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Predictions for 2021 from the man who tipped Sunak as next PM at 200/1 – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 12,639
edited December 2020 in General
imagePredictions for 2021 from the man who tipped Sunak as next PM at 200/1 – politicalbetting.com

After the increasingly high drama of the past few years 2021 is going to be a year with a bark but less of a bite – with one notable exception.

Read the full story here

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Comments

  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Optimistic. You can probably write off the summer for covid (as Fauci has done in the US), and adjust the outlook for BJ and for the economy downwards accordingly.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
  • solarflaresolarflare Posts: 4,121
    I don't really see the issue with the Olympics, to be honest. Plenty of international sport has happened in 2020, they just need to put the same level of testing and bubbles and general covid-security etc. in as e.g. the EPL or F1 or test cricket etc. (assuming no-one decides that actually doing some private procurement of vaccine supply is the way forward for their sporting event).

    Having it with *big crowds consisting people from other countries*, would be a different kettle of fish.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 52,639
    Third like Trump
  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    49 minutes until we are FREE
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    YAY SOVRANTEE!!
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    A binding second Independence Referendum is Ultra Vires re- Holyrood - and campaign pledges made by parties seeking election to it are neither here nor there.
  • solarflaresolarflare Posts: 4,121
    edited December 2020
    justin124 said:

    A binding second Independence Referendum is Ultra Vires re- Holyrood - and campaign pledges made by parties seeking election to it are neither here nor there.

    Which is almost certainly why the manifesto pledge will be to ask for a Section 30 order to hold a second referendum, rather than just stating that a second referendum will be held.
  • dr_spyndr_spyn Posts: 11,325
    edited December 2020
    2020, one hell of a year. 2021 has something to prove, viz that things can only get better.

    Happy New Year to all PB thread writers, posters and OGH.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 10,533
    edited December 2020
    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    What will you personally be able to do tomorrow that you couldn't do today ?

    For enthusiasts, perhaps the air will feel freer and cleaner - pure British air.

    Freedom is as much a state of mind as anything else, particularly in the middle of a pandemic.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 13,075
    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    And what actually freedoms will you personally get? I can list quite a few I will lose.
  • RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 3,120
    I can tell you now..Boris won't grant a section 30. He'll opt to kick the can the road for someone else to deal with.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 19,491
    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    Yeah. I think the UK is making a huge mistake, but the fastest timeline I can see is

    2021-2: Government adds the most egregious omissions to the 2020 deal.

    2024: Starmer significantly softens the deal within the 2020 deal framework.

    2029: EEAish, with appropriate language on FOM, and a clear linkage between admin savings and Euro fees.

    2034+: "The UK should be making the rules, not taking them..." Note that by then, many of the Brexit generation of politicians will have moved to St Dymphna's Home for Confused Statesmen.

    It's a long way round.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    solarflare said:

    I don't really see the issue with the Olympics, to be honest. Plenty of international sport has happened in 2020, they just need to put the same level of testing and bubbles and general covid-security etc. in as e.g. the EPL or F1 or test cricket etc. (assuming no-one decides that actually doing some private procurement of vaccine supply is the way forward for their sporting event).

    Having it with *big crowds consisting people from other countries*, would be a different kettle of fish.

    Test cricket is a bubble of dozens of people from two countries.

    The Olympics would be a bubble of ten thousand people from two hundred countries.
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    Razedabode said:

    I can tell you now..Boris won't grant a section 30. He'll opt to kick the can the road for someone else to deal with.

    And it does not look as if he will face pressure from Starmer to do otherwise.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 37,049
    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 23,262
    There seems to be a formatting problem in the header. F1 has been included under Sport.
  • RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 3,120
    justin124 said:

    Razedabode said:

    I can tell you now..Boris won't grant a section 30. He'll opt to kick the can the road for someone else to deal with.

    And it does not look as if he will face pressure from Starmer to do otherwise.
    Its in his nature to go that route. He will not be the man to lose Scotland, so he'll ignore it, in the hope the SNP will break out into civil war (or go down the illegal route).

