As long as there is no hard border in Ireland, there will be no showing 2 fingers to Biden. Just removing the Irish Sea border to appease Unionists and particularly the DUP whose support the Tories will need if the next general election gives a hung parliament
Who gives a **** about the Tories? It's the good of the UK that counts.
The good of the UK includes no border in the Irish Sea any longer
I dunno. Over half of Britons don't even care if Northern Ireland leaves the UK.
More still want NI to stay in the UK, 37%, to the 27% who want it to join the Republic.
Tory voters by a big 47% to 25% margin want NI to stay in the UK and we still have a Tory government which may well need the DUP to stay in office again on current polls in 2024
Does anyone take Biden seriously anymore? He's an international joke that makes Boris look good. Heaven forbid they release pisshead Pelosi on us
You are full of it. It being bullshit.
Bidens ratings suggest otherwise. He's a catastrophe. Carter without the 'achievements' When you say full of it, that usually implies bullshit, yes. Obviously, I disagree. Disagree being having a different take.
You said "nobody takes Biden seriously anymore" - does that include Putin?
You said "He's an international joke" - you think the Finns & Swede's agree?
You said "Heaven forbit the release pisshead Pelosi on us" - what does even mean?
Conclude that you are suffering from bad case of wool-in-eye disease.
Putin clearly isn't concerned enough by Biden to not invade a European nation, yes The Finns and Swedes are applying to join NATO, not become the 51st and 52nd state of the USA and made their first move via a pact with us, not the States. Pelosi has been very vocal about NI and the UK. She's another incoherent mess. I don't like Biden, I might be overegging the pudding and I may well have Wooleye but biden is the very worst president at this time. His ratings, his weird ramblings all show this. Others may take a different view.
So Pelosi is an "incoherent mess" because she saying - very coherently - that UK government trashing the Good Friday Agreement is a very BAD thing?
Your PM is the incoherent one, especially one THIS issue.
Your reminder NI voted a few days ago around 55-30 in favour of the protocol.
Your reminder that one community voted against it and, under the rules, that's enough.
Actually, the UK government agreed that the Protocol's ongoing application would be by majority consent, not by cross-community consent.
Not true.
Article 16 provides for the Protocol or parts of it to be scrapped if there is a serious risk of violence etc
One community being extremely unhappy provides that risk and thus vindicates using A16.
You useful idiots of Brussels can pretend A16 isn't a part of the Protocol, but it is.
Unfortunately for you, it is true. The UK government specifically signed up to the Protocol's ongoing application being contingent on majority support as expressed through elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The DUP is not threatening violence, is it?
Your reminder NI voted a few days ago around 55-30 in favour of the protocol.
Your reminder that one community voted against it and, under the rules, that's enough.
Actually, the UK government agreed that the Protocol's ongoing application would be by majority consent, not by cross-community consent.
Not true.
Article 16 provides for the Protocol or parts of it to be scrapped if there is a serious risk of violence etc
One community being extremely unhappy provides that risk and thus vindicates using A16.
You useful idiots of Brussels can pretend A16 isn't a part of the Protocol, but it is.
Unfortunately for you, it is true. The UK government specifically signed up to the Protocol's ongoing application being contingent on majority support as expressed through elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The DUP is not threatening violence, is it?
No 10 have goaded the unionists and last year were almost desperate for more trouble to kick off as a pretext to invoke Article 16.
No 10 never intended to honour the deal they signed and lied to the British people . They were fully aware of what was in the protocol and now suddenly don’t like what they signed upto.
Your reminder NI voted a few days ago around 55-30 in favour of the protocol.
Your reminder that one community voted against it and, under the rules, that's enough.
Actually, the UK government agreed that the Protocol's ongoing application would be by majority consent, not by cross-community consent.
Not true.
Article 16 provides for the Protocol or parts of it to be scrapped if there is a serious risk of violence etc
One community being extremely unhappy provides that risk and thus vindicates using A16.
You useful idiots of Brussels can pretend A16 isn't a part of the Protocol, but it is.
Unfortunately for you, it is true. The UK government specifically signed up to the Protocol's ongoing application being contingent on majority support as expressed through elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The DUP is not threatening violence, is it?
"SAGE models were too 'scary' and held too much weight. No10 Covid expert admits death forecasts were 'eye watering' and should have considered economy
Professor John Edmunds said Covid models were only supposed to be 'one component' of decision-making He accepted models failed to account for the economic and health harms that Covid lockdowns caused SAGE member admitted these harms 'in principle' could have been factored in 'but in practice they were not'"
Spectator TV new video:- 1. Tory MPs think they've overplayed Beergate; successors to Starmer? 2. Simon Kuper (Chums author) on Oxford ruining Britain 3. Other stuff
Does "other stuff" include puff pieces about Tommy Robinson or does that only come in the print edition?
There’s a brilliant piece about the Tas Tepeler of Turkey in the online edition, which has, unprecedentedly, been in their top 5 “most read” articles for nearly a week, now
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland, there will be no showing 2 fingers to Biden. Just removing the Irish Sea border to appease Unionists and particularly the DUP whose support the Tories will need if the next general election gives a hung parliament
Who gives a **** about the Tories? It's the good of the UK that counts.
The good of the UK includes no border in the Irish Sea any longer
I dunno. Over half of Britons don't even care if Northern Ireland leaves the UK.
More still want NI to stay in the UK, 37%, to the 27% who want it to join the Republic.
Tory voters by a big 47% to 25% margin want NI to stay in the UK and we still have a Tory government which may well need the DUP to stay in office again on current polls in 2024
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
Spectator TV new video:- 1. Tory MPs think they've overplayed Beergate; successors to Starmer? 2. Simon Kuper (Chums author) on Oxford ruining Britain 3. Other stuff
Does "other stuff" include puff pieces about Tommy Robinson or does that only come in the print edition?
There’s a brilliant piece about the Tas Tepeler of Turkey in the online edition, which has, unprecedentedly, been in their top 5 “most read” articles for nearly a week, now
Unfathomable that there have now been over 100 FPNs for Downing Street/Whitehall events. A hundred! And who's resigned? Just the former comms chief. What the actual fuck is going on?
I cannot understand how Simon Case is still in office and other senior civil servants must be sent packing
What we have to understand here is that these were civil servants behaving badly, and while Boris must go (depending on his mps), many other high profile mandarins must join him
Sue Grey's report will shock the nation and take Boris's career with it
Simon Case is still in office because it would create an unfortunate precedent if a person responsible for law-breaking in Downing Street was obliged to resign over it.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
Hmm, that's not really true though is it. The UK is far more important to the US because we have wholly aligned interests, the EU keeps banging on about "strategic autonomy". Do you think that hasn't gone unnoticed in DC?
Well, indeed - the US knows that the UK has forfeited any ability to have "strategic autonomy" and so the US can pretty much do what it likes with us. With the EU, which is far bigger, there is always going to be more of a negotiation.
But they also know the EU has no chance of strategic autonomy. Negotiate on what? The EU is wholly reliant on the US for its security, they know it, we know it and the US knows it.
Negotiate on defence expenditure, on procurement, on trade, for example. Once the war in Ukraine is over, the EU and the US will decide what happens next. The UK will watch and wait to be told.
That's all laughably naive from you SO, the US will tell the Europeans this is how it is and they will get on board or not. Same as they will tell us, except that we've already accepted it and are now part of the US axis, hence AUKUS and shared military industrial technology development between the US and UK going back decades and the UK defence industry supply chain being highly integrated into the US procurement chain.
It was a big mistake for the UK to become so inveigeled with the US. The Europeans have done well to retain the degree of independence that they have.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
I’ve always said the Leave campaign told plenty of lies. So did Remain
Your reminder NI voted a few days ago around 55-30 in favour of the protocol.
Your reminder that one community voted against it and, under the rules, that's enough.
Actually, the UK government agreed that the Protocol's ongoing application would be by majority consent, not by cross-community consent.
Not true.
Article 16 provides for the Protocol or parts of it to be scrapped if there is a serious risk of violence etc
One community being extremely unhappy provides that risk and thus vindicates using A16.
You useful idiots of Brussels can pretend A16 isn't a part of the Protocol, but it is.
Unfortunately for you, it is true. The UK government specifically signed up to the Protocol's ongoing application being contingent on majority support as expressed through elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The DUP is not threatening violence, is it?
Giving terrorists a veto over the wishes of the majority is not what democracies do.
Then you will be back to the Troubles then. The GFA needed to appease Unionists and loyalist paramilitaries as well as Nationalists and the IRA to work
Biden thinks he's Irish and would be categorically opposed to whatever we did wrt Ireland anyway.
Though it's interesting as soon as they criticise us, the US magically becomes "our closest ally"...!
He doesn't "think he is Irish". He is American (in case you haven't noticed) with a strong Irish lineage. And, yes, like it or no, the US is our closest ally, particularly since we seem to delight in pissing off our nearest neighbours
The Americans set great store by lineage. And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish. I remember staying in a bed and breakfast in Boston, the proprietor of which, making conversation, claimed to be Scottish. Oh, whereabouts are you from, I asked, making conversation, assuming I'd have a geographical connection pretty much wherever. "St. Louis, Missouri", he said. "But my great grandfather was from Inverness", he added, seeing my confusion. He deemed us Irish, on the grounds we had changed planes in Dublin and that my girlfriend possibly had some Irish ancestry, and introduced us as such to the other guests, causing much less confusion than you might think.
"And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish."
Based on one guy? Seriously? And you are shocked (and appalled?) that some unwashed colonial claims heritage based on their actual great-grandparent?
I'm neither shocked nor appalled, just note the differing sense of the phrase. As I said, I wouldn't claim to be Scottish. Are you Irish, for example, in the sense of being born in Ireland? It's just a different way of using the phrase, but one which sounds odd to British ears.
America is a land of immigrants, and we are proud of our ancestors who came before us, and on whose shoulders we
The man you quoted did NOT claim to be Scottish "in the sense of being born in" Scotland. YOU jumped to that conclusion apparently.
