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  • Will it involve hostile environments and Russian oligarchs?
  • welshowlwelshowl Posts: 4,464

    France pleads for a Brexit Deal as toilet shortage looms.
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-france/hurry-up-calais-region-urges-eu-uk-leaders-as-no-deal-brexit-looms-idUKKCN1LM2F1

    "Some 7,000 trucks go through its ports and the Channel Tunnel rail crossing every day, and a ‘hard Brexit’ whereby the UK leaves the EU’s single market would require building new customs and sanitary infrastructure. "

    Turd country status?

    (Yes I know I’m opening a wide open goal for Remainers to joke, but I cannot resist the pun).
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767

    I think it's a misconception to see this as a trade negotiation. It's a political negotiation, and despite the best intentions of the Brexiteers, there is still no realistic prospect that the UK economy will decouple itself from the EU. Therefore it's really only a question of the terms on which the UK will participate in the EU system. You're right that Ireland is useful negotiating leverage for the EU, but that doesn't mean that Ireland is merely a pawn, nor that the UK will come out best from employing brinkmanship.
    follow the money is always the best advice

    the people who claim they worry most about NI are the same ones who two years ago didnt give a shit about the place or its inhabitants.

    even Leo doesnt give a shit about it, he' just doing some easing brit bashing because he has an election coming up and he has the Commission on side
  • France pleads for a Brexit Deal as toilet shortage looms.
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-france/hurry-up-calais-region-urges-eu-uk-leaders-as-no-deal-brexit-looms-idUKKCN1LM2F1

    "Some 7,000 trucks go through its ports and the Channel Tunnel rail crossing every day, and a ‘hard Brexit’ whereby the UK leaves the EU’s single market would require building new customs and sanitary infrastructure. "

    Things are happening and the politicians will be forced into a deal by shear economic necessity on both sides of the channel
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767

    What forces will make it happen? The world economy is very different from then.

    In any case, the likes of Alanbrooke still see Ireland as an economic vassal of the UK to this day.
    usual guff
  • I support Hard Brexit, it will lead to proper austerity.

    https://twitter.com/BBCHelenaLee/status/1037808431246266370
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 43,647

    One of the weirder things was that they (the US) seem to know it early on. In the recent Ken Burns documentary I'm sure there was a taped phone call from LBJ during his presidency admitting it was a lost cause but they had to keep on keeping on.
    Yes it's the one I'm watching at the moment. He does say that.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,996
    edited September 2018
    Cyclefree said:

    The books of Paul Berman are very good on the WW2 period and after re the Grand Mufti and his impact on other Arab leaders (eg he was a bit of a mentor to Yasser Arafat). Benny Morris, an Israeli historian, Is good on Israeli history and he does try to cover the Arab perspective.
    I think you perhaps need to go back a bit further than that.
    Daniel Heller’s Jabotinsky’s Children is a very good book indeed on the rise of interwar Polish Zionism, which recognises the complexities and contradictions of the period (it’s notable, for example, that the Polish democrats were rather more antisemetic than the Polish fascists...).
  • welshowl said:

    The U.K. will decouple over time just like Ireland did from the U.K. post 1922.
    Of course there are those who think (admittedly without the benefit of logic or data) that Ireland is on the brink of recoupling with the UK.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,825

    Mitigated not eliminated.
    In 1939 (after Kristallnacht and the Czech crisis!) the Tory government in Britain issued a White Paper restricting immigration of Jews to Palestine to 75 000 per year, trapping many on the European mainland on the brink of war:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Paper_of_1939

    Not one of our top moments in history.

  • follow the money is always the best advice

    the people who claim they worry most about NI are the same ones who two years ago didnt give a shit about the place or its inhabitants.

    even Leo doesnt give a shit about it, he' just doing some easing brit bashing because he has an election coming up and he has the Commission on side
    What relevance does any of that have to the negotiations? If you "follow the money" the only conclusion you can come to is that it's in no-one's interests for the UK to leave the single market and customs union, therefore all sides will contrive to ensure that's the outcome using whichever political expedient comes to hand. Your own logic suggests the UK will capitulate and regard it as a success.
  • Mortimer said:

    Big G, even Chequers is hard Brexit. Leaving SM, CU and ending FOM
    So why is Davis colluding with Farage
  • welshowlwelshowl Posts: 4,464

    follow the money is always the best advice

    the people who claim they worry most about NI are the same ones who two years ago didnt give a shit about the place or its inhabitants.

    even Leo doesnt give a shit about it, he' just doing some easing brit bashing because he has an election coming up and he has the Commission on side
    Quite.

