' is) should respectfully disagree with.
    No, I wouldn't. I would engage with whatever apalling views he has, and call them what they are. Calling someone an 'extremist' is meaningless, quite on purpose in my view, because it can then be thrown at anyone who doesn't accord to the Government view.

    It's also insulting. As a Christian myself, to me, an 'extemist' Christian would be a monk, or a missionary, or Mother Theresa. I don't accept that Christianity is a spectrum where a moderate case is just about tolerable but if you get really into it you start bombing people. The same goes for being a Tory. The same goes for being a Scot Nat! We are all complex people with different views and experiences. What is important is what is right and wrong.
    I was with you until the very last sentence. Unfortunately, what is right and wrong is in the eye of the beholder... very few people think that what they believe in is wrong.
    Wouldn't it be reasonable (haha) to describe a Jehovahs Witness or a member of the Plymouth Brethren as an extremist Christian?
    Not sure about the latter, but the former are not regarded as technically "Christian" as they are heretical. Similarly the Mormons. Extremist Christians might include a lot of the Baptist evangelicals I would guess
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,997

    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. . My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.


    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us.
    As you write, you don't know Australia well.

    Australians don't do visceral hatred, for starters.

    And your facts are contradicted by polling evidence:

    Feelings towards other countries

    Three Anglosphere countries top the feelings thermometer this year: New Zealand (86°), Canada (84°), and the United Kingdom (82°). The United States ranks lower, at 67°. Feelings towards the European Union warmed five points to 67°, while those towards Germany (71°) and France (70°) remained steady. Japan recorded a three-point rise to 74°, while feelings for South Korea (62°), the Philippines (61°), Taiwan (60°), and China (58°) are moderately warm. Feelings for Indonesia remain lukewarm at 54°, and neither warm nor cold for Myanmar (50°). In the Pacific, Papua New Guinea registers a warmish 63°, and East Timor a cooler 57°. Russia (47°), Saudi Arabia (40°), and North Korea (25°) all sit on the cold side of the thermometer.


    https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/2018-lowy-institute-poll
    Interesting that Thailand doesn't feature, given the frequency with which one encounters Aussies there. Some Australians seem particularly affectionate to some Thais!
    I've never found hostility in Australia, even while watching cricket in Sydney.
  • Options
    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,984
    Mr. Kamski, the UK didn't create the #VATmess, the antiquities nonsense, or the wretched Articles 11 and 13.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,679
    This Australia v Europe thing is pointless. We are not going to get fresh veg from Australia or build cars based on complex supply lines with, or exports to, Australia. Nor are we going to track many terrorists trying to get into or out of our country via Australia.

    Proximity trumps all.
  • Options
    Blue_rogBlue_rog Posts: 2,019
    If we get an extension, I think the run up to the European elections will be hilarious.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,997

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
    I would define governed, at least in part, as having laws made for us, with or without our agreement, over which we have no veto. That is certainly the case with the EU.
    Didn't we... don't we still for the moment anyway.... have a seat on all the governing bodies?
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,120

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all.
    Your fellow countrymen do. By a wide margin its the most popular destination for British expats, with the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa all in the top 10. The 4 continental EU countries in the top 10 have fewer in total than Australia alone.
    Is that cumulative or current? I'm not sure how helpful it is to work on the basis of people such as my aunt, who emigrated to Australia in 1963.
    The most recent year has the USA at #1, Australia #2, with the top EU entrant Spain at #5:

    https://www.movehub.com/blog/top-10-countries-brits-choose/
    An Australian colleague told me that the British are the least successful immigrant group in Australia, because they arrive with a sense of entitlement and a belief that Australia is just like Britain but with better weather and are less willing to put in the hard graft than Asian immigrants as a result. Her parents were British immigrants, incidentally, so I have no reason to think her remarks were prompted by any malice.
  • Options
    ParistondaParistonda Posts: 1,819
    Having in lived in the US and now in France I would say I feel culturally closer to France, but they both "win" in different ways. We share more of the American mindset (particularly adaptability, focus on experience over diplomas etc) , but our society as a whole is more French (not really into overt patriotism or influence of religion on politics, generally more socially Liberal and economically left, a shared and intertwined history and the experiences of being two nearly identical countries in terms of economy, population, influence etc)
  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633
    Blue_rog said:

    If we get an extension, I think the run up to the European elections will be hilarious.