The notion of pride in ancestry being rich & rare where you hail from? Or must a person be born in Yorkshire to BE a Yorkist, or whatever it is you call yourselves?
And idea that Americans from sea to shining sea "desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish" is laughable. Unless you mean at a bar on St Paddy's Day when EVERYONE is an honorary Hibernian - IF they want to be.
I was just pointing out the differing sense of the phrase. He considered himself Scottish because, presumably, he wanted to - he could have picked any of his other ancestors who weren't Scottish. I have met other Americans similar - who consider themselves Irish on the basis of one identified ancestor (in at least one case who almost certainly descended from Scots.) It's pride in heritage - fine. It's a choice - fine. But it's not the way in which I instinctively understand nationality. To me, being Scottish implies being born or growing up there. Hence my confusion. Really, I'm not trying to be disparaging about this. Just noting a difference.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland, there will be no showing 2 fingers to Biden. Just removing the Irish Sea border to appease Unionists and particularly the DUP whose support the Tories will need if the next general election gives a hung parliament
Who gives a **** about the Tories? It's the good of the UK that counts.
The good of the UK includes no border in the Irish Sea any longer
I dunno. Over half of Britons don't even care if Northern Ireland leaves the UK.
The thing is I should be glad about all of this if it leads to a united Ireland as I personally am very much in favour of that. But this is not the way to do it and it risks damaging the UK in ways the Tories do not even seem to have considered. Once a bit of basic trust is gone it is immensely difficult to get back.
I'd be happy to get rid of Northern Ireland and save £15 billion/year. That's about 3p off income tax. I'm afraid they'll do desperate things to cling on to their subsidies though.
Your reminder NI voted a few days ago around 55-30 in favour of the protocol.
Your reminder that one community voted against it and, under the rules, that's enough.
Actually, the UK government agreed that the Protocol's ongoing application would be by majority consent, not by cross-community consent.
Not true.
Article 16 provides for the Protocol or parts of it to be scrapped if there is a serious risk of violence etc
One community being extremely unhappy provides that risk and thus vindicates using A16.
You useful idiots of Brussels can pretend A16 isn't a part of the Protocol, but it is.
Unfortunately for you, it is true. The UK government specifically signed up to the Protocol's ongoing application being contingent on majority support as expressed through elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The DUP is not threatening violence, is it?
@dyedwoolie commented on the last thread about frying eggs. And - hear me out - doing it properly is a lot more complicated than it looks.
Tomorrow lunch = fried egg and artisanal black pudding slice roll ...
You don't need artisanal anything - although proper free range eggs and nice bread are both preferred.
First: remember that egg whites are not a single substance - there is both a very thin white and a much thinker one. That's why your egg whites rarely have a uniform thickness. Chuck the eggs in a sieve, and get rid of the thin whites.
Second: don't use fancy oil or butter for your eggs. You want a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Don't be afraid to use a bit more than you would think, mind, as you want to be able to slosh that oil on top of the whites.
Third: start off on a pretty low temperature. The oil should not be spitting. Let the egg whites slowly thicken.
Fourth when it's clear that the egg white bases are properly cooked but the top is still translucent, then you need to get the oil on top of the egg to cook them. You might want to turn the temperature of the oil up to do this, so that you're using really hot oil. Do this quickly, because you want that yolk to remain runny.
Serve.
Couple of points here.
1. How do you pronounce artisanal; and 2. How do you get on with going to your local grocers/Wholefoods and asking for a neutral oil with a high smoke point.
tia
1. I don't 2. Any regular vegetable oil (sunflower, etc.) Is fine
English rapeseed oil is now excellent
English rapeseed oil would, indeed, be absolutely fine.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The EU isn't even more important to the EU's own member states in the East right now than the UK is, let alone the USA. 😂😂😂
So why does Ukraine wish to join ?
And do you really think that Korean and US companies are building new battery plants in Hungary and Poland because they want to supply Hungary and Poland, rather than the EU ?
One historical event that seems to have been overlooked is that there was a move to invoke Article 16 before, and it wasn't by the UK. Ursula Von Der Leyen, in one of her more ignoble moments, declared she would invoke it in an attempt to control vaccine exports. This was without prior warning to either Dublin, London or indeed Washington. Joe Biden is (unfairly I suspect) accused of not having the best memory, but I suspect the UK government may find the opportunity to remind him of the incident, and invite him to consider its implications as regards the European Commission's understanding of and attitude to the delicacy of the GFA.
Whether Liz Truss is simply making this present threat as a leadership ploy within her party is not for me to say - though this would presumably require her to have persuaded the DUP to refuse to take part in the new NI administration in order to give her sufficient pretext, making making her an awesome woman indeed.
Calculated or not however, it is a better pretext for invoking Article 16 than, say, vaccine exports was.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
But it's all the original lying ECophiles fault so in Brexiteer loonball world they're entirely justified with their pack of lies.
I always find YOO STARTED IT a most persuasive argument.
@dyedwoolie commented on the last thread about frying eggs. And - hear me out - doing it properly is a lot more complicated than it looks.
Tomorrow lunch = fried egg and artisanal black pudding slice roll ...
You don't need artisanal anything - although proper free range eggs and nice bread are both preferred.
First: remember that egg whites are not a single substance - there is both a very thin white and a much thinker one. That's why your egg whites rarely have a uniform thickness. Chuck the eggs in a sieve, and get rid of the thin whites.
Second: don't use fancy oil or butter for your eggs. You want a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Don't be afraid to use a bit more than you would think, mind, as you want to be able to slosh that oil on top of the whites.
Third: start off on a pretty low temperature. The oil should not be spitting. Let the egg whites slowly thicken.
Fourth when it's clear that the egg white bases are properly cooked but the top is still translucent, then you need to get the oil on top of the egg to cook them. You might want to turn the temperature of the oil up to do this, so that you're using really hot oil. Do this quickly, because you want that yolk to remain runny.
Serve.
Couple of points here.
1. How do you pronounce artisanal; and 2. How do you get on with going to your local grocers/Wholefoods and asking for a neutral oil with a high smoke point.
tia
1. I don't 2. Any regular vegetable oil (sunflower, etc.) Is fine
English rapeseed oil is now excellent
English rapeseed oil would, indeed, be absolutely fine.
Known of course for its high smoke point.
I don't know about English rapeseed oil but the quality Scottish rapeseed oil has a pleasant, nutty (but fairly strong) flavour.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
Hmm, that's not really true though is it. The UK is far more important to the US because we have wholly aligned interests, the EU keeps banging on about "strategic autonomy". Do you think that hasn't gone unnoticed in DC?
Well, indeed - the US knows that the UK has forfeited any ability to have "strategic autonomy" and so the US can pretty much do what it likes with us. With the EU, which is far bigger, there is always going to be more of a negotiation.
But they also know the EU has no chance of strategic autonomy. Negotiate on what? The EU is wholly reliant on the US for its security, they know it, we know it and the US knows it.
Negotiate on defence expenditure, on procurement, on trade, for example. Once the war in Ukraine is over, the EU and the US will decide what happens next. The UK will watch and wait to be told.
That's all laughably naive from you SO, the US will tell the Europeans this is how it is and they will get on board or not. Same as they will tell us, except that we've already accepted it and are now part of the US axis, hence AUKUS and shared military industrial technology development between the US and UK going back decades and the UK defence industry supply chain being highly integrated into the US procurement chain.
It was a big mistake for the UK to become so inveigeled with the US. The Europeans have done well to retain the degree of independence that they have.
But there is utter hypocrisy there. The Europeans are happy to hold the US at a distance until they are threatened or they need support for a fight. The suddenly the US are their best friends - for a while.
Biden thinks he's Irish and would be categorically opposed to whatever we did wrt Ireland anyway.
Though it's interesting as soon as they criticise us, the US magically becomes "our closest ally"...!
He doesn't "think he is Irish". He is American (in case you haven't noticed) with a strong Irish lineage. And, yes, like it or no, the US is our closest ally, particularly since we seem to delight in pissing off our nearest neighbours
The Americans set great store by lineage. And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish. I remember staying in a bed and breakfast in Boston, the proprietor of which, making conversation, claimed to be Scottish. Oh, whereabouts are you from, I asked, making conversation, assuming I'd have a geographical connection pretty much wherever. "St. Louis, Missouri", he said. "But my great grandfather was from Inverness", he added, seeing my confusion. He deemed us Irish, on the grounds we had changed planes in Dublin and that my girlfriend possibly had some Irish ancestry, and introduced us as such to the other guests, causing much less confusion than you might think.
"And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish."
Based on one guy? Seriously? And you are shocked (and appalled?) that some unwashed colonial claims heritage based on their actual great-grandparent?
I'm neither shocked nor appalled, just note the differing sense of the phrase. As I said, I wouldn't claim to be Scottish. Are you Irish, for example, in the sense of being born in Ireland? It's just a different way of using the phrase, but one which sounds odd to British ears.
America is a land of immigrants, and we are proud of our ancestors who came before us, and on whose shoulders we
The man you quoted did NOT claim to be Scottish "in the sense of being born in" Scotland. YOU jumped to that conclusion apparently.
The notion of pride in ancestry being rich & rare where you hail from? Or must a person be born in Yorkshire to BE a Yorkist, or whatever it is you call yourselves?
And idea that Americans from sea to shining sea "desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish" is laughable. Unless you mean at a bar on St Paddy's Day when EVERYONE is an honorary Hibernian - IF they want to be.
I was just pointing out the differing sense of the phrase. He considered himself Scottish because, presumably, he wanted to - he could have picked any of his other ancestors who weren't Scottish. I have met other Americans similar - who consider themselves Irish on the basis of one identified ancestor (in at least one case who almost certainly descended from Scots.) It's pride in heritage - fine. It's a choice - fine. But it's not the way in which I instinctively understand nationality. To me, being Scottish implies being born or growing up there. Hence my confusion. Really, I'm not trying to be disparaging about this. Just noting a difference.
