Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
BBC news going big on Nissan and now Boris being interviewed, complete with Nissan branded jacket sporting 'prime minister'
He really knows how to speak to his red wall voters, and create fury with his opponents
Thats why he is hated so much on here, he is feared as a political opponent.
No, it is because he is a twat and an embarrassment.
Isn't that what you want in a political opponent? That would surely make him so much easier to beat.
One would have thought so if one believed the electorate had a decent choice. The problem at the last GE, as I have said before was the choice was between dumb and dumber and the electorate chose dumb. Fanbois of Johnson do crack me up though. They actually believe in him! He must be pissing himself.
I think the problem many opponents of Johnson have is that, in their dislike of him, they miss his appeal. They hate him, and therefore everyone else must as well. I mean, what's wrong with the voters? This sort of thinking is why so many of their attacks fail.
Personally, I quite like Boris Johnson; he has a certain appeal, and is *different* to other politicians - which again, can be appealing. Then again, I like our postman, but wouldn't want him to be PM. (I did not vote Conservative at 2019 GE.)
Boris is different to most other politicians, and attacks that would floor other politicians leave him unscathed. His opponents need to find a way to counter that - and fast.
And there is hope - "Teflon Tony's" coating eventually wore off: but much of that was his own doing, not his opponents'.
To an extent, that's always been the case- Maggie was unassailable until she started to believe her own hype. Something similar happened to Cameron.
What's slightly different about Boris is that the flaws were obvious before he even became PM. They were also obvious during 2020, hence the steady fall for his party over the year.
Therefore, Labour might as well stick with Starmer. Yes, he got less than nowhere in the first half of 2020, but it's not obvious that anyone else would have done any better. And I stick to my theory that, when we have collectively had our fill of BoJo (5 years, plus or minus 5 years), someone boring, hard-working and... Starmer-like will be just the ticket, rather than a left-wing gob on a stick.
Labour’s problems are way beyond Starmer. What is their offering? What are they selling that is so different to the Tories that it’s worth taking a punt on a party that elected a terrorist-hugging Marxist as a leader, very recently?
The Tories are now peddling quasi-socialist economics - everyone is, around the world, it’s like a war. Keynes is back
Labour can only offer more of the same, but with the added toxicity of their ID politics
‘Vote Labour! We are the same as the Tories but unlike them we also think you’re racist scum’
‘And we think people with penises are often women’
Starmer's offer on behalf of Labour is to be the anti-Johnson: honesty, competence and moral purpose. Whether enough people buy the offer is another matter. Which brings me onto ...
BBC news going big on Nissan and now Boris being interviewed, complete with Nissan branded jacket sporting 'prime minister'
He really knows how to speak to his red wall voters, and create fury with his opponents
Thats why he is hated so much on here, he is feared as a political opponent.
No, it is because he is a twat and an embarrassment.
Isn't that what you want in a political opponent? That would surely make him so much easier to beat.
One would have thought so if one believed the electorate had a decent choice. The problem at the last GE, as I have said before was the choice was between dumb and dumber and the electorate chose dumb. Fanbois of Johnson do crack me up though. They actually believe in him! He must be pissing himself.
I think the problem many opponents of Johnson have is that, in their dislike of him, they miss his appeal. They hate him, and therefore everyone else must as well. I mean, what's wrong with the voters? This sort of thinking is why so many of their attacks fail.
Personally, I quite like Boris Johnson; he has a certain appeal, and is *different* to other politicians - which again, can be appealing. Then again, I like our postman, but wouldn't want him to be PM. (I did not vote Conservative at 2019 GE.)
Boris is different to most other politicians, and attacks that would floor other politicians leave him unscathed. His opponents need to find a way to counter that - and fast.
And there is hope - "Teflon Tony's" coating eventually wore off: but much of that was his own doing, not his opponents'.
The point is, honesty, competence and moral purpose isn't important to many people. I might find that reprehensible but it is what it is.
I see no evidence that Labour are honest. They are still dissembling about Brexit. Was it good, bad, or what? What do they really think? Can they honestly say?
Competence? What competence? Who on their front bench exudes competence? I don’t even know the name of the shadow chancellor. Is it still Dodds?
As for moral purpose that is laughable. They are moral cowards poisoned and enfeebled by identity politics
The problem is the nexus of NI, the EU and United Kingdom leaving is an almost unsolvable problem. How do you have no border between Eire and NI and no border between rUK and NI, but a border between the UK and EU? I don't think there is a solution that's easy. Most in the rUK would I suspect not care much if Ireland re-united, but that should be for the people of NI to decide, just as it is for the people of Scotland to decide if they want to be an independent country and for the people of the UK to decide if they wanted to leave the EU. How you deliver those wishes is hard, as no vote is ever 100 %, and there will always be those who are unhappy.
Indeed, and it shines a light onto the question about priorities. All through the referendum both sides spoke about what was best for the UK. They disagreed on what that was but agreed that the UK was the priority.
So whatever kind of Brexit we then looked at should have put the best interests of the UK at the centre of things. How to square off the Irish Border issue was obvious - depart the EU with a continuation deal so that we become Norway or Switzerland or even Turkey - maintain sufficient agreement that the border is not a problem.
May chose not to do that, which left the NI backstop as the solution. Yes it restricts our room to maneuver based on our other decision but preserves the UK at the centre of the deal.
What we have now is a UK Prime Minister who has no interest in the UK as there is no longer a UK from a customs and trading perspective. You said that people in the rUK don't care about NI and that is patently correct as look what their government has done with the backing and support.
It isn't just NI either as the row over Scotland shows. The priority for the UK government is England, and if that means an end to the Union as we already have defacto then so what. So the debate isn't even about Brexit any more, its about the Union. Quite how the clown gets himself out of this self-made trap I don't know. On one hand throw NI out of the union against their will, on the other hand refuse to even consider letting Scotland do what they voted for.
Why should we prioritise the UK? Serious question.
The Scots have voted for devolution. So have the Welsh and NI. They get to decide for themselves what they want while the English can't.
Why shouldn't the English say "this is what we want" and NI or anyone else can either like it or lump it?
If NI choose to vote for Sinn Fein who don't bother to turn up to Parliament, or the DUP who just say No! No! No! to everything then why shouldn't English MPs prioritise England over NI? What is wrong with that?
From an English perspective "why should we prioritise the UK" is a perfectly valid question. Its just that it isn't if you are the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
You and I agree that the union in its current form isn't sustainable, yet the PM and his government insist that it is. How they act though just proves both of us right that it isn't.
Any unionist worth their salts should be outraged that you need an export license to send products from one part of the UK to another. As most of them seem to be cheering it on it is just another example of their hypocrisy that I keep calling out.
I’m watching the excellent Rebellion on Netflix, a drama about the Irish revolution and civil war. It didn’t do very well in the ratings, I suspect because it is brilliantly ambivalent. For once the Brits are not all evil. And the Irish aren’t all heroes.
Some of them are so intensely duplicitous you can’t work out which side they are on. It’s great
What it also shows is that Irish politics - north and south - has been drenched in hypocrisy for centuries. The Irish wanted independence yet they enslaved themselves to a cruel church? And now they are a tax parasite run from Brussels. The British were all about democracy and saving Europe from the Hun yet they sent in criminals to rape Irish women - exactly what they accused the Kaiser of doing in Belgium
Irish politics is horribly complex and fraught, however, so maybe hypocrisy and fudge is necessary, to avoid deeper violence. The EU needs to learn this. Only a fudge, a legalistic hypocrisy, will keep the peace.
It’s not like the EU is allergic to political fudges. It’s basically what they DO
Indeed. Who cares if NI has the same rules as GB, England, Ireland or their own unique rules? They voted for devolution and they can control whether the Protocol stays or goes.
Rochdale wants some zealous religious purity test rather than a solution that works. I want a fudge that works and then move on and stop worrying about NI - and let NI voters decide for themselves.
I vote for a Tory MP and I expect that MP in Parliament to be prioritising our interests they're elected to represent. NI voters have chosen to ostracise themselves from GB - for all the DUPs pretensions that they're "British" they don't stand for or vote for British parties. So let them sort themselves out, I don't care.
I do care, they are British. As British as me. And we owe a debt to Ireland, still. We probably always will
However your analysis is correct. The EU weaponised the Irish border to try and bully Britain into a bad Brexit. Their total hypocrisy was exposed when they casually reimposed an Irish-Irish border overnight, to stop vaccine exports, WITHOUT TELLING THE IRISH
They don’t care about Ireland. It’s all fake. They don’t even care about the sanctity of the Single Market, that much. They REALLY wanted Brexit to hurt and be shit because a successful Brexit is an existential threat, long term, to EU integrity
They need to find a conniving politician who will wise up and see that fucking up Ireland is ultimately pointless and self defeating, even if they do still hate Brexit
Although I get that your main intent is to rant, I think it is important to distinguish between the EU and Ireland itself.
