The Brexit Thread

[Tubby Isaacs]

And yes it's true that four times as much of Northern Ireland's exports go to the UK as go to the republic, but you are talking about a fucking tiny amount of money either way as these things go.

Indeed. NI's deficit within the UK is something like £10bn a year.

[Diable Rouge]

His latest tweet reveals a lot about him. this cunt was the head of the Conservative party's political campaigns in NI until 2015

This is how you turn economic unionists into Economic nationalists.

Merely getting retweeted by Ruth Dudley Edwards says a lot about him.

[Lang Spoon]

RDE makes proddy atheist me want to burn down an Orange Lodge.

[Nefertiti2]

European Parliament comments on border and reminds us they will have a vote on any final deal

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yep, its Cultural significance is what, standing in for “Metropolis” in Superman IV?

Open University.

Apart from that, voting for Brexit and having 2 Tory MPs. Bedford and Peterborough both chucked their Tory MPs out this year.

[Lang Spoon]

Was OU always mad expensive? It seems cheaper doing a amd evening degree course from a private college.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I see that Lord Taylor of Kilclooney was suggesting that Donegal should join the six counties. That's a brilliant idea John. That's just what northern Ireland needs, 150,000 republicans, and 10,000 protestants who consider themselves Irish.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Was OU always mad expensive? It seems cheaper doing a amd evening degree course from a private college.

Are they expensive for everybody, or just for people who've done degrees before? I remember Birkbeck really starting to differentiate in about 2007, which cut my nightschooling back.

Furtho would know.

[Nefertiti2]

Strong stuff in The Guardian from Brigid Laffan

"The Irish government needs language from the UK government that demonstrates that it is not in denial about the border and that it has done some serious thinking and problem-solving. This involves a commitment to regulatory convergence between Northern Ireland and the EU. The UK cannot avoid the trade-offs of Brexit forever, and has a moral responsibility to live up to its role as co-guarantor of the Good Friday agreement.

One unintended consequence of Brexit is that Ireland finds itself for the first time in its history on the stronger side of the table in negotiations with the UK. The Irish government can’t overplay this card, but nor should anyone in the UK underestimate the seriousness with which it will hold to its position."

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Irish Government can turn up to the negotiations with trumpeters who break into a fanfare as they play their card, as far as I'm concerned.

[Diable Rouge]

I see that Lord Taylor of Kilclooney was suggesting that Donegal should join the six counties. That's a brilliant idea John. That's just what northern Ireland needs, 150,000 republicans, and 10,000 protestants who consider themselves Irish.

Surpassed himself this evening, calling Varadkar "the Indian":

https://mobile.twitter.com/Kilcloone...58169117052929

[Furtho]

Are they expensive for everybody, or just for people who've done degrees before? I remember Birkbeck really starting to differentiate in about 2007, which cut my nightschooling back.

Furtho would know.

Having to go down the route of in the main requiring students to register for a degree, rather than any individual modules that took their fancy, changed the whole landscape as regards fees. The OU is very much pitched towards the cheaper end of university provision, mind.

Bletchley Park and the fact that MK is the largest of all the post-war new town developments in the country would be other possible points of interest.

[Nefertiti2]

the New Yorker on Brexit

May and Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, seem to grasp that Johnson and Gove are pursuing a fantasy. They understand that the E.U. won’t allow Britain to both have its cake (access to the giant E.U. market) and eat it (freedom from E.U.-style regulation). They also recognize that if companies such as Honda and Nissan no longer have free access to and from Europe for the outputs and inputs of their British factories, they will have little choice but to relocate at least some of their facilities to the Continental mainland. The same goes for big international financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs.
So May and Hammond are still trying to pursue a so-called soft Brexit, which would preserve as much market access as possible. But, at every turn, they and their allies are being undermined and vilified by the Little Englanders and the conservative Fleet Street newspapers. Last week, the Daily Telegraph published photographs on its front page of fifteen Conservative M.P.s who have had the temerity to suggest that the parliament should have the right to sign off on the final Brexit deal. The paper labelled them “The Brexit mutineers.” Some of these M.P.s subsequently received threats.

[Lang Spoon]

Very kind on May there I think.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Having to go down the route of in the main requiring students to register for a degree, rather than any individual modules that took their fancy, changed the whole landscape as regards fees. The OU is very much pitched towards the cheaper end of university provision, mind.

Bletchley Park and the fact that MK is the largest of all the post-war new town developments in the country would be other possible points of interest.

Cheers.

Yes, that would certainly get my vote.

[Lang Spoon]

Dundee spits on your Bletchley Park. Lemmings and early Grand Theft Auto, and the rubber keyed zx spectrum (DMA Design/Rockstar North ended up in Embra after being taken over by public school wanker Englishmen in New York of Rockstar, who folded them into the Rockstar brand. Better coke in Auld Reekie fer sure)That’s up there with any decoding a poxy Enigma machine with yer valves and pipes.