    Will candidates not even know at the count as to whether they will take their seats ?

    Farcical.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,680
    More on that poll of Australian attitudes:

    The United Kingdom earns Australians’ highest level of trust, as it did in 2017, and this despite its vote to exit from the European Union – a move not favoured by Australians when we asked them in 2016. Almost all adult Australians (90%) trust the United Kingdom to ‘act responsibly in the world’. Japan is trusted by 87% of Australians, and France by 84%. Further behind, India is trusted by 59% of Australians, which places it ahead of the United States in Australians’ level of trust. China and the United States are not statistically separable on the question of trust, with 52% of Australians trusting China to the same degree as they trust the United States. Russia is trusted by only 28% of Australians (down ten points since 2017), and North Korea by 8% (down four points).

    It will be interesting to see how we've fared after the recent sh*t show!
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,997

    Mr. Kamski, the UK didn't create the #VATmess, the antiquities nonsense, or the wretched Articles 11 and 13.

    Surely we were in the room when they were?
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,283
    kinabalu said:

    May of course can't ask for later than June 30 as shes said she'll quit first

    Yes, she goes either way now, on the face of it. WA passes, she has pledged to stand down. WA doesn't pass, thus a long extension which is "unacceptable to me as Prime Minister".

    So Tory leadership contest in the summer, then an October GE.

    Will that GE be after we have Brexited or before? Will the WA have passed by then or will we still be at impasse? That for me is the biggest question in British politics right now because the answer will decide (i) who wins the election and (ii) whether Ref2 happens and we remain.

    By the summer of next year we will either be an EU country with a socialist government or we will have left the EU and have a right wing Tory government.

    That's what you call a choice.
    I don't think a new Tory leader will be keen on a GE. Unless they pick an extremist and lose a chunk of their MPs, of course, so they have no choice. What a dilemma
  • Options
    anothernickanothernick Posts: 3,578
    kinabalu said:

    May of course can't ask for later than June 30 as shes said she'll quit first

    Yes, she goes either way now, on the face of it. WA passes, she has pledged to stand down. WA doesn't pass, thus a long extension which is "unacceptable to me as Prime Minister".

    So Tory leadership contest in the summer, then an October GE.

    Will that GE be after we have Brexited or before? Will the WA have passed by then or will we still be at impasse? That for me is the biggest question in British politics right now because the answer will decide (i) who wins the election and (ii) whether Ref2 happens and we remain.

    By the summer of next year we will either be an EU country with a socialist government or we will have left the EU and have a right wing Tory government.

    That's what you call a choice.
    There will be no agreement on the WA before a GE. And it's quite likely that a GE will produce another indecisive result, which will mean there will still be no agreement on the WA. It's quite likely that the UK will remain in a transitional state on the way out of the EU but unable actually to leave for a prolonged period. (Norway is technically in a transitional state on the way in, and this has endured since the 1990s).
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,790

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
    I would define governed, at least in part, as having laws made for us, with or without our agreement, over which we have no veto. That is certainly the case with the EU.
    We participate in all EU law, directly or indirectly, via the Council of Ministers who the Commission reports to, so no, we are not governed by the EU. I doubt that any reputable lawyer or constitutional expert would agree with your contention.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,679
    Blue_rog said:

    If we get an extension, I think the run up to the European elections will be hilarious.

    They will. With the added bonus that the elections could be cancelled at any time.

    Will the polls influence the willingness of major parties to agree a deal and see the elections cancelled?

