The Brexit Thread

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

No surprise that Kelvin Mackenzie is ignorant. 70,000 Irish citizens fought in the British Army in World War II. What a dip.

I think the more relevant bit is that he thinks Ireland is between England and Germany, and not on the other side. If luftwaffe bombers found themselves over the republic, they wouldn't have enough fuel to get back to england, never mind germany

[Sporting]

I was told this morning by a 27 year old that Helsinki is in Russia.

[Flynnie]

No surprise that Kelvin Mackenzie is ignorant. 70,000 Irish citizens fought in the British Army in World War II. What a dip.

The US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand armies weren’t exactly short of first and second generation Irish either.

[Satchmo Distel]

"Wouldn't fight to save 6 million Jews" - as if that's why the UK went to war, rather than to save its imperial possessions.

[ooh aah]

Yeah the details of the Holocaust weren't widely known until the end of the war. Maybe next time Kelvin jumps in his WW2 time machine it could do us all a favour and break down in Dresden.

[Diable Rouge]

It seems there's general agreement now over LPF, with only arbitration in dispute - hard to believe talks would collapse if only fish remained.

[Lang Spoon]

Why not? It's a convenient excuse, Johnson didn't want to sell out the Brave People of the Fish.

[Patrick Thistle]

The entire UK fishing industry is about the size and value of Astra-Zeneca's secretarial pool. But yeah let's crash our economy for a few trawlers.

[Patrick Thistle]

Also back to Kelvin McGammon, if Britain was so keen on fighting fascism why did the UK government try to dissuade volunteers from joining the International brigades in Spain.

[Wouter D]

I was told this morning by a 27 year old that Helsinki is in Russia.

EgyptAir agrees:

[ursus arctos]

And here I thought their primary issue was suicidal pilots

[S. aureus]

Wow, that really is a spectacularly inaccurate map.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Scandinavia in general appears to have undergone severe coastal erosion according to that map. Not to mention the significant movement of several large urban populations.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I thought that Delhi was a bit wide of the mark but then I saw where they've stuck Budapest, which now lies on the banks of the Caspian Sea, (possibly).

[Eggchaser]

It seems there's general agreement now over LPF, with only arbitration in dispute - hard to believe talks would collapse if only fish remained.

Why does this feel like Lt George's proclamation of ceasefire in the final moments of Blackadder Goes Forth?

[S. aureus]

I kind of like how the EgyptAir gets the African cities more or less in the right place*, but clearly whoever made it doesn't give a toss where anywhere else is actually located.
*Except for Kigali, which must have done something to offend the cartographer. Bujumbura, too.

[Hot Pepsi]

So, I hate to ask a dumb question, but if there’s no deal in the next two weeks, does that mean there will never be a deal? Or is it like when a labor negotiation fails to avert a strike/lock-out. Negotiations continue, but each side hopes the other will blink first.

[ursus arctos]

The latter.

In fact the EU has been preparing for that very eventuality, particularly in terms of warning member states against cutting individual deals with the UK (which is something the UK will definitely try)

[San Bernardhinault]

I've been wondering whether it's even legal for individual member states to cut their own deals, given that UK goods are then in the EU. I know the British government (or at least their media cheerleaders) keep thinking that this is their magic ruse - if only they could talk to Angela without the Francophone scum sabotaging them, they'd get a deal with Germany.

And I am obviously slow because it's only dawned on me in the last week that No Deal is obviously a very temporary condition rather than permanent, because the British will cave pretty quickly to the inevitable once the impacts of No Deal are actually felt. Which means that perhaps I've been unreasonably pessimistic. No Deal isn't calamitious unless it's permanent, and if it's calamitous it won't be permanent.*

* Of course, it's still calamitous for the millions of individuals who have depended on free movement. It's just not as calamitous economically.

[Sean of the Shed]

I'm pretty sure one of the key conditions of being a member is that all deals are done through the bloc.

[Sean of the Shed]

[Ginger Yellow]

They can't do trade deals, ie anything covered by the customs union or other EU competencies, but there's all sorts of stuff around the edges of the trade deal that is actually being negotiated that could be done bilaterally (but would presumably weaken the EU's negotiating position if they were).

[ursus arctos]

Saved me a post, ta

[Nefertiti2]

Worth reminding yourself of what the media enables

https://twitter.com/jnhanvey/status/1338095548386189313?s=21

[Diable Rouge]

An airport outside Stranraer will be converted into a lorry park.