I think it is ridiculous, and I don't mind being disparaging about it. I think the the tendency for people to identify as being of a country that they have nothing objectively to do with, and perhaps have never been within 1000 miles of, is an offensive fetishising of other people's lives. I don't really have much time for this ethnic/genetic view of identity. As a worldview it leads to much more mischief than good.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
But it's all the original lying ECophiles fault so in Brexiteer loonball world they're entirely justified with their pack of lies.
I always find YOO STARTED IT a most persuasive argument.
I dunno
As we bombed the shit out of Berlin and Hamburg YOO STARTED IT was indeed persuasive
Mail reporting that several very senior RU generals have been arrested and fired or sidelined including Gerasimov. The info is from Ukr though. But if true - how long before the generals decide it is time to remove the politician before they all die or are arrested?
@dyedwoolie commented on the last thread about frying eggs. And - hear me out - doing it properly is a lot more complicated than it looks.
Tomorrow lunch = fried egg and artisanal black pudding slice roll ...
You don't need artisanal anything - although proper free range eggs and nice bread are both preferred.
First: remember that egg whites are not a single substance - there is both a very thin white and a much thinker one. That's why your egg whites rarely have a uniform thickness. Chuck the eggs in a sieve, and get rid of the thin whites.
Second: don't use fancy oil or butter for your eggs. You want a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Don't be afraid to use a bit more than you would think, mind, as you want to be able to slosh that oil on top of the whites.
Third: start off on a pretty low temperature. The oil should not be spitting. Let the egg whites slowly thicken.
Fourth when it's clear that the egg white bases are properly cooked but the top is still translucent, then you need to get the oil on top of the egg to cook them. You might want to turn the temperature of the oil up to do this, so that you're using really hot oil. Do this quickly, because you want that yolk to remain runny.
Serve.
Couple of points here.
1. How do you pronounce artisanal; and 2. How do you get on with going to your local grocers/Wholefoods and asking for a neutral oil with a high smoke point.
tia
1. I don't 2. Any regular vegetable oil (sunflower, etc.) Is fine
English rapeseed oil is now excellent
English rapeseed oil would, indeed, be absolutely fine.
Known of course for its high smoke point.
I don't know about English rapeseed oil but the quality Scottish rapeseed oil has a pleasant, nutty (but fairly strong) flavour.
Waitrose does a poncey but quite delicious “single estate cold pressed English rapeseed oil” etc etc. Taking it upmarket
The taste is refined. More delicately vegetal than olive oil, better for frying fish or eggs where you don’t want too much flavour from the oil itself
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
Hmm, that's not really true though is it. The UK is far more important to the US because we have wholly aligned interests, the EU keeps banging on about "strategic autonomy". Do you think that hasn't gone unnoticed in DC?
Well, indeed - the US knows that the UK has forfeited any ability to have "strategic autonomy" and so the US can pretty much do what it likes with us. With the EU, which is far bigger, there is always going to be more of a negotiation.
But they also know the EU has no chance of strategic autonomy. Negotiate on what? The EU is wholly reliant on the US for its security, they know it, we know it and the US knows it.
Negotiate on defence expenditure, on procurement, on trade, for example. Once the war in Ukraine is over, the EU and the US will decide what happens next. The UK will watch and wait to be told.
That's all laughably naive from you SO, the US will tell the Europeans this is how it is and they will get on board or not. Same as they will tell us, except that we've already accepted it and are now part of the US axis, hence AUKUS and shared military industrial technology development between the US and UK going back decades and the UK defence industry supply chain being highly integrated into the US procurement chain.
It was a big mistake for the UK to become so inveigeled with the US. The Europeans have done well to retain the degree of independence that they have.
But there is utter hypocrisy there. The Europeans are happy to hold the US at a distance until they are threatened or they need support for a fight. The suddenly the US are their best friends - for a while.
The stately quadrille is a dance that's older than America itself. We're in no position to complain about others doing it without acknowledging our own part in that waltz.
Biden thinks he's Irish and would be categorically opposed to whatever we did wrt Ireland anyway.
Though it's interesting as soon as they criticise us, the US magically becomes "our closest ally"...!
He doesn't "think he is Irish". He is American (in case you haven't noticed) with a strong Irish lineage. And, yes, like it or no, the US is our closest ally, particularly since we seem to delight in pissing off our nearest neighbours
The Americans set great store by lineage. And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish. I remember staying in a bed and breakfast in Boston, the proprietor of which, making conversation, claimed to be Scottish. Oh, whereabouts are you from, I asked, making conversation, assuming I'd have a geographical connection pretty much wherever. "St. Louis, Missouri", he said. "But my great grandfather was from Inverness", he added, seeing my confusion. He deemed us Irish, on the grounds we had changed planes in Dublin and that my girlfriend possibly had some Irish ancestry, and introduced us as such to the other guests, causing much less confusion than you might think.
"And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish."
Based on one guy? Seriously? And you are shocked (and appalled?) that some unwashed colonial claims heritage based on their actual great-grandparent?
I'm neither shocked nor appalled, just note the differing sense of the phrase. As I said, I wouldn't claim to be Scottish. Are you Irish, for example, in the sense of being born in Ireland? It's just a different way of using the phrase, but one which sounds odd to British ears.
America is a land of immigrants, and we are proud of our ancestors who came before us, and on whose shoulders we
The man you quoted did NOT claim to be Scottish "in the sense of being born in" Scotland. YOU jumped to that conclusion apparently.
The notion of pride in ancestry being rich & rare where you hail from? Or must a person be born in Yorkshire to BE a Yorkist, or whatever it is you call yourselves?
And idea that Americans from sea to shining sea "desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish" is laughable. Unless you mean at a bar on St Paddy's Day when EVERYONE is an honorary Hibernian - IF they want to be.
I was just pointing out the differing sense of the phrase. He considered himself Scottish because, presumably, he wanted to - he could have picked any of his other ancestors who weren't Scottish. I have met other Americans similar - who consider themselves Irish on the basis of one identified ancestor (in at least one case who almost certainly descended from Scots.) It's pride in heritage - fine. It's a choice - fine. But it's not the way in which I instinctively understand nationality. To me, being Scottish implies being born or growing up there. Hence my confusion. Really, I'm not trying to be disparaging about this. Just noting a difference.
I hear where your coming from, just that the perspective you express is so different from American attitude.
Here are a couple clips re: popular PBS TV Show "Finding Your Roots" hosted by Henry Louis Gates that illustrate this:
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
Hmm, that's not really true though is it. The UK is far more important to the US because we have wholly aligned interests, the EU keeps banging on about "strategic autonomy". Do you think that hasn't gone unnoticed in DC?
Well, indeed - the US knows that the UK has forfeited any ability to have "strategic autonomy" and so the US can pretty much do what it likes with us. With the EU, which is far bigger, there is always going to be more of a negotiation.
But they also know the EU has no chance of strategic autonomy. Negotiate on what? The EU is wholly reliant on the US for its security, they know it, we know it and the US knows it.
Negotiate on defence expenditure, on procurement, on trade, for example. Once the war in Ukraine is over, the EU and the US will decide what happens next. The UK will watch and wait to be told.
That's all laughably naive from you SO, the US will tell the Europeans this is how it is and they will get on board or not. Same as they will tell us, except that we've already accepted it and are now part of the US axis, hence AUKUS and shared military industrial technology development between the US and UK going back decades and the UK defence industry supply chain being highly integrated into the US procurement chain.
It was a big mistake for the UK to become so inveigeled with the US. The Europeans have done well to retain the degree of independence that they have.
But there is utter hypocrisy there. The Europeans are happy to hold the US at a distance until they are threatened or they need support for a fight. The suddenly the US are their best friends - for a while.
That's national self interest. You cooperate with other countries when your interests align. When they don't, you don't. Yes the US usually gets its way, but it still has to ask France if it wants something. All it has to do with the UK is bark like a drill seargeant.
It will change. I never thought we'd be out of the EU, but here we are.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
But it's all the original lying ECophiles fault so in Brexiteer loonball world they're entirely justified with their pack of lies.
I always find YOO STARTED IT a most persuasive argument.
I dunno
As we bombed the shit out of Berlin and Hamburg YOO STARTED IT was indeed persuasive
Remoaners and EUrophiles = Nazi Germany or at least their sympathisers? Great that you've moved on.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
But it's all the original lying ECophiles fault so in Brexiteer loonball world they're entirely justified with their pack of lies.
I always find YOO STARTED IT a most persuasive argument.
I dunno
As we bombed the shit out of Berlin and Hamburg YOO STARTED IT was indeed persuasive
Remoaners and EUrophiles = Nazi Germany or at least their sympathisers? Great that you've moved on.
"SAGE models were too 'scary' and held too much weight. No10 Covid expert admits death forecasts were 'eye watering' and should have considered economy
Professor John Edmunds said Covid models were only supposed to be 'one component' of decision-making He accepted models failed to account for the economic and health harms that Covid lockdowns caused SAGE member admitted these harms 'in principle' could have been factored in 'but in practice they were not'"
Go back in time and view, on PB, the torrent of scorn and contempt that was poured on jurisdictions that rejected the 'model, predict, frighten and respond with restrictions' orthodoxy.
@dyedwoolie commented on the last thread about frying eggs. And - hear me out - doing it properly is a lot more complicated than it looks.
Tomorrow lunch = fried egg and artisanal black pudding slice roll ...
You don't need artisanal anything - although proper free range eggs and nice bread are both preferred.
First: remember that egg whites are not a single substance - there is both a very thin white and a much thinker one. That's why your egg whites rarely have a uniform thickness. Chuck the eggs in a sieve, and get rid of the thin whites.
Second: don't use fancy oil or butter for your eggs. You want a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Don't be afraid to use a bit more than you would think, mind, as you want to be able to slosh that oil on top of the whites.