    I don't agree with that (like Phil T). But nor would I want Johnson being PM at the time of another referendum.
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,784
    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Andy_JS said:

    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa

    I now think we are more buggered by new strains of covid, than we are unbuggered by vaccines. Bear in mind that the more strains of virus there are the more variation there is from which yet more strains can emerge, and that viruses can become any or all three of more transmissible, more deadly and more vaccine-resistant.

    2021 will be worse than 2020.

    Sorry, but there it is.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,943
    edited December 2020
    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
    It depends, doesn't it? It is possible that the noticeable effects of brexit will be low-level noise on the "straight banana" sort of level, and it is possible that they will be much more severe. We just don't know.
  • solarflaresolarflare Posts: 4,121
    edited December 2020
    Philip_Thompson said:

    solarflare said:

    I don't really see the issue with the Olympics, to be honest. Plenty of international sport has happened in 2020, they just need to put the same level of testing and bubbles and general covid-security etc. in as e.g. the EPL or F1 or test cricket etc. (assuming no-one decides that actually doing some private procurement of vaccine supply is the way forward for their sporting event).

    Having it with *big crowds consisting people from other countries*, would be a different kettle of fish.

    Test cricket is a bubble of dozens of people from two countries.

    The Olympics would be a bubble of ten thousand people from two hundred countries.
    I think there was something like 1200 people at each F1 race last season, and they were regularly moving around the world from country to country, and not always being particularly careful about what happened *between* events (even though they should have).

    The Olympics, ok, yes it's more people but it's a fixed period of time in one country, and if you know when it's happening you can get everyone to self-isolate in advance for the necessary period before you test everyone relentlessly through the duration. If you also do away with things like everyone being in the stadium for the opening ceremony then you can limit bubbles to swimmers, atheletes, gymnasts, cyclists etc.

    Logistically I'm sure it will be complicated but having had a year of international sport to help them show what works and what doesn't I don't see it as being *that* big a deal, really. There will be positive tests and it will impact upon the events in certain ways but I think it would be manageable.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    GIN1138 said:

    Good PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    While I appreciate TSE and OGH posting my predictions, I'm a bit disappointed with TSE that we never got a thread header in January or now as a homage to this.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,382
    GIN1138 said:

    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    I've got a French Passport, so no :p
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 33,648
    GIN1138 said:

    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    The fightback starts...in 26 minutes!
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,943
    edited December 2020
    Agree with most of Mystic Philips predictions but...

    1. I think the division in USA will intensify. Trump supporters will never accept Biden won fairly and Biden will be terrible and will lurch from one disaster to another... which will cause more division and tension. It's possible VP Harris will be POTUS by NYE 2021.

    2. I have a feeling Nicola is heading for a fall in 2021. I suspect the SNP will win a majority in Hollyrood but look for the popularity of Sturgeon and the SNP to wane through 2021....

    Nothing lasts forever. Not even SNP popularity (I realise this posts risk incurring the wrath of Malc lol ;) )

    Otherwise these predictions are spot on.

    Happy New Year PB :)
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 28,152
    IshmaelZ said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa

    I now think we are more buggered by new strains of covid, than we are unbuggered by vaccines. Bear in mind that the more strains of virus there are the more variation there is from which yet more strains can emerge, and that viruses can become any or all three of more transmissible, more deadly and more vaccine-resistant.

    2021 will be worse than 2020.

    Sorry, but there it is.
    In which case restricting international travel is even more important.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,943
    Mexicanpete said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    The fightback starts...in 26 minutes!
    We may rejoin... In 2060 :D
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 18,271
    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    Indeed.