I rather think that Ireland has every incentive to maintain the peace and indeed avoid friction in trade, especially now it’s clear that Brexit is concluded.
The U.K.-Ireland relationship is critical but the U.K. also needs to look like an honest and concilatory party. This is a government whose Home Secretary suggested we could - in extremis perhaps - starve the Irish out.
BBC news going big on Nissan and now Boris being interviewed, complete with Nissan branded jacket sporting 'prime minister'
He really knows how to speak to his red wall voters, and create fury with his opponents
Thats why he is hated so much on here, he is feared as a political opponent.
No, it is because he is a twat and an embarrassment.
Isn't that what you want in a political opponent? That would surely make him so much easier to beat.
One would have thought so if one believed the electorate had a decent choice. The problem at the last GE, as I have said before was the choice was between dumb and dumber and the electorate chose dumb. Fanbois of Johnson do crack me up though. They actually believe in him! He must be pissing himself.
I think the problem many opponents of Johnson have is that, in their dislike of him, they miss his appeal. They hate him, and therefore everyone else must as well. I mean, what's wrong with the voters? This sort of thinking is why so many of their attacks fail.
Personally, I quite like Boris Johnson; he has a certain appeal, and is *different* to other politicians - which again, can be appealing. Then again, I like our postman, but wouldn't want him to be PM. (I did not vote Conservative at 2019 GE.)
Boris is different to most other politicians, and attacks that would floor other politicians leave him unscathed. His opponents need to find a way to counter that - and fast.
And there is hope - "Teflon Tony's" coating eventually wore off: but much of that was his own doing, not his opponents'.
To an extent, that's always been the case- Maggie was unassailable until she started to believe her own hype. Something similar happened to Cameron.
What's slightly different about Boris is that the flaws were obvious before he even became PM. They were also obvious during 2020, hence the steady fall for his party over the year.
Therefore, Labour might as well stick with Starmer. Yes, he got less than nowhere in the first half of 2020, but it's not obvious that anyone else would have done any better. And I stick to my theory that, when we have collectively had our fill of BoJo (5 years, plus or minus 5 years), someone boring, hard-working and... Starmer-like will be just the ticket, rather than a left-wing gob on a stick.
Labour’s problems are way beyond Starmer. What is their offering? What are they selling that is so different to the Tories that it’s worth taking a punt on a party that elected a terrorist-hugging Marxist as a leader, very recently?
The Tories are now peddling quasi-socialist economics - everyone is, around the world, it’s like a war. Keynes is back
Labour can only offer more of the same, but with the added toxicity of their ID politics
‘Vote Labour! We are the same as the Tories but unlike them we also think you’re racist scum’
‘And we think people with penises are often women’
Starmer's offer on behalf of Labour is to be the anti-Johnson: honesty, competence and moral purpose. Whether enough people buy the offer is another matter. Which brings me onto ...
BBC news going big on Nissan and now Boris being interviewed, complete with Nissan branded jacket sporting 'prime minister'
He really knows how to speak to his red wall voters, and create fury with his opponents
Thats why he is hated so much on here, he is feared as a political opponent.
No, it is because he is a twat and an embarrassment.
Isn't that what you want in a political opponent? That would surely make him so much easier to beat.
One would have thought so if one believed the electorate had a decent choice. The problem at the last GE, as I have said before was the choice was between dumb and dumber and the electorate chose dumb. Fanbois of Johnson do crack me up though. They actually believe in him! He must be pissing himself.
I think the problem many opponents of Johnson have is that, in their dislike of him, they miss his appeal. They hate him, and therefore everyone else must as well. I mean, what's wrong with the voters? This sort of thinking is why so many of their attacks fail.
Personally, I quite like Boris Johnson; he has a certain appeal, and is *different* to other politicians - which again, can be appealing. Then again, I like our postman, but wouldn't want him to be PM. (I did not vote Conservative at 2019 GE.)
Boris is different to most other politicians, and attacks that would floor other politicians leave him unscathed. His opponents need to find a way to counter that - and fast.
And there is hope - "Teflon Tony's" coating eventually wore off: but much of that was his own doing, not his opponents'.
The point is, honesty, competence and moral purpose isn't important to many people. I might find that reprehensible but it is what it is.
Where is the evidence of "moral purpose" and honesty -
As for competence - just look at some of the decisions Labour leadership have made, don't make me laugh.
The problem is the nexus of NI, the EU and United Kingdom leaving is an almost unsolvable problem. How do you have no border between Eire and NI and no border between rUK and NI, but a border between the UK and EU? I don't think there is a solution that's easy. Most in the rUK would I suspect not care much if Ireland re-united, but that should be for the people of NI to decide, just as it is for the people of Scotland to decide if they want to be an independent country and for the people of the UK to decide if they wanted to leave the EU. How you deliver those wishes is hard, as no vote is ever 100 %, and there will always be those who are unhappy.
Indeed, and it shines a light onto the question about priorities. All through the referendum both sides spoke about what was best for the UK. They disagreed on what that was but agreed that the UK was the priority.
So whatever kind of Brexit we then looked at should have put the best interests of the UK at the centre of things. How to square off the Irish Border issue was obvious - depart the EU with a continuation deal so that we become Norway or Switzerland or even Turkey - maintain sufficient agreement that the border is not a problem.
May chose not to do that, which left the NI backstop as the solution. Yes it restricts our room to maneuver based on our other decision but preserves the UK at the centre of the deal.
What we have now is a UK Prime Minister who has no interest in the UK as there is no longer a UK from a customs and trading perspective. You said that people in the rUK don't care about NI and that is patently correct as look what their government has done with the backing and support.
It isn't just NI either as the row over Scotland shows. The priority for the UK government is England, and if that means an end to the Union as we already have defacto then so what. So the debate isn't even about Brexit any more, its about the Union. Quite how the clown gets himself out of this self-made trap I don't know. On one hand throw NI out of the union against their will, on the other hand refuse to even consider letting Scotland do what they voted for.
Why should we prioritise the UK? Serious question.
The Scots have voted for devolution. So have the Welsh and NI. They get to decide for themselves what they want while the English can't.
Why shouldn't the English say "this is what we want" and NI or anyone else can either like it or lump it?
If NI choose to vote for Sinn Fein who don't bother to turn up to Parliament, or the DUP who just say No! No! No! to everything then why shouldn't English MPs prioritise England over NI? What is wrong with that?
From an English perspective "why should we prioritise the UK" is a perfectly valid question. Its just that it isn't if you are the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
You and I agree that the union in its current form isn't sustainable, yet the PM and his government insist that it is. How they act though just proves both of us right that it isn't.
Any unionist worth their salts should be outraged that you need an export license to send products from one part of the UK to another. As most of them seem to be cheering it on it is just another example of their hypocrisy that I keep calling out.
Its a perfectly valid question if you are the Prime Minister. Since we live in a democracy the Prime Minister has to try to ensure that at the next election they win 326+ MPs in Westminster.
Due to the way the Northern Irish choose to vote the PM currently has zero MPs in Northern Ireland, zero target seats in Northern Ireland. The range of MPs he could get in Northern Ireland at the next election has a lower bound of zero, an upper bound of zero and a mean, median and mode average of zero.
If the Northern Irish wish to be an integral part of the union, then voting as an integral part of the union for the national parties would be a good starting point.
I think the Tories got almost 3-4% in a NI seat not that long ago.
Amusing, but Id say encouraging they bothered to stand. Theyd probably not do well, and some have 'sibling' parties there, but I'd like to see the national parties stand. As it is they are GB not UK parties, other than, IDK, UKIP previously and technically the tories.
The Tories and the UUP used to be brothers, as the Lib Dems and the Alliance still are. Labour and the SDLP had some kind of connection also.
It was the rise of the DUP / Sinn Fein co-hegemony that screwed all that.
I recall the formal tory/uup attempt went down badly in 2010.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
"Leadbeater wouldn’t say she wanted the teacher back in school because she knows Galloway would hoover up her voters if she said that, many of whom don’t want him back in school. If Labour candidates won’t stand up for a liberal free society they deserve to lose"
Quite
A very rare sighting of the Tory candidate by the sounds of things.
Probably deliberate. Stephenson is involved in an Academy, which gives him a natural route to bringing the Batley Grammar issue up on the doorstep. But it is probably not the sort of thing he wants to talk about that often when it comes to the media, for fear of making a lot of the Muslim vote stick with Labour. Far better to let Galloway and Leadbitter scrap it out.
I'm surprised there has not been much discussion on here about the impact of the Batley Grammar issue on the vote. I would imagine it will play a big factor both for the Muslim vote and the WWC / Heavy Woollen contingent.
FWIW it wasn't mentioned in any of the hours of phone calls I had - nor were Palestine or gays. By contrast, local service cuts and who was responsible (opinions differed!) came up a lot, plus the personalities of the candidates.
