Pete The fish punts in the port of Hobart: Fresh battered or crumbled Blue Eye Trevalla and chips... excellent! Cheers Tony @AussiePete
@Tony Press ...... stop it you’re making me hungry. I leave my wife at 7:00-ish after feeding her (she in hospital with pneumonia) and straight to the local fish and chip shop....... you’ve whetted my appetite and I’m in grave danger of drooling.
You are a good man, Pete. Enjoy your fish and chips. [ By the way, it was crumbed fish; not crumbled fish]. Tony
If you refer to "Brussel": doesn't the UK have people there who defend the UK interest then ? If you loose a battle about a European rule or law, you didn't do your homework well enough. We, the Dutch, lost ours in the pulse fishing. So head up and swallow. But we still are in control in our own country but there are rues and laws to respect with our neighbours who have other interests, ideas and knowledge. We can't drive a train across the border to Belgium. Because we haven't the house rules in four languages. As a Belgium law requires. So we print them stick um in the wagons and on we go. As for the Brexit: all I see is a bunch of yelling people in a way to small room calling the other side names. If those people have to save your butt, I am happy with ours. Tradition is good but let it not block your future. In my dreams I see the doors open at such a fight and your Queen enters, shuffles around and then yells What the f*ck are you all doing with my country and people ! and the silently walks away...... That would be the statement of the century.
It's not her country, Wim, it's ours - there was a slight unpleasantness here in the mid-1600s to sort out that one...
It's interesting to ponder that if I'd been around then, which side I'd have been on. I suppose it would depend on whereabouts you were born in the hierarchy...
The televising of Parliament has shown it to be the House of Clowns it has long been. Any day other than PM questions and you'll be lucky to count more than a dozen members present. My MP has replied to my latest letter by email, and is as frustrated as anyone. Still taking his expenses though.
Yeah, years ago when I was London-based, I went once to see the antics goings-on and was surprised to see so few MPs participating in the debate. However, as the time for division (i.e. voting) approached, the house filled up very quickly with the result that the vast majority of them voted (doubtless along party lines) without having contributed to or even heard anything of the preliminaries. You say black, I say white; you say sugar, I say shite...
I spoke to someone who had attended the house of commons and they were appalled by what they saw. There were very few MPs in attendance, some of those that were looked like they might be asleep and whenever anyone said anything the others would bray like donkeys. I've heard it said that the parliamentary system shares a lot of similarities with public school customs and behaviour which is why they act the way they do. Whatever the reason, I do know that foreingers view the goings on in the chamber with disbelief and a degree of disgust.
yup you are right but I guess she still has some influence on those who live in these huge mansions and still think that britain rules the waves. We have the same, or more or less, system here. But it is a public secret that at least with the last queen there was some influence from the backside. Drinking thee with the monarch will not be free of some political talk I guess. Besides this, she can also say ,... our country ....
I still admire the British parliament system for being the oldest democracy in modern times. And was very lucky to show the house to my children in a guided tour (in German language!). But I doubt, the MPs will find the bend to something better than hard Brexit at 12.april2019 This question divides sharply the Brits and as well the Parliament. Compromise is always difficult to admit. Votings on 8 proposals, all negative. This itself discredits the system for being pragmatic and capable for compromise. Slowly I grow to believe, yes the EU should proceed without the UK. Pity.
I think this short piece by Sir Michael Leigh shows the Uk maybe at the beginning , lol, of a long process to resolve Brexit one way or another. How Britain got it so wrong on Brexit | Sir Michael Leigh
Coming from the former director-general for enlargement with the European Commission, I think a grain or two of salt is in order when considering his opinion.
Sir Micheal would say that being as he is part and parcel of the problem/solution - depending on your point of view - and Remain is the standpoint of the Guardian. The press in general have failed to behave in an investigative manner, choosing instead to capitalise on the Biff - Bam dialogue - he said - she said etc. I think it odd that 5 million signatures on a petition should be listened to in earnest, while 17.4 million should be denounced. It has long been said that Brexit is a process, not an event. Even if the majority had been greater, leaving the EU's political web was going to take decades just as it has been decades since we joined - and that would have been with the application to join EFTA, which would have been the better route in the eyes of many as an interim solution, but which Mrs. May rejected in her Lancaster House speech in Jan/Feb 2017. It's gone downhill ever since - or not, as this Yes Minister clip shows. Sartorical humour? Often very close to the truth . . . . Spot the difference: There are some worthies in our parliament, but the Public School system has generated more than its share of nincumpoops, all groomed for a political career.