    This Dublin, Holyhead, Calais thing is the reality dawning that a nice long sail down the Irish Sea, turn left at the Scillys, and then settling in for a nice long passage down the Channel to dock Zeebrugge or Rotterdam or wherever, is, from an Irish business perspective, batshit crazy, whatever bollocks Brussels comes out with about North Sea Corridors.

    First smell of fudge out of Ireland?

    If so good.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767

    What relevance does any of that have to the negotiations? If you "follow the money" the only conclusion you can come to is that it's in no-one's interests for the UK to leave the single market and customs union, therefore all sides will contrive to ensure that's the outcome using whichever political expedient comes to hand. Your own logic suggests the UK will capitulate and regard it as a success.
    my going in position has always been Brexit will be pretty much like what we have today only with a solid guarantee of no further integration.

    The rest of what I "think" is simply things you make up when you run out of arguments.

    Im quite happy with a soft Brexit
  • welshowlwelshowl Posts: 4,464

    Of course there are those who think (admittedly without the benefit of logic or data) that Ireland is on the brink of recoupling with the UK.
    It won’t of course. It will decouple further. Fair enough.
  • Foxy said:

    Did you read @viewcode's question and @ralphmalph's response?
    Yes and it is not relevant to the point the Irish are talking to the EU about

    Of course if a rogue vehicle broke the seals that would be a matter for the Irish and EU
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 43,647

    Who has the power in your view?
    Great question.

    Not the government if that helps! Both the DUP/ERG can rightly say that a border in the Irish Sea is unthinkable.

    And at the same time an land actual border is something all sides have said they don't want.

    The government is piggy in the middle.

    The only seeming workable option is for the UK as a whole to stay in the SM:CU. But that means FoM so...
  • Scrapheap_as_wasScrapheap_as_was Posts: 10,069
    edited September 2018
    I've always assumed the PM would leave on the first monday of the 5th month.... just for the giggles.

    A coup left so close to Brexit day... sounds up to the normal level of Brexit planning by the headbangers.


    https://twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/1037808680975179777
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767
    edited September 2018
    welshowl said:

    Quite.

    This Dublin, Holyhead, Calais thing is the reality dawning that a nice long sail down the Irish Sea, turn left at the Scillys, and then settling in for a nice long passage down the Channel to dock Zeebrugge or Rotterdam or wherever, is, from an Irish business perspective, batshit crazy, whatever bollocks Brussels comes out with about North Sea Corridors.

    First smell of fudge out of Ireland?

    If so good.
    even if they wanted to there are not enough ships to carry the trade.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,825
    Nigelb said:

    I think you perhaps need to go back a bit further than that.
    Daniel Heller’s Jabotinsky’s Children is a very good book indeed on the rise of interwar Polish Zionism, which recognises the complexities and contradictions of the period (it’s notable, for example, that the Polish democrats were rather more antisemetic than the Polish fascists...).
    I highly recommend "On the Eve" as a fascinating picture of the diversity of European Jewry, in all its complexity and factions. One cannot travel, particularly in Eastern Europe, without feeling the loss of a vibrant strand of European culture.

    https://profilebooks.com/on-the-eve.html
  • A YouGov poll this week for The Times reveals that voters want Mrs May to stay until the conclusion of Brexit talks. Some 43 per cent want her to remain Tory leader before the talks conclude, with 34 per cent saying she should stand down now and 24 per cent saying they do not know.

    However, support flips round after Brexit. When asked whether Mrs May should hang on after Brexit negotiations are complete, 28 per cent want her to stay, 45 per cent want her to stand down and 27 per cent do not know.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,996
    Foxy said:

    Surely a potential SCOTUS Justice should be adept at coping with lawyerly tricks?