Thanks for the feedback Nick. Personal view is that, if somebody called me out of the blue asking about my likely voting intentions and views, I would keep it on to "safe" topics such as spending / cuts rather than anything vaguely controversial, given the caller has my name, address and telephone number. But that might just be me.
The problem is the nexus of NI, the EU and United Kingdom leaving is an almost unsolvable problem. How do you have no border between Eire and NI and no border between rUK and NI, but a border between the UK and EU? I don't think there is a solution that's easy. Most in the rUK would I suspect not care much if Ireland re-united, but that should be for the people of NI to decide, just as it is for the people of Scotland to decide if they want to be an independent country and for the people of the UK to decide if they wanted to leave the EU. How you deliver those wishes is hard, as no vote is ever 100 %, and there will always be those who are unhappy.
Indeed, and it shines a light onto the question about priorities. All through the referendum both sides spoke about what was best for the UK. They disagreed on what that was but agreed that the UK was the priority.
So whatever kind of Brexit we then looked at should have put the best interests of the UK at the centre of things. How to square off the Irish Border issue was obvious - depart the EU with a continuation deal so that we become Norway or Switzerland or even Turkey - maintain sufficient agreement that the border is not a problem.
May chose not to do that, which left the NI backstop as the solution. Yes it restricts our room to maneuver based on our other decision but preserves the UK at the centre of the deal.
What we have now is a UK Prime Minister who has no interest in the UK as there is no longer a UK from a customs and trading perspective. You said that people in the rUK don't care about NI and that is patently correct as look what their government has done with the backing and support.
It isn't just NI either as the row over Scotland shows. The priority for the UK government is England, and if that means an end to the Union as we already have defacto then so what. So the debate isn't even about Brexit any more, its about the Union. Quite how the clown gets himself out of this self-made trap I don't know. On one hand throw NI out of the union against their will, on the other hand refuse to even consider letting Scotland do what they voted for.
Why should we prioritise the UK? Serious question.
The Scots have voted for devolution. So have the Welsh and NI. They get to decide for themselves what they want while the English can't.
Why shouldn't the English say "this is what we want" and NI or anyone else can either like it or lump it?
If NI choose to vote for Sinn Fein who don't bother to turn up to Parliament, or the DUP who just say No! No! No! to everything then why shouldn't English MPs prioritise England over NI? What is wrong with that?
From an English perspective "why should we prioritise the UK" is a perfectly valid question. Its just that it isn't if you are the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
You and I agree that the union in its current form isn't sustainable, yet the PM and his government insist that it is. How they act though just proves both of us right that it isn't.
Any unionist worth their salts should be outraged that you need an export license to send products from one part of the UK to another. As most of them seem to be cheering it on it is just another example of their hypocrisy that I keep calling out.
I’m watching the excellent Rebellion on Netflix, a drama about the Irish revolution and civil war. It didn’t do very well in the ratings, I suspect because it is brilliantly ambivalent. For once the Brits are not all evil. And the Irish aren’t all heroes.
Some of them are so intensely duplicitous you can’t work out which side they are on. It’s great
What it also shows is that Irish politics - north and south - has been drenched in hypocrisy for centuries. The Irish wanted independence yet they enslaved themselves to a cruel church? And now they are a tax parasite run from Brussels. The British were all about democracy and saving Europe from the Hun yet they sent in criminals to rape Irish women - exactly what they accused the Kaiser of doing in Belgium
Irish politics is horribly complex and fraught, however, so maybe hypocrisy and fudge is necessary, to avoid deeper violence. The EU needs to learn this. Only a fudge, a legalistic hypocrisy, will keep the peace.
It’s not like the EU is allergic to political fudges. It’s basically what they DO
Indeed. Who cares if NI has the same rules as GB, England, Ireland or their own unique rules? They voted for devolution and they can control whether the Protocol stays or goes.
Rochdale wants some zealous religious purity test rather than a solution that works. I want a fudge that works and then move on and stop worrying about NI - and let NI voters decide for themselves.
I vote for a Tory MP and I expect that MP in Parliament to be prioritising our interests they're elected to represent. NI voters have chosen to ostracise themselves from GB - for all the DUPs pretensions that they're "British" they don't stand for or vote for British parties. So let them sort themselves out, I don't care.
I do care, they are British. As British as me. And we owe a debt to Ireland, still. We probably always will
However your analysis is correct. The EU weaponised the Irish border to try and bully Britain into a bad Brexit. Their total hypocrisy was exposed when they casually reimposed an Irish-Irish border overnight, to stop vaccine exports, WITHOUT TELLING THE IRISH
They don’t care about Ireland. It’s all fake. They don’t even care about the sanctity of the Single Market, that much. They REALLY wanted Brexit to hurt and be shit because a successful Brexit is an existential threat, long term, to EU integrity
They need to find a conniving politician who will wise up and see that fucking up Ireland is ultimately pointless and self defeating, even if they do still hate Brexit
Although I get that your main intent is to rant, I think it is important to distinguish between the EU and Ireland itself.
I rather think that Ireland has every incentive to maintain the peace and indeed avoid friction in trade, especially now it’s clear that Brexit is concluded.
The U.K.-Ireland relationship is critical but the U.K. also needs to look like an honest and concilatory party. This is a government whose Home Secretary suggested we could - in extremis perhaps - starve the Irish out.
I would like to thank Brexiteers today from the bottom of my heart.
Following my brilliant work during the Brexit process and making sure the firm was prepared for Brexit I've been promoted today.
This does have implications for PB, one of my responsibilities will be prepping for another Scottish independence referendum in the next few years, and I now have the ability to commission opinion polls. I'm going to have so much fun with that.
Nissan confirm they are to build a 1 billion pound car battery factory in Sunderland
Absolutely coincidental that this announced on by Election Day
I hadn't thought about that but if so good politics
The BBC also says that 'The government is contributing to the cost of the expansion, but a precise figure has not been disclosed.'
Ion other words, a massive handout. Some might call it a bribe.
The EU will be taking those unilateral "appropriate remedial measures" described in the TCA. Batten down the hatches.
I think it is sad that anyone would support the EU v the UK investing in green technology and jobs
I think it is sad that anyone would break an international treaty that they signed so recently the ink isn’t dry. Sad and very, very serious.
As many on here will know, I don't think Brexit was a sensible policy, in fact I think it was and is insane. However, I think in terms of our dealings with the EU bloc there is something to be said to playing them at their own game. The French have long ignored EU rules when it didn't suit them and nothing happened. We always played by the rules and generally got shafted. I am not keen on having a dishonest PM, but in the realpolitik of international relations there may be some upsides.
The Level Playing Field doesn't aim to stop subsidy. Everyone subsidises. The aim is to keep the subsidies within agreed rules, that allow considerable leeway. It is vitally important for Nissan that those rules are adhered to . We can be sure the EU will scrutinise every pound of subsidy and will slap countervailing tariffs on Nissan and other businesses if they think the rules have been broken, which will break the Nissan business model. The UK can do the same the other way, but that doesn't help Nissan. At the end of the day, the subsidies are nice but their business is selling cars.
This is a government whose Home Secretary suggested we could - in extremis perhaps - starve the Irish out.
No it isn't. What happened was an Irish journalist working for the Times misrepresented a quote from Priti Patel to generate a story and whip up opposition to Brexit. In truth she said nothing of the sort.
The problem is the nexus of NI, the EU and United Kingdom leaving is an almost unsolvable problem. How do you have no border between Eire and NI and no border between rUK and NI, but a border between the UK and EU? I don't think there is a solution that's easy. Most in the rUK would I suspect not care much if Ireland re-united, but that should be for the people of NI to decide, just as it is for the people of Scotland to decide if they want to be an independent country and for the people of the UK to decide if they wanted to leave the EU. How you deliver those wishes is hard, as no vote is ever 100 %, and there will always be those who are unhappy.
Indeed, and it shines a light onto the question about priorities. All through the referendum both sides spoke about what was best for the UK. They disagreed on what that was but agreed that the UK was the priority.
So whatever kind of Brexit we then looked at should have put the best interests of the UK at the centre of things. How to square off the Irish Border issue was obvious - depart the EU with a continuation deal so that we become Norway or Switzerland or even Turkey - maintain sufficient agreement that the border is not a problem.
May chose not to do that, which left the NI backstop as the solution. Yes it restricts our room to maneuver based on our other decision but preserves the UK at the centre of the deal.
What we have now is a UK Prime Minister who has no interest in the UK as there is no longer a UK from a customs and trading perspective. You said that people in the rUK don't care about NI and that is patently correct as look what their government has done with the backing and support.
It isn't just NI either as the row over Scotland shows. The priority for the UK government is England, and if that means an end to the Union as we already have defacto then so what. So the debate isn't even about Brexit any more, its about the Union. Quite how the clown gets himself out of this self-made trap I don't know. On one hand throw NI out of the union against their will, on the other hand refuse to even consider letting Scotland do what they voted for.
Why should we prioritise the UK? Serious question.
The Scots have voted for devolution. So have the Welsh and NI. They get to decide for themselves what they want while the English can't.