  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,943
    edited December 2020
    CatMan said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    I've got a French Passport, so no :p
    You're Stanley Johnson? :open_mouth:
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,784
    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
    It depends, doesn't it? It is possible that the noticeable effects of brexit will be low-level noise on the "straight banana" sort of level, and it is possible that they will be much more severe. We just don't know.
    It's pretty clear already that it'll be the former. The UK and EU will part in 25 minutes with the trading relationship between the two pretty well intact, and the arrangements in place that will maintain broad equivalence give no reason to believe that things won't stay on an even keel.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,673
    FF43 said:

    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    Indeed.


    Is that our finance you need EU, kept behind that barbed wire?

    Let's see how smug that cartoon looks in a couple of years, eh?
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 23,262
    Well I do hope that the final consignment of Good Brie makes it through before the razor wire goes up at Dover.

    BTW, I'm assuming that we'll be buying petrol by the gallon and apples by the pound from tomorrow morning. If not, Bozo needs to get a grip.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 16,762
    Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    SandyRentool said:

    Well I do hope that the final consignment of Good Brie makes it through before the razor wire goes up at Dover.

    BTW, I'm assuming that we'll be buying petrol by the gallon and apples by the pound from tomorrow morning. If not, Bozo needs to get a grip.

    I hadn't thought of that, but now you mention it I thought pounds of potatoes was even more iconic than blue passports. Are we going back to that?
  • rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 8,767
    Good header - fair play to Philip for nailing his colors to the mast. I think that's all a bit optimistic but time will tell!
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,382
    GIN1138 said:

    CatMan said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    I've got a French Passport, so no :p
    You're Stanley Johnson? :open_mouth:
    Only in my wildest dreams
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,997
    another_richard said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa

    I now think we are more buggered by new strains of covid, than we are unbuggered by vaccines. Bear in mind that the more strains of virus there are the more variation there is from which yet more strains can emerge, and that viruses can become any or all three of more transmissible, more deadly and more vaccine-resistant.

    2021 will be worse than 2020.

    Sorry, but there it is.
    In which case restricting international travel is even more important.
    Just imagine if Shapps' laissez faire attitude towards Heathrow caused several of the strains to mix and something more vax resistant and deadly emerged.
    Humanity, wiped out by Grant Shapps !
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
    It depends, doesn't it? It is possible that the noticeable effects of brexit will be low-level noise on the "straight banana" sort of level, and it is possible that they will be much more severe. We just don't know.
    It's pretty clear already that it'll be the former. The UK and EU will part in 25 minutes with the trading relationship between the two pretty well intact, and the arrangements in place that will maintain broad equivalence give no reason to believe that things won't stay on an even keel.
    Not to me it isn't. Price rises and permanent Dover traffic jams could get up peoples' noses in a big way.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,630
    Philip_Thompson said:

    solarflare said:

    I don't really see the issue with the Olympics, to be honest. Plenty of international sport has happened in 2020, they just need to put the same level of testing and bubbles and general covid-security etc. in as e.g. the EPL or F1 or test cricket etc. (assuming no-one decides that actually doing some private procurement of vaccine supply is the way forward for their sporting event).

    Having it with *big crowds consisting people from other countries*, would be a different kettle of fish.

    Test cricket is a bubble of dozens of people from two countries.

    The Olympics would be a bubble of ten thousand people from two hundred countries.
    Japan could presumably insist and facilitate that all athletes and staff are vaccinated.
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,784
    Mexicanpete said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    The fightback starts...in 26 minutes!
    Just make it part of the continuing fightback against the decision to stay out of the Euro.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    another_richard said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa

    I now think we are more buggered by new strains of covid, than we are unbuggered by vaccines. Bear in mind that the more strains of virus there are the more variation there is from which yet more strains can emerge, and that viruses can become any or all three of more transmissible, more deadly and more vaccine-resistant.

    2021 will be worse than 2020.

    Sorry, but there it is.
    In which case restricting international travel is even more important.
    You could try that, like you could try taping brown paper over the windows prior to a nuclear attack.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,997
    Benpointer said:

    Philip_Thompson said:

    solarflare said:

    I don't really see the issue with the Olympics, to be honest. Plenty of international sport has happened in 2020, they just need to put the same level of testing and bubbles and general covid-security etc. in as e.g. the EPL or F1 or test cricket etc. (assuming no-one decides that actually doing some private procurement of vaccine supply is the way forward for their sporting event).

