The Brexit Thread

[Eggchaser]

I don't even eat cake.

If you think TG is a Traitor, turn to 63. If you think TG is an Enemy of The People, turn to 257.

[Toby Gymshorts]

If you think he's both, give yourself a pat on the back and have some cake.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Which will magically reappear before your eyes.

[Lang Spoon]

Nor from me. Nor does Kelvin Hopkins, nor did Tony Benn.

The Cult of Benn is so fuckin pernicious. He was a rotten minister mostly when he had actual power. Thanks a lot for the non unionized offshore industry Tony. There’s 167 Piper Alpha dead that would like a word.

[ad hoc]

One day somebody will mention someone of whom Lang Spoon will opine "oh he/she is alright in general ". But it's impossible to know when that day will come

[Lang Spoon]

No one ever mistook me for a ray of sunshine.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/GuitarMoog/status/1050269261468438529

[Tubby Isaacs]

British liberal democracy in action.

I'd hope some of them would break those agreements and challenge the government to enforce them. Then again, it's easy for me sat here to tell them to do that.

[Diable Rouge]

Latest suggestion - NI companies would get dual certification, and GB-NI trade that transits through Dublin could be checked there:

https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2018/...brexit-border/

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The thing is that none of this matters to the DUP. They're not trying to find the best solution for Northern Ireland. They're trying to break the good Friday agreement.

[anton pulisov]

They don't seem to realise that by breaking the GFA they are hastening a united Ireland.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

They think that this coalition whereby they control direct rule can last forever.

[Duncan Gardner]

They think that this coalition whereby they control direct rule can last forever

The DUP's 'hold' over English politics is basically the same as SF's. Not the current short-term arithmetic at Westminster, but the long-term threat of violence resuming.

And possibly spreading.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

In a nutshell, what were the main reasons for the DUP to oppose the GFA twenty years ago?

[Gangster Octopus]

They're cunts.

[Duncan Gardner]

1 Nats (acc to DUP) cant be trusted to share power as they supported or at least condoned violence

2 Blair fibbed that SF would give up weapons, accept rule of law immediately etc

[Duncan Gardner]

For 18 years until 2016 the GFA was widely seen as a means to regulate peaceful local govt/ politics post-Troubles. In those terms it has clearly failed- there is no local govt.

It barely mentions the EU

[ad hoc]

What GO said

[Diable Rouge]

http://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1050397487582900224

[Ginger Yellow]

Christ, if the fucking ERG lot hadn't kicked up such a fuss about the backstop in the first place we might have had an FTA to replace it by now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

For 18 years until 2016 the GFA was widely seen as a means to regulate peaceful local govt/ politics post-Troubles. In those terms it has clearly failed- there is no local govt.

It barely mentions the EU

Leaving the EU wasn't mentioned either.

[ad hoc]

Mark Steel https://www.independent.co.uk/voices...-a8579671.html

This is taking place because the outcome of the last election was a complicated picture, with no one party or set of ideas proving to represent the majority of the population. So it’s heartening that someone’s worked out what the country was really voting for, which was to be run by Presbyterian creationists who think the Pope is the anti-Christ and Great Britain was made by GOD on a Wednesday just before he invented the moon.

[Lang Spoon]

The main reasons for GFA “failure” to produce local govt is DUP sectarian intransigence on a Language Act. It’s a bilateral treaty between two states, you want to amend or scrap it, you need the consent of the dirty south.

[Lang Spoon]

The DUP strategy of sending their biggest nutjobs to WM (a backwater for failed frothers till the Stormont collapse) also seems to have backfired, left them all tactics, no strategy. At least if the stories of eyebrows Arlene acceding to resumption of power sharing/the initial December backstop draft before being overuled by Dodds/Wilson etc are true.

[Lang Spoon]

The dirty money laundered through the north re the Brexit campaign and ERG types might be a factor too