    And doesn’t even come close to the NSFW questions Kavanaugh wanted Clinton asked during the previous impeachment proceedings....
    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/kavanaugh-wanted-ken-starr-to-ask-bill-clinton-these-wildly-lewd-questions/

    ‘lawyerly tricks’, forsooth.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,407
    welshowl said:

    Turd country status?

    (Yes I know I’m opening a wide open goal for Remainers to joke, but I cannot resist the pun).
    It was just a wee pun. so you'll be fine.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767

    A YouGov poll this week for The Times reveals that voters want Mrs May to stay until the conclusion of Brexit talks. Some 43 per cent want her to remain Tory leader before the talks conclude, with 34 per cent saying she should stand down now and 24 per cent saying they do not know.

    However, support flips round after Brexit. When asked whether Mrs May should hang on after Brexit negotiations are complete, 28 per cent want her to stay, 45 per cent want her to stand down and 27 per cent do not know.

    sounds about right
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,996
    Omnium said:

    It was just a wee pun. so you'll be fine.
    Completely out of ordure.

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,825

    Yes and it is not relevant to the point the Irish are talking to the EU about

    Of course if a rogue vehicle broke the seals that would be a matter for the Irish and EU
    The better answer to @viwcodes question is to count the Irish Lorries in at Dover and out at Holyhead, if nessecary via a refunded bond.

    More work for customs and exercise mind you, and an increase in bureaucracy.
  • A YouGov poll this week for The Times reveals that voters want Mrs May to stay until the conclusion of Brexit talks. Some 43 per cent want her to remain Tory leader before the talks conclude, with 34 per cent saying she should stand down now and 24 per cent saying they do not know.

    However, support flips round after Brexit. When asked whether Mrs May should hang on after Brexit negotiations are complete, 28 per cent want her to stay, 45 per cent want her to stand down and 27 per cent do not know.

    I am not surprised by that as that has been my position
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,407
    Nigelb said:

    Completely out of ordure.

    :)
  • TOPPING said:

    Yes it's the one I'm watching at the moment. He does say that.
    Brilliant series. I will watch again if now on Netflix and longer.

    Tim O'Brien was one of the series consultants (and is interviewed near the end). His Vietnam fiction books are well worth a read. One of my favourite authors.
  • welshowlwelshowl Posts: 4,464
    edited September 2018

    What forces will make it happen? The world economy is very different from then.

    In any case, the likes of Alanbrooke still see Ireland as an economic vassal of the UK to this day.
    The fact that the EU is about 7% of a rapidly equalising world economy per head and so 93% isn't. 80% of our economic output is services which tend not to travel at all (haircuts) or travel incredibly well with nigh on zero transport costs ( TV formats). Oh and English is a world language.

    Our business has moved from about 1% to 40% none U.K. or EU in 20 years. I fully expect that trend to continue.

    Time and demographics are not on your side. Stop being so little European. There’s a world out there if you look.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767
    Foxy said:

    The better answer to @viwcodes question is to count the Irish Lorries in at Dover and out at Holyhead, if nessecary via a refunded bond.

    More work for customs and exercise mind you, and an increase in bureaucracy.
    why should we do that ? Whats in it for us ?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,825

    why should we do that ? Whats in it for us ?
    Road charges?
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 64,928
    edited September 2018

    I've always assumed the PM would leave on the first monday of the 5th month.... just for the giggles.

    A coup left so close to Brexit day... sounds up to the normal level of Brexit planning by the headbangers.


    https://twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/1037808680975179777

    So holding fire and to ease the conference. At last acting like grown ups

    Maybe something to do with Boris meeting the chief whip today and also knowing he needs to prevent a complete collapse of his support among conservative mps

    I imagine TM could come out of this with a fine legacy
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767
    Foxy said:

    Road charges?
    it;s a cut throat negotiaiton

    fuck em

    and I say that as a citizen of the Republic of Ireland
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,245
    Foxy said:

    I highly recommend "On the Eve" as a fascinating picture of the diversity of European Jewry, in all its complexity and factions. One cannot travel, particularly in Eastern Europe, without feeling the loss of a vibrant strand of European culture.

    https://profilebooks.com/on-the-eve.html
    The Good Lady Wifi is currently very involved in a project on the events of Bulgaria in WW2, which were the one bright spot - when King Boris played high stakes poker with Hitler to avoid sending 50,000 Bulgarian Jews to the death camps.