Why shouldn't the English say "this is what we want" and NI or anyone else can either like it or lump it?
If NI choose to vote for Sinn Fein who don't bother to turn up to Parliament, or the DUP who just say No! No! No! to everything then why shouldn't English MPs prioritise England over NI? What is wrong with that?
From an English perspective "why should we prioritise the UK" is a perfectly valid question. Its just that it isn't if you are the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
You and I agree that the union in its current form isn't sustainable, yet the PM and his government insist that it is. How they act though just proves both of us right that it isn't.
Any unionist worth their salts should be outraged that you need an export license to send products from one part of the UK to another. As most of them seem to be cheering it on it is just another example of their hypocrisy that I keep calling out.
I’m watching the excellent Rebellion on Netflix, a drama about the Irish revolution and civil war. It didn’t do very well in the ratings, I suspect because it is brilliantly ambivalent. For once the Brits are not all evil. And the Irish aren’t all heroes.
Some of them are so intensely duplicitous you can’t work out which side they are on. It’s great
What it also shows is that Irish politics - north and south - has been drenched in hypocrisy for centuries. The Irish wanted independence yet they enslaved themselves to a cruel church? And now they are a tax parasite run from Brussels. The British were all about democracy and saving Europe from the Hun yet they sent in criminals to rape Irish women - exactly what they accused the Kaiser of doing in Belgium
Irish politics is horribly complex and fraught, however, so maybe hypocrisy and fudge is necessary, to avoid deeper violence. The EU needs to learn this. Only a fudge, a legalistic hypocrisy, will keep the peace.
It’s not like the EU is allergic to political fudges. It’s basically what they DO
Indeed. Who cares if NI has the same rules as GB, England, Ireland or their own unique rules? They voted for devolution and they can control whether the Protocol stays or goes.
Rochdale wants some zealous religious purity test rather than a solution that works. I want a fudge that works and then move on and stop worrying about NI - and let NI voters decide for themselves.
I vote for a Tory MP and I expect that MP in Parliament to be prioritising our interests they're elected to represent. NI voters have chosen to ostracise themselves from GB - for all the DUPs pretensions that they're "British" they don't stand for or vote for British parties. So let them sort themselves out, I don't care.
I do care, they are British. As British as me. And we owe a debt to Ireland, still. We probably always will
However your analysis is correct. The EU weaponised the Irish border to try and bully Britain into a bad Brexit. Their total hypocrisy was exposed when they casually reimposed an Irish-Irish border overnight, to stop vaccine exports, WITHOUT TELLING THE IRISH
They don’t care about Ireland. It’s all fake. They don’t even care about the sanctity of the Single Market, that much. They REALLY wanted Brexit to hurt and be shit because a successful Brexit is an existential threat, long term, to EU integrity
They need to find a conniving politician who will wise up and see that fucking up Ireland is ultimately pointless and self defeating, even if they do still hate Brexit
If they're as British as you and me then why don't they vote for British parties?
Democratically they're not British. Even "Unionist" voters don't vote for British parties. They've made their choice, they're a special case and can be treated as such.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Big flags, wee dicks AND non specific whataboutery, a classic combo.
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Labour can’t win with Keir. Safety first or whatever the rationale is, won’t work.
He’s a proven loser, can’t make decisions, has no strategic or tactical ability, doesn’t do passion, has nothing to say or offer the country.
He’s a clean pair of hands, but it’s not enough.
He needs to fuck right off; or better, be secretly negotiating a transition to Burnham.
Burnham's in a right pickle.
The moment he becomes an MP he has to stand down as Mayor of London, that's the law.
Has Sadiq got the boot?
No, there's he's the only Mayor that doesn't have to worry about because the Home Secretary shares the job of supervision of the Met with the Mayor of London.
This is a government whose Home Secretary suggested we could - in extremis perhaps - starve the Irish out.
No it isn't. What happened was an Irish journalist working for the Times misrepresented a quote from Priti Patel to generate a story and whip up opposition to Brexit. In truth she said nothing of the sort.
Also quite ironic when you consider that the EU really DID unilaterally impose a border across Ireland (without consulting Dublin) to prevent legally contracted vaccine exports to the UK. In other words they tried to ensure more British people died of the plague just to show how tough the EU can be
Compare that to a random misquote of something Patel kinda said. There is no comparison. I am dumbfounded by anyone who can defend the EU, given its behaviour over the last 18 months (or longer)
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Most of the finance sector seems to have moved on and realised they don't need equivalence to thrive.
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
The problem is the nexus of NI, the EU and United Kingdom leaving is an almost unsolvable problem. How do you have no border between Eire and NI and no border between rUK and NI, but a border between the UK and EU? I don't think there is a solution that's easy. Most in the rUK would I suspect not care much if Ireland re-united, but that should be for the people of NI to decide, just as it is for the people of Scotland to decide if they want to be an independent country and for the people of the UK to decide if they wanted to leave the EU. How you deliver those wishes is hard, as no vote is ever 100 %, and there will always be those who are unhappy.
Indeed, and it shines a light onto the question about priorities. All through the referendum both sides spoke about what was best for the UK. They disagreed on what that was but agreed that the UK was the priority.
So whatever kind of Brexit we then looked at should have put the best interests of the UK at the centre of things. How to square off the Irish Border issue was obvious - depart the EU with a continuation deal so that we become Norway or Switzerland or even Turkey - maintain sufficient agreement that the border is not a problem.
May chose not to do that, which left the NI backstop as the solution. Yes it restricts our room to maneuver based on our other decision but preserves the UK at the centre of the deal.
What we have now is a UK Prime Minister who has no interest in the UK as there is no longer a UK from a customs and trading perspective. You said that people in the rUK don't care about NI and that is patently correct as look what their government has done with the backing and support.
It isn't just NI either as the row over Scotland shows. The priority for the UK government is England, and if that means an end to the Union as we already have defacto then so what. So the debate isn't even about Brexit any more, its about the Union. Quite how the clown gets himself out of this self-made trap I don't know. On one hand throw NI out of the union against their will, on the other hand refuse to even consider letting Scotland do what they voted for.
Why should we prioritise the UK? Serious question.
The Scots have voted for devolution. So have the Welsh and NI. They get to decide for themselves what they want while the English can't.
Why shouldn't the English say "this is what we want" and NI or anyone else can either like it or lump it?
If NI choose to vote for Sinn Fein who don't bother to turn up to Parliament, or the DUP who just say No! No! No! to everything then why shouldn't English MPs prioritise England over NI? What is wrong with that?
From an English perspective "why should we prioritise the UK" is a perfectly valid question. Its just that it isn't if you are the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
You and I agree that the union in its current form isn't sustainable, yet the PM and his government insist that it is. How they act though just proves both of us right that it isn't.
Any unionist worth their salts should be outraged that you need an export license to send products from one part of the UK to another. As most of them seem to be cheering it on it is just another example of their hypocrisy that I keep calling out.
Its a perfectly valid question if you are the Prime Minister. Since we live in a democracy the Prime Minister has to try to ensure that at the next election they win 326+ MPs in Westminster.
Due to the way the Northern Irish choose to vote the PM currently has zero MPs in Northern Ireland, zero target seats in Northern Ireland. The range of MPs he could get in Northern Ireland at the next election has a lower bound of zero, an upper bound of zero and a mean, median and mode average of zero.
If the Northern Irish wish to be an integral part of the union, then voting as an integral part of the union for the national parties would be a good starting point.
I think the Tories got almost 3-4% in a NI seat not that long ago.
Amusing, but Id say encouraging they bothered to stand. Theyd probably not do well, and some have 'sibling' parties there, but I'd like to see the national parties stand. As it is they are GB not UK parties, other than, IDK, UKIP previously and technically the tories.
The Tories and the UUP used to be brothers, as the Lib Dems and the Alliance still are. Labour and the SDLP had some kind of connection also.
It was the rise of the DUP / Sinn Fein co-hegemony that screwed all that.
I recall the formal tory/uup attempt went down badly in 2010.
Yeah. I think it’s the right sort of idea, but it was poorly executed. It’s important that the the UUP is seen as its own beast, freely associating with the Cons, rather than some kind of sub-branch of the Tories.
David Cameron suggested he wanted Ulstermen in Cabinet, which is right. But he didn’t actually appoint any; for example David Trimble might have made an interesting Foreign Sec.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Big flags, wee dicks AND non specific whataboutery, a classic combo.
Do you remember seeing any saltires on Government buildings? Big ones? Like this?
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Most of the finance sector seems to have moved on and realised they don't need equivalence to thrive.
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
You're like an incel virgin trying to tell a porn star that is the financial services sector how to perform.
Please desist.
I mean there was a reason why Rishi and others were trying to get equivalence.
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Most of the finance sector seems to have moved on and realised they don't need equivalence to thrive.
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
You're like an incel virgin trying to tell a porn star that is the financial services sector how to perform.
Please desist.