    Will parties be able to reclaim their expenses if the election is canned at the last minute?
  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all.
    Your fellow countrymen do. By a wide margin its the most popular destination for British expats, with the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa all in the top 10. The 4 continental EU countries in the top 10 have fewer in total than Australia alone.
    Is that cumulative or current? I'm not sure how helpful it is to work on the basis of people such as my aunt, who emigrated to Australia in 1963.
    The most recent year has the USA at #1, Australia #2, with the top EU entrant Spain at #5:

    https://www.movehub.com/blog/top-10-countries-brits-choose/
    An Australian colleague told me that the British are the least successful immigrant group in Australia, because they arrive with a sense of entitlement and a belief that Australia is just like Britain but with better weather and are less willing to put in the hard graft than Asian immigrants as a result. Her parents were British immigrants, incidentally, so I have no reason to think her remarks were prompted by any malice.
    Replace "British" for Pakistani and "Australia" with Bradford and you would get arrested.

    What a steaming pile of generalisation.

  • Options
    Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 30,951

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
    I would define governed, at least in part, as having laws made for us, with or without our agreement, over which we have no veto. That is certainly the case with the EU.
    Didn't we... don't we still for the moment anyway.... have a seat on all the governing bodies?
    We do. But in the majority of cases we do not have a veto. That means laws can be made against our wishes. It is a fundamental point.
  • Options
    OblitusSumMeOblitusSumMe Posts: 9,143
    May's letter requesting an extension to June 30th is a sign of such pathetic weakness.

    The only good thing is that she's sent it in plenty of time to be rejected, for the benefit of spelling out the logic to the ERG dunderheads, so that she can make a proper request next week.

    What a pantomime.
  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633
    Tom Watson calls for second referendum.
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,120
    TGOHF said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all.
    Your fellow countrymen do. By a wide margin its the most popular destination for British expats, with the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa all in the top 10. The 4 continental EU countries in the top 10 have fewer in total than Australia alone.
    Is that cumulative or current? I'm not sure how helpful it is to work on the basis of people such as my aunt, who emigrated to Australia in 1963.
    The most recent year has the USA at #1, Australia #2, with the top EU entrant Spain at #5:

    https://www.movehub.com/blog/top-10-countries-brits-choose/
    An Australian colleague told me that the British are the least successful immigrant group in Australia, because they arrive with a sense of entitlement and a belief that Australia is just like Britain but with better weather and are less willing to put in the hard graft than Asian immigrants as a result. Her parents were British immigrants, incidentally, so I have no reason to think her remarks were prompted by any malice.
    Replace "British" for Pakistani and "Australia" with Bradford and you would get arrested.

    What a steaming pile of generalisation.

    I don't think anyone migrates to Britain for the weather so I don't think the comparison holds. I am only reporting what she told me, but if you want to arrest her be my guest.
  • Options
    OllyTOllyT Posts: 4,913

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the world taught me that the cultural differences between the US and the UK are vast while the cultural similarities between the UK and other northern Europeans (Irish, Scandis, Dutch, Germans and French in decreasing order of cultural distance) are pretty small. Of course the language barrier is the key reason we think we identify more with the US than with our European neighbours, but since I was working with Europeans who spoke perfect English it wasn't an issue and the cultural similarities were much more manifest. My impression is that Australia and Canada are more like us than the US is, but that was based on short visits, and both countries seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    I don't know Australia well at all.
    Your fellow countrymen do. By a wide margin its the most popular destination for British expats, with the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa all in the top 10. The 4 continental EU countries in the top 10 have fewer in total than Australia alone.
    That's largely because we Brits rarely speak any other language than English.
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,071

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
    I would define governed, at least in part, as having laws made for us, with or without our agreement, over which we have no veto. That is certainly the case with the EU.
    Didn't we... don't we still for the moment anyway.... have a seat on all the governing bodies?
    We do. But in the majority of cases we do not have a veto. That means laws can be made against our wishes. It is a fundamental point.
    Your own definition of "we" is flexible and you're happy to redefine it based on the decisions of others, so I'm not sure why you're so absolutist about the need for national vetos within the EU.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,283

    May's letter requesting an extension to June 30th is a sign of such pathetic weakness.