Third: start off on a pretty low temperature. The oil should not be spitting. Let the egg whites slowly thicken.
Fourth when it's clear that the egg white bases are properly cooked but the top is still translucent, then you need to get the oil on top of the egg to cook them. You might want to turn the temperature of the oil up to do this, so that you're using really hot oil. Do this quickly, because you want that yolk to remain runny.
Serve.
Couple of points here.
1. How do you pronounce artisanal; and 2. How do you get on with going to your local grocers/Wholefoods and asking for a neutral oil with a high smoke point.
tia
1. I don't 2. Any regular vegetable oil (sunflower, etc.) Is fine
English rapeseed oil is now excellent
English rapeseed oil would, indeed, be absolutely fine.
Known of course for its high smoke point.
I don't know about English rapeseed oil but the quality Scottish rapeseed oil has a pleasant, nutty (but fairly strong) flavour.
Waitrose does a poncey but quite delicious “single estate cold pressed English rapeseed oil” etc etc. Taking it upmarket
The taste is refined. More delicately vegetal than olive oil, better for frying fish or eggs where you don’t want too much flavour from the oil itself
It sounds similar - yes it's less strong than olive and doesn't give you that gagging sensation you sometimes get from olive oil. I use it for mayonnaise and salad dressings. Personally I wouldn't fry with it, but I don't like using predominantly unsaturated oils at hot temps. I'd use butter or coconut oil.
@dyedwoolie commented on the last thread about frying eggs. And - hear me out - doing it properly is a lot more complicated than it looks.
Tomorrow lunch = fried egg and artisanal black pudding slice roll ...
You don't need artisanal anything - although proper free range eggs and nice bread are both preferred.
First: remember that egg whites are not a single substance - there is both a very thin white and a much thinker one. That's why your egg whites rarely have a uniform thickness. Chuck the eggs in a sieve, and get rid of the thin whites.
Second: don't use fancy oil or butter for your eggs. You want a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Don't be afraid to use a bit more than you would think, mind, as you want to be able to slosh that oil on top of the whites.
Third: start off on a pretty low temperature. The oil should not be spitting. Let the egg whites slowly thicken.
Fourth when it's clear that the egg white bases are properly cooked but the top is still translucent, then you need to get the oil on top of the egg to cook them. You might want to turn the temperature of the oil up to do this, so that you're using really hot oil. Do this quickly, because you want that yolk to remain runny.
Serve.
Couple of points here.
1. How do you pronounce artisanal; and 2. How do you get on with going to your local grocers/Wholefoods and asking for a neutral oil with a high smoke point.
tia
1. I don't 2. Any regular vegetable oil (sunflower, etc.) Is fine
English rapeseed oil is now excellent
English rapeseed oil would, indeed, be absolutely fine.
Known of course for its high smoke point.
I don't know about English rapeseed oil but the quality Scottish rapeseed oil has a pleasant, nutty (but fairly strong) flavour.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
But it's all the original lying ECophiles fault so in Brexiteer loonball world they're entirely justified with their pack of lies.
I always find YOO STARTED IT a most persuasive argument.
I dunno
As we bombed the shit out of Berlin and Hamburg YOO STARTED IT was indeed persuasive
Remoaners and EUrophiles = Nazi Germany or at least their sympathisers? Great that you've moved on.
Your reminder NI voted a few days ago around 55-30 in favour of the protocol.
Your reminder that one community voted against it and, under the rules, that's enough.
Actually, the UK government agreed that the Protocol's ongoing application would be by majority consent, not by cross-community consent.
Not true.
Article 16 provides for the Protocol or parts of it to be scrapped if there is a serious risk of violence etc
One community being extremely unhappy provides that risk and thus vindicates using A16.
You useful idiots of Brussels can pretend A16 isn't a part of the Protocol, but it is.
Unfortunately for you, it is true. The UK government specifically signed up to the Protocol's ongoing application being contingent on majority support as expressed through elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The DUP is not threatening violence, is it?
Evening all! It is instructive that no matter how foaming dog crazy the UK government are on Norniron, not a single one of them is proposing the BR "just scrap it and walk away, its their problem" solution.
Sounds great tapped feverishly from a Cheshire keyboard. Sounds less great when suggested as an actual policy idea which has to both be implemented and then consequences dealt with.
In reality, whilst the government dislike the corner they have painted themselves into, the reason why its all mouth and no trousers is that all of their threatened "solutions" bring the UK into utter disrepute in the international community - at least thats what the legal officers and the diplomats are telling them.
So of course it matters what Biden thinks. The idea that we are going to test his mettle with regards to the massive Irish caucus and then win a beneficial trade deal is so crazy that even this government aren't actually proposing it. Instead its showboating to try and get the (stupid and divided) EU to move, then scratching their heads to find they won't.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The EU isn't even more important to the EU's own member states in the East right now than the UK is, let alone the USA. 😂😂😂
So why does Ukraine wish to join ?
And do you really think that Korean and US companies are building new battery plants in Hungary and Poland because they want to supply Hungary and Poland, rather than the EU ?
Ukraine wants to join because they're lacking in development and want to bind themselves to the West. We are not.
Ukraine would be a massive recipient of development funds. We were a funder.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland, there will be no showing 2 fingers to Biden. Just removing the Irish Sea border to appease Unionists and particularly the DUP whose support the Tories will need if the next general election gives a hung parliament
Who gives a **** about the Tories? It's the good of the UK that counts.
The good of the UK includes no border in the Irish Sea any longer
I dunno. Over half of Britons don't even care if Northern Ireland leaves the UK.
More still want NI to stay in the UK, 37%, to the 27% who want it to join the Republic.
Tory voters by a big 47% to 25% margin want NI to stay in the UK and we still have a Tory government which may well need the DUP to stay in office again on current polls in 2024
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
In a small, sick way it would be hilarious to see them try. The Finns would be in St Petersburg in days.
The more that Putin appears to be an impotent fool the more dangerous it gets. Funny as the Russian failure is, we still need to offer them a way out. Forcing them into a corner where the only exit is themo-nuclear would be unwise.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The EU isn't even more important to the EU's own member states in the East right now than the UK is, let alone the USA. 😂😂😂
So why does Ukraine wish to join ?
And do you really think that Korean and US companies are building new battery plants in Hungary and Poland because they want to supply Hungary and Poland, rather than the EU ?
Ukraine wants to join because they're lacking in development and want to bind themselves to the West. We are not.
Ukraine would be a massive recipient of development funds. We were a funder.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Biden thinks he's Irish and would be categorically opposed to whatever we did wrt Ireland anyway.
Though it's interesting as soon as they criticise us, the US magically becomes "our closest ally"...!
He doesn't "think he is Irish". He is American (in case you haven't noticed) with a strong Irish lineage. And, yes, like it or no, the US is our closest ally, particularly since we seem to delight in pissing off our nearest neighbours
The Americans set great store by lineage. And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish. I remember staying in a bed and breakfast in Boston, the proprietor of which, making conversation, claimed to be Scottish. Oh, whereabouts are you from, I asked, making conversation, assuming I'd have a geographical connection pretty much wherever. "St. Louis, Missouri", he said. "But my great grandfather was from Inverness", he added, seeing my confusion. He deemed us Irish, on the grounds we had changed planes in Dublin and that my girlfriend possibly had some Irish ancestry, and introduced us as such to the other guests, causing much less confusion than you might think.
"And they desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish."
Based on one guy? Seriously? And you are shocked (and appalled?) that some unwashed colonial claims heritage based on their actual great-grandparent?
I'm neither shocked nor appalled, just note the differing sense of the phrase. As I said, I wouldn't claim to be Scottish. Are you Irish, for example, in the sense of being born in Ireland? It's just a different way of using the phrase, but one which sounds odd to British ears.
America is a land of immigrants, and we are proud of our ancestors who came before us, and on whose shoulders we
The man you quoted did NOT claim to be Scottish "in the sense of being born in" Scotland. YOU jumped to that conclusion apparently.
The notion of pride in ancestry being rich & rare where you hail from? Or must a person be born in Yorkshire to BE a Yorkist, or whatever it is you call yourselves?
And idea that Americans from sea to shining sea "desperately want to be Irish, and want you to be Irish" is laughable. Unless you mean at a bar on St Paddy's Day when EVERYONE is an honorary Hibernian - IF they want to be.
I was just pointing out the differing sense of the phrase. He considered himself Scottish because, presumably, he wanted to - he could have picked any of his other ancestors who weren't Scottish. I have met other Americans similar - who consider themselves Irish on the basis of one identified ancestor (in at least one case who almost certainly descended from Scots.) It's pride in heritage - fine. It's a choice - fine. But it's not the way in which I instinctively understand nationality. To me, being Scottish implies being born or growing up there. Hence my confusion. Really, I'm not trying to be disparaging about this. Just noting a difference.
I think it is ridiculous, and I don't mind being disparaging about it. I think the the tendency for people to identify as being of a country that they have nothing objectively to do with, and perhaps have never been within 1000 miles of, is an offensive fetishising of other people's lives. I don't really have much time for this ethnic/genetic view of identity. As a worldview it leads to much more mischief than good.
Can you please elaborate on the "much more mischief" created by Americans taking a passing interest in the origins and life of their grandmothers & grandfathers? In what led them to leave their homelands, what they found when the got here, and how they built their lives AND their new nation?
About half my ancestors got run out of Ireland by the Potato Famine, at least had the where-with-all to take passage to Baltimore, ended up in Pennsylvania digging canals and laying track. Two ended up in the Union Army at Gettysburg; they may have rubbed shoulders with the other side of my family tree, native-born of Scot-Irish (grand)parentage, who also took part in that critical battle. AND on the other side of the firing line, among the Confederates, was a Louisiana Tiger who was ancestor of my sibling's child.