[Nefertiti2]

in "lets show the Irish where we stand" news Sammy Wilson has been appointed to the Privy Council.

I don't care if [gays] are ratepayers. As far as I am concerned they are perverts";

"Taigs don't pay rates"; "They [Sinn Féin voters in the Oldpark area of Belfast] are sub-human animal

[Lang Spoon]

Oor Wullie, Minnie the Minx, Desperate Dan, Dennis the Menace, the Broons, Brian Cox (not the Brilliant! professor cunt that keeps stupiding up my Telly: I’m a Professor Iain Stewart man for Science tv myself, but the usually reliable character actor), The Associates, first radical socialist city in Scotland, booted out fucking Churchill for a temperance Socialist (not unconnected it was probably unique in Late Victorian/Edwardian Ukania in having a predominately female proletarian workforce. (Jute and jam processing being seen by the boss class as work for the ladies). So teetotal socialism was a biggie, though the Orange Order presence in the city was minimal compared to other Scottish cities, despite a large Irish population. dCCA for folk that like subtitles and conceptual art, Dundee Rep as about the last permanently based rep theatre company in Britain. Now a train station that doesn’t look like dirty Duplo blocks and a shiny new waterfront for good or ill.

Screw youse MK and Dirty Leeds on hypothetical battles!

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Please the lot of you, stop taking the cultural high ground with Milton Keynes, you’re being horribly negative and smug.

I, for one, am certain that tourists would flock to admire MK's unique world-famous cultural and architectural landmarks and revel in its vibrancy. I mean, OK, the likes of Florence, Lyon, Granada or Barcelona have the Uffizi, a great Renaissance quarter, the Alhambra, the Sagrada Familia but can these (overrated and dusty) places boast such powerful and iconic cultural assets as MK’s concrete bovines or 220 works of public art? (not to mention MK’s 137 "democratic traffic allowance systems" as the Chinese visitors to MK call them - or "roundabouts" to you and me).

OK, most of these works of public art pieces are, well, cows but still, who are we to pass a definite judgement on what’s art and what isn’t? Who knows if in 500 years’ time people won’t look at these ground-breaking art pieces in MK and label them under "the Great English Renaissance Brexart" era? Exactly, we don’t know so stop knocking back something you have no clue about.

Get off your high horse, it’s time to start celebrating our unique heritage.

[*and doesn't that mean "offices"? I mean who the hell would want to travel 1000s of miles to see offices???]

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

also DC thompson and Jam> concrete cows. (Should have refreshed to see if someone had mentioned DC thompson)

[Diable Rouge]

Oor Wullie, Minnie the Minx, Desperate Dan, Dennis the Menace, the Broons, Brian Cox (not the Brilliant! professor cunt that keeps stupiding up my Telly: I’m a Professor Iain Stewart man for Science tv myself, but the usually reliable character actor), The Associates, first radical socialist city in Scotland, booted out fucking Churchill for a temperance Socialist (not unconnected it was probably unique in Late Victorian/Edwardian Ukania in having a predominately female proletarian workforce. (Jute and jam processing being seen by the boss class as work for the ladies). So teetotal socialism was a biggie, though the Orange Order presence in the city was minimal compared to other Scottish cities, despite a large Irish population. dCCA for folk that like subtitles and conceptual art, Dundee Rep as about the last permanently based theatre rep in Britain. Now a train station that doesn’t look like dirty Duplonblocks and a shiny new waterfront for good or ill.

Screw youse MK and Dirty Leeds on hypothetical battles!

Not to mention the whole Antarctic connection, with the Discovery.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Polly Toynbee reckons Corbyn's coming through on Brexit, does she? Does this look like the Twitter feed of someone who's doing that? It's almost like he's playing a panel game where a horn honks if he says the word.

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn

He may well still come through, of course.

[Nefertiti2]

it looks like the Leader of the Opposition on the day before, during, and after the budget.

Labour has to make the Conservatives own their Brexit mess. They can't be seen to be a single issue party, and hammering away on issues that matter hugely to those who voted for Brexit is incredibly important. The bread and butter issues. wages, housing, health, travel, prices that were neglected by Labour for so long.

Remember if they make a mistake they will be done for. Remember how Miliband was painted into a corner over Scotland after the referendum.

[Ginger Yellow]

v
Actually GY, it basically is the Irish govts position at this stage. they've given up waiting for the UK to come up with some way around leaving the customs union, but not having any customs, and in the absence of literally anything from the UK this is our position. A big part of including it right at the beginning in the "Things to sort out before you go" phase of talks, is to give the UK time to come up with something.

I'm pretty sure the Irish government would be fine with the UK staying in the customs union instead.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Budget was all about Tory Hard Brexit.

Unless I've missed it, he hasn't made anything of Hammond spending more on preparations for Tory Hard Brexit than boosting the NHS. That's a long hop on leg stump, if ever I've seen one.