I mean there was a reason why Rishi and others were trying to get equivalence.
Equivalence will be nice to have but the City can thrive without it.
Care to put a wager on it? £20 to the site's funds that in five years time the financial sector is still the largest contributor to the Exchequer.
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Boris is incredibly *lucky* that the overwhelming global catastrophe of Covid has obscured all these Brexit bad news stories. What does it matter if we lack ‘financial equivalence’ for The City when the entire future of global cities is in question?!
It doesn’t. By the time the plague-fog has cleared we will be in a different world. Brexit will be an intriguing footnote. An imformative context. Perhaps a useful appendix.
London will have to sink or swim as a great independent self governing city, as she has always done. I wouldn’t bet against her, even now
More than a million workers came off furlough in May as the economy reopened, leaving the scheme supporting the fewest people since the start of the pandemic, according to figures released earlier.
At the end of May, 2.4 million people still relied on the scheme for their income, the latest HMRC statistics show.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Big flags, wee dicks AND non specific whataboutery, a classic combo.
Do you remember seeing any saltires on Government buildings? Big ones? Like this?
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Most of the finance sector seems to have moved on and realised they don't need equivalence to thrive.
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
You're like an incel virgin trying to tell a porn star that is the financial services sector how to perform.
Please desist.
I mean there was a reason why Rishi and others were trying to get equivalence.
Philip’s MO is to tell the housing economists they are wrong, tell the hauliers they are mistaken, the planners they are stupid, and the financiers they are deluded.
There appears to be no end to Philip’s genius OR fantasy. PBers will judge.
Seeing David Willey in the England line up reminds me of that classic piece of Test Cricket commentary: "The batsman's Holding the bowler's Willey."
Would surely have been the other way around if it was ever uttered at all.
Peter Willey took Test and ODI wickets.
Trivially googleable...
According to an urban myth, it was during a Test match between the West Indies and England, when Michael Holding was about to bowl to Willey, that the radio commentator Brian Johnston said: "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey". While Wisden stated that there is no record of Johnston or anyone else actually saying this,[7] Johnston's co-commentator, Henry Blofeld, recalled the incident as having taken place at The Oval in 1976.[8] The story is sometimes told the other way around, with Willey bowling to Holding: however, Willey did not bowl to Holding in that particular match.
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Most of the finance sector seems to have moved on and realised they don't need equivalence to thrive.
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
You're like an incel virgin trying to tell a porn star that is the financial services sector how to perform.
Please desist.
I mean there was a reason why Rishi and others were trying to get equivalence.
Philip’s MO is to tell the housing economists they are wrong, tell the hauliers they are mistaken, the planners they are stupid, and the financiers they are deluded.
There appears to be no end to Philip’s genius OR fantasy. PBers will judge.
Not all. Only those with vested interests that I disagree with.
Just because someone has a vested interest in something doesn't mean they're automatically right. Quite the opposite sometimes.
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Most of the finance sector seems to have moved on and realised they don't need equivalence to thrive.
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
You're like an incel virgin trying to tell a porn star that is the financial services sector how to perform.
Please desist.
I mean there was a reason why Rishi and others were trying to get equivalence.
Philip’s MO is to tell the housing economists they are wrong, tell the hauliers they are mistaken, the planners they are stupid, and the financiers they are deluded.
There appears to be no end to Philip’s genius OR fantasy. PBers will judge.
Not all. Only those with vested interests that I disagree with.
Just because someone has a vested interest in something doesn't mean they're automatically right. Quite the opposite sometimes.
Cf all the virologists angrily arguing against ‘lab leak’ as a hypothesis. To the extent they denounce it as a ‘racist conspiracy theory’
Why do they do this? The more thoughtful might accept they have a huge hidden bias. If ‘lab leak’ is ever proven, or close to proven, their entire science will be hideously tainted. They will be the mad scientists that caused a global plague. Many careers might end, as funding instantly dries up
They are incapable of neutrality, even though they are the ‘experts’. A fascinating test-case
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope.
It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
Yes, it will take time for the full benefits to be realised, getting rid of stupid regulation and the expansion of free trade, will boost GDP growth each and every year above that which it would others wise have been. what will seem small fir the first few years will compounded and then it will be truly visible.
The point is, honesty, competence and moral purpose isn't important to many people. I might find that reprehensible but it is what it is.
You appear to be blaming the voters.
All political parties show dishonesty, incompetence and a certain lack of moral purpose. I believe you're a Lib Dem - in which case, I'd argue the Michael Brown case covers all three of those for that party. Worse, it was all for sweet, sweet lucre.
If voters see such traits in all the parties, it rather reduces the power of the argument.
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope. No It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
Yes, it will take time for the full benefits to be realised, getting rid of stupid regulation and the expansion of free trade, will boost GDP growth each and every year above that which it would others wise have been. what will seem small fir the first few years will compounded and then it will be truly visible.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Big flags, wee dicks AND non specific whataboutery, a classic combo.
Do you remember seeing any saltires on Government buildings? Big ones? Like this?
Although less applause for Brexiteers, who could have predicted this, I mean we held all the cards right, but it is nothing to worry about, not like the banking and financial services is the largest contributor to the Exchequer, oh wait.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
Most of the finance sector seems to have moved on and realised they don't need equivalence to thrive.
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
You're like an incel virgin trying to tell a porn star that is the financial services sector how to perform.
Please desist.
I mean there was a reason why Rishi and others were trying to get equivalence.
Philip’s MO is to tell the housing economists they are wrong, tell the hauliers they are mistaken, the planners they are stupid, and the financiers they are deluded.
There appears to be no end to Philip’s genius OR fantasy. PBers will judge.
Not all. Only those with vested interests that I disagree with.
Just because someone has a vested interest in something doesn't mean they're automatically right. Quite the opposite sometimes.
Cf all the virologists angrily arguing against ‘lab leak’ as a hypothesis. To the extent they denounce it as a ‘racist conspiracy theory’
Why do they do this? The more thoughtful might accept they have a huge hidden bias. If ‘lab leak’ is ever proven, or close to proven, their entire science will be hideously tainted. They will be the mad scientists that caused a global plague. Many careers might end, as funding instantly dries up
They are incapable of neutrality, even though they are the ‘experts’. A fascinating test-case
Indeed just like all the hauliage companies etc moaning that we need more drivers to come to the UK so that they don't have to increase wages.
People say what's in their own interests, not the unvarnished truth.
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope. No It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
Yes, it will take time for the full benefits to be realised, getting rid of stupid regulation and the expansion of free trade, will boost GDP growth each and every year above that which it would others wise have been. what will seem small fir the first few years will compounded and then it will be truly visible.
Lol.
I remember when Brexit meant the ‘end of Nissan in Sunderland’
Oh
“'The confidence they expressed in their own country when they voted for Brexit has been justified'
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng praises the people of Sunderland, after Nissan announced a £1bn investment which will create around 1,600 jobs in the region.”
Brexit is big, and like all big things it will be good and bad. It is too big and sui generis to confidently predict exact outcomes. But generally more democracy is better for economies
You are too smart not to realise this. You have a lingering bias of silly Remainerism
More than a million workers came off furlough in May as the economy reopened, leaving the scheme supporting the fewest people since the start of the pandemic, according to figures released earlier.
At the end of May, 2.4 million people still relied on the scheme for their income, the latest HMRC statistics show.
Good that it when down by a million, but there was a big wave or reopening in may, which will have brought lots of jobs in restraints and pubs back to life. there was no such opening in June, so that 2.4 million may not have gone down by that much more.
How dare they! It is one of the basic tenets of western democracy that taxpayers are entitled to know how and where their money is being spent.
Really when you are competing against other countries and are trying to encourage other companies to come to the UK based on similar offerings.
The last thing you want to do in those circumstances is tell everyone what you are offering - for one reason it would allow other countries to offer more and see a company currently happy with £50m say insisting they get the £100m Nissan just got given.
£100m seems quite restrained.
All the pantomime dames on the Outrage Bus must be very disappointed.
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope.
It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
No, the end of the world's largest empire was more momentous than leaving a trade organisation.
Also Thatcher's reforms in the eighties were massively more momentous than either joining the EEC or leaving the EU.
A fascinating counter-factual. If thatcher’s reforms had happened fifteen years earlier, and the UK economy had caught up with France and Germany etc, by 1973, we would likely never have joined the EEC
We might have entered a unique free trade agreement with them, which would have been better for everyone, on all sides
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope.
It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
No, the end of the world's largest empire was more momentous than leaving a trade organisation.
Also Thatcher's reforms in the eighties were massively more momentous than either joining the EEC or leaving the EU.
I would also have mentioned the liberal social reforms of the 60's, Mrs Thatcher's in the 80s, the Cold War and its end and probably the 2008 financial crisis.
Mr. Walker, do you think we will or should rejoin?
I don’t think we will, and I don’t think we should.