I find this very interesting, and makes me want to learn more. If THAT's a fetish, then call me a pervert.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The EU isn't even more important to the EU's own member states in the East right now than the UK is, let alone the USA. 😂😂😂
So why does Ukraine wish to join ?
And do you really think that Korean and US companies are building new battery plants in Hungary and Poland because they want to supply Hungary and Poland, rather than the EU ?
Ukraine wants to join because they're lacking in development and want to bind themselves to the West. We are not.
Ukraine would be a massive recipient of development funds. We were a funder.
Ukraine also wants to identify itself forever as European and Western and democratic and “not-Russia” - and who can blame them after this war
Joining the EU is the most swift, emphatic, irreversible way of doing that. It’s not surprising Moldova and even Georgia feel the same
Britain does not have that need. There is no question mark over our “western-ness”
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
Agree. The only thing worse than the Brexit campaign was the Remain one. The Brexit campaign was mostly snake oil salesmen, the Remain one was badly conducted on behalf of usually decent politicians who for 40 years had forgotten some fundamental principles of democracy in their desire to follow a respectable project.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Point of order, the US dollar has been rising fairly strongly against all sorts of currencies over the past few weeks. GBP, JPY, AUD, CAD, EUR, INR, CNY, the lot.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Point of order, the US dollar has been rising fairly strongly against all sorts of currencies over the past few weeks. GBP, JPY, AUD, CAD, EUR, INR, CNY, the lot.
Indeed, it's because the Fed has realised it actually needs to take action against inflation.
Just catching up with the Stoke cabinet meeting and looking at the photos.
Has there literally been a worse and more low power and incapable cabinet in living memory?
Unlikely. After all, I can't think of another PM who has systematically chosen to surround themself with fools and weaklings in order to protect their position.
Most PMs surround themselves with the best they can find (read that however you want), so that the government looks good and this makes the PM look good.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The EU isn't even more important to the EU's own member states in the East right now than the UK is, let alone the USA. 😂😂😂
So why does Ukraine wish to join ?
And do you really think that Korean and US companies are building new battery plants in Hungary and Poland because they want to supply Hungary and Poland, rather than the EU ?
Ukraine wants to join because they're lacking in development and want to bind themselves to the West. We are not.
Ukraine would be a massive recipient of development funds. We were a funder.
Ukraine also wants to identify itself forever as European and Western and democratic and “not-Russia” - and who can blame them after this war
Joining the EU is the most swift, emphatic, irreversible way of doing that. It’s not surprising Moldova and even Georgia feel the same
Britain does not have that need. There is no question mark over our “western-ness”
It would be a big mistake for the EU to let Ukraine in in its present state. It's a worthwhile ambition, but as a tactical move it would be terrible.
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
No.
More to the point, would Russia have invaded Ukraine if NATO and the USA had said by last Christmas that they were all agreed that they would treat an attack on Ukraine as an attack on all NATO members. As it seems they are now doing with Finland and Sweden.
I think No. And it is a missed opportunity. Russia has yet to place a boot on NATO guaranteed territory. 70 years is a long time.
Just catching up with the Stoke cabinet meeting and looking at the photos.
Has there literally been a worse and more low power and incapable cabinet in living memory?
Unlikely. After all, I can't think of another PM who has systematically chosen to surround themself with fools and weaklings in order to protect their position.
Most PMs surround themselves with the best they can find (read that however you want), so that the government looks good and this makes the PM look good.
Boris has surrounded himself with the best losers he can find.
Excerpt - The government responded on Thursday, but only released the form Lord Lebedev was required to fill in by HOLOC, a document announcing his appointment, a list of other peerages awarded at the time, and a letter congratulating him on the news.
In a statement, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Ellis said what it had published "reflects the need to protect national security".
Mr Ellis added that Lord Lebedev was a "man of good standing" and "no complaint has been made about his personal conduct".
He said the government had sent a separate response to Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, which scrutinises the UK's security services.
Revealing that the committee had made a disclosure request of its own, he argued this meant the government was "acting in good faith" in response to Parliament's request for information.
Shortly afterwards, the committee confirmed it has received a reply to its request on Wednesday - but added it was too soon to say "whether the information provided is sufficient".
The committee said it was "surprised" by Mr Ellis's statement divulging its demand, adding this "should have remained a private - and classified - matter".
SSI - are we entirely sure this is NOT just another clever parody/spoof by "The Onion"?
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
I understood, and I'm a f*****' idiot.
Boris Johnson must have known that either a border in the North Channel or at Dundalk would trigger one side or the other. If he didn't understand that, where has he been for the last fifty years?
I suspect the reality is neither Johnson nor his hard Brexit henchmen cared not one jot. Perhaps their most disingenuous assertion since 2016 has been that the GFA is faulty because it never took account of a potential Brexit.
Just catching up with the Stoke cabinet meeting and looking at the photos.
Has there literally been a worse and more low power and incapable cabinet in living memory?
Unlikely. After all, I can't think of another PM who has systematically chosen to surround themself with fools and weaklings in order to protect their position.
Most PMs surround themselves with the best they can find (read that however you want), so that the government looks good and this makes the PM look good.
Boris has surrounded himself with the best losers he can find.
On your first point, Brown did it as well.
It is a massive sign of basic insecurity to be honest. I suspect Johnson is at heart a much more insecure person than his bluster indicates.
Biden's an Irishman until it comes time to fucking their economy over, then he's an American.
Ultimately, I don't think it's going to make a difference what the Americans say.
The difference it will make is that the UK government is still pretending (absurdly, but it's a religious belief of the Brexiteers) that there's some great UK-US trade deal coming down the road, and reneging on the Protocol would very publicly blow that idea out of the water.
Bollocks, the USA will do whatever is in the USA's interest, just as it did with the tax reforms.
Besides if the UK voids the Protocol, as we are legally entitled to do based upon the Protocol's own safeguarding article, what is the USA going to care about that years later once the bluff has revealed that doing so was no threat to GFA?
Once the EU's bluff is called and no checks are done on the border of Ireland, why would America care about that at all?
The EU is far more important to the US's interests than the UK.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The EU isn't even more important to the EU's own member states in the East right now than the UK is, let alone the USA. 😂😂😂
So why does Ukraine wish to join ?
And do you really think that Korean and US companies are building new battery plants in Hungary and Poland because they want to supply Hungary and Poland, rather than the EU ?
Ukraine wants to join because they're lacking in development and want to bind themselves to the West. We are not.
Ukraine would be a massive recipient of development funds. We were a funder.
Ukraine also wants to identify itself forever as European and Western and democratic and “not-Russia” - and who can blame them after this war
Joining the EU is the most swift, emphatic, irreversible way of doing that. It’s not surprising Moldova and even Georgia feel the same
Britain does not have that need. There is no question mark over our “western-ness”
It would be a big mistake for the EU to let Ukraine in in its present state. It's a worthwhile ambition, but as a tactical move it would be terrible.
I can see arguments both ways. It’s up to them. I guess Macron and probably the Germans would veto a hurried process, anyhow
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
I understood, and I'm a f*****' idiot.
Boris Johnson must have known that either a border in the North Channel or at Dundalk would trigger one side or the other. If he didn't understand that, where has he been for the last fifty years?
I suspect the reality is neither Johnson nor his hard Brexit henchmen cared not one jot. Perhaps their most disingenuous assertion since 2016 has been that the GFA is faulty because it never took account of a potential Brexit.
They understood alright!
Me too! I was trying to put it to Brexiters in 2015/2016. Total blanking.
"Simo Häyhä, often referred to by his nickname, The White Death, was a Finnish military sniper in World War II during the 1939–1940 Winter War against the Soviet Union. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30, a variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle. Häyhä had also used a submachine gun, the Suomi KP/-31. He is believed to have killed over 500 men during the Winter War, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war.
"It was Häyhä's custom to move, well before daybreak, to the position he had prepared, and stay there until after sunset. He would frequently pack dense mounds of snow in front of his position to conceal himself, provide padding for his rifle, and reduce the characteristic puff of snow stirred up by the muzzle blast. He was known to keep snow in his mouth while sniping to prevent his breath in the cold air from giving away his position."
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
I understood, and I'm a f*****' idiot.
Boris Johnson must have known that either a border in the North Channel or at Dundalk would trigger one side or the other. If he didn't understand that, where has he been for the last fifty years?
I suspect the reality is neither Johnson nor his hard Brexit henchmen cared not one jot. Perhaps their most disingenuous assertion since 2016 has been that the GFA is faulty because it never took account of a potential Brexit.
They understood alright!
Me too! I was trying to put it to Brexiters in 2015/2016. Total blanking.
Quite right too.
If the shoe was on the other foot would you say that Ireland couldn't exit?
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Look at the differentials between where US interest rates are headed and where EUR rates are headed. Somethings got to give. FFS where's the bottom of the euro versus the US dollar here?
10% inflation? That could be a conservative estimate.
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
In a small, sick way it would be hilarious to see them try. The Finns would be in St Petersburg in days.
The more that Putin appears to be an impotent fool the more dangerous it gets. Funny as the Russian failure is, we still need to offer them a way out. Forcing them into a corner where the only exit is themo-nuclear would be unwise.
If attacked and invaded by Russians, what exactly is the step anyone can take to avert forcing them into a corner except by early and unambiguous surrender? It's hard to defend your homeland from attack except by winning.
If my logic is right it is inevitable that we have to worry less about unthinkable consequences, and more about doing the right thing. The unthinkable consequence may or may not happen whatever you do.
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
No.
More to the point, would Russia have invaded Ukraine if NATO and the USA had said by last Christmas that they were all agreed that they would treat an attack on Ukraine as an attack on all NATO members. As it seems they are now doing with Finland and Sweden.
I think No. And it is a missed opportunity. Russia has yet to place a boot on NATO guaranteed territory. 70 years is a long time.
Spot on. If we'd publicly put small numbers of troops in Ukraine (at Kyiv's invitation) as a "trip wire", well away from the borders and disputed regions, this might have all been avoided.