    Having it with *big crowds consisting people from other countries*, would be a different kettle of fish.

    Test cricket is a bubble of dozens of people from two countries.

    The Olympics would be a bubble of ten thousand people from two hundred countries.
    Japan could presumably insist and facilitate that all athletes and staff are vaccinated.
    Athletes in this country will be right at the back of the (regular) queue. Other countries won't have the vaccine in any sort of quantity. If the IOC wants to go down this route they'll have to procure vaccines for the ~ 12,000 athletes that will be taking part. And their coaches..
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,630
    Stuartinromford said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    Yeah. I think the UK is making a huge mistake, but the fastest timeline I can see is

    2021-2: Government adds the most egregious omissions to the 2020 deal.

    2024: Starmer significantly softens the deal within the 2020 deal framework.

    2029: EEAish, with appropriate language on FOM, and a clear linkage between admin savings and Euro fees.

    2034+: "The UK should be making the rules, not taking them..." Note that by then, many of the Brexit generation of politicians will have moved to St Dymphna's Home for Confused Statesmen.

    It's a long way round.
    By 2030 it could be England left to re-apply, not the UK.
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,709
    All of us need to be highly careful and hopefully things will be better at Easter if the Government sorts out the vaccinations properly.
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,784
    edited December 2020
    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
    It depends, doesn't it? It is possible that the noticeable effects of brexit will be low-level noise on the "straight banana" sort of level, and it is possible that they will be much more severe. We just don't know.
    It's pretty clear already that it'll be the former. The UK and EU will part in 25 minutes with the trading relationship between the two pretty well intact, and the arrangements in place that will maintain broad equivalence give no reason to believe that things won't stay on an even keel.
    Not to me it isn't. Price rises and permanent Dover traffic jams could get up peoples' noses in a big way.
    My New Year's prediction is that you're wrong.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Benpointer said:

    Philip_Thompson said:

    solarflare said:

    I don't really see the issue with the Olympics, to be honest. Plenty of international sport has happened in 2020, they just need to put the same level of testing and bubbles and general covid-security etc. in as e.g. the EPL or F1 or test cricket etc. (assuming no-one decides that actually doing some private procurement of vaccine supply is the way forward for their sporting event).

    Having it with *big crowds consisting people from other countries*, would be a different kettle of fish.

    Test cricket is a bubble of dozens of people from two countries.

    The Olympics would be a bubble of ten thousand people from two hundred countries.
    Japan could presumably insist and facilitate that all athletes and staff are vaccinated.
    I hadn't thought of that, its not a bad suggestion at all given how its in the summer that should definitely be viable.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 28,152
    edited December 2020
    IshmaelZ said:

    another_richard said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa

    I now think we are more buggered by new strains of covid, than we are unbuggered by vaccines. Bear in mind that the more strains of virus there are the more variation there is from which yet more strains can emerge, and that viruses can become any or all three of more transmissible, more deadly and more vaccine-resistant.

    2021 will be worse than 2020.

    Sorry, but there it is.
    In which case restricting international travel is even more important.
    You could try that, like you could try taping brown paper over the windows prior to a nuclear attack.
    That depends how far away the nuclear attack is.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    8 minutes until FREEDOM
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,630
    Pulpstar said:

    Benpointer said:

    Philip_Thompson said:

    solarflare said:

    I don't really see the issue with the Olympics, to be honest. Plenty of international sport has happened in 2020, they just need to put the same level of testing and bubbles and general covid-security etc. in as e.g. the EPL or F1 or test cricket etc. (assuming no-one decides that actually doing some private procurement of vaccine supply is the way forward for their sporting event).

    Having it with *big crowds consisting people from other countries*, would be a different kettle of fish.