    The only good thing is that she's sent it in plenty of time to be rejected, for the benefit of spelling out the logic to the ERG dunderheads, so that she can make a proper request next week.

    What a pantomime.

    That and the Lord's filibuster were simply an attempt to head off Parliament forcing a longer extension. which the EU will now do anyway, if it has any sense
  • Options
    GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 20,820
    Presumably this time next week we'll be in a Con leadership election?

    The moment she agrees to a one year extension and to the UK taking part in EU elections will be the moment she'll be expected to tender her resignation as Con leader and trigger a leadership election?
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    edited April 2019

    Haha, the English version of a "mock-Jock". Never come across one before. Trying sooo hard to be English. It explains everything you have written on here. Let me let you into a secret. We are all just human beings, with a common ancestor. All people that live on these islands are immigrants if you trace it far enough back, with the exception of Jacob Rees Mogg who inexplicably grew out of a serving of overcooked primordial soup, mixed with one of his ancestors biscuits, that was brewed up at the Eton canteen in 1441.

    How am I mock-English?

    I was born in England, lived here 1982-1992 and then 2000-present. Spending some formative years overseas doesn't change your nationality.

    Would you call a Scot who had spent 7 years abroad a mock-Jock?
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,680
    edited April 2019



    Interesting that Thailand doesn't feature, given the frequency with which one encounters Aussies there. Some Australians seem particularly affectionate to some Thais!
    I've never found hostility in Australia, even while watching cricket in Sydney.

    There's a limited list of countries asked about.

    And despite the number of Australians in Bali, Australian attitudes to Indonesia are luke-warm at best.

    Interestingly, Australian attitudes towards Britain have improved over the last decade - when first asked in 2006 we scored 74 - even post the Brexit referendum its 82 - highest ever.
  • Options

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
    I would define governed, at least in part, as having laws made for us, with or without our agreement, over which we have no veto. That is certainly the case with the EU.
    Didn't we... don't we still for the moment anyway.... have a seat on all the governing bodies?
    We do. But in the majority of cases we do not have a veto. That means laws can be made against our wishes. It is a fundamental point.
    Yet the constant complaint about the EU is that it is "undemocratic". In democracies 27 Yeses and 1 No means Yes, not No.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,679
    GIN1138 said:

    Presumably this time next week we'll be in a Con leadership election?

    The moment she agrees to a one year extension and to the UK taking part in EU elections will be the moment she'll be expected to tender her resignation as Con leader and trigger a leadership election?

    Expected? But she cannot be forced to resign, so it's not happening.
  • Options
    glwglw Posts: 9,549

    This Australia v Europe thing is pointless. We are not going to get fresh veg from Australia or build cars based on complex supply lines with, or exports to, Australia. Nor are we going to track many terrorists trying to get into or out of our country via Australia.

    Proximity trumps all.

    Only for goods, and even that is limited due to the expansion of shipping and containerization, but in services proximity is almost irrelevant. What matters there are things like law, language, communications, and transport. There's no reason in principle why an FTA for services should not span the globe.
  • Options
    OblitusSumMeOblitusSumMe Posts: 9,143

    The preliminary investigation into the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month revealed Thursday that pilots began fighting the Boeing 737 MAX’s new automatic flight-control system barely a minute after leaving the ground, after a sensor failed shortly after takeoff....

    The “black box” flight-recorder data shows that after MCAS swiveled the plane’s horizontal tail to push the nose sharply down three times in succession, the pilots hit the cut-off switches stopping the automatic action and tried to adjust the tail manually, according to the report by the Accident Investigation Bureau of Ethiopia’s Transport Ministry.