I believe we should push for a new arrangement in Europe - which if I have time I might expand upon in a thread header - but I don’t see that happening either.
Britain tends not to be a country of systematic strategy but rather of occasionally brilliant improvisation.
The point is, honesty, competence and moral purpose isn't important to many people. I might find that reprehensible but it is what it is.
You appear to be blaming the voters.
All political parties show dishonesty, incompetence and a certain lack of moral purpose. I believe you're a Lib Dem - in which case, I'd argue the Michael Brown case covers all three of those for that party. Worse, it was all for sweet, sweet lucre.
If voters see such traits in all the parties, it rather reduces the power of the argument.
I am not blaming the voters. I am saying a critically large number of voters are uninterested in honesty, competence and moral purpose and therefore an offer on that basis won't win it for you. To the point the others are making about whether Labour is actually more honest, competent and moral, it doesn't matter we're not getting to Square One on that - those people aren't interested.
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope.
It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
But it is really good as well as really bad. Remainers can’t see this
There are some benefits. But I think you have to try really, really hard to find ways it is “really good”.
Even if you support the EU, you don't have to try really, really hard to find ways it is really, really flawed. A lot of opposition to Brexit comes from the intuitive judgment that the EU is on the right side of history, but what if it isn't?
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope. No It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
Yes, it will take time for the full benefits to be realised, getting rid of stupid regulation and the expansion of free trade, will boost GDP growth each and every year above that which it would others wise have been. what will seem small fir the first few years will compounded and then it will be truly visible.
Lol.
I remember when Brexit meant the ‘end of Nissan in Sunderland’
Oh
“'The confidence they expressed in their own country when they voted for Brexit has been justified'
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng praises the people of Sunderland, after Nissan announced a £1bn investment which will create around 1,600 jobs in the region.”
Brexit is big, and like all big things it will be good and bad. It is too big and sui generis to confidently predict exact outcomes. But generally more democracy is better for economies
You are too smart not to realise this. You have a lingering bias of silly Remainerism
I daresay I could persuade Nissan to set up in my back garden if I had several millions to bung.
As I said upthread, there are certain totemic icons which Brexiters are desperate to maintain lest the Emperor’s nakedness be revealed.
I’d put Nissan in that list; the reality of the Irish border also — and probably also the Australian trade deal.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Big flags, wee dicks AND non specific whataboutery, a classic combo.
Do you remember seeing any saltires on Government buildings? Big ones? Like this?
Even if you support the EU, you don't have to try really, really hard to find ways it is really, really flawed. A lot of opposition to Brexit comes from the intuitive judgment that the EU is on the right side of history, but what if it isn't?
Nope.
You don't have to be fan of all things EU to think that being in it is better than being out of it.
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope.
It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
No, the end of the world's largest empire was more momentous than leaving a trade organisation.
Also Thatcher's reforms in the eighties were massively more momentous than either joining the EEC or leaving the EU.
A fascinating counter-factual. If thatcher’s reforms had happened fifteen years earlier, and the UK economy had caught up with France and Germany etc, by 1973, we would likely never have joined the EEC
We might have entered a unique free trade agreement with them, which would have been better for everyone, on all sides
A related counterfactual is that if we hadn't joined, it would probably never have expanded at all, and it might have ended up looking as obsolete as the Latin Monetary Union after the Cold War ended.
I have backed Labour at about 5/1, it seems crazy they are such a big price. They should be favourites really. It is a case of the market being so different to what I think it should be that I must be missing something massively important, but have to have a small bet at the price.
All about Galloway. If Alastair Meeks was around, he’d be pointing out that betting markets tend to overestimate the potential of far right candidates.
Spot on! The only way to understand GG is to realise that he is in fact a far right candidate. All the lefty posturing is simply clever marketing.
(Antifrank’s departure is a huge loss to this blog.)
Nah. It just demonstrates that “far left” and “far right” obscure more than they illuminate.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Big flags, wee dicks AND non specific whataboutery, a classic combo.
Do you remember seeing any saltires on Government buildings? Big ones? Like this?
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope.
It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
But it is really good as well as really bad. Remainers can’t see this
There are some benefits. But I think you have to try really, really hard to find ways it is “really good”.
Even if you support the EU, you don't have to try really, really hard to find ways it is really, really flawed. A lot of opposition to Brexit comes from the intuitive judgment that the EU is on the right side of history, but what if it isn't?
Yes. Remoaners like Scott have a theological objection to Brexit. Even if the UK ends up with a GDP per capita of £2m per annum and we have reconquered Aquitaine and the nicer bits of the USA he would still see Brexit as a terrible mistake. A moral error which can never be right. A heresy.
It’s like asking an ardent Spanish catholic in 1700 if the reformation was, after all, a good thing
This is why these interviews with various EU bigwigs as to ‘how Brexit is going’ are so laughable. Really. What is Thierry Breton going to say? - ‘yes it turns out Brexit was an excellent idea and I have invested my entire life in a failed and destructive political experiment of historical proportions’
The point is, honesty, competence and moral purpose isn't important to many people. I might find that reprehensible but it is what it is.
You appear to be blaming the voters.
All political parties show dishonesty, incompetence and a certain lack of moral purpose. I believe you're a Lib Dem - in which case, I'd argue the Michael Brown case covers all three of those for that party. Worse, it was all for sweet, sweet lucre.
If voters see such traits in all the parties, it rather reduces the power of the argument.
I am not blaming the voters. I am saying a critically large number of voters are uninterested in honesty, competence and moral purpose and therefore an offer on that basis won't win it for you. To the point the others are making about whether Labour is actually more honest, competent and moral, it doesn't matter we're not getting to Square One on that - those people aren't interested.
You do seem to be blaming the voters. How very dare they!
But as I said: all parties can be accused of similar things. It's just that supporters of a particular party seem to ignore it when it's their side.
I have backed Labour at about 5/1, it seems crazy they are such a big price. They should be favourites really. It is a case of the market being so different to what I think it should be that I must be missing something massively important, but have to have a small bet at the price.
All about Galloway. If Alastair Meeks was around, he’d be pointing out that betting markets tend to overestimate the potential of far right candidates.
Spot on! The only way to understand GG is to realise that he is in fact a far right candidate. All the lefty posturing is simply clever marketing.
(Antifrank’s departure is a huge loss to this blog.)
Nah. It just demonstrates that “far left” and “far right” obscure more than they illuminate.
Let’s just leave it as extremist.
Galloway describes himself as a revolutionary. A useful catch-all if you think about it without having to answer what kind of revolution. Angry muslim who wants someone to stand up for Palestine and your right to protect your kids from western morals? Vote Galloway. Angry WWC who thinks Labour have sold out and the Tories cut every service there is? Vote Galloway. Don't normally vote think they're all shit and lets give them a kicking? Vote Galloway.
Lets hope there aren't that many people mesmerised by his tune this time.
Even if the UK ends up with a GDP per capita of £2m per annum and we have reconquered Aquitaine and the nicer bits of the USA he would still see Brexit as a terrible mistake. A moral error which can never be right. A heresy.
Even as Brexit fractures the Union, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the fishermen, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the farmers, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the arts, you genuflect.
There is no price too high for your precious Brexit, even as it turns to ashes
I have backed Labour at about 5/1, it seems crazy they are such a big price. They should be favourites really. It is a case of the market being so different to what I think it should be that I must be missing something massively important, but have to have a small bet at the price.
All about Galloway. If Alastair Meeks was around, he’d be pointing out that betting markets tend to overestimate the potential of far right candidates.
Spot on! The only way to understand GG is to realise that he is in fact a far right candidate. All the lefty posturing is simply clever marketing.
(Antifrank’s departure is a huge loss to this blog.)
Nah. It just demonstrates that “far left” and “far right” obscure more than they illuminate.
Let’s just leave it as extremist.
Galloway describes himself as a revolutionary. A useful catch-all if you think about it without having to answer what kind of revolution. Angry muslim who wants someone to stand up for Palestine and your right to protect your kids from western morals? Vote Galloway. Angry WWC who thinks Labour have sold out and the Tories cut every service there is? Vote Galloway. Don't normally vote think they're all shit and lets give them a kicking? Vote Galloway.
Lets hope there aren't that many people mesmerised by his tune this time.
He reminds me of Derek Hatton - just better at the bullshit.
British Airways is offering me the chance to upgrade from Economy to Biz, from Palma to London - for £5*
Five quid?! I wonder if there is any difference now between short haul economy and Biz except maybe lounges and more isolated seats. On the way out in economy they didn’t even serve booze you could buy. Nothing
And from the POV of Red Wall voters, labour shortages are a pretty good thing.
It will certainly be fun to watch. All of those jobs that the poor downtrodden English didn't want to do are now available again now that Harry Hun has been sent packing. Rural Anglia where the food industry had a shortage of labour even with a big eastern European contigent now gets to offer to the good people of Wisbech a job in the food factories.
What do you mean you don't want to work in a factory? Didn't you vote to get rid of the forrin so these jobs could be yours again like they weren't before?