    Test cricket is a bubble of dozens of people from two countries.

    The Olympics would be a bubble of ten thousand people from two hundred countries.
    Japan could presumably insist and facilitate that all athletes and staff are vaccinated.
    Athletes in this country will be right at the back of the (regular) queue. Other countries won't have the vaccine in any sort of quantity. If the IOC wants to go down this route they'll have to procure vaccines for the ~ 12,000 athletes that will be taking part. And their coaches..
    Not difficult. I am not saying it should be done but it certainly *could* be done.

    Look at it from Japan's viewpoint: divert 50,000 vaccines from their population of 126m or lose the Olympics together with all the investment that goes with it. No contest.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,650
    MarqueeMark said:

    FF43 said:

    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    Indeed.


    Is that our finance you need EU, kept behind that barbed wire?

    Let's see how smug that cartoon looks in a couple of years, eh?
    Also completely oblivious to the world beyond the EU.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
    It depends, doesn't it? It is possible that the noticeable effects of brexit will be low-level noise on the "straight banana" sort of level, and it is possible that they will be much more severe. We just don't know.
    It's pretty clear already that it'll be the former. The UK and EU will part in 25 minutes with the trading relationship between the two pretty well intact, and the arrangements in place that will maintain broad equivalence give no reason to believe that things won't stay on an even keel.
    Not to me it isn't. Price rises and permanent Dover traffic jams could get up peoples' noses in a big way.
    My New Year's prediction is that you're wrong.
    When I was just a little girl
    I asked my mother, what will I be
    Will I be pretty
    Will I be rich
    Here's what she said to me...
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    RobD said:

    MarqueeMark said:

    FF43 said:

    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    Indeed.


    Is that our finance you need EU, kept behind that barbed wire?

    Let's see how smug that cartoon looks in a couple of years, eh?
    Also completely oblivious to the world beyond the EU.
    And within it (no Ireland).
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    IshmaelZ said:

    Optimistic. You can probably write off the summer for covid (as Fauci has done in the US), and adjust the outlook for BJ and for the economy downwards accordingly.

    AND consider that Fauci is himself being optimistic. More likely methinks to last for just about all of 2021, and maybe into 2022.

    "Home by Christmas" is always a great aspiration but certainly NOT a sure thing. Just ask Tommy Atkins & GI Joe!
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,650
    IshmaelZ said:

    RobD said:

    MarqueeMark said:

    FF43 said:

    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    Indeed.


    Is that our finance you need EU, kept behind that barbed wire?

    Let's see how smug that cartoon looks in a couple of years, eh?
    Also completely oblivious to the world beyond the EU.
    And within it (no Ireland).
    Thought that was more artistic license because of how strange the border would have looked there.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 28,152
    Pulpstar said:

    another_richard said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa

    I now think we are more buggered by new strains of covid, than we are unbuggered by vaccines. Bear in mind that the more strains of virus there are the more variation there is from which yet more strains can emerge, and that viruses can become any or all three of more transmissible, more deadly and more vaccine-resistant.

    2021 will be worse than 2020.

    Sorry, but there it is.
    In which case restricting international travel is even more important.
    Just imagine if Shapps' laissez faire attitude towards Heathrow caused several of the strains to mix and something more vax resistant and deadly emerged.
    Humanity, wiped out by Grant Shapps !
    He would still see it as a price worth paying to keep the airports open.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    4 minutes
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    IanB2 said:

    Third like Trump

    You wish!
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,650
    Leon said:

    4 minutes

    Until? :o
  • RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 3,120
    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
    It depends, doesn't it? It is possible that the noticeable effects of brexit will be low-level noise on the "straight banana" sort of level, and it is possible that they will be much more severe. We just don't know.
    It's pretty clear already that it'll be the former. The UK and EU will part in 25 minutes with the trading relationship between the two pretty well intact, and the arrangements in place that will maintain broad equivalence give no reason to believe that things won't stay on an even keel.
    Not to me it isn't. Price rises and permanent Dover traffic jams could get up peoples' noses in a big way.
    What are the chances that this doesn't happen..
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,966
    Happy New Year to everyone.