    In doing so, they were following instructions provided by Boeing last November, following the crash of Lion Air Flight 610, on how to deal with such an inadvertent triggering of the new flight-control system.


    https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/preliminary-crash-report-reveals-detail-of-ethiopian-pilots-fight-against-the-737-max-flight-controls/

    Surprised Boeing's share price hasn't taken more of a pasting tbh.
    Regardless of what happens they will remain in a duopoly and recover.
    Does the US prosecute corporate manslaughter? Someone needs to be accountable
    Which is worse VW's fiddling of emmissions tests or Boeing's alleged short-cutting of certification?
    Boeing's led to direct deaths so probably the latter but the certification process was decided by the FAA not them. VW committed outright fraud which I don't think Boeing have actually been accused of.
    Higher emissions = higher deaths too. If they'd told the truth about the real level of emissions, it might have caused Governments to eradicate diesel engines sooner.

    That said, the paper trail up through Boeing senior management is going to be interesting....
    Yes, probably more deaths caused by VW, but the interesting difference is that individual deaths are not directly attributable from the diesel emissions in the way that the deaths from the plane crash are.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    I don't think it matters whether we have more in common with the Europeans or the Anglosphere. I don't want to govern, or be governed, by either. I want to be friends with them all, and that's it.

    We are not "governed" by the EU .
    I would define governed, at least in part, as having laws made for us, with or without our agreement, over which we have no veto. That is certainly the case with the EU.
    We participate in all EU law, directly or indirectly, via the Council of Ministers who the Commission reports to, so no, we are not governed by the EU. I doubt that any reputable lawyer or constitutional expert would agree with your contention.
    We are not governed by Westminster either by your logic. Its odd logic.

    The greatest problem with the EU is the ratchet and irreversible effect of it perverting our Parliamentary system. The EU drives a stake through the heart of the fundamental democratic principle of "no Parliament can bind its successors". A [potentially unpopular] PM/Parliament can put through a [potentially unpopular] legal change through the EU and then we have no way of reversing it.

    Blair/Brown knew Lisbon was unpopular but they ratified it anyway, no successor could then undo that mess.

    I want our laws governed by people we elect, who can reverse what their predecessors passed if it was wrong to pass it.
  • Options
    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,850

    DougSeal said:

    DougSeal said:

    Living in the US for five years and working with people from all over the wos seemed more like the US than the UK.

    I deliberately didn't say the US. I have lived in Australia, it is very much the UK with US influences and more sunshine. The UK itself now has US influences too.

    You could transport Melbourne into the UK and it would not feel alien.
    Apart from the Australian Rules Football, the rampant Anglophobia, the huge Vietnamese and Italian populations - yeah very British.
    Aussie Rules Football is big there yes, but so is Rugby and Cricket. If you go based on sport we play Cricket with more Commonwealth than EU nations. Anglophobia? Don't make me laugh. Yes they call us Poms or Pommie Bastards but its all in good fun. As for having huge minority populations . . . yeah that doesn't exist anywhere in Britain now does it?
    Australian attitudes towards the English are overwhelmingly negative. It’s far more than banter - they viscerally hate us.
    As you write, you don't know Australia well.

    Australians don't do visceral hatred, for starters.

    And your facts are contradicted by polling evidence:

    Feelings towards other countries

    Three Anglosphere countries top the feelings thermometer this year: New Zealand (86°), Canada (84°), and the United Kingdom (82°). The United States ranks lower, at 67°. Feelings towards the European Union warmed five points to 67°, while those towards Germany (71°) and France (70°) remained steady. Japan recorded a three-point rise to 74°, while feelings for South Korea (62°), the Philippines (61°), Taiwan (60°), and China (58°) are moderately warm. Feelings for Indonesia remain lukewarm at 54°, and neither warm nor cold for Myanmar (50°). In the Pacific, Papua New Guinea registers a warmish 63°, and East Timor a cooler 57°. Russia (47°), Saudi Arabia (40°), and North Korea (25°) all sit on the cold side of the thermometer.


    https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/2018-lowy-institute-poll
    Don't confuse people with facts.

    Given how many people in Australia are British immigrants, or the children of British immigrants it would be surprising if there were "rampant Anglophobia" there.

    It's pretty obvious that people will feel more in common with people with whom they share a language (unless there's a history of ethnic hatred) than with people they don't. They'll enjoy similar films, plays, books, jokes etc.
This discussion has been closed.