    And paid for it with his life.

    But he saved 50,000 Jews in the process.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,825
    edited September 2018
    welshowl said:

    The fact that the EU is about 7% of a rapidly equalising world economy per head and so 93% isn't. 80% of our economic output is services which tend not to travel at all (haircuts) or travel incredibly well with nigh on zero transport costs ( TV formats). Oh and English is a world language.

    Our business has moved from about 1% to 40% none U.K. or EU in 20 years. I fully expect that trend to continue.

    Time and demographics are not on your side. Stop being so little European. There’s a world out there if you look.
    That increase has happened while in the EU!

    What is it about the EU that is stopping our service exports at present?

    Why would losing the large EU market help export elsewhere?

  • welshowl said:

    Time and demographics are not on your side. Stop being so little European. There’s a world out there if you look.

    That's your framing. I could equally well tell you to stop being so little British and embrace the opportunities of Global Wales. The idea that shrinking your domestic internal market makes you inherently more global is simply a logical fallacy.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767
    Foxy said:

    That increase has happened while in the EU!

    What is it about the EU that is stopping our service exports at present?

    Why would losing the large EU market help export elsewhere?

    maybe he sells Nike and doesnt want to deal with all the old white geezers :-)
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,825

    it;s a cut throat negotiaiton

    fuck em

    and I say that as a citizen of the Republic of Ireland
    Yes, its nice to have another passport, my Australian connections may get me one too.

    Always nice to be able to leave with the other Leavers.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,549

    A YouGov poll this week for The Times reveals that voters want Mrs May to stay until the conclusion of Brexit talks. Some 43 per cent want her to remain Tory leader before the talks conclude, with 34 per cent saying she should stand down now and 24 per cent saying they do not know.

    However, support flips round after Brexit. When asked whether Mrs May should hang on after Brexit negotiations are complete, 28 per cent want her to stay, 45 per cent want her to stand down and 27 per cent do not know.

    So, an AV style, 3 way referendum would say.

    Round 1: Go now 34, 15 go after Brexit, 28 stay on indefinitely
    Go after Brexit is eliminated

    Round 2: Go now 34+X, stay on 28+y
    Unless nearly 4/5 of the transfers say stay on...

    This poll almost certainly says TMay should GO NOW by your favoured electoral method.

    :)
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 43,647

    why should we do that ? Whats in it for us ?
    You of all people should realise that the application of logic is not appropriate to the NI situation.

    There can't be a hard border. There can't be an Irish Sea border. The thing that's got to give is freedom of movement. At one fell stroke all problems go away.

    It wasn't on the ballot paper so it is the thing most likely to happen. Of course call it what you want (if the EU lets us).
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767
    Foxy said:

    Yes, its nice to have another passport, my Australian connections may get me one too.

    Always nice to be able to leave with the other Leavers.
    Ive never left, us NI folks have always had the right to dual citizenship, surpised you werent looking at all those dour presbyterians in your family
  • Foxy said:

    The better answer to @viwcodes question is to count the Irish Lorries in at Dover and out at Holyhead, if nessecary via a refunded bond.

    More work for customs and exercise mind you, and an increase in bureaucracy.
    Why should we do the EUs work for them
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,604

    One of the weirder things was that they (the US) seem to know it early on. In the recent Ken Burns documentary I'm sure there was a taped phone call from LBJ during his presidency admitting it was a lost cause but they had to keep on keeping on.
    Not just LBJ but Kennedy. See the first line of this really quite excellent thread header - http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2017/10/24/the-excellent-vietnam-documentary-series-is-a-reminder-that-we-need-to-learn-from-history/

    :)
  • my going in position has always been Brexit will be pretty much like what we have today only with a solid guarantee of no further integration.