The question is whether the issue was the nature of the job itself or the pay. If the former, agreed, it will be interesting. However, it is basic economics, that if you increase the supply of labour - especially cheap labour - wages are bound to go down. Maybe we see wages go to a level that starts to attract people.
Another question of course is whether many of these jobs which were done by cheap foreign labour are now automated.
Two of my former employers had factories in that area. Wages and conditions were already well above where they had been. OK so its 4 years back now but one factory manager told me that they couldn't hire labour at any price to do night shifts, which capped capacity and allowed competition into the market from the EU.
My suspicion is that the person to blame is Simon Cowell. We have raise at least one generation who don't want to do the kind of work that is available because its beneath them and anyway they're really talented or whatever.
Before anyone asks. I have worked in a call centre. I have worked in a warehouse. I have worked in a food factory slicing cucumbers all day. I have stacked shelves in a supermarket. I have done night shifts. All honest work that (for the time) payed decently.
I've done all those jobs! Except I was chucking pepperoni on frozen pizza bases as they whipped by me, not slicing cucumber. Hated all of it. Especially nights. Awful things, night shifts.
A lad I know works in a glassworks, on 12 hour shifts which switch from nights to days (the continental shifts pattern) and play havoc with the body clock. The work is dull, repetitive and mind numbingly boring.
The upside is that with the continental shift pattern you get loads of time off, and he gets paid £17 an hour for dull, but easy, work. It's the place where you have a job for life. And he's fairly new, the wage will increase the longer he stays. Managers are probably on £60k, shift supervisors/QC bods £40k, something like that.
So if we end up paying that kind of money for farming, labouring, all the jobs the forrins did for minimum wage, what will the wider long term impact be on food prices, inflation, the general UK economy? Will it be a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?
Some interesting comments from people that the UK PM should be free to break chunks off the UK if people in those chunks don't vote for him.
Sounds more like the mob than the government.
More like democracy.
Sure - in its most direct sense. There are more votes in England than anywhere else so England should be able to dictate to the others. I get it, but it is a radical departure for a UK Prime Minister.
If England is happy to fly the union apart then this is the way to do it. Despite all the huffing and puffing from the Essicks Massiv about no way never again a Sindyref2, I'm not sure that most people south of the wall care that much.
The union in its current form is not sustainable. Expelling NI from the UK single market was the beginning of the end. I just wish the Conservative and Unionist Party would be honest that the plan is do what England wants and screw the union. It is - as you said - democracy.
Even if the UK ends up with a GDP per capita of £2m per annum and we have reconquered Aquitaine and the nicer bits of the USA he would still see Brexit as a terrible mistake. A moral error which can never be right. A heresy.
Even as Brexit fractures the Union, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the fishermen, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the farmers, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the arts, you genuflect.
There is no price too high for your precious Brexit, even as it turns to ashes
I toast your indefatigable Remoanerism from my Majorcan sunbed and my fourth glass of exquisite chilled white Rioja
Even if the UK ends up with a GDP per capita of £2m per annum and we have reconquered Aquitaine and the nicer bits of the USA he would still see Brexit as a terrible mistake. A moral error which can never be right. A heresy.
Even as Brexit fractures the Union, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the fishermen, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the farmers, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the arts, you genuflect.
There is no price too high for your precious Brexit, even as it turns to ashes
British Airways is offering me the chance to upgrade from Economy to Biz, from Palma to London - for £5*
Five quid?! I wonder if there is any difference now between short haul economy and Biz except maybe lounges and more isolated seats. On the way out in economy they didn’t even serve booze you could buy. Nothing
*I took it
By dint of turning up very late indeed, I once got business class seats flying back from Barcelona to Manchester. It wasn't a massive benefit, but I'd definitely pay a fiver for it. Wider, comfier seats, and, ISTR, better food.
Some interesting comments from people that the UK PM should be free to break chunks off the UK if people in those chunks don't vote for him.
Sounds more like the mob than the government.
More like democracy.
Sure - in its most direct sense. There are more votes in England than anywhere else so England should be able to dictate to the others. I get it, but it is a radical departure for a UK Prime Minister.
If England is happy to fly the union apart then this is the way to do it. Despite all the huffing and puffing from the Essicks Massiv about no way never again a Sindyref2, I'm not sure that most people south of the wall care that much.
The union in its current form is not sustainable. Expelling NI from the UK single market was the beginning of the end. I just wish the Conservative and Unionist Party would be honest that the plan is do what England wants and screw the union. It is - as you said - democracy.
The other nations have made their bed. For years they've taken England's money, insisted they get to write their own laws while still having a say in England's laws. Now they've awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.
Its entirely appropriate for English MPs to concern themselves more with English matters. Let NI MPs and MLAs take care of themselves.
Brexiters continue to maintain on here that the impact of Brexit is mild or trivial.
Nope. No It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
Yes, it will take time for the full benefits to be realised, getting rid of stupid regulation and the expansion of free trade, will boost GDP growth each and every year above that which it would others wise have been. what will seem small fir the first few years will compounded and then it will be truly visible.
Lol.
I remember when Brexit meant the ‘end of Nissan in Sunderland’
Oh
“'The confidence they expressed in their own country when they voted for Brexit has been justified'
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng praises the people of Sunderland, after Nissan announced a £1bn investment which will create around 1,600 jobs in the region.”
Brexit is big, and like all big things it will be good and bad. It is too big and sui generis to confidently predict exact outcomes. But generally more democracy is better for economies
You are too smart not to realise this. You have a lingering bias of silly Remainerism
I daresay I could persuade Nissan to set up in my back garden if I had several millions to bung.
As I said upthread, there are certain totemic icons which Brexiters are desperate to maintain lest the Emperor’s nakedness be revealed.
I’d put Nissan in that list; the reality of the Irish border also — and probably also the Australian trade deal.
Yes, Nissan was always going to be 'induced'. As sure as eggs is eggs.
Speaking of big flags and wee dicks, I visited the newly refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery today (nice, though a lot of it still closed, great view from new upper floor and balcony, coffee still reliably good). The Remembrance Hall (war memorial) which afaics hasn’t had much more than a lick of paint, has no fewer than four prominent stencilled messages stating ‘Supported by HM Treasury’. Obviously the really important act of remembrance is to remember who is paying for stuff.
Crass pricks.
Lol!
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Big flags, wee dicks AND non specific whataboutery, a classic combo.
Do you remember seeing any saltires on Government buildings? Big ones? Like this?
British Airways is offering me the chance to upgrade from Economy to Biz, from Palma to London - for £5*
Five quid?! I wonder if there is any difference now between short haul economy and Biz except maybe lounges and more isolated seats. On the way out in economy they didn’t even serve booze you could buy. Nothing
*I took it
By dint of turning up very late indeed, I once got business class seats flying back from Barcelona to Manchester. It wasn't a massive benefit, but I'd definitely pay a fiver for it. Wider, comfier seats, and, ISTR, better food.
But that’s my point. There was NO FOOD on the way out in economy. Not just no free food, no food at all. A packet of crisps and a bottle of water. Free. But that was it
Is this a covid policy for all seats? If it is I can’t see business flights surviving a week at the prices they used to charge
Five quid. Sure. 250 quid no way. And if this applies worldwide…
British Airways is offering me the chance to upgrade from Economy to Biz, from Palma to London - for £5*
Five quid?! I wonder if there is any difference now between short haul economy and Biz except maybe lounges and more isolated seats. On the way out in economy they didn’t even serve booze you could buy. Nothing
*I took it
Dunno what the current COVID-era sitch is, but pre-plague all Club Europe got you was a free middle seat (with a small table on it on older planes) a meal, for values of "meal" depending on distance from London-innit, and booze.
I'd say a fiver is worth the punt as even if they're not doing food and/or booze you'll guarantee a free seat next to you.
Even pre-plague BA's lounge network in Yurp, especially at the bucket-and-spade destinations, was poor. You may well not get a lounge.
Seat pitch is the same as in economy though. If you're not a shortarse like me, that may be an issue. Row 1 usually has best legroom as there are no seats in front of you (port side is better). If you can get a seat in row 1, go for that.
Even if you support the EU, you don't have to try really, really hard to find ways it is really, really flawed. A lot of opposition to Brexit comes from the intuitive judgment that the EU is on the right side of history, but what if it isn't?
Nope.
You don't have to be fan of all things EU to think that being in it is better than being out of it.
That's true, but that's why the flaws need to be properly acknowledged and addressed, not dealt with in a defensive manner, otherwise they aren't resolved and gives and gave ammunition to opponents. I've been on both sides of the issue.
Comments
Crass pricks.
Competence? What competence? Who on their front bench exudes competence? I don’t even know the name of the shadow chancellor. Is it still Dodds?
As for moral purpose that is laughable. They are moral cowards poisoned and enfeebled by identity politics
I rather think that Ireland has every incentive to maintain the peace and indeed avoid friction in trade, especially now it’s clear that Brexit is concluded.