I advocated for exactly this before the widening of Russia's aggression early this year, and some people seemed to think I was crazy. Now we're offering similar guarantees to protect the Nordics, which is very welcome.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There is a simple solution. Tell the EU to go stuff their "integrity of the Single Market" and sort out the problem themselves.
If they want to check things on the Irish border they can, they won't, so that's it.
As you were saying five years ago. Not too long before Boris then instituted a border cutting off one part of the UK from another.
Like he had wanted to do all along because he was jealous of all those other European countries.
Indeed, I was right five years ago and am still right today. Looks like my view is going to be put to the test.
Boris instituted a border cutting off one part of the UK from another because it was an infinitely superior solution to the backstop and the Remain-Parliament we had wouldn't pass any alternative and wouldn't allow us to exit the EU without a deal.
We have a different Parliament now though, so its time to revisit the NI solution.
You were wrong five years ago because you said almost word for word what you said a few minutes ago - that the UK would "tell the EU to go stuff their "integrity of the Single Market" and sort out the problem themselves."
Which they - the UK govt - precisely and absolutely did not do. They are now saying again that they might do it. So you might be proven right. But I very much doubt it. You will be proven wrong. Again.
As far as I know I never said they would, I said they should.
Sadly Hammond and the rest of the EU's useful idiots in the 2017-19 Parliament prevented that from happening. Those idiots have gone now.
I think the only useful idiots in the UK are Putin's, and they are those that like you are dumb enough to believe in a fairytale called Brexit. You are one of Putin's little helpers. he loves you so much, and I am sure he would thank you if he could.
Given recent events - and not least the way that the UK stepped up to help Ukraine whilst the EU was still arguing about even the most basic of support - I am afraid this little canard is dead and buried. If Putin was dumb enough to think that he would be helped by Brexit then he has surely been proved wrong. As have all those who still try to propagate this myth.
Putin's hope was that in splitting the UK from the EU, the more pro-Russia portion of the EU (Germany, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus) would become dominant and the EU would be less likely to stand up to him. So far that seems to have worked.
Putin's hope and expectation was that the invasion would be done and dusted by now. I am not sure that any part of his strategy has worked out.
His strategy was working fairly well until he launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine. A more patient megalomaniac would have spent another decade consolidating the occupied territories until they became a fait accompli, worked on further estrang8ng Hungary and Poland from the EU, etc.
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
In a small, sick way it would be hilarious to see them try. The Finns would be in St Petersburg in days.
The more that Putin appears to be an impotent fool the more dangerous it gets. Funny as the Russian failure is, we still need to offer them a way out. Forcing them into a corner where the only exit is themo-nuclear would be unwise.
Way out: Pull out of Ukraine. All of it including Crimea.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Point of order, the US dollar has been rising fairly strongly against all sorts of currencies over the past few weeks. GBP, JPY, AUD, CAD, EUR, INR, CNY, the lot.
Commodities price in dollars essentially.
reliant on imported raw materials with low interest rates and/or no structural trade surplus?
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
I suspect we will see a lot of Russian state TV bluster and graphics showing a build up of nukes and cruise missiles in the Kaliningrad pocket. Could hit Helsinkin in two minutes etc etc.
Connor Burns, Minister for Northern Ireland, has spent the last week in the USA explaining that the Good Friday agreement means fairness for Unionists and Irish Republicans and having greater import controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland than between Great Britain and Ireland is clearly ridiculous.
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
I understood, and I'm a f*****' idiot.
Boris Johnson must have known that either a border in the North Channel or at Dundalk would trigger one side or the other. If he didn't understand that, where has he been for the last fifty years?
I suspect the reality is neither Johnson nor his hard Brexit henchmen cared not one jot. Perhaps their most disingenuous assertion since 2016 has been that the GFA is faulty because it never took account of a potential Brexit.
They understood alright!
In a sense that, if true, is beside the point. Where we had got to in 2016 was that being in the EU was not a solution; there was sufficient momentum behind the anti EU movement. If that is true, there was and is no satisfactory way forward, including the way forward to doing nothing. Only a choice of unsatisfactory ones. Of those outcomes I backed, and still back, EFTA for now. Like all the others, unsatisfactory.
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
In a small, sick way it would be hilarious to see them try. The Finns would be in St Petersburg in days.
The more that Putin appears to be an impotent fool the more dangerous it gets. Funny as the Russian failure is, we still need to offer them a way out. Forcing them into a corner where the only exit is themo-nuclear would be unwise.
Way out: Pull out of Ukraine. All of it including Crimea.
Yup, no need for any violence if Russia stays inside Russia. If Putin feels "cornered" by being in his own borders then that's not really something we should feel obliged to accommodate in any way. We don't need to mass troops on the Russian border or fund any opposition groups. He can live his life free as a bird in his own land as long as he just leaves everyone else alone.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
The early 2000s seem a long forgotten utopia of cheap food, cheap fuel, cheap money and rising asset values all predicated on cheap resources and cheap labour.
Each of these has from 2008 has been undermined - the last to fall is cheap money and it is affecting our entire economic and political culture. Those of us with longer memories can recall the high interest rates of the 80s ad early 90s, the fuel price crises and inflation of the 1970s and even the house price crash of the 1970s.
I'm not sure about the economics or the politics or the treatment. "Preventing a concentration of wealth at the top" - but that's what capitalism does and especially the more modern incarnations which thrive on notions of allowing the rich to get richer and hoping that will "trickle down" through society.
That's not an argument for raising taxes, rather for a more thoughtful approach to taxation.
If we are going to cut taxes, perhaps start with VAT to help business and struggling consumers.
Politico.com - Pennsylvania GOP panics over possible Mastriano nomination Republicans are increasingly worried that a ticket led by gubernatorial frontrunner Doug Mastriano could lead to defeat in November.
PHILADELPHIA — Top Republicans are mounting a last-ditch, behind-the-scenes effort to stop state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a leading voice in the movement to overturn the 2020 election results, from winning the party nomination for governor in Pennsylvania.
With only days to go before the May 17 primary, GOP gubernatorial campaigns and leading state and county officials have been in discussions about uniting behind a single candidate to avoid a scenario in which Mastriano wins the crowded race by taking advantage of a splintered vote. If that doesn’t work, another option is persuading the candidates in single-digits in the polls to drop out.
Several gubernatorial campaigns have been involved in the talks, four GOP sources told POLITICO, in addition to Andy Reilly, a Republican National Committeeman, and Sam DeMarco, chair of the Allegheny County Republican Party.
DeMarco, the leader of one of the biggest county parties in the state and the chair of the Southwest caucus, confirmed that he is “a participant in those discussions.” On Tuesday, he tweeted out a poll showing Mastriano struggling against presumptive Democratic nominee [state Attorney General] Josh Shapiro, and announced that he is personally throwing his weight behind one of Mastriano’s top primary opponents, businessman Dave White, which he said is “of his own volition.”
“There’s so much that concerns me about this,” DeMarco told POLITICO, stressing that he was not speaking for the group. “We’re in a year where all evidence points to a red tsunami. And it appears here in Pennsylvania, because of the number of people in the race and his smaller but consistent base of support, we may be nominating the only Republican who would be unelectable in November.” . . .
Boris has surrounded himself with the best losers he can find.
On your first point, Brown did it as well.
Not really fair on Brown, I think. Even his first cabinet had some decent ministers (Darling, Balls, D. Miliband, Straw, Hutton), and don't forget that he eventually appointed Mandelson to a key role - the best Labour cabinet minister for many years, and one of the very best of any party.
GBP EUR has been one of the more stable currency pairs recently. Crypto has turned to shit, the dollar has been strong, the ruble strongest.... Controlling basic resource such as wheat and hydrocarbons which both the USA and Russia do is where the underlying strength is. You don't want to be reliant on the kindness of strangers right now. Europe is - I think ounterintuitively sterling would be tracking USD more closely if we were in the EU mind..
Just catching up with the Stoke cabinet meeting and looking at the photos.
Has there literally been a worse and more low power and incapable cabinet in living memory?
Unlikely. After all, I can't think of another PM who has systematically chosen to surround themself with fools and weaklings in order to protect their position.
Most PMs surround themselves with the best they can find (read that however you want), so that the government looks good and this makes the PM look good.
Boris has surrounded himself with the best losers he can find.
On your first point, Brown did it as well.
Erm, no. Gordon Brown's Cabinet had all the big beasts you'd have expected. Harriet Harman, Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw, both Milibands, Andy Burnham, Alistair Darling.
Connor Burns, Minister for Northern Ireland, has spent the last week in the USA explaining that the Good Friday agreement means fairness for Unionists and Irish Republicans and having greater import controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland than between Great Britain and Ireland is clearly ridiculous.
And how is THAT going? For example, with Kevin McCarthy? (Relax - his mother's Italian American!)
Just catching up with the Stoke cabinet meeting and looking at the photos.
Has there literally been a worse and more low power and incapable cabinet in living memory?
Unlikely. After all, I can't think of another PM who has systematically chosen to surround themself with fools and weaklings in order to protect their position.
Most PMs surround themselves with the best they can find (read that however you want), so that the government looks good and this makes the PM look good.
Boris has surrounded himself with the best losers he can find.
On your first point, Brown did it as well.
Erm, no. Gordon Brown's Cabinet had all the big beasts you'd have expected. Harriet Harman, Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw, both Milibands, Andy Burnham, Alistair Darling.
Yup, sorry to the boosters, but this cabinet is fucking terrible and Brown's government was nowhere near as shallow and rubbish. In fact, I rather think Brown had more strength in depth than Cameron/Clegg, despite the latter being a better government overall. Brown's government was hobbled by, and Cameron's boosted by, the PM. Leadership matters.
GBP EUR has been one of the more stable currency pairs recently. Crypto has turned to shit, the dollar has been strong, the ruble strongest.... Controlling basic resource such as wheat and hydrocarbons which both the USA and Russia do is where the underlying strength is. You don't want to be reliant on the kindness of strangers right now. Europe is - I think ounterintuitively sterling would be tracking USD more closely if we were in the EU mind..