    Unfortunately I have a feeling it still wont be "a fantastic year for Britain" although hopefully by this time next year we will be over the worst of Covid

    https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1212679425629859840
  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    2 mins
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,943
    1 minute!!!!!
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    edited December 2020
    Razedabode said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Wulfrun_Phil said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    justin124 said:

    Big_G_NorthWales said:

    Talking of keeping Brexit going

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1344753024317665280?s=19

    He might try it but people are unlikely to be interested or receptive to that.. Most have already moved on.
    If you read this forum you are in denial about most people moving on
    With respect , we are part of the 'commentariat' and as such far from being representative of the typical voter! I have not encountered people discussing Brexit since last January - it is no longer at forefront of their consciousness. One of the reasons Johnson got his big win was the desperation of voters to move on and 'get Brexit done'. He is unlikely to be rewarded by any serious attempt to dig the issue up again - and I would not expect Starmer to engage. I fully expect it to return to being a minor , peripheral bacground issue as it was at elections pre-2015.
    Well, nothing brexity has happened yet, has it, in practical terms? Maybe nothing will happen, in which case you are right, but there's three and a third years before the next GE for the effects of brexit for good or ill to impinge on the public consciousness.
    But whatever happens, Labour is not going to be advocating rejoining the EU in 2024. Such an option is unlikely before circa 2035 - if it happens at all.
    No of course not, but the election will be largely about which bits of the trade deal to renegotiate in what order.
    No, it won't. By the next GE, the issue of the future of our by then settled trading relationship with the EU will figure about as much in the public consciousness as the issue of whether the UK should join the Euro did in the 2010 GE. The Conservatives would like it to and will for a while push scare stories to that effect, but Starmer will do absolutely nothing to give the impression that Labour will reopen Brexit, so the public will continue to be disinterested. If in 2024 Starmer focuses on about the bread and butter issues that people care about, the Conservatives will risk making the same mistake that May did in 2017 if they consider focusing their campaign on Brexit. I think they'll have enough political nous not to.
    It depends, doesn't it? It is possible that the noticeable effects of brexit will be low-level noise on the "straight banana" sort of level, and it is possible that they will be much more severe. We just don't know.
    It's pretty clear already that it'll be the former. The UK and EU will part in 25 minutes with the trading relationship between the two pretty well intact, and the arrangements in place that will maintain broad equivalence give no reason to believe that things won't stay on an even keel.
    Not to me it isn't. Price rises and permanent Dover traffic jams could get up peoples' noses in a big way.
    What are the chances that this doesn't happen..
    I dont really do on site betting but if I did I would offer £50 at evens that BONG

    --- edit I feel sovereigner already ---

    in the polling this time next year for leaving the EU was a mistake yes/no, yes will be further ahead than it is now.

  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,201
    CRUNCH
    just fallen off the cliff-edge
  • old_labourold_labour Posts: 3,238
    Happy Final Brexit!
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,673
    So farewell then, EEC. We will miss you.

    Your bastard offspring, the EU? Not so much.....

    Now, time to go forth - and show the world what we can still do.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    Freedom, for good, or ill. Freedom

    Now it is all up to us
  • RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 3,120
    I'd love to have been the last truck driver across before 11 - a historic moment. And one that was considerably easier than it'll be now..
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Happy New Era
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,630
    Leon said:

    Freedom, for good, or ill. Freedom

    Now it is all up to us

    Sorry pal but there’s no logic to that.

    1. Either (as I believe) we were always free or…
    2. We became free on 31/1/2020 when we actually left the EU or…
    3. We would have become free tonight had we opted for No Deal.

    If you believe we lacked freedom because we were taking rules from the EU, well we still are, and ever will be. At least before 31/1/2020 we had an input in shaping them.