The U.K.-Ireland relationship is critical but the U.K. also needs to look like an honest and concilatory party. This is a government whose Home Secretary suggested we could - in extremis perhaps - starve the Irish out.
As for competence - just look at some of the decisions Labour leadership have made, don't make me laugh.
Because the SNP never goes in for ludicrous saltire-branding to drum up support and stoke grievance?
Safety first or whatever the rationale is, won’t work.
He’s a proven loser, can’t make decisions, has no strategic or tactical ability, doesn’t do passion, has nothing to say or offer the country.
He’s a clean pair of hands, but it’s not enough.
He needs to fuck right off; or better, be secretly negotiating a transition to Burnham.
Following my brilliant work during the Brexit process and making sure the firm was prepared for Brexit I've been promoted today.
This does have implications for PB, one of my responsibilities will be prepping for another Scottish independence referendum in the next few years, and I now have the ability to commission opinion polls. I'm going to have so much fun with that.
Democratically they're not British. Even "Unionist" voters don't vote for British parties. They've made their choice, they're a special case and can be treated as such.
The moment he becomes an MP he has to stand down as Mayor of London, that's the law.
Chancellor confirms that UK has given up trying to secure greater access to EU markets for financial services firms.
City of London has been largely cut off since Brexit completed at end of last year.
Sunak says deal on equivalence “has not happened”.
https://twitter.com/ITVJoel/status/1410518270319468545
Compare that to a random misquote of something Patel kinda said. There is no comparison. I am dumbfounded by anyone who can defend the EU, given its behaviour over the last 18 months (or longer)
The fact that the financial sector is the largest contributor to the Exchequer seems to me to be a good reason for Westminster to write the rules for the sector, not Strasbourg or Brussels. Don't you agree?
David Cameron suggested he wanted Ulstermen in Cabinet, which is right. But he didn’t actually appoint any; for example David Trimble might have made an interesting Foreign Sec.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.9525378,-3.1830501,3a,75y,100.65h,110.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2vyfsaRdYr5p3qT_eDi9Rg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Please desist.
I mean there was a reason why Rishi and others were trying to get equivalence.
Males most likely to die age 86 (83 in Scotland). Females age 88/89.
Visibly more deaths at younger ages in Scotland.
https://twitter.com/ActuaryByDay/status/1410574161983021065?s=20
Care to put a wager on it? £20 to the site's funds that in five years time the financial sector is still the largest contributor to the Exchequer.
It doesn’t. By the time the plague-fog has cleared we will be in a different world. Brexit will be an intriguing footnote. An imformative context. Perhaps a useful appendix.
London will have to sink or swim as a great independent self governing city, as she has always done. I wouldn’t bet against her, even now
At the end of May, 2.4 million people still relied on the scheme for their income, the latest HMRC statistics show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pngE6i3C4vM
Probably sensible to continue to be somewhat cautious.
There appears to be no end to Philip’s genius OR fantasy. PBers will judge.
According to an urban myth, it was during a Test match between the West Indies and England, when Michael Holding was about to bowl to Willey, that the radio commentator Brian Johnston said: "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey". While Wisden stated that there is no record of Johnston or anyone else actually saying this,[7] Johnston's co-commentator, Henry Blofeld, recalled the incident as having taken place at The Oval in 1976.[8] The story is sometimes told the other way around, with Willey bowling to Holding: however, Willey did not bowl to Holding in that particular match.
Nope.
It’s the biggest, and most momentous thing to happen to the U.K. since the original entry, and before that - WW2.
Yes it’s hard to see right now because of Covid, but the mists will clear.
Just because someone has a vested interest in something doesn't mean they're automatically right. Quite the opposite sometimes.
Why do they do this? The more thoughtful might accept they have a huge hidden bias. If ‘lab leak’ is ever proven, or close to proven, their entire science will be hideously tainted. They will be the mad scientists that caused a global plague. Many careers might end, as funding instantly dries up
They are incapable of neutrality, even though they are the ‘experts’. A fascinating test-case
Timing is important though. Ideally Burnham comes in no more than 18 months ahead of the next election IF Keir can hold the fort until then.
Currently there’s no evidence Keir can even fort-hold.
All political parties show dishonesty, incompetence and a certain lack of moral purpose. I believe you're a Lib Dem - in which case, I'd argue the Michael Brown case covers all three of those for that party. Worse, it was all for sweet, sweet lucre.
If voters see such traits in all the parties, it rather reduces the power of the argument.
People say what's in their own interests, not the unvarnished truth.
I mean Brexit is obviously less important than the (slow) end of Empire, and also than the various postwar social changes we’ve seen.
But as a one off event, with long term and profound consequences, it’s right up there.
Oh
“'The confidence they expressed in their own country when they voted for Brexit has been justified'
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng praises the people of Sunderland, after Nissan announced a £1bn investment which will create around 1,600 jobs in the region.”
https://twitter.com/gbnews/status/1410516867488362498?s=21
Brexit is big, and like all big things it will be good and bad. It is too big and sui generis to confidently predict exact outcomes. But generally more democracy is better for economies
You are too smart not to realise this. You have a lingering bias of silly Remainerism
All the pantomime dames on the Outrage Bus must be very disappointed.
We might have entered a unique free trade agreement with them, which would have been better for everyone, on all sides
But I didn't want to labour the point.
I believe we should push for a new arrangement in Europe - which if I have time I might expand upon in a thread header - but I don’t see that happening either.
Britain tends not to be a country of systematic strategy but rather of occasionally brilliant improvisation.
As I said upthread, there are certain totemic icons which Brexiters are desperate to maintain lest the Emperor’s nakedness be revealed.
I’d put Nissan in that list; the reality of the Irish border also — and probably also the Australian trade deal.
Sounds more like the mob than the government.
It would be ironic (if unlikely) if Wales provided the saviour of the Union in the form of Drakeford.
https://twitter.com/martinkettle/status/1410288227345485837?s=21
You don't have to be fan of all things EU to think that being in it is better than being out of it.
Let’s just leave it as extremist.
And
Sturgeon succeeded Salmond as SNP leader, did that seem fishy to you?
It’s like asking an ardent Spanish catholic in 1700 if the reformation was, after all, a good thing
This is why these interviews with various EU bigwigs as to ‘how Brexit is going’ are so laughable. Really. What is Thierry Breton going to say? - ‘yes it turns out Brexit was an excellent idea and I have invested my entire life in a failed and destructive political experiment of historical proportions’
But as I said: all parties can be accused of similar things. It's just that supporters of a particular party seem to ignore it when it's their side.
Lets hope there aren't that many people mesmerised by his tune this time.
Even as Brexit fucks the fishermen, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the farmers, you genuflect.
Even as Brexit fucks the arts, you genuflect.
There is no price too high for your precious Brexit, even as it turns to ashes
Five quid?! I wonder if there is any difference now between short haul economy and Biz except maybe lounges and more isolated seats. On the way out in economy they didn’t even serve booze you could buy. Nothing
*I took it
A lad I know works in a glassworks, on 12 hour shifts which switch from nights to days (the continental shifts pattern) and play havoc with the body clock. The work is dull, repetitive and mind numbingly boring.
The upside is that with the continental shift pattern you get loads of time off, and he gets paid £17 an hour for dull, but easy, work. It's the place where you have a job for life. And he's fairly new, the wage will increase the longer he stays. Managers are probably on £60k, shift supervisors/QC bods £40k, something like that.
So if we end up paying that kind of money for farming, labouring, all the jobs the forrins did for minimum wage, what will the wider long term impact be on food prices, inflation, the general UK economy? Will it be a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?
If England is happy to fly the union apart then this is the way to do it. Despite all the huffing and puffing from the Essicks Massiv about no way never again a Sindyref2, I'm not sure that most people south of the wall care that much.
The union in its current form is not sustainable. Expelling NI from the UK single market was the beginning of the end. I just wish the Conservative and Unionist Party would be honest that the plan is do what England wants and screw the union. It is - as you said - democracy.
Any other questions?
Its entirely appropriate for English MPs to concern themselves more with English matters. Let NI MPs and MLAs take care of themselves.
Someone dives in the water
Plash
But a left candidate would only need 20 nominations if Starmer resigned.
https://twitter.com/georgeeaton/status/1410580765637763074?s=20
Is this a covid policy for all seats? If it is I can’t see business flights surviving a week at the prices they used to charge
Five quid. Sure. 250 quid no way. And if this applies worldwide…
I'd say a fiver is worth the punt as even if they're not doing food and/or booze you'll guarantee a free seat next to you.
Even pre-plague BA's lounge network in Yurp, especially at the bucket-and-spade destinations, was poor. You may well not get a lounge.
Seat pitch is the same as in economy though. If you're not a shortarse like me, that may be an issue. Row 1 usually has best legroom as there are no seats in front of you (port side is better). If you can get a seat in row 1, go for that.