Developing basic resources like hyrdocarbons and wheat is where the underlying strength is.
Britain has plentiful supplies of one of these. But Net Zero, innit.
Boris has surrounded himself with the best losers he can find.
On your first point, Brown did it as well.
Not really fair on Brown, I think. Even his first cabinet had some decent ministers (Darling, Balls, D. Miliband, Straw, Hutton), and don't forget that he eventually appointed Mandelson to a key role - the best Labour cabinet minister for many years, and one of the very best of any party.
Also had Purnell, Denham and Kelly. Many might not agree with them on policy or whatever - but they weren't lightweights put there to simply to stop someone who might challenge the 'World King' from having a seat.
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
In a small, sick way it would be hilarious to see them try. The Finns would be in St Petersburg in days.
The more that Putin appears to be an impotent fool the more dangerous it gets. Funny as the Russian failure is, we still need to offer them a way out. Forcing them into a corner where the only exit is themo-nuclear would be unwise.
Way out: Pull out of Ukraine. All of it including Crimea.
The obvious compromise is Crimea as an independent neutral state. Of course Russian delusions of grandeur mean they aren't prepared to accept this yet.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Italy is especially on tic toc alert I think.
The youth unemployment rate in Spain is 31%, and that is the best it's been in 15 years. Italy is 25%. Greece 27%. It is getting to two lost generations in a row.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Italy is especially on tic toc alert I think.
The youth unemployment rate in Spain is 31%, and that is the best it's been in 15 years. Italy is 25%. Greece 27%. It is getting to two lost generations in a row.
And yet, I’m in Greece right now. Yes, one of the more prosperous touristic islands but still. Greece. In the middle of covid I went to mainland Greece
It doesn’t feel like a doomed, totally dysfunctional society. Far from it. People are poorer than Western Europeans but they are certainly not dirt poor. Society manages and many (most?) Greeks have a pretty decent quality of life
Once you overlook the political slants, one true thing which remains is this: No-one really believes that separating out NI from GB in terms of trade agreements and relationships (ie the border being in the Irish Sea), removing the integrity of the UK single market, is really within the spirit of the GFA; just as imposing a border within the island wouldn't be either.
For myself I support a united Ireland, and as soon as possible. But others don't. What is missing in the debate, whether from the EU, DUP, Labour, LDs, the USA or the RoI is: what, with detail, is the plan which would work, be democratic, and respect the Brexit vote and the GFA? What do you want. They are not telling us, while blaming Boris.
If there isn't something coherent they want, there is little point in blaming Boris, who is left hold a Rubiks cube with no solution.
There's every point in blaming someone who a) campaigned for Vote Rubik's Cube in 2016, and laughed off claims that it would be jolly difficult to solve and b) ripped the cube out of someone else's hands saying her solution was rubbish.
Point taken to that extent. But what is the solution all parties are happy with he is now avoiding? Yes, Boris is part of the problem. But I am unclear what solution the other parties want.
The problem is fairly intractable, as opponents of Brexit have always pointed out. How do you take the UK out of the EU SM and CU while keeping NI inside it and fully integrated with the UK? That's a piece of geometry that doesn't really work. The solution that Boris Johnson signed up to puts barriers up in the Irish Sea - so NI is no longer fully integrated into the UK. If he doesn't like it then why did he sign up to it? It's not like the problem wasn't raised at the time. There are two solutions that work in terms of geometry - a United Ireland (which the DUP object to), or the UK returns to the SM and CU (which the Tories object to). The fact that this whole mess was created by the DUP and Tories' support for Brexit is one of the ironies of the situation.
Point taken. On a historical note, the (terrible) Remain campaign never campaigned on the basis that Brexit is a logical impossibility because of the island of Ireland and the GFA and that there was no solution. They were keen really to say we can leave but shouldn't.
My support for Brexit - somewhat reluctant - was because it was difficult to achieve in 2016 but would become impossible as time went on, and that would build a democratic deficit into a system we could not solve. The unsatisfactory chance had to be taken. There would never be another.
Fair enough. I think even Remain didn't really understand how intractable the Irish border issue was, because the English have always paid less attention to Ireland than they should (especially given they are still occupying part of it). I wouldn't have minded if the Leave campaign had said "Brexit will create a big mess and we will be poorer but it will still be worth it." That is a position that I can respect and understand. But they won on a false prospectus and have continued lying ever since. That is something that is unforgivable.
No no no
Our original entry into the EEC was on a false prospectus. “No fundamental loss of sovereignty”. These false promises continued for decades “we promise you a referendum on the treaty, and on the constitution! - wait no we don’t because you might vote NO, sorry, fuck off”
It is therefore only right that Remainers and europhiles are forced to eat crow - as we now Leave the EU on a similar pack of lies, thus completing the cycle with an impressive and delicious irony
There is a lesson to politicians of all sides here: Don’t lie to voters. It comes back to haunt you
An unexpected admission that Leave was a pack of lies.
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
But it's all the original lying ECophiles fault so in Brexiteer loonball world they're entirely justified with their pack of lies.
I always find YOO STARTED IT a most persuasive argument.
I dunno
As we bombed the shit out of Berlin and Hamburg YOO STARTED IT was indeed persuasive
Remoaners and EUrophiles = Nazi Germany or at least their sympathisers? Great that you've moved on.
Lol. You guys still haven’t gotten over Culloden
Not relevant. More of a dynastic struggle.
That certainly isn't how it is viewed across the Highlands. It is definitely a "evil Brits vs good, decent Scots" narrative. Just like the Clearances, which was primarily Scots lowlanders kicking out Scots highlanders.
The Telegraph is asking “will Russia invade Finland”
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
In a small, sick way it would be hilarious to see them try. The Finns would be in St Petersburg in days.
The more that Putin appears to be an impotent fool the more dangerous it gets. Funny as the Russian failure is, we still need to offer them a way out. Forcing them into a corner where the only exit is themo-nuclear would be unwise.
Way out: Pull out of Ukraine. All of it including Crimea.
The obvious compromise is Crimea as an independent neutral state. Of course Russian delusions of grandeur mean they aren't prepared to accept this yet.
Finland is one of those - neutral. They don't plan to remain so. Neutral states get invaded. It would either have western backing or be under permanent threat. RoI is soon going to look like a quaint anomaly, tolerated only because we all know the UK would never allow her to go undefended.
Boris has surrounded himself with the best losers he can find.
On your first point, Brown did it as well.
Not really fair on Brown, I think. Even his first cabinet had some decent ministers (Darling, Balls, D. Miliband, Straw, Hutton), and don't forget that he eventually appointed Mandelson to a key role - the best Labour cabinet minister for many years, and one of the very best of any party.
Also had Purnell, Denham and Kelly. Many might not agree with them on policy or whatever - but they weren't lightweights put there to simply to stop someone who might challenge the 'World King' from having a seat.
Johnson is pathetic.
Ruth Kelly. Whatever happened to her? She works for the Vatican now. She is just 53.
In other unnoticed news, it seems as though the Euro is heading for parity with USD.
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
Italy is especially on tic toc alert I think.
The youth unemployment rate in Spain is 31%, and that is the best it's been in 15 years. Italy is 25%. Greece 27%. It is getting to two lost generations in a row.
And yet, I’m in Greece right now. Yes, one of the more prosperous touristic islands but still. Greece. In the middle of covid I went to mainland Greece
It doesn’t feel like a doomed, totally dysfunctional society. Far from it. People are poorer than Western Europeans but they are certainly not dirt poor. Society manages and many (most?) Greeks have a pretty decent quality of life
It's easier to be poor when you have good weather. I am sure a big part of the productivity of Northern Europe is because, most of the year, its hard to just enjoy the outdoors without some sort of activity.
That said, it's also easier to be rich in good weather. One of the reasons Americans are all moving to the Carolinas, Georgia, Texas etc.
Comments
Your PM is the incoherent one, especially one THIS issue.
https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2022/03/30/news/loyalists-warn-dublin-could-be-targeted-in-protocol-violence-escalation-2628410/
No 10 never intended to honour the deal they signed and lied to the British people . They were fully aware of what was in the protocol and now suddenly don’t like what they signed upto.
Professor John Edmunds said Covid models were only supposed to be 'one component' of decision-making
He accepted models failed to account for the economic and health harms that Covid lockdowns caused
SAGE member admitted these harms 'in principle' could have been factored in 'but in practice they were not'"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10804993/SAGE-models-scary-held-weight-says-lockdown-architect-them.html
articles for nearly a week, now
I am looking forward to the haunting phase of this, I have to say.
To me, being Scottish implies being born or growing up there. Hence my confusion. Really, I'm not trying to be disparaging about this. Just noting a difference.
Yet somehow it’s hideously immoral if the UK points out that this goes two ways. Honestly, you are clueless on this subject. Unable to see any balance
And do you really think that Korean and US companies are building new battery plants in Hungary and Poland because they want to supply Hungary and Poland, rather than the EU ?
Ursula Von Der Leyen, in one of her more ignoble moments, declared she would invoke it in an attempt to control vaccine exports.
This was without prior warning to either Dublin, London or indeed Washington. Joe Biden is (unfairly I suspect) accused of not having the best memory, but I suspect the UK government may find the opportunity to remind him of the incident, and invite him to consider its implications as regards the European Commission's understanding of and attitude to the delicacy of the GFA.
Whether Liz Truss is simply making this present threat as a leadership ploy within her party is not for me to say - though this would presumably require her to have persuaded the DUP to refuse to take part in the new NI administration in order to give her sufficient pretext, making making her an awesome woman indeed.
Calculated or not however, it is a better pretext for invoking Article 16 than, say, vaccine exports was.
I always find YOO STARTED IT a most persuasive argument.
I don't really have much time for this ethnic/genetic view of identity. As a worldview it leads to much more mischief than good.