    Sorry to piss on your campfire and all that but them’s the facts.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    Benpointer said:

    Leon said:

    Freedom, for good, or ill. Freedom

    Now it is all up to us

    Sorry pal but there’s no logic to that.

    1. Either (as I believe) we were always free or…
    2. We became free on 31/1/2020 when we actually left the EU or…
    3. We would have become free tonight had we opted for No Deal.

    If you believe we lacked freedom because we were taking rules from the EU, well we still are, and ever will be. At least before 31/1/2020 we had an input in shaping them.

    Sorry to piss on your campfire and all that but them’s the facts.
    lol.

    FREEDOM

    Enjoy
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 33,648
    Philip_Thompson said:

    Happy New Era

    I give it five years! Maybe 10.
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,382
    Sod Central European Time, don't you know that we are British, and only take notice of Great Britain Median Time?
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    geoffw said:

    CRUNCH
    just fallen off the cliff-edge

    Wait, the world didn't end

    What's that sound I hear?

    Scott sobbing quietly in his basement lair.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 29,309
    MarqueeMark said:

    FF43 said:

    Leon said:

    49 minutes until we are FREE

    Indeed.


    Is that our finance you need EU, kept behind that barbed wire?

    Let's see how smug that cartoon looks in a couple of years, eh?
    I wonder why they think we are locked off from the rest of the world...
  • old_labourold_labour Posts: 3,238
    Most magnanimous losers of 2020- (Some) Remainers and Donald Trump
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,943
    You have to give it to Boris. He got Brexit done!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    Fuck. Where are the riots?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    another_richard said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    another_richard said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How can we stop the spread of the new Covid-19 variant from South Africa?

    Tom Clarke
    Science Editor"

    https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-23/how-can-we-stop-the-spread-of-the-new-covid-19-variant-from-south-africa

    I now think we are more buggered by new strains of covid, than we are unbuggered by vaccines. Bear in mind that the more strains of virus there are the more variation there is from which yet more strains can emerge, and that viruses can become any or all three of more transmissible, more deadly and more vaccine-resistant.

    2021 will be worse than 2020.

    Sorry, but there it is.
    In which case restricting international travel is even more important.
    You could try that, like you could try taping brown paper over the windows prior to a nuclear attack.
    That depends how far away the nuclear attack is.
    There is quite a narrow band, though, between "too close to make any difference" and "too far to make any difference."
  • MattWMattW Posts: 29,309
    SandyRentool said:

    Well I do hope that the final consignment of Good Brie makes it through before the razor wire goes up at Dover.

    BTW, I'm assuming that we'll be buying petrol by the gallon and apples by the pound from tomorrow morning. If not, Bozo needs to get a grip.

    Coming from Zomerzet.

    Should be fine.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 22,107
    May the form filling commence. A new era of red tape has begun.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    GIN1138 said:

    Agree with most of Mystic Philips predictions but...

    1. I think the division in USA will intensify. Trump supporters will never accept Biden won fairly and Biden will be terrible and will lurch from one disaster to another... which will cause more division and tension. It's possible VP Harris will be POTUS by NYE 2021.

    2. I have a feeling Nicola is heading for a fall in 2021. I suspect the SNP will win a majority in Hollyrood but look for the popularity of Sturgeon and the SNP to wane through 2021....

    Nothing lasts forever. Not even SNP popularity (I realise this posts risk incurring the wrath of Malc lol ;) )

    Otherwise these predictions are spot on.

    Happy New Year PB :)

    Re #1 - while PT is too optimistic re: US politics 2021, agree more with him that you. Yes, die-hard Trumpskites will not accept Biden, just like hard-core Dems did not accept W. HOWEVER, do note that W was re-elected pretty easily (the whole "they stole Ohio" thing was total crap) in large measure because 1st-term US presidents REALLY have to work hard at NOT being re-elected; note that W's Daddy managed it thanks to Perot and recession, while Trump achieved it by making himself a constant stench in the nostrils of decent folk.