Euro Express Card, Bernard Get Out! LOL. The questions with the 17.4 vote total is that in the 3 years since the ref many Leavers have learned more about Brexit and its outcomes and changed there minds. Polls show Remain would win a 2nd ref by 8 points. Brexit is your informed Euroscepticism AND the angry Brexiter lady in the papers at the rally last week who didn't even know England was in the EU. Leigh makes a good point here "Brexit is the result of Eurosceptic populism with British characteristics. It arises from economic discontent, social tensions and “identity politics” that feed on each other". That's a huge part of the 17 million votes and Brexit won't solve those problems and the EU is not to blame for all of them. This parallels with Trump , Trump didn't win the popular vote , he lost it to Clinton by 3 million . He captured majorities in key states known as the Rust Belt places also where economic discontent , social tensions and identify politics feature and triggered the win of the Presidency for Trump in the Electoral College. The Rust Belt is the same place as the Valley in Wales and other areas that voted Leave. Has a Trump win thanks to the Rust Belters done anything to improve their lot , nope. Has a Trump win helped empower a Republican economic game plan that makes the problems of the Rust Belt worse , yep. Brexit looks like it will replay this in England. To me the benefits versus costs formula of Brexit just doesn't add up for the people and common good of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The benefits are few compared to the massive problems implementing Brexit , costs in a myriad of ways social and economic of Brexit and problems and consequences not even known yet that would result from Brexit.
"Euro Express Card, Bernard Get Out!" I'm sorry, I have no idea what this refers to. I would respectfully suggest you stop relying on information printed in Newspapers. Polls have been shown to be notoriously wrong in the past too. In the three years since the referendum the British have become frustrated and not a little angry at our own parliament and government at their inability to use logic and commonsense - that does not necessarily translate into wishing to remain in the EU. If anything, just the opposite, as we have had 43+ years since the last referendum (1975) to have had sufficient experience of the EU's workings, and its political and corrupt shenanigans. Our Prime Minister and her cabinet, or perhaps just her advisors, are telling what we need to know, which may be far from the truth. Some, if not all of the so called negotiations, are becoming increasingly seen as pre-planned and even pre-written in conjunction with Angela Merkel & co. Given that to possibly be the case, that 'Yes Minister' clip becomes very prophetic. I quote Jean Monnet: - ‘Europe’s nations should be guided towards the super-state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation’ The vast majority of people in all the European countries have been cajoled into believing the economic aspect over the political one. Not for nothing is France experiencing riots and tear gas, and there is disenchantment (to put it mildly) in Hungary; Poland; Spain; Italy, and even Germany amongst their peoples in a desire to counter the supranational, globalistic movement, where corporate bodies maximise on everything from food supplies to labour through political lobbying. Money talks. What is not known by the multitudes, is their impending futures under such globalist regimes. I am not sure why you repeatedly refer to Trump, but I do believe the American population had had enough of Obama's promises, and distrust anything that involved the Clintons. Change, you see, is a vital element in rooting out failed systems.
Listen to the 'Yes, Minister' clip again, Derek - although Bernard actually says "Euro Club Express"...
I'm not afraid of the federal states of Europe. Would be great to create a political, economical super power second to USA. Would even abandon native language, and unite in English. Would contribute huge to mobility in Europe, companies, workers, retired, ... But ... How think other EU nationals about it...?
As the person who started this thread because I wondered what people would stock up on in the event of a crisis of some sort, I really think I've read enough now. The country is split down the middle over our exit from the EU. The government is split, the opposition is split and at its heart, the people are split. It doesn't have to be exactly 50:50 to be bad, 48:52 is just as bad and the entire process has exposed a great deal of hatred and animosity. There are ministers on both sides of the Tory party threatening to resign no mnatter what path the PM decices, or indeed doesn't decide. We seem to have a country comprised of two bitterly opposed groups and I can't see how we as a nation will ever recover from this fiasco, regardless of the eventual outcome. We are now a joke in the eyes of most other nations and that view will probably be extremely hard to shift. I'll be blunt. If we leave at all, we're shafted, if we stay to some degree, we're shafted if we find some fudge in between, we're shafted, because whichever path we take, half of the country will be cock-a-hoop, the other will be up in arms. No-one will 'win'. Winning is now impossible for everyone without risking something akin to a bloodless civil war. This is beyond sad.
Cheer up Colin, it's only politics, and populated by dross. If we are shafted whichever way we turn, best to get shafted without being tied to the shaft. The EU is shafted in any case, such grandiose schemes are weakened by their desire for more "power". It was ever thus. For the record, I have stocked up on Ibuprofen: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Funny-Sons...+of+arthritis&qid=1554193360&s=gateway&sr=8-1 But not much else.
It probably does sound attractive, but there's that word "power", which implies a race of sorts. Why aim for second? - why aim for first? It's not a race, people just want to 'be', and mostly left alone politically, and to trade with one another commercially. Politics ruins everything when on a grand scale. Keep it local. Keep it within reach of the people - that's what the globalists and the military industrialists hate most - the possibility of their power being diminished by - ordinary people. That's enough from me on this subject (I hear Hurrahs . . . ).
Brilliant! Then we would have 3 superstates perpetually at loggerheads: Eurasia, Oceania and Eastasia. Oh, wait...
Thanks all, interesting glimpse into other political systems. I can't speak for our friends across the pond, but for the USA, some pretty ridiculous things have been posted in this thread. Anyone who takes the main stream media seriously is not only ill informed, but is being intentionally mislead. Obviously don't take my word for it, I urge reading both sides of the issues and comparing what is reported with the actual data. A trend will emerge.
