Another day and another leak. Theresa May has been accused of an embarrassing own-goal after business leaders refused a plea to publicly declare their support for her Brexit strategy. A letter – asking top companies to say they “welcome” the Government’s bid for a transitional deal, to cushion the exit – was leaked to Sky News, apparently after some refused to sign it. They were also asked to agree that the legislation before Parliament to prepare for withdrawal would “make Britain ready for life outside the EU”. Embarrassingly, the row came as business leaders publicly attacked proposed curbs on immigration after Brexit, warning they would badly damage the economy. No 10 did not deny the letter had been distributed to try to bolster its Brexit case.
After Rees Mogg's comments today I think we can safely say he has ruled himself out of running for the PM's job.
Although we might discuss from our different positions some of the technical points of leaving the EU, there are people out there who have only just woken up to what is going on. Speaking to one of my oldest friends in England, he says that he has never felt more embarrassed and humiliated to admit that he took the advice of the Telegraph and voted to leave. He was led to believe that nothing would change, except that there could be more funding for the NHS, and he thought it might be fun to have BoJo as Prime Minister. I know that I get involved more than I should some times because it has a direct influence on my life, but to listen to a convert makes my comments seem tame. His launch into the PM and her totally useless ministers was a revelation as we have tried to keep our friendship of 65 years alive and not ruined by politics. If only more people would admit that they do not like what they see.
I must say your friend sounds somewhat naive about the process of leaving the EU. I cannot believe the Telegraph promised nothing would change. Anybody basing such an important decision on the views of one newspaper should not be given a vote. He obviously missed the excellent Brexit debates on this forum.
I am afraid that far too many people didn't and still don't bother to read around and form an enlightened opinion. People who rely on the right wing press that have an undue influence on both their readers and the politicians will have a distorted view. Read around, see the arguments and counter arguments from all sources, then come to an opinion. My friend wouldn't know a centre forward from a centre half I am afraid. Sport is not on his list of interests.
There was plenty of nonsense from the left wing press and we had a full scale 'project fear' campaign from prominent figures who should have known better. If those with little knowledge were prevented from voting most under 20's would be excluded. This group makes up the majority of the momentum supporters.
Balls. It was the wrinklies voting on a mix of racism and ignorance (although the former is a subset of the latter).
I am afraid that like me he is in the group of oldies and feels let down by that group who were taken in. I did say he now feels embarrassed by his decision.
Unwavering adherence to a book that is fractally wrong; reverence for a *****phile prophet (as opposed to christians preference for a a teenager raping god) and using it as an excuse to continue such practice; the fact that the unbelievers don't count; that modern day apologists will shoehorn the latest scientific discovery into an interpretation of their bloody book... and it is bloody, I know, I've read it. The bible, is bloodier but longer, the Koran is condensed as it were. Plus, Christianity had its reformation about five hundred years ago... islam is yet to have one and the weapons have moved on. C7 morality imposed with C21 weapons. Maajid Nawaz, alas, is peeing in the wind but at least he tries and is worth listening to and Quilliam is at least a starting point. As an apistevist I find it ironic that the world edges towards oblivion at the whim of orange45 who has an entire government all waiting for the "second coming" and "rapture"; the reincarnation of Kim il sung and who is at least revered as a god by his people and has convinced himself of his elevated standing as well; a puppeteer who acts as if he is god; and an idiot with the clout to sort it out with no cojontas whatsoever and not a true "believer" amongst the four of them. Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins and Dillahunty are four commentators worth listening to. There, that'll do for now. Not likely to be any more popular after that but, frankly, I'm not bothered. Besides what I've written will not come as a shock to anyone here, or it shouldn't. People don't have the right to not be offended, especially where religion is concerned. Religion is a bad idea. Ideas don't have rights: people do.
Looks as if tomorrow the EU will release some position papers that should help the UK to get it's mind together. The paper on data protection sees the Commission issue an ultimatum to the UK, warning that “the United Kingdom’s access to networks, information systems, and databases established by Union law is, as a general rule, terminated on the date of withdrawal”. This ending of UK access – which could cause serious technical headaches for the British government and businesses that use personal data – will be waived “only if the conditions set out in the paper are fulfilled”. Surely Davis and his merry bunch should have their heads round this one by now? If they have they have kept it very quiet Of course they do not want anyone such as the ECJ to oversee Union law, although there have been hints that the red line is fading quickly to pink then white.
Another of the papers from the EU. Brussels intends to say the UK should shoulder the responsibility for the Irish border, spelling out that the Brexit vote has caused the problem. “The onus to present solutions which overcome the challenges created on the island of Ireland by the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union and its decision to leave the customs union and the internal market remains on the United Kingdom”. This is a major sticking point and was obvious to all from the start of the Brexit debate. The UK government doesn't have a clue what to do about it and is in hock now to the DUP which makes matters even worse. The trouble with just walking away from the EU does not solve the problem.
It didn't vaguely cross their minds, ofh. They voted to give an extra £350m a week to the NHS, keep foreigners out, keep British jobs for British people, any one of a number of ill-founded, super-simplistic arguments. NI was not on most people's minds, I'm afraid. Those who thought about it, sure. It was another reason I didn't think it could/would happen. This is why we elect politicians to make informed judgements about complex issues. To keep them out of the hands of the leader-writers of newspapers owned by super-rich non-doms.
You are right, it wasn't on peoples minds, but it should have been. Before the referendum took place I was asking on here how the problem could be solved. Only a week or two ago SH admitted that he had not given the problem much thought, and when pressed could only suggest that England should get rid of the problem buy pushing for a vote on a united Ireland. This is where the problem with the DUP really kicks in, they would never support such an idea, so for the time being the government has it's hands tied by that agreement. There is only one solution that I can see, but that would not go down well.
It is a political web, too complex to be easily 'solved' by simpletons seemingly counselled from the backs of matchboxes.
I feel very sorry for Michel Barnier who invested a lot of time and effort in getting funding from the EU and helping to smooth the process of putting the Good Friday Agreement into operation. To see all his hard work being wrecked but this bunch must make him wonder why he bothered.
Not entirely correct, I did suggest the political landscape was shifting in N.I. because of demographics as the recent close vote showed. It may be that N.I. does vote to reunited with the rest of the Island. The more sensible option would be for Ireland to join the rest of the UK out of the EU. It would protect the majority of their trade, solve the border issue and finally prevent Brussels from dictating their internal fiscal policies, job done.
Lets face it, there were millions of half-wits voting for leave and remain. Ours won because of the humiliating rebuff given by the EU to Cameron whilst on his begging mission. Victory could have been yours with a small pragmatic rule change, similar to being sought by other EU members now.
Theresa May’s Brexit plans in disarray as Amber Rudd and Damian Green refuse to back 'toxic' plan to curb EU migration. That should get the blue rinse brigade in a bit of a dither seeing as it is a headline from the Telegraph.