    Plus notion that Biden "will lurch from disaster to disaster" - well, that's what many pundits & PBers said about his 2020 presidential campaign! Better bet methinks - certainly from historical perspective - would be that he and Harris will run again in 2024.

    But that is a hunch, and a hope - NOT a prediction!
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 61,114
    I think I agree with most of that.
  • FregglesFreggles Posts: 3,487
    Anything decent to watch to bring in the new year instead of the fireworks,?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,673
    edited December 2020
    Leon said:

    Fuck. Where are the riots?

    Remainers as obvious as they were in the Referendum campaign....
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,382
    SandyRentool said:

    Well I do hope that the final consignment of Good Brie makes it through before the razor wire goes up at Dover.

    No worries, Somerset Brie is just as good.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 64,374
    MattW said:

    SandyRentool said:

    Well I do hope that the final consignment of Good Brie makes it through before the razor wire goes up at Dover.

    BTW, I'm assuming that we'll be buying petrol by the gallon and apples by the pound from tomorrow morning. If not, Bozo needs to get a grip.

    Coming from Zomerzet.

    Should be fine.
    I was recently in Suffolk knapping some erotic flints, and I passed by Pinneys of Orford where I bought this. Baron Bigod. The best brie-like cheese I have ever had - and it is made, surprisingly, in Suffolk.

    Take it out of the fridge, let it breathe, it is tangy and pungent, it is amazing. Superb. Divine.

    https://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/products/baron-bigod

    Feck the French, we will thrive.

  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    bigjohnowls said:

    Happy New Year to everyone.

    Unfortunately I have a feeling it still wont be "a fantastic year for Britain" although hopefully by this time next year we will be over the worst of Covid

    https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1212679425629859840

    "This is going to be a fantastic year for Britain."

    As clear a warning as you are ever gonna get!
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,641
    Floater said:

    geoffw said:

    CRUNCH
    just fallen off the cliff-edge

    Wait, the world didn't end

    What's that sound I hear?

    Scott sobbing quietly in his basement lair.
    "Command center" :lol:
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,692
    Freggles said:

    Anything decent to watch to bring in the new year instead of the fireworks,?

    Let's all go down to Trafalgar Square to watch the police disperse the crowds.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    CatMan said:

    SandyRentool said:

    Well I do hope that the final consignment of Good Brie makes it through before the razor wire goes up at Dover.

    No worries, Somerset Brie is just as good.

    Course it is, you'd expect no less from a proper French cheese company

    https://twitter.com/sTeamTraen/status/1339958036975263745
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    GIN1138 said:

    Good evening PB.

    Everyone enjoying their final 30 minutes as members of the European Union? :D

    That happened 11 months ago.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    edited December 2020
    Leon said:

    MattW said:

    SandyRentool said:

    Well I do hope that the final consignment of Good Brie makes it through before the razor wire goes up at Dover.

    BTW, I'm assuming that we'll be buying petrol by the gallon and apples by the pound from tomorrow morning. If not, Bozo needs to get a grip.

    Coming from Zomerzet.

    Should be fine.
    I was recently in Suffolk knapping some erotic flints, and I passed by Pinneys of Orford where I bought this. Baron Bigod. The best brie-like cheese I have ever had - and it is made, surprisingly, in Suffolk.

    Take it out of the fridge, let it breathe, it is tangy and pungent, it is amazing. Superb. Divine.

    https://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/products/baron-bigod

    Feck the French, we will thrive.

    One thing I've absorbed from Time Team re-runs on YouTube, is that ancient Britons spent a LOT of time and effort engaging in trade (and no doubt other) relations with the fecking "foreigners" across the English Channel.

    Strange how the Flintstone folks were soooooooo deluded. Because they hated freedom?

    BTW, do you recognize any imported trends in erotic flint-napping? Say a Neolithic version of the French Tickler?

    Which I'm guessing even staunch Brexiters would find more appealing than an English Ticker!
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