As we bombed the shit out of Berlin and Hamburg YOO STARTED IT was indeed persuasive
The taste is refined. More delicately vegetal than olive oil, better for frying fish or eggs where you don’t want too much flavour from the oil itself
Here are a couple clips re: popular PBS TV Show "Finding Your Roots" hosted by Henry Louis Gates that illustrate this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CJ67jZ1yyc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbWWW32qFvo&list=RDCMUCHip-wiEtSSRtJtA2OoChOA&index=1
It will change. I never thought we'd be out of the EU, but here we are.
Great that you've moved on.
Has there literally been a worse and more low power and incapable cabinet in living memory?
Nutty flavour?
Surely not.
I strongly suspect the answer is No, but still. Disquieting
I was told that was horrific and Heathener still claims that was me "wanting a return to the Troubles".
Sounds great tapped feverishly from a Cheshire keyboard. Sounds less great when suggested as an actual policy idea which has to both be implemented and then consequences dealt with.
In reality, whilst the government dislike the corner they have painted themselves into, the reason why its all mouth and no trousers is that all of their threatened "solutions" bring the UK into utter disrepute in the international community - at least thats what the legal officers and the diplomats are telling them.
So of course it matters what Biden thinks. The idea that we are going to test his mettle with regards to the massive Irish caucus and then win a beneficial trade deal is so crazy that even this government aren't actually proposing it. Instead its showboating to try and get the (stupid and divided) EU to move, then scratching their heads to find they won't.
They can;t offer anything but hope for the best and managed decline.
Same for labour. Same for the lib dems as well, come to that.
Something might turn up, eh?
Ukraine would be a massive recipient of development funds. We were a funder.
The government is withholding security advice on Evgeny Lebedev's peerage on "national security" grounds.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61427468
People in the UK like to think that the UK is a special basket case where everything is going wrong, yet look across the channel and suddenly our economy doesn't seem so bad. There's an economic disaster unfolding very quietly across Europe and just as over here, people are watching the alarms go off but don't seem to care that no one's at the wheel.
The last Eurozone crisis was a disaster for the whole continent and that was done during a time of benign monetary conditions so the ECB printing money and buying up debt from Med countries wasn't particularly controversial. How they might do that with inflation running at 10% is a question to which no one has an answer.
Fundamentally European (including the UK) economies seem broken. A decade of QE and asset price inflation has impoverished the productive young and now every country has got huge structural deficits with no easy way of cutting spending and an environment of rapidly rising debt servicing costs.
As I said this morning, the answer will be wealth creation at the bottom and preventing a concentration of wealth at the top. Whoever figures out how to achieve it should run to be God Emperor of Europe.
About half my ancestors got run out of Ireland by the Potato Famine, at least had the where-with-all to take passage to Baltimore, ended up in Pennsylvania digging canals and laying track. Two ended up in the Union Army at Gettysburg; they may have rubbed shoulders with the other side of my family tree, native-born of Scot-Irish (grand)parentage, who also took part in that critical battle. AND on the other side of the firing line, among the Confederates, was a Louisiana Tiger who was ancestor of my sibling's child.
I find this very interesting, and makes me want to learn more. If THAT's a fetish, then call me a pervert.
Joining the EU is the most swift, emphatic, irreversible way of doing that. It’s not surprising Moldova and even Georgia feel the same
Britain does not have that need. There is no question mark over our “western-ness”
Sunil will (I think?) be pleased.
Edit] A specialist second.
Fenland Tech is third equal with LSE.
And Oxford is on the way out.
Most PMs surround themselves with the best they can find (read that however you want), so that the government looks good and this makes the PM look good.
More to the point, would Russia have invaded Ukraine if NATO and the USA had said by last Christmas that they were all agreed that they would treat an attack on Ukraine as an attack on all NATO members. As it seems they are now doing with Finland and Sweden.
I think No. And it is a missed opportunity. Russia has yet to place a boot on NATO guaranteed territory. 70 years is a long time.
On your first point, Brown did it as well.
In a statement, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Ellis said what it had published "reflects the need to protect national security".
Mr Ellis added that Lord Lebedev was a "man of good standing" and "no complaint has been made about his personal conduct".
He said the government had sent a separate response to Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, which scrutinises the UK's security services.
Revealing that the committee had made a disclosure request of its own, he argued this meant the government was "acting in good faith" in response to Parliament's request for information.
Shortly afterwards, the committee confirmed it has received a reply to its request on Wednesday - but added it was too soon to say "whether the information provided is sufficient".
The committee said it was "surprised" by Mr Ellis's statement divulging its demand, adding this "should have remained a private - and classified - matter".
SSI - are we entirely sure this is NOT just another clever parody/spoof by "The Onion"?
Boris Johnson must have known that either a border in the North Channel or at Dundalk would trigger one side or the other. If he didn't understand that, where has he been for the last fifty years?
I suspect the reality is neither Johnson nor his hard Brexit henchmen cared not one jot. Perhaps their most disingenuous assertion since 2016 has been that the GFA is faulty because it never took account of a potential Brexit.
They understood alright!
"Simo Häyhä, often referred to by his nickname, The White Death, was a Finnish military sniper in World War II during the 1939–1940 Winter War against the Soviet Union. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30, a variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle. Häyhä had also used a submachine gun, the Suomi KP/-31. He is believed to have killed over 500 men during the Winter War, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war.
"It was Häyhä's custom to move, well before daybreak, to the position he had prepared, and stay there until after sunset. He would frequently pack dense mounds of snow in front of his position to conceal himself, provide padding for his rifle, and reduce the characteristic puff of snow stirred up by the muzzle blast. He was known to keep snow in his mouth while sniping to prevent his breath in the cold air from giving away his position."
If the shoe was on the other foot would you say that Ireland couldn't exit?
He's running short of BTGs for Ukraine never mind opening a second front.
Look at the differentials between where US interest rates are headed and where EUR rates are headed. Somethings got to give. FFS where's the bottom of the euro versus the US dollar here?
10% inflation? That could be a conservative estimate.
If my logic is right it is inevitable that we have to worry less about unthinkable consequences, and more about doing the right thing. The unthinkable consequence may or may not happen whatever you do.
I advocated for exactly this before the widening of Russia's aggression early this year, and some people seemed to think I was crazy. Now we're offering similar guarantees to protect the Nordics, which is very welcome.
A more patient megalomaniac would have spent another decade consolidating the occupied territories until they became a fait accompli, worked on further estrang8ng Hungary and Poland from the EU, etc.
reliant on imported raw materials with low interest rates and/or no structural trade surplus?
see ya later.
Sabre rattling as they used to say.
Of those outcomes I backed, and still back, EFTA for now. Like all the others, unsatisfactory.
Each of these has from 2008 has been undermined - the last to fall is cheap money and it is affecting our entire economic and political culture. Those of us with longer memories can recall the high interest rates of the 80s ad early 90s, the fuel price crises and inflation of the 1970s and even the house price crash of the 1970s.
I'm not sure about the economics or the politics or the treatment. "Preventing a concentration of wealth at the top" - but that's what capitalism does and especially the more modern incarnations which thrive on notions of allowing the rich to get richer and hoping that will "trickle down" through society.
That's not an argument for raising taxes, rather for a more thoughtful approach to taxation.
If we are going to cut taxes, perhaps start with VAT to help business and struggling consumers.
Politico.com - Pennsylvania GOP panics over possible Mastriano nomination
Republicans are increasingly worried that a ticket led by gubernatorial frontrunner Doug Mastriano could lead to defeat in November.
PHILADELPHIA — Top Republicans are mounting a last-ditch, behind-the-scenes effort to stop state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a leading voice in the movement to overturn the 2020 election results, from winning the party nomination for governor in Pennsylvania.
With only days to go before the May 17 primary, GOP gubernatorial campaigns and leading state and county officials have been in discussions about uniting behind a single candidate to avoid a scenario in which Mastriano wins the crowded race by taking advantage of a splintered vote. If that doesn’t work, another option is persuading the candidates in single-digits in the polls to drop out.
Several gubernatorial campaigns have been involved in the talks, four GOP sources told POLITICO, in addition to Andy Reilly, a Republican National Committeeman, and Sam DeMarco, chair of the Allegheny County Republican Party.
DeMarco, the leader of one of the biggest county parties in the state and the chair of the Southwest caucus, confirmed that he is “a participant in those discussions.” On Tuesday, he tweeted out a poll showing Mastriano struggling against presumptive Democratic nominee [state Attorney General] Josh Shapiro, and announced that he is personally throwing his weight behind one of Mastriano’s top primary opponents, businessman Dave White, which he said is “of his own volition.”
“There’s so much that concerns me about this,” DeMarco told POLITICO, stressing that he was not speaking for the group. “We’re in a year where all evidence points to a red tsunami. And it appears here in Pennsylvania, because of the number of people in the race and his smaller but consistent base of support, we may be nominating the only Republican who would be unelectable in November.” . . .
Controlling basic resource such as wheat and hydrocarbons which both the USA and Russia do is where the underlying strength is.
You don't want to be reliant on the kindness of strangers right now. Europe is - I think ounterintuitively sterling would be tracking USD more closely if we were in the EU mind..
Britain has plentiful supplies of one of these. But Net Zero, innit.
Johnson is pathetic.
Phillips P. OBrien
@PhillipsPOBrien
·
3h
Ukrainian air defense might be the most surprising and important aspect of the war so far.
https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien
It doesn’t feel like a doomed, totally dysfunctional society. Far from it. People are poorer than Western Europeans but they are certainly not dirt poor. Society manages and many (most?) Greeks have a pretty decent quality of life
RoI is soon going to look like a quaint anomaly, tolerated only because we all know the UK would never allow her to go undefended.
She works for the Vatican now.
She is just 53.
That said, it's also easier to be rich in good weather. One of the reasons Americans are all moving to the Carolinas, Georgia, Texas etc.