    The rest of what I "think" is simply things you make up when you run out of arguments.

    Im quite happy with a soft Brexit
    Do you think Ireland is putting a soft Brexit at risk? Objectively it's hard to see how given that the UK's current position is not a soft Brexit, so risking no deal (which isn't sustainable for the UK) in order to soften it looks like a value bet.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767
    TOPPING said:

    You of all people should realise that the application of logic is not appropriate to the NI situation.

    There can't be a hard border. There can't be an Irish Sea border. The thing that's got to give is freedom of movement. At one fell stroke all problems go away.

    It wasn't on the ballot paper so it is the thing most likely to happen. Of course call it what you want (if the EU lets us).
    I think youre at cross purposes on this were talking landbridge Dover to Holyhead
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,407
    edited September 2018

    So holding fire and to ease the conference. At last acting like grown ups

    I imagine TM could come out of this with a fine legacy
    I really doubt this whole Brexiteer alliance idea. They're not 'giving May extra time' - should they exist as a group they're admitting that they have no power to do anything other than unseat the government, and they know that'd be the daftest thing to do.

    The best way to get Brexit of whatever flavour you want is to get plain old Brexit to start with and then add the flavour. The worst path to Brexit of whatever flavour you want is to insist on that flavour and finish up with no Brexit at all. I'm not suggesting that there aren't Brexiteers too thick to understand this, but the vast majority of sentient beings will see this clearly.

    May's Brexit is it.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,825
    edited September 2018

    Ive never left, us NI folks have always had the right to dual citizenship, surpised you werent looking at all those dour presbyterians in your family
    The last one left for the South seas as missionaries in the 1870's. My dour Presbyterian ancestors were ethnically Scots-Irish and Scots, but born in various parts of the British Empire, so had British passports.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924
    Joan Ryan vote of no confidence passed 95-92
  • NEW THREAD

  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,075
    Cyclefree said:

    Not just LBJ but Kennedy. See the first line of this really quite excellent thread header - http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2017/10/24/the-excellent-vietnam-documentary-series-is-a-reminder-that-we-need-to-learn-from-history/

    :)
    Can I also recommend The Best and The Brightest, which was a fabulous book on Vietnam.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,604
    Hmm .... my first thought on seeing that front page was “Is she pregnant?”
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,793

    I've always assumed the PM would leave on the first monday of the 5th month.... just for the giggles.

    A coup left so close to Brexit day... sounds up to the normal level of Brexit planning by the headbangers.


    https://twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/1037808680975179777

    I guess she's there until she's finished selling Brexit down the river then...

    #ToriesOut
  • Omnium said:

    I really doubt this whole Brexiteer alliance idea. They're not 'giving May extra time' - should they exist as a group they're admitting that they have no power to do anything other than unseat the government, and they know that'd be the daftest thing to do.

    The best way to get Brexit of whatever flavour you want is to get plain old Brexit to start with and then add the flavour. The worst path to Brexit of whatever flavour you want is to insist on that flavour and finish up with no Brexit at all. I'm not suggesting that there aren't Brexiteers too thick to understand this, but the vast majority of sentient beings will see this clearly.

    May's Brexit is it.
    It is (maybe)
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767

    Do you think Ireland is putting a soft Brexit at risk? Objectively it's hard to see how given that the UK's current position is not a soft Brexit, so risking no deal (which isn't sustainable for the UK) in order to soften it looks like a value bet.
    As I have pointed out I think Ireland has already banked a soft Brexit.

    It's risk now is having banked it, it is woefully ill prepared if anything goes wrong and that sort of turns the Irish question around with Ireland now having bigger risks than the UK.

    hence a hostage since there isnt much time to do much contingency work, But the btits are too soft to take much advantage of it.

    If only we had a french negotiator on our side
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,245
    EU negotiations ALWAYS go down to the last 48 hours. Brexit will go down to the wire as well.

    But we do seem to have had minds focussed by a recent realisation that No Deal was becoming a distinct possibility. And an acceptance that is a really, really shitty outcome for the EU as much as for the UK.

    Chequers is dead, but there does seem to be a renwed determination to find something that does work.
  • welshowlwelshowl Posts: 4,464
    edited September 2018
    Dr Fox

    Ok. I trade twice as much ( and growing) with the rest of the world compared to the EU. I am not going to “lose” EU business because of Brexit but I might gain better a access elsewhere.

    To give a concrete example: we have a contract in Europe that’s up for renewal after three years next month. Just had our sales guy sent over. Had a chat about, price, quality, delivery , (not just in time), usual stuff. All ok. Brexit not mentioned once. Not once. Nor has it been by any of my suppliers, customers, or bloody anyone outside this forum for twenty six months. The pant wetting in here ( not you doc - just a general point) by people who do not actually trade, make stuff and ship it round the world is laughable.

    It. Is. Just. Not. Being. Talked. About. Out. There. Not in my world.

    Meanwhile if ( big if I accept, a new arrangement could get say Brazil fo lower their officious customs practices I might sell a lot more there. So Bre if might, just might ( and only might) help there.

    What it is not going to cause is the end of my world, despite the fervent desire of many that it will.
  • GIN1138 said:

    I guess she's there until she's finished selling Brexit down the river then...

    #ToriesOut
    "Boris Johnson wasn’t going to endorse “alternative plan” and now it’s not happening"

    Probably because there isn't an alternative plan that doesn't just read 'Cripes, erm, I mean, crikey, we seem to have, erm, erm, did we really, crikey, erm, erm ... anyone remember wiff-waff?"
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,245
    Cyclefree said:

    Hmm .... my first thought on seeing that front page was “Is she pregnant?”
    My stepfather had two uncanny abilities. He could always tell which was the first born of twins. And he could always tell when women were pregnant - often before they even knew.

    He'd have known!
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 43,647

    I think youre at cross purposes on this were talking landbridge Dover to Holyhead
    Ah ok
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,604
    Nigelb said:

    I think you perhaps need to go back a bit further than that.
    Daniel Heller’s Jabotinsky’s Children is a very good book indeed on the rise of interwar Polish Zionism, which recognises the complexities and contradictions of the period (it’s notable, for example, that the Polish democrats were rather more antisemetic than the Polish fascists...).
    Thanks to you and @Foxy for the book recommendations.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,183
    welshowl said:

    Dr Fox

    Ok. I trade twice as much ( and growing) with the rest of the world compared to the EU. I am not going to “lose” EU business because of Brexit but I might gain better a access elsewhere.

    To give a concrete example: we have a contract in Europe that’s up for renewal after three years next month. Just had our sales guy sent over. Had a chat about, price, quality, delivery , (not just in time), usual stuff. All ok. Brexit not mentioned once. Not once. Nor has it been by any of my suppliers, customers, or bloody anyone outside this forum for twenty six months. The pant wetting in here ( not you doc - just a general point) by people who do not actually trade, make stuff and ship it round the world is laughable.

    It. Is. Just. Not. Being. Talked. About. Out. There. Not in my world.

    Meanwhile if ( big if I accept, a new arrangement could get say Brazil fo lower their officious customs practices I might sell a lot more there. So Bre if might, just might ( and only might) help there.

    What it is not going to cause is the end of my world, despite the fervent desire of many that it will.

    In my business the biggest current risk is the EU trying to stymie the import of antique books (and at the same time ruin London’s thriving position as a world antiques capital).
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Sandpit said:

    The Democrat plan is probably to get the Senate away from the confirmation hearing and onto anything else, even if it’s the impeachment of one of their own. They’re going to try and run the clock down to the elections without Kavanaugh being confirmed, much as the Republicans did with Obama’s pick a couple of years ago (but without the numerical advantage the GOP had in 2016).
    There's nothing the Dems can do. This is all show. The Republicans can stop hearings at any time and move straight to a vote.
  • AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 25,767
    The ego has landed

    Irish expecting fun with Trump.

    Coveney also being very conciliatory on lots of issues - including Trump Brexit and Karen Bradley


    https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/donald-trumps-visit-to-ireland-will-definitely-be-controversial-simon-coveney-37292760.html
This discussion has been closed.